A generational investigation and sentiment and emotion analyses of female fashion brand users on Instagram in Sub-Saharan Africa

Renewed interest in gender-sensitive studies focussing on fashion brands marketing communications across diverse cultures and generational cohorts of consumers has heightened the need for uniqueness when developing marketing strategies for fashion brands in both domestic and international markets. Following that, we surveyed 1,329 Sub-Saharan African female Instagram users to investigate the mediating role of consumer satisfaction concerning the relationships between perceived usefulness, enjoyment and intentions to follow and recommend brands’ Instagram accounts and their invariance across three generations. We tested hypotheses using the Partial-Least-Squares Structural Equation Modelling and conducted emotion and sentiment analyses. We found that satisfaction fully translates the positivity of usefulness and enjoyments into higher intention to follow and recommend amongst the female Instagram users surveyed. Usefulness effects on satisfaction are more intense amongst Generation X. However, Generation Z developed a stronger intention to follow. Generations Y and Z are more likely to recommend than Generation X based on a positive experience. Satisfaction is a stronger transmitter of usefulness indirect effects onto following intentions amongst Generation X than its descendants who express intention to recommend due to indirect enjoyment effects conveyed via satisfaction. Finally, sentiment and emotion analyses of the users’ comments were reported using a natural language-processing method. Graphic abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].