A Comparative Study Of User Generated Branding And Brand Generated Content On Consumers' Perceptions,Attitudes And Purchase Intentions

This paper compares the impact of user generated brand content and brand generated content on consumer perception,attitude and purchase intention on Weibo.The study is based on the Theory of Planned Behavior(TPB)to understand how consumer attitudes toward content affect their willingness to buy.The core essence of Weibo is the social platform,which provides a place for network users to communicate.However,as it gradually becomes a marketing platform,users can freely upload opinions and evaluations on brand Products or services on Weibo,and other consumers can obtain through platform search.Information about these products or services.Burmann and Amhold(2009)proposed the concept of UGB(User generated branding),which refers to users generating content about the brand.Corresponding to this is brand-generated content,which is paid by the brand itself to establish and maintain effective and continuous communication with the user.This study selects the positive content in the user-generated brand content,compares it with the brand generated Content,and designs a control experiment.It assumes that the user generated branding is more active than the brand generated Content in terms of consumers' perception,attitude and purchasing intention of the advertisement.The experimental sample consisted of 669 students from a number of universities in Wuhan.In the questionnaire,subjects were randomly assigned to two experimental conditions.One is to simulate the Weibo user generate branding,and the other is to simulate the Weibo brand generate Content.Excluding samples that did not meet the requirements,the final sample consisted of 539 subjects.Using SPSS21.0 statistical software,independent sample T test,F test and covariance analysis were performed on the two groups of data to compare the difference between the two groups of data.The results of the study show that there is no statistically significant difference between the two sources of advertising content in terms of perception,attitude and willingness to purchase.This means that user generated branding and brand generated content complement each other in influencing consumer behavior.User generated branding is more advantageous than perceived brand in terms of perceived homogeneity and perceived objectivity,while brands have an advantage in perceived professionalism and perceived usefulness.So,brand marketers can combine these two ads to allow consumers to make optimal purchasing decisions.This study also confirmed the TPB theoretical model,consumer attitudes towards advertising will have a significant impact on brand attitudes,and will not have a direct impact on purchase intention,brand attitude will have a significant impact on purchase intention.Therefore,marketers should not only focus on advertising,but should also focus on changing consumers' perceptions and attitudes towards brands,thus triggering their willingness to purchase,and using two-level communication theory to explain how UGB affects consumer behavior.Some of the findings in this study are inconsistent with the hypothesis,but the results provide suggestions and contributions to how consumers perceive these two forms of advertising and how to better integrate these two ads into consumer shopping assistance.It also provides practical value for brand and advertisers to help them find the right combination of content on Weibo,so that consumers will have greater willingness to buy.In addition,this paper also fills the gap in the current domestic literature theory about user generated branding.