Brand Spokes-Characters as Twitter Marketing Tools

Abstract

This research documents how marketers across a variety of product categories use spokes-characters to communicate with consumers. Tweets were content analyzed for 20 spokes-characters representing a variety of brands and product categories. A random sample of 2,691 tweets was analyzed for content as was the tweet's day of the week, time of day, and month tweeted. The most frequently tweeted content type is pass-along, with news being the least frequently observed category. Significant differences are observed based on the spokes-character's gender, appearance, and product type represented. Female characters are significantly more likely to tweet original content, while male characters are significantly more likely to respond to queries. These male and female response patterns reflect gender stereotypes. Most spokes-characters tweet during weekday mornings. Tweet frequency peaks in the summer and declines during October, November, and December.

Keywords:

• social media
• integrated marketing communication
• Twitter
• spokes-characters