Social Media Marketing: Myth or Necessity? A Research Report

This report examines the multifaceted impact of social media marketing (SMM) on businesses, drawing from several research papers and studies. It analyzes the effectiveness of SMM as a marketing tool, considering both its potential benefits and drawbacks, and explores its influence on brand equity and consumer behavior. The report delves into case studies, such as Lay's Potato Chips' 'Do Us a Flavor' campaign, and examines the role of social media in various industries, including the food and luxury brand sectors. The research highlights the significance of websites and social media for small businesses, particularly those in underserved regions, and investigates how digital marketing impacts consumer behavior, especially among children. It also provides an annotated bibliography of relevant sources, including studies on cyberbullying and the impact of digital marketing on children.

Running Head: SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Social Media Marketing
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

1SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Jones, N., Borgman, R. and Ulusoy, E., 2015. Impact of social media on small
businesses.Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 22(4), pp.611-632.
This research paper tries to discover the role of the internet and the financial impact it
has. This research deals into the impact that social media platforms and the websites have on the
small businesses that operate out of remote regions. The research is done by conducting two
surveys with semi-structured interviews; this survey was conducted on the mangers and the
owners of five companies that are small in size. The survey was conducted in the western
mountain region of Maine in the United States of America. This area is not as economically
developed as the other regions of the United States. The businesses their struggle to maintain
their revenue and very financially depressed. The survey that was conducted yielded the result
that the websites and the social media sites have been successful in creating an awareness aong
the people. As a result of the social media sites and the websites there has been an increase in the
number of the new customers. The existing businesses have in successful in reaching out to a
global audience. The strength of this research lies in the fact that it gives a clear understanding of
the benefits of using social media sites and the creating a webpage for the company. The
research shows from firsthand experience that using a social media platform and a company
website not only helps in reaching out to a wider audience but also brings in new customer for
the company. The weakness of the research is that it is specific to one region and cannot be
applied globally.

2SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Kelly, B., Vandevijvere, S., Freeman, B. and Jenkin, G., 2015. New media but same old
tricks: food marketing to children in the digital age. Current obesity reports, 4(1), pp.37-45.
This paper talks about the concept of ‘New Media’. According to this research, ‘new
media’ is used in refereeing to the various digital technologies which often offers vast
opportunities for companies to engage with the youth population as they occupy the majority of
the population. This paper focuses on the benefits that ‘new media’ has on the food business.
This research delves into the emergence of the food marketing industry using the digital media
platforms. The research also looks into the effect that these food promotions have on the social
media pages have on the mind of the children. The strength of this research lies in the fact the it
has kept its focus on one of the industry that use the platforms of digital marketing and social
media, the industry in focus is the food industry. There is large scale digitalization of the food
industry and the effect has been even more among the children, there are a lot of children who
use this medium to buy food. The weakness of this research that it cannot be applied to other
businesses, this research is focused in the food industry and to use it as a study for businesses
will not help. There are evidences that have been found in the research dealing with the digital
media and the food marketing, the evidences show that there is a widespread use of social media
and other digital marketing applications when it comes to the food industry and the children also
use these applications to order food. The research studies this wide network of food being sold
through the medium of digital marketing.

3SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Godey, B., Manthiou, A., Pederzoli, D., Rokka, J., Aiello, G., Donvito, R. and Singh, R.,
2016. Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and
consumer behavior. Journal of business research, 69(12), pp.5833-5841.
This research tries to find out the ways in which social media marketing affects the brand
equity and the behavior of the consumer towards any particular brand. The research explores this
by taking into consideration certain luxury brands like Gucci, Burberry, Hermes, Louis Vuitton
and Dior. These five brands were taken into consideration and the numbers of consumers that use
these brands were surveyed. The sample size of the survey was 845. These consumers who were
surveyed either uses all of these brands or any one of these brands. The strength of this research
lays in the fact that studying brand equity which means that the way the customer identifies a
brand without knowing in detail about the product that they sell, studying brand equity with the
help of the social media marketing will show how effectively the brands are marketed through
the social media platforms. The five aspects of social media marketing that was checked by the
research also cover all the aspects of social media marketing. The weakness of the study is that is
that it limits itself to the luxury brands which are not reachable to a major part of the population.
This study looks into the social media marketing that is being done by these brands. The study
takes into consideration five aspects of their marketing, entertainment, customization, trendiness,
interaction and word of mouth. These five aspects were studied to check the social marketing of
these brands. This study also takes into consideration the two major dimension of brand equity:
brand awareness and brand image.

4SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Whiting, A. and Deshpande, A., 2014. Social Media Marketing: A Myth or a Necessity.
Journal of Applied Business & Economics, 16(5).
This research looks into the positives and negatives of the platform of social
media marketing as an effective business marketing tool. Many of the opponents of the digital
marketing industry claim that it is not an effective tool and it does not help with business at all.
They think that digital marketing cannot bring in new clients for the business. This study looks
into both the positive and the negative effect of the social media marketing for a brand and puts
forward the argument that both the positives and the negatives are true. The strength of this
research lies in the fact that they have taken into consideration two sides of the coin that social
media marketing can have both a negative and positive effect. According to this research, some
brands require the tool digital marketing to work and others do not need the tool of digital
marketing tool as they already have a customer base and other sources of advertisement. The
weakness of this research is that it is much generalized and does not take into consideration
firsthand data and this might have a negative effect on the results of the data. According to this
research, some business do not work better with social media marketing and they gain new
customers through the effective use of social media marketing whereas some other brands do not
need the tool of social media marketing for the brand to flourish. This research takes into account
social media campaigns of brand such Lays, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Google among others

5SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Reference
Godey, B., Manthiou, A., Pederzoli, D., Rokka, J., Aiello, G., Donvito, R. and Singh, R., 2016.
Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and consumer
behavior. Journal of business research, 69(12), pp.5833-5841.
Jones, N., Borgman, R. and Ulusoy, E., 2015. Impact of social media on small businesses.Journal
of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 22(4), pp.611-632.
Kelly, B., Vandevijvere, S., Freeman, B. and Jenkin, G., 2015. New media but same old tricks:
food marketing to children in the digital age. Current obesity reports, 4(1), pp.37-45.
Whiting, A. and Deshpande, A., 2014. Social Media Marketing: A Myth or a Necessity. Journal
of Applied Business & Economics, 16(5).