Marketing and social networking

Citation

ul-Haq, R. (2007), "Marketing and social networking", Qualitative Market Research, Vol. 10 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/qmr.2007.21610aag.001

Marketing and social networking

Marketing and social networking

The marketing industry is facing a giant challenge. The traditional channels used to persuade the consumer of the benefits of the product or service that are being marketed, are losing their effectiveness. Consumers increasingly make tea as expensive advertising plays on their television and commercial radio advertising is an annoyance in between good music or discussion. Brand building based cable channels lack interesting content, internet based advertising is blocked by web browser based cookie filters and direct mail is placed directly into the dustbin.

The consumer, particularly in choice saturated markets, is bombarded with messages about the benefits of this item verses that product or service. Yet, the reality is that built-in obsolescence reduces the perceived quality of products and expenditure spent on the branding of services. This reduction in quality seems to increase, when the real service as experienced by the consumer, decreases.

It is no wonder that consumers, in particular young adults, are cynical about the marketing messages they receive and rely instead on personal recommendations rather than the claims of companies. Attempts have been made to introduce products to young adult consumers in social settings, but the costs of the staffing and logistics are prohibitive.

Enter social networking.

This is the sharing of written, video, voice, photographic content and ideas through internet-based sites. As I write, YouTube.com (a video sharing and broadcasting site bringing 100 million pairs of “eyeballs” to the site per day has been bought by Google. The other main sites (Blooger.com, Bebo.com, MySpace.com, Xanga.com, Facebook.com, MyYearbook.com. hi5.com, Friendstar.com, FriendsReunited.com) together have over 50 million members and have either been bought by media companies or have secured substantial investment. Specialist sites such as academici.com, connecting academic to academic (and corporate to government worlds) are also emerging. The simplicity of these sites is enabling the least technology literate to become their own broadcaster.

This broadcasting, however, is no longer vertical, from product or service provider to consumer, but horizontal, from consumer to consumer and reverse vertical from consumer to product or service provider. The spread of positive or negative “word of mouth” comment by these electronic means is truly global, extremely fast and can build into a global view (positive, lukewarm or negative) of a product or service launch. Social Networking sites may provide an opportunity for marketers to gain access to the “global word of mouth” personal recommendation.

A recent innovation in the application of social networking sites was to ask youngsters to video their own life and responses to a road traffic accident through a mobile phone camera which was then broadcast as part of the governments' “Think!” road safety campaign.

The marketer has a lot to learn about harnessing social networking to reach the increasingly cynical young adult consumer and this will require a more honest engagement between consumer's needs and the product or services' real benefits.

Rehan ul-HaqInternet Research Editor