User:CIM2014/sandbox

Brand communication is important in ensuring brand success in the business world and refers to how a business transmits its brand message, characteristics and attributes to their consumers (Uzunolu and Kip, 2014). One method of brand communication, which can be exploited by companies, is electronic word of mouth (eWOM). EWoM is a relatively new approach identified to communicate with consumers, one popular method of eWOM is social networking sites (SNSs) e.g. twitter (Kim, Sung and Kang, 2014). This study found that consumers classed their relationship with a brand as closer, if that brand was active on a social media site i.e. Twitter. It was further found that the more consumers ‘retweeted’ and communicated with a brand, the more they trusted the brand. Thus suggesting that a company should look to employ a social media campaign to gain consumer trust and loyalty as well as in the pursuit of communicating their brand message. McKee (2014) also looked into brand communication and stated that when communicating a brand, a company should look to simplify its message as this will leas to more value being portrayed as well as increase the chance on the brand being recalled and recognised by their target consumers. When communicating a brand, Riefler (2012) identified that, if the company in question, is a global organisation or have future global aims they should look to employ a method of communication which is globally appealing to their consumers and choose a method of communication with will be internationally understood. One aspect a company can do this is when choosing a product or service’s brand name, as this name will need to be suitable for the market place that it aims to enter (Sappington and Wernerfelt, 1985). It is important that if the company wishes to pursue global business, the company name chosen will need to be suitable in different cultures and not cause offensive or be misunderstood (Anon., 2009). It has also been found that when communicating a brand a company needs to be aware that they must not just visually communicate their brand message and should take advantage of portraying their message through multi-sensory information (Schmitt, 2012). Anon, (2007) suggests that other senses, apart from vision, need to be targeted when trying to communicate a brand with consumers. For example a jingle or background music can have a positive effect on brand recognition, purchasing behaviour and brand recall. Therefore when looking to communicate a brand with chosen consumers, a company should investigate a channel of communication, which is most suitable for their short term and long term aims and should choose a method of communication which is most likely to be adhered to by their chosen consumers (Riefler, 2012).