دانلود رایگان مقاله مدیریت نام تجاری در محیط رسانه های اجتماعی

Abstract

The dynamic, ubiquitous, and often real-time interaction enabled by social media significantly changes the landscape for brand management. A deep understanding of this change is critical since it may affect a brand's performance substantially. Literature about social media's impact on brands is evolving, but lacks a systematic identification of key challenges related to managing brands in this new environment. This paper reviews existing research and introduces a framework of social media's impact on brand management. It argues that consumers are becoming pivotal authors of brand stories due to new dynamic networks of consumers and brands formed through social media and the easy sharing of brand experiences in such networks. Firms need to pay attention to such consumer-generated brand stories to ensure a brand's success in the marketplace. The authors identify key research questions related to the phenomenon and the challenges in coordinating consumer- and firm-generated brand stories.

Conclusion

The rise of social media dramatically challenges the way firms manage their brands. Key features of this social media environment with significant effects on branding are a shift from the firm to consumers as pivotal authors of brand stories in the branding process; a high level of interactivity manifested in social networks of consumers and brands; and a multitude of channels and brand stories that cannot be easily coordinated. To reflect the participative, multi-vocal nature of brand authorship amplified by social media, Fournier and Avery (2011) use the metaphor of ‘open-source’ branding, which implies “participatory, collaborative, and socially-linked behaviors whereby consumers serve as creators and disseminators of branded content” (p. 194). As brand control now largely resides outside of the firm, they argue that in this paradigm, the focus is on protecting the brand's reputation, making brand management more similar to public relations. Firms can follow three distinct strategies to brand management: they can follow the path of least resistance by listening carefully and responding (harshly said: giving in) to consumer demands; they can play the consumers' game by trying to gain cultural resonance through demonstrating a deep understanding of the online cultural environment in which their brand operates and fitting in seamlessly (e.g., T-mobile's “Life's for Sharing” campaigns); or they can attempt to leverage social media's connectedness and get consumers to play the brand's game by creating branded artifacts, social rituals, and cultural icons for consumers to appropriate and work on behalf of the brand (e.g., the Old Spice campaign).