A Study on Brand Communication in Bangladesh Social Media.

JIANGXI UNIVERSITY OF FINANCE AND ECONOMICS
SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND ECONOMICS
MASTERS DISSERTATION
A Study on Brand Communication in Bangladesh Social Media
孟加拉国社交媒体的品牌传播研究
BY
MOHAMMAD TAWHIDUR RAHMAN
ACADEMIC YEAR: 2015~2017
INTERNATIONAL MASTERS IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS (IMIB)
NO. 169, EAST SHUANGGANG ROAD, CHANGBEI DISTRICT,
NANCHANG, JIANGXI, PR CHINA.
POSTAL CODE: 330013
WEBSITE: ENGLISH.JXUFE.EDU.CN

Mohammad Tawhidur Rahman
A Study on Brand Communication in Bangladesh Social Media.
Student ID : 31540051
Academic Year : 2015~2017
Degree : International Masters in International Business (IMIB)
Major : International Business
Research Area : International Marketing
Supervisor : Xianming Huang, Associate Professor, PhD.
Submission : May 23, 2017
Revised : June 04, 2017
© Researcher
JUFE, 2017
Mohammad Tawhidur Rahman
Tawhid Rahman 特异
Toontooni Ghor, Flat # B-9, Basic Rhythm,
1/E/1 Middle Basabo, Sabujbag,
Dhaka-1214, Bangladesh.
WeChat : tawhid1983
Facebook : facebook.com/tawhid1983
LinkedIn : linkedin.com/in/tawhid1983
E-mail : tawhid1983@gmail.com
Website : tawhidrahman.webs.com

孟加拉国社交媒体的品牌传播研究
Name of the Student : MOHAMMAD TAWHIDUR RAHMAN
Student’s ID Number : 31540051
Supervisor : Xianming Huang, Associate Professor, PhD
Major : International Business
Research Area : International Marketing
Date : May 23, 2017
Revised : June 04, 2017
Degree Issued by : Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics

独创性声明
本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文是本人在导师指导下进行的研究工作及取得的研
究成果。据我所知，除了文中特别加以标注和致谢的地方外，论文中不包含其他人
已经发表或撰写过的研究成果，也不包含为获得江西财经大学或其他教育机构的
学位或证书而使用过的材料。与我一同工作的人对本研究所做的任何贡献均已在论
文中作了明确的说明并表示谢意。
作者签名：手写签名签字日期： 2017 年 05 月 23 日
学位论文版权使用授权书
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留并向国家有关部门或机构送交论文的复印件和磁盘，允许论文被查阅和借阅。本
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索，可以采用影印、缩印或扫描等复制手段保存、汇编学位论文。
作者签名：导师签名：
签字日期：2017 年 05 月 23 日签字日期：2017 年 05 月 23 日

DEED OF DECLARATION
I, MOHAMMAD TAWHIDUR RAHMAN, hereby submit my International Masters in
International Business (IMIB) dissertation for oral defense, entitled A STUDY ON
BRAND COMMUNICATION IN BANGLADESH SOCIAL MEDIA and truthfully
declare that the above titled case analysis is a product of my original research investigation.
I further declare that, should the University eventually discover that a substantial portion
of my dissertation is lifted into from original sources, or using exactly the words of the
author in more than 15% of the whole content, I reserve the right to Jiangxi University of
Finance and Economics to recall my IMIB Diploma and cancel the degree granted to me.
Signed this day of May 23, 2017 at Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics,
Nanchang, China.
IMIB Candidate: ____________________
Date : ___________________________
(Month -Day -Year)
Supervisor: ________________________
Date : __________________________
(Month -Day -Year)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my creator the Almighty
Allah for giving me the chance to study abroad.
Thanks to the Government of the Peoples Republic of China, Ministry of Commerce
(MOFCOM) and Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics for selecting me and all
your support by providing everything I needed in China. I’m thankful to my workstation in
Bangladesh ATN Bangla and my boss Mr. Nawazish Ali Khan to respect my eagerness of
higher education by accepting a study leave. Special thanks to the School of International
Trade and Economics to give me the opportunity to conduct this thesis.
Here, I would like to take the opportunity to thank several people whose contribution made
this thesis possible. The most important person for my thesis is my supervisor Mr.
Xianming HUANG, thank you very much for your guidance and support. Thanks to all the
people that participated in my questionnaire survey and especially to those of the
respondents from different companies that help me through their experience to collect the
needed amount of information. Thanks to those of my colleagues and friends who
supported me to accumulate the secondary data.
I would like to thank all the mentors including Ms. Julie Zhang, Mr. Wu Zhao Yang, Mr.
Mark Du, Mr. Louis, Mr. Chen Qi and all the panel members of different presentations.
Furthermore, I would like to thank all of my fellow classmates from different continents,
Chinese acquaintances and one of my best friends Jhumur, who inspired me to apply for
this scholarship.
Last but not the least, I would like to give a special thanks to all of my family members,
especially my wife Juena Rahman and our daughter Tehniyat Tasnia Tooba for their
continuous support and encouragement throughout the journey to fulfill my IMIB program
in China.
− Tawhid Rahman (May 23, 2017/ Nanchang, Jiangxi, China)

ABSTRACT
In today’s competitive business world, no business can survive without proper branding.
Branding is therefore important to every business regardless of the size, because it helps
distinguish a business from its competitors. As a key component of branding, brand
communication determines whether a brand is successfully established and eventuallyturns
a profit. Since brand communication is not free of cost, it is really hard for enterprises,
especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) of Bangladesh to carry out a successful
brand communication program through traditional marketing activities, which include
television advertising, radio, bill-boards, newspaper etc. However, social media has
evolved over the last few years to become the most affordable springboard for brand
communication through engaging customers in innovative ways and making them true
stakeholders in the value-creation process. Attracted by its potential to drive sales
opportunities and to enhance customer engagement, companies of Bangladesh are also
coming forward to embrace the full prospects of social media. This paper attempted to
explore the present status, problems and prospects of brand communication through social
media in the context of Bangladesh market.
This study is exploratory in nature. Duel analysis methods have been used in this research.
The first one is qualitative analysis; secondary data are used from different sources to
explore an overview of social media usage in Bangladesh. Furthermore, two different
survey were conducted among consumers and marketers, with the aim of investigating
customers’ motivation and marketers approach for using social media as a channel brand
communication in Bangladesh. Finally, descriptive analysis has been done to interpret the
data in order to answer all the research questions.
There is no universal communication strategy suitable for all companies, but the
appropriate one may be build according to the company goals and means. Process of
creating the communication strategy should focus on several targets which companies may
identify by themselves or with the help of guides. One of those targets is identifying
appropriate ways of engaging with the customers with the combination of Brand Awareness,
Brand Engagement and Word-of-Mouth. Nowadays social media especially facebook is
becoming a great tool for B2C brand communication. Recent booming of internet uses in
Bangladesh enhancing this opportunity for all size of companies. They can enjoy the benefit
of social media brand communication with a cost-effective way if they overcome the
current challenges.
KEY WORDS
Brand Communication; Social Media; Bangladesh; Facebook; Digital Marketing; Online
Marketing.

摘要
在当今竞争激烈商业世界里，如果没有品牌，企业将难以生存。因此，无论一
个企业大小规模如何，品牌都很重要，品牌有助于区分一个企业与其竞争者。
品牌传播作为品牌的一个重要组成部分，决定着一个品牌的成功建立和最终盈
利。品牌传播是要付出很高代价，对于企业来说这一支出很难，尤其是孟加拉
这样一个发展中国家的中小型企业（SMEs）。传统品牌传播可以通过市场营销
活动，如电视广告、广播、广告牌、报纸等取得成功。然而，在过去的几年中，
社会媒体已经发展成为品牌传播的重要工具，以创新的方式通过吸引客户，使
他们在价值创造过程中成为真正的利益受益者。受其潜在的驱动销售机会和提
高客户的参与，孟加拉的中小公司逐渐成为社交媒体的受益者。本文试图探讨
孟加拉市场背景下社会媒体品牌传播的现状、问题及前景。
本研究通过一系列对孟加拉国中小企业如何运用社交媒体进行了探索性研究。
论文中采用了两种分析方法。第一个是定性分析，从不同的来源获取二手数据，
探索社会媒体的使用在孟加拉的运用。此外，为了调查客户的不同动机和营销
方法，论文就社交媒体如何在孟加拉作为一个渠道品牌沟通在消费者和营销人
员进行了两个不同的调查，最后，论文对数据进行描述性分析，以回答所有的
研究假设。
在社会媒介中，没有一个适用于所有公司的沟通策略，但可以根据公司的目标
和经济模式可以建立合适自己的沟通策略。创建沟通策略的过程中，应侧重于
几个目标，公司可以识别自己或在指南的帮助下。这些目标之一是确定适当的
方式与客户的品牌知名度，品牌参与和口碑相结合的方式。如今社交媒体尤其
是脸谱网成为 B2C 品牌传播的利器。最近互联网使用在孟加拉蓬勃发展，提高
这一机会的所有规模的公司。如果他们能够克服当前的挑战，他们可以以成本
效益的方式享受社交媒体对品牌传播带来的好处。
关键词
品牌传播；社会化媒体；孟加拉；脸谱网；数字营销；在线营销。

CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
1 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Purpose of the Study.................................................................................................... 2
1.2 Background and Significance....................................................................................... 3
1.3 Research Questions...................................................................................................... 5
1.4 Motivation and Innovation ........................................................................................... 6
1.5 Research Framework ................................................................................................... 7
CHAPTER TWO
2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE .......................................... 9
2.1 Marketing Mix: A Shift from 4P’s to 4C’s ................................................................... 9
2.2 Brand Communication............................................................................................... 12
2.3 Emergence of Social Media........................................................................................ 14
2.4 Social Media Brand Communication.......................................................................... 18
CHAPTER THREE
3 BANGLADESH: DIGITALIZATION AND SOCIAL MEDIA.............................. 29
3.1 Marketing Channels in Bangladesh ............................................................................ 31
3.2 Digital Booming and Social Media............................................................................. 36
3.3 Social Media Usages in Bangladesh ........................................................................... 40
3.4 Local Brands in Social Media .................................................................................... 42
3.4.1 Top Brands of Bangladesh on Facebook............................................................. 43
3.4.2 Top Brands of Bangladesh on Twitter................................................................. 43
3.4.3 Top Brands of Bangladesh on YouTube ............................................................. 44

CHAPTER FOUR
4 RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS ..............................................................................45
4.1 Research Methodology............................................................................................... 45
4.2 Approach and Strategy............................................................................................... 46
4.3 Data Sourcing and Collection..................................................................................... 46
4.4 Data Processing..........................................................................................................48
4.5 Data Analyzing and Interpretation.............................................................................. 49
CHAPTER FIVE
5 FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION ..........................................................................55
5.1 Key Findings.............................................................................................................. 55
5.1.1 Social Media: The New Marketing Channel........................................................ 55
5.1.2 Social Media: Opportunities and Challenges....................................................... 58
5.1.3 Brand Communication Mechanism in Social Media............................................ 61
5.1.4 Key Performance Indicators................................................................................ 62
5.1.5 Impact of Social Media on Purchase Decision..................................................... 63
5.2 Recommendations......................................................................................................63
5.3 Limitations................................................................................................................. 65
5.4 Proposal for Further Studies ....................................................................................... 66
BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................67
APPENDIX ...................................................................................................................71
A. Survey Questionnaire for Consumer-.............................................................................. 71
B. Survey Questionnaire for Marketer- ............................................................................... 73

CONTENTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Figure 2-1: Corporate brand identity & reputation matrix .......................................................... 13
Figure 2-2: Measuring the degree of corporate social media use ................................................ 16
Figure 2-3: The new communications model ............................................................................. 22
Figure 2-4: Factors influencing decision-making process in information-based marketplace ...... 23
Figure 2-5: Social feedback cycle.............................................................................................. 24
Figure 2-6: The metrics and social media feedback.................................................................... 26
Figure 2-7: Engagement’s four I’s align with people’s buying processes.................................... 27
Figure 3-1: Political map of Bangladesh.................................................................................... 29
Figure 3-2: Internet subscription rate of Bangladesh (Source: BTRC)........................................ 31
Figure 3-3: Top companies who are involving in social media................................................... 32
Figure 3-4: Advertising market share of Bangladesh media industry.......................................... 32
Figure 3-5: Size of digital marketing industry (BDT Crores)...................................................... 33
Figure 3-6: Cost of reaching 1000 people (BDT) ....................................................................... 34
Figure 3-7: A snapshot of traditional advertising industry.......................................................... 35
Figure 3-8: Online ad expense by the telecom industry.............................................................. 36
Figure 3-9: 2G coverage and mobile subscribers........................................................................ 37
Figure 3-10: GDP, Median age and Internet penetration ............................................................ 38
Figure 3-11: Age distribution of facebook users......................................................................... 40
Figure 3-12: Facebook’s top countries and cities ....................................................................... 41
Figure 4-1: Sources of data........................................................................................................ 47
Figure 4-2: Results of quantitative test for ‘Gender’ .................................................................. 49
Figure 4-3: Results of quantitative test for ‘Age’ ....................................................................... 50
Figure 4-4: Results of quantitative test for ‘Comparison’ ........................................................... 50
Figure 4-5: Results of quantitative test for ‘Time’...................................................................... 51
Figure 4-6: Results of quantitative test for ‘Response’ ............................................................... 51
Figure 4-7: Results of quantitative test for ‘Attraction’ .............................................................. 52
Figure 4-8: Results of quantitative test for ‘Attention’ ............................................................... 52
Figure 4-9: Results of Likert scale for ‘Reaction’....................................................................... 53
Figure 4-10: Results of Likert scale for ‘Purchase Decision’...................................................... 53
Figure 4-11: Results of Likert scale for ‘Two-way Communication’ .......................................... 54
Table 3-1: Top ten internet countries in Asia ............................................................................. 39
Table 3-2: How consumerism has shifted to instant gratification for digital consumers .............. 39
Table 3-3: Top facebook fan page (total fans)............................................................................ 43
Table 3-4: Top twitter accounts (total followers) ....................................................................... 44
Table 3-5: Top YouTube channels (total video views) ............................................................... 44

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
2G Second Generation
3G Third Generation
4G Fourth Generation
AMA American Marketing Association
B2B Business to Business
B2C Business to Consumer
BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
BBS Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics
BDT Bangladesh Taka
BTRC Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission
CAGR Compound Annual Growth Rate
CIA Central Intelligence Agency
CNN Cable News Network
CRM Customer Relationship Management
FDI Foreign Direct Investment
FMCG Fast Moving Consumer Goods
GDP Gross Domestic Product
IBM International Business Machines corporation
ICT Information Communication Technology
IMF International Monetary Fund
IT Information Technology
ITU International Telecommunication Union
KPI Key Performance Indicator
LTE Long-Term Evolution
Mbps Megabit per second
MNC Multinational Corporation
OTT Over the Top
ROI Return on Investment
RQ Research Question
SEA-ME-WE-4 South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4
SME Small and Medium Enterprise
SMM Social Media Marketing
SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
TRP Television Rating Point
TV Television
USD United States Dollar
VPN Virtual Private Network
WOM Word-of-Mouth

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CHAPTER ONE
1 INTRODUCTION
Consumers’ are changing with the times. As technology continues to evolve and marketers
try new ways to attract consumers, what they are watching on– is more important than ever.
Today, viewing brand promotional or advertisements is a personal and mobile experience–
anytime and anywhere. This media fragmentation is both a challenge and an opportunity
for the marketers.
The rise and wide spread of internet and the fast-growing consumers’ digital media use led
companies occupied in different business sectors to think about a new way of
communication with customers (Cheong & Morrison, 2008). Among the fastest growing
online tools for reaching the consumers is the so called “social media” (Trusov, Bucklin &
Pauwels, 2009).
The recent statistics from different sources shows that the social media is becoming an
important part of everyday life. The results from these statistics are astonishing. As of July
2015, everyday 1 million new active mobile social media users are added, that is 12 per
second (brandwatch). They also measured that 91% of retail brands use two or more social
media channels. All these facts don’t even leave a doubt how fast is social media emerging
in business sector and peoples’ lives.
Social media represents the online content publicly created and available to end users. It is
becoming one of the main tools used to spread information among customers. Blogs, social
networking sites, content communities, virtual worlds or collaborative projects all represent
groups of people that create and share content inside and outside of professional routines.
For marketers, this phenomenon is of high interest as social media is becoming an important
source of customer information sharing, awareness, support and empowerment (Kaplan and
Haenlein, 2010). Consequently, social media allows businesses to effectively and
inexpensively engage in direct client contact, reaching levels of efficiency undoubtedly
higher than any other traditional marketing communication tools (Berthon et al, 2008).
There are many evidences and examples how companies use social media for more efficient
communication and better results. As of the second quarter of 2016, facebook had 1.71
billion monthly active users and there are 50 million active business pages (brandwatch).
Marketers should therefore become more and more aware of the importance of these
platforms and the information spread throughout them.

Chapter 1- Introduction
2
Companies like Coca-Cola and Toyota have experienced direct increase in sales and brand
awareness through social media. In 2016, Coca-Cola's Remove Labels YouTube film
aimed to question cultural prejudices in the United Arab Emirates and resulted in a 51
percent uplift in consumption of the fizzy drink in the region– as well as more than 18
million views. In Australia, the automotive brand Toyota used Canvas, carousel and video
ads on facebook and Instagram to pre-launch its all-new Prius. Thus, they reach over 7.6
million people and increase the number of test drives by 69%. Somebody may ask, "It's all
about biggies that already have a brand reputation, what about smaller ones?" Here is the
answer– in 2016, a small Malaysian online shopping platform HaWooo used a blend of
facebook products to induce Malaysian shoppers to visit its website, resulting 30X growth
in monthly revenue, 20% increase in repeat purchase rate and 25% increase in site
membership after it started facebook brand communication in 2015.
1.1 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
It is known and obvious that in today’s world where the information and internet take a
significant role in peoples’ lives, the social media phenomenon will be an interesting topic
to research, as well as its influence on customers’ attitudes toward brands.
Social media marketing is a new branch of marketing that had to appear in the modern
social media- dominated era when the number of online users as well as the time they spend
online rapidly raises worldwide. Therefore, it was predictable that sooner or later marketing
professionals would start to use social media portals to positively influence consumers
toward a website, company, brand, product, service, or a person (Barker, Barker and
Bormann, 2012).
In recent times, social networking websites or social media not only provides a space for
individuals to interact with other people, but also provides a good opportunity for
businesses to reach their target consumers’ by means of advertising or shearing information.
Social networks are one of the fastest growing industries in the world. It is unquestionably
the time to start investing in social media. The purpose of social media marketing is to
build a brand and increase a brand’s visibility, through building relationships and
communicating with potential consumers. Regardless startup or fortune 500 company,
business needs to be on social media presence and start engaging with consumers.
Now people will likely be spending more time on a social media than a brand’s
website. Having a social media presence along with other niche accounts for target
audience to converse on will draw in and engage far more potential consumers. This ensures
the content reaches an already engaged audience, maximizing its potentiality to build brand
loyalty far more than traditional advertising.
With the proliferation of smartphones, internet connectivity and social networking in
Bangladesh the social media brand communication is gaining momentum. This growth
trend has been impressive over the last few years with the “Digital Bangladesh” initiative

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of current government and the number of agencies and sectors investing in digital
marketing increasing at a rapid pace.
Even though traditional marketing methods are still predominant with a high focus of
companies on television advertisements, billboards and newspaper ads, the market scenario
is ready to be transformed. This research aims to analyze the status quo and the potentiality
of the digital marketing industry in Bangladesh.
Traditional advertising is one-way flow of information. Social media has changed the way
how brands communicate and how brands want to be seen over communication channels.
Therefore, it is no surprise marketers are utilizing social media as an integral part of their
brand campaigns.
Social media became an audio-visual and multimedia communication in the business world
and in everyday life. The distinctive characteristics of the social media can be summarized
in four key points:
 It dramatically reduces information costs and in many cases, is free.
 It allows for two-way communication and interactivity to identify each other and
build one-to-one relationships.
 Social media is a global network and can be reached from everywhere. But recent
modern technology gives you the idea about individual user’s demographic status.
 The internet can also be accessed at any time– 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These
qualities eliminate the barriers of time and space that exist in the physical world.
Companies are constantly paying attention to the change of customer’s opinions and
preferences and are trying to be up to date with the emergence of new technologies.
Companies and marketers are monitoring the customers’ brand attitude change. However,
it is also necessary for them to take into account the rapid spread of social media and the
rising number of social media users– individuals and companies. Each company’s aim is
to create positive brand attitude or if not positive, then at least an attitude that will lead to
profitable results, leading positions on the market and opportunities for future growth.
Therefore, the analysis of social media and what is the effectiveness of social media
platforms on customers’ attitude toward brands will provide efficient and helpful insights
for companies. These include trying to predict their future sales and behavior towards
consumers and respectively toward competitors, and therefore, improving their brand
communications and optimizing the advertising and persuading campaigns with tools that
don’t necessarily require the investment of a lot of money.
1.2 BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE
Social media is a widely-discussed issue today and a lot of researches have been conducted
on social media marketing. Although social networking websites have become popular in
recent times and these platforms have global presence, but there are no significant academic

4
researches or literatures to describe social media as a prospective brand communication
tool for Bangladesh local marketers or companies.
British sociologist Roland Robertson (1991) suggested to use for the ongoing in the modern
society processes the term “glocalization” instead of “globalization”. As Robertson put it,
globalization “being in the broadest sense, the compression of the world has involved and
increasingly involves the creation and the incorporation of locality”.
With globalization, we have seen an increase in usage of social media everywhere. Having
the ability to reach people worldwide has so many advantages and opportunities. However,
there are great differences on how people use social media in different countries. For global
marketers and people who want to develop both local and international networks, it is
important to determine how people from different countries interact through social media.
The cross-cultural studies identified that even if the brand does not differentiate the
marketing strategies for local markets and has a uniform ‘global’ image, a consumer still
projects his or her own personal expectations on it and cognize those characteristics of the
brand and the product that resonate with his or her culturally biased preferences (Hofstede
& Mooij, 2010).
In order to succeed globally companies should develop a glocal strategy, by utilizing their
global experiences and then customizing and tailoring their services and products in such a
way that would appeal to local markets. Marketers feel the need to understand how their
brand is meeting the needs of consumers and how successful their marketing efforts are in
individual countries (Kotler et al, 2009).
Advantage of social media is that by using users’ geo-demographic information marketers
can appropriately target their consumers. Brand communication using social media can not
only offer consumers a better service by interacting with them on a more personal level,
they can also reach a greater audience through these channels at very little extra time and
cost. Consumers bring new consumers, and their recommendations can spread further now
than pre-social media word-of-mouth. Social media provides a way to research and connect
with influencers. Building communication with people who have an influential presence
online is an important avenue for establishing brand awareness.
As social media is quite a new trend, still little research is available. Kaplan and Haenlin
(2010) do explain the importance of social media platforms and offer several strategies of
managing this phenomenon. These strategies, rather advisory in nature, lack empirical
support and thus, leave room for future research.
All of the aforementioned facts make social media an interesting field for investigation.
They also prove its significant managerial relevance and academic interest through the lack
of many previous findings. As Larry Weber (2009) in his book “Marketing to the social
web” says: “Social media is a new strategy that has the capacity of changing public
opinion– every hour, minute, even a second. And why not changing customers brand
attitude?

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1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The 21st
century was claimed to become an era of globalization, in which the discrete and
diverse national communities should transform into the citizens of global village, predicted
by Marshal McLuhan (2003). The practical significance of these contemporary
transformations seems to be really important for the marketing practitioners. New
technologies provided marketers with completely new opportunities and tools to build the
brands equity and to promote them everywhere, such as social media platforms. But in
order to use these new marketing tools effectively, the appropriate strategy should be
developed.
The topic of this thesis is “A Studyon Brand Communication in Bangladesh Social Media”.
The objective of this research is to provide insights into how companies are using social
media as a marketing and branding tool in consumer marketing in Bangladesh. The
outcome of this research will provide a comprehensive picture of how the companies in
Bangladesh are utilizing social media in their marketing. Taking a closer look at how the
social media landscape looks like and what opportunities and challenges lies there. And
defining tactics, tools and measurements, this study aims to offer a guideline for companies
for planning brand communication and marketing activities through social media in
Bangladesh.
The research will answer the following main research question:
RQ 1. Why and how companies are utilizing social media as a new brand communication
and marketing channel in Bangladesh?
In order to answer the main research question, this research will answer the sub-questions
below:
RQ 2. What kinds of social media are consumers using in Bangladesh and which
opportunities and challenges could company meet when utilizing them in brand
communication?
RQ 3. What objectives, strategies and tactics are companies using in brand communication
and marketing through social media?
RQ 4. What key performance indicators can companies use in measuring the impact of
marketing and branding activities through social media?
RQ 5. How Social Media brand communication influenced consumers mind and purchase
behavior?
Consumers in Bangladesh are using different kinds of social media. Together these
different types of social media will define the social media landscape which companies can
utilize in marketing. This landscape will include various opportunities and challenges for
companies, the study will describe different categories of social media and how these are
used among consumers in Bangladesh. In addition, the analysis serves as a base for
identifying opportunities and challenges of utilizing social media in brand communication.
Furthermore, questionnaire survey among online users and the interviews both with internal

6
and external marketing professionals are conducted with particular focus on their
experience on social media marketing, and the opportunities and challenges of it.
To specify, the aspect of defining objectives, strategies and tactics are vital in able to
manage the social media marketing activities. The theoretical knowledge from the previous
research and other sources are reflected against the outcomes on interviews with internal
and external marketing professionals. Establishing the impact of marketing and branding
activities through social media require determined measurements. The statistical analysis
is used to identify what kind of material is important in social media marketing. The results
from analysis are compared with the outcomes from interviews with internal and external
marketing professionals.
The role of social media as an influencer for consumers’ purchasing decision is important
to know when planning social media brand communication activities. The knowledge of
that will help the company in optimizing the planned activities. The results from the
consumers’ survey and interviews with marketing professional are reflected against the
theoretical knowledge from the literature.
1.4 MOTIVATION AND INNOVATION
Nowadays, using social media as a marketing tool is almost mandatory for companies of
any size. The new techniques associated with social media marketing have changed the
marketing industry and created new opportunities for connecting with customers. In social
media platforms, companies can interact with potential customers from a wide range of
nationalities around the world. Interaction or communication is a main theme in this thesis.
The opportunities of interaction between a company fan page and their followers as one of
the fundamental aspects that puts social media brand communication apart from traditional
marketing methods.
The world of social media is growing rapidly and there are many interesting platforms to
research. However, because of the limited extent of this thesis it has been deemed necessary
to focus only on one platform, namely facebook. As it is the most popular social networking
site in Bangladesh.
On February 4, 2004 facebook started its journey and regarded as pioneer in social
networking with 1.79 billion monthly active users around the world (as of January, 2017).
Considering its large community, it is said that if facebook users constituted a country, it
would be the world’s third largest, behind China and India. Its intention is to help the people
to connect and share to become world a very open arena.
On facebook, individuals create a personal profile and begin connecting with others by
using the friend request option. The most important features of facebook are the wall; that
preserves information regarding an individual’s recent and past activity, the status option
and the photo and video galleries. Comments are also an important option for facebook
users, and the like button which includes love, laugh, excitement, sadness and angriness
that allows friends to offer short feedback on wall posts.

7
In order to interact with current and prospective customers, brands have two major options
on facebook, either creating a group or a public profile/ fan page. The fan page has recently
become similar in design and functionality to the individual personal profile, except for the
fact that users can add themselves as fans (not friends) to the page, by clicking on a like
button. For business profiles, facebook included the recommend option, which enables fans
to further support their favorite brands among their peers. Groups, on the other hand, are
more selective and have restricted access- but they need to be considered if a company
desires to engage in private discussions with a specific cluster of people on certain topics.
Marketers also can use marketplace or advertising on facebook.
A free facebook account can be a cost-effective option for a business owner. By
customizing the elements of a facebook business page, marketers can establish a brand and
create an online hub for information, marketing and customer interaction. A facebook
business page can also be used as a complement to his current strategy to reinforce the
power and influence of the brand. As the traditional media can’t do so, companies are now
diligently establishing facebook pages to interact with consumers to expand product and
brand recognition, drive sales and profitability, and create brand loyalty.
This thesis does not seek to find answers to which factors increase sales, but focuses on
how relationships between customer and company are created and maintained through the
utilization of social media. The main emphasis of this study will be placed on ‘social media
brand communication’. The reason for this is that the internet as part of new media
increasingly broadens and enhances today’s communication processes. The online
environment represents a virtual living space, which simultaneously reflects consumers’
real lives. Depending on personal interests and social attributes, online users assemble in
various online communities while using the digital space for different activities such as
networking, studying or shopping. Thus, marketers respectively brand managers focus
more and more on social media instead of relying solely on mass media (Chen, 2014).
Social media represents one of the most critical contemporary communication mediums,
which has wide effects on a brands journey. Therefore ‘brand communication in social
media’ features high relevance as the central research object of current study concentrating
Bangladesh market.
1.5 RESEARCH FRAMEWORK
In next chapter, theoretical background and literature provides a brief idea about the
evolution of marketing mix from 4P’s to 4C’s. This chapter also covers the definition of
brand and some detail discussions about brand communication from previous researchers
and scholars. It will be followed by recent application of brand communication through the
new digital gateway– social media. This chapter also illustrates how social media are
utilizing in brand communication. It explains the role of social media in a purchase process
and its influence on purchase decision in current world. The literature review also describes
different strategies, tools, and measurements of social media marketing. The objective is
thereby to establish theoretical foundation for social media marketing, its importance for

8
lay a foundation of theory for better understanding the social media marketing, its
importance for the study, and existing environments for planning competitive marketing
activities.
Chapter three is about introduction, digitalization and explosion of social media in
Bangladesh. This illustrates the overall advertising market scenario compering traditional
and contemporary digital marketing statistics. This chapter evaluate the different marketing
channels and their present status. Also, it is describing the reasons behind the recent
booming of internet and social media usage in Bangladesh. Different infographics shows
how and why marketers choose new channel of brand communication and which social
media platforms are most appropriate and preferable to the Bangladeshi marketers and
companies. This chapter is like a bridge, connecting chapter two and four. In one hand,
chapter three is an extension of theoretical background, on the other hand, it’s an illustration
of secondary data.
Chapter four, the research and analysis section presents the research methods and reasons
for the choices of the methods. The collection of data has been divided into primary and
secondary, which both will be analyzed, interpreted and explained here. Using SPSS
software, the analysis part of this chapter presents the results from primarydata with several
charts.
Finally, in chapter five, the conclusion summarizes the results with key findings and
finishes the discussion. Based on the researchers experience this chapter gives some
suggestion about social media marketing and brand communication activities in
Bangladesh. And finally, this thesis is wrapping up by explaining some research limitations
and showing the scope for further studies about social media brand communication from
Bangladeshi companies and marketers perspective.

9
CHAPTER TWO
2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE
2.1 MARKETING MIX: A SHIFT FROM 4P’S TO 4C’S
The past couple of years have brought an increase development of the information and
communication technologies. The new "Internet era" has had a serious impact on many
aspects from the nowadays living, including the contemporary marketing, leading to the
affirmation of a new discipline- Internet marketing. The increasing usage of the internet
and other types of digital media as a support to the existing marketing tools that have
emerged, have affected the way on which companies communicate with their customers.
Furthermore, customers have acknowledged more about their role, power and influence
they can have over the companies within this area. (BrandBa.se)
In addition to this transition, there have been some implications that reflected on the
marketing mix. This paradigm has gone all the way through the process of evolution in
marketing theory and has been a constant subject of discussion in both, the academic
literature and managerial practice (Dominici, 2009). This ongoing debate of whether the
traditional 4P's marketing mix is still applicable and valid in the 21st
century and in the field
of internet marketing has led to a vast of controversies between many authors and
practitioners.
The first author that used marketing mix is McCarthy (1960), which refers to it, as "4P's"
(product, price, promotion and place) and is understood as a mean of translating marketing
planning into practice (Bennet, 1997). Since it's presenting in 1960, McCarthy used the
marketing mix in order to discuss marketing manager's framework- "concentric circles with
the customer surrounded first by the 4P’s and then by the environmental forces that affect
marketing strategy development" (Anderson & Taylor, 1995).
Throughout the years, many questions were raised regarding the validity of the marketing
mix in the 21st
century. A study conducted by Rafiq and Ahmed (1995) implied on the high
level of dissatisfaction with the 4P’s model. Different authors launched attacks on this
model because of its lack of strategic elements and internal orientation (Ohmae, 1982;
Robins, 1999), which led to developing alternative frameworks such as or Boom and
Bitner’s (1981) 7P's framework, more suitable for the service marketing area and Bruner's
4C's (1988)- concept, channels, costs and communication.
One of the most influential critiques of the marketing mix is given by Lauterborn (1990),
who claims that the elements of the marketing mix should be also seen from consumer's
point of view. This alludes that more emphasis should be put on customer wants and
concerns (Dennis, Fenech & Merrilees, 2005). Therefore, Lauterborn came up with the
"4C's"- customer value, cost, convenience and communication, a model that is equivalent
to the traditional 4P’s, but viewed from customer perspective.

Chapter 2- Theoretical Framework and Literature
10
The explosive growth of Internet, alongside with the expansion of the commercial networks
and services has resulted with an increasing number of Internet users (Aldridge, Forcht &
Pierson, 1997). Many innovative companies tried to take the advantage of the new
generation technologies, needed for modifying the key elements of the marketing mix, and
with the ultimate goal of achieving a leading role the revolutionary digital world (Peattie,
1997). The use of the internet and the digital media as supporting pillars in crafting the
marketing activities has led to a new discipline called internet marketing.
Varadarjan and Yadav (2009) noted that according to one examination of the literature, the
terms internet marketing, interactive marketing, e-commerce and online marketing to large
extent are used interchangeably. Therefore, they define the term interactive marketing as:
"the use of an information infrastructure network and devices connected to the network for
mediating interactions between an organization and its customers in the context of activities
and processes employed by the organization for creating, communicating and delivering
products that offer value to customers in an exchange."
Within this new environment, the focus of the marketers has shifted towards understanding
and satisfying individual and personalized, rather than collective needs, while placing more
emphasis on customer's retention, customer service and relationship marketing
(Constantinides, 2002). In addition to this, the customers' behavior patterns are altered to a
new level in which they have become better informed, individualistic, wired and require a
greater degree of control over the marketing process (Hoffman, Novak & Schlosser, 2000).
Moreover, they value this personalized approach and choose products that can be adapted
instantly to their ongoing shifting needs and desires (Constantinides, 2002).
With the establishment of interactive marketing as an important theoretical and managerial
practice, many people have again brought up the question regarding the inadequacy of the
McCarthy's model. As reasons for raising this question were marked the lack of
interactivity and personalization, lack of community building, as well as the well-known
statements regarding the model's internal orientation and lack of strategic elements
(Costantinides, 2006). Hence, the supporters of this thesis (Mosley-Matchett 1997; Evans
& King 1999; Chaffey et al. 2000; Schultz 2001; Constantinides 2002) favor new
approaches and some of them propose different alternative models such as 5W's (Mosley-
Matchett, 1997) and 4S's (Constantinides, 2002) that more suitable for the changing society.
However, the Lauterborn's 4C’s model (described previously) is more simple (Dennis,
Fenech & Merrilees, 2005) when compared to new models and can be used when deciding
on marketing issues. Furthermore, its customer-orientation is its main characteristic and
based on the Constantinides's (2002) suggestions that in the internet era, the customer is
the focal point. Therefore, in the following section, discussions regarding the
transformation form McCarthy's 4P's into Lauterborn's 4C's.
The first element of the traditional marketing mix is the product. According to Kotler and
Armstrong (2009), a product is "anything that can be offered to a market for attention,
acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need".

11
Some of the important differences that the internet brought to the products are the
customization and personalization- two integral processes that give power to customers in
designing their own product that will satisfy their needs and wants (Thirumalai & Sinha,
2011). By providing "the right content in the right format to the right person at the right
time" (Tam & Ho, 2005), companies are trying to provide solutions to their customers,
rather than selling them a single product. With this, the companies create value- "the net
worth to customers from buying and using seller's product" (Woodruff, 1997) and reflect
closeness to their customers, generate appreciation of benefits that are desired bycustomers
in terms of style, choice, uniqueness etc. (Dennis, Fenech & Merrilees, 2005).
The second element of the traditional marketing mix is the price- "everything given by the
acquirer in terms of money, time and effort to obtain the product "(Yudelson, 1999).
However, price is just one of the costs that need to be bear in mind, when a customer wants
to buy something (Olivedia.com, 2011).
During the purchasing process, many different types of costs such as those for searching
the product, transportation, usage costs can occur. Today, the by internet ordering, the
customers' transportation costs can be eliminated (Cheng & Nault, 2007). Furthermore, low
search costs relating to using the internet for search information prior purchasing are
highly-relevant factors that affect the use of the internet (Jepsen, 2007).
Promotion is the third element of McCarthy's marketing mix. Bunn and Banks (2004)
define the promotion as a set of tactical marketing techniques that are formed within a
strategic framework, with the ultimate goal of adding value when reaching specific sales
and marketing objectives.
Traditionally, the process of communication was consisted of: advertising, sales promotion,
direct marketing, public relations and personal selling (Winer, 2009). This traditional
model was founded on the belief that marketer has the whole control of the information
flow from the company through the media, to the consumers. Furthermore, these mass
media-based tools create one-way communication that is based on informing, telling and
educating audiences with an ultimate goal to sell the product (Ballantyne, 2004).
According to Fill (2006), the new technology has given a rise to a number of different
media and enabled new interactive forms of communication. Furthermore, he argues that
beside the traditional promotional methods, many other radically different methods have
emerged that provide opportunities for people to interact with those organizations with
whom they are willing to be involved and to whom they give permission to send messages.
Moreover, this shift towards interactivity and digital themes (Winer, 2009) is referred to as
a "hypermedia" environment (Hoffman & Novak, 1996) and had a drastic impact on the
nature of the communications model (Hoffman & Novak, 2009).
The dialogue with the customers is hold through various new media. Internet advertising,
m-commerce, podcasts are just few outcomes from the internet revolution (Winer, 2009).
None arguably, the most important media of nowadays living is the social media.

12
Kietzmann et al (2011) argue that the development of the Facebook, Twitter and other sites
represents a substantial and pervasive change in the ways of communication between
organizations, communities and individuals. They also suggest that this event represents a
huge challenge for firms, mainly because many established management methods are not
suitable to deal with the customers who expect from firms to listen, engage and provide
feedback to their needs.
Convenience is Lauterborn's last element of the marketing mix. Instead of focusing on the
ways in which companies manage inventories and "placing the products where they want
them to be"(Dennis, Fenech & Merrilees, 2005), the objective of the last C is to make the
purchasing process of a good as convenient as possible for the customer (Hamilton, 2005).
In the online marketing, everything is about convenience. The internet provides an
opportunity for customers to purchase their products from their homes (Smith, 2003).
Moreover, it eliminates regional and local protections and allows consumers to buy from
anyone in any region of the world (Kung, Monroe & Cox, 2002).
A major challenge in the e-commerce is the fact that goods have to be available quickly to
the customer. For that purpose, the internet marketing has caused the process of
disintermediation- "removing the middleman to deal direct with customers instead through
agents, distributors and wholesalers", which allows companies to interact more directly
with their customers and develop a deep understanding of when and where do customers
want the products and services (Chaffey, 2009).
2.2 BRAND COMMUNICATION
The American Marketing Association (AMA) define a brand is “a name, term, sign, symbol,
or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one
seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors”. A traditional
definition of a brand was: “the name associated with one or more items in the product
line, that is used to identify the source of character of the item(s)” (Kotler, 2000).
Brand is an identifiable product augmented in such a way that the buyer or user perceives
relevant unique added values which match their needs most closely. Furthermore, its
success results from being able to sustain these added values in the face of competition (De
Chernatony and McDonald., 1992). Brandt and Johnson (1997) define it as “…the tangible
product plus the intangible values and expectations attached to the product by the consumer
or prospect”.
Brand names help people to recognize a reliable, trusted products or services which can be
consumed without thinking a lot. Similarly, brands help consumers to understand the
attribute, features, quality aspects and many more vital elements which are very important.
For companies having a strong brand ensures creating loyal set of customers and sell goods
or services for a premium. A stringer brand ensures higher brand equity which results in
higher brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand associations. It not only helps in attracting,

13
retaining consumers but also influences channel partners, public in general, governments
and stakeholders of business.
Urde & Greyser (2014) combined brand identity, communication and brand reputation in
the so-called ‘Corporate Brand Identity and Reputation Matrix’ (CBIRM). In this context,
the communication layer within the model functions as a catalyst that decodes a
strategically defined brand identity in operational measures, which ideally result in positive
brand reputation among multiple stakeholders.
Figure 2-1: Corporate brand identity & reputation matrix
(adapted from Urde & Greyser by C. Hoffmann & L. Weithaler, 2015)
Based on this matrix brand identity can be strategically converted into brand reputation
through effective ‘brand communication’. In detail, the phrase brand communication can
be divided into two equivalent parts: ’brand touch point’ and ’brand message’ (Kapferer,
2012). The former can be seen as an instance of contact, where a certain message is
transferred from the sender to the receiver. ‘Brand messages’, on the other hand, refer to
brand identity elements, which are communicated in a certain way (Kapferer, 2012).
It has to be underlined that ‘brand messages’ in the context of ‘social media communication’
are strongly interactive. This implies that respective messages can be either user or brand
generated. In certain cases, they even cover co-created content. This applies to multiple
‘touch points’ respectively online communication channels since they can be managed
directly by brands, by brand fans or neutral parties (Haely et al., 2013).
Urde & Greyser (2014) lay the emphasis on their research on the interconnectedness of
‘brand identity’ and ‘brand reputation’. In addition to that, ‘brand communication’ has been
identified as a connecting link between the two entities.
The emphasis of this study is placed on brand communication through social media. These
new platforms are frequently visited by consumers during their online decision-making
journey. Consequently, brand communication constitutes a deciding factor when it comes
to a consumer’s decision-making process.

14
Branding should both precede and underlie any marketing effort. Branding is not push, but
pull. Branding is the expression of the essential truth or value of an organization, product,
or service. It is communication of characteristics, values, and attributes that clarify what
this particular brand is and is not. A brand will help encourage someone to buy a product,
and it directly supports whatever sales or marketing activities are in play, but the brand
does not explicitly say “buy me.” Instead, it says “This is what I am. This is why I exist. If
you agree, if you like me, you can buyme, support me, and recommend me to your friends.”
(James Heaton)
Bangladesh currently has about 65 million internet users. Internet today has reached to
various factions all over the world. The nature of sharing and interaction is hugely
influenced today on internet by the virtue of various technological evolutions and
applications. Internet has been flooded with the information which is enormous. Because
of information overload some argues that internet would not be a reliable platform for
marketing or promotion of products and services. Maintaining customer commitments and
continuity in interaction is becoming difficult as majority of consumers are having less time
left for brand engagement (Rowly J., 2004). So, online branding will become the need of
time in near future. In Bangladesh because of several factors like globalization, increasing
digitization and increasing importance of customer relationships, a rapid change is
happening in industry practices and market structures.
Market data confirms the trend that majority of businesses are striving for bigger online
presence. In Bangladesh, Social Media Marketing (SMM) is currently used very actively
by brands like GrameenPhone, Robi, Banglalink, Unilever, Ekhanei.com, Bikroy.com and
the numbers are increasing daily. Continuously internet, especially social media is gaining
importance as a medium of viral or word-of-mouth marketing. The social media can also
generate negative publicity for brands. Brands that stay away from new media such as
social media will become extinct and would lose contract with their customers in future
(Lovett J., Owyang J., 2010).
2.3 EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Social Media, is defined various ways in previous research. As yet there is no generally
accepted definition of the term Social Media which might also explain some of the extant
confusion. Kaplan and Haenlein (2009) define the social media as “a group of internet-
based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,
and that allow the creation of exchange of User Generated Content”. This study adopts the
definition presented by Safko and Brake (2009), who also share the previous definition
suggested by Kaplan and Haenlein (2009). Safko and Brake (2009) explain that social
media refers to activities, practices, and behaviors among communities of people, who
gather online to share information, knowledge, and opinions using conversational media.
Conversational media covers the web-based applications that make it possible to create and
easily transmit content in the form of words, pictures, videos, and audios. Drury (2008)
places emphasis on the word “share”, as the most important part of social media.

15
The internet has revolutionized the way individuals, organizations and the whole society
communicate. During its existence, the characteristics of the internet have changed and it
has become a more interactive platform than it was previously. People are increasingly
discovering the new communication possibilities that the internet can offer. They are no
longer connecting to the internet only in order to find information on different web pages
but also contributing to discussions with their opinions, experiences or other types of
content. Platforms, where people can share information, knowledge, and opinions, are
called social media. (Drury 2008).
According to Vollmer and Precourt (2008), consumers are turning away from the traditional
sources of advertising, such as radio and television, and that they consistently demand more
control over their media consumption. Consumers require on-demand and immediate
access to information at their own convenience, and that consumer are turning more
frequently to various types of social media to conduct their information searches and to
make their purchasing decisions (Vollmer and Precourt, 2008).
Also, Mangold and Faulds (2009) explicate that people are witnessing an explosion of
internet-based messages transmitted through these media. These have become a major
factor in influencing different aspects of consumer behavior including awareness,
information acquisition, purchase behavior, opinions and post-purchase communication.
Recent studies have shown of the estimated 3.5 billion word-of-mouth conversations that
occur around the world each day, about 2.3 billion of them- roughly two out of three- make
a reference to a brand, product, or service. Word-of-mouth is increasingly manifesting itself
through digital social media, where it spreads both farther and faster. This use of the social
web is increasingly important to marketers (Evans, 2008). Consumers perceive social
media as a more trustworthy source of information regarding products and services than
corporate-sponsored communications transmitted via the traditional elements of the
promotion mix (Foux, 2006).
According to wikipedia.org, social media are computer-mediated technologies that allow
the creating and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression
via virtual communities and networks. The variety of stand-alone and built-in social media
services currently available introduces challenges of definition. However, there are some
common features:
 Social media are interactive Web 2.0 internet-based applications.
 User-generated content, such as text posts or comments, digital photos or videos,
and data generated through all online interactions, are the lifeblood of social media.
 Users create service-specific profiles for the website or app that are designed and
maintained by the social media organization.
 Social media facilitate the development of online social networks by connecting a
user's profile with those of other individuals and/or groups.
Social media use web-based and mobile technologies on smartphones and tablet computers
to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals, communities and

16
organizations can share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content or pre-made
content posted online. They introduce substantial and pervasive changes to communication
between businesses, organizations, communities and individuals. Social media changes the
way individuals and large organizations communicate. These changes are the focus of the
emerging field of technoself studies. In America, a survey reported that 84 percent of
adolescents in America have a facebook account.
Social media differ from paper-based or traditional electronic media such as TV
broadcasting in many ways, including quality, reach, frequency, usability, immediacy, and
permanence. Social media operate in a dialogic transmission system (many sources to many
receivers). This is in contrast to traditional media which operates under a monologic
transmission model (one source to many receivers), such as a newspaper which is delivered
to many subscribers. Some of the most popular social media websites are Facebook (and
its associated Facebook Messenger), WhatsApp, Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, Baidu Tieba,
Pinterest, LinkedIn, Gab, Google+, YouTube, Viber, Snapchat, Weibo and WeChat. These
social media websites have more than 1 billion registered users.
Observers have noted a range of positive and negative impacts from social media use.
Social media can help to improve individuals' sense of connectedness with real and/or
online communities and social media can be an effective communication (or marketing)
tool for corporations, entrepreneurs, nonprofit organizations, including advocacy groups
and political parties and governments. According to Nielsen, internet users continue to
spend more time on social media sites than on any other type of site. Over 60% of 13 to
17 year old’s have at least one profile on social media, with many spending more than two
hours a day on social networking sites.
Classification of social media and overview of how important different types of social
media are for each of a company's operational functions (e.g. marketing)
Figure 2-2: Measuring the degree of corporate social media use
Source: Aichner, T. and Jacob, F. - Aichner, T. and Jacob, F. (March 2015)

17
The term social media has tended to be used alternatively with the term Web 2.0. The
interchangeable usage of the terms is acknowledged by many observers like Constantinides
and Fountain (2008), Safko and Brake (2009), and Kaplan and Haenlein (2009). However,
Constantinides and Fountain (2008) consciously choose to use the two terms Social Media
and Web 2.0 identically. Safko and Brake (2009) in turn state that the terms are closely
related but not exactly synonymous, and differentiate between their usage. Kaplan and
Haenlein (2009) support this view, and describe also that there seem to be confusion among
managers and academic researchers alike what exactly should be included under term
Social Media, and how it differs from the related concepts of Web 2.0 and User Generated
content (UGC).
According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2009), Web 2.0 is a term that is used to illustrate a new
way in which software developers and end-users started to exploit the World Wide Web as
platform whereby content and applications are no longer created and published by
individuals, but are instead continuously modified by all users in participatory and
collaborative fashion. Further Kaplan and Haenlein (2009) argues that as Web 2.0
represents the ideological and technological foundation, UGC can be seen as the sum of all
ways in which people make use of Social Media.
Constantinides and Fountain (2008) have identified five categories of Social Media as
follows:
 Blogs are online journals where people of firm can post images, ideas and links to
other web pages;
 Social networks are places where people with a common interest or concerns come
together to meet people with similar interests and where they can build their
personal websites;
 Content communities are web sites where particular types of content can be
organized and shared with others;
 Forums/bulletin boards are sites for exchanging ideas or information usually around
particular interests, and
 Content aggregators or applications which allow users to fully customize the web
content they wish to access. Examples of social media applications that people use
include Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and Wikipedia (Drury 2008).
2016 Social Media Marketing Report by Social Media Examiner reported that 97% of
marketers are currently participating in social media- but 92% of participants aren’t sure
what social media tactics are most effective. More than half of marketers (55%) chose
Facebook as their most important platform, followed by LinkedIn (18%), Twitter (12%),
and then YouTube (4%). But 63% of marketers’ plan on increasing their YouTube
marketing. This data clearly reveals facebook is still the primary platform for marketers.
65% of B2C marketers select facebook as their number-one choice while 61% of B2B.
According to Hubspot, 92% of marketers in 2014 claimed that social media marketing was
important for their business, with 80% indicating their efforts increased traffic to their
websites, 72% using social media to develop loyal fans.

18
Ketter and Avraham (2012) explained that the marketing communication process on social
media is much more interaction-oriented, based on two-way communication format. The
two-way communication process enabled passive content consumers to become active
producers; for example, by posting updates on Facebook or uploading video on YouTube,
these users are active on the internet.
According to Danah Boyd and Nicole Ellison (2007), social networking sites can be said
as web-based services that allow individuals to:
 construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system,
 articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and
 view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the
system.
Social networking site was started in 1997. The starting of “ryze.com” in 2001 was the
second step of social networking sites. Whereas Facebook comes in 2004, the most popular
site around the world. It also varies from countries to countries: Orkut, Google’s foray into
social networking, had tremendous users in India and Brazil. Windows Live Spaces,
Microsoft’s network combined with instant messaging service, became trendy in Mexico,
Italy and Spain. Some sites also provide different services, such as- sharing digital media,
by Flickr and YouTube, and treated as most popular websites all over the world. (Mrinal,
2008)
2.4 SOCIAL MEDIA BRAND COMMUNICATION
L. M. de Souza Almeida (2014) says, branding has changed because the digital media and
the communication between brands and consumers now occur through a two-way channel.
Conversation is no longer one way and it represents not only a challenge but also an
opportunity for brands worldwide. It is suggested a digital toolkit includes social media,
search engine optimization, mobile marketing, on-line advertising, e-mail marketing and
customer relationship management (CRM).
T Vukasović, R Strašek (2014) explored that, social networking sites are used as marketing
tool by marketers in creating brand relationship. Huge growth of customer base enables
marketers to explore social media networking sites as new medium of promoting products
and services and resulting in reduction in clutter of traditional medium advertising of
reaching the mass customers and not realizing the actual ROI. Social networking sites are
more collaborative and interactive in comparison to traditional media followed by
marketers.
Social media represents a significant outcome of the communication change and has
introduced a substantial change to communication between companies, communities and
individuals (Kiezmann, 2011). In a survey conducted by Marketing Sherpa, a US based
marketing research company, it was observed that out of the 1886 marketing and PR
professionals surveyed, 68% thought that Social media is changing the way companies
communicate. And around 90% agree that social Media is most effective in brand building.
Interestingly, around 46% respondents quoted a lack of knowledgeable staff rather than the

19
notion of ineffectiveness of social media to be the reason for not employing it. Internet
marketing has had an immense impact in the recent years. Most prominently in UK, where
internet advertising spends has overtaken popular mass media like print and television.
Borges (2009) finds that today’s buyers want to be engaged differently than in years past
and many traditional marketing tactics simply do not work anymore. Social media
marketing is a revolutionary way to build solid relationships with buyers. Low cost, brand
building, staffing advantages, loyalty and level playing field are key benefits of social
networking sites as a successful marketing media.
Smith (2010) says that facebook is becoming one of the great internet communications of
people time now a days. Whereas many companies have tried to emulate facebook’s
success or challenge it in one geography or another, face book has proven that the core
asset on which all of its services are built- the social graph- is much more defensible and
powerful than many others once anticipated. Visitors to social networking sites are
significantly more likely than average to visit leisure-oriented retail site categories, such as
music, jewellery, luxury goods, accessories, consumer electronics and apparel.
Ricadela (2007) says, Coca-Cola has been running promotions on MySpace for the past
two years for brands including Cherry Coke and Fanta and has promoted Diet Coke and
other drinks on Google's YouTube. The Coca-Cola Company has established a global brand
blueprint in 200 different countries with unique identity. For example, in Spain, Coca-Cola
wanted to reach out to young adults. Because the internet is such a large part of that
audience’s lives, the Spanish team elected to make the Web a key component of the
marketing strategy through an online interactive game. Promotional activities included a
sixteen-stop bus tour of the country’s major universities, where students could board the
bus, play the new game and sample Coca-Cola products. The game was designed to align
with the Coke brand and the goals of the campaign. No violence was allowed; instead, the
game focused on building a sense of community and bringing people together. The
campaign was aimed at linking Coke with another pleasurable experience: surfing the Web.
Their messages revolved around a common theme: “Come interact with your peers online
and let Coke be a part of the experience. Surf refreshed” (IBM Global Services). This
example tries to signify the phenomenon of capturing people’s attention where they are
present more. As majority of people spend their time on social media networks it is
advisable to use engaging strategy over this new media.
People typically enjoy sharing their experiences with these products, whether it is to talk
about their new iPhone or the pair of designer jeans they just bought. Social networking
sites offer the venue for those conversations to occur. Social media advertising is ideal for
promoting brand recognition, although click-through rates are not so strong. Still, there is
no doubt that advertising via social media sites is an effective way to increase your overall
revenue stream (Brinlee, 2007).
On Advanced Internet Policy Report (2009), it is demonstrated that promotion on internet
by advertising quickly acquiring the reliability of marketer than that other tools of
marketing. This report also indicates a shift towards online advertisement from traditional
marketing. Online advertising is alive for round-the-clock and that leads to gain the return

20
on investment of advertisement. Online advertising is preferable by the marketer because
the target is more precise and provides specific measurement about the target than other
marketing media.
Marketing is all about networking. Now a day it goes online. The rise of social networking
site like as Facebook, MySpace over last few years has been phenomenal. It is explored
that these social networking sites have grown to new height, each sites currently boasts
more than 60+ million genuine visitors each month. It is a common thinking to all
marketing agency to cover all potential target. Through this new marketing policy marketer
can convey their message to a large scale by providing less effort than other media (Mrinal,
2008).
In an empirical research on control of friends to buy of users in an online social network
reveals the category of users with different behavior. The low-status group (48% of users)
is disconnected, shows very poor interaction with different users and is not biased by social
pressure. The middle-status group (40% of users) is not adequately connected, tends to
logical non-buying action on the site and has a well-built and positive effect due to friends
buying. The high-status group (12% users) is perfectly connected and dynamic on the site,
and tends to a momentous downward effect for the purpose of friends buying. This research
indicates the difference of purchasing habit and effect of advertisement on habit. This
impact leads to nearly14% decline in the returns of this huddle (Iyengar, Han and Gupta,
2009).
Primarily web was used as a marketing tool that promotes the business but soon it converts
into a critical distribution medium for the up to date business organization. Online are used
as a major medium for brand communication (Thompson, 2002; Jothi, Neelamalar and
Prasad, 2011). A reading on the usefulness of advertisement on social network it is argued
that, in net advertisers represents their products by a normal way to grow the attention to
check out the product details by click. It can be concluded that, social networking sites are
used as a major tool to promote and develop the business’s brand identity (Jothi,
Neelamalar and Prasad, 2011)
An explanatory study on some footwear sales company reveals that some industries are
highly interested to use online advertisement whereas other shown a very negative
approach. The research states that, the internet is the most powerful channel to advertise
because almost all people relies on the internet and thus online advertising is far better than
usual advertising method. People are living in a virtual world by using social networking
sites widely (Kaur, 2008).
It is rightly said that traditional media have narrow coverage comparison to internet. It also
regarded as cheap way of marketing. (Jensen and Jepsen, 2008). They also argued that
comparatively costs are reduced and return on the costs is high. The rise of social
networking like Twitter and Facebook may lead any firm to spend a lesser cost and develop
gender focused advertisements based on user’s information (Hoy and Milne 2010;
Cramphorn, M.F. 2011).

21
Lovett J., and Owyang J., (2010) says by developing relationship with individuals who have
more affinity towards the brands can become more associated with customers. For creating
brands online few things are necessary to maintain like Site Appearance, Location of the
Brand, Navigation on page, Personal Support, Differential Reward, Personal Support, and
Physical Delivery and Returns (Chernatony L., Christodoulides G., 2004). They also
suggest critical success factors like building genuine relationships, enabling greater
interactivity and developing customized offerings which are essential for creation of online
brands.
Online Communities are also useful forum which creates more interaction amongst
customers. Customers can interact through chatting, sharing a common message,
commenting on post, and by recommending. According to Krishnamurthy (2003)
marketing to online communities gives positive message and makes customers understand
a product and successful online communities creates a strong sense of belonging among
participants. Pete Blackshaw (2008) points out six critical drivers of Brand CredibilityTrust,
Authenticity, Transparency, Affirmation, Listening, and Responsiveness for successful
creation of online Brand.
Social Media turning into an influential marketing channel to many companies and
organizations (Drury 2008). The social media marketing is as a process that empowers
individuals and companies to promote their websites, products or services through online
social channels and to communicate with and tap into a much larger community that may
not have been available via traditional advertising channels. It connects service providers,
companies and corporations with a broad audience of influencers and consumers (Weinberg,
2009). Weber (2009) argues that social media marketing is not only for the largest
multinational corporations, it might be even easier and more effective for a small and
medium-size company to take maximum advantage of it.
In the context of social media as a marketing and branding channel, is important to discuss
the opportunities as well as the challenges it offers for marketers and companies. Social
media provides numerous opportunities for strengthening and expanding relationships to
customers. These opportunities include targeted brand building with activities like podcasts,
executive blogs or microsites, developed with particular focus for a specific target audience.
Social media offers a quicker and more cost-effective way to reach highly targeted markets
than marketing through traditional media, such as websites, newspapers and television.
Additionally, social media is a tool for staying connected with other stakeholders of the
company such as technology vendors, and distributors. Social media can be seen as
opportunity for the research and development department to get immediate feedback on the
product and make corrections, and to move to next challenge. Including customers in the
product development companies can forge bonds that foster long-term product or brand
loyalty. The social media presets also numerous opportunities to strengthen and expand
employee communications (Weber, 2009).
On the other hand, brand communication through social media challenges a company to
adapt different techniques than marketing through traditional channels. Weber (2009)
explains that marketing to the social media requires adopting a completely new way of

22
communication with an audience in a digital environment. Drury (2008) clarifies that
marketing with traditional media was much about delivering the marketing message to the
target audience. With the increase of social media networking, building a relationship and
conversation has become a major and focal part of marketing adopting the pull marketing
strategy.
Drury (2008) emphasizes that marketing with social media is about building a relationship
and conversation with target audience. Marketing is no longer one dimensional; it has
become a two-way process engaging a brand and an audience. Marketing within social
media is not just about telling and giving a message, it is more about receiving and
exchanging perceptions and ideas. Also, the way of segmentation changes radically with
the event of the social web. Demographics like gender, age, education and income, together
with lifestyle factors have become less relevant compared to what people do, think, like
and dislike. Further the communication in social media is less about creating contained and
controlled messages and more about creating compelling environments to which people are
attracted. The best web sites will combine both professional and user-generated content
(Weber, 2009)
Figure 2-3: The new communications model
Source: Mangold and Faulds (2009)
Above illustration is the new communication model presented by Mangold and Faulds
(2009). They described that in the era of social media, marketing managers’ control over
the content, timing, and frequency of information is being severely eroded. In the new era
of social media, information about products and services also originates in the marketplace.
This information is based on the experiences of individual consumers and is expressed
through the traditional promotion mix.
Singh, Veron-Jackson and Cullinance (2008) point out that the proliferation of new media
has proven to be a double-edged sword for marketers. It has offered marketers with the
tools to better target their most lucrative customers, while at the same time it has made
customers more and more powerful by providing them with tools that help them take
control of how they are targeted. According to Constantinides and Fountain (2008), the
power structure has changed due to consumers have access to information which previously

23
was not available for them. As a result, the consumer attitudes changes leading to new
consumer needs, values and buying behavior, the writers explain further. Also Hearn, Foth
and Grey (2009) acknowledge that the participatory culture, enabled by recent
technological innovations, shifts the communication flows away from a central business-
to-consumer model. The development is towards consumer-to-consumer or even prosumer-
to-prosumer flows of communication as consumers start to create content on their own by
using new media applications and services.
Constantinides and Fountain (2008) present Kotler’s (1994) Stimuli and Response model
and suggest that the original model has changed due the usage of social media. According
to Constantinides and Fountain (2008), the consumers are not only influenced by the
traditional marketing (A) but also the uncontrollable personal influencer (B). In today’s
digital-focused marketing environment, the Internet as a communication and transaction
channel adds two more inputs and influencers of buying behavior to the model. The first
one is the online marketing mix (C), which basically represents the controllable online
experiences provided by the corporate. The second one is the social media experiences (D),
which are by and large beyond the marketer’s control.
Figure 2-4: Factors influencing decision-making process in information-based marketplace
Source: Constantinides and Fountain (2008)
Figure 2-4 illustrates the factors influencing the decision-making process in an information
based marketplace as suggested by Constantinides and Fountain (2008) adapted from
Kotler (1994). It underlines the complexity in the decision-making process in the new social
media environment. When the web user and the technology mature, marketers discover that
influencing the consumer behavior by traditional marketing media and practices becomes
less effective.

24
Constantinides and Fountain (2008) point out that the customer preferences and
experiences about the products and services offered either in traditional or electronic outlets
is not based any more exclusively on information made available through traditional mass
media or corporate websites. The customer preferences and decisions are increasingly
based on inputs provided by parties beyond the control of online marketers: peer reviews,
referrals, blogs, tagging, social networks, online forums and other forms of user-generated
content, which is uncontrollable by the marketer. Vollmer and Precourt (2008) argue for
consumers turning more frequently to various types of social media to conduct their
information searches and to make their purchasing decisions.
Evans (2008) emphasizes the role of social feedback cycle as a purchase validation tool. In
the social feedback cycle, depicted in figure 2-5, the purchase funnel is expanded to include
the post-purchase experiences of the overall marketing process. Social media connects
these experiences back to the purchase process in the social feedback cycle. The purchase
process consists of awareness, consideration, and purchase. The consideration links the
buying-process activities, connecting awareness and purchase. Consideration is the point
where consumer thinks through all the factors surrounding a potential purchase (Evans,
2008). The social feedback cycle is put in motion by a post-purchase opinion that forms
based on the expectations set and the actual performance of the product. The established
opinion of the product drives word-of-mouth (WOM), and word-of-mouth ultimately feeds
back into the purchase funnel in the consideration phase.
Figure 2-5: Social feedback cycle
Source: Evans (2008)
Word-of-mouth is informal advice passed between consumers. It is usually interactive,
swift, and lacking in commercial bias. East, Hammond and Lomax (2008) have examined
the impact of positive word-of-mouth (PWOM) and negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) on
reported brand purchase probability. They found that in general, PWOM had more impact
on brand purchase probability than NWOM.
Prior to starting a social media marketing activity, it is important to define what the
company wants to achieve with the activity. Social media marketing can achieve various
objectives including increased traffic, increased brand awareness, improved search engine

25
ranking, increased sales and established thought leadership. The social media goals should
be defined with the help of SMART principle being Specific, Measurable, Attainable,
Realistic, and Timely (Weinberg, 2009).
Mangold and Faulds (2009) point out that the popular business press and academic
literature offers marketing managers very little guidance for incorporating social media into
their marketing communication strategies. Social media should be included in the
promotion mix when developing and executing their integrated marketing communications
strategies. It is a hybrid element of the promotion mix because it combines characteristics
of the traditional integrated marketing communications tools with a highly magnified for
of word-of-mouth whereby marketing managers cannot control the content and frequency
of such information. Social media is also a hybrid due to it springs from mixed technology
and media origins that enable instantaneous, real-time communication. Is also utilizes
multi-media formats and numerous delivery platforms, with global reach capabilities.
With the right strategy, Social Media can be utilized to corporate advantage. It can be used
as tools to influence the conversations that are of concern to the company (Safko and Brake,
2009). A company cannot have direct control and to tell customers what to think. However,
they can listen to what customers say, measure it, and monitor progress over time. Thus,
the information can be used to modify and improve what is offered and the way it is offered
in (Evans, 2008).
The main purpose of social media in business context is to engage people (Safko and Brake,
2009). Engagement is the level of involvement, interaction, intimacy, and influence
customers have with a brand over time (Haven and Vittal, 2009). Engagement leads
towards a desired action or outcome. For a customer, the desired outcome may be an
additional purchase of a product or a service or a strong recommendation to a friend. There
are four primary ways to engage people including communication, collaboration, education
and entertainment (Safko and Brake, 2009).
Also, Mangold and Faulds (2009) support the view that customers engaged with a product,
service or idea are more likely to communicate through social media. The engagement can
also be creatively stimulated for products and services which generate less psychological
involvement of customers. Both traditional and Internet based tools can be used in engaging
customers. Customer can be engaged by using online customer loyalty programs or
arranging contests were the participants are asked to do different things. Online voting used
as a tool gives a user a sense of ownership and increased engagement. Allowing consumers
to see others using the product can entertain and engage customers while communicating
product benefits. Also, online games provide a natural and obvious venue for engaging and
entertaining.
Consumers are more likely to talk about companies and products when they feel they know
a lot about them. One another tactic is to provide exclusivity for some customers because
they like to feel special. Feelings of being special can be produced by offering products,
information and special deals that are available exclusively to a few customers. Consumers

26
are more likely to talk to others about products when those products support their desired
self-image, or the way they want others to see them. Both product design and promotion
efforts should be undertaken with the desired self-image in mind. Consumers tell others
about products and services to which they are emotionally connected. Organizations can
leverage emotional connections by embracing one or more causes that are important to their
customers (Mangold and Faulds, 2009).
Weber (2009) points out that there are still problems in what to measure, how to measure
and what the measurements mean in social media. Sterne (2010) argues that measurements
without context or specific business goals are meaningless. Social media KPI metrics that
are central to the well-being of the organization, should all be dependent on the individual
organization and its goal.
Measuring the success of social media marketing efforts can be started with analyzing the
audience it reaches. Reach refers to the percent of population a company wants to get hold
on. It defines how many people have the opportunity to see a company’s brand in general
and the campaign message in particular (Sterne, 2010). Reach describes how far the
campaign message is travelling. It can be defined by the number of links the story has
garnered, the number of people tweeting about it, or the number of connections is
accumulated since company listed their fan page on Facebook (Weinberg, 2009).
Weber (2009) presents various metrics for media influence, influence on target audience
and business impact. According to him, the easiest and cheapest to obtain is the media
influences which include visits and page views, unique visitors, volume of reviews and
comments, navigation paths, links history and files embedded. These metrics can be
monitored for example by using free tools like Google Analytics, Site Meter, Technorati
and Yahoo! Search Management. The influence on the company’s target audience can be
monitored by analyzing metrics like sentiment of reviews and comments, brand affinity,
commenter authority and influence, time spent on the site, viral forwards, number of
downloads, opinions expressed and number of memberships. The business impact of social
media activities can be measured by monitoring the number of leads and new sales figures.
Also, the customer satisfaction and loyalty measured with the help of surveys give
information about the business impact of marketing to the social web.
Figure 2-6: The metrics and social media feedback
Source: Evans (2008)

27
Evans (2008) suggests three types of metrics for measuring the impact of conversations in
a social media feedback funnel. The content of the social conversations and artifacts
themselves is the first type of metrics. The relevance of the conversations defining the
degree to which what is being said matters to a company is the second type of metrics. The
impact of the conversations explaining the net benefit, the direct measure of the change in
desired outcomes following exposure to a socially created and delivered message are is the
third type of metrics.
Haven and Vittal (2008) argue that marketing’s new key metrics is engagement which they
define as the level of involvement, interaction, intimacy, and influence an individual has
with a brand over time. They suggest (figure 2-7) how these four I’s of engagement align
with different stages (discovery, evaluation, use, and affinity) on people’s buying processes.
Figure 2-7: Engagement’s four I’s align with people’s buying processes
Source: Haven and Vittal (2008)
Haven and Vittal (2008) explain that involvement metrics are helpful in measuring
activities following discovery. A person can notice a brand in three primary ways by
observing others with the brand, byinitiating the discovery on his own, or being encouraged
by others. Involvement measures a person’s presence and what a person does after
discovering a product or service. In order to engage with a brand, a person needs to know
about it first. Involvement metrics contain unique site visitors, Web site page views, time
spent per page, and in-store visits, which help the company to understand how and when a
person discovers a product or service.
After discovering brand, a person enters to the next phase in a buying process which is
evaluation. Haven and Vittal (2008) say that interaction metrics can be used for tracking
actions following evaluation. Customers use three primary criteria when evaluating a brand
which are determining credibility, assessing viability, and determining relevance.

A Study on Brand Communication in Bangladesh Social Media.

A Study on Brand Communication in Bangladesh Social Media.

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