Brands have now started to focus on marketing which is participatory in nature. It is a two way conversation between brands and consumers, which makes use of channels that are untouched by conventional marketing.
The one thing that marketers are trying to increase is engaging consumers with the brand. They are in the look for content that will help to engage consumers. Now the focus is on working ‘with’ consumers rather than working ‘for’ consumers leading to more consumer engagement. With the gaining popularity of social networking sites such as facebook and twitter, it has become easy to measure the popularity of brands based on the number of followers in these web sites.
The challenge lies with using social media for doing real business rather than doing social media marketing. In fact some of the brands have already started to do business using the social media platform. Using a social media platform does not require huge spending as in the case of traditional marketing. It will help in personalized communication with customers which will make them feel special. Moreover thousands of people will be involved in such communication which will be an added advantage for the brand.
According to a study conducted by Lubin School of Business, it is found that 67 per cent of the millennials use social media networks to get product updates and 64 per cent use social media to access promotions. 33 per cent of them use social media to communicate with other customers. This shows the impact that social media has on customers with respect to brands.
For example Burberry, a British luxury brand tweeted news of its latest line of fashion among its followers, before it was displayed in the London fashion week. This made its followers feel special.
Ford used working ‘with’ customer strategy in their ads by featuring them in their ads, replacing celebrities. This helps in connecting customers with Ford increases engagement with them.
