Social Media as Customer Contact Point: It's Role on Brand Equity
Rahman, Nayeem (2014)
Rahman, Nayeem
Arcada - Nylands svenska yrkeshögskola
2014
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201405198546
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201405198546
Tiivistelmä
Increasingly social media is being used both by the consumers and the businesses as a customer communications channel and because of the open nature of social media this interaction is fundamentally different from the traditional customer service mediums, while this development is at the core of this thesis it focuses on the brand equity implications of this interaction. Brand equity in simple terms can be defined as the ‘value of a brand’ and how consumer-brand or consumer-consumer organic interactions on social media is affecting it along with highlighting the efficient rules of engagement when optimizing customer satisfaction are the two research objectives. This study first provides a theoretical framework by discussing relevant literature concerning the three fundamentals of this study: Social media marketing, Customer relationship management and Brand equity. Then it moves on to the empirical part where a mixed method consisting of quan-titative and qualitative approaches had been undertaken. The quantitative study consist a survey that sought consumer opinion while the qualitative study is based on two expert interviews. After that, by juxtaposing the consumer data with the expert opinion the two research objectives were answered. Firstly, a different do’s and don’ts on social media for the brands were listed; Secondly, by taking Keller’s Customer based brand equity (CBBE) model into account some specific ways how brand equity are influenced were highlighted and discussed. As for limitations, the small sample population size could be mentioned, since the research area was Europe the sample population of 102 respondents is too narrow for a broad conclusion. Finally, this research can serve as rudimentary guide for an SME when designing a social media strategy.