Luxury brands have always been characterized by their rarity, quality, and refinement, but the actual meaning of luxury varies from customer to customer. According to several studies, luxury brands carry significant sociocultural and individual meanings for customers that differentiate them from classical brand management. As a result, marketers are leveraging social media platforms to target customers, build brand equity and trustworthiness, and break typical selling cycles. Specifically, luxury brands are embracing technology and online media to engage and access their customers in practical and useful ways.

Social media platforms offer an opportunity for luxury brands to disseminate their products, services, and lifestyles across a broader customer segment. The success story of Burberry, which was the first luxury brand to invest in digital communication and social media, illustrates how an online presence can attract young and web-savvy customers. As the consumption of luxury products becomes more accessible, social media platforms play a critical role as a tool for marketing luxury.

Measuring Customer Engagement with Luxury Brands on Social Media

Measuring customer engagement with luxury brands on social media is a critical indicator of companies' performance. Researchers have used multiple approaches to measure the engagement of customers with brands on social media. Some studies use cognitive processing, affection, and activation to measure customer engagement, while others use customers' consumption, contribution, and creation on social media platforms to measure their responses to brand-related content.

Age, education, income, and consumer perceived social status are some demographic characteristics that influence customer engagement with luxury brands on social media. However, motivation to engage with social media is also correlated with personality and cultural characteristics that drive customers' expression in social media spaces.

In conclusion, social media platforms provide an effective means for luxury brands to connect with their customers, build brand equity, and break the traditional selling cycles. Measuring customer engagement on social media provides a critical indicator of a brand's performance, and it is influenced by demographic, personality, and cultural characteristics.

Cultural Differences: Understanding Their Influence on Social Media Engagement

According to Hudders et al. (2013), some brands are perceived as being luxurious by certain individuals or groups, while others are not. In addition, attitudes towards luxury consumption vary among different cultures (Choi et al., 2018).

Hofstede (2011) identifies various dimensions of culture, including individualism and collectivism. Individualistic cultures are characterized by loose ties between individuals, whereas collectivist cultures are typified by strong and cohesive in-groups. Developed and Western countries tend to be more individualistic, while less developed and Eastern countries tend to be more collectivist (Hofstede et al., 2011). For example, based on individualism scores, Thailand is considered a highly collectivist country. People in Thailand value long-term commitments to their group members and are sensitive about not feeling embarrassed in front of their peers (Hofstede Insights, 2021).

Studies by Han and Kim (2018), Tsai and Men (2017), Kitirattarkarn et al. (2019), Krishen and colleagues (2019), and Tsai and Men (2014) reveal that culture has a significant impact on customers' engagement with social media content, such as social media commerce and brand SNS pages. Collectivist cultures tend to be more open to accepting and purchasing from social media commerce, while their individualistic counterparts focus more on informative content. In terms of engagement with SNS pages, collectivist cultures prefer more informative user-generated brand content, whereas individualistic cultures prefer more entertaining content. Emotional connection and system quality are vital for marketers to appeal to their collectivist customers, while information quality appeals more to individualistic customers. Entertainment, such as visual simulation, enjoyable content, and celebrity endorsements, appeal to both individualistic and collectivist cultures.

Therefore, it is crucial to explore how cultural differences affect social media engagement between customers and determine whether the general factors that work universally apply to specific cultural contexts. This paper will apply Bazi et al.'s (2020) research to Thailand, a collectivist country, to examine if the results differ from previous studies.

Perceived Content Relevancy

Jaakonmaki et al. (2017) posit that social media content falls into three categories: text, visual, and audio content. Several studies demonstrate that different types of media content impact people's engagement with social media pages. Hughes et al. (2019) showed that different blogger characteristics and blog post content influenced sponsored blogging engagement. Additionally, followers or fans tend to engage more with high-quality posts regardless of the quantity of posts (Vadivu and Neelamalar, 2015).

Post Quality

Bazi et al. (2020) define post quality as "the perceived aesthetic quality and attractiveness of the visual content (picture or video) posted on social media platforms." Previous studies have determined that post quality or visual appeal is critical to achieving success on social media. For example, Park and Gretzel (2007) note that visual appeal is vital for destination marketing websites. Furthermore, perceived belongingness to brands and engagement, as well as perceived mutuality and empowerment, are positively related to the perceived entertainment and aesthetic value of brand posts (Bashir et al., 2018). Pages using anthropomorphic aesthetics and social cues tend to drive more engagement, positive purchase intentions, and positive financial outcomes (Perez-Vega et al., 2017). Luxury brands, specifically, use Instagram for visual storytelling as part of their marketing strategy (Vinerean and Opreana, 2019). Thus, to avoid negative associations with brands, businesses should create premium and aesthetically appealing digital content to foster customer appreciation and engagement (Pentina et al., 2018).

Heading 1: High-quality Posts on Social Media Enhance Customer engagement with Luxury Brands in Thailand

Introduction:

According to Bazi et al. (2020), brand news pertains to the information needs of luxury brand customers on social media. Customers seek, gather, and acquire information on new trends from brand pages on social media. Baldus and colleagues (2015) indicated that one of the key reasons for customers' engagement with brands on social media is to get up-to-date information. Scholars such as Cheung et al. (2020), Liu et al. (2019), and Silva (2019) have found that high-quality content posted on social media pages has a significant and positive impact on customers' engagement. Therefore, social media brand pages should use trendy and current information to connect with their customers.

Additionally, according to McGlure and Seock (2019), the quality of information posted by brands on social media pages affects customers' involvement with the brand. Brands should use social media content that is relevant, important, and notable to their customers. Combining informative content with persuasive content increases customer engagement (Lee et al., 2014). However, informative content should focus on brand-related topics to drive customer engagement (Rietveld et al., 2019; Lee et al., 2018).

Research by Tsai and Men (2017) suggests that information seeking is a principal reason why people from both collectivist and individualist countries engage with brands on social networking sites (SNS). For instance, Krishen and colleagues (2019) found that individualist culture values information quality, such as up-to-date information on social media pages, compared to collectivist cultures. Based on this information, Hypothesis 2 is formed.

Heading 2: The Importance of Celebrity Endorsement

According to Bergkvist and Zhou (2016), celebrity endorsement is an agreement between an entity (brand) and a public figure (celebrity) to promote the brand. It is a popular advertising technique worldwide (Choi et al., 2005). An effective endorser is seen as familiar, attractive, and trustworthy by customers, which can increase brand loyalty and purchase intentions (Osei-Frimpong et al., 2019). However, Rossiter and Smidts (2011) argue that customers are aware that celebrities are paid for endorsements, so perceived trustworthiness might not have a positive effect on the endorsement process.

Numerous studies show that celebrity endorsement impacts customers' purchase behavior, including for normal products and luxury brands. Customer purchase intention is affected by celebrity attributes such as expertise and attractiveness (Bergkvist and Zhou, 2016; Gauns et al., 2017; Osei-Frimpong et al., 2019). Celebrity endorsement has a positive impact on sales, particularly when the celebrity is highly competent and appealing (Bergkvist and Zhou, 2016). Hani et al. (2018) suggest that endorser credibility positively affects customers' purchase intention and ad recall in the Lebanese jewelry industry. Moreover, the credibility of celebrities is regarded as a powerful key to increasing purchase intentions of sustainable luxury products (Cuomo et al., 2019). Bazi et al. (2020) mention that one of the beneficial sources of information that can encourage customers to engage with luxury brands on social media is celebrity endorsement. Collaborating with celebrities and influencers could help achieve original content on Instagram that effectively engages customers (Vinerean and Opreana, 2019).

Furthermore, Zhou and Whitla (2011) studied Asian consumers and concluded that despite having no direct impact on the brand, the celebrity's moral reputation affects their attitudes towards the endorser and indirectly impacts their views of the endorsed brand. Kang et al. (2019) suggest that the attractiveness and expertise of a celebrity have a positive effect on a firm's value; thus, the loss of trustworthiness could be damaging. Osei-Frimpong et al. (2019) also found that negative publicity about the endorser did not significantly impact brand performance.

Celebrity endorsements are more widespread in Asian countries than in Europe and the US, a trend largely attributed to cultural differences. Research by Bergkvist and Zhou (2016) suggests that customers in collectivistic cultures are more likely to follow mainstream trends and purchase products endorsed by popular celebrities, compared to individualistic cultures. For instance, Hani et al. (2018) found that customers in collectivist countries are especially drawn to products endorsed by celebrities.

However, Tsai and Men (2014) argue that celebrity endorsements can also appeal to customers in individualistic cultures, as they add an entertaining factor to brand social network site pages. Based on this literature, we propose the following hypothesis:

H3: Celebrity endorsement has a positive impact on Thai customers' engagement with luxury brands on social media.