Social Media Marketing of Brands in the COVID-19 Pandemic

This chapter explores the social media marketing communication of brands in the first days of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak within the theoretical framework provided by signaling theory. The social media content of six Turkish brands was examined by content analysis. The findings have shown that brands shared posts in four themes: brand promotion, brand's COVID-19 messages, product promotion, and special day posts. Brands integrated the COVID-19 agenda in their social media communication in two ways. First, they designed and shared posts that focused solely on the pandemic. These COVID-19-related posts constituted a separate category that did not include any direct relevance to the brands' promotion activities. Second, they added COVID-19-related points in their social media posts. This study provides valuable findings for marketing practitioners and academicians regarding social media communication in a global health crisis.

Brand Promotion Strategy in the Internet Services Market

Digital technologies have become an integral part of modern life, the Internet services market is rapidly developing all over the world, which requires business companies to enter cyberspace. Staying on the Internet has long been an obligatory part of the business not only for large multinational companies but also for small regional and local business structures. It is not just the presence of a website or a group in social networks that is important, a brand communication strategy is necessary. The relevance of the studied subject is due to the need to increase the competitiveness of Ukrainian companies in the field of Internet marketing. The purpose of the article is to develop standard recommendations for strategic brand promotion in the Internet services market, to study the most effective promotion tools and communication channels with the audience in cyberspace. The leading methods for studying the problem were sociological and statistical methods. The technologies of system analysis and modeling are applied. The article analyses the best international and industry branding practices in cyberspace, examines the e-commerce market in Ukraine, and structures the main trends in its development. The material of the article formulates the mechanism for developing and introducing a brand positioning strategy in the e-commerce market, the main characteristics of successful branding, structures recommendations for the use of marketing technologies on the Internet. An important component of the research is the analysis of digital marketing tools and communication channels in the Internet services market. The materials of the article are of practical importance for the business community, specialists in the field of public relations, marketing, advertising, sales departments, and other specialists in the field of management. Effective brand management of Internet services allows increasing the commercial results of one's business, provides additional competitive advantages

SMM as a Tool to Promote Products and Services in the Modern Economy through the Internet

This article discusses the concept of SMM as a tool for promotion and marketing of goods and services in the economy to the market. It also highlighted the main advantages and disadvantages of SMM - promotion. Described the specifics, trends and conduct and promotion in social networks. The definition of concepts such as brand, targeting, target audience. Considered the dynamics of SMM tools and current trends in the industry. Highlighted the features and importance of the target audience for brand promotion. What we have to consider when creating content, choosing methods of community-building, tools for promotion.

The Impact of Digital Marketing and Digital Transformation on Brand Promotion and Brand Positioning in Kosovo’s Enterprises

Digitalization is very important for every company in today’s fierce competition. The development of Information Technologies has helped companies change means of reaching their clients and changing their working practices. The paper tries to assess digital marketing (DM) and digital transformation (DT) techniques that impact enterprises in Kosovo in the process of their brand promotion and brand positioning using google analytics, social media, e-commerce, search engines, mobile apps, or other digital channels. DT is profoundly important to every company, yet the correlation between DT, brand promotion, and brand positioning for Kosovo’s enterprises has not been researched a lot. With the DT, many companies are redefining business procedures and marketing strategies. The research will collect data using a survey with 150 companies generated by the Kosovo Business Registration Agency. Partial Least Square is used to analyse the collected data. Structural Equation modelling is used to assess the relationship between exogenous and endogenous variables used in the research proposed model. A moderation effect is used to test whether COVID-19 or the company's size is linked to the usage of DM and DT. The results are expected to reveal that DM and the digitalization process of enterprises affect brand promotion and brand position. The findings also imply that social media are widely used relative to other marketing channels. Companies that use DM and invest more in technology have better chances to promote and position their brands. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

The Mediated Effect of Social Presence on Social Commerce WOM Behavior

Based on expectation disconfirmation theory, this study analyzes how attitudes (satisfaction and loyalty) influence interaction intention (sWOM) and, consequently, active and passive sWOM behavior. It does so by assessing the mediating role of social presence on sWOM intention and behavior. The empirical results provide several contributions. First, knowing how to increase active sWOM contributes to bridging the gap regarding how to enhance interactions between users. Second, fostering active sWOM on social commerce websites will provide companies with more positive user-generated content, since this active sWOM comes from satisfied and loyal users, and it is assumed that they will rate the product positively and report a good experience. Third, companies can benefit more from users if users interact with other users by sharing their experiences. This study sheds light on how social presence can mediate the relationship between intention and behavior, particularly when it comes to increasing active participation and brand promotion.

THE ROLE OF THE COMPANY'S VALUE SYSTEM IN BUILDING ITS HR BRAND

В статье рассматривается роль нематериальной составляющей при выстраивании HR-бренда компании (бренда работодателя), особое внимание при этом уделяется системе ценностей компании - ее влиянию на взаимодействие компании и сотрудника, этапам формирования системы ценностей в контексте работы над HR-брендом, а также формам трансляции системы ценностей в контексте продвижения HR-бренда. The article examines the role of the intangible component in building of HR brand of company (employer brand), with special attention paid to the company's value system: its influence on the interaction of company and employee, the stages of forming of value system in the context of working on HR brand, and forms of transfer of value system in the context of HR brand promotion.

A Receiver Perspective on Knowledge Sharing Impact on Consumer–Brand Relationship in Virtual Communities

The virtual community offers groups of consumers a knowledge-shared platform, wherein shared brand information influences the brand cognition of others. Using stimulus–organism–response (SOR) model, this study constructs a research framework for the influence of knowledge sharing on consumer–brand relationship in virtual communities. The empirical analysis shows that knowledge-sharing quality has significant positive effects on the sense of virtual community, as does the sense of virtual community on the consumer–brand relationships. This study supports the strengthening of consumer–brand relationships and the enrichment of following research on knowledge sharing of the consumer in virtual communities. Thus, companies should encourage consumers to actively participate in brand activities and focus on the development of consumer–brand relationships during participation in brand promotion.

Exploring the Discursive Function of Hashtags: A Semantic Network Analysis of JUUL-Related Instagram Messages

This study used semantic network analysis to investigate the themes of JUUL electronic cigarette-related messages on Instagram posted by three account types (commercial, vape community, and organic users) and explore the function of hashtags in the JUUL-related discourse across these groups. Posts were collected from 1 March 2018 to 15 May 2018. We conducted network analyses for each user group, with separate analyses to examine texts with and without inclusion of hashtags. Network statistics determined which words occurred most frequently, which words co-occurred or clustered together, and what communication function hashtags perform. Analyses of message content with hashtags included revealed that the largest cluster of terms by account type was brand promotion (commercial), brand engagement (community), and youth social use of JUUL and other substances, such as marijuana (organic users). On removal of hashtags, the largest cluster for each group was online and offline retailer promotion (commercial), JUUL promotion or shares of existing promotional content (community), and youth social use (organic users). Commercial accounts used hashtags to increase brand visibility and engage with vape communities present on Instagram. Community accounts served as discursive intermediaries between commercial accounts and organic users, fostering organic user engagement with brands. Social media serve as an extension of real-life peer groups among youth and young adults. Community accounts, which likely have greater credibility among users compared to commercial accounts, may help enhance the effects of targeted promotion and normalize vaping comprehensive regulation of commercial digital tobacco marketing is necessary to reduce the amount of commercial content youth and other consumers are exposed to through overt commercial and influential community accounts.

CONCEPTUAL ADVERTISING LITERACY LEVEL OF CHILDREN IN INDIA

Market for children consumption is growing worldwide and hence the marketing effort. Marketers are keen to know the behavioural secrets to influence children’s consumptions. The promotional efforts are need to be more fruitful and focused, therefore imperative to understand the conceptual advertising literacy level of the targeted child consumers. In order to reveal the related facts, the study examines the conceptual advertising literacy level of children in India. In a computer assisted survey of 392 children between the age brackets of 8-12 years, the researchers examine their ability of advertising recognition, understanding of advertising selling intent and understanding of advertising persuasive intent regarding brand promotion efforts. Results confirm that advertising recognition and understanding selling intent is high in children but children do not acquire a clear understanding of advertising persuasive intent until the age of 9-10 years. Furthermore, children’s understanding of advertising’s selling intent emerges before their comprehension of its persuasive intent. KEYWORDS: Children, Advertising Literacy, Persuasive Intent, Selling Intent

Impact and Challenges of GST in India with Reference to Media & Entertainment Sector – An Insight

The biggest tax reform since independence i.e., Goods and Services Tax (GST) has now become a part of Indian economy from 1st July, 2017. It is a comprehensive indirect tax on manufactures, sales and consumption of goods and services; thereby subsuming almost all other indirect taxes that were in existence throughout India before its implementation and also eliminating the cascading effects thereby. GST was introduced just after demonetisation in November, 2016 and has changed the whole scenario of indirect tax system in India. It aims at boosting overall growth of Indian economy by integrating all indirect taxes into one. The media and entertainment (M&E) industry in India is one of the fastest growing sectors and has outperformed expectations in recent years. With the expansion of the economy, the sector has accelerated its growth. The sector spreads into big and small screens, media, events, exhibitions, amusement facilities and gaming zones, with various combinations of offline and online delivery systems. With the advent of GST, things have become relatively simpler for the entertainment industry as it is subjected to only one tax and permissible local body taxes. One of the major changes has been the subsuming of Entertainment Tax under GST. Earlier, prior to implementation of GST, the rate of Entertainment Tax for the film industry varied from state to state, ranging from 15% to 110%. Introduction of GST has stabilised the rate variance and provided a uniform market across the nation. In this study, we have also made an attempt to study the pre and post GST effects on different activities of the media and entertainment industry like exhibition of movies, food and beverages sold at movie halls, services rendered by artists and other technician, sponsorship and brand promotion and advertisement. Thus, this paper is an endeavour to understand the impact of GST on media and entertainment sector and aims at pointing out the challenges of the same under the present structure and provide some way outs to it.