Prior to social media, in 1960s, many traditional methods of branding and advertising had dominated the market; however, today their effectiveness is declining (Erkan & Evans, 2016). Traditional branding and advertising such as TV and Radio adverts, door to door marketing and mail messaging are considered quite expensive with less returns and have been taken over by the use of social media channels by Generation Y, which are less expensive and provides instant responses and two-way communication (Tuten & Solomon, 2017). In other words, the emergence of social media as widely utilized and highly interactive communication platforms is bound to change how firms approach advertising, branding, and marketing (Erkan & Evans, 2016). Social media is now an important part of the everyday lives of most companies and hundreds of millions of people, especially Generation Y, and allow them to communicate and connect to others online (Tuten & Solomon, 2017). Social media channels such as Instagram and Snapchat among Generation Y have grown exponentially over the past years (Tuten & Solomon, 2010). According to world statistics, Instagram now has around 800 million active users every month, and 500 million active users daily, where 75% of the users are outside the US, and only 17% are with the United States (Erkan & Evans, 2016). However, according to the latest reported period, the video and photo sharing app (Snapchat) had 186 million daily active users across the world (Erkan & Evans, 2016).
Although, Forrester Research (2010) depicts that users of social media channels on a monthly basis is almost equal to those watching TVs, are employing social media channels as marketing platforms due to individuals’ magnitude utilizing the sites as well as the reduced cost to promote brands on them. As pet the poll carried out in 2011, organizations uses 55% use Twitter, 60% utilize Facebook, 52% employ LinkedIn, while 20% utilized an alternative social media channels such as Instagram and Snap Chat for their business purposes (Edelstein, 2011). Furthermore, Rosen (2012) asserts that the explosive social media use by Generation Y proposes that firm employees need to be familiar with the use of social media channels and be able to utilize these networks to promote their events. Although Generation Y in the workforce is accustomed to use social media channels, companies need to have knowledge about these outlets of markets to more effectively promote their services and products to the Generation Y.
Problem Statement
The Generation Y has been perceived as techno-savvy, literate, as well as fluent and reliant on social media, as their preferred communication choice. (Sterne, 2010) According to Sterne (2010), this generation is said to interactive, engaging, and experiential with curiosity of networking and collaboration to meet their goals. However, according to Thach (2012), there is scant knowledge of the Generation Y customer segment needs and wants. The aforementioned argument is obtained from the research analysis carried out by Lee (2013) on millennial age group with and does not examine their outstanding features when employing social media channels to attract them. Luo et al. (2015) examined the relationship between the public and the company as well as the millennial use of social media in the US with its results indicating that millennial consumers use social media channels more than any other tool in the internet. Since the above studies does not focus on direct relationship between social media use and Generation Y, this depicts that there is scant academic studies on the way companies using social media for branding and advertising to attract customers (Lee, 2013). Van den Bergh (2014) affirms that Generation Y also shows interest with new products and social media services, although companies have not yet matched the market with the target segments. The uniqueness and peculiarity of Generation Y customers need companies to adapt market and business practices via social media channels to resonate with their unique needs (Van den Bergh, 2014). With very little studies on how social media channels, such as Snap Chat and Instagram, can be utilized to attract Generation Y, it is very difficult to predict the effectiveness of social media marketing (Lee, 2013)
Aim or Purpose
Due to scant knowledge concerning utilization of social media channels as marketing platforms, the study aims to examine how t Instagram and Snapchat can be utilized as marketing for many brands to attract customers of Generation Y.
Objectives
i) To analyze the branding and advertising aspect of the social media channels.
ii) To examine the shift in consumer behaviour because of the emergence of the social media marketing
iii) To investigate how influencers on Instagram and Snapchat impact demand of goods of any kind.
iv) To explore ethical considerations, concerning the fact how social media has created standards that especially young people strive to achieve.
v) To compare and Contrast Instagram and Snapchat concerning branding and advertising.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The branding and advertising aspect
Through the emergence of smartphones, social media channels has become ever-present and mobile, making presence of firms on various social media networks important to brands. Stephen (2016) contends that for a firm to increase sales and improve interaction with its interaction, a company needs to employ social media programs in their marketing. According to Pozin (2014), social media is crucial for company’s advertisements, retention, acquisition, branding, and advertising. The key to attracting new customers in the social media channels is generation of content that couture the attention of users, and taking part on negotiations on social media platforms. According to Andrews & Shimp (2017), through social media channels, brands may have direct interactions and conversations with customers, and such interaction may strengthen and create brand loyalty.
The shift in consumer behaviour
When companies incorporate social media channels to their marketing, they experience the shift in consumer behavior. As per Stephen (2016), consumer behaviours are processes involved in shifting of a consumer behaviour which entails selecting commodities with great utility, estimating the availability of money, and lastly analyzing the current product prices to decide the products to consume (Stephen, 2016). Furthermore, with the increase social media utilization, consumers’ behavior is shifting since social media has the capacity to directly involve consumers during marketing. According to Kumar et al. (2016) social media allows users to share their opinions and thoughts about products, hence giving consumers a central role in the market and offers a new aspect of tools for interaction of consumers.
Impact of influencers on Instagram and Snap Chat on demand of goods
Marketing products through Instagram and Snap Chat influencers can be classified as a type of subconscious marketing (Gensler et al. 2013). In Snap Chat and Instagram, some users have accumulated high numbers of followers hence making them influencers, where via daily uploads of unique videos and photos as well as a close relationship with their followers make them famous among their followers (Pozin, 2014). Influencers involve Instagram and Snapchat their followers in their daily life which make them appear approachable hence increasing trust to their followers and influence on their followers buying decisions. Influencers can encourage their followers to purchase a specific brand or avoid other products in order to be like them; thus offering great potential for market (De Veirman et al. 2017).
Ethical Considerations
In social media marketing, ethics is perceived as the moral guide on all marketing communication. Sharma & Baoku (2014) suggests seven basic marketing and advertising standards in social media, including truthful, privacy protection, safeguarding children, avoiding stereotyping, being balanced and fair, as well as the marketer should not be offensive or model unsuitable behaviour. For instance, it is ethical responsibility of marketers, companies, or influencers to be truthful and honest concerning sales items, which implies that only posting true brand pricing and product information is allowed (Sharma & Baoku, 2014). It is also equally essential to consider privacy issues of a client and should avoid posting purchasing details and personal information in a public social media area (Sharma & Baoku, 2014).
Instagram and Snapchat
Collectively, Snapchat and Instagram attract large audiences making them both great platforms for companies to use to market their brand (De Veirman et al. 2017). Since both channels increasingly overlap in function, features, and advertising components, it can be difficult to distinguish the unique characteristics that make one a better fit for a business (Abidin & Ots, 2015). However, from providing vertical video to releasing its versions of face filters and stories, Instagram has been imitating most of the Snapchat’s distinguishing features. In regards to advertising and branding aspect, Instagram is likely to create more interactions with the customers since compared to Snapchat it has a higher use base because it has a shorter conversion funnel (Abidin & Ots, 2015). Furthermore, the content of the Snapchat has almost no virality which implies that customers are not likely to view Snapchat content of a brand unless they have a Snapchat account and are already following the brand (De Veirman et al. 2017). To get new followers, brands have to already be in contact with consumers and customers have to be interested in the brand enough to follow the product in Snapchat. However, Instagram, brand gains followers by having individuals like the brand’s profile which generally happens after consumers have searched for the brand (De Veirman et al. 2017).
Concerning influencer marketing, Instagram is a more appropriate platform compare to Snapchat. As per the “2016 Report on Influencer Marketing”, eighty-nine of over 200 marketers surveyed stated that they find or work with influencers on Instagram; however, only around 45% commented about 45% (Abidin & Ots, 2015). The report also estimated that global revenues of influencer marketing totaled over $570 million for Instagram alone (Abidin & Ots, 2015).
METHODOLOGY
The chosen research method for this study was quantitative. The quantitative approach will be utilized to generate comparable information about the utilization of Instagram and Snapchat as branding and advertising platforms (Nardi, 2018). Furthermore, quantitative method will be used since it is appropriate for collecting a rich data which will be utilized for interpretation and statistical analysis. Moreover, the data will be collected using surveys that will well-designed to include matrix questions and closed questions (Barnham, 2015). To select participants, random sampling technique will be used, and sample population will be chosen according to their use of social media channels especially Instagram and Snap Chat (Barnham, 2015).
Significance of the study
The present study will aid various brands to understand the behaviour of Generation Y customers and the way they use social media channels. The results will guide companies on how to use Instagram and Snap Chat to sell their products as well as adapt with changing consumer behaviour to attract Generation Y customers (De Veirman et al. 2017).
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