Branding, social media and internet marketing

Internet has dramatically changed how we live our lives and consumers have become active participators in branding. A majority of social media users use it partly to follow brands and the amount of companies that use social media was expected to increase to 88% in 2012. Barwise and Meehan (2010) argues that social media has increased the importance of good brand management. But Christodoulides (2011) argues brand managers cannot protect their brand in the same way as before. Instead, they have to become more of a host since the consumer also takes part in building the brand. Shall social media be seen as great branding opportunity, or is it just a possible threat that companies must manage as good as they can? The purpose of this paper is to discuss social medias impact on branding. It will contribute to the field by summarize relevant theories in the field. I will also provide examples of how companies have used social media.

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Facing Challenges & Making Opportunities : Branding through Social Media

 In this paper the author will focus on the major opportunities and challenges marketers are facing when branding through social media. With relevant concepts and with matching examples, the reader will get a good understanding what the opportunities and challengers are for marketers when branding through social media The purpose will therefore be fulfilled through relevant concepts and examples, which will be the base for the discussion later on. In the end the author will summarize the text with a conclusion

 

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Dolling Up Your Brand in Social Media

The paper discusses the importance of brand identity (Joachimsthaler & Aaker, 1997) in a social media setting, with the help of the improvisational theater metaphor (Singh & Sonnenburg, 2012). The latter has a great importance in understanding how consumers respond to stories and interactivity, thus leading to co-creation of the brand. A case study in the toy industry is featured to best exemplify the peculiar trait of the category where its audience tends to shift out of from childhood. Barbie and its reunited love campaign in 2011 showed how to be relevant to different target segments with the use of storytelling and digital interactivity. Some challenges and opportunities are discussed further for the toy industry and its widened target audience in the social media scene.

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Shifting paradigms, reconsidering the 4Ps of marketing

Brands are created by the interaction between the company and the customer and this has been the result of the internet creating the platforms that allow the customer to have their say. (Christodoulides, 2009; Deighton & Kornfeld, 2009) With this power shift, in terms of consumers now appearing to have greater power in the marketing relationship between consumers and companies, personalisation and customisation have become more prominent a feature of both marketing and product/service development (Winer, 2009). 

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Why do consumers and companies engage into the process of co-creating value?

The purpose of the paper is to illustrate how digital innovations in combination with the changing role of the consumer paved the way for consumers and companies to engage in the co-creation of joint value. Additionally it aims, to illustrate and discuss the advantages that both, the consumer and company gain when they engage into the co-creation of value. To achieve this purpose the paper shortly discusses, how digital innovations have enabled both parties to engage in the process of co-creation and how the role of the consumer has changed. Furthermore the term co-creation will be explained and the advantages of co-creating value for both participants will be theoretically analyzed and stated. As a final step two case studies, Nike Plus and Ducati, will be examined in order to illustrate the advantages for both the consumer and the company

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