To study the growth of brand awareness t

IRJMSH Volume Issue online ISSN 2277 – 9809 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 International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity http:www.irjmsh.com Page 71 IRJMSH Volume Issue online ISSN 2277 – 9809 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 International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity http:www.irjmsh.com Page 72 Volume Issue IRJMSH online ISSN 2277 – 9809 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 To understand the relevance of social media marketing in today‘s competitive environment To understand the recent trends and scope and how it helps optimize brand awareness 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) since its beginning in 2004 (www.facebook.com) Social networking sites can be described as International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity http:www.irjmsh.com Page 73 IRJMSH Volume Issue online ISSN 2277 – 9809 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 International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity http:www.irjmsh.com Page 74 IRJMSH Volume Issue online ISSN 2277 – 9809 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 International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity http:www.irjmsh.com Page 75 IRJMSH Volume Issue online ISSN 2277 – 9809 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? International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity http:www.irjmsh.com Page 76 IRJMSH Volume Issue online ISSN 2277 – 9809 (2) What extent of knowledge you have about Social Networking? (3) What are the different sites for Social Networking you are active on? International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity http:www.irjmsh.com Page 77 Volume Issue IRJMSH online ISSN 2277 – 9809 (4) Has the information received about products on various social-networking sites ever persuaded you to buy the product? 36% YES NO 64% International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity http:www.irjmsh.com Page 78 Volume Issue IRJMSH online ISSN 2277 – 9809 Does the information from social networking sites change your perception about the product? 44% 47% YES NO MAYBE 9% (6) Which social media tool has maximum visibility to you? (7) What is the most major tool to create brand awareness today? International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity http:www.irjmsh.com Page 79 Volume Issue IRJMSH online ISSN 2277 – 9809 (8) Have you ever purchased a product influenced by social networking sites? YES 48% 52% NO (9) How long have you been using social networking sites? (10) How much time you dedicate to social networking site in a day? International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity http:www.irjmsh.com Page 80 Volume Issue IRJMSH (11) online ISSN 2277 – 9809 How often you recommend a product/service after watching its reviews on such sites? 14% 31% 11% Rarely Frequently Very Frequently Never 44% (12) Do you think promotional activities through social media helps to create a brand awareness of a company‘s product/service? 5% 20% No May be 75% Yes Source: Field survey, 2014 ANALYSIS ON HOMESHOP 18 International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity http:www.irjmsh.com Page 81 IRJMSH Volume Issue online ISSN 2277 – 9809 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 International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity http:www.irjmsh.com Page 82 IRJMSH Volume Issue online ISSN 2277 – 9809 In an attempt to rebound from its poor performance, they made a number of strategic and tactical changes based on social media marketing BKC has become widely known for its innovative approaches to building the Burger King brand and using new media The company had launched a series of non-traditional campaigns that had re-established social relevance to the Burger King brand Its Subservient Chicken campaign was lauded in the press as one of the most creative viral marketing campaigns of all time and Crispin Porter + Bogusky also known as CP+B (an advertising agency) continued to receive acclaim for the work it was doing on behalf of BKC The Burger King MySpace pages had many thousands of friends The whooper burger campaign was also one of the most successful campaigns of promotion through social media marketing The Subservient Chicken campaign was quickly proclaimed a success, based on critical acclaim from advertising critics as well as significant traffic to the website By April 15, just one week after the initial launch, the site had received over 15 million hits By the end of 2006, the site had garnered over 19 million unique visits and 460 million hits In addition to viral marketing and social networking, BKC launched several other new media marketing campaigns Consumer Generated Content BKC also worked with Heavy.com, a broadband entertainment website that offered primarily comedic programming that users could stream on the website Heavy.com sent 25 Burger King masks to Heavy.com‗s most frequent contributors They were asked to use their mask to create an advertisement for Burger King The ads were available online at Heavy.com for viewing or download to an iPod and were later available on YouTube International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity http:www.irjmsh.com Page 83 IRJMSH Volume Issue online ISSN 2277 – 9809 Coke vs Pepsi: Which Integrates Social Media and Marketing the Best? The integration of social media and marketing is growing in the coming years and it‘s interesting to see that these large corporations are testing the waters Coke has a better grasp of how to involve users on the daily interactions Meanwhile, Pepsi has taken a big and seemingly successful risk in getting users to buy in on its charitable directions It is interested to know if Pepsi users are only involved in voting when their own group or interest is up for a grant, or whether there are users who participate with no personal interest in the winning grants PEPSI COKE Twitter 2437205 Twitter followers http://twitter.com/pepsi (as on 2014) at 2245424 Twitter followers http://twitter.com/CocaCola (as on 2014) 26119 tweets at 85643 tweets Winner: Coke There are less followers in comparison with Pepsi, but more interaction Facebook 31,196,198 fans on Facebook 78,538,506 fans on Facebook, one of the top on Facebook When they launched digital Coke on its Facebook page before the Super Bowl, the company gained 800,000 new friends in about 10 days Winner: Coke again Sheer numbers, and once again, more input from fans vs Pepsi s own self-promotion Charitable promotions supported by social media Pepsi Refresh Project, 2010 distributed $20 million to charities as grants, voted by fans; have more than a million unique visitors since the January launch, and more than million votes Celebrities are also submitting charitable 126,000 takers in a Super Bowl promotion gave $1 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America Total of $500,000 donated Other smaller charities donation seems to be promoted via social media as prominently International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity http:www.irjmsh.com Page 84 IRJMSH Volume Issue online ISSN 2277 – 9809 requests Note, Pepsi dropped its traditional Super Bowl ad in favor of this social media campaign Winner: Pepsi Coke is working with charities, sure, but Pepsi has taken a daring turn by relying on social media to promote it Live promotions supported through social media Pepsi live for various concert promotions, Launches a new fully integrated Pepsi globe promoting Hollywood stars & their communication initiative Announces tie-up albums; Cricket fans catching IPL 2013 etc with Ra.One; Coca-cola small world machines connecting India & Pakistan; Coca-Cola‘s confederation cup Brazil 2013 globally Winner: Coke Hands down Great integration of real people and social media Comparison of Coke verse Pepsi from a Twitter viral marketing results perspective Pepsi appears to have the advantage at this time Mostly due to their aggressive Tweeting about contests related to the Pepsi Refresh Project However, I found the overwhelming majority of Pepsi Tweets had very little viral marketing impact It was extremely difficult to locate any Coke Tweets that could be considered as a viral marketing success I define a viral marketing success as any Twitter submission that is re-Tweeted over 100 times and receives over 500 aggregate 'clicks' Comparison of Coke and Pepsi using pure Tweet statistics: It appears Pepsi has a hard earned advantage at this time As of the compilation of this article Pepsi had sent out 26119 Tweets and has 24, 37205 followers Coke has sent out 85643 Tweets and has 22, 45424 followers Pepsi has sent out about a third less Tweets, has more followers but has most likely gained many of these followers by following them Hence it‘s a hard earned International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity http:www.irjmsh.com Page 85 IRJMSH Volume Issue online ISSN 2277 – 9809 advantage, an advantage that does not appear to be entirely related to the content or viral marketing success of their Tweets Comparison of Coke and Pepsi based on the apparent engagement practices of each company: Based on the research Pepsi, a slight advantage at this time because there appears to be some effort to balance viral marketing with direct engagement Coke appears to be primarily focused on direct engagement, otherwise known as interactivity It should be noted to both companies that interactivity isn't a strength (B2C) of Twitter when you have thousands of followers Because you run the risk of alienating those you don't respond to at the expense of those you respond to Facebook is a better choice for interactivity at this time Also, public Tweets of a very personal nature should never be included on a large company Twitter account The Direct Message feature is the better and safer approach FINDINGS & CONCLUSIONS The analysis of consumer behavior has now become a central approach for marketing success, especially since most potential consumers are using the internet and different online socializing tools In order to be successful in social media marketing, companies need to create a buyer persona and then develop and constantly adjust the online marketing strategy according to the interests of customers for long-term success True customer engagement calls for a commitment-focused approach rather than a transactionfocused approach The companies that master this aspect are the ones that are truly successful in their business They undergo continuous online marketing research and must be sensitive to changes in consumer behavior patterns and to identify new areas of consumer values and interest in order to cater to their different needs Figuring out what goes best for which particular audience leads to success Social media is an investment in the long-term growth of your company that can impact every aspect of your organization Buying Decision also plays an important role in motivation towards brand following on the social networking platforms The desire to engage with the brand either through dialog with the brand‘s representatives or with other consumers (B2C & C2C communication) leads to International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity http:www.irjmsh.com Page 86 IRJMSH Volume Issue online ISSN 2277 – 9809 advocacy and loyalty towards the brand and such consumer starts working as a brand ambassador of the product/service The brand following over the social networking sites is converted into brand purchase either through offline or online buying channel if the marketing strategies would be designed by keeping in mind the perception and expectations of the consumers As per the study, these companies are very successful and also have some of the best global marketing minds The opportunity for one company to gain a significant Social Media marketing advantage over the other is there for the taking The analysis led to some more interesting insights The image of the brand must be consistent not only with its identity, but with the value system of the target segment and the company must accordingly choose its social media tool It is, in fact, the complexity of the value system of the target segment of Pepsi and Coca Cola that allows for such a contrast in advertising styles Furthermore, the race for prime position involves a well thought out strategy with clear cut roles for each of the brands in a portfolio Social media advertising is indeed both an art and a science The shift from information to image, displays the rich potential of the advertising space The exhilarating pace of evolution from the simple creative to the strategic takes the breath away In conclusion, business today is being transformed from a transactional relationship to a social relationship It is now more critical than ever that successful businesses use Engagement Marketing principles to plan for successfully engaging their prospects and customers before during and after their purchase cycle, and that the basis for this engagement is high-quality and relevant information which are demanded by target market at a time and place of their choice (24/7 and 365 days/year) With the present growth and scale of social networking, we would even be able to buy products and services through the social medium The medium is growing very fast and holds 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