Building Consumer Demand Through Marketing: An Exploratory Essay On Social Media And Word-of-Mouth.

Discuss about the Building consumer demand by using marketing.

Marketing communication can be increased by using social media sites. This assignment will describe about the chosen article “The use of social media: an exploratory study of usage among digital natives”. The objectives of the study will be mentioned in this assignment. Electronic word of mouth and web 2.0 has appeared as an event of significant interest to marketers.  The article will be critically analysed in this assignment to get better understanding about the chosen article. Individual reflection shows the work advance knowledge of subject which can be utilized in real life by marketing practioners.

The main object of the article is to analyze the importance of social media in the academic life of students. The research report has described about the knowledge of students regarding social media platforms and in depth notion of customer generated contents. Next section explains the digital natives in terms of age and behavioural characteristics. Another objective of the article is to understand about web 2.0 and word of mouth communication.

The explicit theory framework is used in this research to describe the master phenomena. The description about the web 2.0 and electronic word of mouth is made under this theory. It has been analyzed that the term of web 2.0 defines the platforms that are connective and offer users with the ability to incorporate various media within their content creation. Analytical technique, instructional instruments, social media platforms, consumer generated message viewership and customer generated message creation are used in this article to analyze the article (Steyn, Wallström and Pitt, 2010).

The central concept of this article is word of mouth in marketing communication. This concept is clearly defined in this article. It has been said in this article that word of mouth is mature exercise as are people communicating with one another. They have become the major part for the marketing mix for companies (Li & Bernoff, 2008). The discussion has been made about the web 2.0 world of marketing in which word of mouth happens on all communicative digital media sites. It has been estimated that more than 85% firm in united states are applying the word of mouth strategy. The word of mouth strategy comes out in the business when the orientation provider has no risk in the business (Li, 2010).

The main argument has been made on digital natives and it has been argued in this article that a higher educating marketing firm defined that technology has become so advanced and as recognizable as a knife to this college age market segment. On the other side it has been argued that customers gradually more use digital media not for researching the products and services but for engaging with organizations they buy along with other customers who may have effective insights (Williams, Crittenden, Keo and McCarty, 2012).

Theory

The specific hypothesis of this assignment is that Generation C who born after 1990 is truly digital natives. The key attributes of Generation C is that they how to live in an adequate manner and they are much involved in the computers and latest technology.

The main strength of this assignment is used methodology. The sample has been collected from millennial aged undergraduate college students of United States of America (Packaged Facts, 2010). The minimum age is considered as 19 years old and the eldest age is 21 years old. It is the strength because the selected age is perfect to analyze the tentative study of usage among digital natives.  It would encourage them to encourage the campus events or they can use consumer produced content as a need of their jobs.

The weakness has been found in this article is that there are so many students in selected sample who utilized their social media ecosystem for the reason of promoting their goods and services for those companies for which they are working. The risk has analyzed that the credible power in this the network of word of mouth will be eliminated for the extended time if the orientation provider lose the chance of the growth in the business.

The hypothesis of this article is defined below:

• Electronic word of mouth is vital concept in marketing communication. People employ digital media not for researching the products and services but to connected with companies they buy.
• The network of idle talk will be eliminated for the long time if the reference giver loses the chance of the growth in the business.

Qualitative research has been chosen for this article in regarding content analysis which permits the examination of the experience of social without unambiguous prospects.  Sample, analytical technique and instructional instrument are used in the article for researching on digital natives.

In the context of sample, data has been collected from a convince sample of the undergraduate students who were studied in the marketing class. 74 students were selected for sample in which the youngest student was 19 years old and the eldest student was 21 years old.

Content analysis is being used in the analytical technique in mass communication research which was considered as appropriate analytical technique for surveying the descriptions of process within the phenomenon of culture of social media.

Instructional instrument is a written assignment which was given to all enrolled students. The main concept of this written assignment is to get the response of students about the usage of social media for marketing. It was the big approach to motivate students for using the social media by sharing their experiences.

Evidence is provided in this article to define the social media platforms and providers. The table has given which shows the social media platforms used by students. There are various digital social media platforms available which is helpful for marketing. It has been found that 50% students are engaged with blogging and 96% of the students are active on Facebook and twitter. 70% of the students were connected with text messages because text messaging was in the content prompt. Another table has been reflected in this assignment which was categorized in segments and number of students. Segments have divided into spectator, creator, joiner, collector and critic. 73% of the students answered to more than one of the five segments. For instance, an individual can have seen himself in the condition of critic as well as spectator.

Concepts

The literature is the description about the chosen topic which describes the scope of the topic. The article has defined the digital natives and electronic word of mouth which includes the web 2.0. It defines the stages that are extremely interactive and offer the aptitude to put together dissimilar media in their content formation. On the other hand web 1.0 was defined by one way and unreceptive communication. It is characterized by a process in which people are continuously the provider and giver of information. The social media platforms enable the opportunities for attract that did not survive a decade ago. For instance, it has been analyzed that more than 700 billion minutes are used by so many users on Facebook (Trainor, 2012). There are approximately 30 million stories, images, videos and contents are being shared by people on Facebook (Facebook Statistics, 2010). You Tube is another social media where the number of uploaded videos are high and the views has increased by two billion per day (YouTube, 2010). It has been found that millions of people building trillions of bonding by social media each day. In that scenario, the role of Web 2.0 has made the electronic description of unfounded information communications. The digital native is the person who born during the age of digital technology and so well known with internet and latest technology from an early age. The article has described the Generation C consumers who love content creation and mashing. Generation C consumers prefer to communicate in an adequate manner. The tendency of generation C students is to work more creative industries (Gil-Or, 2010). Consumer generated content is not encouraged commercially but it is a form of electronic word of mouth (Muñiz and Schau, 2011). Essentially, the opinion of customer is about the product and services and after satisfying with the services and products, customers share their views, experience and beliefs with other people by using web. The outcome of this article is fit in to the wider literature. According to Hansen, et. al., (2011), there is numerous different social media platforms that provided to students as instance to quick their thinking in the term of text messaging, podcasts, and social networking and discussion groups (Zahay & Fredricks, 2009). Moreover, to discriminating the platforms utilized by this group of college student customers, the description about the particular providers were asked to respondents.

The article is aimed at universities’ students of USA. The research shows that student should judge the true suggestions of liberty of speech (Crittenden and Klepper, 2010). Another audience of this article is Generation C who born after 1990.

Argument

The credibility of author is trust worthiness because the authors David L. Williams, Victoria L. Crittenden, Teeda Keo and Paulette McCarty are professors of top USA universities. “The use of social media: an exploratory study of usage among digital natives” is credible as it has been published in Journal of Public Affairs (2012). This journal article is published online in Wiley Online Library which shows the credibility of the journal article. The credibility of this article can be judged by viewing the number of references which is authenticated.

The used language of author is clear and concise which can be understood by readers. The predominate mode of this article is analytical as author used qualitative research to explore the research topic. Sample, analytical technique, instructional instruments, social media platforms and customer generated message formation are being used in this research to show the involvement of people in social media.

It can be recommended that further research should evaluate the statistics and search for disparity between and among a multiple characteristics of demographics. The texts can be improved by using the more analytical data because it has been found that the study of this article was unable to connect different countries of source in the shown data. The analytical source has been chosen for collecting data in which the written assignment and content analysis were considered. These approaches and sources did not enable the compilation of the data. It has been recommended that further research should report for the effects of national so it can see if there are differences in country majorly in the utilization of the specific platforms and providers.

The implications of the article for marketing practioners would be effective because it has described the use of different social media platforms for encouraging the market growth. This article assisted me to expand my knowledge regarding web 2.0 and electronic word of mouth which has huge contribution in the growth of market. I can use these social media platforms in my business as marketing practioner. The limitations and future research have been described in this article which assists me that the comment of personal social media should not be posted from any internet sources until and unless it is private. It concurs with my own experience because people has become advanced and give preference to online marketing instead of going outside. By using these marketing communication techniques, marketing practioner can attract the customers towards the provided services and products.

Conclusion

It has been concluded that the entire objective of this investigative research is to evaluate the multiple of electronic word of mouth in the context of Generation C market segment and this segment is generally defined as digital natives. The critical analysis of the article has been done by evaluating the objectives, methods, evidence, credibility, style and audience. Individual reflection has shown the position of social media sites in the life of marketing practioners.

References

Crittenden, V. and Klepper, K., 2010, Social media and the b-school. BizEd, pp.72-73.

Facebook Statistics, 2010, Facebook statistics, accessed on 26^th February 2018, from: https://www.facebook.com/ press/info.php?statistics. 

Gil-Or, O., 2010, Building consumer demand by using viral marketing tactics within an online social network. Advances in Management, 3(7), pp.7-14.

Li, C. & Bernoff, J. 2008, Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Harvard Business Press: Boston.

Li, C., 2010, Groundswell. Winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Strategic Direction, 26(8).

Morrison, M. and McMillan, S., 2010, January. Oh, user, who art thou: an examination of behaviors and characteristics of consumers in the context of user generated content. In American Academy of Advertising. Conference. Proceedings (Online) (p. 77). American Academy of Advertising.

Muñiz Jr, A.M. and Schau, H.J., 2011, How to inspire value-laden collaborative consumer-generated content. Business Horizons, 54(3), pp.209-217.

Muñiz, Jr, A.M. and Schau, H.J., 2007, Vigilante marketing and consumer-created communications. Journal of Advertising, 36(3), pp.35-50.

Packaged Facts, 2010, Millennials in the U.S.: trends and opportunities surrounding Gen-Y adults. accessed on 26^th February 2018, from: https:// www.marketresearch.com/product/display.asp? productid=2661911.

Steyn, P., Wallström, Å. and Pitt, L., 2010, Consumer-generated content and source effects in financial services advertising: An experimental study. Journal of Financial Services Marketing, 15(1), pp.49-61.

Trainor, K.J., 2012, Relating social media technologies to performance: A capabilities-based perspective. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 32(3), pp.317-331.

Williams, D.L., Crittenden, V.L., Keo, T. and McCarty, P., 2012, The use of social media: an exploratory study of usage among digital natives. Journal of Public Affairs, 12(2), pp.127-136.

YouTube.com. 2010, Youtube, accessed on 26^th February 2018, from: https://www.youtube.com/t/press.

Zahay, D. & Fredricks, E. 2009, Podcasting to improve delivery of a project-based internet marketing course. Marketing Education Review 19(1): 57–63.