Brand-Neutral Content Marketing and Endogenous Search Prominence

Brand-neutral content marketing attracts consumers by addressing category-level needs without directly promoting the brand. Although this may position a firm as consumers’ first point of inquiry, it leaves consumers only partially informed about brand fit. Rivals can exploit this gap by providing brand-specific information. Using a game-theoretic framework, we examine when content marketing generates endogenous search prominence and how the resulting search dynamics shape competitive communication strategies. We show that content marketing can provide a counterintuitive competitive edge: by shaping the information structure of consumer search, it influences rival pricing incentives, giving rise to asymmetric communication equilibria sustained by an information–exploitation tradeoff that governs profit allocation between the prominent gatekeeper and the non-prominent follower. When prices cannot be credibly committed, exploitation permanently dominates and content marketing becomes the unique equilibrium strategy. Brand strength and appeal breadth further determine which firm adopts content marketing.