To study the growth of brand awareness t

To study the growth of brand awareness through social media marketing and understand the latest trends associated Ms.. This study helps to analyze the brand equity of the company‘s prod

To study the growth of brand awareness through social media marketing and understand the latest trends associated

Ms Mansi Kapoor

Assistant Professor, Delhi College of Arts and Commerce,

University of Delhi, Delhi, India (email) mansikapoor85@gmail.com

Ms Suman Si

Assistant Professor, PGDAV, University of Delhi, Delhi, India (email) si_suman@yahoo.co.in

ABSTRACT

We all know that online marketing is the most cost effective and result-oriented medium of marketing today Considering this fact, Social media allows customers and prospects to communicate directly to the brand irrespective of the fact where the consumers are located It‘s a

fact that social media is the easiest to justify in terms of ROI as compared to other marketing

strategies It‘s not just individuals that are populating social media platforms like Facebook,

Twitter – companies, products and even bands are realizing these mediums are an excellent way

to gain exposure over a vast audience

This study is based on primary research where one can understand the extent to which the medium has helped to increase the brand awareness amongst consumers and enhance publicity, thereby creating a competitive advantage This study helps to analyze the brand equity of the

company‘s product The second study will help to provide an insight on the current trends in

social media marketing, how companies are trying to adapt to it, the extent of its popularity, the adoption pattern and the way of implementation This trend is contributive of various factors

like the need to stay connected, access and transfer of information, seizing various opportunities etc which has made these social sites increasingly popular

Keywords: brand awareness, social media marketing, communication

INTRODUCTION

Social media marketing is a recent addition to organization‘s Integrated Marketing

Communication (IMC) plans IMC is a principle that organizations follow to connect with their targeted markets Social media marketing is happening all around us Several websites are using social media marketing solutions to promote, broadcast, and advertise their products and services

to millions of online users Practically everybody in the web world is using social media solutions in some way or the other, either directly or indirectly Employed by huge number of diverse businesses, online media solutions have become the natural method for promotion of websites Be it a social networking site or job network or your email account, you will find some sort of links and referral texts Yes, that is happening all under the social media marketing solutions strategy

The fact is that, attention span of the internet users is getting shorter and shorter by which companies are constantly trying to devise new methods to instantly create an awareness about their respective businesses With the help of online marketing solutions, firms are successfully promoting their products and services There are various components of Social Media Marketing (SMM) solutions The list must begin with blogs which is a great traffic source Popularly employed by businesses, it is a very effective method of marketing the services being offered by the firm

Social networking sites have proved to be instrumental in giving SMM the aura that it commands now days Features like applications, fan pages, groups and communities etc are great platforms for promoting the business and interacting with consumer groups These options also help in creating awareness and connecting with the user base Micro blogging has literally taken social media marketing to a different level altogether Arrival of Twitter took the online business world

by storm It is a great tool for business promotion & placing your views in public Launching of another micro blogging platform, Buzz has only made advertisers spoilt for choices

Popular social bookmarking sites like Delicious, StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit etc have provided net users the option of sharing, organizing, searching and managing their favorite websites Realizing the importance of bookmarking sites, digital marketing agencies have already coined them as next wave of online advertising Many businesses have made hay using online video sites like YouTube and Vimeo These video sites are great source of online traffic

Social media marketing solutions also use photo sharing sites and podcasting along with presentation sharing websites and discussion boards and forums Some of the other features that will have a say on the future of social media marketing are content aggregation, brand monitoring sites, widgets and review sites

OBJECTIVES

1 To understand the relevance of social media marketing in today‘s competitive

environment

2 To understand the recent trends and scope and how it helps optimize brand

awareness

3 To analyze the strategies of famous players who are promoting through social media

marketing by analyzing the case of Homeshop 18, Burger King and Coke Vs Pepsi

LITERATURE REVIEW

Some companies are beginning to take notice of the power of social media A few corporate social networking websites already allow consumers to not only exchange information about products or services, but also engage in co-creating value in online experiences with offline outcomes, with both current and potential consumers

In recent years, social networking sites and social media have increased in popularity, at a global level For instance, Facebook is said to have more than 1.19 billion active users (as of 2013)

networks of friends for social or professional interactions (Trusov, Bucklin, & Pauwels, 2009) Indeed, online social networks have profoundly changed the propagation of information by making it incredibly easy to share and digest information on the internet (Akrimi & Khemakhem, 2012)

The unique aspects of social media and its immense popularity have revolutionized marketing practices such as advertising and promotion (Hanna, Rohm, & Crittenden, 2011) Social media has also influenced consumer behavior from information acquisition to post-purchase behavior such as dissatisfaction statements or behaviors (Mangold & Faulds, 2009) and patterns of Internet usage (Ross et al., 2009; Laroche et al., 2012)

Social media is ‗‗a group of internet based applications that builds on the ideological and

technological foundations of Web 2.0, and it allows the creation and exchange of user-generated

content‘‘ (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, p.61) Social media has many advantages as it helps

connect businesses to consumers, develop relationships and foster those relationships in a timely manner and at a low cost as Kaplan and Haenlein discovered (2010) Other functions of social media involve affecting and influencing perceptions, attitudes and end behavior (Williams & Cothrell, 2000), while bringing together different like-minded people (Hagel & Armstrong, 1997)

The much higher level of efficiency of social media compared to other traditional communication channels prompted industry leaders to state that companies must participate in Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and others, in order to succeed in online environments (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010; Laroche et.al 2012) Thus, more industries try to benefit from social media as they can be used to develop strategy, accept their roles in managing others‘ strategy or follow others‘ directions (Williams & Williams, 2008)

Social media websites provide an opportunity for companies to engage and interact with potential and current consumers, to encourage an increased sense of intimacy of the customer relationship, and build all important meaningful relationships with consumers (Mersey,

Malthouse, & Calder 2010) especially in today‘s business environment when consumer loyalty

can vanish at the smallest mistake, which can additionally have online propagation of their unfortunate encounter with a particular product, service, brand or company

With groups, lists and niche networks becoming more popular, networks could begin to feel more "exclusive." Not everyone can fit on someone's newly created Twitter list and as networks begin to fill with noise, it's likely that user behavior such as "hiding" the hyperactive updaters that appear in your Facebook news feed may become more common Perhaps it's not actually less social, but it might seem that way as we all come to terms with getting value out of our networks — while filtering out the clutter

There are relatively few big companies that have scaled social initiatives beyond one-off marketing or communications initiatives Best Buy's Twelpforce leverages hundreds of employees who provide customer support on Twitter The employees are managed through a custom built system that keeps track of whosoever participates This is a sign of digital storm to come over the next year as more companies look to uncover their cost savings or serve customers

more effectively through leveraging social technology

Relatively new networks such as Foursquare are touted for focus on making networked activity local and mobile However, it also has a game-like quality to it which brings out the competitor

in the user Participants are incentivized and rewarded through higher participation levels And push technology is there to remind you that your friends are one step away from stealing your coveted "mayor ship." As businesses look to incentivize activity within their internal or external networks, they may include carrots that encourage a bit of friendly competition

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This study is based on exploratory research The aim is to look for patterns, ideas rather than testing or confirming In exploratory research the focus is on gaining insights and familiarity with the subject area for more rigorous investigation So the focus of the study is to explore the trends prevalent in social media marketing, the consumer response and what is the perspective of the brands of this marketing tool The first primary research has been done to check consumer response of social media marketing The second research has been done to check the activeness and trends of major brand using social media marketing

For the first research, first part of the questionnaire contains information regarding demographics and usage pattern of social media of the respondents A sample size of 180 respondents from Delhi/NCR has been taken who have been using the internet on a frequent basis as the inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria being anyone who is not a frequent internet user Judgment sampling has been made on the population of people who frequently use internet and are exposed

to social media marketing A well structured questionnaire was circulated to frequent online users to check the visibility of the marketing initiative This study is conducted to check the role that social media marketing plays for consumers It will help to identify what all factors are responsible for making it such a huge success and to understand the visibility of the tool amongst the consumers

For the second research, a sample size of four major brands has been taken into account Judgment sampling has been done of the companies involved or interested in social media marketing campaigns The data has been collected through a structured questionnaire and interview as judgment sampling of major corporate of various brands to check the techniques applied by them towards social media marketing This study is conducted to get an insight on the strategies being conducted by major businesses towards this form of marketing and to analyze the perceived advantages towards this approach, and other useful insights

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

To check the influence of social media marketing on consumers, to see the visibility and acceptability of the tool amongst consumers:

(1) How often you make use of Internet?

(2) What extent of knowledge do you have about Social Networking?

(3) What are the different sites for Social Networking you are active on?

(4) Has the information received about products on various social-networking sites ever persuaded you to buy the product?

64%

36%

YES NO

Does the information from social networking sites change your perception about the product?

(6) Which social media tool has maximum visibility to you?

(7) What is the most major tool to create brand awareness today?

44%

9%

47%

YES NO MAYBE

(8) Have you ever purchased a product influenced by social networking sites?

(9) How long have you been using social networking sites?

(10) How much time you dedicate to social networking site in a day?

52%

NO

(11) How often you recommend a product/service after watching its reviews on such sites?

(12) Do you think promotional activities through social media helps to create a brand

awareness of a company‘s product/service?

Source: Field survey, 2014

ANALYSIS ON HOMESHOP 18

31%

44%

11%

14%

Rarely Frequently Very Frequently Never

5%

20%

75%

No May be Yes

The company is a blend of a retail, media, BPO and logistics company As a start up, it has strongly used social media marketing as a tool for its promotion The following mediums have been analyzed in this study

Facebook:

The campaign is used generally to increase interactivity and increase brand awareness amongst the target audience Example: Valentine‘s Day promotion included the best idea generation by a

consumer on home shop facebook page to have a free Gift coupon worth 300 for Valentine‘s

Day The motive was to increase brand awareness and interaction with customers

Twitter:

The campaign is used mostly for viral marketing To provide updates on products and services

offered to keep customers updated on a regular basis and to create brand awareness

Blogs: To create awareness on the major and supreme happenings about the company and

welcome individual opinions

YouTube: To create awareness and specifications on the products, brands, services available on

home shop 18 There are regular uploads of the TV videos on their YouTube channel to increase the visibility of their upcoming products a s a part of their promotional activity

Customer feedback: to get an understanding of the customer problems and amend them to

create goodwill among customers

By using the above social media marketing tools, the company has benefitted from a large product base which can cater to a wide spread customers, a much wider reach to market, increased brand recall for a startup & intends to target the youth and tech savvy audience to increase sales

BURGER KING

BKC’s New Marketing Strategy