As a college student, what is the first thing you do when you open your computer? Don’t say its check CNN or another news outlet because we know that is false. You open up your Facebook, Twitter, E-mail or blog, first right? Unless you have already been habitually checking it on your smartphone, still even then, it is the first tab open. But when you look at your Facebook do you realize all the marketing that is going on just on our news feed? Do you realize that the ads are based on your “likes”, interests and Internet browsing history? Well, they are. But how do these companies know you will be interested in this product and that product based on your age and interests? They know this because they use the social marketing theory.
According to Baran and Davis the social marketing theory is a “collection of middle-range theories concerning the promotion of socially valuable information”(284). What this really means is that they have methods for how to stimulate interest, create audience awareness, targeting, and reinforcing the messages that they want to convey. Instantly while reading this chapter I thought of the value of a brand name and facebook. In Angela Carrol’s Article “Brand communications in fashion categories using celebrity endorsement” she discussed the ever-growing importance of the brand name, but also the shift in the brand paradigm. She says:
“Brands have evolved to represent much more than the traditional markers of quality, trust and reliability to consumers. Brands have become embedded in the consumer psyche and offer consumers the opportunity for self-expression, self-realisation and self-identity”(Carrol 146).
We define ourselves by what we wear. If you wear a polo you are a prep, if you wear a penny you are a jock, a Slipknot t-shirt automatically makes you emo, Abercrombie makes you rich and Dickeys and a flannel makes you a redneck. Everything we do, the music we listen to, the way we dress, and the format of our Facebook page is all in our social identity. We all want to belong. But how would a company target all of these different groups of people to enjoy their product? If you like Ke$ha you are more than likely going to buy a Baby G watch, wear Chanel because of Keira Knightley, use old spice because of that crazy, hilarious or sexy guy, and wear Sean Jean because you like P. Diddy. It is all about forming your identity. The buisnesses have picked up on that, for the fact you are more likely to look at something if a friend likes it, more likely to buy something if a celebrity or popular person wears it, or go to a diner, drive in, or dive that Guy Fieri went to.
In an article in Social Media Marketing Magazine, Debi Kleinman, President of MITX (Massachuettes Innovation & Technology Exchange) discusses how social media is changing the face of modern marketing. She quotes one of her co-workers John Fichera who says “Social media makes marketing personal. For example, if you see that one of your friends is into a certain product or brand (e.q., via Facebook), then this can spark your interest to at least research the product, raising name recognition” (Kleinman 1). This sparked an idea in myself. When on your own Facebook news page, do you look at things because it says your friends liked it? Do you end up liking it yourself? The way brand names used to be created is very different than now. “The modern social media strategist must be part technologist and part behaviorist. As marketing leaders, we must be willing to experiment with and implement technology while studying the changes in human behavior that come with new and evolving social media adoption” (Kleinman 1). Debi makes a good point, which is why the social marketing theory still works. It must evolve with the time, the likes and dislikes of the target audiences, and if you look deeper into Baran and Davis, you will realize that it is something they also look into. So how would you use social media to implement the social marketing theory?
http://www.smmmagazine.com/blog/2011/11/30/will-social-media-change-the-face-of-modern-marketing/
Hi Paige, I think we all can relate to your post, which is why I want to respond to it. Recently, I deactivated my Facebook account for Lent…I spend too much time on it when I could be doing homework and other things instead. However, after realizing I couldn’t play “Draw Something” or “Words with Friends” on my IPhone without a Facebook login, I had to reconsider my deactivation. Instead, I just will not log in to Facebook until Easter. I think this is a great example of what our generations’ interests’ are. We all have our own “likes” and most of us probably have at some point, followed a friends “like” because we want to have more in common with everyone else. Companies know we will be interested in a product by “inducing audience awareness” (Baran, Davis 284). Companies will leak out ideas into our heads and make us aware of the product by advertising on Facebook and other social media sites. They use targeting, which is “identifying specific audience segments and reaching them through the most efficient available channel” (Baran, Davis 285). This is on of the cheapest forms of advertising because putting an ad up on Facebook is cheaper than a billboard (http://www.facebook.com/advertising/?campaign_id=194417723019&placement=broad&creative=5811888152&keyword=advertisement+facebook&extra_1=15b51fe3-5b3a-ef88-3206-00002b1f48e9).
ReplyDeleteAnother great social website for showing audience awareness is “Pinterest” (which I LOVE). Lets say a friend “Repins (links that specific picture to their own board)” a cute dress, and you are not sure about it but you think she has good taste, so you will “Repin” it too…therefore, this shows a relation with social marketing theory in that it reaches a specific behavioral goal and reaches the particular audience.
According to Carroll’s article, the need to feel like we belong somewhere is necessary. She states, “There is some evidence to suggest that high self-monitors demonstrate negative attitudes towards unbranded fashion goods, and use brands as discriminators between themselves as ‘belongers’ who have chosen to interpret the social code implied by the brand and those who remain aloof, threatening their social identity” (152). This can be seen in tween girls, even boys, now. They are wearing thick make-up, Buckle jeans, and clothes that look “cool”. They are trying to fit in with the norm, because the norm defines them by what they wear, and like you stated earlier Paige, what music they listen to. For me, I try to stay away from brand name things (although they are everywhere…literally). I will never buy or wear Uggs, no matter how comfortable they are. In my opinion, they are not attractive, and it is more for the brand. Growing up with five older siblings, I was given numerous hand-me-downs, and I was okay with that growing up because my friends were never into brand names either. I believe I had it easy forming into a group, because I was in sports. I never had to outshine my classmates by my clothes, because I was always in sweatpants or a travel suit for game days.
I use social media to implement the social marketing theory by pinning on Pinterest my beliefs; for example, I believe in gay marriage. I think that if people are happy with the same sex, then why should we stop them? Anyways, getting back on track, I know that these social media websites are a part of advertising…but that is what draws us in, right? We want to belong to something, because if we did not belong, then what is the point of relationships? People think life is all about belonging, and in today’s world, it almost seems so. However, this website http://www.marcandangel.com/2010/12/13/28-dignified-ways-to-impress-everyone-around-you/ show’s what my perspective on life is about.
I find celebrity brand and intriguing topic, especially because it relates to my life this semester. I am currently an intern at “The Rachael Ray Show” in New York City. It is an incredible experience and the interns are often given the opportunity to talk with not only the crew, but Rachael’s management team. Someone one said that managing Rachael is a unique task because she is not just a celebrity, she is a brand. She promotes herself, her shows, her cookware, her cookbooks, her magazine and even her line of dog food. Rachael Ray is an interesting case study in the way that branding has evolved over her career. Originally, it was only about her show – 30 Minute Meals. She was just a newcomer on the scene and wanted a positive image and viewers. Then, as she began to develop more products and television shows, her brand began to take shape. “It thus became accepted that developing, communicating and maintaining a brand’s image is critical to the long-term success of a brand, with the core activity of many companies transformed from the production of images” (Carroll 147). The reason why Rachael is so successful is because her brand is developed very well. She promotes not only her cooking shows on her talk show, but all of her products as well. She uses her pots, pans, and utensils as she cooks. She gives away samples of her dog food and magazines to audience members who attend. Her profile on social media is maintained superbly, creating a large fan base. Carroll says that, “consequently, the scope for differentiation became limited, and it could not be assumed that consumers were interested in product because of some combination of basic ingredients. The emphasis shifted to symbolic, emotional features that generated more socio-psychological associations in the minds of consumers” (147). Rachael’s fans are incredibly devoted to her. Working in the audience department, I see the intensity of their adoration for her. You can tell that these people follow all of her shows and actions very closely. Becoming a part of the show, I have started to follow her social media as well. Her Twitter and Facebook is constantly updated with recipes and news about the show. “We conceptualize celebrity as an organic and ever-changing performative practice rather than a set of intrinsic personal characteristics or external labels. This practice involves ongoing maintenance of a fan base, performed intimacy, authenticity and access, and construction of a consumable persona” (Marwick and Boyd 140). Her PR team is extremely talented in portraying Rachael’s breezy, relatable tone to her marketing. Everything is always bright and fun. Her social media, products, and literature play to her demographic. “Brand names thus become hallmarks, which resulted in consumers placing trust in brands and forming bonds with manufacturers” (Carroll 147). Middle-aged women with a passion for easy-cooking, gossip, and fashion know that she is someone they can trust look to for advice. Overall, Rachael Ray has an incredibly well-developed brand that consumers have confidence in. If she promotes something, even if it’s not hers, her fans will certainly follow.
ReplyDelete"Brand Communications In Fashion Categories Using Celebrity Endorsement" by Angela Carroll
“Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies” by Alice Marwick and Danah Boyd
Branding has become central to any organization’s marketing strategies due to its ability to create an emotional connection between consumers and brands. In Angela Carroll’s article, Brand Communications in fashion categories using celebrity endorsement, she explains the powerful connection and the development of this marketing method by stating, “The emphasis shifted to symbolic, emotional features that generated more socio-psychological associations in the minds of consumers,” (Carroll, 147). Another main advantage of branding your products is that companies can now advertise a lifestyle that is associated with your brand. When selling goods or services now, marketers are not just selling the functionality of a product, but rather the social implications that go along with it.
ReplyDeleteIn discussing celebrity endorsements, think about some of the popular advertisements that have resonated with consumers. You have Michael Jordan’s long standing relationship with Hanes, Jay-Z and Roc-a-fella, Cover Girl’s use of female actresses and singers, Wheaties Cereal and athletic endorsements, and the list goes on. What do these examples show us? They demonstrated that there is power in celebrity endorsement due to their ability to demand consumer attention. Also, by aligning celebrities with a product, you are extending your brand into lifestyle associations within the eyes of consumers. Carroll continues this point by explain, “Branding strategy has become less about market share and more about minds and emotional share,” (Carroll, 148).
Researchers have developed different models do explore why celebrity endorsements are so successful and resonate so well with the consumer public. The most supported theory is that of Source Credibility Model, in which trust, believability, and perceived expertise hold rank in the validity of a celebrity endorsement. This makes sense logically, when a celebrity endorser has a natural fit with the product they are endorsing, then consumers are more likely to be inclined to believe their endorsement and that the product is of a high quality. A certain example that comes to mind is Gillette’s use of Derek Jeter, they are trying to station themselves as a product that is necessary in a man’s lifestyle, and who better to present this image than Derek Jeter.
This obsession with branding has spilled over to social media as well. With the explosion of social media, companies and celebrities are making efforts to further brand themselves and their products through social media outlets such as twitter, facebook, and more. In Alice Marwick and Danah Boyd’s journal article, To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter, they explore the interaction and branding efforts of celebrities. The article explains, “Our analysis of the practices of famous people on Twitter reveals how social media can be used to maintain celebrity status. Entertainers, public figures and technologists actively contribute to the construction of their persona through public interaction with fans,” (Marwick & Boyd, 18).
Celebrity endorsements have become a fixture in advertising due to their drawing power, and have aligned themselves with branding efforts by marketers in order to create brand loyalty through emotional allegiances and lifestyle associations by consumers to brands.
“Brand Communications In Fashion Categories Using Celebrity Endorsement" by Angela Carroll
“Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies” by Alice Marwick and Danah Boyd
As students who have grown up in this past decade we have seen that technology is taking over a lot of areas in businesses. The way in which businesses interview people or each list qualifications they are looking for is now all done over the internet. In regards to what Paige stated right off the bat about how student go right to Facebook, Twitter, or their blogs I couldn’t agree more. I have found myself doing it from time to time but ultimately I make my homepage my email or Google’s homepage. Yet I bet more than three fourths of our class when they open their computers will go straight to Facebook. As far as the ads go that we see on the side of the pages it is really pretty scary, for me at least it is. When I’m on the internet and looking at sports stories or watching sport videos, and then I go onto Facebook to see the ads come up based on sites you just looked at is weird. What really gets me is that even Facebook will link the past website you’ve looked at and show a recommended to you area. Have a good background in marketing the practices are really smart and clever. When I look for new hockey equipment I look at three different sites to find the best deals but then I go onto a social media site and I get ads showing me more deals from different sites so of course I end up checking them. It draws you to the sites sometimes just like celebrity news draws you to their pages or twitters. Now with being able to see what people are doing at any point of the day it only boost celebrity’s awareness. Alice Marwick and Danah Boyd’s article “To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter” states “Tweets can be posted and read from the web, SMS, or third-party clients for desktop computers, smartphones, and other devices. This integration allows for instant postings of photos, on-the-ground reports, and quick replies to other users.” Forget anyone going a day without checking in on their favorite celebrity or on their friends. People are able to check their social media sites at any point of the day and personally I feel it is really hurting our generation. While these sites do a great job of creating a tool for companies to market themselves on they also in my opinion hurting themselves. Social media has diminished the art of public speaking. Individuals are now able to sit behind the screen and hide so when it comes to the interviewing process while their resume might look awesome if they can’t speak comfortably and properly well it’s a deal breaker. In addition to this with the up rise of social media marketing companies are beginning to focus more on their names rather than the performances so to say. It is all about the branding of the companies now, “Traditionally, branding was viewed primarily as a marketing function within the business. Increasingly, however, it has come to be viewed as being at the heart of business activity, embedded throughout the organisation, and as an asset that needs to be correctly managed.” (Carroll 147). Everything is about the band name now and as long as the social media world continues to flourish then the name of your company is always going to be one of the top priorities. We have completely shifted from the ways in which our parents use to see ad and my personal opinion is social media is only going to hurt us in the end.
ReplyDeleteAnyone that’s spent more than 20 minutes with me knows that I have an insane obsession with Justin Bieber, so of course for my first graduate course I decided to write my final paper on Justin Bieber. I wanted to discuss how online sites like YouTube are changing the music industry, and I chose Justin Bieber as more of a case study to help prove my thesis. In the paper I ended up discussing digital brand management because the more I researched information on Justin the more I realized he was becoming his own brand, mainly through the use of social networking sites like Facebook & Twitter. In the article, “Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies” , by Alice Marwick and Danah boyd it states, “Concurrently, the increasingly uncertain economics of the entertainment industry have led some performers and personalities to seek alternative means of publicity. Up-and-coming bands book tour dates, arrange press opportunities, create fan clubs, release music over blogs or social networking sites, and manage fans using YouTube, MySpace, Twitter, and other social media tools,” (Marwick & Boyd 155). Yes, managing all forms of digital media for up and coming artist are difficult to achieve without help but even with celebrities like Bieber it’s just as hard to maintain that fan base. One thing that I think stands out with Justin’s fans, outside of maybe Lady Gaga’s fans, is there constant need to support Justin no matter what he does. Justin uses that support to his advantage and it’s been working well in his benefit, but if he ever loses that disconnect from his fans he will lose everything. I think that’s why as busy as he is he manages to always keep up with his Twitter and still follow fans when they request, retweet, and mention them because he wants them to know that he does care no matter how famous he gets. The article also states, “Micro-celebrity describes a prevailing style of behavior both online and off, linked to the increase in popularity of self-branding and strategic self-presentation” (Warwick 141). Self-branding in digital media has become a way for celebrities to promote or market themselves to society. In the article, “Brand communication fashion categories using celebrity endorsement”, by Angela Carroll, it states, “Effective management of brands requires a long-term customer –based perspective, and critical to this is an understanding of the relationship between consumer and brands in order to build favorable, strong and unique associations” (Carroll) .Justin knows that the relationship between him and his fans is vital in maintaining the brand he’s created; as long as his fans support and love him they’ll also support and love everything about his brand. I know for instance that his brand is working because I personally own his: perfume, blanket, notebooks, folders, DVDs, CDs, pillow, life size poster, bracelet, necklace, cup, and toothbrush. An ordinary person would think that was crazy but the truth is , his hardcore fans would do anything for him and as long as he continues to put out positive messages and inspire kids they will always support his brand.
DeleteI think it is true that the first site that the majority of high school and college student’s check when going on a computer is a social media site. It is kind of scary that marketing firms use your page history or “cookies” to bombard you with advertisements that will appeal to you. This could be in many ways an invasion of privacy. I wonder how much information’s they have access too? I mean people do everything from shopping to check and balance bank accounts on computers. This makes me think about how easy it is for computer hackers to steals personal information. This has actually happened to me when I was trying to sell a kayak on craigslist. A buyer who wanted to buy my Kayak contacted me. She told me that she was going to send me a check and have someone come pick up the Kayak at my house. I was so thrilled to make a sale and accepted the offer and waited for the check. When I finally got it in the mail I was shocked to find a check for double the amount we agreed on. I contacted the seller and she told me she screwed up and to write her a check for the difference. It turns out the buyer had stolen someone’s information on the internet and was writing checks from a women’s bank account from Texas. The scam was that I would get caught cashing the stolen money and the thief would get a check for the difference from my account and disappear. I was actually contacted by the FBI about the scam artist. Scary right, be very carful when buying and selling on craigslist. Only deal in cash and stay local and meet in person.
ReplyDeleteI don’t agree with the section about, “…offer consumers the opportunity for self-expression, self-realization and self-identity” (Carrol 146) for some people like the majority of the Quinnipiac student body this may be true. It is disturbing how everyone at this school has to dress exactly like everyone else to fit in. Personally I do not define myself by what I wear. The majority of clothing decisions for me are base on comfort and personal appeal and style. I don’t pick my cloths to fit into a certain social category in hopes of being accepted by my peers. The majority of consumers who are helplessly controlled by popular culture are not “offer[ed] the opportunity for SELF expression… and SELF identity” (Carrol 146), they are told and shown what to wear in order to fit in and wear the current high fashion. To me “self expression” and “self identity” is not created by what everyone else is wearing and what big clothing companies want you to wear so they can make their millions. Self Identity is personal tastes and style. Being unique and wearing cloths that appeal to you is self-identity. These tyrants of industry change their fashion trends every couple of months to force our consumer culture to BUY BUY BUY; which results in massive profit margins. They create your identity and self-expression for you, and the celebrities that are paid to wear the cloths are simply marketing tricks.
From another perspective personal marketing resulting from social media and innovation is kind of nice. I would rather be harassed with advertisements that appeal to me; then popular culture bullshit like celebrity fashion, reality TV, Kesha, rap hipphoop bebop whatever they call that trash music. I think that this advance in marketing technology has potential to drastically increase it’s effectiveness. I also think we need to address the amount of advertising that is flooding our communication airways. It hard to watch television now due to the amount and length of ads and to surf the web and dig through the ads to find what you are looking for. If I was and advertising firm I would use the length and annoying ads that the majority of firms are currently using against them by shorting my ads exploiting the stupid ads that annoy everyone. Simply get my message across and be like, we bought the next two advertising spaces so you can get back to your program faster. ☺
It is really nice to find blog on such an interesting topic like Facebook Social Media Marketing. I found it good to read and will share with my friends. Thanks.
ReplyDelete