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3.2   SMEs’ ethical branding with humor on Facebook

A case study of a Finnish online army store¹

Sari Alatalo, Eeva-Liisa Oikarinen, Helena Ahola, and Marc Järvinen

Introduction

This chapter discusses ethical branding through the use of humor. More specifically, we aim to describe the use of humor and its role as part of ethical brand-building in digital content marketing of one particular small and medium-sized enterprise (SME),² a Finnish online army store. The case company, Varusteleka, represents one of the many SMEs which account for 99% of all companies in the EU.³ The company is known for its use of humor in its B2C (business-to-consumer) communication.

The present research is based on an empirical study of how the store deals with the complexities of humor in its communication on social media. Our case study of the company, a pioneer in e-business and content marketing in Finland, describes and provides further understanding of humor at a practical level through analyzing online narratives, i.e. the most recent Facebook posts. The goal here is to illustrate how humor, even disparagement humor, can be employed in building and communicating corporate brand identity with ethical values as part of it.

An unconventional way of promoting ethical values with humor has the potential to improve the visibility of a small company and help the company participate in a dialog about ethical issues between business and society while simultaneously contributing to the building of the corporate brand. The contribution of our study will be to bring the role of humor into the contemporary discussion of ethical branding; this, we believe, provides a unique perspective into the phenomenon, which remains fairly uninvestigated. In addition, our case study indicates that humor has become a more relevant topic in the emerging digital content marketing context which, in this study, refers to marketing as a management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements through electronic channels.⁴

In order to build a framework for identifying and analyzing humor, we begin by discussing the types of humor, and the various mechanisms to generate humor generally and these specific types in particular. Humor has been widely studied in consumer advertising, and in this study, we have adopted a typology of humorous ad types by Beard⁵ and employed it in a novel context. After this, we continue with introducing a corporate brand identity concept adopted in this study, and present the key ethical values chosen here as the building blocks of ethical branding. Finally, our case study provides a further understanding of how humor is used in building the ethical brand of the case company, previously known for its claims to play for the “good team!”

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Origins of different humor types

When using intended humor in strategic marketing, humor is acknowledged to work as one of the widely studied advertising appeals, and to have positive effects on attention and attitudes towards ads.⁶ However, the strategic role of humor has gained limited attention in research outside literature on advertising. In particular, when operating in the online environment, the scarce literature on the use of humor has focused on humor as a viral element.⁷ Moreover, today companies are striving not to seem “faceless” in social media, and they are adding personality to their brand communication in order to create and develop a strong online corporate brand image.

Contemporary humor in advertising has become more non-playful, nonsense, satirical and aggressive,⁸ i.e. more negative. We are interested in this new trend and the starting point of this study is to explore how unconventional and controversial, even disparagement, humor could be tailored to work in digital content marketing. Generally, it has become a key issue for the marketers to determine how to target the right people with properly tailored messages in social media.⁹ To accomplish this, the kind of humor which is appropriate for the situation is of great importance. As for our empirical study, we give illustrative examples on how different humor types can communicate ethical brand values,¹⁰ which, in turn, are part of corporate brand identity as identified by Urde.¹¹

Different humor types can be described as combinations relying on different mechanisms of processing what is seen as humorous. Based on Speck’s¹² depiction, Beard¹³ has summarized the ideas of various researches into a concise model of humor mechanisms, humorous ad types and relatedness. To begin with, there are three well acknowledged theories on the mechanisms that generate humor, and the humor types can be perceived as the results of one or more of these mechanisms.¹⁴ As shown in Figure 3.2.1, the model establishes five possible types of humorous ads as a result of the humor mechanisms working either alone or together.

When it comes to the mechanisms, the incongruity-resolution theory stipulates that humor is a result of a person confronting an incongruity between ideas or feelings and resolving that incongruity.¹⁵ Research results suggest that the feature of inconsistency or surprise is frequently present in advertisements in various countries.¹⁶ Another classical humor theory, the arousal–safety model, proposes that a situation may lead a person to perceive something to be humorous when that person experiences heightened arousal but evaluates this stimulus as safe or inconsequential.¹⁷ The subsequent laughter is seen as a way to release physiological or emotional tension and consequently, this can be regarded as a release or relief theory.¹⁸ Thirdly, the phenomenon of humor can be approached through disparagement theories, which have been called by other names such as superiority, hostility, aggression and derision theories.¹⁹ These theories rely on the idea that humor is a tool for criticism, censure and control,²⁰ and as such there is a winner and a loser in every humorous situation.²¹ All in all, these three mechanisms form the basis for the different humor types.

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Figure 3.2.1 provides an overview of the humorous advertisement types generated by the classical humor processing theories. Moreover, the figure involves examples of the humorous advertisement types taken from the present research material. When it comes to the practical implications, it appears that the comic wit type of humor—e.g. jokes, parody, double entendres, puns, humorous stereotypes and absurdity as well as comic exaggeration and understatement—is frequently used in advertisements.²² By contrast, the resonant humor advertisement type was found to be the least common type in US television advertisements.²³ This kind of humor can be embodied in a threatening situation of a minor kind resulting in a happy ending. In resonant humor there is no incongruity involved, whereas resonant wit results from a combination of incongruity—e.g. pun or exaggeration—and arousal–safety mechanisms. Together with disparagement, incongruity is also a humor mechanism contributing to the generation of satirical advertisement which often involves criticism or put down of someone. The use of satire in advertising is challenging since the disparagement may seem too harsh and therefore not funny to the consumer. As for the last type, full comedy, all three mechanisms play their part in generating such an advertisement. Just like satire, the full comedy type of advertisement encourages the consumer to adopt a critical view on someone or something, but unlike satire, the disparagement is in some way toned down.²⁵

In the study, we approach the narratives of the case company from the viewpoint of these five humor types, which have previously been employed mainly in advertising studies and traditional ads. We found the presented typology of humor types applicable to our study since narratives generated by the company and published in the social media represent new forms of digital advertising in the emerging digital content marketing context.

Ethical branding in SMEs’ digital content marketing

As names with power to influence,²⁶ brands are central to the creation of sustainable wealth.²⁷ Consequently, the building of such powerful brands is of great significance for companies. They are especially important for SMEs, even though, as suggested for example by Merrilees,²⁸ branding may be considered typical of big businesses while small business branding might be seen as unfeasible. The increasing amount of research focused on brand-building in SMEs²⁹ seems to indicate a change in this earlier approach of ignoring SMEs’ branding. Traditional marketing frameworks that apply to large enterprises may not be that useful for SMEs³⁰ which is primarily due to the inherent characteristics of SMEs, e.g. limited resources in terms of finance, time and marketing knowledge,³¹ elements which make them different from large businesses. Thus, further research into new angles related to SMEs’ branding is needed.

It is widely recognized that there are distinctive characteristics to SMEs and these features set them apart from large organizations.³² Firstly, the owner-manager is often deeply involved in the business,³³ which is reflected in the business by way of the owner-manager influencing branding and instilling their personality traits into the brand.³⁴ Owner-managers also tend to develop and utilize their networks in business, although there is a considerable variation in the extent of this network building.³⁵ When it comes to marketing, owner-managers of SMEs regard marketing as a means to create sales and to build customer relationships.³⁶ These are some of the aspects that have an effect on the brand-building of an SME and make it different from that of a large business.

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In consequence, the brand-building in SMEs differs greatly from that of large businesses; it seems that the building of SME brands involves minimum brand planning and limited resources. Instead, an innovative, experiment-oriented and resourceful approach is applied.³⁷ An innovative approach to brand-building among SMEs can be detected for example in the contexts of using humor for ethical branding and operating in a digital content marketing context. The digital content marketing as the relevant context of this study is presented next.

Facebook: an effective channel for digital content marketing

According to Holliman and Rowley,³⁸ digital content in marketing requires brands to take a “publishing” approach, and thus to adopt a cultural change from “selling” to “helping” customers. The emergence of various social media channels has enabled companies to take a more active role as publishers of their own messages. Communication in a B2C context has also become more interactive over the past decades.³⁹ These changes, in turn, require different marketing skills compared to traditional marketing. Rather, organizations and companies need to adopt an “inbound” approach⁴⁰ which involves the idea that customers actively seek out a brand because this particular brand provides them with relevant, engaging content. It is suggested that another aspect of being a content marketer is the need to take on and learn the role of a publisher. Peppers and Rogers⁴¹ identify four key elements of a content marketing strategy that could enhance trust: shared values (with the customer); interdependence (mutual value in the relationship); quality communication; and non-opportunistic behavior.

Social media has become an important part of an organization’s marketing communications and branding. One type of marketing traditionally used by SMEs is ‘Word of Mouth’ marketing, but it is now being replaced by ‘Word of Mouse’ and social media.⁴² There are plenty of social media channels available for the companies, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Blogs, Webpage, YouTube and Snapchat. Some companies, such as the case company, seem to be particularly active on Facebook, and for this reason the present study focuses on Facebook and the posts generated by the company on their own Facebook profile.

Values and relationships as key ethical elements of corporate brand identity

In effect, there are two approaches to the defining of a brand: outside-in and inside-out, respectively represented by the market- and brand-oriented paradigms proposed by Urde et al.⁴³ and Urde.⁴⁴ In our case study, the focus is on one particular brand and we take an essentially inside-out perspective as we are concentrating primarily on narratives constructed by the case company. The outside-in (i.e. market-oriented) approach would address a brand from, for example, a consumer’s perspective with a brand image as the key concept. Because here the viewpoint of the organization is of primary importance, brand identity is the key concept, and, in essence, we are referring to a corporate brand which contributes to corporate brand identity. Still, we are approaching the company from outside and, thus, inherently have an outsider’s view on what the company communicates.

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As for the definition of a corporate brand, various understandings can be found in the literature. For instance, it can be defined primarily by organizational associations,⁴⁵ or by additional values associated with a corporation.⁴⁶ According to Balmer,⁴⁷ a corporate brand has its basis in the corporate identity; yet, it lives in the minds of people. This view appears to incorporate the inside-out (i.e. corporate identity) and outside-in (i.e. market-orientation) perspectives of a brand depicted by Urde et al.⁴⁸ and Urde.⁴⁹ Furthermore, Gyrd-Jones et al.⁵⁰ have distilled the main dimensions of corporate brands into the concepts of image, identity and culture. Of these components, brand identity and the building of it through humorous narratives are the primary focus of this study. In particular, we explore the way that the corporate brand, with the focus on key ethical values, is presently manifested through humorous narratives of the case company on Facebook.

Corporate brand identity is constructed by many elements such as personality, vision, culture and mission. However, based on Urde,⁵¹ promise and core values are some of the central components of corporate brand identity. As shown in Figure 3.2.2, there are various other interrelated elements to the building of corporate brand identity.

In this study, we consider the aspects of core values and relationships to constitute some of the most relevant features behind corporate brand identity when operating in a digital content marketing context. The rationale behind this is that the key elements of content marketing strategy enhancing trust are based on shared values and interaction with customers.⁵² Moreover, with core values as the focal point, we suggest that ethical values form part of the potential core values of a corporate brand identity. In consequence, we make the connection of ethical branding to corporate brand identity.

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Ethical values

The underlying idea here is to study what kind of humor can be detected in the narratives and how the values of the case company are reflected in their use of humor. Hence, we are studying the way humor is used to promote brand-building in accordance with the expressed values of the company. The company owner has repeatedly expressed his aim to do the right thing,⁵⁴ which seems to relate to ethical behavior. Ethics, as described by Fan,⁵⁵ refers to moral principles according to which a person decides what is right or wrong; moreover, it needs to be recognized that ethical values vary between individuals and organizations. These are some implications of the wide range of ethical theories.

There are many theories about ethics ranging from normative to descriptive ethical theories. Within the framework of normative theories, one of the main types of non-consequentialist theories commonly applied to business ethics is the ethics of duty which is concerned with universally applicable rules or obligations.⁵⁶ In the field of non-consequentialist theories, Immanuel Kant is the most prominent figure, according to whom an individual should act in a way that would be possible for all people to act⁵⁷ without disrupting a stable civilization.⁵⁸ Kant also developed a theoretical framework from which the principles for ethical behavior can be derived.

Ethical branding is related to moral principles which make it possible to differentiate between right and wrong. In addition to economic or financial ones, a brand should also be evaluated based on moral criteria, and an ethical brand should contribute to the promotion of the public good. In the context of a corporate brand, ethical principles could include such attributes as honesty, integrity, diversity, quality, respect, responsibility, and accountability.⁵⁹ It appears these represent ethical aspects at a practical level, such as being honest, and therefore, they are some of the principles that the values expressed in the social media by the present case company will be reflected on. However, the analyzed narratives were approached with an open mind in case any other principles related to ethics could be detected.

Methodology

The methodology of the study is based on a qualitative case study approach which in this case, primarily for instrumental motivations,⁶⁰ is focused on the online brand-building of a case company. This study will contribute to the existing knowledge of the various ways of brand-building. An approach of this kind is considered applicable for studying the dynamics present in single settings,⁶¹ for example brand-building in webpages.⁶² Consequently, it is appropriate for studying the use of humor in the digital content marketing of an online shop, a phenomenon the dynamics of which is not much investigated in a single setting.

The case company is approached through their narratives about themselves and their operations. The word ‘narrative,’ as suggested by Riessman,⁶³ is regularly used synonymously with ‘story,’ which in oral storytelling is a structure with events in a sequence consequential for later action and for the meanings the teller wants the receiver to get from the story. She further explains that regardless of the differences, the one thing various definitions of a narrative have in common is the idea of contingent sequences, i.e. there needs to be a consequential linking of events or ideas. Brand stories, in line with Twitchell,⁶⁴ are commercial variants of storytelling, and they reduce complex ideas to the core of them. According to Shankar,⁶⁵ research indicates that the success of an organization is at least partly dependent on how well they narrate their story. In consequence, narratives can contribute either to the success or the failure of an entrepreneurial venture. Furthermore, these stories, for their part, are frequently used with the intention of conveying brand values.⁶⁶ In this study, we are interested in the successful use of humor in narratives in order to put forward the values of one business venture.

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In this study, we are analyzing narratives, and how humor and ethical values can be combined in brand narratives, i.e. how brand stories can be constructed and how they contribute to the formation of an ethical corporate brand. The empirical material for analyzing the ethical values and the humor types was gathered from the case company’s Facebook profile between September 15, 2015, and March 15, 2016. This is a snapshot of the posts but it is relevant for describing a period of time when the company has been active in digital content marketing. This case study also works as an illustrative example of the company and presents the current state of its brand in relation to values and humor.

Case: Varusteleka

Our case company, Varusteleka, is a Finnish army and outdoor store, an e-retailer which has become a phenomenon in Finland known for its rather unconventional, tailored and powerful use of humor in social media. The company appears to be one of the early adopters and developers of digital content marketing practices among online stores. Currently the company has been successful in forming an active brand community with about 85,000 likes by their followers on the Facebook page.⁶⁷ This social media marketing channel in particular seems to be effectively used for digital content marketing with plenty of information shared and exchanged between the company and its customers. The information range is wide, including product-related information, daily business activities and segments intended purely for the sake of entertainment.

The entrepreneur and the owner, Valtteri Lindholm, is also very active as content producer on Facebook. He was also awarded the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2015 by the Federation of Finnish Enterprises.⁶⁸ In the company, the founder and the staff are actually all active online, and they have created communities where they express their own ethical values. Humor can be seen in their products, product descriptions, website, social media and customer service. This type of communication differentiates the company from its competitors, and it also enables them to get their message through, including their ethical values.

The following examples provide an idea of how the company has established itself in the minds of Finnish consumers; simultaneously they demonstrate some of the values of the company. There was a product called ‘Wifebeater shirt.’⁶⁹ The idea however, was to promote and support The Association against Domestic Violence in a manner which can be described as unorthodox. Causing public turmoil with the use of unconventional humor is a way to generate discussion and increase the visibility of the company. Another example is the ‘Genocide beret’ which received a lot of publicity and provoked discussion, even negative, in social media.⁷⁰ Here the company aimed to criticize people who wore this beret and who were involved in the violence that erupted in Eastern Europe in the 1990s. The company has often humorously supported various significant themes in society such as the rights of sexual minorities. These previous examples could be seen as communication of ethical values which has been visible in the company’s previous efforts of brand-building.

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Research protocol

We have adopted a firm-centric approach, and the main focus is on firm-originated narratives⁷¹ rather than consumer stories, although we recognize the fact that when operating in a social media context, there is no longer any clear distinction between those who are creating and those who are consuming a brand. The stories comprising the research data were selected on the basis of certain criteria. Firstly, the narratives were constructed by the case company and they were concerned with the company. Secondly, elements related to humor and values could be detected in these narratives.

The progression of the analysis encompassed multiple phases. In the selection of the research material, we employed the relatively lose definition of a narrative by Riessman⁷² according to which a narrative contains contingent sequences. Based on the typology of humorous ads,⁷³ we then excluded narratives that did not contain any features of humor. Furthermore, we left out narratives with no signs of the Facebook post writer of the company expressing his or her views on what is right or wrong; these were specifically reflected on the ethical attributes suggested by Fan.⁷⁴ Still, we were open to other possible values being expressed but it appeared these ethical attributes quite comprehensively covered the values in the present data. We then adopted a thematic approach to determine the themes discussed in the narratives. In the end we looked for any specific features that would emerge from the analyses.

The Facebook posts were originally written in Finnish as the company is of Finnish origin. They were analyzed in their original language, but during the research process the relevant posts to illustrate the different humorous ad types were first chosen and then their contents were translated into English. The original posts employed features of spoken language, and in the translation process the aim was to preserve this characteristic.

Findings

We have analyzed narrative posts initiated by the case company on their Facebook profile. One of the posts included a link to the owner’s own blog and this was also analyzed since it represented a continuation of a topic discussed earlier on in the posts. Additionally, the aim of the company was to put an end to a heated discussion, and it seemed to work as intended as there were no further posts on the subject. In general, the posts were predominantly concerned with the operations and products of the company. The posts about products could be taken for marketing but in them, the company manifested their values in quite an original manner; thus, they were also included.

The number of relevant posts involving humor amounted to 46, which accounts for 30% of all the posts during the time period of the study. Some of the posts contained more than one type of humor; at most three different humor types could be discerned in one post. Moreover, some posts included more than one occurrence of similar humor type concerned with a somewhat different topic. As Table 3.2.1 demonstrates, all humor types could be found in the posts but they were in no way evenly represented in the material.

From the table it can be concluded that several posts were characterized by comic wit and satire types of humor. Other humor types figured less frequently. Resonant humor, in turn, was practically non-existent as there was only one occurrence of such. The table also contains further information on the content of the posts, which will be discussed next.

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Comic wit

There was far more comic wit type humor than any other types. The topics of the posts involving this type of humor were mostly concerned with products. There were a couple of other incidents that could be categorized as not directly being about the products; namely “Boobsgate” (explained later), company operations and some extra activities the company is involved in.

The posts about products included such themes as testing products, information about incoming products, customization of products, unavailability of products, Flea Market and Restaurant Day as well as a beer bar which they were going to open in their premises. Quite a few of the posts emphasized the quality of their products or services. They did this in various ways, such as by letting the reader know they test their products themselves and by telling that they are now offering products that people have asked for. They also strived to add credibility to their claims by providing information about favorable opinions of people outside the company. These included implying they had high-profile customers and providing a link to an article in a magazine which had tested some of their products. Apart from quality, other values conveyed through the humorous tone of product-related posts encompassed responsibility, accountability, honesty, respect and integrity. In the example below, a couple of the values are expressed simultaneously.

Example 1:

Jämä—Varusteleka’s own product family made in Finland out of recycled material! Army surplus is usually very good as such but there is also a lot of stuff that, for one reason (small sizes) or another (Soviet design), don’t sell although the materials are really good. We also have quite a pile of this unsold junk, and because we have educated people who can sew working for us, we made a couple of simple designs which we sew whenever we have time left over from other tasks.

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Our aim is to make this Jämä stuff extremely practical, durable and simple. Because real Finnish workforce is employed to sew these, every working minute is included in and can be traced to the price. [. . .] So, these are good, occasionally deformed stuff of which—classically—every item is an individual.

The passage above loses quite a bit in translation but the point here is that the Finnish word ‘jämä,’ which refers to leftovers, and the word ‘junk’ present a clear contrast to what the writer is actually saying. The company is basically explaining that these products are of high quality even though they are produced from leftovers provided by the armed forces. And even though the company does not emphasize it here, they are also acting in an eco-friendly way. They express this aim in other contexts.

‘Boobsgate’ was another topic which was quite thoroughly covered in February. The word ‘Boobsgate’ is a translation of the word they use in Finnish. This was an uproar created by one of their ads published on Facebook. In it they had a young woman having her naked breasts covered by hand warmers that the company sells. In their posts, the company and its owner in his own blog tried to convey their rationale behind the ad and their subsequent response on Facebook. They said their aim with the response was to have a reasonable conversation with the people who were offended by the ad. However, the whole thing spiraled out of control and quite a few comments by men ended up being hostile towards the women who had been offended by the ad. The company tried to calm down the heated conversation by, for example, acknowledging that the conversation had gone too far. In this context, they also tried to demonstrate consistency in their behavior and published a similar ad with a man posing in it.

The remaining two topics, company operations and extra activities, had various themes under them such as explaining their system of customer returns and giving information about the flea market they were about to organize. Of all the values, acting responsibly seemed to be related to these activities while quality as a value did not come up at all.

Resonant wit and resonant humor

Resonant wit and especially resonant humor were significantly less frequent than comic wit; ten posts contained features of the resonant wit type of humor while only one ad could be interpreted as having resonant humor with no characteristics of incongruity inherent in resonant wit. The topics of these posts were related to either company operations or products. Only one instance of a different type of topic could be detected, namely an announcement of the owner giving lectures on how they run their business.

The topics of company operations and company products were quite evenly represented among the type of humor discussed here. The one theme that dominated the Facebook posts about the company operations was that new computer software was to be implemented at the turn of January/February and the potential inconvenience caused by this to the customers. The company was quite open and honest about the consequences of this change, and they had even taken some measures to prepare for these problems as they had created a feedback form in advance for these instances. The company was also going to review its system of customer returns as well as its system of granting discounts to its customers. The idea seemed to be to make the system of customer returns more transparent, basically a positive change for the customers, but they planned to abolish the current way of allowing discounts which, they feared, would not please their regular customers. In these posts, they appeared to aim to act honestly and responsibly as they were frank about their intentions and explained their actions.

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In posts about the products, the company discussed the availability of products and Restaurant Day. The values conveyed through humor were especially concerned with responsibility and quality. During the Restaurant Day they demonstrated their green attitudes by offering food made of insects; they called the place “Bar of Bugs.” All in all, the values seemed to center around honesty and responsibility while quality of either products or service was, although occasionally present, not in focus here.

Satire

Posts with satirical humor were considerably fewer than posts with humor of the comic wit type, amounting to a total of thirteen posts. Still, it turned out that several posts involved more than one occurrence of satirical humor concerned with a different theme. The major topics of these posts encompassed company operations, “Boobsgate,” products and a few others.

Satirical comments were provoked by, for example, laws and customs regulations concerning their plans to provide Finnish customers with locally brewed beer. These comments were directed at what the company sees as unreasonably strict laws and regulations applied to the sale of beer in Finland. Still, at the same time they proclaimed their willingness to pay all the “taxes, duties and whatever” required by the Finnish law which they seem to consider to be a responsible way of acting. In addition, as they were attempting to find a partner for another company, they stressed the quality of this company’s products by stating the following:

Example 2:

So, tricot made IN FINLAND, sewn into a garment IN FINLAND. A tiny bit more than many other things accredited with the Key Flag Symbol. And funnily enough, we in Varusteleka really like this! [. . .] it’s really great that now we have found a factory that for real makes products of good quality from start to finish.

The Key Flag Symbol is a symbol indicating that the product is designed in Finland, and it is accredited by the Association for Finnish Work’s Design. Consequently, the company was suggesting that some other companies did not meet their high criteria of products being Finnish. Here we see disparagement of these other companies. Furthermore, simultaneously with highlighting the quality of the products, they were also saying it is a responsible act to buy domestic products in order to “leave the money from these products in Finland.”

Apart from company operations, products and a few unclassified topics, the satirical posts were about “Boobsgate,” an incident already mentioned in connection with comic wit type humor. This topic was approached with some type of humor in four of their Facebook posts. Satire was quite extensively employed in these posts, mainly directing disparagement at people who had reacted negatively towards either the original ad or women’s indignant comments on the ad. Facebook received its share of the satirical comments, as the original ad with the young woman was banned whereas a subsequent ad with a young man in similar circumstances was not. In several posts, the comments indicated that the company saw itself as acting coherently and being strong about what they believe to be the right behavior. This would suggest that the value they were trying to convey was integrity. Besides integrity, responsibility and honesty were also values detectable in their use of humor in this context.

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Full comedy

Full comedy involving all the three mechanisms generating humor were chiefly concerned with three topics: products, company operations and, once again, “Boobsgate.” In particular, new products were presented using full comedy to convey values such as respect for the customers’ wishes, quality of the company’s products and diversity. The last one was discernible in one post where customers were urged to participate in a competition the company was organizing. The competition involved customers taking pictures of themselves wearing the jeans produced by the company. In this context, women were especially encouraged to take part in the event as, compared with male customers, the company has considerably fewer female customers.

Full comedy was also used to convey respect for customers as the company wished to be honest about the problems they were having with their new online shop. Here they also used self-disparagement as they confessed to having made a mistake, in other words being “stupid.” They also assured that they have made sure that this will “never ever happen again.” Additionally, they employed full comedy to show integrity in “Boobsgate”; namely, someone had suggested that the problem is that the company did not have a similar ad aimed at women. They actually had this but recognized the fact that the same kind of ad does not work with women. In consequence, they challenged women to suggest what kind of steamy ad would work with women. The disparagement in all of these posts were softened in some way.

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Discussion

The purpose of our study has been to explore ethical branding with humor in SMEs’ digital content marketing. We approached the phenomenon through a case study of a Finnish online army store. This study creates some preliminary understanding about how ethical values can be communicated with humor on Facebook, which represents an ideal channel for digital content marketing. More fundamentally, we were able to determine how and what kind of humor the company employed in their social media (i.e. Facebook) communication.

As for the type of humor we found present in the Facebook posts, there are several interesting points. Firstly, incongruity is present in the vast majority of the posts, with only one exception in our research material. This is in line with the research results obtained by Alden et al.,⁷⁵ according to which most television ads contained incongruent contrast. Secondly, the most common (comic wit) and the least common (resonant humor) types of humor seem to comply with Speck’s⁷⁶ results. Otherwise the results seem to differ, as the second most common humor type in our material is satire whereas it was only number four in Speck’s material. It appears that the satirical kind of humor, generally more favored by men than women,⁷⁷ was quite prominently present in the case company’s communication. Harsh disparagement is said to be rare in advertising but a satirical tone and more aggressive style are becoming increasingly common.⁷⁸ In terms of the topics, it seems that with the exception of resonant humor, all the humor types were used to discuss the topics of products and company operations. In addition, “Boobsgate” was discussed using three humor types, namely comic wit, satire and full comedy.

We were also able to identify some core ethical values and conclude them to be part of the case company’s corporate brand identity (see Figure 3.2.2). Moreover, there are differences in the use of humor types in relation to these core values as well as to the topics. These results are quite clearly seen in Table 3.2.2.

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If we take a closer look at this three-dimensional table, we are able to discern that the primary values the company is conveying at the moment are quality and responsibility. Quality is most often conveyed through the comic wit type of humor and is related to the products while responsibility is far more diverse in both aspects, i.e. responsibility is expressed through quite a few types of humor and in contexts of several topics. A clear number three, honesty, appears to be equally varied in terms of humor types and topics. However, the number of posts is limited, and this also applies to the other values—i.e. integrity, respect, accountability and diversity—detectable in the material. The ethical brand of this company seems to integrate all seven of the ethical attributes that Fan⁷⁹ refers to regarding ethical branding. However, some of these seem to have a more prominent role in the brand identity than others. Figure 3.2.3 shows the values and humor types found in our material.

The Facebook posts referred to all the ethical attributes presented by Fan⁸⁰ and all the humor types introduced by Speck as well as Beard.⁸¹ The values as well as the humor types are included in Figure 3.2.3, and the more important or prominent ones are emphasized. As can be seen, responsibility and quality were the core values conveyed through humor. It is noteworthy that comic wit and satire were somewhat more common than other types of humor. Satire playing a significant role in the types of humor employed by the company is of special interest, and it might explain the perceived image of the case company. In consequence, the ethical brand of the case company is currently characterized by the company striving for responsibility and quality through the use of humor in its Facebook communication.

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Conclusions and managerial implications

The intended contribution of our chapter is based on our aim to examine, at a practical level, how organizations may deal with the complexities of humor; in particular, we concentrated on the potential of ethical branding through the use of humor in an SME’s digital content marketing. We approached the phenomenon through a case study of a Finnish online army store and applied the content analysis of narrative posts in a social media environment. As a conclusion, our contribution is to enrich the understanding about the role of humor in the contemporary discussion of ethical branding in the online environment. By providing an illustrative example of this, our contribution, we believe, is significant for both an academic audience and practitioners. We can learn a great deal from this unique emerging business practice and apply the knowledge in broader theoretical and practical contexts which are described in more detail next.

Apart from promoting the public good, ethical branding can give a competitive advantage for firms since consumers today are more conscious of ethical values.⁸² Our empirical case illustrates that, in their ethical branding, some companies have indeed adopted humor-related practices which have previously been discussed mainly by social movement activists.⁸³ However, an approach combining humor and ethical branding in a company’s brand-building has not been very prominently present in earlier literature and, hence, the objective of our study is to offer more insight into this research gap. All in all, our chapter aims to bring a new angle to the emerging discussion on ethical branding.

As a result of the present study, we introduce one framework to approach the way ethical values can be communicated with the help of humor by providing an illustrative example of an SME’s digital content marketing. This case seems to integrate all the ethical values Fan⁸⁴ refers to regarding an ethical brand. However, some of the values seem to have a more prominent role in the brand identity than others. Whether or not these are context-dependent findings should be confirmed in further research. However, this seems to be the present state of the case company’s ethical brand conveyed through the use of humor. This kind of unconventional branding is in line with the ideas presented by Centeno et al.⁸⁵ about SMEs’ branding being innovative, experiment-oriented and resourceful.

As for managerial implications, the presented framework involving the three aspects of humor types, ethical values and topic content may help managers in their digital content marketing efforts. For them, the framework offers a tool for evaluating and planning their ethical-based corporate communication. All in all, this study presents one potential way for owners/managers of SMEs with limited resources to develop and communicate their ethical values by unconventionally combining ethical values and humor in brand communication. Through our case study, we emphasize the fact that the significance of the use of humor in ethical digital marketing should not be ignored, and the present study makes a contribution to the discussion of SMEs’ branding by offering a new perspective to our understanding of this area.

Limitations and recommendations for further research

Our study has limitations some of which open up new, intriguing avenues for research. To start with, our focus has been on Facebook communication of a single case company. The case itself was unique and it offers a fruitful starting point for further research on SMEs’ use of humor to promote their ethical values in their digital content marketing. The empirical data of this unique company represent a snapshot of the phenomenon as it was limited in time (i.e. six months) and scope (i.e. Facebook). Consequently, a study on the development of the ethical brand over time in various social media contexts could be the next step.

Our study has limitations some of which open up new, intriguing avenues for research. To start with, our focus has been on Facebook communication of a single case company. The case itself was unique and it offers a fruitful starting point for further research on SMEs’ use of humor to promote their ethical values in their digital content marketing. The empirical data of this unique company represent a snapshot of the phenomenon as it was limited in time (i.e. six months) and scope (i.e. Facebook). Consequently, a study on the development of the ethical brand over time in various social media contexts could be the next step.

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Due to the case study nature, we would like to encourage researchers to conduct more case studies related to the topic of ethical branding with the help of humor. In addition to case studies, researchers could utilize and further develop our framework. In this way, we might deepen our understanding about the relationship between humor types and ethical values in digital content. The effectiveness of different humor types in communicating specific ethical values could also be tested experimentally in order to gain more insight into the effectiveness of the emerging communication practices of ethical branding.

As for the theories in this study, we selected ones that appeared to be most applicable in our context. For example, we used Balmer’s definition of a corporate brand as it relates well to the Urde’s model of the elements of a brand. As the primary goal in the study was to approach the brand from the viewpoint of brand identity (i.e. inside-out) the adopted model was appropriate in this context. Still, in further studies it would be possible to use Aaker’s⁸⁶ brand personality which takes more of a consumer perspective to a brand. Furthermore, we based our ethical theory on Kant as he is a prominent figure in the field of non-consequentialist theories frequently applied to business ethics. However, business ethics could be an area worthy of further research in general.

On the whole, our approach to the phenomenon of building an ethical brand through humor was company-centered. This view excluded the perspective of a customer as a relevant actor in a brand-building process. Co-creation involving customers is becoming a recognized way to build brands.⁸⁷ Nowadays, social media enable customers to participate in brand-building. Furthermore, the way shared values of a company and its customers might contribute to the effectiveness of humorous communication is an interesting topic. These aspects, certainly, would be beneficial ways to proceed with the research in future.

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82    Fan, op. cit.

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