Keywords

1 Background and Context

Consumer motivation to follow a small brand lies on the wider context of behavioral science and is a critical topic of study in today’s marketing landscape. The multiple niches in the market whose unique needs are served by small brands [1], have as a result an increasing growth of the popularity of small brands and provoke an inherent need to understand the underlying mechanisms that make consumers choose to follow those brands.

Even though smaller brands usually operate on a lower scale and with more limited resources than established brands, under circumstances, they can attract consumers who are more loyal. Research on consumer motivation to follow small brands has focused on identifying the key drivers of consumer behavior, such as brand authenticity, social influence, and emotional connection. Maslow has proposed a “pyramid” that consists of five levels, representing different categories of needs that are drivers to consumer motivation (Physiological Needs, Safety Needs, Love and Belongingness Needs, Esteem Needs, Self-Actualization [2]. Other scholars propose a variety of factors that affect the motivations of consumers: (a) Cultural factors as a fundamental element of consumer buying behavior [3], (b) Personal factors that are unique to each individual and can have a significant impact on consumer behavior [4, 5], (c) Psychological factors that are perhaps the most complex element of consumer buying behavior [6], and (d) Situational factors that refer to specific circumstances that influence a consumer’s purchasing decision [7]. In addition, studies about consumer attitudes lead the way to consumer motivation. For example, a study about consumer perceived value [8] found that consumers who valued authenticity were more likely to follow small brands over larger, more established brands. Other consumer behavior research indicates that social influence, such as word-of-mouth and online reviews have been proven to be key factors in motivating the consumers to follow a small brand [1].

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok have millions of users worldwide, which makes them an important customer touchpoint enabling businesses and brands to connect with their audience. Specifically, 70% of the US citizens use social media extensively. These platforms have fundamentally changed the way businesses interact with their customers, providing an unprecedented level of access to consumer data and insights. Social media analytics tools have made it possible for businesses to track consumer behavior, identify trends and preferences, and create more targeted marketing campaigns. One of the most significant impacts of social media on consumer behavior is the way it has transformed the purchasing journey, changed the way businesses engage with their customers [9], shaped consumer trends and preferences (making it easier for businesses to identify emerging trends and adapt their marketing strategies accordingly) [9].

Understanding consumer motivation to follow a small brand can be very impactful especially for small businesses seeking to attract and retain customers. By identifying the key elements that drive consumer behavior, small businesses can develop targeted marketing strategies, tailor their products and services to meet consumer needs, and thus engage with their customers more and build on brand loyalty. Moreover, research on consumer motivation to follow small brands can contribute to a broader understanding of consumer behavior and preferences, helping to inform marketing and business practices broader.

2 Research Methodology

The data analyzed in this paper were collected through a “Google forms” questionnaire. The questionnaire was disseminated to the users of a small social media travel brand (@extramilers) on Instagram and remained live for a week. After collecting 137 answers from a convenient sample, the collected data were analyzed via data analysis tools. The outputs were evaluated to identify patterns, trends, and insights. The findings were interpreted in the context of the research objectives and hypothesis to inform useful conclusions. In addition, the Instagram account of @extramilers was evaluated for social media analytics and real world insights to help formulate a global aggregated view on consumer preferences.

3 Research Outcomes

The five most important immediate key outcomes are demonstrated below, followed by answers to specific questions that aim to provide business value.

3.1 Five Key Points to Set the Ground

Point 1. Almost half of the participants (49.1%) claim to dedicate 1–3 h per day in social media, 21.4% say they dedicate 3–5 h daily, 21.4% say they spend less than an hour daily, while 8.2% say they spend more than 5 h daily in social media usage.

Point 2. Instagram was selected as the No1 social platform where the participants choose to engage with travel content by 67.5%. Youtube is the second option (27.7%) followed by Facebook (23.3%) and Tik Tok (17.6%). The above data lead the way for the strategy of travel brands, assisting them to answer the question on “which social media to choose to position for my small travel business?”.

Point 3. On the question “Which is your relation to travel brands on social media”, more than 1 out of 2 people (53%) responded that they choose to watch travel content without following or engaging with brands, justifying the fact that many people prefer to be watchers rather than followers. 37.1% answered that they follow specific travel brands to engage with travel content and another 9.4% say they are not interested in travel content at all. This gives a specific direction to small travel brands to focus on the reach of their content and promote their businesses through popular hashtags or the feed, that can be proven as effective customer touchpoints.

Point 4. 10.7% of the participants claim they interact almost every day with travel brands, another 32.1% denote they interact once or twice on a weekly basis, 19.5% answered they interact once or twice on a monthly basis, while 37.7% of the participants claim they interact never or almost never.

Point 5. On the question about motivations to follow a small brand, the highest percentage (28.3%) claimed they want to stay up to date with travel trends and special offers, another 20.8% claimed they follow a small travel brand to get inspired from beautiful images, while another 18.2% claim their motive is to be aware about unique and incredible travel experiences.

3.2 Five Research Questions and Answers with Business Value

Frequency of Interaction Depending on Age. Data indicates that the age groups that interact almost every day with travel brands are the following: (a) 33% of the respondents belong to the age group of 18–24, (b) 10% of the respondents of the age group of 25–34 and (c) 14% of the respondents of the age group of 35–44.

No other age group mentioned they interact almost every day with travel brands. It is remarkable that people who choose to interact almost every day with brands on social media mostly belong to the Millennial and GenZ generations. It is also remarkable that 36% of respondents of all those groups mentioned that they consider as important or very important factor the “feeling of community building” in their decision to follow a travel brand while 47.7% of respondents claim they feel more connected to a travel brand that interacts with their followers. In addition, 52.3% of them claim they value the strong commitment of a brand in the ethical responsibility in their decision to follow.

A third (1/3) of respondents on average, across age groups, prefer to interact once or twice per week with travel brands on social media, while a lower percentage (almost 20% across age groups) prefer to interact with travel brands once or twice per month on average. The content most of them prefer to see on social media is mostly related to inspirational travel photos and videos, advice about travel destinations and travel in general and personal stories and travel testimonials.

A remarkable outcome is that respondents below 18 years of age are less keen to interact with travel brands. Specifically, 67% of respondents claim they rarely interact with travel brands and 33% of respondents claim they never do. The social media platforms all these participants prefer are: Instagram, Tik Tok and Youtube. All claim to use social media mainly to keep in touch with friends and family. In addition, what motivates them to follow a brand is mainly gifts and competitions and that a brand is followed by their friends, too.

Buying Behavior Depending on Frequency of Interaction. People that interact more with a brand are generally the ones who have the highest percentages of past booking/purchases from a small brand. This is rational as they tend to be more engaged with the brand, thus they can be influenced to buy. It is remarkable that there is a spike in the purchases for the group that interacts once—twice per month with travel brands, indicating that 4/10 (40%) from this group may be interacting with a travel brand specifically to explore their options to book a trip or buy a service (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
A line diagram titled, have you ever bought a product, service from a post you have seen from a brand you follow? The increments are almost everyday, 1 to 2 times per week, 1 to 2 times per month, rarely, and never. For yes, 35, 33, 39, 27, and 7%. For no, 65, 67, 61, 73, and 93%.

Buying behavior depending on frequency of interaction

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Intention to Recommend Depending on Frequency of Interaction. Generally, the lower the interaction, the lower the intention to recommend a travel brands to friends and family. There is a spike depicting the highest interaction for people who choose to interact once or twice monthly. This spike can be interpreted by the fact that, as mentioned above, people who interact once or twice per month, are most probably more focused on requesting specific things from a brand (e.g. discounts and offers for travel [10]) and they are more willing to recommend a brand when they are pleased with it. Brands should keep in mind that regarding this particular group, travel brands should establish a great customer experience to leverage on the once per month touchpoint and make them engaged followers/potential buyers. This group is mostly motivated to follow a travel brand from getting inspired from travel photos, getting aware of new destinations and having discounts and offers.

Focusing on the last tier group that never interact, their motivation to follow is mainly discounts and competitions. A point to mention for brands is that this shows a brand can motivate people to follow through discounts and competitions, but in order to engage them it will take time and a percentage of them will never engage with the content and brand actions.

Intention to Recommend Depending on Engagement. Despite the fact that no significant differences occur from the value of community building, when we check the matrix of the questions: “Do you feel more connected to a travel brand that interacts with their followers?” and “Would you recommend a small travel brand to friends and family?” we found the following patterns:

  1. a.

    We can observe the highest percentages (almost 50% for each distinct groups) in the diagonal of the matrix, which indicates a direct correlation between the answers to the first question and the answers to the second question.

  2. b.

    53% of people who would recommend a travel brand, also feel more connected to a travel brand that interacts with their followers.

  3. c.

    Only 15% of people who would recommend a travel brand claim they don’t feel more connected to brands that interact with their followers.

  4. d.

    45% of people who are not sure if they would recommend a travel brand, are also not sure if they feel more connected to brands that interact with their followers. However, data indicate that those who are not sure if they feel more connected to a travel brand that interacts with their followers, tend to be more positive to recommend a travel brand to friends and family. Given the strong correlation that is indicated between those two answers, it is possible that a great percentage of those who are not sure if they feel more connected are actually more connected but do not necessarily perceive it as such.

  5. e.

    Half of the participants that answered they wouldn’t recommend a travel brand to friends and family, also answered they don’t feel more connected to travel brands that interact with their followers.

Given that a strong relationship is indicated between the two metrics “Do you feel more connected to a travel brand that interacts with their followers?” and “Would you recommend a small travel brand to friends and family?”, further investigation is needed to map all dependencies (Table 1).

Table 1 Intention to recommend depending on engagement
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On the intention to buy additional products/services depending on frequency of interaction we found the following: In most groups, the greatest percentage (around 60% for all groups that have at least minimum interaction) mention they may be interested in buying other relevant products/services from a travel brand, given that the products/services match their interests. This insight demonstrates the high importance of creating niches and finding ways to match the needs of the followers/customers. The rarer the interaction, the lower the percentage of participants who are positive to buy other products/services from the travel brand. We also observe that positive answers are relatively low also on the extent of interactions of the participants with the travel brand. Regarding the trend, we can easily see that the percentage of participants who answered would be open to see other related products and services, given they are consistent with the travel brand values, is higher in more engaged groups that interact more often and generally becomes lower for groups that interact more rarely. We also found that the participants who never interact have the same percentage (33%) of “intention to buy based on their interests” and “no intention to buy at all”. In addition, this group has the highest “no preference” percentage (27%). Finally, as shown above, the most engaged groups seem to be the group that interacts almost daily and the group that interacts once or twice per month. It is remarkable that those groups have a strong opinion on their preferences that may shape the brand strategy of the small travel brand. This is indicated from the fact that those 2 groups are the only ones which have zero “no preference” percentages.

4 Main Contributions and Future Research

This paper aimed to map the consumer attitudes regarding small travel brands in Greece. It has provided insights into the factors that attract consumers to small travel brands, the role of content and social media, and the importance of niche marketing strategies for specific target groups that arise from the analysis of the findings. Contributions include: Understanding of consumer preferences in the social media landscape regarding the small travel brands, uncovering the role of interaction patterns in driving buying behavior (notable contribution is the recognition of interaction as a key motivator for consumers to engage with small brands), revealing the role of social media (the influence of inspiring content, authentic experiences and engaging storytelling, along with competitions and gifts have been shown as important factors that motivate consumers, and all these are enabled by social media platforms), identifying niche marketing strategies (the diversification of small brands often comes by operating in niche markets, targeting specific consumer segments with unique needs, preferences, and motivations) and driving innovation and competition. Brand and companies can create online brand communities that can bring people with similar interests together [11,12,13,14,15].

Future research can further deepen our understanding of consumer motivation to follow small brands, uncover new insights, and provide practical implications for small businesses aiming to engage and connect with their target audience effectively. Some potential extensions of the current study include but are not limited to the following: Cross-cultural and cross-national comparisons: The current study mainly focuses on the Greek audience, which has specific cultural stimuli and values regarding cultural decisions. Culture plays an important role in formulating consumer behavior and driving consumer motivations. Investigating how consumer motivation to follow small brands varies across different cultural contexts and national boundaries can give us valuable insights into the impact of cultural values, norms, and preferences on consumer behavior. Comparative studies can help identify commonalities and differences in motivations and inform marketing strategies tailored to specific cultural contexts. The role of social influence: Exploring the influence of social networks, peer recommendations, and social proof on consumer motivation to follow small brands can provide insights into the mechanisms behind the peer pressure and word-of-mouth in the digital era. The role of perception: Further research could examine consumers’ perceptions of a small travel brand and the factors that influence their judgments. An interesting question arises regarding the actual value that people get and actually influences their decisions and the perceived value they believe that influences their decisions.