GODEY, B., MANTHIOU, A., PEDERZOLI, D., ROKKA, J., AIELLO, G., DONVITO, R., SINGH, R. (2016) "Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and consumer behavior"

From Digital Culture & Society

Contents 1 Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and consumer behavior 1.1 Context 1.2 Overview 1.3 Strength and Weakness 1.4 Conclusion

[edit] Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and consumer behavior

Article Title: GODEY, B., MANTHIOU, A., PEDERZOLI, D., ROKKA, J., AIELLO, G., DONVITO, R., SINGH, R. (2016) "Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and consumer behavior"

URL: https://doi-org.proxy.library.brocku.ca/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.04.181

[edit] Context

This study looks into the influence of social media on the marketing efforts of luxury brands and how this influence effects brand equity creation and consumer behavior towards the brands. Brands used in the study were selected based on their prominence of their brand on social media. Brands that were selected for the study include Burberry, LV, Dior, Gucci, and Hermès. The survey that was created for the study targeted towards consumers of luxury brands who follow the brand on social media and made luxury-brand purchases in the last year. Four distinct populations were chosen for the survey, ranging from China, France, India, and Italy. They interviewed close to 200 people in each country and the demographics chosen reflected the demographics of the country itself.

[edit] Overview

The advent of social media has brought forward amazing ways in which marketers reach and communicate with their consumers. The power of social media has shifted the power of shaping a brand image out of the hand of the marketers themselves and into the control of the consumers. The social media marketing efforts of luxury brands can be sorted into 5 different dimensions: 1) entertainment, 2) interaction, 3) trendiness, 4) customization, and 5) word of mouth. One of the main objectives of social media is to amuse and entertain users who are seeking enjoyable experiences in the digital world. Because of this, entertainment is a major reason as to the content being created for online social media sites. If luxury brand wants to appropriately reach consumers in a digital marketing setup they should include some element of entertainment (such as Louis Vuitton posting exclusive videos of their runway to social media) into their generated content. Online, users seek to interact with likeminded people with similar interests. The marketing of luxury brands and the interaction that they have with their consumers are crucial to the advertising of the brand and the representation of their brand image online. With the fast pace of social media activity, users are always up to date with the newest products and information, and have access to this information to various different social media channels, so marketers must pick the correct channels to market in.

[edit] Strength and Weakness

There are many strengths in this article, with the first being the wide range of demographics used in this study. The study used participants from 4 different countries; China, India, France, and Italy. Another strength of this article is that they also use very strong brands to focus on, that are all very well known and established brands in the luxury sector. A point of weakness that I found this article has is that the main focus was strictly on luxury brands. The results found in the study are useful in terms of finding the influence on consumer behaviour and brand equity, however the information can only be really applied to the luxury sector, and these results may not be applicable to the brand equity and consumer behaviour in other industries.

[edit] Conclusion

In this article, the main objective of this study was to explore the influence and impact that social media marketing has on consumers and how the marketing can help companies to create brand equity. The article has proven that marketing efforts used on social media has a direct and positive correlation on building consumer-based brand equity. The article has also proven that these marketing strategies help to directly and positively influence consumer preference, brand loyalty, and the consumers' willingness to pay a premium price for a product. For many brands, social media provides an important direct-to-consumer channel that allows for a deeper personal connection to a consumer, differentiating itself from previous marketing channels such as television or newspaper advertisements. The openness and lack of strict formatting in social media marketing allows for brands to build a much better brand image and create a strong brand equity for their company.