Academic literature on the topic 'Social media – Marketing – Case studies'

Background and problem discussion: Today companies literally fight for consumers' attention. Competition has forced both marketers and companies to seek new unconventional ways to communicate with the market. This has lead to the development of the phenomenon known as social media. This form of media describes a selection of user generated content created by consumers’ to educate each other about products, brands, services, personalities and issues. Social media have become a major factor in influencing different aspects of consumer behavior including awareness, information acquisition, opinions, attitudes, purchase behavior, and post-purchase communication and evaluation. Purpose: Our study focuses on describing how and explaining why companies use social media in their marketing communication strategy. Methodology: We have used a hermeneutic and qualitative approach in our study. Our research is both descriptive and explanatory. The study is also of an abductive nature, relying on empirical data and theoretical conceptions. Our empirical data was collected through a personal interview with our case company, and through the company’s social media applications. Conclusions: Companies should use social media in their marketing communications because it allows them to inform their customers and create a two-way communication. This communication can help companies to influence consumers and differentiate themselves. It can also help strengthen the corporate identity, build confidence for the company as well as create relationships. Social media is a cost effective way to become global and create reach.

On Valentine’s day 2018, Swedish watchmaker Daniel Wellington posted a photo of a gay male couple followed by a caption celebrating the love between the two subjects. The photo was posted to the brand’s Instagram account reaching an audience of four million followers. The brand’s followers responded with great amounts of engagement ranging from excitement and support for featuring a same-sex couple, to almost equal amounts homophobic disapproval. This thesis, a case study of Daniel Wellington’s social media and social media staff, examines the effects of including same-sex couples in social media marketing. Previous research on LGBTQ+ representation in advertising has identified the polarizing reactions same-sex couples in marketing usually evoke. Using existing literature on the subject as a theoretical framework, this thesis analyzes the effects of including two photos of same-sex couples, one male-male couple and one female-female couple, in Daniel Wellington’s Instagram account. A statistical analysis of the reactions to these photos on Instagram will be followed by interviews with the brand’s social media staff in order to explore the corporate response to the reactions to the social media representations of same-sex couples. This thesis will suggest, partially in line with previous research, that the social media content featuring same-sex couples created a lot of engagement among its followers, with comparatively high levels of polarization. The data identified a significant difference between how the gay male couple and the same-sex female couple were evaluated. Additionally, the interviews with the social media staff suggest that, despite the high levels of negative reactions, including same-sex couples in their social media channels did not have a deterring effect on their commitment to include more types of diversity in the brand’s social media feeds. The interviews with the social media staff indicate that the experience of including same-sex couples in the brand’s social media marketing efforts had the effect of raising awareness of issues of homophobia among the staff members.

Purpose: The paper seeks to provide insights into the application of internet communication technologies with social media in tourism industry from the perspectives of destination marketing organizations (DMOs), evaluating their effectiveness for tourism destination marketing management. The specific purpose is to uncover the important role online marketing with practice of social media to build the destination brands and engage the audience to reach potential visitors. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative case-study method generates understanding of approach on digital innovation in DMOs’ marketing. In-depth interview allows exploration of how online marketing strategies with practice of social media used in destination branding processes and engagement of the audience. Findings: DMOs need to realize the role online marketing and social media activities in marketing tourism destination and engage the audience to reach the potential visitors. Social media as one of internet communication options is an area of growth in the online marketing communication  DMOs need to emphasize the wide participation in online marketing and social media activities to achieve benefits. DMOs have to be in the place where the visitors are. Integrating online marketing and social media activities with traditional marketing is an essential marketing strategy for today’s DMOs. Practical implications: Understanding the role of online marketing and social media in building destination brands and creating audience’s engagement may contribute to the success of marketing strategies and correspondingly to the destination’s ability to increase the competitiveness. Research limitations/implications: This study offers the contributions to the need of creating online marketing strategies and leveraging social media activities. However, it probably suffers from the fact that it has been conducted in a specific DMO. Therefore it would be evaluated in comparison with the results of other DMOs to generalize the patterns. Originality/value: The study contributes to debates on the use of social media in destination marketing, the value of the study lies in a new approach to the role of online marketing and social media focusing on building destination brands

Internet marketing is critical for meeting changing consumer needs and staying competitive in the business environment. Small business owners need strategies on how to use Internet marketing to promote their products or services. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore how 5 small business owners in Maryland developed and implemented an online marketing strategy. Participants were recruited for their roles as the chief decision maker of their business; additional prerequisites for their participation were that they used Internet marketing, represented different industries, and had fewer than 20 employees. Data came from semi-structured interviews with the small business owners, direct observations of the firms' online marketing processes and technology, and evaluation of companies' use of different Internet marketing channels. The data analysis strategy drew on resource-based view theory propositions, examinations of conflicting explanations discovered during the literature review, and cross-case synthesis. The 5 emergent themes encompassed unstructured planning, limited Internet marketing knowledge and expertise, use of Internet marketing channels and tools, lack of systematic approach to the management of Internet marketing, and inadequate measurement of Internet marketing efforts. By engaging in Internet marketing strategy planning, acquiring specialized Internet marketing knowledge, measuring marketing performance, and extending their Internal marketing resources through outsourcing, small business owners may develop and implement successful online marketing strategies. These findings may influence positive social change by contributing to more effective and efficient marketing practices in small firms that can lead to better financial performance, higher survival rates, and a healthier economic system.

The technological progress the world is experiencing has also changed the way banking is done in Sweden today. One tough challenge for the banking industry is the moderately homogenous products and services they offer, which make banking particularly exposed and sensitive to customers and their switching behaviour. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what the role of Facebook is in relationship marketing within banking, a case study in SEB, Sweden. The theoretical framework is focusing on three major parts for this paper. Bank marketing involves ways of marketing and segmenting a bank, furthermore relationship marketing includes theories on building long-lasting relations with customers, and finally service related technology contains technological developments and strategies of social media This thesis is done according to an explanatory technique as material has been collected by qualitative interviews and the findings have been textual data. The study has been designed into a single case study of SEB. Interviews has been conducted to understand the way a Swedish retailing bank is using social media to enhance their customer relation. It was found that SEB is seen as a personal and rather modern bank with good accessibility according to the respondents. Furthermore, customers are kept satisfied and maintained through trust, loyalty, and proactive acting. Also, the Facebook service is a good communication tool that gives fast replies and is available to use anytime. The role of Facebook within banking is multiple in association to relationship marketing. For instance, it brings along a fast communication tool and a great flexibility. SEB is rather innovative in their operation by rapidly adopting new means of technologies. The bank’s brand image as a personal and proactive bank can further be strengthened through Facebook. Additionally long term relations can be stimulated through the increased communication, collaboration, and trust that Facebook builds. SEB operates proactive relationship marketing and Facebook is one of their latest proactive approaches. What has been realised is the role of Facebook to enhance customer satisfaction and relations in the long run.

This general purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate how businesses and consumers are co-creating brand value on social media by sharing photos on Instagram. The main focus is two-fold, one is to look at how corporations like Nike and Starbucks are utilizing Instagram to engage customers; another is to look at how customers presenting brand images and identify with brand personalities. This research analyzed 238 customer-created images and 62 corporate-created Instagram images using a hybrid method of qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis as an empirical way to explore the big picture of this new and understudied topic. The data was collected through Keyhole and Statigram, two online social media analytical tools. The analysis of the data shows overall positive brand image sharing among customers, implicit, indirect tactics in companies' official image sharing, and customers' use of brand as a way to promote and express themselves. Overall, customers' brand value co-creation practice on Instagram focus heavily on the individuals' self expression rather than brand community building. The study also discovered valuable themes of the use of selfies and the self-directed sarcasm among Instagramers who share brand images. The findings showed an overall decentralizing brand value co-creation process and that marketers today will face more and more challenges in controlling and managing a consistent brand image. The study contributes to the understanding of visual communication and the new marketing paradigm in a visual centric digital culture.

The thesis presents rich empirical analysis of the role of public relations in facilitating participation in social change in the Arab Gulf. The focus is on what public communication approaches are used and how they are regarded from the perspectives of the key social actors. It presents an historical and sociological background of public communication and media in the Arab Gulf. Moreover, it provides in-depth analysis of two empirical case studies in the Arab Gulf: Ghiras, the national drugs prevention programme in Kuwait, and Be Free, the voluntary anti-child abuse programme in Bahrain. This thesis relates the practice of public communication in the Arab Gulf society to Arabic culture and ethics. The thesis uses a qualitative constructivist paradigm to “re-construct” the multiple realities initially constructed by social actors in the cases to provide original insights on the role of public communication and public relations in social change in the Arab Gulf. It presents a new perspective of 'social change' in the two cases that is tied to Islamic ethics. Besides, it re-constructs original Arabic-oriented understanding of 'relational' and 'persuasion' approaches, which differs from the Western paradigm. One of the key contributions of the thesis is its adaptation of relevant Western communication models to the empirical Arab Gulf cases to identify some of the crucial factors of the practice and role of public communication in the Arab Gulf. The unique contribution of this thesis is that it develops a greater understanding of alternative cultural context that might contribute to the adaptations of existing theory and therefore a first step towards new models. It introduces a theoretical framework for other scholars to develop an Arabic public communication ethics theory and to build up a cultural model of the practice of public communication and public relations in the Arab Gulf. The thesis generates key theoretical implications that contribute to the theoretical discussion on the value and role of media, public relations, social marketing, and public communication in the Arab Gulf society at the age of globalisation.

Title: Recycling, society and social media: a qualitative case study of a municipally-owned company’s Facebook communication. The aim of the study has been to, through a case study of a company’s Facebook communication create understanding for how the medium may be used as communication channel in order to achieve effective, engaging communication with the company’s Facebook followers. The company Stormossen is a municipally-owned waste disposal company located in Kvevlax, Finland. The study uses a mix of the theoretical perspectives intentionalism and hermeneutics, in that its aim is to look at both sides of the communication process - the sender and the receiver - thus gaining a comprehensive picture of the research problem. The theoretical frame is made up of theories on new media logic and social media, participation, communication strategies and social communication. Two methods are applied in the case study, an informant interview with a key person at the company and a qualitative content analysis of the company’s official Facebook page. A total of 133 status updates were selected for analysis, mainly focusing on examining the content, mode of communication and the followers’ interaction and communication on the page. The main results of the study have shown that the company has not fully adapted to the new media logic in their Facebook communication. The communication strategy used is mainly an inside-strategy with emphasis being placed on organizational targets and the one-way distribution of information about the company and its services, with limited attempts to involve and initiate dialogue with the followers. These findings are in line with earlier research on how companies use social media. The company also has an unclear picture of who their followers are and why they would be interested in interacting with the company on Facebook. The followers on the other hand are mainly passive, and their motive for communication can be explained with the need for self-presentation. In order to create content and communication that the followers find relevant and want to interact with and share, the company has to actively work to adapt more to the new media logic. Facebook should be used both as a way of making information available but also for networking with and inviting followers to participation and dialogue, thus making themselves useful to the followers in order to build a good reputation and effective communication. Key words: Social media, Facebook, web 2.0, social communication/social marketing, civic information, communication strategy, social media-strategy, new media logic, participation, communication model, case study, qualitative study, Stormossen, municipally-owned company

The purpose of this thesis is to understand how brand awareness among customers is created and maintained through the use of social media as a marketing tool.The web does not only provide people to socialize and share and receive information among friends and family online, it is also a powerful marketing tool and marketing place where the customer can interact with other customers and firms. Social media has made it possible for customer to choose on their own when and where they want to receive information. The customers do not have to visit a firm's homepage; they can instead interact withother customers that have experienced a specific product or brand via the social media channels. Hence social media channels are environments where the customers set the rules and WOM makes or breaks the product.We used a mixed method approach. To gather our empirical data we used a questionnaire which we did send out to Facebookusers whom likes Husqvarna Sverige's page to answer about their perceptions of Husqvarna and their social media activity. We did also an interview with Anna Lindman, project manager at Husqvarna.Social media marketing is successful when online activities, relationship marketing and brand awareness are used in conjunction. All these parts are connected to each other and haveto be fulfilled if a firm wants to be successful in social media. This will influence the customer’s purchasing behavior andcould lead to an increase of sales (Miller & Lamas, 2010). The respondents answer from the questionnaire show that Husqvarna needs to be more active and participating online.