Impact on Social Media Marketing on Brand Resonance

Abstract

Brand resonance is how well clients and customers relate to a specific brand. It is how they perceive the values and goals of that brand. It is how brands can build relationships with their target audience. Strictly speaking, when people speak of brand resonance, they refer to a “brand resonance pyramid”. Customer socialization is defined as the “processes by which young people acquire skills, knowledge, and attitudes relevant to their functioning as customers in the marketplace” (Ward, 1974:2). Wang et al. has worked on social media’s effects on peers’ purchase intentions guided by Ward’s customer socialization theory. They argue that in social media settings, customers learn attitudes and purchase behaviors through written messages that peers send. Additionally they indicate that if customers identify themselves with a group then they develop ‘weintention’ and want to maintain a self-defining relationship with the group. Also they are willingly engage in community activities and place greater value on relationships with the community (Wang etal., 2012:200,202). In social media, negative opinions about brands or companies are formed by and propagated via thousands of people within hours. In addition, massive negative online dynamics are not only limited to the business domain, but they also affect organizations and politics (Pfeffer&Zorbach& Carley,2013:118). If a social media platform is formed around the dislike of a product/service then the negative opinions and protest actions by members of the group can have a devastating effect on the brand (Ward &Ostrom, 2006).