Social Media Marketing and e-WOM: A Descriptive Approach to Mediterranean Young's Online Brand-Related Activities, Attitudes and Engagement

Abstract

It is a well-known fact that the social media enables consumers to contact with each other, share information about what they are interested in and review products and services of the brands or companies. Today, modern consumers go a step further by doing online brand-related activities (COBRAs). The research aims to reveal (a) young consumers’ attitudes towards brand-related social media contents (b) their engagement with such type of online contents, (c) to exemplify most popular COBRAs and (d) to reveal significant variables in positive electronic word-of-mouth prediction. The results point out that the most of the consumers have positive behavioral or emotional attitudes and agree that what they read in brand-related social media contents prior to purchasing a product/service has an influence on their decision. The findings put forward that financial benefit-focused following in social media, satisfaction with brand-related e-contents, social media-based trust and brand attachment are influential variables in e-WOM creation. Findings point out that brand promotions shared by a friend, discount coupons and recommendations leading consumers to buy a certain service or product of a certain brand, of popular social media users who have plenty of followers or friends do not lead to stronger e-WOM behaviors. Consuming, contributing and creating are found out to be the most popular brand-related activities. 

Keywords

• Interactive marketing,Internet marketing,Digital marketing,E-marketing

Sosyal medya pazarlaması ve e-AAİ: Akdenizli gençlerin markaya yönelik çevrimiçi aktiviteleri, tutumları ve etkileşimleri üzerine tanımlayıcı bir araştırma

Abstract

Günümüzde tüketicilerin sosyal medya sayesinde birbiriyle irtibat kurabildikleri, ilgi duydukları ürünler hakkında bilgi paylaştıkları, markaların ya da şirketlerin ürün ve hizmetlerine ilişkin değerlendirmelerde bulundukları bilinen bir gerçektir. Çağımızın modern tüketicileri bir adım öteye giderek artık markaya yönelik çevrimiçi faaliyetlerde bulunmaktadır. Bu bağlamda araştırma (a) genç tüketicilerin internet ortamında markayla ilişkili içeriklere karşı tutumlarını (b) bu tür içeriklere yönelik nasıl davranışlar sergilediklerini (c) markaya yönelik çevrimiçi faaliyetlerden hangilerini sıklıkla gerçekleştirdiklerini (d) pozitif yönlü elektronik ağızdan ağıza iletişimi tahmin eden önemli değişkenlerin neler olduğunu ortaya koymayı amaçlamaktadır. Sonuçlar,  tüketicilerin büyük bir bölümünün olumlu davranışsal ve duygusal tutumlara sahip olduğunu ve satın almayı gerçekleştirmeden önce tüketicilerin markaya ilişkin sosyal medya içeriklerinde okudukları bilgilerin kararlarını etkilediği konusunda hemfikir olduğunu ortaya koymuştur. Bulgulara göre sosyal medyada mali fayda odaklı markaları takip etme davranışı, internette markayla ilişkili içeriklerinden duyulan memnuniyet, sosyal medya tabanlı güven ve marka bağlılığı olumlu elektronik ağızdan ağıza iletişime yol açan önemli değişkenlerdir. Buna karşın sonuçlar, arkadaşlar tarafından paylaşılan promosyon iletilerinin, indirim kuponlarının ve çok sayıda arkadaşı veya takipçisi bulunan popüler sosyal medya kullanıcılarının tüketiciyi markanın rün ve hizmetlerini satın almaya teşvik eden tavsiyelerinin olumlu elektronik ağızdan ağıza iletişim yaratmada sanıldığı kadar etkili olmadığını ortaya koymuştur. Tüketme, katkıda bulunma ve üretme kullanıcıların markaya yönelik en sık gerçekleştirdikleri çevrimiçi aktiviteler olarak ön plana çıkmıştır.

Keywords

• İnteraktif pazarlama,İnternet pazarlaması,Dijital pazarlama,E-pazarlama

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