Introducing COBRAs

Social media websites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter provide unlimited means for internet users to interact, express, share and create content about anything, including brands. Such consumers’ online brand-related activities (COBRAs) have significant consequences for firms. To effectively anticipate and direct these consequences, understanding people’s motivations to engage in brand-related social media use is imperative. This article makes a first effort to come to such an understanding. Instant messaging (IM) interviews were conducted with people engaged in COBRAs about their motivations to do so. Reporting motivations for the full spectrum of COBRA types (consuming, contributing and creating), the authors provide marketers and brand managers with valuable insights into consumer behaviour in a social media-dominated era.