Standing Out in a Neon Crowd

Research by Stansberry and Strauss presented at NCA (2012) and later published in PRism (2015).

Transcript

1. Standing Out in a Neon Crowd Kathleen Stansberry University of Akron kstansberry@akron.edu Jessalynn R. Strauss Xavier University straussj@xavier.edu
2. THE CHALLENGE Las Vegas’s casinos have a problem • Uncertain economy means less visitors • Hotels continue to open/expand with more rooms • Casino market may be saturated • Hotels are de-theming — harder to differentiate the properties
3. THE SOLUTION? Use brand personality to differentiate Aaker (1997): “the set of human characteristics associated with a brand” RQ1: Do the Twitter feeds of MGM Resorts exhibit brand personalities that could serve to promote product differentiation? RQ2: If so, could this product differentiation via Twitter be considered as a relationship cultivation strategy? How would this cultivation strategy fit into the extant theory on relationship management?
4. THE LITERATURE • Cultivation strategies (Hon & Grunig, 1999; Grunig & Huang, 2000; Hung, 2004) help an organization build and maintain relationships • Twitter can improve reputation, provide customer service, gather consumer research, provide information in real- time (Crawford, 2009; Gilpin, 2010; Kuch, Briones, Liu & Jin, 2010)
5. THE RESEARCH Qualitative analysis of casino tweets • 10 of 11 casinos owned by MGM • Census of tweets from February 2011 • Grounded theory approach to coding • Identification of “brand personalities” based on tone, language
6. THE RESULTS Casino tweets did different “work” to establish the brand personality • Promote elements of casino appropriate to personality • Identify distinctive features • Establish personality through tone • Defend inadequacies
7. Property Twitter ID Personality Aria AriaLV Not your typical 
 Vegas visitor Bellagio BellagioLV Attentive concierge Circus Circus CircusVegas Family-oriented tour guide Excalibur ExcaliburVegas Budget-savvy 
 good-timer Luxor LuxorLV Party guy/girl Mandalay Bay mandalaybay_lv Shopping guru/fashionista MGM Grand mgmgrand Obsequious customer service representative Monte Carlo MonteCarloVegas Cool friend 
 who knows the city Mirage TheMirageLV Cheerleader/gossip Vdara VdaraLV Different, socially conscious, cool friend
8. THE IMPLICATIONS 1.Tone, content contribute to casino’s brand personality 2.Brand personality can help differentiate from other properties 3.Characteristics of personality suggest implied audience (age, etc.) 4.Range of personalities can create lifetime customers
9. THE FUTURE Further research is needed • Collect tweets over several months to show trends over time • Expand to other casino corporations or compare across corporations • Determine how consumers respond to brand personality
10. WORKS CITED Aaker, J. L. (1997). Dimensions of brand personality. Journal of Marketing Research, 34(1), 347-356. Gilpin, D. (2010). Organizational image construction in a fragmented online media environment. Journal of Public Relations Research, 22(3), 265-287. Kuch, B. A., Briones, R. L., Liu, B. F., & Jin, Y. (2010) "Keeping Up With the Digital Age: How the American Red Cross Uses Social Media to Build Relationships" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Singapore. Hon, L. C., & Grunig, J. (1999). Guidelines for measuring relationships in public relations. Gainesville, FL: The Institute for Public Relations. Grunig, J. E., & Huang, Y. H. (2000). From organizational effectiveness to relationship indicators: Antecedents of relationships, public relations strategies, and relationship outcomes. In J. A. Ledingham & S. D. Bruning (Eds.), Public relations as relationship management (pp. 23-53). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Hung, C. F. (2005). Exploring types of organization-public relationships and their implications for relationship management in public relations. Journal of Public Relations Research, 17(4), 393-425.