Master Thesis
Cultural Values in Corporate Branding Stories
Exploring the Influence of Culture on Storytelling and Consumer Responses
Graduate School of Communication Master’s Program Corporate Communication
Elisa Voigt 10842136
Supervisor: Theo Araujo 26.06.2015
Abstract
So far very little is known about cultural differences in corporate storytelling for branding purposes. This study explored the influence of culture on the use of storytelling, to what extent cultural values are mirrored in corporate branding stories and their effect on consumer responses. Countries of analysis were Sweden and the USA, which were compared by means of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory. Corporate branding messages on corporate websites and Facebook by ten companies within the outdoor clothing industry were analyzed using quantitative content analysis. Results show that culture does have an influence on the use of storytelling and the display of cultural values. In both countries storytelling is a much-used tool, yet US American companies practice storytelling to a greater extent than Swedish companies. Another key finding is that storytelling benefits social endorsement on Facebook, yet does not increase the number of comments to a Facebook post. Furthermore, branding messages using storytelling reflect the cultural values of their countries of origin. The analysis of consumer responses towards the display of these values revealed ambiguous findings. While branding messages by Swedish companies displaying values, that are in line with the Swedish culture, gain more “likes” and “shares” on Facebook, the opposite is the case for the USA. Posts by US American companies gain more “shares” if they contradict the US American culture in their display of cultural values. The study concludes with a discussion of these findings as well as practical implications and suggestions for future research.
Cultural Values in Corporate Branding Stories
Exploring the Influence of Culture on Storytelling and Consumer Responses In today’s fast changing, globalized markets, companies face the task of prevailing against many competitors to gain customers among the increasingly more interconnected and informed masses. One key for success is a strong corporate brand – a presentation of the company’s unique identity and the values that guide organizational behavior (Balmer & Gray, 2003; Herskovitz & Crystal, 2010; Knox & Bickerton, 2003). It facilitates positive product perceptions and helps building a favorable reputation (Brown & Dacin, 1997; Hatch & Schultz, 2003).
To gain the interest of consumers and lure them into listening to and remembering branding messages, storytelling has been proven as a powerful tool (Lundqvist, Liljander, Gummerus, & van Riel, 2012). Information embedded in stories is easier to remember and entertaining at the same time. Events and actors, causes and effects become clearer if we tell a story about them (Herskovitz & Crystal, 2010). Academic literature highlights differences in communication among different cultures and offers solutions to communicate effectively with members of various cultural spheres (Barker, 2015; de Mooij & Hofstede, 2010; Soares, Farhangmehr, & Shoham, 2007; Tixier & Maud, 1996). Yet, there is only little research about cultural differences in the use of storytelling (Helin & Sandström, 2008; Vaara & Tienari, 2011). This study aims to investigate how culture influences the use of storytelling in corporate
branding. Furthermore, it analyzes, if distinct values that are rooted in a country’s culture, are reflected in corporate stories and how they affect consumer responses. Practical implications for the creation of effective messages that are likely to arouse interest and to cause reactions from customers (Luna & Gupta, 2001; Mooij & Hofstede, 2011) can be deducted from the findings of
this study, which constitutes its relevance for communication practice. For that purpose I analyze corporate branding stories from two different national cultures, which are expected to display great differences regarding the content of corporate stories: Sweden and the USA.
While the Swedish cultures values modesty, equality and community, quite the opposite cultural bound values are lived in the USA: people there value individual success above all (Hofstede, 2015a, 2015b). I conduct a quantitative content analysis to determine whether or not these opposing value systems are also displayed in corporate storytelling. Corporate websites as well as ongoing branding activities on social media serve as sources for stories and are being compared.
Companies from both Sweden and the USA are chosen within the outdoor clothing industry for the following reasons: Outdoor clothing and equipment is strongly connected to adventure travel (Buckley, 2003) and the brands often play a role in consumer’s life stories (Lundqvist et al., 2012). Telling the consumers the brand story might therefore be an effective way to connect with them. Moreover, consumers today increasingly participate in physical activity and place value on a healthy and active lifestyle (Ruckman, 2005; The Outdoor Foundation, 2013). The industry providing clothes and equipment for outdoor activities has consequently been growing for years, is highly innovative (Meyer, 2001) as well as competitive (Textiles Intelligence, 2011). Building a strong corporate brand is therefore crucial for the success of companies. In both countries of analysis, this industry has a longstanding tradition. Various internationally successful companies originate from both Sweden and the USA (Textiles Intelligence, 2011). The research question for this study is:
How do the Swedish and US-American culture influence corporate branding activities using storytelling in the respective countries within the outdoor clothing industry?
Theoretical Framework Storytelling in Corporate Branding
Conceptualizing Corporate Branding. As markets are becoming increasingly complex and customers more informed and sophisticated, research and practice have experienced a shift from product branding to corporate branding (Balmer & Gray, 2003; Hatch & Schultz, 2003).
The corporate brand is understood as “the visual, verbal and behavioural expression of an organisation’s unique business model” (Knox & Bickerton, 2003, p. 1013) and concrete set of values that guide all organizational actions (Balmer & Gray, 2003).
With communicating the corporate brand tacitly or explicitly (Abratt & Kleyn, 2012) the organization voices assurances it promises to deliver (Gill, 2014). Although the two concepts corporate brand and corporate identity are often used synonymously in the “fog” (Balmer, 2001) surrounding them, it is important to make a clear distinction between the two. Firstly, corporate identity refers to concrete aspects within an organization like business scope and culture and is therefore a necessity for every organization, whereas a corporate brand is optional and for example not needed when the brand holds a monopoly or in the public sector (Balmer & Gray, 2003). Secondly, while the corporate identity incorporates values from different sub-cultures within the organization that continually evolve, corporate brand values are more distinct and well defined. They persist over time and are mirrored in corporate behavior and activities. The
corporate brand and the values it incorporates should therefore guide all organizational actions and receive support and commitment from personnel (Balmer & Gray, 2003).
Building a strong corporate brand therefore does not only depend on an organization’s business model and values, but it is a complex and important task of corporate communication to broadcast it to all relevant stakeholders (Abratt & Kleyn, 2012).
To gain attention for corporate branding messages and make them more memorable, storytelling has been proven as an effective tool (Herskovitz & Crystal, 2010). In the following section, the term is defined and its relevance for corporate branding elaborated.
Defining Storytelling. Academic literature provides a variety of definitions to the term storytelling. Gill (2014) describes corporate storytelling as “the process of developing and delivering an organisation’s message by using narration about people, the organisation, the past, visions for the future, social bonding and work itself in order to create a new point-of- view or reinforces an opinion or behaviour” (Gill, 2014, p.3) As this definition refers to concepts associated with a corporate brand, it is very useful for this study.
Yet, there is no need for every corporate story to contain a complete and concluded plotline as all “linguistic and visual impressions that contain story elements can compel interest” (Christensen, 2002, p. 38). Therefore, for example, also posts on Facebook, referring to a certain event or person, possibly with an attached picture, can be considered as elements of corporate storytelling.
Furthermore, Hallahan (1999) understands storytelling as the most complex form of framing. Framing refers to the act of selecting certain aspects of an issue and making them salient in the communication about the issue (Entman, 1993). So within the process of storytelling, key elements of the message are selected and nestled into a story with narrative techniques. Also McLellan (2006) perceives storytelling as a framing process to make information more understandable, memorable and meaningful.
Use of storytelling in Branding. Especially for branding activities storytelling has become an important technique. Stories can explain the behavior of a company regarding its mission and values and help consumers to emotionally bond with it at the same time (Dowling,
2006). They help consumers to recognize the specific benefits of a certain brand (Herskovitz & Crystal, 2010). Stories can generate positive emotions and consumers find corporate stories more convincing than other forms of communication (Kaufman, 2003). With stories, communication practitioners can raise awareness for and trust in their brand and highlight its uniqueness (Kaufman, 2003; Lundqvist et al., 2012).Stories make a brand more interesting to talk about (Guber, 2007) and help communicate the company’s values (J. H. Christensen, 2002).
To communicate their corporate brand, organizations can use various channels, of which two are chosen to be analyzed in this study as they are especially important in communication practice today (Macnamara, 2010; van Noort, Voorveld, & van Reijmersdal, 2012): corporate websites and social media. The following sections elaborate on the relevance of these channels for corporate branding and the effects of storytelling in communication.
Branding on Corporate Websites. Corporate websites are an essential tool for corporate communication in general (Capriotti & Moreno, 2007; Sullivan, 1999; van Noort et al., 2012) and branding in particular (Stuart & Forman, 2004). Their purpose is to disseminate detailed information (text and other types) for stakeholders. They can both serve as a tool for short-term (e.g. through publishing corporate news or press releases) as well as long-term use (Stuart & Forman, 2004). The latter is relevant to this study, as it refers to the display of an organization’s identity, history, mission and vision and therefore, the communication of the corporate brand.
One important feature of corporate websites is that organizations can mainly determine the content and tone of voice on their websites for themselves. Even if organizations allow visitors of the website to leave comments or to ask questions, real-time interactions are scarce (Voorveld, Neijens, & Smit, 2011). Websites therefore allow a clear and distinct portrayal of the brand as the organization intents. As explained before, this is especially important in innovative
and competitive markets (Balmer & Gray, 2003) such as the outdoor clothing industry (Meyer, 2001; Textiles Intelligence, 2011). Arousing interest in the corporate brand and making content memorable is therefore crucial for companies’ success and storytelling has been proven as a powerful tool for that purpose. To explore to what extent this is used in the outdoor industry, the first sub-research question is:
RQ1: To what extent do companies within the outdoor clothing industry use storytelling on their corporate website to communicate their corporate brand?
Branding on social media. The emergence of web 2.0 (Macnamara, 2010) and the variety of social media opened up new possibilities for two-way, real-time interactions of organizations with their stakeholders. Users can create profiles containing personal information and connect with other individuals as well as organizations (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010).
Interactions are characterized by timeliness and reduced anonymity (Kent, 2010) which can help organizations to appear more authentic and closer to the customer (Macnamara, 2010). Social media has therefore become a popular tool to not only disseminate information but also to connect with stakeholders and on the long run to build a strong corporate brand (Shen & Bissell, 2013). To explore to what extent companies in the outdoor industry make use of this technique on social media, a second sub-research question was formulated:
RQ2: To what extent do companies within the outdoor clothing industry use storytelling on Facebook?
Consumer responses in form of social endorsement and discussions determine a
companies’ success on Facebook. Users can signal their endorsement in two ways: Firstly, with a “like”, users can give a post their virtual “thumbs up” and indicate their approval (Mariani & Mohammed, 2014). Secondly, by “sharing” a company post, it will appear on the individual
user’s Facebook timeline and can therefore be seen also by users, who do not follow the brand themselves. Endorsement therefore also increases visibility, which makes it highly relevant for a company’s success on social media (Shen & Bissell, 2013).
While these two forms of reactions towards Facebook posts solely reflect positive attitudes towards it, the comment function also gives room for negativity towards the company or certain posts. With Facebook’s comment-function consumers can participate in the discussion about a company’s post, share their opinion, criticize or voice their appreciation of a certain post, a product or the company itself (Dekay, 2012; Kwok & Yu, 2012). Consequently, comments can both benefit as well as harm the presentation of the company online. Dekay (2012)found that especially entertaining posts trigger less negative and more positive reactions than other kinds of messages (e.g. promotions of a product or informational posts about events).
Storytelling has been proven as a tool to generate both social endorsement as well as positive discussion, as it arouses interest, makes content more enjoyable and stimulates discussions (Barnes & Pressey, 2008; Guber, 2007; Kaufman, 2003; Lundqvist et al., 2012).
To verify these positive effects of storytelling for branding on Facebook I formulated two hypotheses:
H1: Facebook posts containing storytelling elements receive more consumer
endorsement in forms of “likes” and “shares” than posts not containing any such elements.
H2: Facebook posts containing storytelling elements receive more reactions in form comments than posts not containing any such elements.
Cultural Differences between Sweden and the USA
National Culture Dimensions Theory by Hofstede. Cultures are understood as “the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from others” (Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2010, p. 6). Accordingly, people belonging to one culture share a common mindset, value systems and interpretations about aspects of reality. People of different cultures differ to a certain degree in their way of thinking (Hofstede et al., 2010; Hofstede, 1980).
This study aims to discover how these differences among cultures influence the practice of storytelling in branding. For that purpose, I chose an etic approach to study cultures. In comparison to an emic approach, which is based in anthropological, qualitative research tradition, etic approaches study cultures from an outside perspective to detect variables or dimensions that explain cultural differences (Gudykunst, 1997). Cultures are hereby defined upon respective national boundaries, which is a common approach in intercultural comparisons (Soares et al., 2007). One of the most popular frameworks for etic cultural studies is Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory (de Mooij & Hofstede, 2010; Gudykunst, 1997; Hofstede et al., 2010; Hofstede, 2003; Soares et al., 2007). Based on a multi-country study Hofstede proposed that cultures can be compared upon five1 dimensions: individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, masculinity–femininity and long-term orientation (Gudykunst, 1997; Hofstede, 2003). Each country scores a certain value between 0 and 100 on each scale in relation to other
countries. The model was originally developed to explain differences between cultures in intercultural business activities and was later also applied to organizational communication and
1 Hofstede later proposed a sixth dimension: indulgence/restraint. It refers to the level of which a
society accepts people to live out basic human drives like having fun. A high restraint culture aims to suppress gratification of needs and for that has implemented strict social norms (Hofstede, 2003).
advertising (Calantone, Kim, Schmidt, & Cavusgil, 2006) as well as individual concepts of self, personality and identity (de Mooij & Hofstede, 2010). It is therefore perceived as appropriate to be applied onto branding messages (de Mooij & Hofstede, 2010). Each cultural dimension is explained in the following paragraph.
1. Individualism refers to the importance of certain in-groups. People from individualistic cultures are mostly part of loosely-knit social networks, where
everybody mainly looks after himself, whereas in collectivist cultures the needs of the community are of higher importance than individual needs (Gudykunst, 1997;
Hofstede, 2003).
2. The uncertainty-avoidance dimension describes the attitude of members of a culture towards ambiguity. A high score indicates an emphasis of reliable and approved behavior and codes. (Gudykunst, 1997; Hofstede, 2003).
3. Power-Distance refers to the level of acceptance that is bestowed in the more powerful people or institutions within a society. Members of a high-power distance culture accept inequalities in power-relationships as integral part of society
(Gudykunst, 1997; Hofstede, 2003).
4. Masculinity/femininity refers to the extent of which masculine values (materialistic things, power, heroism, assertiveness) or feminine values (quality of life, cooperation, modesty) are lived within a culture.
5. Society with a high score in long-term orientation value norms and routine, whereas cultures with a low long-term orientation encourage change.
Different score on these dimensions among different countries elucidate their possibly opposing value systems. To what extent these varying value systems of respective countries can
influence the content within corporate communication was researched by Kang & Mastin (2008). They found that tourism public relations websites differ in the display of content according to the cultural values defined by Hofstede of the countries they were advertising. This study asks, whether these findings also apply to corporate branding. It therefore analyzes the communication of companies from Sweden and the USA, two countries that also differ in their value systems. To explore, how these values systems are mirrored in the content of corporate branding stories of companies from the two countries, the third sub-research question is:
RQ 3: How does the country of origin influence the content of corporate branding stories?
Three of the five cultural dimensions have been chosen for the analysis to answer the research question: individualism, masculinity and long-term orientation. These three dimension are strongly connected to corporate brand values that guide organizational behavior (de Mooij & Hofstede, 2010) as they refer to concepts such as teamwork, collaboration, company’s history and the value of traditions (see next section). In the following I describe the Swedish and US-American cultures according to these three dimensions and formulate hypotheses about the display of the respective cultural values in branding messages of companies.
Differences in branding based on cultural dimensions theory. Both people in Sweden and the USA place great value on individualism, as can be seen in Figure 1. The USA is one of the most individualistic countries in the world with a score of 91. Sweden scores a 71 on this dimension and is therefore slightly less individualistic. With regard to corporate branding messages, this dimension refers to, for example, the value of individual achievements versus teamwork and team spirit within the company. It is therefore hypothesized:
H3: US-American companies emphasize individualistic values to a greater extent than Swedish companies in their branding activities using storytelling.
With a score of five on the masculinity scale, Sweden can be characterized as a feminine culture. In a context of corporate branding, feminine values might be displayed through
messages that speak about solidarity with brand ambassadors, consensus in the work
environment and cooperation with partners and among co-workers. With a score of 62 on the respective scale, the USA is a masculine country. They place great value on monetary rewards and status symbols for achievements and strive for competition and winning. This might be mirrored in communication about the company’s success (awards within industry, business reports etc.) or about professional achievements of brand ambassadors. The differences between Sweden and the USA regarding femininity/masculinity are addressed in the fourth hypothesis:
H4: US companies emphasize masculine values more often than Swedish companies in their branding activities using storytelling.
Regarding the long-term orientation, Sweden scored within the medium range (53). Accordingly, Sweden does not express a clear preference in viewing future as a threat or a welcome change, whereas the USA score relatively low (26) on this scale. Accordingly,
corporate branding messages might contain information about short-term success (e.g. quarterly reports) and emphasize new innovations (Hofstede, 2015b). The fifth Hypothesis therefore reads:
H5: US companies emphasize short-term success and innovation to a higher extent than Swedish companies in their branding messages containing storytelling.
Not only intercultural differences in corporate branding stories are so far unknown, but also how consumers possibly reaction towards the display of culture bound values has rarely been studied so far. Several studies found that commonly shared values among people of one culture guide individual consumer behavior (Henry, 1976; Luna & Gupta, 2001). Furthermore, Roth (1995) found that consumer responses in different countries are influenced by how a brand is presented and which values are linked with it. In his study brands that emphasized values associated with high individualism were more successful in countries that score high on the respective Hofstede dimension than in countries with low individualism scores (Roth, 1995).
This study aims at further investigating this relationship between the display of cultural values and consumer responses, here in form of social endorsement and participation in
discussions on Facebook. Based on the discussed theory I hypothesize:
H6: The display of cultural values in corporate branding stories influences consumer responses on Facebook. 71 5 53 91 62 26 0 20 40 60 80 100
Individualism Masculinity Long-Term Orientation
Sweden USA
Methodology
To answer the overall research question I chose a quantitative content analysis using a codebook as the method of measurement. In the following section the sample, the instrument of measurement as well as key variables are described.
Sample
Selection of companies. To select suitable companies for the analysis within the outdoor clothing industry, I used the database Orbis. It provides worldwide corporate data and offers a search function to find companies of specific industries, in specific countries or various other criteria. For this analysis, I conducted a keyword search for the countries Sweden and USA with the terms “mountaineering”, “sport”, “climbing”, “skiing”, “outdoor” and “shoes”. The search was restricted to industries related to manufacturing and wholesale of sporting goods, wearing apparel, footwear and other textiles. For Sweden, this strategy generated 74 results, for the USA 257. Duplicates and companies of other industries or with other core businesses not suitable for this study were excluded. Of the remaining companies, I chose the five biggest according to their revenue for the analysis; for Sweden: Fjällräven, Haglöfs, Klättermusen, Lundhags as well as Peak Performance and for the USA: Black Diamond, Columbia, Marmot, Patagonia and The North Face. More information about each company can be found in Table A1. It also includes the number of likes of each company’s Facebook page which indicates the popularity of the brand on Facebook.
Units of analysis. Sections of the English corporate websites were analyzed for each company. I only selected those parts that clearly refer the corporate brand by addressing the guiding business principles or values, mission statement or company history. The unit of analysis is each URL page. Regarding the Swedish companies, the content of the English pages was
compared with the Swedish version using Google Translate on a testing sample containing one URL page of every company. No differences in content were detected so that all English websites could be analyzed.
Additionally, social media branding activities on Facebook were analyzed. For that purpose I used each company’s official international Facebook page. Here, every new post by the company counts as one unit of analysis. The sample period stretched over one whole year
starting May 2014. Posts of every other month were included in the sample (May 2014, July 2014, September 2014, November 2014, January 2015, March 2015). Using this procedure, expected seasonal changes within the content of posts could be observed and a comprehensive overview of the branding activities on Facebook could be gained.
I selected and saved all coding material, websites and Facebook posts within three days. That way, inconsistencies due to changes on the website or regarding the number of Likes of the Facebook page were avoided. In total I analyzed 1105 items, 29 URL pages and 1076 Facebook posts.
Research Instrument
To analyze the content of these branding messages regarding the use of storytelling and the display of cultural values as well as consumer responses I developed a codebook (see
Appendix B). It contains 17 variables, which are further described in the tables in appendices C, D and E.
Eight variables with nominal scales describe each unit of analysis: Name of the company as well as the country it belongs to, language of the post/web page, source of the item (Facebook or corporate websites), presence of pictures, videos and links to other web pages as well as the main topic of the item. The last four of which were coded as control variables. De Vries,
Gensler, & Leeflang, (2012) found that the vividness, e.g. through including pictures or videos in a post has significant influence on the number of likes a post receives. The descriptive statistics for those variables can be found in Table C1.
For measuring the use of storytelling and the display of cultural values, variables had to be developed on the basis of existing definitions of the concepts. For storytelling I found the following definition: An item is understood as using storytelling if it contains narrative elements, if it resembles an anecdote, focuses on a specific character and his/her actions and/or retells specific events (with a possible future anticipation) (Barnes & Pressey, 2008; Clark, 2009; Herskovitz & Crystal, 2010; Kaufman, 2003; Lundqvist et al., 2012; McLellan, 2006). Its applicability on branding messages was tested and confirmed in a test coding. Furthermore I developed a binary variable measuring whether consumers are asked to share a story of their own like personal experiences with the company’s product, as it is expected to also influence the number of responses to a post (Jahn & Kunz, 2012).
Regarding the cultural dimensions, each pair of opposing values represents opposite ends of one spectrum and was measured with one scale. For each value pair respective keywords were found which helped evaluate the strength to which each side of the spectrum is displayed in an item. I deducted the keywords from the definitions of cultural dimensions and added further synonyms and additional keywords after viewing a testing sample. A description of the scales and descriptive statistics for the three scales can be found in Table D1. Before the actual
analysis, the author and a fellow communication science student, who has sufficient knowledge about content analysis, coded a test sample of 50 randomly selected items to ensure the reliability of the instrument. Krippendorff’s Alpha was used to calculate the intercoder-reliablity. The
results of the reliability test, which are also recorded in Table D1, indicated a sufficient reliability of the research instrument.
Lastly, the codebook contained four variables measuring “likes”, “shares” and “comments” of a post as well the number of “likes” of the Facebook page. The latter was measured as a control variable, as I expect it to have an influence on the former (Wallace, Buil, de Chernatony, & Hogan, 2014). Descriptive statistics of these variables can be found in Table E1.
Results
Storytelling on Corporate WebsitesThe first sub research question concerns the use of storytelling on corporate websites. In total 29 URL pages were analyzed, 13 Swedish and 16 US American websites. Of those, only two URL pages did not use storytelling, whereas 27 pages did use storytelling elements. It can be concluded, that storytelling is an important and much used technique on corporate websites within the outdoor clothing industry. To determine, whether there are differences in the use of storytelling among corporate websites from Sweden and the USA, a Chi square test was conducted. With χ2(1, N = 29) = 1.75, p=.488 the result of the test is not significant. I therefore conclude that the country of origin does not have an influence on the use of storytelling in branding messages on corporate websites.
Storytelling on Facebook
The sub research question concerns the use of storytelling on Facebook. Of the 1076 Facebook post analyzed 467 (43.4%) did not use storytelling whereas 609 (56.6%) did use
storytelling (see Table 1). Storytelling is therefore a relevant tool for companies within the outdoor clothing industry to communicate their corporate brand among their Facebook fans. Regarding the influence of country on the use of storytelling in branding messages on Facebook, a Chi square test was conducted.
With χ2(1, N = 1076) = 11.65, p = .001 a significant interaction was found. It means, that companies from the USA and Sweden differ in their use of storytelling. US companies are more likely to use storytelling (60.4%) than Swedish companies (49.6%).
Table 1
Frequencies and Percentage of Storytelling in Facebook Posts per Country Storytelling
0 1 Total
Sweden (% of total) 191 (50.4) 188 (49.6) 379 (100)
USA (% of total) 276 (39.6) 421 (60.4) 697 (100)
Total (% of total) 467 (43.4) 609 (56.6) 1076 (100)
To test the first hypothesis concerning the effects of storytelling in branding messages on social endorsement I conducted two single regression analyses.
The first regression model with the variable “likes” (of each post) as dependent variable and the number of “likes” of the company’s Facebook page as well as the presence of pictures and the use of storytelling as independent variables is significant with F(3, 1072) = 15.49, p < .001. Other control variables, namely presence of videos and links as well as main topic, were excluded from the model due to insignificant results and collinearity. However, with an R2 = .04, the model has only very little explanatory value. Only approximately 4% of the dependent variable (“likes”) are explained by the use of storytelling. With b* = .07, t = 2.20, p = .028, 95% CI [7.69, 135.64] also the strength of the association between storytelling and the number of “likes” is very weak.
The second regression model calculated the association between the variable “shares” (of Facebook posts) as dependent variable and number of “likes” of the company’s Facebook page and the use of storytelling as independent variables. It was also significant with
F(3, 1072) = 26.53, p < .001. Again, other control variables were excluded from the model due to insignificant results and collinearity.
Yet, also this model has very little to none explanatory value with R2 = .07. The strength of the association between storytelling and the number of shares is also very weak with b* =.09, t = 2.91, p = .004, 95% CI [2.59, 13.33].
In conclusion H1 can be confirmed as both regression models are significant and
storytelling has a significant association with both the number of “likes” as well as the number of “shares”. Yet, the strength of these associations is very weak, which limits the practical use of the models.
Table 2
Regression Models for Social Endorsement
Number of “likes” Number of “shares” b*
b*
Constant *** ***
Likes Company FB page .15*** .23***
Pictures .10** -.10** Storytelling .07* .09** R2 .04 .07 F 15.49*** 26.53*** Note. N = 1076. *p<0.5. **p<.01. ***p<.001
To test the second hypothesis also a single linear regression was calculated. It measures the association between the number of comments to Facebook posts as dependent variable and number of “likes” of the company’s Facebook page, use of pictures, customer storytelling and the use of storytelling as independent variables.
Also this model was significant with F(4, 1071) = 6.47, p < .001. Yet, the explanatory value of the independent variable was very weak with R2 = .02. The strength of the association between storytelling and comments is non significant (see Table 3). However, it is to be noted that asking the customers to share a story of their own does have a significant association with the number of comments with b = .11, t = 3.41, p = .001, CI [2.44, 9.07].
Accordingly, H2 cannot be confirmed. Although the regression model is significant, the use of storytelling a non-significant association with the number of comments of a Facebook post.
Table 3
Regression Table for Number of Comments
b*
Constant ***
Likes Company FB page .08*
Pictures -.07* Customer Storytelling .11** Storytelling -.02 R2 .02 F 6.47 Note. N = 1076. *p<0.5. **p<.01. ***p<.001
Influence of country on the display of cultural values in corporate branding stories
The third sub-research question asks for the influence of country on the display of cultural values in corporate branding stories of companies from different countries. The respective hypotheses concern both the content of Facebook posts as well as the corporate websites of the respective companies. As both channels are of high relevance for corporate communication practice, the cases in the data set were weighed by the variable “source” to even out the unequal distribution of URL pages and Facebook posts in the data set. This was done
using the “weighing cases” function of SPSS, which automatically proportions the sample. Three independent sample t-tests were then conducted to test the hypotheses with the following results.
Collectivism/Individualism. There was a significant difference between the scores on the individualism scale for Facebook posts and websites from Swedish companies (M = 2.12, SD = .77) compared to branding messages by US companies (M = 2.38, SD = .86),
t(-307.18) = -3,21, p < .001, 95% CI [-.42, -.01]. This result indicates that US companies indeed emphasize individualist values to a greater extent than Swedish companies in their corporate branding messages using storytelling. H3 is therefore confirmed.
Femininity/Masculinity. There was also a significant difference between the scores of branding messages on the masculinity scale by Swedish companies (M = 2.89, SD = 1.00) and American companies (M = 3.51, SD = .95) with t(-382.45) = -6.68, p < .001, 95% CI [-.81, -.44]. Accordingly, US companies emphasize masculine values to a greater extent than Swedish
companies in their corporate branding messages using storytelling. H4 is therefore confirmed. Short-term orientation/Long-term orientation. There was a significant difference between the scores regarding long-term orientation of corporate branding messages by Swedish companies (M = 3.66, SD = 1.10) and US companies (M = 2.91, SD = 1.29), t(275.175) = -5.33, p < .001, 95% CI [.47, 1.02]. The result indicates that US companies do indeed emphasize short-term success and innovation (short-short-term orientation) to a greater extent than Swedish companies in their branding messages. H5 is therefore also confirmed.
Influence of the display of cultural values on consumer responses
The last hypothesis claims that the display of cultural values has an influence on consumer responses in forms of “likes”, “shares” and “comments” on Facebook. To test this assumption the original scales for individualism, masculinity and long-term orientation were
recoded into four dummy variables, each: one variable for no display of the value, one for each side of the scale and one for the medium category. That way the association between the display or non-display of each value and the number of reactions a post receives could be tested. For that purpose six single regression analyses were conducted: three analyses for “likes”, “shares” and “comments” to posts by Swedish companies, three analyses for posts by US-American
companies.
Consumer responses to posts by Swedish companies. The first regression calculated the association between the display of cultural dimensions on Facebook “likes”. With
F(9, 369) = 2.67, p = .005 the model is significant. The explanatory value is with R2 = .06 very low. The following categories of the three cultural dimensions were significant and displayed weak association with the number of likes a post received (please see Table F1): high
individualism with b* = .15, t = 2.56, p = .008, 95% CI [57.38, 385.10] and high display of feminine values with b* = .15, t = 2.60, p = .010, 95% CI [27.60, 197.70]. The display of long-term orientation does not have an association with the number of likes a post receives.
Also the regression model for the number of shares a post by Swedish companies receives is significant with F(9, 369) = 2.08, p = .031. With R2 = 0.05, approximately 5% of the number of shares are explained by the display of the cultural values incorporate in the model. Of the independent variables only the medium range on the masculinity/femininity scale was significant with b* = .14, t = 2.18, p = .030 95% CI [.98, 19.17]. None of other independent variables had a significant association with the number of shares (see Table F1).
The regression model explaining the number of comments for posts by Swedish companies was not significant with F(9, 339) = 1.35, p=.209.
Consumer responses to posts by US American companies. The regression model with the number of “likes” of posts by US-American companies was not significant with
F(9, 687) = .88, p =.544. The second model explaining the number of “shares” was significant with F(9, 687)= 3.21, p = .001. With R2=.04, 4% of the dependent variable is explained by the display of cultural values. Of the independent variables, the following were significant and had a weak association with the number of “shares”: A medium display of masculinity with b* = .10, t = 2.72, p = .007, 95% CI [8.99, 55.24] and a high display of long-term orientation with b* = .15, t = 3.80, p = .000, 95 CI [16.87, 52.87] (see Table G1).
The third model explaining the number of comments a post receives was not significant with F(9, 687) = .14, p = .206.
In conclusion, H6 can only be partially confirmed. Regarding posts by Swedish companies, significant associations with the independent variables were only found for the number of “likes” and “shares”, not for the number of “comments”. The regression analysis of Facebook posts by US American companies revealed significant results solely for the number of “shares”, but not for the number of “likes” and “comments”.
Conclusion and Discussion
Even though intercultural differences in communication constitute a diverse field of research (Barker, 2015; de Mooij & Hofstede, 2010; Soares et al., 2007; Tixier & Maud, 1996), little is so far known about differences in corporate storytelling between different cultures. This study aimed at closing this gap by exploring the influence of culture on the use of storytelling, the display of cultural values in corporate branding stories, and their effects on consumer responses.
For that purpose I first discussed the concepts of branding and storytelling on different communication channels, namely corporate websites and social media. Based on the introduced theory I hypothesized about the use of corporate storytelling in branding and its effects on consumer responses. Then I introduced the cultural dimensions theory by Hofstede (1980, 1984) and examined the national cultures of Sweden and the USA in accordance to the theory. Based on these considerations I formulated hypotheses about differences in the display of cultural values and their influence on responses on social media.
Results show that companies within the outdoor clothing industry made storytelling a much used tool for corporate branding in their innovative and competitive market: almost all analyzed URL pages used the technique of storytelling, as did more than half of the studied Facebook posts. The great extent to which storytelling is actually used makes it once more relevant for contemporary communication research. Furthermore, studying the effects of this technique is of great importance for communication practice to guide professionals in the effective use of corporate stories.
Various academic studies already analyzed the manifold benefits of storytelling (e.g. Barnes & Pressey, 2008; Clark, 2009; Lundqvist et al., 2012) which is a highly recommended tool to communicate a corporate brand (Christensen, 2002; Kaufman, 2003; McLellan, 2006).
One key finding of this study confirms this and extends the understanding of the effects of storytelling on Facebook. I found positive impacts of the use of storytelling on Facebook on social endorsement. Storytelling has a positive and significant association with the number of “likes” and “shares” a post receives. The fact, that the association is only very weak might be due to the complexity of characteristics a Facebook post has, which also influence consumer responses. For example Cvijikj, Spiegler, & Michahelles (2011) found that the type of post (in
their study status, video, photo and link) and the category (e.g. informational, question,
advertisements and announcement) had a significant effect on consumer responses: namely the number of likes and comments as well as the timespan between the time a message was posted and the last interaction of a user towards the post.
However, the assumption that the use of storytelling encourages discussions (Guber, 2007) and therefore has a positive influence on the number of comments a post receives could not be confirmed in this study. However, asking consumers to share an experience or story of their own did have a positive significant association with the number of comments a post receives. In accordance to Jahn & Kunz (2012) one could argue that consumers might just not make the additional effort to comment on messages, that do not clearly ask them to, but simply show their appreciation via the “like” or “share” button. However, verifying this argument and the influence of appealing to consumers to contribute calls for further research.
Another key finding of this study is the influence of culture on storytelling. Results show that Sweden and the USA differ in the use of storytelling and that US companies are more likely to use the technique than Swedish companies. Moreover, culture did not only have an effect on the use of storytelling but also on the display of cultural values within these stories.
Accordingly, Swedish companies emphasize individualism to a lesser extent than companies originating from the highly individualistic US American culture. Furthermore, US American companies address masculine values to a higher extent than Swedish companies. Results also show that US American companies indeed emphasize new innovations and short-term success more strongly than Swedish companies. The three hypotheses concerning the display of cultural values were therefore verified.
Consequently, it is confirmed that culture does influence the content of corporate
branding stories. The cultural dimension scores according to Hofstede are partly mirrored in the stories companies tell to communicate their brand. This result concords with a study by Kang & Mastin (2008), who found that PR tourism websites differ according to the cultural values of the countries they advertise. Moreover, the presented results extend the understanding of cultural differences from PR to storytelling in corporate branding. For the first time, this study shows how culture influences the communication about the values that guide organizational behavior and how these are communicated via storytelling. No other study has so far analyzed this relation between culture and corporate branding.
To what extent the display of cultural values influences consumer responses was examined with the sixth hypothesis. Regarding posts by Swedish companies, a display of high individualistic and strong feminine values is associated with a higher number of “likes”. These categories correspond with the Hofstede (2015a) scores of Sweden on the respective scales. In other words, people tend to like posts by Swedish companies, if they reflect the individualistic and feminine culture of Sweden. For the number of “shares” only an ambiguous display of feminine and masculine values proofs as a significant predictor. The results for the number of comments to Swedish posts remain insignificant.
For posts by US American companies, only the number of “shares” could be predicted by the display of cultural values. However, in this case they contradicted the Hofstede (2015b) scores for the USA. Although the USA are traditionally a country that embraces change and welcomes new innovations, in this study a display of strong long-term orientation proofs as a predictor for the number for “shares”, additionally to an ambiguous display of feminine and
masculine values. There is no association between the display of cultural values and the number of “likes” and “comments”.
Again, insignificant results might result from the complexity of characteristics of Facebook posts. The display of the three cultural values are just three of many more possible influencing factors (Cvijikj et al., 2011; Wallace et al., 2014). Accordingly, Swani, Milne, & Brown (2013) found that the use of corporate brand names, emotional content and a direct appeals for purchase had an influence on responses to Facebook posts as well. Furthermore, the different effects of the display of cultural values might be caused by the differences in
composition of the society of the two countries. Swedish people display a relatively high consensus about cultural values. Whereas the US American culture is due to the country’s history of immigration more diverse and its people display less cohesion regarding cultural values (Maltseva, 2014). This could be the reason, why posts by Swedish companies achieve more social endorsement when they were in line with the Swedish culture, while the opposite was the case for the USA. Further research is necessary to test this assumption.
Managerial Implications
This study confirmed once more that storytelling is indeed an effective way to communicate a corporate brand and gain positive consumer responses. Accordingly, I
recommend the use of storytelling on Facebook to communicate a message to consumers and fans of the brand as it raises the number of “likes” and “shares”.
However, to facilitate discussion companies should adopt a more pro-active role and ask consumers to contribute their own stories or experiences. Merely telling them a brand story does entertain and increase social endorsement, but only direct appeals to consumers make a
Furthermore, none of the displayed cultural values lead to a significant decrease in consumer responses in form of “likes”, “shares” and “comments”, but some had a positive influence on social endorsement on Facebook. Regarding the results of the analyses of posts by Swedish companies, communicating those values of the organization, that are typical for the state of origin, lead to positive consumer responses. For the USA, the opposite was the case. Here a value, that is very untypical for the American culture, resulted in a higher number of shares. So in any case, communicating cultural values in corporate branding stories can have a positive influence on the success on Facebook and may lead potential consumers not only to take a liking of Facebook posts but also in products or services of the company. As Urde (2003) points out, it is thereby not important that each company carries its very own, unique set of brand values that guide organizational behavior and no other organization partly shares. It is, however, essential that each company finds its own way to interpret these values, adopt them into its daily business and express them to consumers (Urde, 2003).
Limitations and Future Research
This study was limited due to the fact that only one industry was analyzed. Although the outdoor clothing industry has been proven suitable to explore the influence of culture on
branding, the transferability of the findings to other industries is questionable, both the extent to which storytelling is used as well as the presentation of cultural values. Moreover, the
composition of the sample was unbalanced. While the number of Facebook posts was sufficient, the sample contained only 29 web pages, which made a statistical analysis of this data
problematic.
Further insights into the effects of storytelling could be gained by differentiating between stories. In this study storytelling was measured using a binary variable. However, future research
could make distinctions between varying levels to which storytelling is used and different types of stories according to their content. For that purpose a more qualitative approach would be appropriate. Also, including more control variables, for example the variables used by Cvijikj et al. (2011) and Swani et al. (2013), could help clarifying the influence of storytelling on consumer responses.
In this context also further research on the influence of pro-active communication is necessary. What kind of questions arouse the most reactions and what motivates people to share their experiences is highly relevant for communication practitioners to be able to engage in discussions with consumers and strengthen the relationship with them.
For a better understanding of consumer responses towards the display of cultural values it would be useful to analyze the origin of people who react to certain Facebook posts, which was not possible in this study. This way the assumption, that people of a certain culture do indeed appreciate it more if a brand shares their cultural values, could be further examined. In this context also further research of the cultural dimension long-term orientation is necessary, as it had contradicting effects on responses to posts by Swedish and American companies.
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Appendix A Table A1
Overview of Companies within the Sample Company
Country of Origin
Founding
Year Parent company
Annual revenue in thousand $ Number of Likes on Facebook
Fjällräven Sweden 1960 FENIX Outdoor 94,972 276,374
Haglöfs Sweden 1916 Asics Corporation 105,711 64,232
Klättermusen Sweden 1984 - 7,110 10,986
Lundhags Sweden 1932 Ferd Holding AS 21,343 518
Peak Performance Sweden 1986 IC Group 77,163 99,544
Black Diamond USA 1991 - 193,140 215,418
Columbia USA 1961 - 2,100,590 709.082
Marmot USA 1974 Jarden Corporation 37,500 289,792
Patagonia USA 1953 - n.a. 522,687
Appendix B Codebook V1 Company 1 Fjällräven 2 Haglöfs 3 Klättermusen 4 Lundhags 5 Peak Performance 6 Black Diamond 7 Columbia 8 Marmot 9 Patagonia 10 The North Face
V2 Country 1 Sweden
2 USA V3 Language
of post 1 English 2 Swedish
3 other
V4 Source 1 Corporate Website
2 Facebook V5 Pictures Does the post/article contain
(a) picture(s)
1 Yes 0 No V6 Video Does the post/article contain
(a) video(s) 1 Yes 0 No V7 Link Does the post/article contain
link(s) to external webpages? 1 Yes 0 No V8 Main topic
of item
Distinguish the main topic of the text.
1 company itself
2 company history (refers to the company’s history)
3 company strategy (refers to the company’s strategy)
4 company vision (refers to the company’s vision)
5 company’s values
6 employees (refers to employees of the company: portraits, tasks, skills, achievements)
7 innovation (refers to new innovations with regard to products of the
company – code innovation if the technique/material/innovation etc. is the main topic of the item. If the item is more about promoting it than explaining its innovation, code 8)
8 promotion of product (concrete product, often with link to the product in the online shop)
9 raffles/games etc.
10 social engagement (refers to social engagement of the company like fair trade, help of local communities etc.) 11 environmental engagement (refers to environmental engagement like saving energy/waste, preserve nature, using recycled materials etc.)
12 specific happening (refers to e.g. a partner of the company/sponsored person and his/her activities) 13 Events (specific, e.g. competitions,
exhibitions, store openings etc.) 14 other
V9 Storytelling aspects
The item is understood as using storytelling if it contains narrative elements, if it
resembles an anecdote,
focuses on a specific character and his/her actions and/or retells specific events (with a possible future anticipation). If an attached picture depicts one or more distinct people during a distinct activity, it is also understood as a form of storytelling.
0 No 1 Yes
V10 Consumer Storytelling
Does the company ask the consumers to share their stories/experiences (with products of the company)? (e.g. “What are you doing this weekend?”, “Where did you go?”, “When did you use product X” etc.)
0 No 1 Yes
Cultural Values
Coding instruction: Code only, if the post/article contains storytelling elements. If not, code 99. Look for the keywords in the respective text and count how often which is mentioned. Evaluate score accordingly. If no values of the respective scales are mentioned, code ‘99’
V11 Individualism Keywords for collectivism: collective, shared value, community, collective, we, us, common, mutual, together, joint, loyal, loyalty, family, friend(s)
Keywords for individualism: individuality, being the best, to distinguish oneself, me, I, alone, singular, solo, alone
1 strong collectivist values 2 weak collectivist values 3 ambiguity 4 weak individualist values 5 strong individualist values V12 Masculinity Keywords for femininity: cooperation,
modesty, quality of life, quality, consensus, equality, solidarity
Keywords for Masculinity: achievement(s), hero, heroism, assertive, success, successful, profits, business, competition, winner, expert
1 strong feminine values 2 weak feminine values 3 ambiguity 4 weak masculine values 5 strong masculine values V13 Long-term orientation
Keywords for short term orientation:
innovation, innovative, thrift, modern, shift, novelty, contemporary, ingenious, inventive, new, breaking new ground, cutting-edge, state-of-the art, leading example
Keywords for long term orientation: tradition, traditional, habit, heritage, ritual, wisdom, norms, time-honored, reliable, time-proven, always, ever since, always
1 distinct short-term orientation 2 weak short-term orientation 3 ambiguity 4 weak long-term orientation 5 distinct- long-term orientation For Facebook posts
V14 Number of “likes” (post) Insert number V15 Number of “shares” (post) Insert number V16 Number of “comments” Insert number V17 Number of “likes” (FB page) Insert number
