A cross-national comparison of the Twitter feeds of popular alcohol brands in India and Australia

Abstract

Aims: To evaluate (i) the types of techniques alcohol marketers utilise to facilitate user engagement with content on leading Indian and Australian Twitter alcohol brand pages and (ii) the extent to which users engage with this content in two diverse national contexts.

Methods: The 10 alcohol brands per country with the greatest Twitter presence were identified based on the number of ‘followers’. Number of tweets, photos, and videos were collected and the type of content noted for each brand between 1 January 2016 and 29 February 2016. The data were analysed via an inductive coding approach using NVivo10.

Results: In total, the brands had accumulated up to 150,386 followers (Indian: 110,032; Australian: 40,354). The techniques utilised were a mix of those that differed by country (e.g. India: sexually suggestive content versus Australia: posts related to the brand’s tradition or heritage) and generic approaches (e.g. alcohol sponsorship of sport, music, and fashion; offering consumption suggestions; organising competitions; giveaways; and use of memes).

Conclusions: The flexibility of Twitter, which complements traditional marketing, allows brands to adapt and deliver their online alcohol content in specific national contexts and to capitalise on the cultural meanings users invoke in their interactions with the brands.

Keywords:

• Alcohol
• marketing
• internet
• social media
• twitter
• India
• Australia

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the reviewers for their feedback that greatly improved the overall quality of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest is reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University is supported by funding from the Australian Government under the Substance Misuse Prevention and Service Improvement Grants Fund. This work was supported by the Curtin Faculty of Health Science International Research Scholarship (HG), a fellowship from the Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation (Healthway) (TL), and a Curtin University Research Fellowship (RJT).