New Media and Consumer Behaviour - Essay Example

? New Media & Consumer Behavior New Media & Consumer Behavior INTRODUCTION: The advancement is technology has evolved our perceptions, ways of thinking and communication. Technology has made communication easier and better by connecting people in many ways which has facilitated information gathering and sharing about different products and their consumption. Consumer has now become more informed about the prices and quality offered by different suppliers which has made markets and businesses a lot more competitive than they were ever before. Social media provides the true picture to the consumer and shows all the aspects without favoring any one party unlike the old mediums. The new media not only offers various benefits for consumers but also has allowed the consumers to promote their goods and services. Popular social and networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, eBay, YouTube etc. have made possible for the normal consumers to become suppliers and vendors through the new media. These revolutionary advancements challenge the typical business models which have been there since decades. The traditional ways of developing strategies, finding customers, marketing and advertising don’t seem that useful now. (HENNIG-THURAU ET AL.2010; EVANS & BRATTON.2008) SOCIAL MEDIA- THE NEW MEDIA: Social media is also called Web 2.0 which allows users to interact with each other through new technologies. The new technology has empowered the users which now allow them to share information in a way that wasn’t possible before. Social media includes networking sites, consumer review sites, online communities, journals and blogs controlled by individuals and companies. Now days people need to involve in ‘conversation’, that is talk about the thing offered. These days there are many types of participants in the social media which includes the creators who takes the initial step of starting the conversation by creating the content through establishing communities, uploading videos, providing information on blogs etc. There are critics who comment and give their reviews about the content. The joiners and critics are the main participants who are influential and leaders of the conversations. Joiners utilize the sites, blogs etc by using them while spectators are silent viewers of the content who view and read the content uploaded by different participants. Inactive participants are online but they don’t take part in the conversation any aspect. Businesses now realize the importance of actively participating in these conversations and influencing user’s minds for marketing their products. (HAWKINS, MOTHERSBAUGH & MOOKERJEE.2011; EVANS & BRATTON.2008) New media can be explained as “Websites and other digital communication and information channels in which active consumers engage in behaviors that can be consumed by others both in real time and long afterwards regardless of their spatial location.” (HENNIG-THURAU ET AL.2010). New media is made up of interactive communication and information channeling platforms. According to mentioned explanation the new media allows users to exchange information anytime anywhere irrespective of their location. This information can be utilized not only today but also in the long term. New media is digital which makes it cost effective. Like old means of exchange of information, there is no cost involved in producing digital copies as it can be accessed by millions of people on internet. Consumers, thorough the new media can actively participate in giving feedback about every aspect of value chain. New media is visible, that is any feedback, comments, reviews and blogs can easily be traced. The biggest advantage offered by the new media is the real time access and exchange of information at anytime. The feedback posted and received in instant through chats, videos, blogs and reviews, making it easier for other readers to make an opinion regarding the product. Additionally new media has made interaction possible among different consumers which had made content sharing and building relationships with other consumers easier. Foe example many online communities on social networking sites have been made by IT companies like Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Microsoft which allow experienced customers to help the new customers in fixing product related problems. (HENNIG-THURAU ET AL.2010) IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA: The importance of social media can be emphasized by the research conducted by eMarketer.com which compared the user generated sites by consumer generated sites and their usage by people of different age groups. The research revealed that the age group of 13-24 spent 51% of their online time on consumer generated sites, age group 25-41 spent 35% and 42 -60 years of age spent 27% of time. The rest of the online time spent by people was on user’s generated sites. This research greatly helped businesses in realizing the importance of social media in their marketing and overall strategy of the company. (BREAKENRIDGE.2008) Social media can be used in marketing and branding of the product smartly by utilizing the conversational channels between individuals and businesses. The conversation is initiated and sustained by the consumers and advertiser more or less has no control over the conversation. However, the advertiser can initiate the good experiences and talk worthy events. Awareness is created by such conversations and trust about the product is usually developed by word-of-mouth based exchanges that happen between consumers as word-of-mouth or ‘experience of other consumer’ is the most trusted form of information. Though it seems that in the whole scenario the advertisers have lost the control over the marketing of their product, however they can create certain events, images, offers and happenings that compel potential customers to participate in the conversation or interact with existing customers. (EVANS, MCKEE & BRATTON.2010) SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING AND ITS IMPACT: The growth of internet and its excessive use all around the world forced the advertisers to think about different ways of advertising their products through internet. Many well known companies altered their marketing techniques to make social media a part of their strategy. Honda U.K is successful in developing a viral market campaign. The two minute ad aired during a Formula 1 Grand Prix and gained attention in instant throughout the world which resulted in Honda’s record sales worldwide. Gillette and Volvo are also able to develop a successful viral campaign. (HAWKINS, MOTHERSBAUGH & MOOKERJEE.2011) Dell is one of the companies which gained its success over the social media. There were 750,000 registered customers over Dell’s community. Dell soon realized its importance and participated in the ‘conversation’ with its customers which made Dell pull customer’s ideas into their product resulting in increased sales. Dell operates a blog by the name Direct2Dell whose chief blogger is a company representative. (HAWKINS, MOTHERSBAUGH & MOOKERJEE.2011; EVANS, MCKEE & BRATTON.2010) Consumer review sites have gained importance in recent times. These sites either provide consumer reviews about the product within the retailer site e.g. Amazon.com or reviews on specific topics within the website e.g. Angie’s list is a site where users recommend the services used by them to the people of that area who are in search of the services. The problem that arises in the use of such sites is the credibility issues; the service providers can often recommend their own services on such sites. It is seen that the sites in which credibility of the recommenders can be confirmed are more popular among consumers. (HAWKINS, MOTHERSBAUGH & MOOKERJEE.2011) Social Media can help marketers to learn about their products from customers directly. For marketers engaging in social media is essential, they can’t avoid it as they are made a part of the conversation by the consumers who already used their product or are willing to buy their product. All a marketer could do is to choose whether he wants to participate in the conversation or not. If a brand has to survive in the long term involving in the conversation is the only option. Problem arises due to loss of control and influence of marketers over the consumer’s opinions, reviews and comments. The best way to deal with it is by listening to the conversation and put in efforts to satisfy the consumer. These days marketers continue to promote and market their product through traditional ways and social media both. For e.g Unilever in its Dove ‘campaign for real beauty’ invited consumers to engage in a conversation on Social Medias about women’s self-esteem and posted videos on YouTube regarding the campaign. Additionally they used traditional means of billboard placing in the city and TV commercial as a medium too which in collaboration resulted in a successful campaign. (HENNIG-THURAU ET AL.2010; EVANS & BRATTON.2008) Since the marketers have no control over consumer’s opinions it is highly possible that some negative comments circulate about the product which can cause damage to brand’s reputation and influence other potential consumer’s thinking. Domino’s Pizza faced bad publicity and reputation crisis when two of the employees uploaded the video on YouTube showing them do disgusting things to the pizza. Another example is Home Depot, if searched on social web have considerable amount of negative content about the business. It is nearly impossible for big businesses to avoid negative content about them on the web. To deal with the problem Home Depot conducts free workshops for kids every week and updates, photos and videos about the workshops are uploaded by kids and their parents which circulates plenty on positive content for the week and sides the negative content brining a balance to the content available on social web. (HENNIG-THURAU ET AL.2010; EVANS & BRATTON. 2008) With the expansion of social web the traditional mediums of advertising and marketing are losing its importance, however their existence can’t be ignored completely in today’s world. Researchers are not sure about the behavior of new media unlike the traditional mediums where many models and researches were presented. Mostly user-generated videos on You-Tube are parodies of brands; there is a need for the relationship managers and marketers to understand what drives the users to make such videos which make the brand ‘active’ on social forums. Due to social media now the customers can act as retailers and can sell their own products directly to the customers. Many sites operate which allow customers to sell their used and new products directly e.g Amazon Market place, Etsy.com, eBay etc. This empowerment to customers to act as retailers has made the market way more competitive as it was ever before. This on the other has made people more informed about the prices and quality and has given vast amount of options to choose from. (HENNIG-THURAU ET AL.2010) One of the biggest advantages that company can have by using the social media is the instant feedback and measuring it. This measure can be used as a tool for continuous improvement in the product. Social media marketing can act as a link between marketing and operations; by the information and feedback gathered through social media the businesses can improve their product according the needs of the customers. (EVANS & BRATTON. 2008) In order to lead a successful brand and develop good customer relationships it is necessary for the businesses to involve them in social media ‘conversation’ by introducing tools and techniques to make the users respond and react. When the customers are social networking it is important to listen to them and try to solve their problems to achieve their satisfaction. Social media is an inexpensive way of communicating with your consumers and could be the easiest and best source to know them. Relationships should be established in social networking sites and influential bloggers and active members should be targeted to maintain good relationships in order to develop positive image. Additionally companies need to grow with the social media and new technologies to survive in this competitive era. (BREAKENRIDGE. 2008) CONCLUSION: In this era of growing technologies and customers empowerment who are no longer just the customers but have also taken up the role of producers and retailers, its is extremely necessary for the companies to take a shift in their marketing strategies and customer relationship management. Social media is all about to know your customer, interact with them, be a part of exchange of information by involving in the ‘conversation’ and using that conversation as an improvement tool to satisfy the existing customers and creating a positive impact for the potential customer. Bibliography EVANS, D., & BRATTON, S. (2008). Social Media Marketing. ; An Hour a Day. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. EVANS, D., MCKEE, J., & BRATTON, S. (2010). Social media marketing: the next generation of business engagement. Indianapolis, Wiley Publishing. BREAKENRIDGE, D. (2008). PR 2.0: new media, new tools, new audiences. Upper Saddle River, N.J., FT Press. HAWKNIS, D. I., MOTHERSBAUGH, D. L., & MOOKERJEE, A. (2011). Consumer behavior building marketing strategy. New Delhi, Tata McGraw Hill. HENNIG-THURAU, T., MALTHOUSE, E., FRIEGE, C., GENSLER, S., LOBSCHAT, L., RANGASWAMY, A., & SKIERA, B. (2010). The Impact of New Media on Customer Relationships. Journal of Service Research. 13, 311-330. 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