Building brands with the support of social media Research Paper

Building brands with the support of social media - Research Paper Example In order to increase its profitability, it is imperative that a company finds ways to build the brand. Social media’s role in brand building cannot be overemphasized because of its widespread usage and availability, and cost effectiveness. Analytical section of the paper discusses the Hierarchy of Effects, 1 Foot Cone Belding, and the elaboration effect. Final analysis elaborates likelihood model that can provide companies with assistance in building brands using social media provided that it enables customers to use attitude formation towards the offerings of the brand. Overall Recommendations are for companies to pay attention to characteristics and features valued by customers in their products and services as tweeted by the customers on social media websites, and engage with the customers to find best ways to realize their expectations. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 4 2. Social Media 4 3. Brand 5 3.1 Brand Awareness 5 3.1.1 Foot Cone Belding (FCB) Grid 5 3.2 Brand Imag e 7 3.2.1 The Hierarchy-of-Effects (HoE) Model 7 3.3 Brand Attitude 8 3.3.1 The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) 8 4. Branding in the Age of Social Media 9 5. Recommendations 10 6. Conclusion 11 List of References 12 1. Introduction Use of social media as a tool for brand building is the latest trend and a progressive concept. This trend is commonly observed in higher grade companies particularly in the technologically advanced countries (Nassar, 2012). The following document discusses how social media has helped companies in building brands. The first part of the paper discusses the different sorts of social media, and the tendency of social media to influence and spread businesses and brand’s name. 2. Social Media New Web technologies have revolutionized the way to approach branding for the forward-thinking companies. In the recent years, companies have gained direct access to the customers using such social media services as Google+, Twitter, and Facebook. Number of user s of social media services is growing with time. In addition, these potential customers exist on pages published in social media in a variety of languages, thus allowing brand awareness to penetrate globally. Companies use social media to gain information about their customers including their age, current location, social networks, and hobbies. On the other hand, customers create awareness about brands on social media (Chauhan and Pillai, 2013; Li and Bernoff, 2011). With the growing number of users, social media’s role is being more clearly defined with the passage of time. Consumers are increasingly relying on social media for information, leaving the traditional media as a source of information behind (Mangold and Faulds 2009). Social media websites are aware of their potential to strengthen brands. An example of this is the release of brand pages by Google+ in November 2011 (Sullivan, 2011). 3. Brand In conventional terms, â€Å"brand† means a company’s way of differentiating between itself and its competitors. A brand is conventionally understood as the registered name of a product or service whereas its definition extends beyond that to include a variety of features like a term or a symbol (Hart and Murphy, 1998). Brands serve as signals that trigger perceptions in the minds of consumers regarding the image of a brand shaped by organization’