Research Question:
“How online brand communication and customer engagement influence a consumer’s decision purchase.”
The marketing strategy of branding is not a new concept. A company’s brand is not a logo, or a tag line, but rather the relationship it has with its customer base, it is in essence not how a company defines itself – but how the public defines it. With every interaction and every customer touch point a business shapes its brand identity, and participants in this exchange are known as a brand community. Where the development and monetization of the internet have allowed businesses to expand into new forms of customer engagement, these types of online interactions can be the deciding factor in a consumer’s ultimate decision to purchase and/or become brand ambassadors. Through research on business’ social media strategies, cultivating online communities and curating content via corporate websites and paid advertising I hope to discover how this type of business to consumer communication supports and replacement to the in-person shopping experience. Additionally, how these types of communications weigh against a consumers ultimate decision to purchase, focusing how these online communications is utilized as a means to expand consumer brand interaction
To provide a rounded perspective, in addition to the eight required academic sources I selected supplemental, industry-based materials as a means of delivering a robust framework for strategies on brand loyalty and
Marketing has historically been defined by the four foundational elements of place or distribution, promotion, pricing and product. These four aspects of marketing have served the definition of this strategic area of business well over the last several decades marketing has existed as a discipline in business. Yet over time the 4Ps of marketing have given way to a more dynamic approach to creating and sustaining relationships with customers. The onslaught and en masse adoption of social media and social networks have led to an increasingly vocal and assertive customer base across both business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketplaces (Bernoff, Li, 2008). The 4 Ps are not agile and flexible enough to manage the many differences in customer relationships, the development of loyalty, and the mercurial change in how customers choose to learn and buy that has been accelerated by social networks. The greatest challenge for marketers today is to move beyond the relatively fixed and rigid of marketing from the past and embrace the future. The intent of this analysis is to compare two definitions of marketing from peer-reviewed research in addition to providing a personal definition. The critically important aspect of marketing from an organizational success standpoint is discussed as well, with three separate examples provided to further provide insight and illustration of how critical marketing is to
Social media has become an influential ground for consumers to share their opinions about a company’s brand and products. In addition, it helps in having a strong brand that produces positive relations and distinguish the brand from competitors, is a critical component for effective marketing. According to Dahlén and Lange (2009) “the quality of the product is not the evident factor when it comes to purchasing a product, the deciding factor depends on how the brand is perceived” (Para. 1). This demonstrates the importance of incorporating social media as a tool to promote brands, allow for interactions, and customer satisfaction by engaging with customers more frequently for feedbacks or reviews. Thus create an opportunity for the company to show its devotion to their customers, and initiate good reputation, which can increase sales. In other words, social media has the ability to upsurge the awareness for businesses as well as the brand.
In addition, developing brand relationship requires the company to build brand equity Keller (2014, pp. 365), generating value to the brand name through employing perceived
Using the multitude of resources the authors draw from, they study the results of a survey of several hundred companies using online marketing in order to determine the best practices for those advertising strategies. The authors ascertain that social media marketing is only as effective as the prevailing psychological factors in which social media works. These factors are inherent in human communication, not only on the internet, but in the real world as well. The authors state that there are communities of people using social media and that “these communities often thrive because the members primarily are drawn to one another. The importance of person-to-person affinity – and the ability to interact with these other humans – typically trumped the role of the sponsor’s goods or services or the presence of other features in the online communities.” (Moran 232) What the authors are saying is that social media is a new tool in order to bring similar consumers together and that if a company wants to be successful in social media marketing, they must concentrate on the human connection rather than their product or services.
The rise of social media has been a global phenomenon since internet giant Facebook began, with one in seven people having a Facebook account (Hennig-Thurau, Hofacker & Bloching 2013). This has had an impact on the marketing environment in several ways, with the two most notable being increased active participation and a strong level of networked interconnectedness (Hennig-Thurau, Hofacker & Bloching 2013). These two changes have shifted the power from the marketer to the consumer, as the regular consumer now has access to vast amounts of information and has the ability to amplify their opinion globally (Labrecque et al. 2013). For this reason, it may be argued that in the 21st century, marketing occurs among consumers, and is no longer purely
Social Media has changed the communication setting for all marketers. “Perhaps the greatest value of social media marketing is your ability to foster and engage with a community of people” (moz.com). An involved audience is one of the greatest resources a brand can have. There
Throughout the dissection there were many opportunities and weaknesses to uncover. Strong consumer loyalty is an important strength that can help increase word-of-mouth of the brand. Many people look for information for new brands online through websites, reviews,
Marketing goes beyond one-time buyers or brand recognition; it is about retaining a solid loyalty base. Historically, brands have centered loyalty programs around the point of purchase. However, through leveraging social media and other forms of user-generated content, loyalty programs can create more points of contact with the consumer. For retail brands, engagement-based loyalty can create several opportunities to interact directly with customers, rather than relying on their store-front locations; plus, pull more accurate data.
Devices, websites and social media platforms are all competing for the attention of online users and consumers. As a result, it can be a challenge to keep online consumers engaged because a dozen competitor websites are only a few clicks away. Therefore, companies should focus on creating and maintaining meaningful relationships with their online consumers.
Brand loyalty is the ‘Holy Grail’ to all marketing organizations. Marketing practitioners are consumed by it. They search. They try. They dream. They want to achieve the ultimate in brand loyalty, making it so airtight that no competition can lure their consumers from their brands of products. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fit-all methodology. Competition is dynamic. There’s no way to accurately anticipate what the creativity of their competitors can bring to the marketplace, which can lead to
Based on the behavior of people who are using various social media sites, studies show that they interact with one other in a trusting and communal way and this simply proves the strength of digital interaction and the power of connection. The main issue that the marketing people face is that consumers are no longer satisfied with traditional advertising as the main source of product information, hence social media serves as the solution to this dilemma as this has become a community wherein consumers share their own direct experiences with various brands,
In today’s business world, social media is being discussed on a daily basis. This phenomenon has taken over the marketing and advertising industries and has changed the way they handle their efforts to attract customers. There is a big misunderstanding that social media are only popular networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, social media are “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and micro blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos).” The rise of these online communities has given companies an opportunity to engage in conversations with their customers. This in
In recent years, social media has become the best available option for brands to communicate with prospective consumers. In other words, social media is an opportunity for brands to transcend the traditional middleman (Neti, 2011). One of the many positives is that companies can build their own brand communities easily on the social media. There are some obvious benefits of brand communities which are facilitating information sharing, spread the history and the culture of brands, providing help to customers, and positively influencing brand loyalty (Laroche, Habibi and Richard, 2013).
Brand Loyalty is a concept which has both attitudinal and behavioural components. Marketers are very concerned about brand loyalty. It is not simply about repurchasing. It consists of customer’s commitment towards the brand and consumption repeatedly whenever the need arises. In addition to that, customers might also act as advocates for the brand. Hence both the entities form a long lasting relationship. The success of any brand is dependent on its capability to attract customers. It is very critical for a brand to have a loyal set of customers who will stick with the brand always. Loyal customers are more likely to buy a brand than a customer who is not. This helps in generating a stable source of revenue. Sometimes brand loyalists engage in
There is no doubt that the customer is king because without customer, there is no business. Today, brand can easily attract or lose customers. With the increasing number of social platform and numbers of creating account, customers’ voices are raised among social media, web sites or forum. In fact, we can observe that, nowadays, customers don’t hesitate to question brands, to congratulate, to criticize and even to require that brand deliver them messages adapted to their profile and their interest. Particularly with