Creevey, Dean (2022) Luxury Service Brands and Social Media. An Investigation of Luxury Service Brands’ Social Media Marketing Strategies. PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
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Abstract
This thesis presents an investigation into the social media marketing strategies of
luxury service brands. Specifically, the analysis explores how Michelin star
restaurants in Ireland and the UK utilise social media platforms for the purposes of
signalling their luxury status, with a specific focus on luxury brand authenticity, to
consumers. To achieve this, participants within a total of 29 Michelin star restaurants
across Ireland and the UK were interviewed over a nine-month period.
Secondary analysis within this study stemming from an in-depth consultation
of literature surrounding the central theoretical areas of the study culminated in the
proposal of a novel theoretical framework depicting social media’s role within luxury
organisations. In adopting a systematic literature review approach, the first major
contribution of the thesis is the exhaustive analysis of the extant literature investigating
the confluence of social media and luxury, a theoretical model illustrating the role of
social media for luxury brand marketing, as well as a roadmap for future research in
the area. This review was published in the International Journal of Management
Reviews in 2022.
In adopting a critical realist perspective and being grounded within a signalling
theoretical foundation, the primary analysis of the study stems from the narratives of
the participants, their depictions of their business and ascension to Michelin star status,
the strategic objectives of their social media marketing strategies and how they utilise
these platforms for signalling luxury and, in particular, authenticity. The perspectives
sought included perceptions of the value of social media for luxury service brand
marketing, exploration of the nature of relationships between luxury brand and
consumer, as well as the most pertinent forms of content and its embedded elements
which maximise social media’s signalling capacity. The live social media accounts of
participants’ restaurants were also consulted to provide evidence of the varying forms
of signals utilised by these brands.
The study draws on the luxury services, social media marketing, and signalling
theory literatures, culminating in the proposal of a taxonomy of eleven distinct signals
of authenticity, further unpacked and discussed based on their degrees of
tangibility/intangibility as well as their levels of implicitness/explicitness within
luxury service brands’ social media content. In doing so, this study provides a more
comprehensive understanding of the role of social media platforms in luxury service
brand marketing strategies and the specificities of authenticity signals embedded
within social media content for luxury service brands. The findings, interpretations,
and conclusions make significant contributions to the fledgling luxury services
literature as well as the maturing social media marketing literature and provides
practical, actionable insights and recommendations for luxury service brand managers
to further apply these contemporary technologies for strategic marketing purposes.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
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Keywords: | Luxury Service Brands; Social Media; Investigation; Media Marketing; Strategies; |
Academic Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Business |
Item ID: | 16580 |
Depositing User: | IR eTheses |
Date Deposited: | 29 Sep 2022 09:49 |
URI: | https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/16580 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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