Podcast
Questions and Answers
What is suggested about advertising in the content?
What is suggested about advertising in the content?
How is branding described in relation to culture?
How is branding described in relation to culture?
What unique aspect of a brand is highlighted in the content?
What unique aspect of a brand is highlighted in the content?
What challenge is indicated in the text when seeking solutions?
What challenge is indicated in the text when seeking solutions?
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Which statement about consumer influences is correct?
Which statement about consumer influences is correct?
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What concept is expressed regarding brands and religious elements?
What concept is expressed regarding brands and religious elements?
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How does the content describe the relationship between brands and innovation?
How does the content describe the relationship between brands and innovation?
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What does the phrase 'Great Leap Forward' imply in branding context?
What does the phrase 'Great Leap Forward' imply in branding context?
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What type of control do companies have over their advertising messages?
What type of control do companies have over their advertising messages?
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What is a challenge brands face in advertising now compared to the past?
What is a challenge brands face in advertising now compared to the past?
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How does co-branding benefit companies?
How does co-branding benefit companies?
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What does ingredient branding typically focus on?
What does ingredient branding typically focus on?
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What does brand extension involve?
What does brand extension involve?
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What is a key aspect of an emotional connection in branding?
What is a key aspect of an emotional connection in branding?
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Which of the following concepts helps keep a brand relevant over time?
Which of the following concepts helps keep a brand relevant over time?
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What is the significance of having a strong brand recognition?
What is the significance of having a strong brand recognition?
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Study Notes
COM1101 - Media and Communication in the Digital Age, Lecture 9: Influencers and Brands on Social Media
- Marketing has changed drastically over the past 20 years
- Mass markets have fragmented
- The rapid rise of digital technologies has given consumers more control over communication, including the timing and nature of messages
- Consumers now voice opinions easily
- Companies have new tools for interacting with customers
- Companies can now track customer behavior across platforms and devices
- Companies can keep better track of customer needs for better advertising
Characteristics of Digital Marketing
- Brand engagement and customer interaction
- Customization and personalization
- Customer feedback and involvement
- Channel integration
- Online and offline media
- Customer-centric design
- Easy navigation and efficient search function
- Instant gratification influenced impulse buying behavior
- Shopping cart abandonment
- Search engine optimization, mobile optimization, and advertising are essential
- Interest-matched advertising and PR are valuable
Owned, Paid, and Earned Media
- Owned media: communication messages from the organization to internet users on channels owned by the organization, like a company website.
- Paid media: properties owned by others but paid to carry promotional messages to the intended audience.
- Earned media: when conversations and interactions become channels.
Content, Owned, Paid, and Earned Media
- Customers, content, paid media, and earned media overlap.
- Owned media examples: company websites, blogs, support forums, podcasts, emails, text messages, online events, sales promotion, virtual worlds, online games, branded mobile apps, and QR codes.
- Paid media examples: display ads, sponsorships, classified ads, product placement, social media ads, mobile ads, SEO.
- Earned media examples: digital coverage from traditional media, viral marketing, wikis, ratings and reviews, social recommendations, emails, social site discussion, community discussions, widgets, location-based services, and collaborative content.
Branding in the Digital Age
- A brand is a perception often imbued with emotion, formed through experiences and information about a company or product line.
- A brand transforms a product into something more meaningful.
- It makes simple purchases more meaningful for the consumer
- Nike: a strong political stance
Brand Value and Equity
- Brand value comes from familiarity and trust, which wins and maintains consumer acceptance.
- Brand value has two forms: value for consumers and value for the corporation.
- Brand equity is the intangible value of the brand based on relationships with stakeholders.
- Includes intellectual property value.
- It has a financial value plotted on a balance sheet.
Brand Equity Components
- Brand awareness (global recognition?)
- Perceived quality (your experience)
- Brand association (what kind of people would use it?)
- Brand loyalty (develop relative fixed preference)
Leveraging Brand Equity
- Brand extension: using an established brand name for related products
- Co-branding: two companies use their brand names for a partnership offering
- Brand licensing: renting the brand to another partner
- Ingredient branding: using the brand name, in manufacturing, advertising, or promotion.
Centrality of branding in the digital age
- Brand strategy should drive business strategy and future growth opportunities
- Advertising cannot be entirely outsourced to advertising firms
- Brand identity should be clarified, focus on a single vision and clear brand promise for customers.
- Brand strategy should be developed and controlled internally
Branding in the Mass Media Era
- Traditional advertising and promotion targeted consumers during consider and buy stages.
- Consumers are influenced more during evaluation, and enjoy/ advocate/bond stages
- Marketers should focus more on driving consumer advocacy.
Branding in the Digital Age (The Customer Decision Journey)
- The customer decision journey involves consider, evaluate, buy, enjoy/advocate/bond stages.
- Brand strategy is now about connecting consumers with brands through many digital touch points.
Stage 1: Consider
- Consumers start with a few selected brands.
- Exposure to ads, real world experiences, and social media are key aspects.
Stage 2: Evaluate
- Consumers seek input about choices from opinion leaders, peers, reviewers, retailers, brands, and competitors adding or discarding some brands in the initial selection.
Stage 3: Buy
- Consumers often postpone their purchases until the last moment (in the store).
- Point-of-purchase is more important, with emphasis on packaging, availability, pricing, and sales interactions.
Stage 4: Enjoy, Advocate, Bond
- Consumers do online searches after a purchase.
- They advocate or praise if pleased, abandon or advocate against if unsatisfied.
- The bond becomes stronger: leading to an enjoy, advocate, buy loop.
When to Target Consumers
- Traditionally, advertising and promotion targeted consumers at consideration and buy stages.
- Now, consumers are influenced more during the evaluation, enjoyment, and advocacy stages.
- Marketers are advised to focus on driving consumer advocacy.
Brands and Social Media
- Viral, buzz, memes, stickiness.
- Branded content and storytelling
- Branding needs to create cultural relevance
- Brand bureaucracies are not suited to today's cultural innovations (digital spaces).
Rules of Cultural Branding
- Map cultural orthodoxy
- Locate cultural opportunity
- Target the crowd culture
- Diffuse the new ideology
- Innovate continuously
Influencer Marketing
- Influencer marketing compensates individuals for social media posts about products or services.
- Started in the early 2000s
- Leveraging key leaders to advocate for the brand and reach a larger market
- Used across industries, but common in fashion, beauty, health, sports, and hospitality.
The Rise of Influencer Marketing
- Social media users considered influential are compensated for posting (e.g., money, freebies, experiences).
- Fits with other goal-oriented behaviors (not interruptions)
- Appears authentic, less sales-driven and longer-format content
- Target consumer groups are aggregated based on interests
- Paid posts blend in with other content.
- Disclosure is important
Types of Social Media Influencers
- Defined by the amount of followers, engagement, perceived expertise, and cultural capital;
- Celebrity influencers (high millions+)
- Mega-influencers (high millions)
- Macro-influencers (100k+)
- Micro-influencers (10K - 100K)
- Nano-influencers (1K - 10K)
Advertising Functions of Influencers:
- Influencers are strategic, producing, and community-managing roles.
- They can use their targeted reach, audience attention, and expertise to help brands.
Influencers as audiences, endorsers, and social media managers
- Influencers have organic reach.
- Influencers are specialists.
- Influencers' content is more likely to capture attention.
- Influencers are also viewed as endorsers and social media managers by consumers.
Bright Sides of Influencer Marketing
- Breaks through advertising clutter
- Good targeting, more authentic, interactive experiences for potential consumers and longer term brand exposure.
- Can be cost-effective
- May enhance welfare (like health, fitness, and sustainable consumption)
Dark Sides of Influencer Marketing
- The focus on superficial aspects such as body image
- Potential for body image problems, eating disorders, unhealthy exercise habits.
- Followers may experience envy
- Imbalance between sponsored and organic content
- Issues of disclosure
- Kid influencers' negative impacts
- Younger followers may have lower advertising literacy
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