The present study represents a content analysis of the efforts of real-world brands to facilitate parasocial interaction with their followers. The researcher examined these social media exchanges through the scope of parasocial interaction theory, uncertainty reduction theory, and social response theory. The researcher examined posts in mid to late August 2017 and utilized a code sheet to find confirmed parasocial interaction triggers by brands, and examples of parasocial interaction in the posts of those brands’ followers. The researcher looked to see if the utilization of previous research in controlled environments could provide the framework for studying the non-controlled conditions of a real social media page. He hypothesized that the brands he studied that properly utilized methods and triggers to facilitate parasocial interaction would in fact see higher rates of parasocial interaction. The data, while mostly not statistically significant does provide information that deserves further investigation.

This study investigated how young adults (18 - 29 years) stated that their purchasing decisions were influenced by influencer marketing on social media. This is something that has led companies to change their marketing strategies to reach their customers on a better level. One of these strategies is influencer marketing. To answer our research question and get a better understanding of how our target group experienced influencer marketing, we conducted a quantitative survey with 125 participants where they were able to answer questions about social media, influencers and influencer marketing. This was done in order to support our theory together with the previous research on consumer behavior and marketing. The final results showed that ​e-WOM (electronic word-of-mouth) is a well-functioning marketing method that is important in consumers' purchasing decisions. However, it was found that trust in influencers was of a lesser degree, which indicated that some were more critical and did their research before making a purchase decision. Impulse purchases can be elicited through discount codes that are only available for a certain time, our results showed that 60% used discount codes from influencers. / I följande studie har vi undersökt hur unga vuxna (18 - 29 år) uppgett att deras köpbeslut påverkats av influencermarknadsföring på sociala medier. Detta är något som fått företag att ändra sina marknadsföringsstrategier för att kunna nå sina kunder på ett bättre plan. En av dessa strategier är influencermarknadsföring. För att besvara vår forskningsfråga och få bättre förståelse över hur vår målgrupp upplevt influencermarknadsföring så har vi genomfört en kvantitativ enkätundersökning med 125 personer där de fick besvara frågor om sociala medier, influencers och influencermarknadsföring. Detta genomfördes för att stödja vår teori tillsammans med den tidigare forskningen om konsumentbeteende och marknadsföring. Det slutliga resultatet visade att​e-WOM (electronic word-of-mouth) är en funktionell marknadsföringsstrategi som är av betydelse vid konsumenternas köpbeslut. Dock visade det sig att tilliten till influencers var av lägre grad, vilket indikerade på att vissa var mer kritiska och gjorde egna efterforskningar innan de fattade ett köpbeslut. Köpimpulser kan framkallas genom rabattkoder som endast finns tillgängliga under en viss tid, vårt resultat visade på att 60% använt sig av rabattkoder från influencers.

Fast fashion brands provide consumers with constantly available opportunities to update,not only their wardrobes, but themselves. As our identities have become a constant projectto work on, consumption of fast fashion involves the possibilities of trial and error ofpersonal development. Consumers are predisposed to shape or change their personalities byusing brands as additional traits. This is conceptualized as Brand Engagement in SelfConcept (BESC) to explain how consumers build and express identities. Even if FastFashion is recognized to make trends available for a democratized audience who continuallyevolve temporary identities, it is a limited researched area where Brand Engagement in SelfConcept (BESC) is addressed. As this tendency to involve brands in consumers' self-concept(BESC) is defined as an individual trait to be measured, there is still no qualitative researchto our knowledge that provides deeper insights of how this subjective objective is displayedor affecting the pre-purchase stage within the context of fast fashion.The purpose of this degree project is to develop a deeper understanding of consumers'tendency to incorporate brands as a part of their self-concept and how brand engagement inself-concept (BESC) influences the pre-purchase stage in the decision-making process inthe context of fast fashion. In order to fulfil this purpose, a qualitative study wasimplemented by applying semi-structured interviews with six individuals with the propertyof being consumers of generation Z. Pursuant to previous research that states how thesegeneral tendencies of BESC varies amongst individuals, we were able to identify diversegeneral tendencies in the empirical findings of involving brands in self-concept.These various indications of involvements were represented by the identified themesreflecting how the consumers are applying the silent, but expressive languages of clothing,regarding their representation of themselves through what they wear, awareness of trendsand the extent of purchasing.With regard to these identified indications of involving brands in self-concept to differentextent, our empirical findings resulted in themes, addressing how the pre-purchase stagewas influenced in the context of fast fashion. Our results show how the pre-purchase stageis initiated by recognizing a need or opportunity congruent with the self-concept.Additionally, as information is searched, this stage is influenced by the involvement ofbrands in the self-concept by the identified themes: inspiration, coincidence and familiarity.As the evaluation of alternatives is made, the themes of “considerations to social context”and “the fit” are identified as being influenced by BESC. The consumers' self-concept hasbeen found to be defining the extent of influence, in terms of composing the reference tocompare fast fashion brand personalities with. Consequently, we draw the conclusion thatthe negative associations of fast fashion limited the involvement of fast fashion brands inthe self-concept as these personalities were considered unappealing by representing cheap,quick compliance, low quality and unethical values. Our results demonstrate how the needfor social consistency and approval motivates young consumers to involve fast fashionbrands in their self-concept. This is contradicting displayed in terms of buying the basicassortments with the absence of fast-moving trends.

Ever since the creation of Web 2.0, there has been a seismic shift in how businesses advertise and promote their brands. Social media has birthed a new platform for people and organizations to interact with each other to pass information and opinions or accounts of experiences with products or services. As more consumers gravitate towards social media, firms are leveraging this sensation to engage and forge relationships with individuals which in most cases positively influence consumers’ purchase decisions. However, when some customers are dissatisfied with services or products, they engage in social media negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) which could impact a brand’s reputation, the consumer’s purchase intention and ultimately the firm’s bottom line. In the first study, 118 undergraduate students were surveyed, and empirical evidence was found to support mediating effects of brand reputation on the relationship between social media and purchase intention and moderating effects of brand engagement on the relationship between social media NWOM and brand reputation. In the second study, scenarios were presented to undergraduate students to investigate the impact of social media NWOM on small/local businesses vs. large chain businesses, the difficulty of recovery for small/local businesses, the NWOM correlation of switching behavior after product/service failure, and responses from a firm after a product/service failure. The third study replicated the findings from study two using a more diverse sample instead of students. The study expanded and explored why trust and recovery levels differ in large chain versus small/local businesses. Results indicated that small businesses suffered more from the failure in service/product but made a larger surge in trust than large chain businesses. Keywords: Negative-word-of-mouth, social media, brand engagement, business failure recovery, brand trust, switching behavior / Business Administration/Marketing

Location-based ads are defined as any ads that are sent by an identified source to consumers' mobile devices when they are around the advertised product/store. Although mobile ad spending is said to have accounted for 68% of all digital ad spending in 2020, knowledge of how businesses can use mobile and location-based technology to reach their customers effectively is limited. Thus, the purpose of this three-essay format dissertation is to review the literature on LBA and identify the gaps in the literature and attempt to address a few of these gaps in the remaining two essays. The second essay tests an integrated model by examining the effects of the various retailer and consumer-controlled factors on two retail performances. In the third essay, we explore how LBA affects different dimensions of consumer-brand engagement. The results and findings provide important implications for retailers and brands to increase their performances.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-02-05T13:01:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Regina Kossmann Miozzo_.pdf: 3193134 bytes, checksum: 4b94aaaa2557eba1c6f488d6fc5765ad (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-02-05T13:01:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Regina Kossmann Miozzo_.pdf: 3193134 bytes, checksum: 4b94aaaa2557eba1c6f488d6fc5765ad (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-03 / Nenhuma / A gamificação (do Inglês gamification) é um fenômeno crescente que tem despertado o interesse tanto de pesquisadores quanto de executivos. Elementos de jogos têm sido aplicados em contextos e atividades diversas às do entretenimento com o intuito de enriquecer a experiência de quem as executa, gerando maior interesse, envolvimento, diversão e engajamento. Desta forma, a gamificação tem sido utilizada como um recurso para motivar comportamentos de engajamento dos consumidores, tornando-se uma estratégia de marketing. Contudo, até o presente estudo, não foram encontrados na literatura estudos empíricos que apliquem a gamificação para gerar engajamento em consumidores de bens duráveis, como as máquinas agrícolas. Assim, o presente estudo tem como objetivo analisar como os aspectos da gamificação podem desenvolver o envolvimento no consumidor de máquinas agrícolas em uma experiência interativa digital, identificando os elementos mais relevantes para incentivar comportamentos de engajamento com uma marca. A pesquisa adota uma abordagem qualitativa, tendo como método de pesquisa a metodologia Design Science Research (DSR). O estudo foi realizado em uma empresa que desenvolve, produz e comercializa máquinas agrícolas e envolveu consumidores de tratores e colheitadeiras. As atividades realizadas compreenderam entrevistas semiestruturadas e questionários que objetivaram compreender o problema tratado na pesquisa, levantar a motivação da empresa em abordá-lo e obter subsídios para desenhar um artefato que auxiliasse na solução do problema. Os dados coletados na empresa e com consumidores permitiram desenhar e implementar um protótipo de média fidelidade do artefato proposto. O protótipo foi usado e avaliado pelos consumidores, visando verificar o potencial de gamificação para desenvolver o envolvimento e consequentes intenções de engajamento nos consumidores de máquinas agrícolas. Os principais resultados indicam que a gamificação tem o potencial de desenvolver o envolvimento nos consumidores de máquinas agrícolas, porém existem elementos e riscos a serem considerados, em especial os relacionados a suas motivações e interesses. Foram identificadas três perspectivas pelas quais a geração de valor pode ser conduzida, através da gamificação, em direção ao envolvimento e engajamento com uma marca: utilidade, prazer e relacionamento social. Esta pesquisa contribui para enriquecer a literatura sobre a gamificação, acrescentando um estudo empírico sobre seu uso no contexto do marketing. Também demonstra a aplicação de um método para o uso da gamificação em soluções que objetivam estimular envolvimento nos consumidores e intenções de engajamento com uma marca. / Gamification is a growing phenomenon that concerns both researchers and practitioners. Game elements have been applied in several contexts and activities out of entertainment with the aim of enriching the experiences of those who execute them, generating higher levels of interest, involvement, entertainment and engagement. Gamification has been suggested, especially by IT industry, as a marketing strategy to develop consumer engagement. However, there is no empirical research related to the use of gamification to promote engagement in utilitarian brands consumers such as agricultural machinery. The present study aims to analyze which aspects of gamification can develop the involvement of the agricultural machinery consumer in an interactive digital experience, identifying the most relevant elements on encouraging consumer brand engagement behaviors. The research adopts a qualitative approach, adopting the Design Science Research (DSR) as the research method. DSR was applied to the development of a technological artifact which was presented and evaluated by agricultural machinery consumers. In order to get empirical data, the study was performed into a company that develops, produces and commercializes agricultural machinery, involving marketing, IT and after sales professionals, and Brazilian agricultural machinery consumers. The activities performed comprehended semi structured interviews and questionnaires that aimed to understand the problem to be addressed to identify the company´s motivation to find a solution and to get subsidies to design the artifact. Data was collected to design and implement a medium fidelity prototype of the proposed artifact. The prototype was used and evaluated by consumers in order to verify gamification's potential on the involvement development and consequent engagement intentions. The main results indicate gamification does have the potential to develop the involvement of agricultural machinery consumers. However, there are element and risks to be considered, especially the ones related to the consumer's interests and motivations. Three perspectives were identified, by which the generation of value through gamification can be driven towards the brand engagement: utility, pleasure and social relationship. This research contributes to the enrichment of the gamification literature, adding empirical study about its usage in marketing context and also demonstrating the usage of a method to implement gamification in a solution to stimulate consumer involvement and engagement behavior intention.

Submitted by Victor Ferrari (victorcferrari@hotmail.com) on 2016-03-15T00:21:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MPGI FGV - Victor Candeloro Ferrari.pdf: 7966569 bytes, checksum: 75e9044d6742ce8efb110f6d4dea8640 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Luiza Holme (ana.holme@fgv.br) on 2016-03-15T12:55:22Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 MPGI FGV - Victor Candeloro Ferrari.pdf: 7966569 bytes, checksum: 75e9044d6742ce8efb110f6d4dea8640 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T14:32:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MPGI FGV - Victor Candeloro Ferrari.pdf: 7966569 bytes, checksum: 75e9044d6742ce8efb110f6d4dea8640 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-17 / Content marketing refers to marketing format that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire customers. It is focused not on selling, but on communicating with customers and prospects. In today world´s, a trend has been seen in brands becoming publishers in order to keep up with their competition and more importantly to keep their base of fans and followers. Content Marketing is making companies to engage consumers by publishing engaging and value-filled content. This study aims to investigate if there is a link between brand engagement and Facebook Content Marketing practices in the e-commerce industry in Brazil. Based on the literature review, this study defines brand engagement on Facebook as the numbers of 'likes' 'comments' and 'shares' that a company receives from its fans. These actions reflect the popularity of the brand post and leads to engagement. The author defines a scale where levels of Content Marketing practices are developed in order to analyze brand posts on Facebook of an ecommerce company in Brazil. The findings reveal that the most important criterion for the company is the one regarding the picture of the post, where it examines whether the photo content is appealing to the audience. Moreover, it was perceived that the higher the level of these criterion in a post, the greater the number of likes, comments and shares the post receives. The time when a post is published does not present a significant role in determining customer engagement and the most important factor within a publication is to reach the maximum level in the Content Marketing Scale. / Marketing de Conteúdo refere-se a qualquer ação de marketing que envolva a criação e o compartilhamento de meios de comunicação e publicação de conteúdo, afim de adquirir clientes. Essa ação não consiste em vender, mas em se comunicar com os clientes. No mundo de hoje, há surgido a tendência de marcas se tornarem editores afim de acompanharem a concorrência e, mais importante, para manter a sua base de fãs e seguidores. O Marketing de Conteúdo está fazendo com que as empresas se envolvam com os consumidores através da publicação de um conteúdo atraente e com valor. Este estudo tem como principal objetivo investigar se existe uma ligação entre engajamento da marca e as práticas de marketing de conteúdo do Facebook no setor de ecommerce no Brasil. Com base na revisão literária, o estudo define engajamento da marca no Facebook a partir da quantidade de número de "curtidas", "comentários" e "compartilhamentos" que uma empresa recebe de seus fãs. Estas ações refletem a popularidade da marca e leva ao engajamento. O autor define uma escala onde os níveis da prática de marketing de conteúdo são desenvolvidos a fim de analisar as mensagens da marca no Facebook de uma empresa de comércio eletrônico no Brasil. Os resultados revelam que o critério mais importante para a empresa é o que diz respeito à imagem do post, onde é examinado se o conteúdo da foto é atraente para o público. Além disso, percebeu-se que quanto maior o nível desse critério em um post, maior será o número de "curtidas", "comentários" e "compartilhamentos" que o post recebe. A hora em que um post é publicado não é significativa na determinação do envolvimento do cliente e o fator mais importante dentro de uma publicação é o alcance do nível máximo na escala de Marketing de Conteúdo.

The marketing landscape is changing, with the focus shifting from traditional marketing methods towards digital marketing. Enterprises must realize the importance of this new paradigm to not risk falling behind competitors. The new paradigm focuses on customer relationships and trying to attract and create loyal customers. A new way of creating loyal trusting customer relationships is by using content marketing, meaning providing customers with valuable information in the form of content and enabling two-way communication. To understand how consumers perceive content and why they choose to engage or not, is crucial for enterprises, in creating successful content marketing.This study aims to provide knowledge and understanding of how content marketing affects customer engagement from a consumer's perspective. This study is a qualitative study using several semi-structured interviews and observations to gather data. A conceptual framework from previous research is used to analyse the result, this framework is a multidimensional approach of how consumers react and perceive different types of online content marketing.The outcome of this study shows that consumer engagement is a psychological state that is hard to reach for any enterprise/brand, to be truly successful the consumers dimensions of cognitive, emotional and action response must all be affected, which can be enabled through credible, targeted and differentiated content marketing. / Omgivningen för marknadsföring håller på att förändras, fokus har flyttats från traditionella metoder mot digitala marknadsmetoder. Företag måste förstå hur viktig detta paradigmskifte är för att inte halka efter sina konkurrenter. Det nya paradigmet fokuserar på kundrelationer och att försöka attrahera och skapa lojala kunder. Ett nytt sätt att skapa dessa relationer är att använda innehållsmarknadsföring (content marknadsföring), med det menas att tillhandahålla värdefull information i form av innehåll och att bistå med plattformar för att underlätta tvåvägskommunikation mellan kunder och företag. Att förstå hur kunder uppfattar innehåll och varför de väljer att engagera sig i den eller inte är avgörande för ett företag i att skapa lyckad innehållsmarknadsföring.Syftet med denna studie är att förse läsaren med kunskap och förståelse för hur innehållsmarknadsföring påverkar kundengagemang ur ett kundperspektiv. Studien är en kvalitativ studie som använder semi-strukturerade intervjuer och observationer som dataunderlag. Ett ramverk baserat på tidigare forskning används för att analysera resultatet, som byggs på ett flerdimensionellt synsätt hur kunder reagerar och upplever olika typer av innehållsmarknadsföring.Resultatet av studien visar hur kundengagemang är ett psykiskt tillstånd som är svårt för företag/varumärken att skapa hos konsumenten. För att uppnå lyckosam innehållsmarknadsföring måste kundens kognitiva, emotionella och viljan att ta handling stimuleras, vilket kan skapas genom trovärdig, målinriktad och differentierad innehållsmarknadsföring.

This study aims to analyse the impact of Social Media Marketing in Customer Brand Engagement and Brand Awareness micro-learning platforms. The sample consisted of 220 students from micro-learning platforms using social media in the educational institutions. Because social-media marketing and customer brand- engagement are second-order reflexive constructions, the two-stage approach of hierarchical models with mode-A was adopted. The results reveal that social media marketing influences both the building of customer brand engagement and brand awareness among students on micro-learning platforms. Furthermore, it was shown that customer brand engagement is an important mediator between social media marketing and brand awareness. Social-media marketing activities carried out by micro-learning platforms contribute to the generation of customer brand-engagement and brand awareness of these institutions. Furthermore, the results show that, although social-media marketing helps to generate brand-awareness, it is through customer brand-engagement that social-media marketing is most effective in generating brand-awareness. For micro-learning platforms, the results allow them to understand the importance of customer brand-engagement when using social-media marketing to generate brand-awareness.

Este trabajo de investigación estuvo enfocado en el estudio de las acciones de marketing realizadas por marcas en la plataforma digital de Facebook en el Perú y, cómo estas fomentan, en un segmento específico, una preferencia emocional superpuesta ante marcas competidoras; cuya denominación técnica formal es conocida como “amor de marca”, la cual es considerada por muchos autores como el último eslabón del marketing. La relación entre las actividades de marketing y el amor de marca en Facebook en los usuarios de 26 a 35 años de la zona 6 y 7 de Lima Metropolitana durante la pandemia del COVID-19 es el meollo de esta investigación. Las empresas operan en una plataforma más competitiva entre marcas y sus estrategias demandan identificar qué tipo de acciones en redes sociales están orientadas a una mejor relación con el consumidor y que tengan la capacidad de generar una lealtad de marca pro positiva durante su ciclo de vida. Se tomó como muestra consumidores familiarizados con los entornos sociales digitales para poder medir la eficacia de aquellos esfuerzos de marketing ejecutados por las marcas con la finalidad de obtener relaciones perdurables con los usuarios ante los hechos y generaciones surgentes basándonos en cinco dimensiones sociales. La pandemia generada por el COVID-19 es un fenómeno natural excepcional que instó al mundo a una nueva evolución que utiliza la tecnología como principal soporte, sobre todo en los negocios. / The relationship between marketing activities and brand love on Facebook in users aged 26 to 35 in zone 6 and 7 of Metropolitan Lima during the COVID-19 pandemic This research was focused on the study of marketing actions carried out by brands on Facebook virtual platform and how these promote, in a specific segment, an emotional preference superimposed on competing brands; whose formal technical name is known as "brand love", which is considered the last link in marketing. Companies operate on a more competitive platform between brands and their strategies demand to identify what type of actions in social networks are aimed at a better relationship with the consumer and that have the ability to generate pro-positive brand loyalty during their life cycle as consumer. Consumers familiar with digital social environments were taken as a sample in order to measure the effectiveness of those marketing efforts executed by brands in order to obtain lasting relationships with users in the face of current events and emerging generations based on five social dimensions. The pandemic generated by COVID-19 was considered an exceptional natural phenomenon that prompted the world to a human evolution that uses technology as its main support. / Tesis