Sharing Reward Program Based on Face Consciousness in Social Media

Xiuli Han,1 Chunhua Ju,1,2 Fuguang Bao,1– 3 Chonghuan Xu,3,4 Yiling Zhu,5 Yufei Chen1 1School of Management Engineering and E-Business, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, 310018, People’s Republic of China; 2Contemporary Business and Trade Research Center, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, 310018, People’s Republic of China; 3Academy of Zhejiang Culture Industry Innovation & Development, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, 310018, People’s Republic of China; 4School of Business Administration, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, 310018, People’s Republic of China; 5School of Foreign Languages, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, 310018, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Fuguang Bao, School of Management Engineering and E-business, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, 310018, People’s Republic of China, Email baofuguang@126.comPurpose: In social marketing, sharing reward program (SRP) is a common way to improve the marketing effect. However, few studies have explored the impact of consumers’ self-presentation and face consciousness on enterprise SRP. This study aims to explore the influence of these two factors on the optimal SRP.Methods: A Stackelberg game between enterprises, sharers and potential consumers is developed to study the impact of sharers’ face consciousness on enterprise’s SRP. In order to discuss the impact of face consciousness on SRP in detail, we introduced status identity of commodity information, sharer’s self-presentation preference and commodity price as exogenous variables in the research.Results: The results have shown that when the face consciousness of sharers is high, enterprises are advised to adopt the strategy of low reward and low requirement. But when the face consciousness is low, it would be better for them adopt the strategy of high reward and high requirement. In addition, with the low face consciousness, the optimal SRP is also affected by the relationship between the price of goods and the number of WeChat friends of sharers.Conclusion: The results suggest that when enterprises make incentive policies, considering consumers’ self-presentation preference and face consciousness, the profit level can be effectively improved.Keywords: face consciousness, sharing behavior, marketing strategy, game model, reward program