Introduction
Worldwide, consumers and brands are increasingly signing up for social networking sites (SNSs), which have helped level the playing field for customers and businesses. Brands and consumers find it easy to learn about and interact with one another. Faster problem-solving is possible when brands individually pay attention to their customers’ needs. Planning a marketing campaign is nearly unthinkable without factoring in social media, as these platforms are among the most popular channels for user interaction and information exchange.
Since personality traits can serve as market segmentation variables, understanding how consumer innovativeness, inclination to share insights, and privacy concerns affect SNS use is crucial. The concept of social proof has emerged from people’s natural inclination to mimic the actions of those in positions of authority. If consumers are satisfied with a product, they will likely go out of their way to rave about it on social media. Marketers are making social media more open by posting positive customer reviews, feedback, likes, comments, and identities to boost conversion rates and build trust in their company.
Development
American consumers are more driven by personal ambitions than their Korean counterparts. The importance of finding amusement is substantially higher among American college student consumers compared to their Korean counterparts, who prioritize social support from established connections. In South Korea, users are more influenced by extrinsic motivation than inner drive regarding adoption. Compared to their Korean counterparts, American college students use SNSs to build more social capital through linking (Park et al., 2015).
Social media platforms can bolster an organization’s ability to fulfill its objective by facilitating communication with the public and tapping into collective creativity. Utilizing social media can often lead to financial savings, but its true power lies in fostering strong audience engagement (Kizgin et al., 2020). Businesses and governments in the United States and South Korea use social media for various purposes, such as publicizing and communicating current events. Businesses and governments in the US and Korea are more open on social media, which helps them connect with digital natives.
Compared to Koreans, Americans tend to be more consistent in their level of consumer innovativeness. People who are consistent in their character tend to mold their social circles to reflect their personality qualities. Consumer creativity and SNS use are more strongly correlated in the United States than in Korea, due to Americans’ higher sense of personal control and greater motivation for consistency than Koreans (Lee et al., 2019).
The degree of social media use is positively correlated with consumers’ innovativeness and information-sharing tendencies and adversely correlated with their privacy concerns. Creativity and privacy issues have a greater impact on the extent of social networking site use in the United States than in Korea. The intensity of social media use significantly impacts social capital in both nations. Since SNS use intensity is a measure of social capital, the findings suggest that consumers’ innovativeness, data exchange, and privacy concerns indirectly influence social capital.
This study adds to the understanding of consumer traits and SNS use by examining the benefits and drawbacks that motivate SNS use. Studying the moderating role of studying on the links between individual characteristics and the intensity of SNS use adds to the growing research on social media use across cultures. Predicting SNS use in Korea based on consumer creativity and privacy concerns is less influential compared to the US (Park et al., 2015).
The findings provide more evidence that cultural factors moderate the links between personality and behavior. Cross-cultural psychologists have identified three universal personality traits that are comparable across cultures. On the other hand, cultural psychologists hold a moderate view, arguing that consumers from collectivistic cultures are less likely to be consistent in their behavior across situations than those from individualistic cultures. The weaker relationships between personality traits and social media support their claims.
Korean consumers score well on the uncertainty avoidance scale, take measures to reduce doubt, and push for laws that eliminate ambiguity wherever possible. The United States and other nations that score lower on this metric are known to be more open-minded and accepting of new ideas and viewpoints. American consumers and companies heavily use comparison ads on social media (Chu et al., 2020). The American public has a good grasp of it, and it works.
The rivalry between Pepsi and Coca-Cola is one of the longest-running and most famous product comparisons. There have been numerous forms of comparative advertising between the two cola behemoths over the years. Some have been overt and obvious, like the Pepsi Challenge, while others have been more subtle but comparative. The sponsoring brand incorporates the competitor’s description, brand name, and product into each ad. Although the competitor’s brand is not directly attacked, the message is loud and clear: the product is better.
In the United States, comparison ads on social media platforms do not only feature cheap, often-bought items. Power, fuel consumption, safety, guarantees, space, market duration, and value are attributes producers believe affect buyer decisions (Chen & Roberts, 2020). This method is also used in medicine, household goods, drinks, and vehicles. As with other commercial speech, comparative advertising on SNSs in the US is protected by the First Amendment if it is not false or misleading.
Contrarily, cultural norms and government laws have contributed to the comparative strategy’s lack of popularity in many other nations. Since comparable advertising is legal in Korea, the government does not impose such regulations (Choedon & Lee, 2020). However, compared with the United States, comparative advertising on SNSs remains widely unpopular in Korea. Advertisers sometimes hesitate to use a comparable strategy, even though a negligible percentage have used comparative ads backed by proven scientific evidence to differentiate themselves from competitors.
The disparate reactions to social media ads in the US and Korea can be better understood by applying Hofstede’s individual-collectivism and unpredictability prevention characteristics in conjunction with Hall’s context typology. Directness of speech and consumer priorities that emphasize individual consumers rather than groups are hallmarks of individualistic cultures like the United States (Kwon et al., 2021; Makri et al., 2021).
Effective communication depends on clarity, and comparison is evidence-based. A collectivistic society like Korea values indirect communication more than direct speech. Concerns about face management cause Koreans to avert direct expression, which could compromise their dignity. This cultural difference determines whether comparative social media advertising is aggressive or instructive; in a high-context culture, it exemplifies individualistic and low-context communication.
In Korea, brands and consumers view comparison social media ads as morally wrong; therefore, whether they are legal is irrelevant. Even though comparison advertising is permitted in Korean society, its volume has not increased. Koreans are not interested in it, regardless of its authenticity (Kong et al., 2021).
Consumers may feel uneasy with comparative advertising in SNSs, even when it is based on honest and scientific information. The Korean public is notoriously sensitive to advertisements that directly or indirectly promote a competitor’s name or goods to boost sales for the sponsoring company (Masuda et al., 2022). Customers may think it is dishonorable if advertisers use social media to promote similar products while making comparisons.
Conclusion
The increasing worldwide use of SNSs can primarily be attributed to the equal footing that social media platforms create between businesses and consumers. It may become more straightforward for consumers and brands to interact and learn about one another. Social media platforms, among the most widely used online sites, are practically indispensable for strategizing a marketing campaign. Since personality traits can serve as market segmentation variables, it is critical to investigate how characteristics such as propensity to share information, privacy concerns, and consumer innovativeness affect SNS usage.
To enhance conversion rates and cultivate brand credibility, marketers are increasing transparency on social media by publishing positive consumer feedback, comments, likes, and posts. Americans exhibit greater consistency in their level of consumer innovation than Koreans do. Korean consumers, who exhibit high levels of uncertainty avoidance, are expected to proactively seek ways to minimize hesitation and advocate for legislation that eliminates ambiguity whenever feasible. Korean consumers and brands perceive comparative social media advertising as morally objectionable, contrasting with the United States.
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