Brand Integration with Social Media
The heavy growth of social media platforms over the last few years has raised the question of whether this development has diminished the marketer’s control of brand management with such dominant user generated content congesting social media sites. Since social media offers an opportunity for consumers to talk to hundreds or even thousands of other consumers around the world, companies are no longer the sole source of brand communication, posing a challenge to marketers, as to how they will deliver and communicate their marketing message. Social media platforms are slowly developing into forms of virtual communities, “mediated social spaces in the digital environment that allow groups to form and be sustained primarily through ongoing communication processes,” an uncontrollable factor in the external environment the marketer does not possess any manipulation over.
The use of social media among Fortune 500 companies surged in 2012, with many companies adopting innovative ways to engage with users through new social media marketing tactics. According to a study conducted by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, as many as 73% of these companies now have an official corporate account on Twitter, while 66% have a corporate Facebook page. This increase is indicative of a long-term trend toward social media use among corporations (as well as individual brands) becoming the norm. Essentially, it is morally frowned upon if a large corporation within b2c markets have failed to present themselves on social media sites which are most popular amongst their target market.
Social media plays a significant role in improving the brand equity by increasing the probability that a brand will be incorporated in the consumer’s mindset, simplifying the consumer’s brand choice and turning that choice into a habit. Brand awareness signifies the existence of a brand in a consumer’s memory and therefore indicates how well a consumer will recall or recognize that brand. A brand image signifies the consumer’s associations linked to a brand, consequently determining a consumers positive or negative interpretations of a specific brand, which can be manipulated by the successful implementation of engaging with social media content. Social media is the perfect platform to boost a business’s brand equity amongst stakeholders, as long as they can successfully communicate with them and provide content that they want to engage with.
With the evolution and development of social media and brands’ increasing their presence within social media, it is vital brands encourage a positive marketing message communicated to their stakeholders across all relevant (i.e.; applicable to whichever social media platform appeals to a specific target audience) social media platforms. As a result, consumers may respond by promoting their favoured brands by posting positive comments on the brands’ Facebook pages and Twitter or uploading video clips to YouTube in the form of a product review. However at the same time, social media can elicit a negative association between brands and consumers who may use brands’ social media page as a complaint forum. This negative or positive response from users has the potential to go viral, with more cases likely to go viral with a negative response with many popular examples being United Breaks Guitar, Body form’s response and many more.
According to the theory of reasoned action, the ambiguity of the effect of user-generated social media communication on brand awareness has to be taken into account. As both positive and negative user interactions communicated on social media platforms increase brand awareness, it contributes to indirect effects on brand attitude, such as consumers’ brand awareness which is increased due to negative user-generated content, which should consequently have a negative indirect effect through brand awareness on brand attitude and that due to positive user-generated content, it should have a positive indirect effect on brand attitude, arguing that certain social media communication from brands, results in certain responses and associations related from the consumer depending on his/her experience with a particular brand. Previous associations users may uphold prior to viewing a brands social media page may consequently affect their attitudes to the brands social media page; however social media offers an opportunity to change stakeholder’s impression of their brand. Social media can consequently act as a digital ambassador for a brand which can change these brand associations upheld by stakeholders.
However this ambiguous conclusion of user-generated social media communication on brand awareness, describes the overall effect of brand awareness on brand attitude as a positive effect on the user. This interpretation can be concluded on the assumption that the impact originating from traditional media and firm-generated social media communication on brand awareness can be expected to result in a positive awareness due to the initial engagement committed by the user.
We must not forget that in essence, social media is content that is created by the audience and in order for brands to successfully communicate themselves to their desired target audience on their brand pages, it is important to create content that is consequently elaborated on by the target audience, promoting engaging content that is enticing for the user to commit to engage with, offering a snow ball effect, somewhat of an altruistic approach to marketing and an eventual bystander effect on social media user behaviour.
It is this content brands must be sure to integrate along with their social media campaign and their marketing communication specifically appropriate to the market segmentation and specific target market, which has proved more difficult for brands in recent times but nevertheless the rewards have surpassed expectations.
Compared to traditional media where users absorb content passively, social media provides content for a community through active participation. This consumer generated content creates a virtual community that has shaped the influence of knowledge and opinions of their fellow users. Consequently supporting evidence from previous research demonstrating that consumers prefer recommendations from fellow users, compared to professional reviews by critics as they can relate to fellow users that they are connected to through social media for a reason compared to professional critics.
Essentially social media can serve as a form of brand evaluation where consumers evaluate the quality of a product or service by referring to other consumers’ reviews specifically on a brands social media page, through various consumer-generated content (in the form of status updates, videos, photos, hash tags, etc), before making an actual purchase, consequently reducing uncertainty and acting as a far greater channel then a marketing tool for the business, brand integration through social media can thus provide a foundation of mutual communication between buyer and seller, which subsequently surpasses the aims and objectives of a marketing campaign and delivers more of an overall business approach between communication with stakeholders.
Consumers’ brand attitude predicts their behaviours of interest towards their favourite brands including brand consideration, intention to purchase, purchase behaviour and brand choice. Thus, brand attitude is a crucial brand equity driver in brand management which can determine customers purchase decision making.
A recent study by Bruhn et al. (2012) shows that both traditional media communications and social media communications have a significant impact on brand equity, emphasising the importance of integrating a brands marketing message with the relevant social media channels required to reach the desired target audience. While they argued traditional media may have a stronger impact on brand awareness, social media communications strongly influence brand image. Individual brands own social media communication is shown to have an important impact on their overall brand image; however user-generated social media communication contributes to a more convincing influence over a company’s brand equity, as it acts as a form of word of mouth marketing. As companies are seeing their brand marketing power dissolved by users on social media, it possess a greater importance for a brand to integrate their brand equity, company culture, social responsibility and other important business traits across various social media channels to better communicate amongst all stakeholders.
#TheFutureOfMarketing
By Chris Kyriacou
The use of social media among Fortune 500 companies surged in 2012, with many companies adopting innovative ways to engage with users through new social media marketing tactics. According to a study conducted by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, as many as 73% of these companies now have an official corporate account on Twitter, while 66% have a corporate Facebook page. This increase is indicative of a long-term trend toward social media use among corporations (as well as individual brands) becoming the norm. Essentially, it is morally frowned upon if a large corporation within b2c markets have failed to present themselves on social media sites which are most popular amongst their target market.
Social media plays a significant role in improving the brand equity by increasing the probability that a brand will be incorporated in the consumer’s mindset, simplifying the consumer’s brand choice and turning that choice into a habit. Brand awareness signifies the existence of a brand in a consumer’s memory and therefore indicates how well a consumer will recall or recognize that brand. A brand image signifies the consumer’s associations linked to a brand, consequently determining a consumers positive or negative interpretations of a specific brand, which can be manipulated by the successful implementation of engaging with social media content. Social media is the perfect platform to boost a business’s brand equity amongst stakeholders, as long as they can successfully communicate with them and provide content that they want to engage with.
With the evolution and development of social media and brands’ increasing their presence within social media, it is vital brands encourage a positive marketing message communicated to their stakeholders across all relevant (i.e.; applicable to whichever social media platform appeals to a specific target audience) social media platforms. As a result, consumers may respond by promoting their favoured brands by posting positive comments on the brands’ Facebook pages and Twitter or uploading video clips to YouTube in the form of a product review. However at the same time, social media can elicit a negative association between brands and consumers who may use brands’ social media page as a complaint forum. This negative or positive response from users has the potential to go viral, with more cases likely to go viral with a negative response with many popular examples being United Breaks Guitar, Body form’s response and many more.
According to the theory of reasoned action, the ambiguity of the effect of user-generated social media communication on brand awareness has to be taken into account. As both positive and negative user interactions communicated on social media platforms increase brand awareness, it contributes to indirect effects on brand attitude, such as consumers’ brand awareness which is increased due to negative user-generated content, which should consequently have a negative indirect effect through brand awareness on brand attitude and that due to positive user-generated content, it should have a positive indirect effect on brand attitude, arguing that certain social media communication from brands, results in certain responses and associations related from the consumer depending on his/her experience with a particular brand. Previous associations users may uphold prior to viewing a brands social media page may consequently affect their attitudes to the brands social media page; however social media offers an opportunity to change stakeholder’s impression of their brand. Social media can consequently act as a digital ambassador for a brand which can change these brand associations upheld by stakeholders.
However this ambiguous conclusion of user-generated social media communication on brand awareness, describes the overall effect of brand awareness on brand attitude as a positive effect on the user. This interpretation can be concluded on the assumption that the impact originating from traditional media and firm-generated social media communication on brand awareness can be expected to result in a positive awareness due to the initial engagement committed by the user.
We must not forget that in essence, social media is content that is created by the audience and in order for brands to successfully communicate themselves to their desired target audience on their brand pages, it is important to create content that is consequently elaborated on by the target audience, promoting engaging content that is enticing for the user to commit to engage with, offering a snow ball effect, somewhat of an altruistic approach to marketing and an eventual bystander effect on social media user behaviour.
It is this content brands must be sure to integrate along with their social media campaign and their marketing communication specifically appropriate to the market segmentation and specific target market, which has proved more difficult for brands in recent times but nevertheless the rewards have surpassed expectations.
Compared to traditional media where users absorb content passively, social media provides content for a community through active participation. This consumer generated content creates a virtual community that has shaped the influence of knowledge and opinions of their fellow users. Consequently supporting evidence from previous research demonstrating that consumers prefer recommendations from fellow users, compared to professional reviews by critics as they can relate to fellow users that they are connected to through social media for a reason compared to professional critics.
Essentially social media can serve as a form of brand evaluation where consumers evaluate the quality of a product or service by referring to other consumers’ reviews specifically on a brands social media page, through various consumer-generated content (in the form of status updates, videos, photos, hash tags, etc), before making an actual purchase, consequently reducing uncertainty and acting as a far greater channel then a marketing tool for the business, brand integration through social media can thus provide a foundation of mutual communication between buyer and seller, which subsequently surpasses the aims and objectives of a marketing campaign and delivers more of an overall business approach between communication with stakeholders.
Consumers’ brand attitude predicts their behaviours of interest towards their favourite brands including brand consideration, intention to purchase, purchase behaviour and brand choice. Thus, brand attitude is a crucial brand equity driver in brand management which can determine customers purchase decision making.
A recent study by Bruhn et al. (2012) shows that both traditional media communications and social media communications have a significant impact on brand equity, emphasising the importance of integrating a brands marketing message with the relevant social media channels required to reach the desired target audience. While they argued traditional media may have a stronger impact on brand awareness, social media communications strongly influence brand image. Individual brands own social media communication is shown to have an important impact on their overall brand image; however user-generated social media communication contributes to a more convincing influence over a company’s brand equity, as it acts as a form of word of mouth marketing. As companies are seeing their brand marketing power dissolved by users on social media, it possess a greater importance for a brand to integrate their brand equity, company culture, social responsibility and other important business traits across various social media channels to better communicate amongst all stakeholders.
#TheFutureOfMarketing
By Chris Kyriacou