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Article
| Journal of Marketing Research (JMR)
Does 'Liking' Lead to Loving? The Impact of Joining a Brand's Social Network on Marketing Outcomes
by
Leslie K. John, Oliver Emrich, Sunil Gupta and Michael I. Norton
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Abstract
Does “liking” a brand on Facebook cause a person to view it more favorably? Or is “liking” simply a symptom of being fond of a brand? We disentangle these possibilities and find evidence for the latter: brand attitudes and purchasing are predicted by consumers’ preexisting fondness for brands and are the same regardless of when and whether consumers “like” brands. In addition, we explore possible second-order effects, examining whether “liking” brands might cause consumers’ friends to view that brand more favorably. When consumers see that a friend has “liked” a brand, they are less likely to buy the brand relative to a more meaningful social endorsement: learning that a friend likes a brand, in the offline sense. Taken together, five experiments and two meta-analyses (N > 14,000) suggest that turning “liking” into improved brand attitudes and increased purchasing by either consumers or their friends may require more than just the click of a button.
Keywords: Brands;
marketing effectiveness;
brand evaluation;
peer influence;
social media;
Brands and Branding;
Social and Collaborative Networks;
