International Business

This thesis was made for Stronghold Gym which is a gym offering different martial art services in Kuusankoski. The main objectives of the thesis was to research whether social media is something that would replace more traditional ways of branding and how it can be utilised to receive the best results. The focus was on Stronghold Gym’s image as a martial arts gym and how social media can help improve it. A survey was conducted to the customers of Stronghold Gym to find out more what can be done to improve Stronghold Gym Facebook usage and how customers perceive it as a brand. The survey revealed improvement issues for Stronghold Gym how they can improve their brand image online as well as who social media can be used to promote their business even more. The research revealed that social media, despite its popularity, is not alone sufficient to replace more traditional ways of marketing. It still needs other types of media to support it. Social media combined with other types of media will receive the best results. Social media can be a great tool to help with branding, due to its power to make communication easy and effective with the customers as well as providing a good opportunity to enhance brand image online