Marketing Strategies and Persuasion Tactics in an Online Wildlife Marketplace

Online marketplaces connect humans on a global scale and are emerging as a critical market for the trade of animal species and products (Phassaraudomsak & Krishnasamy 2018). In particular, consumer-to-consumer trade through ‘buy and sell’ Facebook groups facilitates the opportunistic sale of wildlife by individuals with no formal links to traditional market supply chains. This format also allows users to develop a brand community by encouraging customer engagement behaviours such as ‘liking’ and ‘commenting’, and by using creative strategies that recognise the cognitive, behavioural and emotional responses which will motivate users to interact (Brodie et al. 2013; Tafesse & Wien 2018). Methods: Content analysis was conducted on the 50 most recent posts from ten prominent ‘buy and sell groups’ on Facebook. Posts were coded for media type, creative strategy and persuasion tactic, and the consumer engagement behaviours were quantified. ANOVA tests were then run in SPSS 25 to analyse patterns within the data. Results: Across the ten groups, we found that as advertising tactics became more overt, there was a significant decrease in engagement behaviours (p=0.022) and that while 94.2% of all posts used an ‘informational/functional’ creative strategy, there was a significant increase in engagement when posts used an ‘emotional’ strategy (p=0.016). These results suggest users are motivated by social cohesion and a distrust of those outside their local, online community. This inter-disciplinary study also demonstrates the application of marketing theory and analysis techniques to the study of wildlife trade and has provides recommendations for organisations seeking to implement demand reduction appeals in the region.