Turn the Other Cheek or an Eye for an Eye: Exploring Brand-to-Brand Dialogue on Social Media

The phenomenon of brands making sarcastic and sometimes rude comments regarding their competitors via social media is a relatively novel and unexplored behavior, and research in this area is scarce. How consumers perceive the use of humor in brand-to-brand dialogue may have meaningful managerial implications for companies and important theoretical implications for existing theory. Thus, to understand the dyadic relationship between two brands who engage with each other on social media, we explore two different types of humorous comments (low aggression and high aggression) and how the type of humor employed affects consumers’ perceptions of both the brand initiating the dialogue and the brand that responds. Interestingly, we find that the safest strategy for brands that elect to interact with other brands on social media is to refrain from either type of humor, thus avoiding perceptions of manipulative intent. However, for brands that elect to respond to other brands, the type of humor employed can vary based on the tone of the initiating brand’s comment.