Dolling Up Your Brand in Social Media

The paper discusses the importance of brand identity (Joachimsthaler & Aaker, 1997) in a social media setting, with the help of the improvisational theater metaphor (Singh & Sonnenburg, 2012). The latter has a great importance in understanding how consumers respond to stories and interactivity, thus leading to co-creation of the brand. A case study in the toy industry is featured to best exemplify the peculiar trait of the category where its audience tends to shift out of from childhood. Barbie and its reunited love campaign in 2011 showed how to be relevant to different target segments with the use of storytelling and digital interactivity. Some challenges and opportunities are discussed further for the toy industry and its widened target audience in the social media scene.

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Shifting paradigms, reconsidering the 4Ps of marketing

Brands are created by the interaction between the company and the customer and this has been the result of the internet creating the platforms that allow the customer to have their say. (Christodoulides, 2009; Deighton & Kornfeld, 2009) With this power shift, in terms of consumers now appearing to have greater power in the marketing relationship between consumers and companies, personalisation and customisation have become more prominent a feature of both marketing and product/service development (Winer, 2009). 

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Why do consumers and companies engage into the process of co-creating value?

The purpose of the paper is to illustrate how digital innovations in combination with the changing role of the consumer paved the way for consumers and companies to engage in the co-creation of joint value. Additionally it aims, to illustrate and discuss the advantages that both, the consumer and company gain when they engage into the co-creation of value. To achieve this purpose the paper shortly discusses, how digital innovations have enabled both parties to engage in the process of co-creation and how the role of the consumer has changed. Furthermore the term co-creation will be explained and the advantages of co-creating value for both participants will be theoretically analyzed and stated. As a final step two case studies, Nike Plus and Ducati, will be examined in order to illustrate the advantages for both the consumer and the company

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Boost Your Career Online: Personal Branding Opportunities via Social Media

A lot have changed in the recruitment process since Web 2.0 and consequently the social media was introduced just over a decade ago. This paper aims to examine the importance of building an online personal brand, both for graduate students and established employees when it comes to achieving their dream jobs. By examining theories and empirical material this paper will illuminate and help fortune hunters using social media to make the most out of the recruitment process. The conclusion is that with the help of the suggested framework people can more easily manage their personal brand through social media.

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Social Media - Big Headache or Sea of Opportunities ?

Brands that are active on social media are faced with numerous challenges. Amongst them is the cultural shift that is required from the management to successfully run social media platforms. It is no longer about making profit or pushing the message into the consumer but rather about being an active listener and knowing when to join the conversation and to respond (Fournier, Avery, 2011). It is about being there for the consumers, staying relevant and being creative.

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Virgin Atlantic’s branding on social media: leveraging brand attitudes and brand activity

This article covers the emergent trend of branding on social media. Growing power of the internet outdated traditional ‘’push’’ marketing techniques, creating a need for a new marketing model that would be based not on broadcasting brand message to the customers, but on dialogue with customers, hence acknowledging their wants, interests and opinions. The article sheds the light on the challenges and opportunities that emerge when brands go viral and start communicating with the customers via social media. The case study of Virgin Atlantic Airways is applied to depict how brands can successfully sculpt customers’ attitudes towards the brand and encourage them to engage with the brand at a higher level. Virgin Atlantic is an excellent example of a brand, which turns the challenges to its advantage, and managed to refine its branding on social media to foster positive attitudes and engage customers effectively.

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