Social Media and Brand Assignment Help.
Instructions:
This is an essay based on scholarly journal article research, theory and critical evaluation/synthesis (not mere description). You must support your answer with a minimum of 6 journal articles (can be peer reviewed or otherwise but must be from sources classified as Journals). The essays upper word limit is 2,500 words. There is no minimum word limit. The upper word limit is strict. NB. The word limit does not include; title page/cover page, sub-headings, reference list (it does include in-text citations), appendix. You may include brief commentary on brand examples, but only if the examples originate from within the specific journal articles you have cited in your essay (i.e. not from personal experience, or from popular non scholarly journal press). Note – your essay should provide a balanced view of this topic (pro’s and con’s).
Solution.
Introduction
Social media is a new subject and has developed drastically for the past ten years. Social media has impacted a lot in the propagating online marketing. Internet marketing has emerged to social media experience turning into its form of social media. Social media plays a significant role in information sharing about products and brand. Sixty percent of consumer researchers rely on social media as a form of promoting their brand and capture the retailers on social networking sites. Brand communication on social media has been an issue to debate on whether consumer’s reviews and comments are trustworthy. Organization and bloggers’ communication about brands are termed either authentic or not.
Body
In the social media today a brand is criticized for lacking authenticity. The firm has attempted to formulate efficient social media strategies that will depict the authenticity of the products they market. Otherwise, customer communication has been hampered by the trustworthy of a brand. It has immensely affected the brand loyalty levels of consumers. Organizations and other agencies communication to the brands of various companies are also a matter of trust. (Kasavana, et al., 2010, p. 70) States that social media objectives, in particular, is to enhance communication and product development towards the customer and to build brand equity and awareness. According to (Holt, 2002, p. 80) in the past ten years, the trustworthiness of information has decreased to lower levels. Recently there has been an alteration in the customer’s trust of news and reviews on organizations to social media known as ‘circles of trust’ that gives room for the development of communication between the firm and the customers. (Heller Baird & Parasnis, 2011, p. 36)to build and keep customers intact companies should be authentic and trustworthy.
The communication shared in the social media has significantly affected the performance of large firms in the market negatively or positively depending on the authenticity of the branding they own. Research by the Nielsen Company (2010) shows 57% of customers will look for online reviews before they acquire any product online.Starwood Hotels & Resorts, being on of the early companies into cra=eate a social media website ( Lanz 2010), were able to track on customers, and they reported a high customer turnover with the help of social media.To add on, Hotel Indigo, at every location, it poses a fan page on Facebook. The hotel was able to gain the brand loyalty after reductions of up to 20% off for the fans who liked their page on Facebook.Such a move can grant a company brand authenticity. (Hudson, 2014) suggests by arguing that brand trust is the cherished currency of social media marketing. He adds on by saying that oversights and ethical lapses can spoil the brand picture of a firm.
(Hudson, 2014) A good business manager should avoid the risks that would not keep the organization on the social media platform to allow for business success. Laudon (2007), using networking as a form of engaging customers is a low-cost method that firm experiences. However, (Laroche, et al., 2012, p. 1760) contradicts the above statement by terming social media branding as time-consuming.Hospitality practiced in the social media branding has enabled brand authenticity. Customers have come to trust brand through the way they show hospitality on their social media posts. For example, hospitality operators, Web 2.0 is a marketing tool that allows interaction with the target audience and the firm.The social media revolution has impacted brand trust and authenticity in that; the community is involved to make a brand authentic. Therefore, it is vital for firms to practice hospitality and provide offers and products, web attendance and begin interacting with Facebook and Twitter.
Nguyen & Simkin (2012) state that Issues with privacy is another form of degraders to trustworthiness. In the case of Ritz-Carlo, the CRM highlights privacy issues resulted in customer’s loss of respect to the firm thereby creating mistrust with the firm. This led to a reduction in the consumer base for the above named. Recent studies reveal over 65 percent of the customers are worried about the information they post on the social media in keeping their privacy. (Hector, et al., 2002, p. 1806)Any privacy issue on the social media can lead to mistrust among customers, therefore, firms should be able to come up with tools that govern the privacy of the customers.
Lastly, customers’ reviews are also trustworthy since the social media is made up all kinds of people that can have different motives towards a firm. Some always target the fall of a company. Organizations should be able to identify authentic reviews and focus on improving them to win the trust and loyalty of customers in the social media. Consumers get disoriented by these negative feedbacks that haters of firm post on the social media. Social media aids the process of customer care through these social interactions. Research analyze that brands today require social media for promotional purposes and reminding the customers about major changes on the product quantity and quality. Therefore, social media greatly affects the brand of a company and also reveal effects on the sales of their products.
Conclusion
Conclusively, firms are capable of
creating a personal association with the customer to upsurge a customer’s trust
to the company. With proficient business representation and understanding, the firm’s
brand can gain authenticity to greater heights. Social media allows the company
to articulate the reactions of consumers and ensure steady responses to the users.Authenticity
and trustworthiness of a brand are the keys to company’s sell of name and image
to the market. Social media being a good platform to market business products
has significantly improved the brands of firms. Some companies have reported
low customer turnout due to the platform bust as we know anything good has a disadvantage
with it. Therefore, firms should be able to reach authentic heights and win customers
from false information that is shared through the social media.
References
Hector, R. E. et al., 2002. Dual requirement for yeast hnRNP Nab2p in mRNA poly (A) tail length control and nuclear export. The EMBO Journal,, 21(7), pp. 1800-1810.
Heller Baird, C. & Parasnis, G., 2011. From Social Media to Social Customer Relationship Management. Strategy & Leadership, 39(5), pp. 30-37.
Holt, D. B., 2002. Why do Brands cause Trouble? A Dialectical Theory of Consumer Culture and Branding. Journal of Consumer Research, 29(1), pp. 70-90.
Hudson, S., 2014. Selling America to the World: The Case of Brand USA. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 3(2), pp. 79-81.
Kasavana, M. L., Nusair, K. & Teodosic, K., 2010. Online Social Networking: Redefining the Human Web. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 1(1), pp. 68-82.
Laroche, M., Habibi, M. R., Richard, M. O. & Sankaranarayanan, R., 2012. The Effects of Social Media Based Brand Communities on Brand Community Markers, Value Creation Practices, Brand Trust and Brand Loyalty. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(5), pp. 1755-1767.
Nguyen, B. & Simkin, L., 2012. Fairness Quality: The Role of Fairness in a Social and Ethically oriented Marketing Landscape. The Marketing Review, 12(4), pp. 333-344.