Branding in Social Media: Evidence from Starbucks, Harley-Davidson and Ryanair

The Harley Owners Group or HOG is a factory sponsored motorcycle enthusiast club established in 1983. Its main aim was to negate the influence of outlaw bike-gangs as the face of the Harley Davidson brand and enhance the lifestyle experience of a Harley Davidson owner. This was the roadmap of the firm’s broad philosophy of getting close to the customer. There was a great need to address two main issues with respect to the brand.

Social media is different from more traditional marketing tactics as it offers a free platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access. This allows for the increase communication for organizations to foster brand awareness and often, and

Social media has become an influential ground for consumers to share their opinions about a company’s brand and products. In addition, it helps in having a strong brand that produces positive relations and distinguish the brand from competitors, is a critical component for effective marketing. According to Dahlén and Lange (2009) “the quality of the product is not the evident factor when it comes to purchasing a product, the deciding factor depends on how the brand is perceived” (Para. 1). This demonstrates the importance of incorporating social media as a tool to promote brands, allow for interactions, and customer satisfaction by engaging with customers more frequently for feedbacks or reviews. Thus create an opportunity for the company to show its devotion to their customers, and initiate good reputation, which can increase sales. In other words, social media has the ability to upsurge the awareness for businesses as well as the brand.

The third issue for Trader Joe’s is their lack of social media presence. Trader Joe’s from their beginning has used a customer newsletter and occasional radio ads in order to promote their brand, and these advertising methods have not changed with the introduction and prevalence of social media. Many brands nowadays are seeking to gain a competitive advantage over the

We are successfully utilizing social media as a powerful way to gain positive exposure and connect with our internet-savvy customers in a global and local level. We rely heavily in word-of-mouth advocacy”. (John Mackey, 2012)

They apply both digital and non-digital approaches to best reach their customers as well as attract potential customers. With every new advancement of social media and technology, the company follows behind to stay in trend with their target

Starbucks customers are diverse, well educated, young business people looking for a quick and easy way to grab coffee on their way to work. Starbucks values a strong relationship with their customers so they are

Not only does it serves as a customer relation 's device, but as a way to showcase and demonstrate new production.

The first strategy Harley-Davidson uses is customer focus. Harley-Davidson offers a wide range of products and services, from children’s’ tricycles, clothing accessories, and affordable motorcycles to more higher-ended luxury motorcycles targeting customers in all age groups. By allowing their customers to personalize and customize their motorcycles, this strategy helps build their second strategy, which is brand loyalty. Other strategies that help build brand loyalty and selling dreams are to have groups, such as the Harley Owners Group (HOG) and the Buell Riders Adventure Group (BRAG), so they can emphasize to their customers that everyone is welcome to join its large extended family for riders,. Their value is: “Tell the truth. Be fair. Keep your promises. Respect the individual. Encourage intellectual Curiosity.” (Harley-Davidson web

The Internet provides multiple opportunities for customers to interact with the company at various points throughout the sales cycle. Moreover, Harley-Davidson uses the Internet to implement their positioning strategy. The company uses their Web site to connect with customers and prospects to establish and reinforce the identity of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. As one Harley enthusiast notes "When it comes to motorcycles, no other name carries the mystique, prestige or respect as that of Harley Davidson. Harley riders are more than motorcycle enthusiasts with the penchant for a name brand; they are instead members of an elite fraternity of riders known throughout the world" (Willis, 2012).

In today’s business world, social media is being discussed on a daily basis. This phenomenon has taken over the marketing and advertising industries and has changed the way they handle their efforts to attract customers. There is a big misunderstanding that social media are only popular networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, social media are “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and micro blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos).” The rise of these online communities has given companies an opportunity to engage in conversations with their customers. This in

In recent years, social media has become the best available option for brands to communicate with prospective consumers. In other words, social media is an opportunity for brands to transcend the traditional middleman (Neti, 2011). One of the many positives is that companies can build their own brand communities easily on the social media. There are some obvious benefits of brand communities which are facilitating information sharing, spread the history and the culture of brands, providing help to customers, and positively influencing brand loyalty (Laroche, Habibi and Richard, 2013).

Customers and brand fans post on the walls, take part in discussion and share images and videos on the automaker’s page.

The benefit of social media is that H&M can get out its message and promote its brand by content marketing, while at the same time it can gather, store and interpret huge amounts of data. ‘’Content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behavior.’’ (Content Marketing Institute,

consumers to share ideas on anything relating to Starbucks. The social network let users see what