Media Marketing and Brand Loyalty, Research Paper Example

The emergence of social media has changed the communication styles used in marketing. The internet, according to Zhou and Wang (2013), has addressed the need for augmented interaction between businesses and people. In his view, social media is idyllic, as it reflects interactive, participative, open, and transparent attributes. Similarly, Hollebeek et al. (2014) show that because of the huge number of social media users coupled with its attribute for fast propagation, businesses are currently exploring social media’s marketing capacity. This signals a shift from the traditional measures used in marketing, such as newspaper, magazines, radio, and TV. This paper presents a review of the literature on social media and brand marketing. An underlying assumption is that social media marketing does not just guarantee brand loyalty since brand loyalty depends on customer engagement through content relevance and popularity.

According to Zhou and Wang (2013), lack of interaction and participation of the traditional media has made social media superior for marketing, as a market and the consumers get to interact. Jara et al. (2014), who elaborated that marketing experience has been greatly empowered by the social media due to their interactive capability, made a similar review. In their study of how the social media has facilitated participative marketing because of their interactive capabilities, Jara et al. (2014) also commented that the social media plays a crucial role because of their interactive nature, which have made the traditional media to be less credible and to have far less impact on customers. Li et al (2015) agrees that the social networks have become popular than the traditional media. His basis for this, however, is that they enable simultaneous information sharing. He further comments that among their other distinguishing feature is their capacity to deliver information and content to the targeted consumers. This is specifically crucial for target marketing. Jai et al (2013) also addressed the issue of target marketing. Their concern was, however, with the new practice where consumers share their personal information with online retailers to take part in consumer loyalty programs. The information the consumers share on social media can be leveraged to target them with the right advertisements based on their interests.

Jara et al. (2014) termed this new generation of marketing as “Social Media Marketing.” In a related study, Zhou and Wang (2013) examined how the social media is being used as a new medium for city marketing in China. The researchers introduced the application of social media for city marketing in China. Based on their review of literature on publications that explored social media use for city marketing in Nanjing, Guangzhou, and Chengdu cities, Zhou and Wang (2013) suggested that the use of social media is a suitable tactic for promoting cities due to its interactive, open, participative, and transparent nature.

A similar review regarding the significance of social media in marketing due to their interactive, open, and participative have been validated by Bernabé-Moreno et al. (2015). In their recent research, Bernabé-Moreno et al. (2015) introduced CARESOME, a system that make use of geo-located social media insights in order to support customer acquisition and retention. In their review, Bernabé-Moreno et al. (2015) established that enabling the geo-localization capability for the Social Media content is critical as it enhance businesses to interact with customers from a given location. Bernabé-Moreno et al. (2015) were convinced that social media is a crucial marketing tool that has left businesses with no choice but to use it for customer engagement, acquisition, and retention. Hollebeek et al. (2014) explored the concept of consumer brand engagement more exhaustively in their study of consumer brand engagement on the social media. Hollebeek et al. (2014) stressed that the ‘consumer brand engagement’ (CBE) concept reflects the consumers’ interactive brand relationships between the consumer and the business, relative to traditional concepts, such as ‘involvement.’’ They explained that increased levels of consumers’ brand engagement promoted positive organizational performance outcomes, such as positive sales growth, reduction of costs, brand referrals, enhanced innovativeness, superior profitability and collaborative product development.

Still, it should be argued that social media marketing does not guarantee brand loyalty. Erdogmus and Cicek (2012) stressed the difference between social media marketing and traditional marketing as rooted in the levels of brand image and loyalty they have. Erdogmus and Cicek (2012) sought to identify the implications of social media marketing on consumers’ brand loyalty. The researchers established that social media marketing is analogous to relationship marketing, as businesses have to change from trying to sell to establishing connections and long-lasting relationships. Erdogmus and Cicek (2012) found that the customer’s brand loyalty is positively affected when the brand provides beneficial campaigns, popular content, and relevant content. Hence, the study showed that social media marketing does not just guarantee brand loyalty, as brand loyalty is contingent on customer engagement through content relevance and popularity.

Indeed, this entails the premise against which Song et al. (2014) coined the term attention deficit. In Song’s et al. (2014) view, attention deficit is a situation where online users freely present intricate and diverse ideas online. Song et al. (2014) went on to explain that when businesses seek to pass relevant and popular content through the social media, they should survey the  consumer sentiment, opinion, as well as other context information that are important reference to companies for recommending and providing commodities for sale. A strong point of online data collection, Song et al. (2014) explain, is the relative ease it acquires market response in comparison to survey or questionnaire from the point of view of the company’s management.

Jung et al. (2014) agrees with Song et al. (2014) and offers further explanation that the social media has greatly enhanced individuals’ ability for interaction and communication with each other, leading to the creation of online brand community. In their view, social media has become the dominant site in the marketplace that businesses and consumers share information and experience regarding the products and services. Jung et al. (2014) suggested that the concept of brand community is significant, as businesses can quickly address consumers concerns due to the interactive capability of the social media.

Habibi et al. (2014) supports Erdogmus, Cicek’s (2012), as well as Song’s et al. (2014) assumptions. According to Habibi et al. (2014), social networking practices concentrate on the creation, improving, and maintaining connections, what they call brand community management. The practices involved creating favorable impressions of the brand and the community outside the organization by justifying and evangelizing brands. Similar to Erdogmus and Cicek (2012), who argues that businesses have to provide relevantly and popular content, Habibi et al. (2014) states that the practices comprise sharing favorable information and good news, as well as encouraging consumers to use the brand, and lastly rationalizing the level of time and effort dedicated to brand promotional activities. These activities, Habibi et al. (2014) explains, promote brand member engagement in the brand community, and offer them social capital.

In a similar study, Habibi et al. (2014b) also explored the roles of brand community and community engagement in creating trust and concluded that social media provides an ideal environment for creating brand communities. Hence, to create brand community and loyalty, business have to first build brand trust, which Habibi et al. (2014b) define as the willingness of a consumer to rely on the brand’s capacity to perform its function. The researchers argued that, trusts are an event of information asymmetry, where the customers have low information regarding a brand than the business. In Habibi’s et al. (2014b) view, reducing information asymmetry increases trust. Habibi et al. (2014b) explained that the social media is useful in this regard, as it reduces information asymmetry.

Overall, it is established that social media marketing does not just guarantee brand loyalty. This is since brand loyalty depends on customer engagement through content relevance and popularity.

References

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