“You are what you own”, is something that Belk (1988) once argued for. 15 years later this argument does not sound that convincing anymore.
No one has probably missed out on the fact that sharing economy is a growing consumption trend in today’s society. Companies such as Netflix, Uber and Airbnb have in short time grown into business giants, and the number of companies that are capitalizing the trend of utilizing property-sharing is growing.
Read moreIn today´s business world, there are many options to finance a company or the development of a new product. Opposed to the traditional methods like equity financing, shareholder investment or debt financing, crowdfunding presents a more innovative and considerably different approach.
But first things first. What exactly is crowdfunding?
Read moreSharing economy, collaborative consumption, micropayment, open-source platforms, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer, barter economy, universal basic income, bitcoin, 3D printing, micro-trade… What is the current zeitgeist saying to marketers? Are we paying close attention?
Read moreHow airlines used social media to communicate to stakeholders during the crisis that followed the volcanic eruption.
Read moreUndoubtedly, Gamification has been one of the most important digital buzzwords in the past few years. It is an essential part of many successful websites and applications, it can skyrocket engagement rates to unprecedented levels and it is able to make people really love your brand. But why is gamification so incredibly powerful?
Read moreThere is a new phenomenon in China nowadays: Delivering Electronic-Red Envelope (E-Red Envelope) during festival days. The E-Red Envelope has already been popular for three years, and according to ‘China Internet Red Envelopes big data report’ released by think-tank of Tencent in 2016, almost all the "Get an E-Red Envelope" data published has reached a new peak of the history after the just past New Year holiday. On the day of the New Year's Eve, there were over 0.4 billion internet users participated in the ’Get a Red Envelope’ activity and the total amount of the Red Envelopes sent and received were over 10 billion. (He, 2016)
Read moreA study by Christodoulides (2009) illustrates that internet and technology have strongly affected on brandsphere. Brand managers role has changed from guardian to host and they have understood that one-side communication is not enough anymore and they should shift to many-to-many communication where consumers are allowed to communicate with the firm and other consumers. Christodoulides (2009) states that before the internet, brand manager used to act like control freak which is not feasible in online world. Today, branding is about creating relationships, interaction and generating better value to the customers. Building and sharing user generated content should be facilitated by companies because it has a powerful impact on building and improving relationship amongst brands, consumers and brand communities. Internet has also offered new opportunities for companies as they can benefit from personalization and customization for instance in case of NikeID.com, where consumer can design trainers themselves from a variety of options.
Read moreBlogging has grown to a trendy phenomenon during the past decade. According to Kietzmann, Hermkens and McCarthy (2011) blogs were introduced to the public in the late 90s and ever since blogs’ popularity has grown. Nowadays the Internet holds more than 100 million blogs and there are even own Internet search engines devoted to them (Kietzmann, Hermkens & McCarthy, 2011). Therefore consumer blogs hold a great potential for marketers, advertisers and many more. Gummerus, Liljander and Söderlund (2015) point out how cynicism against ordinary advertising has risen. This has stressed the need for companies to find other ways to reach their customers (Gummerus, Liljander & Söderlund, 2015). It is said that the way marketing is done, is changing because social network marketing has affected the scene in a larger scale. These days consumers want more interaction, not one way monologue coming from the marketer...
Read moreThere has been a removal of the social stigma surrounding the use of online dating in recent years. So much so, that Slater (2013) even talks about how the social norms around meeting and dating have been completely redefined in the last couple of years so that dating is inextricably linked with technology and the Internet. Traditionally, online dating was meant for a customer base whose needs were not being sufficiently met under traditional matchmaking methods (Smith, 2005) and perhaps this gives us an insight into why there have been a stigma linked with having a profile on a dating website until a couple of years ago.
Read morehe constantly growing number of social media platforms enable the growth and progression of online celebrities. With the assistance and accessibility of social media websites people have the freedom to verbalize, illustrate and communicate their views on various matters. From anonymous information-seekers, through virtual community experts to online influencers, people become heard and more powerful. Thanks to regular participation in a co-creation process, many social media users manage to build their own fandom and decide to share with others their personal experience and knowledge, in the end becoming digital influencers or even online celebrities.
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