Emoji Are Not All Created Equal: The Effects of Emoji Variations on Brand Attitudes, Product Quality Expectations and Trial Intentions

Abstract

Contributing to a burgeoning area of research on the nuanced effects of emojis in brand communications, the current research builds understanding of two dominant forms of emoji role—emojis as text reinforcement and emojis as text substitution—and their downstream effects. Across three studies, we examine how emoji roles differentially interact with message features to influence brand-level outcomes (brand attitudes, product quality expectations and consumers' willingness to try a brand's product) through their effects on processing fluency. We find robust evidence that substitution emojis elicit more negative brand-level outcomes than reinforcement emojis both when the emoji has low congruence with the text and when the complexity of the text in the message is high, and that these effects are mediated by processing fluency. These findings deepen our understanding of emojis' effects in brand communications and provide practical guidance for digital marketers regarding how to effectively leverage emojis.