Investigation of micro-blogging communication patterns for fashion products: a content analysis of Kiehl’s corporate account on Sina Weibo in China.

University of Minnesota M.A. thesis. July 2012. Major: Design. Advisor: Juanjuan Wu. 1 computer file (PDF); vi, 89 pages.The purpose of this study is to understand how Chinese micro-blogging is used by businesses. In this paper, I reported results of a case study investigating the communication and interaction among Kiehl’s SINA Weibo account. I quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed 135 corporate posts, 2443 comments by followers and Kihel’s, and 400 customers’ brand-related posts in micro-blogging. An object-action content coding scheme had been adopted for content analysis. The research findings showed that about 47% of all kiehl’s posts were related to products and over 42% were associated with brand; more than 54% of all followers’ comments were about product and 35% were related to marketing. Detailed and informative posts focusing on different aspects of products attracted followers’ attention and drove their engagement with the company and other followers in micro-blogging. Followers had a strong desire to participate in corporate-initiated online activities, since about 25% of followers’ comments were for participating in this type of marketing activity, although only 6% of kiehl’s posts were related to marketing. More than 25% of followers’ comments included a sentiment, either a positive expression (above 21%) or a negative expression (nearly 5 %). Over 24% of all followers’ comments were asking questions mainly about products, however Kihel’s only replied less than 28% of them which led to followers’ dissatisfaction. In general, the more retail stores in a given location, the more followers there were. Sina Weibo can be considered as a crucial part of integrated marketing communication for businesses to build brand knowledge and brand relationship