Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the interaction effect of consumer’s upward social comparison, self-expression in SNS, and recipient’s facial expressions of CRM advertising on consumer’s CRM product purchase intention. The experiment design was 2(upward comparison tendency: high vs. low) × 2(self-expression tendency: high vs. low) × 2(facial expression: sadness/happiness) factorial design. The results were as follows. There is a significant two-way interaction effect and three-way interaction effect of focal variables on CRM product purchase intention. Specifically, when the upward comparison tendency is high, the respondents with high self-expression tendency show more intention to purchase the CRM product when the recipient’s happy(vs. sad) face was shown in the ad. On the other hands, the respondents with low self-expression tendency show more purchase intention concerning the recipient’s sad(vs. happy) face. The low upward comparison group shows no interaction effect of self-expression tendency and facial expression. Our findings suggests that CRM as pro-social behavior can make SNS user to help them to solve their problem of induced negative affect(e.g., inferiority, depression) of SNS use. Also, this study has important implications on the CRM strategy plans. Marketers can enhance consumer’s intention to purchase the advertising product, when they consider the user tendency of SNS and recipient’s facial expression in the ad. Theoretical, practical implications and future research directions were further discussed.