Blessing in Disguise? Utilizing Humor to Cope with Inappropriate Complaints on Social Media

摘要

New media has transformed the marketing environment.Social media platforms,such as Facebook,influence consumer behavior in different marketing domains(Lamberton and Stephen et al.2016).In particular,negative experiences with a certain brand or company can easily be shared and reach a broad audience of fellow customers(Van Noort and Willemson 2011).It is not only crucial to satisfy the complainant,but also maintaining the brand reputation for the online audience,also referred to as observers or bystanders(Breitsohl,Khammash,and Griffiths 2010).Because the mass audience can follow the complaint and the company's reaction,it is important to understand which response strategies are appropriate for complaints(Hennig-Thurau et al.2010).Formally stated,this research addresses the following research questions:(1)What is an appropriate response strategy for inappropriate online complaints?(2)Can humor be used to deal with inappropriate online complaints and lead to positive brand outcomes for the observers?