Tuesday 16 December 2014

Consumer Generated Marketing| Bloggers & Product Reviews....Zoella

 Source: YouTube
 
*Disclaimer: This post is part of  my University marketing communications assignment.
 
According to Stoeckl et al (2007); Consumer generated marketing, or 'CGM' is where "customers freely choose  to create and share information of value", it also refers to when customers create brand focussed messages with the intention of influencing others.

The growth of consumer generated marketing is inevitably due to the rise of social networks, and the increased use of social media. These networks provide the perfect platform for customers to engage with brands and to express their views and feelings about a product, or a company online, and then share them with others in their online communities. Although there can be some disadvantage to companies from the creation of  consumer generated marketing, for example once a customer has expressed a negative view online, this cannot be removed and is beyond the control of the company. If it went viral, this could potentially significantly damage their reputation. Despite this, CGM provides massive opportunities for brands to interact with their customers and provoke positive conversation, brands can utilise this advantage by inviting customers to create material and then respond to what they say. Not only does this lead to brand loyalty and stronger customer relationships, but it develops the frequency of product opinions online.
 
Other customers may then respond to these opinions by using them to consider where to shop and which products to buy, for example this may affect the decision making process; it will influence the evaluation of alternatives and the information search stages. This is a form of 'word of mouth communication' which involves consumer-to-consumer conversations about products, services and brand-related messages. It is also when customers and potential customers exchange information without influence or being prompted by the brand, making it the most trusted form of marketing communications.

CGM has massive effect if created by an opinion leader or a person with high influential impact, an example of this is product reviews, and the use of bloggers. Bloggers have become an increasingly important and influential channel of communications; 'Zoella' (Zoe Sugg) for example is a hugely popular beauty and fashion blogger/ vlogger with over 6 million followers across social media platforms such as blogger, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, this is why companies target bloggers such as Zoella to share reviews of their products to all of their loyal followers, which creates huge exposure for their products.
 
Blog- http://www.zoella.co.uk/ - 246,691 (followers)

Here is an example of one of her product reviews: "Beauty| Autumn colours",  she also created  a YouTube video to compliment this post in which she created a makeup tutorial on how to apply one of  the lipsticks featured in the post, and with what other products in could be combined. This review would be valuable to the brand as not only was a large amount of exposure created for the product, but it created awareness in a way the company cannot; i.e the brand may show pictures of the product on their website, but Zoella demonstrated how to use it, what effect it would have, and what other products you could use it with.
 
I myself have reviewed products for companies and have also written sponsored posts to share with my followers. For example; the last product sent to me was a hair piece,  for me to review and share with my followers.
 
 
Overall consumer generated marketing is a beneficial process for both brands and bloggers, whereas bloggers reap the benefits of possibly receiving a free product in exchange for a review, or even just enjoying featuring products on their blog voluntarily, the brand will find this exposure invaluable. Bloggers have such a high influence and are increasingly becoming opinion leaders, becoming a valuable asset to any brands communications strategy.
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4 comments:

  1. This is soooo good! What do you study? I recently had a marketing communications assignment and I also wrote about zoella!! Xx

    Abi | abistreetx.blogspot.co.uk

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Abi! I study marketing and advertising management, you? Yeah I just thought Zoella is the perfect example to use hehe :) xx

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    2. That sounds so interesting! I study events management :) yeah that's exactly what I thought haha!! Xx

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  2. so interesting! Nice post dear. :)

    Visit my blog >> www.iamjenniya.blogspot.com

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Thank you for all of your lovely comments, I will reply as soon as possible! ♥