Real-Time Brand Reputation Tracking Using Social Media

TY - JOUR

T1 - Real-Time Brand Reputation Tracking Using Social Media

AU - Roland Rust

AU - William Rand

AU - Ming-Hui Huang

AU - Andrew T. Stephen

AU - Brooks, Gillian

AU - Timur Chabuk

N1 - Funding Information: Thanks to OssaLabs for its collaboration in building and maintaining the database, to YouGov for access to data used in this study, and to James Davies and the IT staff at the Oxford?s S?id Business School for their help in setting up the website. The authors would also like to thank Bradley Senft, who helped with the development and implementation of the software to collect and process the social media. They also thank Rupert Younger, Rowena Olegario, and participants at the Oxford Corporate Reputation Forum and the American Marketing Association Winter Conference for their helpful comments The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by the University of Oxford?s Centre for Corporate Reputation, and the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland, and grants (104-2410-H-002-142-MY3, 106-2410-H-002-056-MY3, 107-2410-H-002-115-MY3) from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan. Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by the University of Oxford’s Centre for Corporate Reputation, and the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland, and grants (104-2410-H-002-142-MY3, 106-2410-H-002-056-MY3, 107-2410-H-002-115-MY3) from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan. Publisher Copyright: © American Marketing Association 2021. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/2/1

Y1 - 2021/2/1

N2 - How can we know what stakeholders think and feel about brands in real time and over time? Most brand reputation measures are at the aggregate level (e.g., the Interbrand “Best Global Brands” list) or rely on customer brand perception surveys on a periodical basis (e.g., the Y&R Brand Asset Valuator). To answer this question, brand reputation measures must capture the voice of the stakeholders (not just ratings on brand attributes), reflect important brand events in real time, and connect to a brand’s financial value to the firm. This article develops a new social media–based brand reputation tracker by mining Twitter comments for the world’s top 100 brands using Rust–Zeithaml–Lemon’s value–brand–relationship framework, on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis. The article demonstrates that brand reputation can be monitored in real time and longitudinally, managed by leveraging the reciprocal and virtuous relationships between the drivers, and connected to firm financial performance. The resulting measures are housed in an online longitudinal database and may be accessed by brand reputation researchers.

AB - How can we know what stakeholders think and feel about brands in real time and over time? Most brand reputation measures are at the aggregate level (e.g., the Interbrand “Best Global Brands” list) or rely on customer brand perception surveys on a periodical basis (e.g., the Y&R Brand Asset Valuator). To answer this question, brand reputation measures must capture the voice of the stakeholders (not just ratings on brand attributes), reflect important brand events in real time, and connect to a brand’s financial value to the firm. This article develops a new social media–based brand reputation tracker by mining Twitter comments for the world’s top 100 brands using Rust–Zeithaml–Lemon’s value–brand–relationship framework, on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis. The article demonstrates that brand reputation can be monitored in real time and longitudinally, managed by leveraging the reciprocal and virtuous relationships between the drivers, and connected to firm financial performance. The resulting measures are housed in an online longitudinal database and may be accessed by brand reputation researchers.

KW - Brand Reputation Tracker

KW - Value Driver

KW - Brand Driver

KW - Relationship Driver

KW - Social Media

KW - Brand Equity

KW - Customer Equity

KW - Corporate Reputation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105736382&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0022242921995173

DO - 10.1177/0022242921995173

M3 - Article

SN - 0022-2429

VL - 85

SP - 21

EP - 43

JO - JOURNAL OF MARKETING

JF - JOURNAL OF MARKETING

IS - 4

ER -