Marketing a brand in social media
A case study with Hide-a-lite
Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration Author: Gårlin, Pehr Johansson, Max Rehnström, Rickard Tutor: Larsson, Johan
“It´s Word of Mouth at the Speed of Light… “
(Safko, 2010, p.673)Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their gratitude to all the people involved during the pro-cess of writing this Bachelor Thesis.
First, we would like to thank the people at OEM International AB and Hide-a-lite for tak-ing their time and share their valuable knowledge with us as well as givtak-ing consent to the interviews. We want to address a special thanks to Rydell S. and Simonsson F. for their contributions to the thesis.
We would also like to thank our tutor Mr. Johan Larsson for the support, comments, and feedback throughout the entire process.
Last, but not least, we also would like to show our appreciation to the other students who have given us feedback, comments, and suggestions during seminar sessions.
Thank You!
Pehr Gårlin Rickard Rehnström Max Johansson
Jönköping International Business School
Bachelor Thesis within Business Administration
Title: Marketing a brand in social media
Author: Gårlin, Pehr; Rehnström Rickard; Johansson, Max
Tutor: Larsson, Johan
Date: Jönköping, May 2011
Keywords: Marketing, Branding, Social media, Hide-a-lite, OEM
Interna-tional AB
Abstract
Background:
The use of social media as a marketing tool increases the awareness and need for new strategies for how a company should profile itself and in what type of mediums they should engage. The process of creating a strategy for entering the world of social media is frequently occurring by more and more companies as they want to explore and realize the bene-‐ fits that can be made from a successful use of these mediums.Purpose:
This thesis deliberates upon defining relevant social media and strategies for Hide-‐a-‐lite to utilize when marketing their brand in social media.Method:
This thesis has a deductive approach with qualitative data collect-ed from in-depth interviews. A case study of how to marketing a brand in social media has been performed together with Hide-a-lite.Conclusion:
The conclusion describe relevant social media for Hide-‐a-‐lite to achieve successful marketing of their brand and how they can utilize social media for branding and brand development. Highlighting possible strategies for Hide-‐a-‐lite to utilize when entering and exploiting the world of social media.Kandidatuppsats i Företagsekonomi
Titel: Marknadsföra ett varumärke inom sociala medier
Författare: Pehr Gårlin, Rickard Rehnström & Max Johansson
Handledare: Larsson, Johan
Datum: Jönköping, maj 2011
Nyckelord: Marknadsföring, Sociala medier, Varumärken, Hide-a-lite, OEM
International AB
Sammanfattning
Bakgrund:
Användningen av sociala medier som en marknadsföringkanal ökar intresset och behovet av nya strategier för hur ett företag skall profilera sig självt och i vilka medier man skall göra det. Det ökande behovet av strategier för användnignen av sociala medier beror på att allt fler företag vill förverkliga fördelarna som finns vid en lyckad implementering av sociala medier i verksamheten.Syfte:
Syftet med uppsatsen är att identifiera relevanta sociala me-‐ dier och strategier som Hide-‐a-‐lite kan använda sig av när de marknadsför sitt varumärke i sociala medier.Metod:
Den här uppsatsen är av deduktiv natur och har en kvalitativ inriktning på insamlingen av data som i första hand kommer från djupgående intervjuer. En fall studie är utförd i samar-‐ bete med Hide-‐a-‐lite.Slutsats:
Slutsatsen i uppsatsen behandlar vilka medier som är relevan-‐ ta för Hide-‐a-‐lite för att uppnå en lyckad marknadsföring av sitt varumärke och dess utveckling. Den belyser även poten-‐ tiella strategier som Hide-‐a-‐lite kan använda sig av vid en im-‐ plementering av sociala medier.Table of Contents
1
Introduction ... 1
1.1 Problem discussion ... 1 1.2 Purpose ... 22
Research questions ... 3
3
Method ... 4
3.1 Case Study – Hide-a-lite ... 4
3.2 Research approach ... 4
3.3 Data collection ... 5
3.4 Primary & Secondary data ... 6
3.4.1 Interviews ... 6
3.4.2 The interviewees ... 7
3.5 Analysing the data ... 7
3.6 Validity and Reliability ... 8
4
Marketing a brand in social media ... 10
4.1 What is a social media? ... 10
4.1.1 Why do we use social media? ... 10
4.2 Marketing through social media ... 11
4.3 Brand Development ... 12
4.4 Branding online ... 13
4.5 Preparatory strategies for entering social media ... 14
4.6 Implementation Strategies ... 16
4.7 Risks when choosing channels ... 18
4.8 Summary ... 19
5
Results/Empirical findings ... 22
5.1 Company presentation, Hide-a-lite ... 22
5.2 Brand name ... 22
5.3 Sales Channels ... 22
5.4 Target groups and messages ... 23
5.5 Marketing activities ... 24
5.5.1 Marketing mix ... 25
5.6 Social media activity ... 26
5.6.1 Hide-a-lite in social media ... 28
5.6.2 Competitors in social media ... 29
6
Analysis ... 30
6.1 Marketing focus ... 30
6.2 The model – The process of marketing a brand in social media ... 30
6.2.1 Stage 1 - Brand process ... 31
6.2.2 Stage 2 - Analysis ... 32
6.2.3 Stage 3 - Preparatory work ... 32
6.2.4 Stage 4 - Identify resources ... 33
6.2.5 Stage 5 - Implementation ... 34
6.3 Risks when utilizing social media ... 34
7
Conclusion ... 35
8
Our recommendations for Hide-a-lite ... 37
References ... 38
Appendices ... 40
Appendix 1 - Types of social media ... 40
Appendix 2 – Competitor Analysis ... 43
Appendix 3 – Activityplan Marketing Communication ... 44
Appendix 4 – Summary of quotaitons from interviews ... 45
Appendix 5 – Interview guides ... 47
List of Figures
Figur 4.1 – Stages of brand development ... 13Figur 4.2 – Marketing a brand in social media ... 19
Figur 4.3 – The process of marketing a brand in social media ... 21
Figur 6.1 – The process of marketing a brand in social media ... 31
1 Introduction
Chapter one includes the problem discussion, the reader is presented to the subject of marketing a brand in social media. The section further discusses the existing oppor-‐ tunity of branding in social media, which leads to our purpose.
1.1 Problem discussion
The concept of social media is not entirely new; aspects of social media have been around since the late 1970s (Miller, 2010).
“In fact, today’s social media can be seen as combining a mash up of features that other online media have offered for years, message forums, instant messaging, email, media sharing, and the like. So it is not what they do that is new; it is the way they bring it all together, into one single site or interface” (Miller, 2010, p. 360).
The use of social media as a marketing tool increases the awareness and need for new strategies for how a company should profile itself and in what type of medi-‐ ums they should engage. Companies have to evaluate the use and the possible ben-‐ efits of their engagement in these kinds of media. A firm that are entering the world of social media face an intruding challenge of evaluating the pros and cons, to create a matching strategy and actually execute it in action. The process of creat-‐ ing a strategy for entering the world of social media is frequently occurring by more and more companies, as they want to explore and realize the benefits that can be made from a successful use of these mediums.
The social media has been created for people to socialize and interact online, to share life experiences and happenings in everyday life. A media that is frequently used for people to interact is Facebook. There are over 900 million objects that people can interact with, pages, groups, events, and community pages. (Retrieved from http://www.Facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics, 2011-02-23).
In addition to Facebook, another social media aiming at a more professional net-‐ work is LinkedIn, which has more than 90 million members in more than 200 countries as of January 2011(Retrieved from http://press.LinkedIn.com/about/, 2011-‐ 02-‐23). By only observing these two mediums there is almost a billion numbers of parties interacting online. The potential for people and firms to marketing them-‐ selves are substantially high.
The new way of realizing marketing and the work of the marketer is to satisfying customer needs (Kotler & Armstrong, 2008). Kotler and Armstrong (2008) defines marketing as the process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customer in return. This has forced the marketing leading companies to in some way protect their competitive advantages and one strategy has been the emphasis on the brand name (Johansson & Svengren Holm, 2006).
”Brands are the only truly international language – a business esperanto.” (Kapferer, 1992, p.10)
This discussion leads us in to the problem for our case study of Hide-‐a-‐lite. At pre-‐ sent, Hide-‐a-‐lite lacks the knowledge and experience of utilizing social media, and foremost how to marketing their brand in social media. What strategies are plausi-‐ ble to their type of business and targeted customers and how to realize the possi-‐ ble benefits of utilizing these mediums.
1.2 Purpose
This thesis deliberates upon defining relevant social media and strategies for Hide-‐ a-‐lite to utilize when marketing their brand in social media.
2 Research questions
1. What are relevant social media for Hide-‐a-‐lite to achieve successful marketing of their brand?
2. How can Hide-‐a-‐lite utilize social media for branding and brand develop-‐ ment?
3. What are possible strategies for Hide-‐a-‐lite when entering and exploiting the world of social media?
3 Method
In the chapter of methodology we will present the methods used when conducting the research. The main method for data collection has been interviews. An introduction to the case study is also provided.
3.1 Case Study – Hide-a-lite
A case study can be defined as an in-‐depth multi-‐faceted investigation, using quali-‐ tative research methods of a single social phenomenon. The study is conducted in great detail and often relies on the use of several data sources (Feagin, Orum & Sjoberg, 1991).
As a research strategy a case study is important in management studies and aims at doing an intensive examination of one or a small number of instances in the or-‐ ganization of interest (Thomas, 2004). Thomas (2004) also argues that the explan-‐ atory purposes of the case study can be both theory-‐building and theory-‐testing and that the case study can generate theoretical insights that are closely grounded in real experiences.
Through personal contacts with the parent company OEM International and more specific the subsidiary Hide-‐a-‐lite, a problem where recognized, not knowing how to enter the world of social media and how to make the most use of relevant media. As this problem was recognized, the authors decided to base the thesis on a case study about how to marketing a brand in social media.
Hide-‐a-‐lite is a subsidiary to the parent company OEM International AB. Hide-‐a-‐lite is the first brand that OEM International AB fully owns and controls. Hide-‐a-‐lite is a firm dealing with modern lighting solution and foremost using the LED-‐technology. They aim to increase the awareness and interest for their products in the eyes of the consumer, but the focus is still to conduct sales only to wholesalers and electri-‐ cians. So, they want to enter the world of social media to increase the awareness and knowhow of the brand and its different products.
3.2 Research approach
Research as acknowledge by Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill (2009), is something that people will do to find out things in a systematic way, in that reason to increase their knowledge. The research approach will explain the methods used in the the-‐ sis to collect the data and also deliberate upon the results and limitations that are associated to it.
The authors have the intention to make a case study as a research method. A case study is used to investigate an empirical topic from a set of pre-‐specified proce-‐ dures (Yin, 2009). Case studies works as research strategies, which involves em-‐ pirical studies of a certain contemporary phenomenon within its real-‐life context, by using several sources of evidence (Saunders et al., 2009).
The strategy of a case study can often, like in this research, be useful when the au-‐ thors are doing an explanatory and exploratory research answering questions such as “why”, “what”, and “how” (Saunders et al., 2009).
Into the phase of doing a case study there are three different kinds of methods to establish the case study from. Yin (2009) highlights two of them, explanatory and exploratory. In an exploratory study the researcher proceeds mainly from “what” questions such as “what can be achieved” and also other forms of “what” questions. Further, Yin (2009) continues, that in an explanatory study the researcher starts of with “how” and “why” questions instead. In most cases these approaches will in-‐ teract with each other and not be used exclusively (Yin, 2009).
Carson, Gilmore, Perry, and Gronhaug (2001) deliberates upon the balance be-‐ tween a research in marketing being either relatively structured or relatively un-‐ structured. A structured approach is said to be a logical, sequential step-‐by-‐step process whereas the unstructured approach may evolve, emerge, and develop as the research proceeds. The balance can be managed and directed by careful use of literature as a foundation of the study. The authors have balanced these two ap-‐ proaches with substantial amount of literature as a foundation and having the re-‐ search evolving and emerge as it proceeds.
Saunders et al. (2009) defines inductive approach as “research approach involving the development of a theory as a result of the observation of empirical data” (Saun-‐ ders et al., 2009, p. 593) and deductive approach is defined as “research approach involving the testing of a theoretical proposition by the employment of a research strategy specifically designed for the purpose of its testing.” (Saunders et al., 2009, p. 593)
The authors have chosen a deductive approach as it contributes with more flexibil-‐ ity in their work and according to Benfer, Brent, and Furbee (1991), it also permits intermediate values and common-‐sense reasoning. The approach allows the au-‐ thors to change their research questions and conclusions in the case of new data (Benfer et al., 1991).
3.3 Data collection
When deliberating upon the choice of method for data collection it depends upon the choice of purpose of the thesis or work. Most important and basic is for one to decide to use either a qualitative or quantitative approach.
”The essential difference between quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis is that with the former, you need to have completed your data collection before you can start analysis, while with the latter, analysis is often carried out concurrently with data collection. ” (Nicholas, 2006, p. 129)
The authors of this paper believe that a qualitative approach for data collection is the most appropriate approach for this thesis. As Nicholas (2006) expresses, a qualitative approach is something that is based on information expressed in words rather than a quantitative approach, which to a large extent is based upon num-‐ bers.
The qualitative data is collected from four interviews with responsible managers both at the parent company OEM International AB and the subsidiary Hide-‐a-‐lite. Furthermore, all the data is collected before the analysis is carried out.
3.4 Primary & Secondary data
Primary data is in first hand collected by the researchers through interviews and observations. This primary information such as an interview can help the re-‐ searcher to gather valid and reliable data that will be relevant to the research questions and objectives (Saunders et al., 2009).
Secondary data are existing data sets, these data sets has in an earlier time been collected by another researcher for their specific topic of research. The secondary data analysis is mostly used when researchers will do their analysis of quantitative data (Devine, 2003). According to Saunders et al. (2009), types of secondary data can be journals, newspaper, books, and documentaries from TV and radio.
Throughout this thesis the authors have been using both primary and secondary data to gather information and to answer the research questions. Primary data for the case study and the main purpose has been collected through interviews with concerned personal within OEM International AB and Hide-‐a-‐lite.
Secondary data has been based upon books, searches in databases and the Internet to collect relevant academic journals and articles. Furthermore, the authors have collected data from press releases, magazines, steering documents, and web pages to increase the understanding of the brand Hide-‐a-‐lite.
3.4.1 Interviews
In this research, interviews have been used for collecting qualitative data. The in-‐ formation that has been retrieved is used to answer the purpose and research questions of this thesis. The interviews have also brought important information into the case study that will be processed within this paper.
Due to the author’s purpose and research questions, it fell to qualitative inter-‐ views.
When you are making a qualitative research the two most appropriate interview methods to use are unstructured and semi-‐structured interviews (Bryman & Bell, 2007). This is based upon that you have a greater interest in the interviewee’s point of view about the subject, instead of the structured method where the inter-‐ viewer has a specific list of research questions that will be answered in a certain way (Bryman & Bell, 2007).
Why qualitative interviews are used in this thesis is because that the contact per-‐ son will be interviewed at several occasions. Also that the authors wanted to be flexible at the meetings according to the research questions that could be adjusted during time and that the information that will be gathered should be rich and de-‐ tailed in the line of what Bryman and Bell (2007) mentions in the previous para-‐ graph. These interviews were mainly based on a semi-‐structured model, which is that, the interviewers material can vary from interview to interview (Saunders et al. 2009).
The researcher shall have a specific context, hence, questions can be worded dif-‐ ferently in case of whom is the respondent. The schedule could consist of a set of
topics and sub-‐topics, where the researcher can manage the order as they want (Thomas, 2004).
The unstructured interview allows the interviewee to talk freely about the chosen topic without any follow-‐up questions, more like an open conversation (Bryman & Bell, 2007). This approach is also called an “in-‐depth interview” by Saunders et al. (2009). The interviewee gets the opportunity to talk about the subject in general, building up ideas, beliefs, and aspects to the subject. This is characterized as an in-‐ formant interview, since the interviewers perception is in focus through the inter-‐ view (Saunders et al., 2009). This method was used because it creates an open en-‐ vironment and provides a broader scope of information than what the specific question would tell.
All interviews were recorded as recommended by Bryman and Bell (2007), this is a very efficient way to collect the data and being sure of not missing anything. Herit-‐ age (1984) pinpoints some advantages with recording an interview such as it helps to clarify what has been said and helps to remember what the human memory cannot intake. To record an interview is specifically important for the detailed analysis that includes in a qualitative research, in the sense that it is important to capture the answers in their own terms. Another aspect is that in a semi-‐ structured interview the interviewer shall not follow a script of questions, which is the basis of a structured interview, therefore, recording it will make the follow-‐up easier (Bryman & Bell, 2007).
3.4.2 The interviewees
In this part we will present the interviewees to give more credibility and validity to our thesis and provide a better understanding for the reader about the paraphras-‐ ing and the quotations being presented.
Rydell S. (Marketing and Communication Director, OEM International AB)
Our primary contact at the parent company OEM International AB was Rydell, Marketing, and Communication Director. Rydell is responsible for all the market-‐ ing and communication development, taking place within all subsidiaries at OEM International AB.
Simonsson F. (Managing Director, Elektro Elco AB)
For more in-‐depth information and to listen to the voice of the Managing Director of Hide-‐a-‐lite we met Fredrik Simonsson on two occasions. Simonsson is the MD of Hide-‐a-‐lite and has been so since OEM international AB bought the company in 2008.
3.5 Analysing the data
Analysing and interpreting our data that has been collected through a qualitative approach as mentioned in section 2.3 (Data Collection) is a much tougher job than analysing and summarizing quantitative data. Our qualitative data has mainly been collected through interviews. The interviews has been recorded, analysed and fur-‐ ther been summarized in relevant quotations. This method has also been applied to the retrieved articles and books.
“Textual interpretation is a more subtle process than a statistical analysis, natural language being so much more complex than the formal languages of logic and math-‐ ematics.” (Thomas, 2004)
Thomas (2004) argues of several techniques to condense the textual materials by reducing them to abbreviated statements or by identifying their structural proper-‐ ties. One of the techniques is called, Making a précis (Thomas, 2004). The aim of this technique is to express the content of a passage of text in a shorter and easier way than in the original but with minimum loss of information. This can be a very challenging task depending on the length of the original and the difficulty of the material. This technique has been applied to our analysis of the collected data. Hossack (1982) suggest three techniques for summarization:
-‐ Generalization. Locating common elements in the text and using a single word or phrase to express them.
-‐ Fact rejection. Irrelevant or unimportant elements to what is being stated in the text are omitted from the précis.
-‐ Word compression. Substituting short word structures in the place of longer ones.
3.6 Validity and Reliability
The reliability assigns the authenticity and the usefulness of a measuring device such as interviews. Measuring one thing several times should yield the same result every time to be reliable. It is often the researcher that conducts the measuring de-‐ vice, e.g. a questionnaire, so there is always a risk that the trustiness becomes low (Ejvegård, 2003). Yin (2009) says that the goal of reliability is to minimize the er-‐ rors and the biases in a study. One prerequisite for allowing another person to ar-‐ rive at the same findings and conclusions conducting the same study is to be strict-‐ ly when it comes to documentation of the procedures from the earlier case. Our in-‐ terviews has been analysed and summarized, these documents has later been ac-‐ cepted by the interviewee to create more reliability and validity to the qualitative data.
For the reliability to become useful there is a need for validity. The validity shows if the measuring device really measures what it claims to measure. It is possible to have a very high reliability but still miss the validity; low reliability on the other hand yields low validity (Ejvegård, 2003). The problem with a case study is to know whether a study’s findings are generalizable beyond the immediate case study (Yin, 2009). Additionally, due to the rapid development within the area of In-‐ formation Technology we have been aiming to find up-‐to-‐date articles, journals, and books to retrieve the most recent research to create a reliable and valid result. A weakness in our method could be decision to only interview two persons, Rydell S. Marketing director at OEM International and Simonsson F. Managing Director at Hide-‐a-‐lite. However, the authors believe that these two persons are the ones that could give us the best internal information about the company and Hide-‐a-‐lite’s ideas of marketing their brand in social media. By conducting three interviews we believe that we can maintain high quality in our interviews and get more in depth
to the subject of matter. Deliberating upon other possible interviewees one can think that it might lead to other conclusions, other people connected to the compa-‐ ny might be able to speak more freely and open minded, not worried about leaking company secrets and such. Still the authors believe that that two chosen inter-‐ viewees are the ones that can contribute most to our work. The transcripts of in-‐ terviews and our empirical findings has been accepted to use in our thesis by the respondents, the marketing director of Hide-‐a-‐lite has also been reviewing the ma-‐ terial and approved its content. The entire interviews are transcribed and available on request in Swedish.
4 Marketing a brand in social media
The theoretical framework presents relevant theories that will be the foundation for the analysis, the theoretical framework is used as a tool for analysing the empirical findings.
4.1 What is a social media?
“Social media involves a natural, genuine conversation between people about things of mutual interest, a conversation built on the thoughts and experience of the partic-‐ ipants. It is about sharing information and arriving at a collective point, often for the purpose of making a better or more-‐informed choice” (Evans, 2008, p. 31).
Evans (2008) uses Wikipedia when defining social media. Wikipedia is a socially built online encyclopedia and is an example of both a social media and a social pro-‐ cess that makes these kinds of media so powerful.
Since Wikipedia is defined as a social media, Evans (2008) uses Wikipedia’s defini-‐ tion of social media in there text, but since it is an on-‐going process defining what social media is, the authors here state the definition as of February 23, 2011:
“Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. Social media is the use of web-‐based and mobile technol-‐ ogies to turn communication into interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein also define social media as "a group of Internet-‐based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of web 2.0, which allows the creation and exchange of user-‐generated content."(1) Businesses also refer to social media as consumer-‐generated media (CGM). A common thread running through all definitions of social media is a blending of technology and social interaction for the
co-‐creation of value.” (Retrieved from, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media, February 23,
2011)
What the authors has classified as social mediums in the thesis are, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Forum, YouTube, Flickr, Blog, and Wiki´s. (For more and deeper information about a specific media, see Appendix 1 – Types of social media).
4.1.1 Why do we use social media?
Agresta and Bough (2010, p. 5) says, “the power of social media lies in the intersec-‐ tion of the personal and the public and that there is no coincidence that one of the most popular sites in the social media sphere is called Facebook. Facebook is about you, your face, and your identity”.
Agresta and Bough (2010) also argue that human endeavour always will be fun-‐ damentally the same. People will always need to connect to one another to find the meaning in the relationships and the world around us, and to take pleasure in the exchange of knowledge and ideas. Social media has taken the basic wants and needs of people and enabled us to connect, collaborate, learn, and exchange at a rate and scale that never would have been possible before.
4.2 Marketing through social media
Marketing activities differ depending on the targeted audience and setting. The set-‐ tings are most frequently divided in to a Business-‐to-‐Consumer (B2C) and a Busi-‐ ness-‐to-‐Business (B2B) setting.
Companies have different reasons for utilizing social media and it is important to understand why companies use these mediums in the different settings. From a firm’s perspective in a B2C-‐setting, what the crowd says can be of paramount im-‐ portance. You have limited control over what they say about you, but if you then learn how to "influence the crowd" effectively you can actually create a significant and defensible market position based on solid social acceptance. The Social Web, used correctly, is all about what your community of supporters can do to help you build your business (Evans, 2008).
Reece (2010) found that the rapid rise of social media might be the most important evolution to impact marketing in decades. It changes everything. It enables busi-‐ nesses to influence new buyers, interact and engage with customers, and it puts the consumer in control of shaping and influencing a brand.
To utilize these mediums for business-‐to-‐consumer marketing one can practice dif-‐ ferent strategies and in B2C marketing the fundamental ideas originates from the marketing mix. The marketing mix, as acknowledged by Kotler and Keller (2009), consists of four broad tools, the four Ps of marketing. The different tools and vari-‐ ables under each P are used to influence the buyer and the company’s trade chan-‐ nels. The different marketing variables concerning each P is defined as:
• Product -‐ Product variety, quality, design, features, brand name, packaging, Sizes, Services, warranties, and returns.
• Price -‐ List price, discounts, allowances, payment period, and credit terms • Promotion -‐ Sales promotion, advertising, sales force, public relations, and
direct marketing
• Place-‐ Channels, coverage, assortments, locations, inventory, and transport The marketing mix is one of multiple strategies in B2C marketing and another fre-‐ quently occurring strategy is Push – Pull strategy.
Kotler and Keller (2009) acknowledge that a push strategy is used when there is low brand loyalty, the choice is made in-‐store and when the product benefits are well understood. Push strategies are therefore carried out by extensive work from the sales force of the company alongside with trade promotion investments and other ways to create sales through the intermediaries. On the contrary, a pull strat-‐ egy is applied in cases where there is high brand loyalty, a consumer can perceive a difference between the brands and they choose the brand even before they get to the store. This is carried out with a focus on communication through different channels such as advertising and promotion. The aim is to persuade the consumer to demand the product (Kotler & Keller, 2009).
In addition to business-‐to-‐consumer marketing there is a more complex world of Business-‐to-‐business marketing, the focus is put on relationships and networks. Kotler and Keller (2009) argue for the benefits of vertical coordination in business-‐
to-‐business customer relationships. They claim the importance for closer relation-‐ ships that are in part driven by supply chain management, early supplier involve-‐ ment, and purchasing alliances. They also discusses the importance to create something that they can transcend merely transacting and instead focus on activi-‐ ties that create more value for both parties. One significant factor is trust, to have a healthy long-‐term relationship trust is the foundation. This is also the work of the business marketer, to establish and form strong bonds and relationships with their customers to provide added value.
It is easy to dismiss social media as strictly consumer based. The truth is, social media channels can give B2B companies a leg up on the competition in two key ways: conversation and search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines recog-‐ nize every Tweet on Twitter, every discussion within Facebook, every Q&A on LinkedIn, every video on YouTube etc. If B2B companies stock these channels with appropriately titled and tagged content that is searchable for their target audienc-‐ es, they can “own” the topics their customers are looking for (Agresta & Bough, 2010).
4.3 Brand Development
In consumer marketing, brands often provide the primary points of differentiation between competitive offerings, and they can be critical to the success of companies (Wood, 2000).
The word brand originates from the Old norse word brandr and still exists in the English language in its origin sense, ’to burn’ (Melin, 1999). Melin (1999) further argues that what we today calls the modern brand first appeared during the late part of the 1800s century and is recognized to originate from the United States of America and Great Britain. He also claims that the increasing integration of the world market has lead to decreasing socio-‐cultural differences between consumers on different markets. This development creates opportunities to segment the mar-‐ ket on an international basis. This is enhanced by the market communications transboundary characteristics and the commercial international idiom, where the brand is the most significant identity carrier.
Within the brand management literature there is a uniformed view of what is a good brand name. It can be composed into four criteria’s or demands, the name should be: -‐ Simple -‐ Unique -‐ Suggestive -‐ Legally protected (Melin, 1999 p.91)
Elliot and Percy (2007) say that a brand name represents everything you know about a particular product and what it means to you. It provides a convenient summary of your feelings, knowledge, and experience with the brand. Brand atti-‐ tude are those feelings and thoughts that are attached to the brand when you first think of it.
Kotler and Keller (2009) identify four fundamental Stages of brand development (Figure 4.1). In stage one, there is a focus on ensuring the Identification of the brand with customers, and an association of the brand in the minds of the custom-‐ ers. In stage two, the firm needs to establish the totality of brand Meaning in the minds of the customers. This can be done by strategically linking tangible and in-‐ tangible brand associations to the brand. The Response in stage three describes the process of eliciting the proper customer responses in terms of brand related judgement and feelings. In stage four, the focus is to convert the brand responses to establish an intense and active loyalty Relationships between the brand and the customers.
Figur 4.1 – Stages of brand development
Source: Kotler P. & Keller K. (2009) Marketing Management (13th ed), p. 285
4.4 Branding online
When branding online positioning is the critical first step in developing advertising for a brand. A brand provides information, information that comes out of market-‐ ing communication (Elliot & Percy, 2007). Harridge-‐March (2009) argues that brand positioning is an area researched extensively by academic and practitioner researchers and is recognised as a critically important and influential component of corporate strategy. Theory has concentrated on what constitutes a brand, what makes a brand different and how a brand’s positioning can be communicated through the marketing mix, and disseminated through the marketing communica-‐ tions mix. The purpose of brand positioning is to promote a brand that differs from
that of competitors and to ensure that the brand has a particular position in the market, which is of value to potential customers.
A brand’s position can be conveyed through various media, one of which is the In-‐ ternet. Company web sites can be the means of delivering many messages and brand information (Harridge-‐March, 2009).
When a consumer accesses a corporation's web site, the appearance, structure, and maintenance status all influence the consumer's perception of both the transaction experience and corporate image (Kim, Shaw & Schneider, 2003).
Kim et al. (2003) argues as e-‐commerce expands, the design of web sites becomes a critical success factor. First, web sites are the main interface between businesses and consumers. Thus, the design of a web site becomes as important as a store's layout and aesthetics. Second, the web site may become one of the main factors in judging a corporation. From this point of view, web site design is important for corporations involved in e-‐commerce. In order to check the efficiency and effec-‐ tiveness of a design, good evaluation criteria’s are needed:
1) Business function 2) Corporation credibility 3) Content reliability 4) Web site attractiveness 5) Systematic structure 6) Navigation.
4.5 Preparatory strategies for entering social media
Safko (2010) deliberates upon a model consisting of different steps to reach social media nirvana. The model is constructed to act as a guide for the preparatory work to be reviewed before implementing the use of social media.
A fundamental step in the preparatory work is to Analyse Existing Media. One should start by identifying all relevant existing mediums as your demographics in-‐ teract in different types of networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.) and com-‐ municate in different ways (audio, text, visual etc.). Safko (2010) argues that use of social media is most effective when you listen to the conversation and participate properly. In addition, a company should analyse its communication strategy for each demographic and ask itself the question, “Who are you?”. One should further also deliberate upon asking the following questions for each demographic group:
• What is the description for the demographic group? • Who is your persona?
• What is your style? • What is your message? • What is your frequency?
The most important question when participating in an online conversation is con-‐ cerning your persona, who are you. There is a need for being Authentic, Transpar-‐ ent, and Sincere. Most people would prefer building a relationship and buying from a person rather than building a relationship and buying from a company (Safko, 2010).
Step number two is concerning Social Media Trinity, blogging, micro blogging, and social networks (Safko, 2010). Blogging is concerned with asking yourself the questions of Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. Blogging can be performed in a program called Wordpress, which will generate Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and make your blog higher ranked at a search at Google etc. To make it more interactive and rich in content, one can link to share pictures at Flickr, videos at YouTube, and podcasts. Micro blogging is where you create short messages on a few sentences to your audience to take part. The most recognized tool for micro blogging is Twitter. Using Twitter you are also able to see what others are written about you by using TweetDeck or seismic Desktop. Before utilizing this media you need to determine a strategy of why-‐to-‐sell, educate, advertise, add value or just create trust. Social Networks is concerned with the job of identifying relevant tools for your company. To determine a strategy for utilizing the chosen media one need to consider if it is only for interaction, whom is active where, and the culture of the brand.
Step three in the model by Safko (2010) is the process to Integrate Strategies. The process is prevailed by integrating the strategies defined in step one and two into the marketing strategy of the company. There should be no separate marketing strategy for social media, it should be integrated in the complete marketing strate-‐ gy of the company. Identification of the best media for each demographic requires one to remember its audience, the platform, the culture, and the rules within that environment. Furthermore, it is important to develop clear individual goals for each message.
“Quality content, Not quality production.” (Safko, 2010, p. 700)
Examples of how to integrate existing conventional and new digital mediums for communication:
-‐ Twitter account on business card
-‐ All social media addresses in your email signature -‐ Blog address everywhere
-‐ Visit web site while waiting for you to pick up, voicemail -‐ Mention al your activity in social media everywhere
To realize these strategies and reach the goals Safko (2010) acknowledge in step four the prominence to Identify Resources. Who is going to be responsible for im-‐ plementing and maintaining all these new tools. Hence, it is vital to list previous ac-‐ tivities that did not make a good Return On Investment (ROI), list costs and hours spent and compare with the result to see if it has been successful or not. Remove the ineffective activities and focus on those who are cost efficient is an important task for the responsible person.
Postman (2009) pinpoints some important components of a successful social me-‐ dia strategy that should be included in every strategy plan:
• Social media platform – define key audiences, messages, channels, and appro-priate company spokespeople.
• Social network strategy – evaluate Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and other so-cial networks as company soso-cial media vehicles.
• Cross-functional implementation – develop a framework and processes for en-suring that all appropriate company functions participate in the development, implementation and on going management of social media initiatives.
• Tools review – analyse and select social media tools, like blog and wiki plat-forms and video players, that meet the company´s objectives and can be inte-grated with the company´s IT environment.
• Editorial strategy – implement “lightweight” oversight to ensure that owners of social media initiatives are aware of and are appropriately adopting marketing and other company messages.
• Training – conduct training for all levels of the organization in social media strategy, philosophy and etiquette, as well as hands-on use of the company´s so-cial media tools and networks.
• Policies – develop agreements and codes of ethics for social media usage con-sistent with company policies to reduce risk and ensure ethical compliance. • Social media analysis – review social media use by competitors, influencers
(like bloggers and analysts), and business partners.
• Social media council – create an in-house team dedicated to regularly scheduled review, recommendations, and enforcement of policies for social media pro-grams.
• Measurement – define methods to evaluate and regularly measure success for each initiative.
Instead of doing what many companies do, pick the first tool and go from that, they should go from the traditional communications standpoint and consider each tool and social network from the aspect of what they need and if it is the right field for the audience, their message, their budget, and their company´s objectives (Post-‐ man, 2009).
4.6 Implementation Strategies
According to Safko and Brake (2009), there are four pillars of social media strate-‐ gy, which works one by one as platforms for engaging your customers, prospects, and employees to utilize these media. Safko (2010) argues for the use of the four pillars as an implementing strategy. The four pillars are:
• Communicate • Collaborate • Educate • Entertain
Safko and Brake (2009) mentions in the first pillar the fact that all companies have some sort of communication to their audience. However, most of them face the problem and the difficulty of measuring the impact of their communication strate-‐
