Social Media Tools for Brand Management

Carinthia University of Applied Sciences

School of Management Degree Program Business

International Business Management

M A S T E R T H E S I S

“Social Media Tools for Brand Management”

For the award of the academic degree …. E.g. Magister (FH)/Magistra (FH)

Author: First and Second Name

Matriculation number: xxxx

First Supervisor: Academic Title, First and Second Name

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Signature

Second Supervisor: Academic Title, First and Second Name

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Statutory declaration

I hereby declare that:

• I have developed and written the attached thesis independently and without external

help.

• I have used no different sources than those indicated and I have clearly

acknowledged any passages, words or ideas, including tables and figures taken from

other sources as such and I have not used any external unauthorized help.

• This paper is in line with the paper graded by the assessors.

Place, Date of Submission .............................................

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Acknowledgements

Varaždin, 26.07.2012.

First of all I thank my supervisor and ....

Secondly I would like to thank my friends who helped me get in touch with the interviewed

experts when I lost all the hope and also gave me new insights and support. Thirdly I would

like to thank all the respondents for their time and interesting answers.

Last, but not least, my parents for making this all possible.

Sandra

Abstract in English

Brand is the most valuable asset company has, therefore it should be a top management

priority. Value of the brand is defined by brand equity and for that reason company puts in

a lot of effort in order to create a long-term relationship with its customers. Before,

companies were relaying only on the traditional marketing tools to achieve brand

awareness.

Nowadays, due to development of the Internet and social media tools, companies

marketing departments had to change their way of thinking and acting. There are many

social media tools available on the market which helps companies create a better

relationship with their customers. Development of Web 2.0 technologies has changed word

of mouth communication by allowing companies to detect and comprehend public opinion

through online media such as blog posts, collaborative wikis, social networking, tagging,

video post and customer ratings and reviews.

Keywords: Band, Management, Social Media, Web 2.0, Marketing Rules

Table of Contents

1 Preface............................................................................................................................1

1.1 Initial situation..........................................................................................................1

1.2 Research Question..................................................................................................1

1.3 Research Design.....................................................................................................3

1.4 The Methodology.....................................................................................................5

1.5 Master Thesis Structure...........................................................................................6

2 Literature Overview on Brand Management...................................................................7

2.1 Introduction..............................................................................................................7

2.2 Brand Defined..........................................................................................................7

2.3 Brand Equity............................................................................................................8

2.4 Customer-Based Brand Equity................................................................................9

2.5 Building Customer-Based Brand Equity................................................................10

2.6 Managing Brand Equity.........................................................................................13

2.7 Sources of Brand Equity........................................................................................13

2.7.1 Brand Awareness...........................................................................................14

2.7.2 Brand Image...................................................................................................17

3 Literature Overview on development of Web 2.0 and Social Media.............................19

3.1 Introduction............................................................................................................19

3.2 Development of Web 2.0 and Social Media..........................................................20

3.3 Social Media Defined.............................................................................................23

3.3.1 Attributes of Social Media...............................................................................24

3.3.2 3’R of Social Media.........................................................................................25

3.4 The Elements of Social Media...............................................................................27

3.4.1 Social Media Engagement..............................................................................27

3.5 Social Media Tools................................................................................................30

I

3.5.1 Blog................................................................................................................31

3.5.2 Micro blogs.....................................................................................................32

3.5.3 Social Networking...........................................................................................34

3.5.4 Media sharing (Content Communities)...........................................................38

3.5.5 Others.............................................................................................................39

3.6 Technologies within Web 2.0.................................................................................46

4 The Impact of Internet and Social Media on Brands.....................................................48

4.1 Introduction............................................................................................................48

4.2 Changes in Marketing Rules..................................................................................49

4.2.1 The Old Rules of Marketing............................................................................49

4.2.2 The New Rules of Marketing..........................................................................51

4.3 Branding in the Digital Age....................................................................................54

4.3.1 Social Media Marketing..................................................................................56

4.3.2 Changes in Customers’ Behavior and Environment.......................................59

4.3.3 Electronic Word of Mouth...............................................................................62

4.3.4 „The Long Tail „of Marketing..........................................................................63

5 Recommendations........................................................................................................66

6 Conclusion....................................................................................................................69

Bibliography.........................................................................................................................70

Appendix..............................................................................................................................77

II

List of Figures

Figure 1: Research Design....................................................................................................4

Figure 2: Customer-based brand equity pyramid.................................................................12

Figure 3: Components of Brand Knowledge........................................................................14

Figure 4: The Awareness Pyramid.......................................................................................15

Figure 5: Brand Awareness Characteristics.........................................................................16

Figure 6: Brand Image Characteristic..................................................................................18

Figure 7: Development - Web 1.0 to Web 2.0......................................................................21

Figure 8: The Social Media Starfish.....................................................................................27

Figure 9: LENiE Model.........................................................................................................28

Figure 10: Engagement Cycle..............................................................................................29

Figure 11: Social Media Landscape.....................................................................................31

Figure 12: 1:n Traditional Communication Model................................................................50

Figure 13: The New Communication Paradigm...................................................................51

Figure 14:1:1 Communication Model...................................................................................53

Figure 15: n:n Communication Model..................................................................................54

Figure 16: Then: The Funnel Metaphor...............................................................................55

Figure 17: Now: The Consumer Decision Journey..............................................................56

Figure 18: The Classical Purchase Funnel..........................................................................57

Figure 19: The Social Feedback Cycle................................................................................58

Figure 20: The Long Tail......................................................................................................64

III

List of Abbreviations

AMA American Marketing Association

EIU Economist Intelligence Unit

eWOM electronic Word of Mouth

GIS Geographic Information System

IMC Integrated Marketing Communication

OWOM Online Word of Mouth

PR Public Relations

UGC User Generated Content

UGC user generated content

WOM Word of Mouth

IV

1 Preface

1.1 Initial situation

Brands are one of the most valuable assets companies have, as well as an important value

creator and should therefore be the top management priority. Traditionally, branding has

been about defining a clear identity and positioning, implementing marketing programs, and

sustaining and growing the brand equity.1 The wide expansion of Internet usage has

brought many changes to the marketplace and this has affected the value of brands and

the way brands should be managed.

In the last years the development of 2.0 Web and social media has affected brands, and

the rapid increase in usage of social media.2 The main focus is on the questions what kind

of social media tools are available to the brand owners/companies in Croatia to increase

brand awareness, and how well the potential that social media tools bring is exploited.

Croatia is quite a young, not highly developed market in terms of social media. Companies

mainly prefer to stick to the old-fashioned way of introducing their product or service to the

customers. In the last four years the situation in the market goes in favor of social media.

Mostly young people recognized the opportunity and the potential of social media tools.

1.2 Research Question

Social media and the usage of social media tools is widely discussed, but it is interesting to

explain how it is used in real life to increase brand awareness and how companies can use

the potential and opportunities social media tools bring.

This Master Thesis will provide concrete information on the development of Web 2.0,

changes in the environment and changes in customer perception. Furthermore, the

detailed overview of the range of tools available will be given. Social media tools are used

by brand owners to build up the relationship with customers, to strengthen the brand image

and to communicate with customers more efficiently.

1Aaker (1991), p. 7ff.2 Cf. O’Reilley (2005), p.1., Cf. Zarella (2010), p. 8.

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The focus of the Thesis is on brand management and how the branding is different after

the Internet and web have developed and social media tools have become popular among

brand owners. The Thesis will focus on Croatian agencies which are implementing social

media tools to improve company’s relationship with customers, to strengthen the brand

image and to communicate with customers more efficiently.

The aim of this Master Thesis is the creation of a theoretical sketch for real life applicability

of social media tools for brand management with the focus on Croatia. One of the most

effective ways to achieve customer loyalty is implementation of social media tools.

However, the technical development is not the focus of the Thesis but the variety of

available tools and the choice of the right one for a specific company.

In the following part there are main questions and sub questions of the Thesis:

What kind of social media tools can companies use to strengthen the brand image

and how can they use social media tools?

Has the Internet affected the marketing environment and how has it eventually

changed brand management?

Is the branding different, and how?

What kind of social media can be best used to increase brand awareness?

2

1.3 Research Design

The concept of the Master Thesis is explained in Research design chapter.

The Master Thesis is divided into two main parts.

In the theoretical part the literature research on relevant online media, books, journals and

research reports within the focused topics of brand management and social media are

carried out. The changes in communication and the way of promoting brands on the

Internet by using social media tools is going to be explained with the aim to understand the

progress and the theory of brand management and social media.

Based on the literature and gained knowledge, the second part focuses on the interviews

with Croatian experts involved in the process of social media tool implementation. The

practical knowledge of the experts in the field of brand management and social media

should answer the research question, to discover existing social media tools and their best

usage.

After the theoretical analysis and the interviews, possible social media tools will be

identified to build up the relationship with customers, to strengthen the brand image and to

communicate with customers more efficiently and a recommendation for the practical

usage will be given.

3

Figure 1: Research Design3

3 Source: Own creation

4

1.4 The Methodology

The methodology chosen to answer research questions are in-depth interviews. Interviews

are considered to be the most significant source of evidence. Interviews rely on the

communication between research participants and the researcher. They are used as a

good and quick way to collect information or data from several people. The purpose of

interviews is to get a story, opinion or experienced situation.4 Blumer creates a basic

assumption that “the meaning people make of their experience affects the way they carry

out that experience.”5

For the purpose of interviews I have provided open questions for experts working in social

media branch. (See appendix)

All the interviews with experts were done in Croatia and the main reason is that the

international focus was requested. The main interest was to answer the research question

and find out what social media tools are available in Croatia and how companies can use

those tools for increasing brand awareness. I was also interested in changes which

happened in Croatian market regarding the development of the Internet and social media,

and how these changes have effected brand management as well as how they were

accepted and perceived by Croatian companies. Therefore, I did 6 in-depth interviews with

Croatian experts who work in Croatian agencies that deal with implementation of social

media.

The collected data, i.e. the answers on the interview questions are implemented in the

theory as evidence that supports the theory, and besides general knowledge they give an

overview of what the situation is really like in Croatia.

The proposed conclusions and recommendations are based on the combination between

the findings from the interviews and the research in the literature.

4 Cf. Seidman (2006), p.7ff.5 Blumer (1969), qtd.in: Seidman (2006), p.10.

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1.5 Master Thesis Structure

In this section I will provide an overview of the thesis content. The thesis is structured as

follows:

Chapter 1 gives information on the initial situation and the research question which has to

be answered in the current thesis. The overview of the research design is also both,

explained and graphically illustrated. In the methodology section the importance and

meaning of interviews is explained.

Chapter 2 follows with the explanation of a brand and brand equity. The importance of

customer-based brand equity is also explained and gives the information on brand building

and managing brand with an aim to achieve greater awareness. Furthermore, sources of

brand equity are mentioned.

Chapter 3 follows with the development of Web 2.0 and social media. Furthermore, the

development and the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 are shown. The social

media is explained as well as its attributes, elements and social media engagement. The

sub-chapter 3.2. gives an overview of the available social media tools and it contains

explanation how they can be used for businesses.

Chapter 4 gives a summarized overview of what differences have been made in brand

management due to the development of the Internet. The traditional communication model

and the new communication paradigm are compared. It follows with the description of how

the development of social media influenced brands. It gives the information on changes in

the communication pattern, changes among consumers etc.

Chapter 5 gives the general recommendations for Croatian companies and in chapter 6

the conclusion is presented.

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2 Literature Overview on Brand Management

2.1 Introduction

The following section contains a review of brand management. It is most important to

define brand, since brand management begins with having knowledge of the term “brand”.

Brand management can be described as nothing but a way of creating and sustaining the

brand. Branding enables customers to distinguish one product or service from competitors’

products or service. Brand gives particular information about the product or service to the

customer and it differentiates those goods or services from those of competitors.

Brand equity represents the value of the brand. It is driven by consumer behavior, and

consumer behavior is driven by perceptions of a brand. Brand equity is determined by

brand image. Brand awareness defines how well customers are familiar with the brand, it

includes brand recognition and brand recall. Brand image is a set of specific beliefs and

attitudes towards some brand, in other words, it is customers’ perception of the brand and

all associations connected to the specific brand. We can say that brand associations form

the brand image.

2.2 Brand Defined

Over the last decade brand has been defined in many different ways, which mainly

depends on the perspective from which the brand is perceived. Dramatic shifts had the

influence on the authors and constant review as well as on redefining the role of a brand.

In the classical definition the brand is connected with the identification of the product and

differentiation from its competitors, brand is “the name, associated with one or more items

in the product line, which is used to identify the source of the item(s).”6

The American Marketing Association (AMA) definition of a brand is “a name, term, sign,

symbol, or design, or a combination of them, which is intended to identify the goods and

services of one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of

competitors.”7 “The legal term for brand is trademark. A brand may identify one item, a

6 Kotler (2000), p.396. 7 Kotler and Keller, (1997), p.274.

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family of items, or all items of that seller. If used for the firm as a whole, the preferred term

is trade name.8”

Keller recognizes that brands today are much more than defined in classical brand

definition. He says: “technically speaking, whenever a marketer creates a new name, logo,

or symbol for a new product, he or she has created a brand; however, he recognizes that

brands are much more than that.”9 Keller points out the deficiency in the classical

perception of the brand. In order for a brand to be considered a brand it has to gain certain

amount of awareness, reputation and preeminence.

Aaker defined brand as “a distinguishing name and/or symbol intended to identify the

goods or services of either one seller or a group of sellers, and to differentiate those goods

or services from those of competitors.”10

Kapferer also points out that the AMA’s definitions is limited in sense of brand management

and defines brand as “a set of mental associations held by a consumer, which add value to

the perceived value of a product or service.”11 This extension of the AMA's classical

definition leads to connection between brand management and developing brand value e.g.

brand equity.

2.3 Brand Equity

Brand equity tries to define the relationship between customers and brands. It defines the

value of a brand and emphasizes the importance of having long-term focus within brand

management. Brand equity has been examined from financial and customer-based

perspective either individual or organizational. This present section will focus on customer-

based brand equity which refers to the consumer response to a brand name.

Kotler defines brand equity as “the added value endowed to products and services. This

value may be reflected in how consumers think, feel, and act with respect to the brand, as

well as the prices, market share, and profitability that the brand commands for the firm.

Brand equity is an important intangible asset that has psychological and financial value to

the firm“.12

8 AMA (2012), [online].9 Keller (2003), p.3.10 Aaker (1991), p. 7.11 Keller qtd.in: Kapferer (2004), p.10.12 Kotler and Keller (1997), p.276.

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Aaker defines brand equity as a “set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its

name and symbol that add to or subtract from the value provided by a product or service to

the firm and/or to that firm’s customers.”13

Kotler's definition takes into account only one level of brand equity, a firm-based

perspective, whereas Aaker's definition takes into account both; a firm-based perspective

and a customer- based perspective.

Biel claims that brand equity “deals with the value, usually defined in economic terms, of a

brand beyond the physical assets associated with its manufacturer or provision.”14 We can

think of brand equity as a premium a consumer is ready to pay for a branded product or

service compared to an identical unbranded product or service. As mentioned above, brand

equity is ultimately driven by consumer behavior, and consumer behavior is driven by

perceptions of a brand. In general, brand equity is driven by brand image.15

2.4 Customer-Based Brand Equity

According to the literature, Keller and Aaker can be considered the main contributors to the

customer-based brand equity perspective.

Aaker clams that “brand-equity assets generally add or subtract value for customers.”16 In

other words, brand equity assets can help customers to “interpret process and store huge

quantities about products and brands.”17

Consumers are the ones who actually experience the brand; after they have experienced it

they create a subjective perception of the brand. Customer-based brand equity is defined

by Aaker and Biel: “A consumer perceives a brand’s equity as the value asses to the

functional product or service by associating it with a brand name.”18

Keller claims “the power of a brand lies in what customer have learned, felt, seen and

heard about the brand over time, e.g. the power of the brand resides in the minds of

customer.”19 He also defines customer-based equity as “the differential effects of brand

13 Aaker (1991), p.15.14 Biel (1992), p.6.15 Cf. Biel (1992), p.6.ff.16 Aaker (1991), p.16.17 Aaker (1991), p.16.18 Aaker and Biel (1993), p.2.19 Keller (2001), p.3.

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knowledge on customer response to the marketing of the brand.”20 Furthermore, he views

customers-brand based brand equity as a process that occurs when the customer is

familiar with the brand and holds some favorable, strong, and unique brand associations in

memory.”21 Brand knowledge is the key for creating brand equity.

Kapferer concluded that the power of brands lies in the minds of existing or potential

customers and what they have experienced directly and indirectly about the brand.22

2.5 Building Customer-Based Brand Equity

The power of a brand lies in the minds of customers; therefore the challenge for marketers

in building a strong brand is to ensure the right type of experience with the product or

service for customers. For marketers and their marketing programs the most important

issue is that customers get the right thoughts, feelings, images, beliefs, perceptions and

opinions which are linked to the brand.23

Building brand equity requires the creation of a familiar brand that has favorable, strong,

and unique brand associations. This can be done both through the initial choice of brand

identities, such as a brand name, logo, or symbol, and through the integration of brand

identities into the supporting marketing program.

The marketing communication efforts by the firm shape consumer perceptions of the

product or service. Marketing communication may also be helpful in increasing user and

usage imagery attributes. Word of mouth and other social influences also play an important

role.24

The choice of brand elements

20 Keller (1998), p.45.21 Cf. Keller (2003), p.67.22 Cf. Kapferer (1997), p.38. 23 Cf.Keller (2001), p.3.24 Cf. Keller (1993), p.9f.

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Before brand building, it is necessary to make a choice of possible brand elements that

enhance brand awareness and desired associations.

The choice of brand elements while building brand equity plays an important role. Brand

elements are trademark devices that help customers to identify and differentiate a brand

(names, logos, symbols, URLs, characters, slogans, spokespeople, jingles, packages etc.).

Keller named six main criteria for choosing brand elements:

Memorability

Meaningfulness

Likeability

Transferability

Adaptability

Protectability.25

Aaker is mainly focused on the name, symbol and slogan. He claims that the name is the

core and basic indicator for a brand and it also creates the basis for creating brand

awareness and communication. In situations when it is difficult to recognize a product or

service the symbol is helpful in building brand equity. A slogan can also be helpful in

situations where the name or symbol has some limitations since it also affects awareness.26

He proposed seven criteria for name selection:

1. “Easy to learn and remember – it is helpful if it is unusual, interesting, meaningful,

emotional, pronounceable, spell-able, and / or if it involves a visual image.

2. Suggest the product class so that name recall will be high while still being compatible

with potential future uses of the name.

3. Support a symbol or slogan.

4. Suggest desired associations without being boring or trivial.

5. Not suggest undesired associations – it should be authentic, credible, and comfortable

and not raise false expectations.

6. Be distinctive – it should not be confused with competitors’ names.

25 Keller (2003), p.173.26 Cf. Aaker (1996), p.196.

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7. Be available and protectable legally.”27

The brand building process

To build a strong brand, according to customer-based brand equity model, four main steps

have to be accomplished.

1. “Ensure identification of the brand with customers and an association of the brand in

customers’ minds with a specific product class or customer need.

2. Firmly establish the totality of brand meaning in the minds of customers by strategically

linking a host of tangible and intangible brand associations with certain properties.

3. Elicit proper customer responses to this brand identification and brand meaning.

4. Convert brand response to create an intense active loyalty relationship between

customers and the brand.”28

These four steps can be used to create brand identity, brand meaning, brand response and

brand relationship. Building block by block, e.g. six “brand-building blocks”, gives the result

of the consumer-based brand equity pyramid.29

Figure 2: Customer-based brand equity pyramid 30

27 Aaker (1996), p.196.28 Keller (2001), p.5.29 Cf. Keller (2001), p.5.30 Source: Keller (2001), p.7.

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2.6 Managing Brand Equity

Intangible assets and liabilities on which brand equity is based on can be grouped in five

different asset dimensions. These assets include:

Brand loyalty

Name awareness

Perceived quality

Brand association in addition to perceived quality,

Other proprietary brand assets, patents, trademarks, channel relationships, etc.31

If those assets are managed in the appropriate way, they add value to the product or

service and create customer satisfaction, which in the other hand provide a variety of

benefits for the company.32

2.7 Sources of Brand Equity

“Customers-based brand equity occurs when the customer has a high level of awareness

and familiarity with the brand and holds some strong, favorable, and unique brand

associations in memory.”33 To create a brand equity customer must see the significant

difference among brands.

Keller sees the role of customer-based brand equity measurement as a tool to understand

the different types of marketing elements and the ways they affect the value of a brand. He

says that brand knowledge is created in the minds of the consumer by marketing

activities.34

He defines brand knowledge as “all the thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images,

experiences and so on that become linked to the brand in the minds of consumers”.35

Keller divides brand knowledge into two different components, brand awareness and brand

image. He defines brand awareness as “a relation to the strength of the brand node or

trace in memory as reflected by the consumers’ ability to recall or recognize the brand

31 Aaker (1991), p.16.32 Cf. Aaker (1991), p.17. 33 Keller (1988), p. 50.34 Cf. Keller (2009), p.142f.35 Keller (2009), p.143f.

13

under different conditions.” Brand image is defined as “consumer perceptions of/and

preferences for a brand, as reflected by the various types of brand associations held in the

consumers’ memory.”36

Strong associations and a unique brand identity are important as a preference which can

operate as source of brand equity. This can improve brand awareness, price premiums,

communication, and channel effectiveness as well as enhance growth opportunities for a

brand.37

Figure 3: Components of Brand Knowledge38

2.7.1 Brand Awareness

„Brand awareness is the ability of a potential buyer to recognize or recall that a brand is a

member of a certain product category“.39 Brand awareness involves a continuum ranging

from an uncertain feeling that the brand is recognized to a belief that it is the only one in the

product category.40

The main role of brand awareness in brand equity depends on the context and achieved

level of brand awareness.

Brand awareness creates value in different ways. Brand awareness provides the anchor to

which other associations can be linked. According to Aaker brand awareness consist of

three main levels, brand recognition, brand recall, and top-of-mind awareness.41

36 Keller (2009), p.143.37 Cf. Keller (2009), p.143.38 Source: adapted from: Keller (1998), p.69.39 Aaker (1991), p.61.40 Cf. Aaker (1991), p.62.41 Cf. Aaker (1991), p.62.

14

Brand recognition provides the brand with a sense of familiarity and people like the familiar.

In the absence of motivation to engage in attribute evaluation, familiarity may be enough.

Brand awareness can be a signal of substance. The first set in the buying process is often

to select a group of brands to consider. Brand awareness can be crucial to getting into this

group.42

Figure 4: The Awareness Pyramid43

According to Keller brand awareness consists of two main types, brand recognition and

brand recall. Brand recognition is defined as “customers’ ability to confirm prior exposure

to the brand when given the brand as cue.”44 Keller relates brand recall to “consumers’

ability to retrieve the brand from memory when given the product category, the needs

fulfilled by the category or a purchase or usage situation as a cue“.45

According to Keller brand awareness can be characterized by depth and breadth, whereas

depth of brand awareness concerns a situation where the brand has deeper brand

awareness than the one that only can be recognized, therefore a brand can be easily

recalled. On the other hand, the breath of brand awareness concerns the range of

purchase and usage where the brand element comes to mind. It depends on products

knowledge in the memory.46

42 Aaker (1991), p.63ff.43 Source: Aaker (1991), p.62.44 Keller (1998), p.88.45 Keller (1998), p.88.46 Cf. Keller (1988), p.88.

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Top of Mind

Brand Recall

Brand Recognition

Unaware of Brand

Figure 5: Brand Awareness Characteristics47

There are three major reasons why brand awareness plays an important role in a

consumer decision making. First, it is important that consumers think of the brand when

they think about the product category. Raising brand awareness increases the likelihood

that the brand will be a member of the consideration set. Second, brand awareness can

affect decisions about a brand in the consideration set. In low involvement decision

settings, a minimum level of brand awareness may be sufficient for a product choice, even

in the absence of a well-formed attitude. Finally, brand awareness affects consumer

decision making by influencing the formation and strength of brand associations in the

brand image.48

Aaker and Keller concluded that brand awareness cannot create sales by itself, it’s a

necessary step in creating brand equity but it is not sufficient. Therefore, it’s not wrong to

say that brand awareness has limitations, although it’s a key of brand asset.49

2.7.2 Brand Image

Brand image is defined as “perceptions about brand as reflected by the brand associations

held in consumer memory.”50 Brand associations are “the other informational nodes linked

to the brand node in memory and contain the meaning of the brand for consumer.”51 Brand

47 Source: adapted from: Keller (1998), p.69.48 Cf. Keller (1998), p.91f.49 Cf. Aaker (1991), p.69., Cf.Keller (1998), p.92.50 Keller (1998), p. 93.51 Keller (1998), p. 93.

16

associations consist of all brand-related thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, beliefs,

attitudes and it is anything linked in memory to a brand. They represent the basis for a

purchase decision.52

The strength, favorability, and uniqueness of brand equity play an important role when

customers’ decision making is present. The level of abstraction can help to distinguish a

brand association. Brand associations can be classified into three categories; attributes,

benefits and attitudes. Attributes are descriptive features that characterize a product or

service, in other words, attributes stand for what customers think that the product or service

is or has.53 Benefits are “the personal value and meaning that customers attach to the

product or service attributes”, they stand for what customers think the product or service

can do for them.54 Brand attitudes are highest-level of brand associations and are “defined

in terms of consumers’ overall evaluations of a brand”, they are considered as the basis for

further actions and behaviors that consumers take with the brand.55

Regardless the type of brand association involved, that make brand image can be

characterized according three main dimensions:

Strength – How strongly is the brand identified with a brand association?

Favorability – How important or valuable is the brand association to customers?

Uniqueness – how distinctively is the brand identified with the brand association?56

“The strength of brand associations is critical determinants what information will be recalled

by consumers and can therefore affect their brand decision.”57

To achieve greater awareness, brand recognition and brand recall involve tasks such

gaining brand name identity and linking it the product class.58

52 Cf. Fayrene and Lee (2011), p.36.53 Cf. Keller (1998), p.93f.54 Keller (1998), p. 99. 55 Keller (1998), p.100.56 Keller (2001), p.12.57 Keller (1998), p.103.58 Cf. Aaker (1991), p.72.

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Figure 6: Brand Image Characteristic59

59 Source: Adapted from: Keller (2001), p.94.

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3 Literature Overview on development of Web 2.0 and Social

Media

3.1 Introduction

Development of Web 2.0 technologies has changed word of mouth communication by

companies to reach people thought online media such as blog posts, collaborative wikis,

social networking, tagging, video post and customer ratings and reviews.

Web 2.0 is a term popularized by O’Reilly Media as the name for a service web

development Conference that started in October 2004, after Dale Dougherty mentioned it

during a Conference. Dougherty suggested that the Web was in the renaissance, with

changing rules and involving business models. Web 2.0 is seen as a second phase of the

architecture and application development for the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 applications

often use a combination of technologies derived in the late 1990s.60

“Web 2.0” is a term that is used to denote several different concepts: Web sites based on a

particular set of technologies such as AJAX; Web sites which incorporate a strong social

component, involving user profiles, friend links; Web sites which encourage user-generated

content in the form of text, video, and photo postings along with comments, tags, and

ratings (…).“61

Web 2.0 is a term that was used to describe “a new way in which software developers and

end-users started to utilize the World Wide Web as a platform whereby content and

applications are no longer created and published by individuals, but instead are

continuously modified by all users in a participatory and collaborative fashion.”62

Despite frequently usage of the term Web 2.0 there is a huge amount of disagreement

about what Web 2.0 exactly means. On the one hand the term is declared as a marketing

buzzword and on the other side is accepted as a new conventional wisdom.63 Since 2004,

when the term was posted on the Web there had been 135 million64 citations, and by today

Google search is returning 183 million web pages.65

60 Cf.O'Reilly (2005), p. 1. 61 Cormode et al. (2008), p. 3.62 Kaplan and Haenlein (2009), p. 61.63 Cf. O'Reilly (2007), p. 17. 64 Cf. O'Reilly (2007), p. 17.65 Cf. Web 2.0, (2012), [online].

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Various definitions on Social Media and Web 2.0 clearly confirm that it is impossible to

separate these two terms. A formal definition of the Social Media term first requires drawing

a line to two related concepts that are frequently named in conjunction with it: Web 2.0 and

User Generated Content.66

Zarrella defined Social Media in the “context of the pervious media paradigm”.67 He

explains the difference between traditional media such as television, radio; magazines and

newspapers are one-way e.g. static broadcasting technologies and Social Media.68

Furthermore, Safko and Brake are not concentrated on the differences of media forms;

they rather put focus on defining Social Media term.

Kaplan and Haenlein defined Social Media as “a group of Internet-based applications that

build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the

creation and exchange of user generated content.“69

3.2 Development of Web 2.0 and Social Media

In Web 1.0 the content creators were only a few, where the majority of users were simply

acting as consumers of the content. Web 2.0 and Social Media is all about giving power to

people. Web 2.0 has so called democratic nature. Therefore, any participant can be a

content creator in Web 2.0 and various technological aids have been created to maximize

the potential for a content creation.

“Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that

platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more

people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual

users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others,

creating network effects through an "architecture of participation," and going beyond the

page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences.”70

Web 2.0 can also be described “as the version of the web that is open to ordinary users

and where they can add their content. It refers to the sites and spaces in the Internet where

users can put words, pictures, sounds and videos.”71

66 Cf. Kaplan and Haenlein (2009), p. 60. 67 Zarrella (2010), p. 1.68 Cf. Zarrella (2010), p. 1ff.69 Kaplan and Haenlein (2009), p. 60.70 O'Reilly (2005), p. 2. 71 Brown (2009), p.1.

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Web 2.0 enables many to many communications, creations of large number of niche

groups who can exchange content of any kind and tag, comment, and link to both intra-

group and extra-group pages.

O’Reilly discussed the term Web 2.0. He was not keen to give the definition; he offered

examples of various Web 2.0 applications.

Shift from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 according to O’Reilly:

Table Development Web 1.0 to Web 2.072

Figure 7: Development - Web 1.0 to Web 2.073

From the technical point of view Web 2.0 can be called “revolutionary evolution”74 because

it’s based on the aggregation of existing technologies. It changes the way Internet started

to be used and the way how human relationships are being developed. The web itself

becomes more social.

Development of Web 2.0 – From perspective of Croatian Experts

72 Cf.O'Reilly (2005), p.1. 73 Source: O'Reilly (2005), p.1.74 Cf.Barbry (2007), p. 91.

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According to the knowledge and experience of interviewed Croatian experts, in the field of

social media, changes that development of Web 2.0 brought, in terms of marketing

environment and brand management are visible. All the participants gave similar answers.

The development of Web 2.0 has definitely had an impact on marketing environment and

brand management. Since the development of Wikipedia and open source everything has

changed. Companies had to begin to manage brands systematically over the Internet.

Nowadays it is impossible to imagine a company without these possibilities. Those

changes encouraged the development of creativity, innovation but also efficiency of

campaigns. One of the biggest changes brought by the development of Web 2.0 is that

companies besides a “mouth” have also got “ears”. Now they have the opportunity to get

feedback from consumers.

The Internet has become one of the main marketing channels. Every year the budget

increases, companies and brand itself invest more and more money for the activities on the

Internet. This happens for the reason, social media tool enables more direct

communication than any other tool, provides the easiest way to reach customers.

Not only has the Internet become one of the main marketing tools, it has dramatically

changed marketing environment. Therefore, a lot of companies started to focus on social

media which enables friendly, close and direct relationship with their customers. Because

of that, customers develop a positive feeling for the brand much easier. Besides that, it

enables customers to get much higher amount of information on the product or service they

are interested in. Nowadays, all the information is absorbed by online media.

3.3 Social Media Defined

Social media can be described from two perspectives, the first one is philosophical. It

describes the way in which content has become democratized by the Internet and the role

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people now play. Except from just consuming the information they can create and share

the content among each other. The second perspective is practical; it is defined by the

categories of software tools that people use to do actions like consuming, conveying,

creating and sharing content between each other. These categories are blogs, podcasts,

wikis, and social networks.75

If mass media is a monologue to the masses, from one to many, social media is a dialogue,

from many to many. Social media supports the human need for social interaction, and the

need to share information, knowledge, thoughts and ideas. Some have gone as far as to

call it the democratization of knowledge and information.

Scott says “Social media provides the way people share ideas, content, thoughts, and

relationship online. Social media differ from so called “mainstream media” in that anyone

can create, comment on, and add to Social Media content. Social media can take the form

of text, audio, video, images and communities.”76

Social Media can also be described as “a place where consumers communicate with each

other across various platforms as diverse as discussion forums, wikis, social networks, and

video, photo, news sharing sites.”77

These new technologies are giving employees the power over corporate communication

and reputation. They make it easier to communicate and build the relationships both

between the employee and the company and between each other, in other words the form

of organization has changed from top-down approach to the bottom up.78

3.3.1 Attributes of Social Media79

In the following text six valuable attributes of social media are going to be described that

make it a powerful tool.

Authenticity

75 Cf. Cook (2008), p.7. 76 Scott (2010), p. 38. 77 Gupita et al. (2010), p. 1.78 Cf. Cook (2008), p. 14.79 Cf. Postman (2009), p. 8ff.

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Social media lets the real voices of real people come through, allowing an intimacy never

achieved before in corporate communications. That is the reason why we have never

before seen so much unfiltered, unmassaged, spontaneous information coming directly

from the people that run the world’s largest corporations.

Transparency

There are two kinds of transparency in corporate social media. The first is traditional

financial transparency or the ability for shareholders and regulators to see how well a

company is performing financially. The second definition is that through company blogs,

communities and other vehicles the rest of a company’s inner workings can also be made

visible to the public.

Immediacy

Immediacy is the ability of companies, bloggers, journalists and members of the public to

communicate, and to engage in online conversations at unprecedented speed. A blog post

can be written, formatted and published in minutes. Twitter updates happen in the blink of

an eye. Live video is now within reach of anyone with a handicam, or even a cell phone

with a video camera.

Participation

Once being the domain of company's authorized communicators, a useful, current

definition of corporate communications recognizes that anyone can participate in the

conversation, whether on the company’s blog, independent forums, personal blogs, Twitter,

or any of places online.

Connectedness

Through a multitude of mechanisms for sharing information, social media allows millions of

connections to take place, amplifying the impact of company communications. RSS feeds

allow information posted in one place to be instantly displayed in thousands of other

places. Social bookmarking sites like Digg allow users to easily share stories with others.

Accountability

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While one of the characteristics of the Internet is supposedly anonymity, and this is true in

some cases, people who use social media are more accountable than they might realize.

Many companies, and their PRs and marketing agencies, have tried to “game the system”

through unethical practices the practice of falsifying grassroots support for a product,

company, service or point of view by having paid company representatives leave

anonymous comments. Over and over again, these companies are caught and publicly

vilified.

3.3.2 3’R of Social Media80

Promotion has always depended on getting customers attention and it always will. The old

way was to bombard the customers with messages over and over again. But Web 2.0

customers require a new approach to get their attention. Therefore, the new way can be

summarized as the “Three R’s.” It must be relevant, real and responsive.

Relevant

Stores on the Web are equally close; therefore the relevance is the factor which enables

customers to choose one store over another. If the Web site is the most relevant site for the

task at hand, the possibility is higher to get the business. Proximity is being replaced by

relevance.

Tools like search engines (Google for example) are designed to decide what is relevant for

a web shopper. Each searcher is seeking the most relevant search results—the Web sites

that best match the task being performed at that moment. Relevance is at the top of

customers’ list. Brand loyalty is gradually being replaced by relevance.

Real

Nowadays every company can be held up on the Web and be made accountable. The

best example is blog, it's free of charge and anyone can wright it. „Companies aren’t real—

people are. So the way to be real is to let the people out. Some workers might want to write

blogs. Some might just comment on blogs written by others. Others might haunt customer

support message boards and explain how your product really works and how to make it

work better.“ That’s what “getting real” means in marketing today.

80 Cf. Moran (2007), p. 25ff.

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Responsive

The Internet ends the one-way communication and offline marketing. Online, the message

is not just delivered to the customers but the conversation with them starts. If one of the

parties is not responsive the conversation ends. Regardless of whether the customer likes

or dislikes something of companies practice, the company must react. Especially when

customers complain in the public about the product or service, the company has to be

prepared and react. Customers who have had a problem and got it resolved are more loyal

than those who have been treated flawlessly.

3.4 The Elements of Social Media

Many researchers discussed how to use social media as a trend indicator and how it is

possible to combine the efforts of operations and marketing to manage the behavior of the

crowd. Robert Scoble introduced the model of social media called “starfish”. Starfish is a

collection of arms where each of those arms has a specific applicability.81

81 Cf. Evans (2012), p. 46.

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Figure 8: The Social Media Starfish82

There are two marketing elements in the starfish concept. The first one is social media

which contains a variety of different activities such as photo sharing, blogging etc. The

second element describes how effectively the use of social media depends on the selected

activities and the mix of social and traditional channels.83

3.4.1 Social Media Engagement

Social media is an extremely effective way of improving customer service but it cannot take

place of bad quality of a product or service.

Social media offers companies an opportunity to provide more personalized customer

service and support. It gives an opportunity to the companies to reach consumers where

they spend their time rather than requiring them to visit a separate site every time they

need help from a company they do business with. Some companies use social media tool

for one-to-one customer support, technical guidance live, online, with their customers to

increase customers’ engagement.84

82 Source: Evans (2012), p. 46.83 Cf. Evans (2012), p. 46.84 Cf. Postman (2009), p. 97.

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Figure 9: LENiE Model85

LENiE model represents steps which need to be considered when it comes to the usage of

social media. When one step is missing engagement is not successful.86

Engagement cycle can be summarized into three easy steps. Cycle can begin when

company achieve to attract the potential customer, usually word-of-mouth brings people to

the company. This first contact happens usually at companies physical location, website

etc. What follows are steps like experience entice and engage. 87

85 Source: adapted from: Speck (2010), p. 48ff.86 Cf. Speck (2010), p. 480ff.87 Cf. Goodman (2012), p. 7f.

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Listen

Be patient, polite and open mindedListen, identify issues, adopt pattern languagePrepare objectives, identify stakeholders, embrace changesDefine goals, limits and policies

Engage

and Connect

Get involved, establish interfacesRely on real faces , contacts and channelsShare content, themes and ideasTake responsibility, accept critique and address failures

Network and

Implement

Connect and network of individual services and persons Engage with civil society, community and leave footprintIdentify and support users, fans etc.Create and hold community meetings

Evolve

Connect, organize, delegate, assign tasksEmbrace changes, innovate and evolveStay engaged, open, creative and be patientRinse and repeat

Figure 10: Engagement Cycle88

To engage people the company needs only a few tools. Firstly, the company needs to have

content worth sharing, then the company needs a call to action that directs people, and of

course the company needs to deliver mechanisms that push the content to the audience.

It’s important to make it easy for people to interact with company and companies’ content

and to share information with others. 89

Engagement matters for company because it brings old customers back and enables

repeat sales, and with help of social media company begins to be visible and know foe

potential or new customers.90

88 Source: Goodman (2012), p. 8.89 Cf. Goodman (2012), p. 49.90 Cf. Goodman (2012), p. 49.

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3.5 Social Media Tools

Companies’ can choose among huge variety of well-known and available tools. Below

listed and explained are the ones which are used by companies most commonly to

promote and increase brand awareness.

Both, small and big business are aware of numerous advantages of social media tools

usage. Companies use social media for several reasons; “to build brand awareness, to

network with other businesses, to build relationships with existing and potential customers,

to boost sales, to communicate marketing message and promotions, to learn about their

customers, to manage their reputation, to see real and human in consumers’ eyes rather

than as an untouchable entity.”91

In following subchapters the main types of social media tools are going to be described.

From obtained data from interviews it is visible that Croatian companies are keener to use

social networks rather than other tools.

According to the research and the interviews it is clear that almost all the tools used in

western countries are available but not all are used in Croatia. Most commonly used are

Facebook, Tweeter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest etc.

The most important thing, according to Croatian experts, is the education of people who

are responsible for the implementation of social media. They have seen many good and

many bad examples of implementation. The main goal is to attract customers, therefore

they have to attract customers' attention by giving them enough interesting content to like

and comment. Many companies use sweepstakes, discounts etc. just to attract attention.

It is very important to get a reaction from customers that is why social media is for. If a

company is lucky and able to get strong, positive emotions the ultimate outcome will be

very positive.

91 Gunelius (2010), p. 148.

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Figure 11: Social Media Landscape92

3.5.1 Blog

Blogs Safko and Brake defined the term blog as a derivate from web log which is simply

another word for an online journal.93 Zarella defines blog in a similar manner and defines it

as a word-wide-web that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments,

and hyperlinks provided by the writer. Blog provides “a variety of social features, including

comments, blogrolls, trackbacks, and subscriptions that make it perfect for marketing

purpose.”94

A blog or initially called web log is “a web site that is maintained by an individual with

regular entries or posts that include commentary, thoughts, ideas, and may contain photos,

graphics, audio or video.”95 Blogs are made of posts, display date-stamped entries in

92 Source: Saleem (2010), [online].93 Cf. Safko (2010), p. 140.94 Zarella (2010), p. 995 Safko (2010), p. 145.

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reverse chronological order. The quality posts are the main and the most important element

of a successful blog.96

Blogs are usually managed by one person (blogger) and they provide the possibility of

interaction with others through the addition of comments.97

Mayfield defined the main types of blogs.98

Personal blogs (individuals who keep blog about their life e.g. public diaries)

Political blogs (blogs written about politics, aim is to comment on the news, give

the analysis of the issues etc.)

Business blogs (allow companies to communicate in a less formal style than has

been traditional in newsletters)

“Almost media” blogs (allow companies to communicate in a less formal style than

has been traditional in newsletters)

Mainstream media blogs (national’s newspaper (BBC) have blogs for some of their

reporters and editors)

Blogs can provide news and content on the specific topic or they can be used as personal

journals. Business blogs can be used as internal communication tool between employees

or they can be designed for public usage.99

Except for personal usage blog can serve for business purpose. Business blog is a tool

with which companies can share knowledge; communicate one with other and with

customers. It’s low cost, and it enables company to be present on-line without having a

web page.

3.5.2 Micro blogs

Zarrella defines micro blogging as a form of blogging where the size of each post is limited.

It’s is less formal, it’s easy, it requires less investment of time than blogging.

Micro blogging enables customers to send messages, audio, video, and attach files,

empowers people to make friends, get directions, give and receive advice, review books,

96 Cf. Zarella (2010), p. 13.97 Cf. Kaplan and Haienlin(2010), p. 63.98 Cf. Mayfield (2008), p. 17. 99 Cf. Safko (2010), p.145.

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restaurants, products and services (…). Via micro blogs it is easy to create small, intimate

communities that are concentrated on specific topics such as politics, technology, medical

issues etc.100 The messages are usually shorter than few hundred characters and it

enables nearly real time many-to-many communication. The update can be done via the

web, via text messages, instant messages or even via e-mail.

Twitter

Twitter is the most known high-increasing micro blogging service, which has become more

mainstreamed than any other similar social media tool. 101 It has become influential driver of

electronic word of mouth. Twitter was created in 2006, and it enables users to post the

messages which are not longer than 140 characters.102 Twitter posts are known as

“tweets”.

Twitter has reached 500 million user accounts at the beginning of 2012. Tweeter is growing

at over 1.123 million accounts per day or in the other words more than 13 new accounts

per second.103

Twitter is a powerful tool for connecting like-minded people, developing relationships,

getting customer feedback and increasing brand visibility. In the last few years Tweeter

has become a major traffic driver back to small business websites. Twitter works especially

well with a blog, if you share links to your blog content with your Twitter followers.104

Tweeter can be named as the second (after Facebook) most commonly used tool, which

has ca. 20 000 users in Croatia and it is not usable for the mass public. Tweeter is great for

a technologically oriented brand and it is easier to find members of IT industry and

journalists there. By itself Tweeter is valuable because it enables fast fluctuation of

information.

100 Cf. Safko (2010), p. 257.101 Cf. Zarella (2010), p. 31. 102 Cf. Jansen et al. (2009), p. 2172. (u doc. Primjeri na temu)103 Cf. Bullas (2012), [online].104 Cf. McAlear (2009), p. 2.

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3.5.3 Social Networking

People have tended to establish relationships with each other since their existence; social

networking is not much more. With the help of social networks people can establish new

relationships and group them. The true value of social networks is not just in people but it

relies on relationships itself. “Social networking is the act of building one’s social

network.”105

Social networking sites “are applications that enable users to connect by creating personal

information profiles, inviting friends and colleagues to have access to those profiles, and

sending e-mails and instant messages between each other.“106 Initially social networking

sites were created for personal usage.107

Nowadays, social networking sites are a hot topic for companies because of various

opportunities for interacting with customers. Opportunities for marketers are in plug-in

applications, groups and fan pages.108 More and more companies decided to use social

networking as a promotional tool for their brands to build better connections with potential

and loyal customers.

There are some features which characterize social networks and help to distinguish them

from other Web sites.109

Profile page

Status updates

Network with friends

Networks

Commenting system

Private message possibility

Social media in general increased in popularity among private users and companies. There

are sites that focus on private and social actions whose purpose is business.110 Xing and

LinkedIn are most popular professional networks. The most popular network used in private

purposes is MySpace and Facebook.

105 Deans (2009), p. 3.106 Cf. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), p. 62.107 Cf. Lüsted (2011), p. 11.108 Cf. Zarrella (2010), p. 53.109 Cf. Rigby(2008), p. 60.110 Cf. Loyd (2009), p. 62.

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Facebook

Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg.111 It is one of the fast growing and the

most widespread sites on the Internet. Today, Facebook is the dominant social networking

site. The service allows members to create a personal profile or business profile and

enables them to connect with friends, exchange written messages, connect with a page

and become a fan.112

Facebook is available in more than 70 languages. In 2012 Facebook had 845 million active

users.113 By the end of 2011 it had 483 million daily active users.114

Facebook can be very beneficial in terms of companies and promotion of their brands.

Facebook is increasing because it has many users and it has good engagement tools. The

first tool is „building a fan page“, which can be created by any business. The main

advantage of a fan page is that all fans can see all posts in their news feed. it is important

to start with optimization of additional content, adding applications, newsletter sing-up

pages and events and at the end it is important to promote them to Facebook „friends“.

Business gain additional exposure when someone becomes a fan of the page. Taking

advantage of the applications on Facebook can be seen as a second tool. To create extra

engagement is not hard because of pre-build tools which enable event promotion, upload

or record video etc.115

In Croatia the most popular social network is Facebook, it is the biggest and best exploited

social network in Croatia. It has 1.5 million active users and a few thousand Facebook

pages. Many companies claim that Facebook changed their way of doing business, they

realized how important it is to build up friendship with their customers, and with a Facebook

page or application they can build or promote their brand.

111 Cf. Carlson (2010), [online].112 Cf. Zarrella (2011), p. 67.113 Cf. Anson (2012), [online].114 Cf.Facebook (2012), [online].115 Cf. McAlear (2009), p. 2ff.

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LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the largest professional social network which was founded in December 2002

by Reid Hoffman and launched in May 2003. By today it has had over 135 million members

and it is growing fast, in other words, every second LinkedIn gets two new members.116

LinkedIn “connects businesses by industry, function, geography and areas of interest.”117

Every professional should have a LinkedIn profile to display credentials. To get real value

out of LinkedIn, a company or an needs to setup a LinkedIn Group around his/her business

or around a topic his/her customers are interested in. It is even more favorable if

participation is not only focused on your own Group, but joins other related Groups too.

LinkedIn is a particularly good outpost to monitor those who market to the corporate or

enterprise market – or who are hiring.118

Google +

Google Plus is a social network owned by Google Inc. It was launched on June 2011, and it

was integrated into Google Mail on December 2011.119 By now Google Plus has 170 million

users.120 It enables users to communicate, collaborate, create and share.

Google Plus combines services such as Profiles, Circles, Hangouts and Sparks. People

who have an account are able to create a profile with their real name not pseudonyms or

nicknames. Profile users can decide whether their profile is visible or searchable. Users

can put their contacts under circles and gain more privacy when posting. Circles also allow

users to read just information they are interested in. Hangouts are video chats sessions

that are initiated by users and can be joined by people in their circle. Users can chat and

pull up videos from YouTube which they can view together and comment. Sparks were

created to help users to find what they are interested in by providing suggestions and an

open search.121

Users can reach Google Plus either on website or mobile device with help of mobile app.

Google Plus enables companies to share, promote and measure. It helps to build up better

relationships with customers by sharing thoughts, links, photos and promotions. it gives the

opportunity to show the customers behind-the-scenes look, and enables to give a face-to-

116 Cf. LinkedIn (2012), [online]. 117 Bothma et al. (2008), p. 187.118 Cf. McAlear (2009), p. 2.119 Cf. Andreson and Still (2011), p. 7.120 Cf. Mashable Social Media (2012), [online].121 Cf. Andreson and Still (2011), p. 7ff.

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face feedback with help of video chat. The customer service starts to be much faster and it

gives the company a chance to get to know their customers better. If a company wants to

send a specific message to specific followers Google circles are the best option.122

Foursquare

Foursquare was created by co-founders Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai, and it

was launched in March 2009. By today Foursquare's community has over 20 million people

worldwide, with over 2 billion check-ins, and with over millions every day. 123

Foursquare is a location-based social network, it enables users to share and save places

they been to. This application can display restaurants, parks, shops, bars etc. according to

user preferences. When user “check-in” at some location one can see what is in his

surrounding and which of his friends is nearby. Afterwards user can write reviews and tips

for the location and provide new information useful for other foursquare users. 124

Foursquare can be used by any kind of businesses until they have physical location. When

brand has physical location company can use foursquare Merchant Platform. It offers a free

set of tools to help companies to attract new visitors. When brand holder decides to

establish a brand presence on foursquare, they can connect with followers and community

on foursquare.125

Social media experts mentioned Foursquare as the third main social network in Croatia.

Foursquare is location social network which enables brand holders to provide customers

with interesting information on the specific location. Brand holders also give Specials to

customers in exchange for their check-in, e.g. customers make free promotion for a brand

holder.

Experts said that other social networks are just not “alive” enough in Croatia and the

number of users is too small to invest money in them.

122 Cf. Google+ (2012), [online].123 Cf. Foursquare about (2012), [online].124 Cf. Foursquare about (2012), [online].125 Cf.Foursquare business (2012), [online].

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3.5.4 Media sharing (Content Communities)

The main objective of content communities is the sharing of media content between users.

There are content communities for a wide range of different media types, including text

(e.g., BookCrossing), photos (e.g., Flickr), videos (e.g., YouTube), and PowerPoint

presentations (e.g., Slideshare) and online pin-board e.g. (Pinterest). From a corporate

viewpoint, content communities carry the risk of being used as platforms for the sharing of

copyright-protected materials.126

Pinterest

Pinterest is a virtual pin-board, which helps to organize things. It is one of the hottest sites

on the Web, with traffic growing to 11 million unique visitors in January 2012.127 Pinterest is

connecting people all over the world based on their interests and shared content. When an

image or link is shared this becomes pin that can be placed on a thematic board, which is

usually customized for any topic.

Pinterest is good for business which are dealing with “visual” industry, such as arts, crafts,

photography and home decor. And it’s important to mention that more than 80% of users

are female.128

Flickr

Flickr is almost the best online photo management and sharing application in the world and

it has two main goals. Flickr wants to help people make their photos available to the people

who matter to them and they want to enable new ways of organizing photos and video.129

Anyone can share picture publicly or privately. When upload pictures on Flickr, people are

contributing to the largest public accessible archive.

For companies Flickr is also good, they can share the “story” of a company not just conduct

advertising.130

YouTube

126 Cf. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), p.62.127 Cf. Pinterest (2012), [online].128 Cf. Pinterest (2012), [online].129 Cf. Flikr (2012), [online].130 Cf. Zarella (2011), p. 89.

38

YouTube is the most visited video-sharing platform. It was founded in 2005 and it enables

users to discover, watch and share videos.131 YouTube has almost the same amount of

users like Facebook, 490 million users worldwide and it generates 92 billion page views

each month.132

YouTube gives the possibility to set up the channel to display videos that relate to your

business, such as product demonstrations, how-to tutorials or website tour videos. People

will find the videos by searching on YouTube itself, or by finding video results through

search engines. YouTube is owned by Google, Google’s search components are working.

Statistics goes into the favor of videos, which are one of the most shared forms of content

today.133 Every minute, 24 hours of video material is uploaded globally by users. An

average user spends 14 minutes on YouTube.134

Slideshare & Scribd

Slideshare & Scribd are media-sharing sites that allow users to upload and share PDF

reports, PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets and similar forms.135 For people who are

in any kind of business or profession where they generate knowledge pieces in one of the

mentioned forms, document-sharing sites are a way to show off expertise.

3.5.5 Others

Podcast

The term podcasting derives from two relative terms, iPod and broadcasting. Apple IPod

symbolizes portable mp3-player, and the term broadcasting indicates the distribution of

audio and video signals to the audience.136

Podcasting allows any person or organization to create a video or audio content in any

format they choose and then globally syndicate that content using the power of RSS. RSS

changed the way the content is delivered on the Internet and enabled users to decide when

and how they will receive the information they are interested in. “Podcasting is much more

than just a downloadable audio or video file that is online. RSS is the differentiator,

131 Cf. YouTube (2012), [online]. 132 Cf.Pring (2012), [online]. 133 Cf. McAlear (2009), p. 2.134 Cf. Burnett (2012), [online]. 135 Cf. Zarella (2011), p.97. 136 Cf. Hall (2008), p. 45.

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because it not only notifies the subscribers of new information, but also delivers it to them,

or offers a direct link.”137 Besides audio and video content, podcasts allow to add links,

graphics and bookmarks. “As a part of social media, podcasting is easy to engage in and is

versatile enough to be incorporated into the workings of many different types of

organizations for a wide array of purposes.” 138

The variety of the content on the Internet is bigger every day and it is impossible to visit all

the Web sites you want. RSS allows people to choose the content they are interested in

and they want to receive, and be notified when there is something new what is in the

sphere of their interest.

For companies podcasts are interesting because they enable to address the user multi-

sensorially and interactively. Podcasts are always up-to date and in real time and they can

be produced quickly. Podcasts enable companies to record their messages, therefore

consumers can either listen or watch it online or simply download it. They are not specific

to any industry.139

Wikis

Richardson defined wiki as “collaborative web space where anyone can edit content that

has already been published.”140 Or in other words, wiki is collaborative Web sites whose

content can be viewed and edited by anyone who has a Web browser and access to the

Internet.

Wiki’s concept was established in 1994 by Ward Cunningham, and a year later it was

installed on the Internet. The word wiki in Hawaiian has a meaning of “fast” or “quick” and it

was used to describe a collection of Web pages that can be edited by anyone.141

Wikis were created to “help groups collaborate, share and build online content, and are

especially useful for distance learners who are separated by time and place.”142

Wikis can be used as a source for obtaining information and knowledge, and also as a

method of virtual collaboration.143 Simply wikis can be described as group writing and

editing, where all users can edit or comment a document at the same time. Wiki has

become valuable, easy to use and free resource tool.137 Cangialosi et al. (2008), p. 8.138 Cangialosi et al. (2008), p.12.139 Cf. Guffey and Loewy (2008), p.11. 140 Richardson (2006), p. 8.141 Cf. Safko (2011), p.159.142 West and West (2009), p. 3.143 Cf. Boulos et al.(2006), p. 41.

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In general, wikis give to the user both, author and editor privileges. Wikis are able to

incorporate sounds, movies and pictures.144 In other words, these web sites represent

social media foundation of user-generated content and the knowledge of the crowd.145

The best example of a wiki is “Wikipedia” – an online editable encyclopedia.

Wikis live because of mass contribution, for companies they can bring many benefits such

as cheap and fast Intranet and publication of wide spectrum of different documents. They

are also used as a cheap and easy project management tool that is accessible by anyone

in the organization. With the help of wikis companies can easily manage motes, agendas,

calendars, and team related data and plans, also documents among employees and clients

are easily shared.146

Consumer Communities

In customer communities, customers can exchange information about a service, product

and businesses. In these communities people usually share their experience and opinions

for a product, artist, car, celebrity etc. These communities are good resources where

salespeople can learn about desires of the clients they serve. By being involved in these

communities a company can develop knowledge on how to serve clients more effectively.

Over 40 million people worldwide participate in such virtual communities. Popular

consumer communities are Amazon and eBay.147

Social News and Bookmarking

“Social news sites are websites that allow user to submit and vote on content from around

the Web.” Social news sites are considered to be useful for generating the content on the

web, it helps to isolate the interesting link.148 There focus is on delivering the latest news

based on votes.

Social bookmarking is a web-based service which enables users to store and share their

favorite links. Users store the list of Internet sources that they find interesting and useful on

a public website. Social bookmark sites are specified for a specific topic, such as books,

videos, shopping etc. Users can tag sources with their own names or by already offered

144 Cf. EDUCAUSE Learning (2005), p. 1.145 Cf. Safko (2011), p. 159.146 Cf.Chatfield (2009), p. 104.147 Cf. Solomon et al. (2009), p.143. 148 Zarella (2011), p.103.

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names, thus creating folksonomies.149 Afterwards, someone with a similar interest can view

the links by tagging a category, or randomly. Individual bookmarks give the option to design

those sites as public or private.150

Social bookmarking is a better way of using the “traditional” way of bookmarking e.g.

saving the URL on your browser. It makes it easier and faster to find a specific page saved

a long time ago. Saving a bunch of sites on your browser can make it work slower and it

might be confusing and time consuming while finding a specific one. Therefore, users can

sing up for free accounts on the website to store data they really need. Those websites

enable users to approach their favorites from any computer they want via personalized

webpage.

The first social bookmarking site was launched in 1996. Since then a plethora of sites

which are offering public and private online storage of favorite’s links have been created.151

Among the variety of available social bookmarking sites offered, Delicious and Digg can be

named as the most popular.

Small businesses can benefit from social bookmarking. They can increase and generate

traffic to their website. Companies can improve page rank and get more visitors and as a

result they can increase sells of their product or service.152

Virtual Worlds

The rise of the Internet in the sense of mainstream customer medium increased popularity

of virtual worlds. Virtual worlds began with simulators which were 3D graphic simulation of

virtual environment. Virtual Worlds are games in which individuals use avatars as

representation of themselves in computer-based space.153

A virtual life-simulation game is “Second Life”, there people can experience life trough

avatars. In 2003 Second Life was launched, it is “user-created and socially driven”154.

One of the extremely popular one was World of Warcraft, but in game-based world the

social marketing possibilities are limited.155 Beside the chance to meet people, users could

149 Folksnomies – taxnomies are agreed by scientists or some kind of specialists and folknomies are made from regular people who are usin Web, the typical folknomie is blog. 150 Cf. Bothma et al. (2008), p.186.151 Cf. Zarella (2011), p. 103.152 Cf. Davis (2012), p. 75f.153 Cf. Tiem et al. (2012), p. 272.154 Zarrella (2011), p. 175.155 Cf. Zarrella (2011), p. 171.

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create a social bond, what resulted with high popularity. World of Warcraft has its own

established so called ecosystem and is the biggest MMORG (massively multiplayer online

role-playing game).156

Although Second Life is a virtual world, there are existing financial transactions like in the

real world. Profits or investments can be made in the currency used in the simulation,

Linden dollars (L$). There is also the exchange rate between L$ and U.S. $, and they can

be turned back into real-world money through Linden Lab and third-party brokers.157

Some companies interact with virtual economies for real economic benefit. Real money

commerce in virtual markets has become a huge industry, but it is not fully accepted by

gaming industry. Since the real-life is mirrored and companies can use the same tactics

and techniques like in the real world, Second Life can be really helpful for companies.

Second Life platform can help companies for receiving feedback, gauging customer

reaction, testing prototypes. It is also useful for events or meeting places for customers,

prospects and employees. A company can also build up a new company in a virtual world,

where it can allow users to experience and learn about them.158

Widgets

Widget is a self-contained, miniature application that you can pop into one or more Web

pages and they are provided by JavaScript. They are stand-alone applications which mean

they don’t need any additional update or programming because they update themselves.159

Widgets are often on-screen tools such as clocks, tickets for auctions or stocks, daily

information and other application which are useful and well perceived in the eyes of users.

Widgets can help business users to model, administer, manage and monitor business

processes and activities. Private users can place companies’ widget on its own homepage

and they will receive companies’ news and updates. In this way the company can increase

brand awareness in the eyes of a customer.160

Mobile Devices

156 Cf. Safko (2010), p. 305.157 Cf. Zarella (2011), p.175.158 Cf. Safko (2011), p. 307. 159 Cf. MacDonald (2011), p. 463.160 Cf. Ahuja and Chandrasekaran (2010), p. 415.

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Mobile devices can be “divided into Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and cell phones. “

PDAs are small computers, sometimes also called pocket computers. They are mainly

used to organize books and calendars. Cell phones are usually smaller than PDAs and can

be used to make phone calls. GSM or Global System for Mobile Communications is a

system used to connect mobile devices and enables service like SMS (Short Message

Service) and GPRS (General Radio Packet Service), all over Europe. GPRS allows users

to connect to the Internet via their mobile phones. 161

A next generation of mobile device is smartphones (BlackBerry, iPhone, Android).

Smartphones allow people to use Social Media software, check e-mails, update their posts

whenever they what.

Mobile devices are the cheapest, compared to laptops, desktops and broad-band. They are

small, easy transportable and any person can afford it. It is not a miracle that on the planet

there are three cell phones per person. Mobile devices are the fastest growing segment of

technology-driven marketing. It is a piece of technology which allows people to stay in

contact with each other, access e-mails, send photos, audio, video, blog, and surf the

Web.162

People today are reeling from the benefits of mobile devices through increased

productivity. Business people, salespeople and mobile workers are benefiting the most.

They don’t have to be bound by the desk to get messages in time. They also enable

companies’ employees to provide customers with better customer service. Employees have

access to their mail, contacts, corporate data and up-to-date meeting schedules.163

Maps

Generally, maps are a visual representation of some area. A great development of the Web

has affected development of map application by combining communication and graphical

information. In the early 2000s interface allowed users to make the request and “find their

way”.164

Google Maps played an important role in changes of the technology, new user-oriented

technologies and map mash-ups.165 The development of applications interface programing

161 Stormer (2005), p. 83.162 Safko (2011), p. 635.163 Cf. Unhelkar (2009), p.201.164 Cf. Batty et al. (2010), p. 2.165 Mash – up – combine data from two or more sources to create a third new service. Combination, visualization and aggregation can be named as main characteristics of mash-ups.

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(API) allowed users to create their own variants of Google Map within their own web

page.166

Google Maps and Google Earth allow users things such as pins and place marks,

afterwards bringing the additional information like text, video or pictures.167 With the help of

the maps some information can be visualized to ease users’ search. The main aim of using

maps is to find relationship or the certain connection between users “question” and

expected “answer”, therefore maps use GIS.168

Map mash-ups is a popular term, and it refers to a web page or an application that

combines data and services from many sources and combines it to a new website. The

value of mash up is not in data itself but in user interface for that data. Google Maps allow

people to integrate a lot of mash-ups into their website.169

Nowadays, most of the companies own a website. It is essential if company wants to be

found by customers. Maps offer customers an easier way to find the location of companies’

branch offices or headquarters. Besides directions a customer can find other information

about the company.

Geotagging enables people to tag places or locations they have been to. The users can

connect physical location with video, comment or picture. For instance Flickr is the best

example of geotagging i.e. location metadata to Flickr images.170

3.6 Technologies within Web 2.0

When talking about Web 2.0 and Social Media there are two main technologies mentioned

in the literature; RSS and AJAX. In order to understand how the Web works we need to

know what the basic thing behind those two technologies is.

AJAX and RSS are considered to be two main tools in the development of Web 2.0

applications.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and XML (Extensible Markup Language) are the

166 Cf. Batty et al. (2010), p. 2f.167 Cf. Rigby (2008), p. 189ff. 168 GIS system integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, meauring, analysing and displaying all forms of geographical information. it is used for handling maps.169 Cf. Van Der Vlist (2007), p. 404.170 Cf. Flickr (2012), [online].

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languages to create and format the content on the Web. JavaScript is also scripting

language mainly used by client-side Web development.171 As mentioned above, in this

section focus is going to be on AJAX and RSS which can create dynamic objects.

AJAX

AJAX is a combination of techniques used on Web sites and stands for Asynchronous

JavaScript and XML. It is based on techniques of the 1990’s that have been joined

together.172

AJAX concept is considered to be “rich application”, it offers much more suitable

experience to the users than the standard application does.173 The concept itself separates

the user interface from the data which enables a fluid way of exchanging data between a

browser and server. It enables to reload just a specific part of the page, without reloading

the entire Web page. 174 As a result, Web becomes more responsive, less time consuming

and more dynamic.

Google Gmail and Google Maps are the best examples of application which is using AJAX

techniques. Every time the user saves or sends an e-mail everything is happening behind

and user interface remains the same. The same counts for Google Maps, just the selected

area on the map is reloading not the entire page.175

RSS

RSS and Atom are both technologies for subscribing news and other contents from Web

pages. ATOM is known as publishing format, but also as more flexible than RSS. “Atom is

increasingly popular rival to the RSS.”176

RSS or Really Simple Syndication is the name of both, the technology and just one of the

technology providers. RSS is an XML-based data format for websites; it is used for files

exchange that contains publishing information and reviews of the site’s contents.177

171 Cf. Deans (2009), p. 6.172 Cf. Cavaleri (2008), p. 2. 173 Cf. Cavaleri (2008), p. 2. 174 Cf. Deans (2009), p. 6.175 Cf. Cavaleri (2008), p. 2.176 Wusteman (2004), p. 2.177 Cf. Wusteman (2004), p. 2.

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RSS feature on the Web enables users to sing up and automatically get notified wherever

there is an update. Users don’t have to go from site to site in order to see what new has

been posted, they can find about updates to the content of RSS-enabled websites, blogs or

podcasts without actually having to go and visit the site.178

It is a method which enables publishing information in a structured feed format. Firstly, the

user has to install a software tool known as aggregator or feed reader. Than the user

decides which RSS feeds one wants to receive and subscribe to them. Afterwards, the user

will receive information updates.179

RSS readers or aggregators can be desktop-based or web-based. Desktop-based

aggregator allows the user to read the content even if he/she is offline. Web-based

aggregators allow the user to read the content on the Web whenever he/she wants from

whichever computer he wants.180

RSS is included into Internet browsers such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and

Google Chrome. The most popular aggregators are Google Reader (google.com/reader),

Bloglines (bloglines.com), CNN (cnn.com) etc.

178 Cf. Wusteman (2004), p. 2.179 Cf. Deans (2009), p. 6., Cf. Wusteman (2004), p. 2.180 Cf. Thomas (2009), p. 69f.

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4 The Impact of Internet and Social Media on Brands

4.1 Introduction

Management concepts have been changed over the time; they are “deeply influenced by

the competitive situation and the tools to market.”181 With the development of the Internet

consumers got the power they didn’t have before. Today’s marketers must adopt dynamic

concepts and forget the static ones in order to create passionate communities and have

followers. The brand must rally people not just convince them.182

To achieve more effective and efficient communication marketers have to go on-line,

because the customers are there. On-line Publisher’s Association brought out the

information that “on-line advertising was estimated at a little less than 6% of global ad

spending in 2006, but is expected to jump to 10% to become a $25 billion business by

2009.”183 This growth is occurrence of rich media that combine animation, video and sound

and beyond that they have interactive features.

The Internet provides marketers and customers with opportunities for much greater

interaction and individualization. On-line, companies get chance to create and send

messages that can engage different segments of customers by reflecting their interests and

behavior. The Internet offers the advantage of “contextual placement, or sites for ad

placement that are related to the marketers’ offerings.” Customers define the rules of

engagement, and they define what information they need, what offerings they are

interested in and what they are willing to pay.184

“The interactive media allows sellers to share and exchange information with their

customers but also allows customers to share and exchange information one another as

well.”185 Customers have open hands and therefore marketers can lose some control over

consumers’ future actions.186

Customer engagement is defined as “an intimate long-term relationship with customer.”187

The Internet and social media provide opportunity to connect with customers using richer

181 Kapferer (2012), p.128.182 Cf. Kapferer (2012), p.127ff.183 On-line Publisher's Association (2007) qtd.in: Keller (2009), p.147.184Cf. Keller (2009), p.147f.185 Sashi (2012), p.255.186 Cf. Keller (2009), p.147f.187 EIU (2007) qtd.in: Sashi (2012), p.256.

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media with grater reach. Advertising Research Foundation defined customer engagement

as „turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context“.188 In the

terms of strategy „engagement refers to the creation of experience that allow companies to

build deeper, more meaningful and sustainable interactions between the company and its

customers or external stakeholders“.189

The arrival of the Internet and especially social media gave managers in consumers and

business markets worldwide higher potential for grater interactivity and opportunity to serve

customers in a better way.190

4.2 Changes in Marketing Rules

4.2.1 The Old Rules of Marketing

Strong brand awareness is caused by successful marketing initiatives, and it leads to

higher sales and revenues. Promotion gives the customer information about the product or

service to create awareness about the brand.

Promotion is defined as “marketing function concerned with persuasively communicating to

target audience the components of the marketing program in order to facilitate

exchange.”191

Promotion is one of key elements of the marketing mix.

Kotler and Armstrong claimed that promotional mix consists of a “specific blend of

advertising, sales promotion, public relationship, personal selling, and direct marketing

tools than the company uses to persuasively communicate customer value and build

customer relationship.”192 Furthermore, promotional mix tools are explained:

“Advertising can reach massages of geographically dispersed buyers at a low cost

per exposure.

Personal selling is most effective tool at certain stages of the buying process,

particularly in building up buyers’ preferences, convictions and actions.

Sales promotions include a wide assortment of tools – coupons, contests, price

reduction, premium offers, free goods and others. 188 Advertising Research Foundation (2007) qtd.in: Sashi (2012), p.255f.189 EIU (2007) qtd.in: Sashi (2012), p.256.190 Cf. Sashi (2012), p.257. 191 Burnett (1993) qtd.in: Chaffey et al. (2006), p.243.192 Kotler and Armstrong (2008), p.398.

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PR is believable: new stories, features, sponsorships and events seem more real

and believable to riders than ads do.

Direct marketing is interactive: it allows a dialogue between the communicator and

the consumer, and message can be altered depending on the customers’

response.”193

In the traditional communications paradigm, the elements of the promotional mix are

coordinated to develop an IMC (Integrated Marketing Communication) strategy, and the

content, frequency, timing, and medium of communications are dictated by the organization

in collaboration with its paid agents (advertising agencies, marketing research firms, and

public relations consultants). The flow of information outside the boundaries of the

paradigm has generally been confined to face-to face, word-of-mouth communications

among individual consumers, which has had minimal impact on the dynamics of the

marketplace due to its limited distribution.194

Figure 12: 1:n Traditional Communication Model195

Because of the development of the Internet and Web 2.0 Croatian companies couldn’t

follow or serve the customer and market needs by following traditional rules or by using

traditional tools. They were forced to follow the new rules and had to open new division,

besides standard marketing and PR division. The new division they had to open was

dealing only with social media and social media implementation.

193 Kotler and Armstrong (2008), p.398194 Mangold and Faulds (2009), p. 359.195 Source: adaptef from: FitzGerald and Arnott (2000), p.264.

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4.2.2 The New Rules of Marketing

Social media is a hybrid element of the promotion mix because it combines characteristics

of traditional IMC tools (companies talking to customers) with a highly magnified form of

word-of mouth (customers talking to one another) whereby marketing managers cannot

control the content and frequency of such information. Social media is also a hybrid in that

it springs from mixed technology and media origins that enable instantaneous, real-time

communication, and utilizes multi-media formats (audio and visual presentations) and

numerous delivery platforms (Facebook, YouTube, and blogs, to name a few), with global

reach capabilities. The emergence of a highly educated, historically affluent, and an

increasingly skeptical and demanding consumer population facilitates its acceptance in the

marketplace.196

Figure 13: The New Communication Paradigm197

The Internet has become a mass media vehicle for consumer-sponsored communications.

It now represents the number one source of media for consumers at work and the number

two source of media at home.

“The Internet reaches more than 60% of all United States consumers for an

average weekly usage rate of more than 100 minutes.198

Consumers are turning away from the traditional sources of advertising: radio,

television, magazines, and newspapers. Consumers also consistently demand more

196 Mangold and Faulds (2009), p. 359.197 Source: Mangold and Faulds (2009), p.360.198 Rashtchy et al. (2007) qtd.in: Mangold and Faulds (2009), p. 360.

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control over their media consumption. They require on-demand and immediate

access to information at their own convenience.199

Consumers are turning more frequently to various types of social media to conduct

their information searches and to make their purchasing decisions200

Social media is perceived by consumers as a more trustworthy source of

information regarding products and services than corporate-sponsored

communications transmitted via the traditional elements of the promotion mix”.201

Brand is the sum of total customers' experience with the company and its product or

service, and company changes customers' lives, whether in a good or bad way. Therefore,

Postman claims that customers have always “owned” the brand. Development of the

Internet and social media has changed how companies handle their brands. They have to

get ready to “let go” of the brand. In other words, social media is not about losing or letting

go of the brand but simply on deciding how much “control” company wants to let go and

how they can manage companies social media initiatives to achieve business results like

improved brand perception and awareness.202

“Prior to the web, organizations had only two significant choices to attract attention: Buy

expensive advertising or get third party ink from the media. But web has changed the rules.

The web is not TV. Organizations that understand the new rules of marketing and PR

develop relationship directly with customers like you and me”.203

4.2.2.1 Development of Communication Rules

Before the digital revolution, customers’ awareness could be achieved either through

advertising, third party exposure from the media, or direct contact to the consumer.

Development of social media has changed the rules, enabling new possibilities to directly

communicate with the customers and reach a vast amount of clients at the same time.204

One-to-One Communication

199 Rashtchy et al. (2007) qtd.in: Mangold and Faulds (2009), p. 360.200 Lempert (2006) qtd.in: Mangold and Faulds (2009), p. 360.201 Foux (2006) qtd.in: Mangold et al. (2009), p. 360.202 Cf. Postman (2009), p.8.203 Scott (2011), p. 5.204 Cf. Scott (2008), p. 23.

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Not so long time ago, companies were putting all the efforts to reach customers into direct

marketing while using channels such as e-mail and telephone. Direct marketing is defined

as direct communication between buyer and seller where no intermediary media is used.205

This communication pattern is clearly supporting one-to-one communication, between the

brand and the consumer where the consumer was able to give a direct feedback to the

brand holder. This form of communication is mainly supported by e-mail system.206

Figure 14:1:1 Communication Model207

One-to-Many Communication

One-to-many communication is based on the traditional communication model, which

means that the message goes from a sender to a group of receivers. In this model,

communication flows through a medium directly to the consumer but it is one way

communication.208 Since the message is sent out to variety of consumers, consumer is not

able to reply directly to the message. The aim of this pattern is to reach as many people as

possible.209

See (Figure12.Traditional Communication Model)

In both cases, the one-to-one communication pattern and the one-to-many communication

pattern communication can provide direct communication, when the customer i.e. the

receiver of the message contacts directly the brand owner i.e. the sender of the message.

Many-to-Many Communication

205 Cf. Mullin (2002), p. 2.206 Cf. Reed et al. (1994), p. 90.f.207 Source: Adapted from:Lee (2009), [online].208 Cf. FitzGerald and Arnott (2000), p.264.209 Cf Schultz et al. (1994), p.6., Scott (2011), p. 23.

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In many-to-many communication the message or information flows among group of

individuals.210 This type of communication means for companies that they have to give a

certain level of control. Nowadays, customers are online and they interact whenever and

with whom they want. “Call centers and customer relations departments tend to look at

consumers in a vacuum; they do not consider customers’ circle of influence”.211

Figure 15: n:n Communication Model212

4.3 Branding in the Digital Age

Today, the Web has become an integral part of “brandscape” with majority of brands

growing online and offline.213 Dayal et al pointed out the important connection between an

online customer experience and the brand, it follows: “the World Wide Web, the brand is

the experience, and the experience is the brand”.214

Before, customer would systematically narrow down his brand choices in order to arrive at

the final selection and complete his engagement by making a purchase.215 Today’s

consumer connect with brands in a new way, trough media channels which are beyond

manufacturers control, traditional marketing strategies has to be redesigned. Customer

relies on digital interaction.216

210 Cf. Reed et al. (1994), p. 91.211 Weber (2011), p. 56.212 Source: Adapted from:Lee (2009), [online].213 Cf. Christoulides and de Chernatony (2004), p. 168.214 Dayal et al. Qtd.in: Christoulides and de Chernatony (2004), p.171.215 Cf. Haubl et al.(2000), p. 4.216 Cf. Edelman (2010), p. 2.

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In this new world of e-branding, “the Internet has become more than a gimmick or a mere

line item on the communications budget”. Now it plays more than an important role, it’s the

main tool in enhancing brand relationships and in corporate reputation creation.217

Internet offers a huge advantage over traditional mass media. But in general there is no

much difference in building an Internet brand and traditional brand. There are no

boundaries and the speed of spreading, sharing and collaborating is incredible. Because of

this seed people can move from awareness to action on the Internet. The only difference in

brand building is speed, which becomes essential. For marketers to become good in it, it's

requires a new way of thinking about how to design Web sites and related marketing

communications.218

Customers connect with the brands trough social media channels and evaluate them. After

the purchase this consumer may remain “engaged, publicly promoting or assailing the

product they’ve bought, collaborating in the brands’ development, and challenging and

shaping their meaning”.219

Edelman made a clear illustrated comparison between consumers decision making “than“

and “now“.

Figure 16: Then: The Funnel Metaphor220

The first figure („than“) shows marketers assumption on how customers think. Marketers

assume that customers are taking large variety of potential brands in consideration, and

then they are methodically winnowed choices. Usually the customers buy the product or

service after they make final choice. Edelman claims that after purchase, customer’s

relationship with the brand is focused on the use of product or service.

217 Cf. Chiagouris et al. (2000), p. 34.218 Cf. Chiagouris et al. (2000), p. 34.219 Edelman (2010), p. 2.220 Source: Edelman (2010), p. 4.

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Figure 17: Now: The Consumer Decision Journey221

The second figure („now“) shows that today’s consumers have changed compared to few

years ago. They rather add and subtract brands from some certain groups under

consideration during an extended phase. The difference in the behavior after the purchase

is also visible. They enter into an open-ended relationship with the brand, they share their

experience online.

4.3.1 Social Media Marketing

Strong marketing presence is beneficial for getting business from customers who are

interested in product or service. If company creates brand awareness no matter on

customer purchase they will remember on this product or service and seek the brand when

they will actually need product or service.222

Social media marketing defers from traditional marketing because it is much cheaper and

available to everyone. Traditional marketing tactics are not so effective anymore, because

customers have changed, their trust in traditional media has decline. People tend to trust in

comments and reviews of peers.223

Crowd influence becomes one of the main strategies for the success. If company knows

how to influence the crowd effectively they can create significant and defensible market

position which relies on social acceptance. The most important is to listen to the crowd and

learn from it.224

221 Source: Edelman (2010), p. 4.222 Cf. Weinberg (2009), p. 5.223 Cf. Weinberg (2009), p. 6.224 Cf. Evans (2012), p. 37f.

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4.3.1.1 Changes in Consumer Decision Making

Consumers are constantly making decision, on the purchase, and use of products or

service. The decision making is of a significant importance for both, consumer and

marketer. Consumers are often faced with large number of alternatives and therefore they

have to make a decision. Due to technological changes and competitive pressure this

effect of choosing among huge variety of alternatives is even more exposed.225

As Bettman et al. said: “typical consumer choice consists of a set of alternatives.” Each of

these alternatives is described by several attributes. Some of these alternatives can be

known with certainty and others with uncertainty, like reliability or durability of a product or

service.226

Figure 18: The Classical Purchase Funnel227

From traditional media perspective classical purchase funnel has three stages –

awareness, consideration and purchase, this are the steps company uses to move

customers toward the ultimate goal, the sale.

Growth of electronic commerce effected increasing number of consumers who are using

interactive media. One of the characteristic of online shopping environments, which can be

seen as opportunity, is possibility to create online retail interfaces with interactive features.

Interactive features enable customers in their purchase decision to customize electronic

shopping environment to their preferences.228 This growth in usage of social media has

changed the classical purchase funnel.

225 Cf. Bettman (1993), p. 50.226 Cf. Bettman (1993), p. 51.227 Source: Evans (2012), p. 40.228 Cf. Haubl et al. (2000), p. 4.

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Figure 19: The Social Feedback Cycle229

Social media includes the post purchase user experience and gives it back to the purchase

process. The consideration phase in classical cycle was typically avoided by marketers

and they were putting a lot of efforts to create awareness. 230 Because of the Internet

consumers can get infinitely more information, despite all the advertisement they see or

hear, they can verify validity on the Web. User-generated media has a great influence on

the decision-making process. Customers who already bought the product or service and

had possibility to experience it personally generate information and participate in

consumer-to-consumer conversation. This conversation can play an important role in

decision-making process of potential customers.

4.3.2 Changes in Customers’ Behavior and Environment

Before the development of the Internet consumers were left without any other choice, they

had to trust what they were being told and that is what had the major effect on the ways

brands communicated. Before companies had to decide on the image of the brand and

how they wanted consumers to see it. In order to have more influence, the brand holders

realized that they had to communicate with their various consumers, so that the brand

could be seen as companies wanted to. Due to the development of Web 2.0 consumers

have the ability to talk back and to share their views and opinions with other customers.231

229 Source: Evans (2012), p. 44.230 Cf. Evans (2012), p. 44.231 Cf. Brown (2009), p. 3f.

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Regarding to the development of the Internet customers have become more informed and

have become more educated. Customers have become subjects rather than objects. They

have also got a higher possibility of choice and they have become more active in creation

of a certain image or a specific product or service.

Customers have higher possibilities to learn, hence they have become smarter, wiser and

in terms of digital marketing it is much harder to blur there sight. Since it has never been

easier to compare the same product, to find where certain products are cheaper and better,

companies have to be more careful because they are taking risk of getting public praise or

complaints. Customers and companies have become equal.

Consumers decide with whom they want to communicate, therefore they ask directly for

information they are interested in, they can follow promotion and follow the brand. In this

way it is easier for brand holders to create a strong and emotional relationship between a

brand and a customer.

Brand management has become a much more complex and transparent discipline than it

used to be. Even customers have got the identity, they are no longer anonymous. Before it

was enough either to have a great product or to have grate marketing, but today both are

needed for the success with the emphasis on agile and good customer service and

communication.

According to the data collected form the interviews it is clear that the development of the

Internet affected the allocation of the budget in Croatia. In the last few years much more

money has been invested in online campaign, which caused reduction of the budget for

printed media. Companies invest more and more money into online media and the task for

the agencies is to follow the market.

Big companies have recognized the Internet as a great marketing tool; mainly because

they can follow their customers and according to the direct feedback develop their future

strategy. On the other side, the Internet is also helpful for small companies, it enables them

to build up their brand and create awareness.

Companies and their marketing strategies are much easier to maintain. For brand owners it

is important to get every potential buyer because “word of mouth” on the Internet has

reached its full potential.

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Croatian companies had to adapt for the new platforms, or in another words, they had to

recreate content for the Internet users. Brand holders have to change their way of doing

business over the time. Tradition marketing channels are not enough anymore. To

maximize marketing potential it is necessary to use all the available tools. Companies are

looking for new and more creative solutions for the usage of new media. Due to

environmental changes Croatian companies had to accept social media as a new tool. With

the development of social media brand holders have got a great opportunity of advertising,

it is not expensive and they can get direct feedback form customers.

4.3.2.1 Consumer Becomes Prosumer

Alvin Toffler in his book “The Third Wave” argues that a consumer is phenomena of

industrial age.232 Today’s consumer action is becoming increasingly recognized as the

driving force behind many of the most important online companies. Development of

technology enabled customers collaboration such as in “wiki“ and models like “open

source“.233

The consumer changes his role from a passive one and starts to participate actively. An

active consumer is involved and active in designing or customizing the end product.

Toffler defined prosumers as „people who produce some of the goods and services

entering their own consumption“.234 David and Moy defined prosumer as a “professional

consumer.”235 The term prosumer is a combination of two words - producer and consumer-

that perfectly describes the millions of participants in the Web 2.0 revolution.236

Due to the development of Web and technology the opportunities increased for consumers

to communicate and collaborate. There are many platforms which are available for ideas

and knowledge sharing. The revolution in consumers’ online behavior reflects a qualitative

shift in consumer creativity that results in what Kozinets et al. call term innovation-oriented

online consumer communities.237 In today’s dynamic environment, every customer’s

creativity is going back to the business through word-of-mouth marketing.

232 Toffler (1980) qtd.in Kotler (1986), p. 510.233 Lévy (1997); Benkler (2006); Jenkins (2006) qtd.in: Kozinets et al. (2008), p. 339.234 Toffler (1986), p. 510.235 Cf. David and Moy (2007) qtd.in: Jones et al. (2009), p.928.236 Cf. Toffler (1986), p. 510.237 Cf. Kozinets et al. (2008), p. 344.

60

4.3.2.2 Social Consumer Networks

With the development of Web 2.0 and social media marketers got the power and found the

way to tap into these sites as interactive media tools. They allow interaction with customers

and relationship building. Those tools have a strong influence on the consumers’ buying

decision. Harridge-March and Quinton said “virtual communities and social networks

provide the connections to allow consumers to form strong relationships that influence

consumer behavior “.238

Consumers are now creating they own networks and developing relationships between

them. Social consumer communities have special characteristic and they according to

Harridge-March and Quinton customers are classified into four different types. “Lurkers” are

present on a service but they don’t contribute actively, “tourists” are contribute to the

network just occasionally but do not show a commitment for a network. “Minglers” are

active, they post but without any regularity and “devotees” are enthusiastic members of a

community. 239

Relationship marketing is a term which says that marketers should put efforts on building

long term relationships with their customers.240 ““The development of relationships between

consumers within social networks results in social and even emotional bonds being formed.

Social bonding can create a sense of loyalty where there may be multiple other sources of

supply of information – i.e. the more you participate, the stronger your social bonds and the

less likely you are to look elsewhere”.241

Four different types of customers, mentioned before, are of a great importance for brand

managers, to identify the right target group of customers and to serve this group with the

right advertisement. And word-of-mouth is especially important for marketers in the context

of online communities because of the extraordinary popularity, growth, and influence of

such communities.242

238 Harridge-March and Quinton (2009), p.172.239 Harridge-Marchan and Quinton (2009), p. 176ff.240 Cf. Berry qtd.in: Harridge-March/Quinton (2009), p. 174.241 Harridge-March/Quinton( 2009), p. 175.242 Cf. Brown et al. (2007), p. 3.

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4.3.3 Electronic Word of Mouth

Traditionally word of mouth (WOM) has been defined as “informal communication between

private parties concerning evaluations of goods and services” or it can be interpreted as

face-to-face information exchange.243 Richins et al. defined word of mouth as the process

of conveying information from person to person and plays a major role in customer buying

decisions.244

WOM is perceived as a powerful marketing medium for companies to influence consumers.

The negative aspect of this marketing tool is that it is hard to influence it. WOM contains

consumers sharing attitudes, opinions, or reactions about businesses, products, or services

with other people. Positive WOM influences the buying decision, since people trust and rely

on families, friends, and others in their social network. “People appear to trust seemingly

disinterested opinions from people outside their immediate social network, such as online

reviews.”245

This form of word of mouth known as online WOM (OWOM) or electronic WOM (eWOM)

appears when people start to trust seemingly disinterested opinions from people outside

their immediate social network, such as online reviews.246

OWOM enables customers to influence the brand image and the perception, but once a

company starts with eWOM and viral marketing they will lose control because of little or no

tools available to manage the content flow.247

Microblogging is a new form of communication which allows sharing thoughts and attitudes,

and it has a direct impact in the eWOM communication. Microblogs offer immediate

sentiment and provide insight in affective reactions towards products at critical junctions of

the decision-making and purchasing process. Hennig-Thurau et al. defined eWOM as a

„statement made by potential, actual, or former customers about a product or company,

which is made available to a multitude of people and institutions via the Internet”.248

Microblogs allow just short messages, no longer than 140 characters and they are great for

243 Cf. Anderson qtd.in: Sweeney at al. (2012),p.237.244 Cf. Richins et al. qtd.in: Jansen et al. (2009), p. 2169.245 Duana et al. (2009). qtd.in: Jansen et al. (2009), p. 2169.246 Cf. Duana et al. (2009). qtd.in: Jansen et al. (2009), p. 2169.247 Cf. Wells et al. (2000), Ennew et al. (2000). qtd.in: Jansen (2009), p. 2169.248 Hennig-Thurau et al. (2004), p.39 qtd.in: Jansen (2009), p. 2170.

62

the brands, since people can share their thoughts almost anywhere, at any time, and with

anyone.249

eWOM communication implies that customers are online and they search for the

information on a product or services and share their knowledge and opinion. „Such

communication can include both positive and negative consumer experiences with a

product or company“. 250

Microblogging is becoming more and more important because it has a greater influence on

eWOM branding efforts. eWOM is an important aspect of consumer expression and it has

an impact on the brand's image and awareness.251

The new trend offers new opportunities for brand holders to build a brand relationship with

potential customers and increase awareness. With microblogging posts customers can

express their feelings, provide feedback, ask questions, and get answers. Microblogging

provides a real picture into what customers really feel about the brand and its competitors

in real time.252

4.3.4 „The Long Tail „of Marketing

The Long Tail describes a business model developed by Chris Anderson, the editor of

Wired magazine and the author of The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling

Less of More which first appeared in Wired in October 2004 and then became a book,

published in July 2006.253

The distribution and sales channel of the Internet enables businesses to reach new niche

markets by selling a large number of unique items in small quantities.

„The theory of the Long Tail is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away

from a focus on a relatively small number of "hits" (mainstream products and markets) at

the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail. As the costs

of production and distribution fall, especially online, there is now less need to lump

products and consumers into one-size-fits-all containers. In an era without the constraints

249 Cf. Jansen et al. (2009), p. 2170.250 Hennig-Thurau et al. (2004), p.42.251 Cf. Jansen et al. (2009), p.2171.252 Cf. Jansen et al. (2009), p. 2185f.253 Cf. Anderson (2012), [online].

63

of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly-targeted goods and

services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare”.254

Figure 20: The Long Tail255

The Long Tail refers specifically to the orange part of the sales chart above, which shows a

standard demand curve that could apply to any industry. „The vertical axis is sales; the

horizontal is products. The red part of the curve are the hits, which have dominated our

markets and culture for most of the last century. The orange part is the non-hits, or niches,

which is where the new growth is coming from now and in the future“.256

Some of today's successful Internet businesses leverage the long tail to reach those

unserved customers in order to satisfy the demand for certain products found in traditional

stores. For example, because of its size a traditional bookstore carries the limits of the

inventory of books that can physically be inventoried and sold, which forces the holder of a

bookstore to carry a large inventory of the most popular books. On the other hand, there is

Amazon, the largest bookseller, where the two-thirds of the books are marked as

„unpopular“. A traditional bookstore cannot afford that, but Amazon can because of the

long tail and effective business model where there is no distribution, inventory, real estate

and other costs that are burden to traditional retailers.257

254 LongTail (2012), [online].255 Suorce: Long Tali (2012), [online].256 Cf. LongTail (2012), [online].257 Cf. Reece (2010), p. 197.

64

For brand managers knowledge of the long tail is important, businesses can be sure to get

some market share especially in digital markets. Brand holders who recognized the

opportunity they can serve several niches and increase brand awareness

Scott says: “Marketers must shift their thinking from the short head of mainstream

marketing to the masses, to a strategy of targeting vast numbers of underserved audiences

via the Web”.258

258 Scott (2010), p. 18.

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5 Recommendations

It’s important to give a brief insight into Croatian market for further understanding of

recommendations. In needed to clarify how ready are Croatian companies for changes and

what social media experts point out as the main problem among Croatian companies.

The main problem experts see in lack of knowledge among Croatian brand managers.

Some companies do not have a lot of knowledge on social media and what the advantages

of social media are. This happens when doing business in one company is the same for

years, and then it is hard to learn something new and force people to change. If a company

wants to be competitive it has to accept changes.

This problem can also be described as a fear of unknown; brand holders have not had a

direct contact with the new type of marketing and it is understandable that they are scared

of customers' reactions.

The only solution is to get educated. The experts from agencies try to explain brand holders that people are already on the Internet, and their brand is not.

Croatian experts evaluated the readiness of Croatian Companies for changes and they

said that the majority of Croatian companies is becoming aware of changes in the market

and they are becoming aware of the power that the Internet and social media bring. Social

media can also be called a trend. Croatian experts think that is necessary to educate

Croatian public, in order for this kind of communication to become intended for an ultimate

number of customers.

Croatian experts for social media see the main deficiency in a weak knowledge of brand

managers; they are not able to recognize and evaluate good online suggestions, and due

to the lack of knowledge they do not know a lot about expenses on the Internet. Another

problem experts pointed out, is the capacity of agencies, they are not able to follow the

growth of the market. One expert says he sees the problem in undereducated clients. In

these situations a company has to adapt and as a result Croatia falls behind on the global

stage. He also compared Croatian advertising scene with the one in the USA in 2009/2010.

66

Most familiar with social media in Croatia are the companies that are in foreign ownership.

Their whole marketing strategy comes from outside the country, and they have money to

invest into education and technology development.

Croatian companies are ready to invest more money into social media and they are open

towards social media. Those companies who are not willing to accept this situation will

have to adapt eventually. Most companies know for Facebook and Tweeter.

After a brief overview of the Croatian market in the following text are given

recommendations for companies.

First of all, Croatian companies have to realize that time where they were just sending a

message, and customers were buying the products, has passed. Consumers are no longer

holding bad experience just for themselves like they used to. Every negative customer

experience is creating bad publicity for a brand and a brand holder. Companies should

recognize these changes as an opportunity in it, not as a threat. Brand holders together

with their customers can create a brand that is going to be better and adjusted to

customers.

Companies should also have in mind that this service is not free of charge. Like in every

other business, if a company wants to work on implementation systematically and

concretely then they have to pay for the service. Costs can be rather high because this

work involves full-time activation of a social media expert who deals with it almost 24/7,

since it concerns a highly dynamic medium. The very positive thing in a social medium is

that every single activity is measurable and it is easy to see what a good work, according to

the results, is.

If a company decides to deal with social media without the help of an expert, it is necessary

to identify all the social networks where they can maximize their profits. They should

develop communication strategy and following steps of the strategy. Communication

strategy should be the first step, including the type of communication where key

measurement parameters should be defined. Communication strategies differ depending

on what the communication goal is and what type of a brand is advertised.

Companies in Croatia should definitely implement a social media tool, following examples

of some Croatian companies who did so, in the right way, and had the return on the

investment even higher than 150%.

67

The best recommendation for a company is to be more original, more creative and more

transparent than ever. The majority of social media campaigns are functional only because

of their creativity and uniqueness.

From the information collected from the interviews, and the fact that Croatia legs behind

western countries, the best for companies would be to hire a social media expert e.g.

agency for implementation of social media. As mentioned before, in most cases brand

managers do not have enough knowledge and companies’ portfolio could suffer because of

wrong decisions taken by those managers.

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6 Conclusion

The purpose of the study is to outline variety of the available social media tools that

companies can use in order to create brand awareness and straighten the brands image.

Another point of interest was to outline what kind of changes happened due to

development of Web 2.0 and how these changes influenced brand management known

and used up till that point. For the purpose of the research, theoretical findings and results

from the interviews were combined.

Upon the results of the theoretical research and information collected from the interviews it

became obvious that usage of social media in marketing is no longer an option or

debatable, indeed it became critically important to all businesses. “It represents a powerful,

and additional, channel to first listen to customers, stakeholders, media, bloggers, peers,

and other influencers, and in turn building two-way paths of conversation to them. It

represents priceless opportunities to build relationships and shape perceptions at every

step.”259 It was also identified that social media changed and is still changing the

communication process, customers are not anonymous anymore and they can provide

reviews and comments in real time.

The possibilities of social media allow organizations to inform their buyers, interact,

participate in conversations, gain credibility, and deliver content directly to their audience.

Most people and businesses in Croatia understand that using the Internet and its many

applications is the key strategy to strengthen the brand image and raise brand awareness.

Croatian social media experts believe that Croatian brand managers lack in knowledge and

therefore, Croatian brand holders should invest more money in educating their company

leaders.

259 Sheldrake (2008), qtd.in: Brown (2009), p.18.

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Real People, Real Decisions.

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Stormer, H. (2005): Personalized websites for mobile devices using dynamic cascading

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237–257.

Thomas, M. (2009): Handbook of Research on Web 2.0 and Second Language Learning.

USA, UK: IGI Global.

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74

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Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly.

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Internet Index

AMA (2012), Americam Marketing Association, Date assessed: 14.04.2012., URL,

http://www.marketingpower.com/Pages/default.aspx

Anderson, C. (2012), The Long Tail, Date assessed: 16.07.2012., URL:

www.longtail.com/about.html

Anson, A. (2012),Social Media Usage Statistics 2012, date assessed: 22.04.2012., URL:

http://ansonalex.com/infographics/social-media-usage-statistics-2012-infographic/

Bullas, J. (2012), Tweeter Approaching 500 Milion Users, date assessed: 25.03.2012.,

URL: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/02/13/twitter-approaching-500-million-users/

Burnett, S. (2012), INFOGRAPH: 2012 YouTube Statistics, Date assessed: 23.04.2012.,

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founded-2010-3

Facebook (2012), Key Facts, date assessed: 22.04.2012., URL:

http://newsroom.fb.com/content/default.aspx?NewsAreaId=22

Flickr (2012), About Flikr, Date assessed: 11.07.2012.http://www.flickr.com/about/

Flickr (2012), GeoTagging, date assessed: 13.07.2012., URL:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/geotagging/

75

Foursquare (2012),About foursquare, Date assessed: 25.07.2012.,

URL:https://foursquare.com/about/

Foursquare (2012), Foursquare Brand Platform, Date assessed: 25.07.2012., URL:

http://foursquare.com/business/brands

Google (2012), Web 2.0. URL: , Date assessed: 14.4. 2012., URL:

http://www.google.hr/search?q=web+2.0&ie=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-

GB:official&client=firefox-a

Google+ (2012),Date assesse: 13.07.2012.,

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Lee, J. (2009), A Model of Mobile Community: Designing UserInterfaces to Support Group

Interaction, Assess date: 22.07.2012., URL: http://www.dubberly.com/articles/a-

model-of-mobile- community.html

LinkedIn (2012), date assessed:12.05.2012., URL: http://press.linkedin.com/aboutSaleem,

H. (2010), 101 Social Media Tools for Social Media Marketing and More, Date

assessed: 22.07.2012. URL: http://images.search.conduit.com/ImagePreview/?

q=social%20media

%20tools&ctid=CT3072253&searchsource=15&SSPV=EB_SSPV&CUI=SB_CUI&st

art=0&pos=0

Mashable Social Media,(2012), Google+ Rolls Out New Look, Date assessed: 13.07.2012.,

URL: http://mashable.com/2012/04/11/google-plus-redesign/

Pinterest (2012), What is Pinterest?, Date assessed: 22.04.2012., URL:

http://pinterest.com/about/

Pinterest (2012), What is Pinterest?, Date assessed: 11.07.2012., URL:

http://pinterest.com/pin/52284045643996210/

Pring, C. (2012), 100 social media statistic for 2012, Date assessed: 11.07.2012., URL:

http://thesocialskinny.com/100-social-media-statistics-for-2012/

YouTube (2012), About YouTube, Date assessed: 11.07.2012., URL:

http://www.youtube.com/t/about_youtube

76

Appendix

Interview 1.

o Kako je razvoj Interneta (Web 2.0) utjecao na marketinsko okruzenje i kako je promijenio

brend management? Kako se taj efekt odrazio na kompanije te njihove brendove?

Definitivno je utjecao. Kompanije su morale započeti sustavno upravljati brendovima i putem

interneta. Danas je nezamislima kampanja bez ovih mogucnosti. To je značajno potaknulo

kreativnost, inovativnost ali i učinkovitost kampanja. Također je pojeftinilo cijeli proces.

o Koje je promijene u svijesti potrosaca donio razvoj Interneta?

Potrošači su zahvaljujući ovim tehničkim mogućnostima postali informiraniji i educiraniji.

Imaju puno veće mogućnosti izbora ali i aktivnog sudjelovanja u kreiranju imidža

određenog proizvoda ili usluge. Potrošači su postali subjekti a ne objekti u pravom smislu te

riječi.

o Koja je razlika u brend managementu danas i prije nekoliko godina, s obzirom na

razvoj Interneta?

Razlike su goleme. Interent postaje jedan od važnijih nositelja razvoja brenda i upravljanja njime.

Internet je postao naša svakodnevica i ne samo da je postao jedno od najvažnijih alata u

marketingu, već je i drastično promijenio marketinško okruženje. Upravo zbog toga, velik broj

kompanija se usmjerio na društvene mreže koje im omogućuju ''prijateljski'' odnos sa korisnicima,

kupcima njihovih proizvoda. Korisnici se u tom slučaju lakše vežu za neki bernd, budući da se on

nalazi među njegovim prijateljima na društvenim mrežama.

o Standardni marketinski alati vise ne slijede trendove trzista. Koliko su nositelji brendova

(kompanije) svjesne tog efekta? Sto su morale promijeniti?

Morali su se maksimalno prilagoditi novim platformama, odnosno kreirati sadržaje

namijenjene korisnicima interneta. Ti sadržaji sada imaju posebne zakonitosti (kraće forme,

mogućnost povratne informacije, multimedija i sl.).

Kompanije su sve više svjesnije koliku moć nose internet i društvene mreže. Velik broj

komapnija se prilagodio jer nisu mogle ignorirati činjenicu da primjerice Facebook ima oko

800 milijuna aktivinih korisnika, od kojih svaka osoba provede dnevno 55min na toj

društvenoj mreži.

o Koliko su nositelji brendova na Hrvatskom trzistu upoznati sa brzinom promjene trendova i

samim alatima drustvenih medija? Te koliko su spremni na promjene u svrhu jacanja

brenda i svijesti potrosaca?

Hrvatska iskustva pokazuju da naše kompanije ne zaostaju za zapadnim uzorima i da se velikom

brzinom prilagodjavaju i mijenjaju.

o Koliko su hrvatske kompanije zapravo upoznate s cijelim pojmom drustvenih medija i kolko

su spremne na promjene?

Kompanije u Hrvatskoj su više-manje otvorene za social media marketing. Naime, prije ili kasnije će

se morati prilagoditi tržištu te shvatiti kako Facebook danas više nije obična društvena mreža, već

on na različite načine mijenja komunikaciju među ljudima, ali i odluke koje oni donose.

o Koje drustvene mreze su dostupne kompanijama uzevsi u obzir specificnosti ciljanih

javnosti brenda kako bi ojacale svijest potrosaca istog brenda? Za koje mreze su kompanije

najvise zainteresirane i zasto?

Od najaktivnijih društvenih mreža koje su ujedno i dostupne kompanijama izdvojili bismo

Facebook (800 milijuna aktivnih korisnika), YouTube(3 milijarde videa pogleda se svaki dan),

Twitter (200 milijuna Tweetova dnevno), LinkedIn( 90% recruitera ga korisit za zapošljavanje).

Trenutačno kompanije se najviše odlučuju za Facebook društvenu mrežu, gdje sa svojim

korisnicima osvaruju prijateljski odnos gdje pomoću facbook adsa, facbook stranica ili aplikaciju

mogu graditi i promovirati svoj brand.

o Za koju mrezu se vasa agencija odlucila?

Prisutni smo na Facebooku zbog popularnosti te mreze. Uz to se oslanjamo na vlastite web stranice

na kojima razvijamo posebne vlastite komunikacijske platforme.

o Zasto bas za tu odredjenu aplikaciju/e?

o Zasto ne za neku/e druge?

iSTUDIO svojim klijentima nudi niz razvojnih i agencijskih usluga za društvene mreže,

najviše Facebook. Razvili smo proizvode za profesionalce i medije koji se temelje na

društvenim mrežama s ciljem pružanja unikatne vrijednosti na globalnoj razini.

o Na koje naciene kompanije koriste te drustvene mreze kako bi privukle potrosace i ojacale

brend? Molim vas da opisete.

iSTUDIO svojim klijentima nudi niz opcija, naših proizvoda za Fcebook stranice.

YouTube tab- nudi direktno povezivanje FB stranice sa YouTube kanalom, videi se

sinkroniziraju i prikazuju u stvarnom vremenu, mogućnost dodatnog brandinga

Top fan- aplikacija koja prikazuje najaktivnije fanove na stranici i mjeri količinu interakcije

pojedinog fana na stranici (ključne prednosti: potiče interakciju, povećava FPI, pruža bolju

komunikaciju s korisnicima, prati aktivnost fanova..)

Crowdsaver- korisnici glasanjem biraju koji proizvod žele na akciju u trgovinama, moguće

brendiranje proizvoda)

GiveAway- namijenjem čestim akcijama nagrađivanja korisnika kroz mini nagradne

natječaje, administrator dobiva potpunu listu igrača sa odgovorima, mogućnost

brendiranja

o Da li su drustvene mreze dovoljno jak komunikacijski kanal za brand management i brand

awareness, te ako jesu, zasto?

Smatramo da jesu, Facebook primjerice u Hrvatskoj broji 1, 5 milijuna aktivnih korisnika.

Kompanije sa korisnicima imaju bolju komunikaciju, putem različitih aplikacija i objava potiče se

dvosmjerna interakcija, mogućnost dodatnog brendiranja...

Int erview 2.

o Kako je razvoj Interneta (Web 2.0) utjecao na marketinsko okruzenje i kako je

promijenio brend management? Kako se taj efekt odrazio na kompanije te njihove

brendove?

o Koje je promjene u svijesti potrosaca donio razvoj Interneta?

o Razvoj interneta omogućio je korisnicima da na brz i jednostavan način mogu doći

do velikog broja ključnih informacija koje su im potrebne u donošenju odluke o

samoj kupnji. Danas se sve informacije apsorbiraju putem online medija i zapravo

odlazak u trgovinu čini krajnji proces samo gdje osoba kupi i skupi proizvod u samo

nekoliko minuta s obzirom na to da se odluka donosila puno prije, na samom

interneru.

o Koja je razlika u brend managementu danas i prije nekoliko godina, s

obzirom na razvoj Interneta?

Brand management danas je puno zahtjevnija disciplina, a moglo bi se reći i puno

transparentnija. Prije je bilo dovoljno imati dobar proizvod ili dobar marketing ili oboje.

Danas je to nužno, sa ogromnim naglaskom i na popratne benefite kao što je brzi i dobar

customer service i komunikacija. Danas brand management mora biti originalniji, kretivniji i

transpaentniji nego ikad prije. Isto tako mora biti i prilagodlji i puno više osluškivati same

potrošače što je konačnici, ako se radi na dobroj razini, i dobro za taj brand.

o Standardni marketinski alati vise ne slijede trendove trzista. Koliko su nositelji

brendova (kompanije) svjesne tog efekta? Sto su morale promijeniti?

E ovo ne razumijem. Možeš mi malo pojasniti samo?

o Koliko su nositelji brendova na Hrvatskom trzistu upoznati sa brzinom promjene

trendova i samim alatima drustvenih medija? Te koliko su spremni na promjene u

svrhu jacanja brenda i svijesti potrosaca?

Kako tko naravno. Većina ih je svjesna da je to novo doba i da moraju biti dio njega i da

njihov brand može i mora komunicirati na taj način sa potrošačima. Nažalost, još

nedostaje ipak doza onog pravog dubinskog razumijevanja kako to iskoristiti još i bolje

te kako će se to odraziti na cjelokupni brand ako se radi malo hrabrije. Jer ovo je novi i

samim time skliski teren za brand managere. Tu se svaka kriva odluka potencijalno

može pretvoriti u katastrofu (bar smo mi dobili dojam da se tako razmišlja) zbog velikog

broja ljudi koji su na društvenim mrežama. Međutim, po nama je više katastrofa ako se

ne radi ništa jer to znači da si već u debelom zaostatku sa onima koji nešto rade, a

pogotovo za onima koji su odlučili raditi to na strateškoj razini. Jer takav pristup nije

pristup promocije čiste više, to je pristup koji direktno mijenja filozofiju poslovanja cijele

kompanije, uvodi novi business model, a samim time i nosi veliki teret.

o Koliko su hrvatske kompanije zapravo upoznate s cijelim pojmom drustvenih medija

i kolko su spremne na promjene?

Odgoovreno u pitanju prije.

o Koje drustvene mreze su dostupne kompanijama uzevsi u obzir specificnosti

ciljanih javnosti brenda kako bi ojacale svijest potrosaca istog brenda? Za koje

mreze su kompanije najvise zainteresirane i zasto?

Realno na netu je dostupno nekoliko tisuća društvenih mreža. Ali u Hrvatskoj se

najviše koriste sljedeće:

Facebook – najveća i marketinški najbolje iskorištena društvena mreža u Hrvatskoj.

Trenutno broji 1,5 milijuna aktivnih korisnika i nekoliko tisuća službenih Facebook

stranica. Nekima je doslovno promijenila poslovanje.

Twitter – ima cca 20 000 korisnika i samim time nije jako iskoristiva za neke

masovnije potrebe. Ali je izvrsna za tehnološki orijentirne brandove pošto se na

twitteru više kreću pripadnici IT idustrije i novinari. Za medije se pokazao Twitter

izvrsnim jer omogućuje brzu fluktuaciju informacija.

Foursquare – lokacijska društvena mreža koja omogućuje brandovima da

korisnicima daju zanimljive informacije na određenim lokacijama kao i da im daju

posebne ponude (specials) u zamjenu za check-in (prijavu na lokaciju npr. tog

restorana) jer na taj način korisnik radi istome besplantu promociju.

Još se koriste: Pinterest, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google+ od društvenih

mreža, ali u manjoj mjeri nego prva tri gore navedena.

o Za koju mrezu se vasa agencija odlucila?

Naš core business su društvene mreže (i marketing i design i development na njima) od

kojih Facebook zauzima cca 90% svega što radimo. On je bio logičan odabir jer je stvarno

najmoćniji društveni medij te smo i sami iskusili njegovu snagu i na vlastitim projektima.

Npr. kada zapošljavamo, promocija ide isključivo preko društvenih mreža i dobijemo

ogroman broj jako kvalitetnih prijava. Ali uz Facebook nudimo, a i sami smo prisutni, na

svim drugim velikim društvenim mrežama. To je jednostavno filozofija novog marketinga,

sa korisnicima morate biti u mogućnosti ikomunicirati i dati im se na raspolaganje bilo gdje i

bilo kada, i to mora biti što personaliziranije. . Na taj način mogu se postići najbolji rezultati.

o Na koje naciene kompanije koriste te drustvene mreze kako bi privukle potrosace i

ojacale brend? Molim vas da opisete.

Kompanije najčešće nastupaju na njima putem stranica koje se otvaraju dugoročno (i

na neki način su kao web stranice) te služe za dvostruku komunikaciju sa korisnicima.

Uz to rade se i kampanje putem oglasa na npr. Facebooku i Googleu, kao i aplikacije

koje omogućavaju ogroman engagement fanova sa brandom. Znalo se događati da je u

nekoj aplikaciji našeg klijenta rposječno vrijeme bilo 1h po korisniku što je ogromna

stvar. Zamislite da korisnika sat vremena na TV-u gleda sadržaj vezan isključivo uz vaš

brand, ili u novinama. Tko bi to mogao platiti? Ovako je to puno jeftinije, a odmah

omogućava i puno jaču povratnu informaciju. I zato su te društvene mreže toliko

moćne, jake i zapravo još uvijek malo podcijenjene u odnosu na njihov pravi potencijal .

o Prema vasem iskustvu, koliko su kompanije uspjele povecati svijest o svom brendu

nakon implementacije odredjene aplikacije?

Odgovoreno pitanje prije.

o Da li su drustvene mreze dovoljno jak komunikacijski kanal za brand management i

brand awareness, te ako jesu, zasto? Odgovoreno isto u pitanju prije. Brand

awareness na cca 1h aktivnog igranja appa je ogromna.

o Na koji nacini ili preko kojih medija educirate zaposlenike o novostima i koristenju

drustvenih medija?

Naši su zaposlenici zapravo svi ljudi koje to općenito interesira, a izvor informacija

je internet sam koji jje nepresušan. Postoje naravno specijalizirani portali za vijesti

iz tog svijeta kao što su: Mashable, Techcrunch, Gizmodo, Social media today, od

domaćih Netokracija i Zimo. Naše zaposlenike šaljemo na konferencije sa tom

temamtikom, imamo interne grupe u kojima svatko tko naiđe na neku bitnu info

podijeli sa svima ostalima, puno pričamo o tome i tako se isto učimo. A i na samim

društvenim mrežama se nalaze zapravo sve potrebne informacije.

o Koje su najcesce prepreke u komunikaciji s hrvatskim kompanijama koji zele biti

prisutne na novim medijima? Na koji nacin te prepreke rjesvate ako ih ima?

Postoji ih nekoliko:

1) strah od nepoznatog – pošto se brandovi nisu još susreli direktno sa takvim

tipom marketinga, naravno da postoji strah određeni na to kako će fanovi reagirati,

hoće li netko govoriti nešto loše i sl. To se uvijek rješava na način da pokušamo

objaniti kako su ljudi ionako na internetu i pričaju o brandu, samo to rade negdje

drugdje. Ovako će to napraviti na mjestu gdje imamo priliku odgovoriti, pokazati

drugu stranu priče, ispraviti nešto i ponekada pretvoriti razočarane korisnike u

brand ambasadore čak.

o Koje bi preporuke dali hrvatskim kompanijama kako bi na sto bolji i bezbolniji nacin

ojacale svoji bren i svijest kod postojecih i potencijalnih potrosaca. Nako potrebne

edukacije i prikupljenih informacija koji bi po vasem misljenju bili najbolji sljedeci potezi

nositelja brendova kako bi ojacali svijest potrosaca o brendu?

o Hrvatske kompanije definitivno moraju shvatiti kako je vrijeme kada su oni odašiljali

poruke, a potrošači kupovali, prošlo. Također je prošlo vrijeme kada su korisnici svoja

loša iskustva držali za sebe i skupinu prijatelja. Sada je svako negativno iskustvo

ogroman loš publicitet za brand. Ali to ih ne smije prepasti. Trebaju na to gledati kao na

priliku da zajedno sa svojim potrošačima grade brand na način na koji će ga potrošači

biti još spremniji kupiti, ali i sa kojim će u konačnici biti i zadovoljniji. Druga stvar koju

kompanije trebaju shvatiti da to nije besplatno. Kao i u svemu drugome, ako se želi

raditi sistematski i konkretno u strateškom i implementacijskom smislu onda košta. I

može koštati poprilično jer podrazumijeva full time aktivaciju osoba koje se time bave

gotovo 24/7 te podrazumijeva stalnu potrebu za prilagodbama i učenje pošto se radi o

izuzetno dinamičnom mediju. Ali ono što je dobro za razliku od tradicionalnih medija

jest da se i svaka najmanja sitnica može izmjeriti čime se može točno pokazati što radi

dobar, a što ne tako dobar performans i prilagođavati rad u smjeru boljeg. Svaka

uložena kuna može se izmjeriti i to je ujedno i najbolji dio cijele te priče koja je nekim

hrvatskim kompanijama koje su ušle u to na pravi način omogućila povrate na

investicije i preko 150%.

Interview 3

o Kako je razvoj Interneta (Web 2.0) utjecao na marketinsko okruzenje i kako je

promijenio brend management? Kako se taj efekt odrazio na kompanije te njihove

brendove?

Internet svojim razvojem postaje dominantan marketinški kanal. Svake godine raste

udio budžeta koji marketinške agencije i sami brandovi odvajaju za svoje aktivnosti na

internetu. U njemu su dobili kanal kojim direktnije nego ikad mogu doći do potrošača,

zbog čega su morali prilagoditi i svoje marketišnke aktivnosti i strategije.

Razvoj web 2.0. je promijenio sliku interneta, tj. Od wikipedije, vise nista nije isto. Bilo je

samo pitanje vremena kada ce ljudi poceti uredjivati sami sadrzaj na internetu i

zapoceti interakciju. Najvecu prednost koju je donio web 2.0 je ta da su kompanije

dobile internet usi, tj pored usta, koje su dobili s web 1.0, u biti sto je jos i vaznije jer su

dobili feedback, neki su se brzo prilagodili pa su to iskoristili da poboljsaju svoju

ponudu/ proizvode i slicno. Neki to nazalost jos nevide kao „slusni aparat“, bar u

hrvatskoj...

o Koje je promijene u svijesti potrosaca donio razvoj Interneta?

Smatram da je potrosac postao pametniji, mudriji, i sve je teze zamaglit mu oci,

naravno govorimo o digitalnom marketingu. Nikad nije bilo lakse usporediti isti

proizvod, pronaci gdje je najpovoljniji i slicno. Etrgovine vec uzimaju maha, i to vi se

vec moglo reci da je web 3.0 u neku ruku. Zahvaljujući internetu potrošači mogu

direktno komunicirati s brendovima te ih javno kuditi i hvaliti. Oni izlaze iz

anonimnosti koju pruža masovno potrošačko društvo i inzistiraju na puno većem

angažmanu brenda da ga se osvoji i zadovolji.

o Koja je razlika u brend managementu danas i prije nekoliko godina, s

obzirom na razvoj Interneta?

Velike kompanije su odavno prepoznale internet kao odlican alat za marketing,

ponajvise sto se sve moze pratiti, i tocno dobiti feedback svih strategija i kampanja

koje se odvijaju. S druge strane malim tvrtkama je omoguceno da izgrade svoj

brend na relativno jeftin nacin ili da ga jos vise ojacaju.

Penetracijom interneta brendovi moraju prilagođavati svoje marketinške strategije

na način da održavaju odnose s potrošačima umjesto da im samo "prodaju priču".

Nalaze se u poziciji da se bore za svakog potencijalnog kupca jer su svjesni da je

word of mouth na internetu dosegao svoj puni potencijal te moraju posebno paziti

na svaku svoju aktivnost.

o Standardni marketinski alati vise ne slijede trendove trzista. Koliko su nositelji

brendova (kompanije) svjesne tog efekta? Sto su morale promijeniti?

Na svjetskoj sceni, tvrtke razmisljaju drugacije, puno vise se takmice i jasno da se

stalno prilagodjavaju, medjutim u hrvatskoj taj efekt jos nije stigao, prvenstveno iz

razloga sto tvtke nemaju preveliku konkurenciju (bar u internet marketingu), tako da

nema toliko takmicarskog duha, relativno rade na tome jako ulaganim tempom,

druga stvar je sto nemamo konkretne strucnjake za online marketing (pisanje

komentara na fejsu NIJE online marketing). Na prste mozemo nabrojati kompanije u

hrvatskoj koje prvenstveno se oglasavanju na internetu, a to su u vecini stranice za

kolektivnu kupovinu, te telekomunikacijske kompanije i slicnje njima koje se

ponajvise sluze screen oglasavanjem, tj u vecini nekim informativnim karakterom.

Svi brendovi kad - tad moraju uhvatiti korak s vremenom žele li opstati. Može se

reći da su oni koji do danas nisu doveli internet u fokus ugrozili svoje pozicije na

tržištu. Standardni kanali jednostavno više nisu dovoljni, kako bi se maksimalizirao

marketinški potencijal potrebno je iskoristiti sve raspoložive alate.

o Koliko su nositelji brendova na Hrvatskom trzistu upoznati sa brzinom promjene

trendova i samim alatima drustvenih medija? Te koliko su spremni na promjene u

svrhu jacanja brenda i svijesti potrosaca?

Mislim da je vecina upoznata s facebookom i twiterom i sl. Ali da ga svi koriste na pravi

nacin, o tome bih se dalo raspravljati. Jos prosle godine masa istih je imala profil

umjesto page, sto dovoljno govori o znanju i samom pristupu socijalnim mrezama.

Ponavljam, soc mreze su odlican slusni aparat i alat za interakciju s klijentima.

Mislim da u hrvatskoj imamo problem da su klijenti cesto neuki, te da se firme cesto

prilagodjavaju klijentima jer nemaju drugog izbora, a onda s druge strane samim time

zaostajemo na svjetskoj sceni.

Hrvatsku oglasavacku i socijalno oglasavacku scenu bih usporedio s americkom 2009-

2010.

Tvrtke su svjesne promjena, pitanje je samo koliku im važnost daju. Društvene mreže

najbolji su primjer: neke su ih odmah prihvatile prepoznavši njihov potencijal i važnost u

direktnoj komunikaciji s potrošačima, dok ih druge smatraju tek pukom zabavom. Već sad

se može reći da su ovi drugi propustili jednu veliku priliku koje im društvene mreže pružaju

u ostvarivanju marketinških aktivnosti. Što se samih alata tiče, svijest o njima je dosta

ograničena, s njima su u puno većoj mjeri upoznati stručnjaci za društvene mreže, odnosno

community manageri.

o Koliko su hrvatske kompanije zapravo upoznate s cijelim pojmom drustvenih medija

i kolko su spremne na promjene?

Najvise su upoznate kompanije koje su u stranom vlasnistvu i oni donose novitete na

scenu, zato sto im cijela marketinska strategija dolazi iz vana i oni su ti koji imaju novce da

ulazu u edukaciju koristenja novih tehnologija i sam nacin oglasavanja na istim. Npr sluzba

za korisnike bonbona odvija se iskljucivo preko soc mreza...sto smanjuje troskove itd.

o Koje drustvene mreze su dostupne kompanijama uzevsi u obzir specificnosti

ciljanih javnosti brenda kako bi ojacale svijest potrosaca istog brenda? Za koje

mreze su kompanije najvise zainteresirane i zasto?

Mislim da su najvise zastupljeni facebook i twitter, youtube kanal, tu i tamo linkedin,

medjutim mnoge druge poput asmallworlda ili internationsa...tek trebaju otkriti. Fb,

tw, li, su najcesce koristene iz razloga sto su najpoznatije u hrvatskoj te na tim

mjestima mogu pronaci najvise svoje publike. Nisu za sve kompanije idealne

socijalne mreze, za jedan siemens ili za firmu koja se bavi nekretninama to svakako

nije toliko zanimljivo, dok za one koje nude nove proizvode siroj masi, informiraju ih

o njima i slicu, zasigurno bolje prolaze. Apsolutni primat drži Facebook. Razlog

tome je vrlo jasan: u Hrvatskoj je gotovo milijun i pol ljudi na toj društvenoj mreži,

što je s obzirom na penetraciju interneta u našoj zemlji dosta visoka brojka.

Brendovi su shvatili da putem njega mogu direktno doći do potrošača te su shodno

tome prilagodili svoje marketinške strategije. Osim toga, Faecbook pruža

mogućnost dosta preciznog prikupljanja fanova, pa brendovi mogu lako doći do

svoje ciljane publike. Uz Facebook, raste i upotreba Twittera, no zbog male

zajednice još uvijek mu u većoj mjeri ne pridaju važnost.

Za koju mrezu se vasa agencija odlucila?

Facebook, Twitter i Google+.

o Zasto bas za tu odredjenu aplikaciju/e?

Na Facebooku je 24sata prisutan oko četiri godine, tako da postoji neki kontinuitet

aktivnosti. Ovu mrežu odmah smo prepoznali kao idealnu za naše marketinške aktivnosti,

ali i za pomoć u kreiranju novinarskog sadržaja. Koristimo Twitter zbog njegove brzine i

direktne komunikacije s čitateljima, dok Google+ profil održavamo zbog potencijala koji,

ipak, tek treba pokazati.

o Zasto ne za neku/e druge?

o Na koje naciene kompanije koriste te drustvene mreze kako bi privukle potrosace i

ojacale brend? Molim vas da opisete.

Neke to rade na dobar neki na vrlo los nacin, stvar je privuci paznju, pokrenuti

raspravu, natjerati ljude da lajkaju, komentiraju, sharaju i slicno (ne da su tome

prisiljeni), vec da to prave jer zele podijeliti informacije koje tvtka nudi s svojim

prijateljima. Mnoge koriste nagradne igre, popuste, kreiraju aplikacije i slicno...

o Prema vasem iskustvu, koliko su kompanije uspjele povecati svijest o svom brendu

nakon implementacije odredjene aplikacije?

Da li su drustvene mreze dovoljno jak komunikacijski kanal za brand management i

brand awareness, te ako jesu, zasto?

Jesu, no ne smatram da trebaju biti isključivo sredstvo za postizanje tih ciljeva.

Upravo zbog ranije spomenute direktne komunikacije koju omogućuju te načina na

koji pojačavaju word of mouth smatram da bi svaka marketinška agencija ili odjel

trebala imati aktivnosti na društvenim mrežama u svom fokusu.

o Koje bi preporuke dali hrvatskim kompanijama kako bi na sto bolji i bezbolniji nacin

ojacale svoji bren i svijest kod postojecih i potencijalnih potrosaca. Nako potrebne

edukacije i prikupljenih informacija koji bi po vasem misljenju bili najbolji sljedeci potezi

nositelja brendova kako bi ojacali svijest potrosaca o brendu?

Mislim da je se najbolje prepustiti agenciji koja iskljucivo radi oglasavanje na soc

mrezama, iz razloga sto firme cesto zaposljavaju osobe koje nisu adekvatne za taj

posao, te donesu vise stete nego koristi. A uz to ih koriste da budu multipraktik u

firmi, pa im pisanje statusa i objavljivanje clanaka bude tek usputni posao koji rade.

Mislim da je uvijek dobro pratiti neke svjetske kompanije, gledati sta oni rade, na

koji nacin, te slicne strategije, naravno prilagodjene primjeniti na nase trziste.

Brendovi moraju shvatiti da je komunikacija putem interneta, a posebno kroz

društvene mreže, unijela velike promjene u marketingu. Brendovi trebaju

identificirati društvene mreže na kojima mogu ostvariti maksimalan efekt, napraviti

strategiju nastupa i brinuti o njezinoj provedbi. U svakoj tvrtki, bila ona velika ili

mala, treba postojati osoba koja će se brinuti o imidžu na način da osluškuje što

ljudi pričaju o njoj. Naravno, nije dovoljno samo osluškivati, valja i propisno reagirati:

ulaziti u komunikaciju sa svakim pojedinim potrošačem koji za to pokaže interes i

pobrinuti se da bude zadovoljan. Uz malo truda, dobit će ambasadora brenda čiji će

glas biti itekako važan kod budućih marketinških aktivnosti.

Interview 4

o Kako je razvoj Interneta (Web 2.0) utjecao na marketinsko okruzenje i kako je

promijenio brend management? Kako se taj efekt odrazio na kompanije te njihove

brendove?

o Koje je promijene u svijesti potrosaca donio razvoj Interneta?

U prvom redu potrošači su postali svjesni svoje moći – na društvenim

mrežama njihovo dobro, a pogotovo loše mišljenje o proizvodia i uslugama

vide ostali korisnici i zbog toga se osjećaju ravnopravnima u komunikaciji s

kompanijama.

o Koja je razlika u brend managementu danas i prije nekoliko godina, s

obzirom na razvoj Interneta?

Puno veći dio budžeta se ulaže u online kampanje, uglavnom na račun

smanjenja budžeta za tiskane medije. Kompanije sve više traže inovativnost u

korištenju medija, a ne samo kreativna rješenja u sklopu strogo definiranih

briefova. Samim tim, kompanije su otvorenije za proaktivne projekte i kampanje

budući da one najčešće uključuju kreativne upotrebe prvenstveno društvenih

medija.

o Standardni marketinski alati vise ne slijede trendove trzista. Koliko su nositelji

brendova (kompanije) svjesne tog efekta? Sto su morale promijeniti?

Kompanije ulažu sve više novaca u online medije, a na agencijama je zadatak da

slijede tržišne trendove. Velike agencije su često pretrome u tome i to je otvorili

prostor za male specijaliziranje digitalne agencije koje često dobivaju poslove na

natječajima (pitchevima) protiv velikih agencija isključivo na račun kreativnosti i

praćenju trendova.

o Koliko su nositelji brendova na Hrvatskom trzistu upoznati sa brzinom promjene

trendova i samim alatima drustvenih medija? Te koliko su spremni na promjene u

svrhu jacanja brenda i svijesti potrosaca?

Kompanije su spremne uložiti više u online, a pogotovo u društvene medije. Najveći

problem je educiranost brand managera koji ne znaju propoznati i evaluirati dobre

online prijedloge, a problem je i kapacitet agencija koje nisu u stanju pratiti značajni

rast tržišta. Također je problem i pogrešna pretpostavka needuciranih brand

manadžera koji smatraju da je sve na internetu besplatno, a onda se iznenade kad

shvate da kvalitetna produkcija i kvalitetna kreativa ipak ima cijenu.

o Koliko su hrvatske kompanije zapravo upoznate s cijelim pojmom drustvenih medija

i kolko su spremne na promjene?

Hrvatske kompanije su otvorene prema drustvenim medijima od samog početka

njihove popularnosti u zemlji. Još uvijek najuspješnija kampanja na društvenim

medijima u regiji je Životinjsko carstvo na Facebooku koje je lansirano 2008.

Godine, a danas je teško pronaći tvrtku koja nije imala neke aktivnosti na

društvenim medijima.

o Koje drustvene mreze su dostupne kompanijama uzevsi u obzir specificnosti

ciljanih javnosti brenda kako bi ojacale svijest potrosaca istog brenda? Za koje

mreze su kompanije najvise zainteresirane i zasto?

Najpopularnija mreža je Facebook s 1.400.000 aktivnih korisnika u Hrvatskoj i velika

većina aktivnosti se odvija na njoj. Druga najpopularnija je LinkedIn s gotovo

300.000 aktivnih korisnika, ali do sada nije značajnije upotrebljena za marketinške

svrhe. Treća najpopularnija je Twitter s 10.000 aktivnih računa (korisnika i

brendova) i na njoj ima veliki broj marketinških aktivnosti. Twitter možda nema veliki

broj korisnika, ali na njemu se nalazi veliki broj novinara i PR-ovaca i vijesti s

Twittera često završe u masovnim medijima i na taj način do velikog broja korisnika.

Foursquare koristi manje od 10.000 korisnika, a za Pinterest nemamo podatke ali

sumnjamo da se radi o još manjem broju.

o Za koju mrezu se vasa agencija odlucila?

DRAP najčešće preporučuje Facebook svojim klijentima, ali imali smo kampanje

i na Twitteru i Foursquare. Za masovne bradnove gdje je doseg medija bitan,

Facebook nema ozbiljne konkurencije. Jedina iznimka su PR kampanje kojima

je cilj doći do masovnih medija koristeći Twitter. Najbolji primjer za to je

YouTube video o društvenim mrežama (http://youtu.be/tdmBgOHRln0) koji je

preko objave na Twitteru završio na dnevnim vijestima RTL –a ina taj način

ostvario svoj cilj.

o Zasto bas za tu odredjenu aplikaciju/e?

DO sada smo imali više od 100 aplikacija na društvenim mrežama, pretežito

na Facebooku. Najuspješnije su Životinjsko carstvo na Facebooku koja je

osvojila zlato kao najbolja niskobudžetna kampanja na EFFIE Croatia 2010.,

te Euromania 2012 koja je osvojila Best in show kao najbolja online

kampanja na MIXX 2012.

o Zasto ne za neku/e druge?

Koristili smo i druge društvene medije, ali najbolji rezultati su do sada bili

postizani na Facebooku.

o Na koje naciene kompanije koriste te drustvene mreze kako bi privukle potrosace i

ojacale brend? Molim vas da opisete.

Najčešće se radi o otvaranju službenog profila i kombinaciji oglašavanja (SocialAds)

i community managementa. U boljim slučajevima, radi se o kreativnim kampanjama

koje uključuju i aplikacije, društvene igre i sl.

o Prema vasem iskustvu, koliko su kompanije uspjele povecati svijest o svom brendu

nakon implementacije odredjene aplikacije?

Najbolji primjer je Životinjsko carstvo koje je uspjelo podići prodaju za 32% i 39% u

2008. I 2009. Kao rezultat kampanje na društvenim medijima.

o Da li su drustvene mreze dovoljno jak komunikacijski kanal za brand management i

brand awareness, te ako jesu, zasto?

Društveni mediji pojačavaju jake reakcije potrošača na kampanje. Ukoliko uspijete

izazvati snažne, pozitivne emocije kao rezultat vaših aktivnosti na društvenim

medijima, rezultat će biti jako pozitivan. Ovo nije jako i vrlo često brandovi ne uspiju

postići takav efekt i u tim slučajevima društveni mediji nemaju značajnu prednost u

odnosu na primjerice online display oglašavanje bannerima.

o Na koji nacini ili preko kojih medija educirate zaposlenike o novostima i koristenju

drustvenih medija?

Naši djelatnici su stručnjaci za društvene medije koji svakodnevno prate sve

relevantne strane i domaće portale i blogove o društvenim medijima.

o Koje su najcesce prepreke u komunikaciji s hrvatskim kompanijama koji zele biti

prisutne na novim medijima? Na koji nacin te prepreke rjesvate ako ih ima?

Najveći problem je edukacija i nerazumijevanje medija. Postoji velika razlika između

konzumacije i kreiranja sadržaja i potrebno je neko vrijeme da bi klijentima objasnili

koje stvari stvarno funkcioniraju u praksi, a koje samo zvuče dobro kad ih se pročita

na nekom od brojnim Social media blogova.

o Koje bi preporuke dali hrvatskim kompanijama kako bi na sto bolji i bezbolniji nacin

ojacale svoji bren i svijest kod postojecih i potencijalnih potrosaca. Nako potrebne

edukacije i prikupljenih informacija koji bi po vasem misljenju bili najbolji sljedeci potezi

nositelja brendova kako bi ojacali svijest potrosaca o brendu?

Najbolja preporuka je da budu kreativni i inovativni i da ne pokušavaju kopirati uspjehe

drugih. Na društvenim medijima većina kampanja funkcionira samo jednom zbog svoje

kreativnosti, ali kopiranjem te kreativnosti ćete samo dobiti kopiju koju krajnji korisnici

kao takvu prepoznaju i

Interview 5

o Kako je razvoj Interneta (Web 2.0) utjecao na marketinsko okruzenje i kako je

promijenio brend management? Kako se taj efekt odrazio na kompanije te njihove

brendove?

Utjecaj je izuzetan. Pogledajte brend menadžment otprije nekoliko godina, a

pogledajte ga sada – svi veći, pa i manji, brendovi su na društvenim mrežama. Web

stranice postoje već duže vrijeme, ali u sklopu njih su sada i korporativni blogovi,

integrirane su i društvene mreže. Brendovi nisu više zatvoreni i nedodirljivi, putem

društvenih mreža postali su naši prijatelji s kojima svakodnevno komuniciramo.

o Koje je promijene u svijesti potrosaca donio razvoj Interneta?

Potrošači odlučuju direktno komunicirati s brendom, stoga putem društvenih

mreža pitaju ono što ih zanima, prate promocije, druže se s brendom. Brend

je na taj način postao bliži, a i lakše je stvoriti emocionalnu vezu između

brenda i korisnika.

o Koja je razlika u brend managementu danas i prije nekoliko godina, s

obzirom na razvoj Interneta?

Osim načina koji su bili uobičajeni (reklamiranje putem tradicionalnih medija

itd.) brendovi su morali prihvatiti društvene mreže. Njihova je moć neupitna,

a na brendovima je da odaberu hoće li uzeti svoj dio kolača ili ne.

Ovim su brendovi dobili puno povoljni način promocije, a ujedno i čuju iz

prve ruke što korisnici misle o njima.

o Standardni marketinski alati vise ne slijede trendove trzista. Koliko su nositelji

brendova (kompanije) svjesne tog efekta? Sto su morale promijeniti?

Većina kompanija i brendova su svjesni promjena, stoga su prisutni na društvenim

mrežama. Oni koji još to nisu učinili, vjerojatno će u kratkom roku, jer je sve jasnije

da je rečenica – vaši potrošači su već tamo i razgovaraju o vama, a na vama je

hoćete li se pridružiti ili ne – itekako istinita.

o Koliko su nositelji brendova na Hrvatskom trzistu upoznati sa brzinom promjene

trendova i samim alatima drustvenih medija? Te koliko su spremni na promjene u

svrhu jacanja brenda i svijesti potrosaca?

Društvene su mreže došle nešto kasnije u Hrvatsku nego u zapadnije zemlje, ali

trend je prihvaćen. Većina tvrtki i brendova svjesna je utjecaja koji društvene mreže

imaju, stoga prihvaćaju i promjene – neki brže, a neki sporije. Oni kojima je teško

pratiti promjene taj zadatak predaju agencijama specijaliziranim za društvene

mreže.

o Koliko su hrvatske kompanije zapravo upoznate s cijelim pojmom drustvenih medija

i kolko su spremne na promjene?

Većina tvrtki je upoznata s pojmom društvenih medija i većina ih je spremna za

promjene – neki ih lakše prihvaćaju, neki nešto teže. No, svi su svjesni da je utjecaj

društvenih mreža prejak da bi ih se ignoriralo.

o Koje drustvene mreze su dostupne kompanijama uzevsi u obzir specificnosti

ciljanih javnosti brenda kako bi ojacale svijest potrosaca istog brenda? Za koje

mreze su kompanije najvise zainteresirane i zasto?

Na prvom je mjestu uglavnom Facebook zbog svoje raširenosti i činjenice da

najveći broj korisnika koristi upravo tu društvenu mrežu. Facebook je prilagođen

brend menadžmentu, stoga se profili brendova i kompanija razlikuju od privatnih

profila, a brendovi imaju kompletan set alata koji im olakšava upravljanje ovom

društvenom mrežom (oglasi, sponzrirane priče, statistike itd.). Na drugome je

mjestu Twitter, a slijede LinkedIn, Google Plus, Pinterest itd. Svakoga se dana

pojavljuju nove društvene mreže koje valja imati na oku, ali treba imati na umu da

nije svaka društvena mreža za svakoga, stoga treba pronaći odgovarajući kanal za

komuniciranje poruka brenda.

o Za koju mrezu se vasa agencija odlucila?

Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram

o Zasto bas za tu odredjenu aplikaciju/e?

o Kao agencija koja se bavi društvenim mrežama moramo pratiti trendove i

usvajati nove društvene mreže brže od drugih kako bismo ih mogli

preporučiti našim klijentima.

o Zasto ne za neku/e druge?

o Ovo su trenutno najposjećeniji kanali društvenih mreža. Istražujemo i sve

nove koji se pojave.

o Na koje nacine kompanije koriste te drustvene mreze kako bi privukle potrosace i

ojacale brend? Molim vas da opisete.

Društvene mreže traže veliku razinu interaktivnosti s korisnicima. Ovisno o vrsti

društvene mreže nudi se zanimljiv, edukativan, informativan i zabavan sadržaj kojim

se privlači korisnika na interakciju. Bitno je slušati korisnike i pokušati riješiti njihove

probleme. Brend/tvrtka na društvenim mrežama mora pokazati osobnost kako bi

korisnici imali osjećaj da pričaju s osobom, a ne sa primjerice sokom, mlijekom ili

pelenama. Tako se razvija uzajamno poštovanje i povjerenje.

o Prema vasem iskustvu, koliko su kompanije uspjele povecati svijest o svom brendu

nakon implementacije odredjene aplikacije?

Ukoliko se društvene mreže ispravno koriste, odjek može biti velik. Treba imati na

umu da nije dovoljno samo kreirati profil i isključivo komunicirati samo o brendu, i to

jednostrano, bez interakcije s korisnicima. Takva komunikacija nije dovoljna,

potrebno je imati jasnu strategiju i ciljeve te metode kako te ciljeve postići.

o Da li su drustvene mreze dovoljno jak komunikacijski kanal za brand management i

brand awareness, te ako jesu, zasto?

Društvene su mreže itekako jak komunikacijski kanal za širenje svjesti o brendu jer

je lako doći do ciljane skupine (primjerice, Facebook oglasi mogu se usmjeriti

prema ciljanoj skupini s obzirom na njihovu dob, interese, lokaciju, spol itd.), a i

zbog činjenice da se sve radi u stvarnome vremenu. Dobra promocija može se lako

proširiti putem društvenih mreža, ali to može biti i dvosjekli mač – lako se proširi i

negativna vijest, stoga na to treba biti spreman i imati jasan plan za kriznu

komunikaciju.

o Na koji nacini ili preko kojih medija educirate zaposlenike o novostima i koristenju

drustvenih medija?

Putem konferencija, e-knjiga, webinara, portala, a i sami se međusobno educiraju.

o Koje su najcesce prepreke u komunikaciji s hrvatskim kompanijama koji zele biti

prisutne na novim medijima? Na koji nacin te prepreke rjesvate ako ih ima?

Neke kompanije nisu sigurne što su to društvene mreže i koje koristi one mogu

imati od njih. Kad se poslovanje jedne tvrtke ne mijenja godinama, teško je usvojiti

nove metode i kanale komunikacije prema potrošačima. No, ukoliko žele biti

konkurentni na tržištu, moraju ih prihvatiti. Putem uspješnih kampanja, koje smo

ostvarili s prethodnim klijentima, prikazujemo im što društvene mreže mogu značiti i

za njih.

o Koje bi preporuke dali hrvatskim kompanijama kako bi na sto bolji i bezbolniji nacin

ojacale svoji brend i svijest kod postojecih i potencijalnih potrosaca. Nako potrebne

edukacije i prikupljenih informacija koji bi po vasem misljenju bili najbolji sljedeci potezi

nositelja brendova kako bi ojacali svijest potrosaca o brendu?

Izrada komunikacijske strategije bi uvijek trebala biti prvi korak za komunikaciju na

društvenim mrežama. U njoj se, osim načina komunikacije, definiraju i ključni parametri

koji će se mjeriti, a ovise o tome koji je cilj te komunikacije i razlikuju se od brenda do

brenda. Tek nakon dobro postavljenih temelja može se razviti uspješna komunikacija s

korisnicima na društvenim mrežama.