Content Marketing Insights from Kuwait Banking Industry: Matching Managers’ and Customers’ Perceptions of Social Media Posts Likability and Readability ^†

1. Objectives

The main objective is to measure the difference in the perceptions of bank marketing managers and their customers regarding the likeability, readability and responsiveness of social media content. Other specific objectives include a comprehensive literature review to facilitate instrument development, data collection and analysis, and the identification of statistically significant differences between the bank managers’ and customers’ perceptions, considering their socio-demographic backgrounds.

2. Methodology

The existing scales from the literature will be adapted to measure the perceptions of bank managers and customers, having Instagram bank posts in Kuwait as a point of reference using a census approach for bank managers (10 banks) and a convenience sample of 200 customers. The most appropriate parametric or non-parametric test will be selected to test the statistically significant differences in perceptions. T-tests and Mann–Whitney U tests will be used on normally and non-normally distributed data. ANOVA or the Kruskal–Wallis test will compare the mean scores of more than two groups, e.g., the perceptions of bank customers based on different educational levels or age groups.

3. Results

This study utilizes Breckler’s [1] theoretical model, which categorises attitudes into cognition (readability) [2,3], affect (likability) [4] and behaviour (responsiveness) [5,6]. The differences in perceptions between the bank managers and customers regarding the impact of the post headline features (exclamation, colon, question mark, sentiment and title length), post content features (text length, text tone and domain specificity) and media types used in posts (image, audio, video or text) on the above-mentioned constructs will be identified and explained based on the existing literature [5,7,8,9,10,11].

4. Implications

This research is aimed at helping the Kuwaiti banking sector develop brand post strategies more efficiently and effectively. This could be achieved through utilising more interactive posts and visual and audio cues to enhance the consumers’ cognitive, emotional and behavioural engagement. Therefore, this study will help bank managers increase their profits and growth, position themselves better in the market, improve communication with their customers, and introduce a meticulous scientific approach to social media studies.

5. Originality Value

From a methodological perspective, comparing the perceptions between bank marketing managers and customers regarding the likeability, readability and responsiveness of social media content is original and innovative. Furthermore, based on the initial literature review and to the best knowledge of the authors, no such research has been conducted on the banking industry in Kuwait.

6. Contribution

The research findings will aid in improving content creation via banks’ social media posts, as the study will shed light on the perceptions of content that appeal to the target audience regarding the elements of likability, readability and responsiveness. In return, this will lead to more engagement and the interactivity of current and potential clients on social media. Finally, this study provides a methodological contribution by the adapting scales used previously in the literature to examine the readability, likability and responsiveness of selected social media content.