Gender-related differences in brand-related social media content: An empirical investigation

We analyze and evaluate the impact of the brand-related content published in social media from the consumer perspective, and specifically focus on the gender related differences in online brand communication. We propose a research model that describes influencing consumer engagement factors such as hedonistic and interaction with brand seeking motives; the engagement levels such as consuming and participation; and brand equity elements such as awareness/associations and loyalty. To identify the engagement of consumers into brand-related content on brand equity, we used a standardized online survey in different social media channels in which 274 respondents have participated. We confirmed statistically (using paired t-test and one-way ANOVA) that women are more influenced by the interaction with brand seeking motives and their actions in social media makes bigger impact on brand equity dimension awareness; while men were influenced more by hedonistic motives and these motives make influence on men engagement into participation engagement level. Both genders were equally engaged into consuming engagement level and the engagement makes impact on such brand equity dimension as loyalty. Significant gender differences have been observed in the influence of engagement level such as interaction with brand equity seeking motives, engagement level such as consuming and brand equity dimension such as awareness/ associations and loyalty. The gender difference results in the influence of hedonistic motives and participation into engagement level were inconclusive.