Parasocial relationships between businesses and customers as a way of marketing : differences between three companies that implement it
Laanti, Noora (2023)
2023
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023060217352
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023060217352
Tiivistelmä
Developing marketing strategies that are current and unique is increasingly important in the constantly developing social media marketing world. One of the solutions is implementing a parasocial marketing strategy, something that has been utilized by influencers and celebrities for decades. Now businesses are executing these parasocial strategies directly between themselves and consumers.
The goal of this thesis was to explore the different kinds of parasocial marketing employed by different businesses on social media. I catalogued social media activities from three businesses, Duolingo, Vegas Golden Knights and Casetify, across three social media platforms, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, as well as consumer reactions and comments. The study was conducted as a phenomenographic qualitative research.
I found differences between the businesses and differences between the platforms for each business and how well parasocial marketing was executed. Good characteristics of parasocial marketing included having content on socials that is engaging, feels casual instead of formal business communications, and having a good understanding of the consumer base that the business is looking to target.
I concluded there must be a balance of content on a consumers’ feed, so they do not feel over-advertised to, and the easiest way of engaging a specific target group, is hiring a person from said target group to design the content.
The goal of this thesis was to explore the different kinds of parasocial marketing employed by different businesses on social media. I catalogued social media activities from three businesses, Duolingo, Vegas Golden Knights and Casetify, across three social media platforms, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, as well as consumer reactions and comments. The study was conducted as a phenomenographic qualitative research.
I found differences between the businesses and differences between the platforms for each business and how well parasocial marketing was executed. Good characteristics of parasocial marketing included having content on socials that is engaging, feels casual instead of formal business communications, and having a good understanding of the consumer base that the business is looking to target.
I concluded there must be a balance of content on a consumers’ feed, so they do not feel over-advertised to, and the easiest way of engaging a specific target group, is hiring a person from said target group to design the content.