Social media and brand awareness : a case study in the fast moving consumer goods sector

We live in the midst of a global communications’ boom where the use of social media between individuals for personal and professional use is widespread. It has been predicted that 2010 is the year when the use of social media for branding purposes will really take off in the corporate sector. The purpose of this thesis has been to look at how social media can create brand awareness. The specific area of fast moving consumer goods was chosen. This study is of an exploratory, descriptive and qualitative character, and by looking at a single case, it has been possible to withdraw necessary primary and secondary data. The most important findings were that the theoretical framework does explain how the company in the case study uses social media to create brand awareness. The great challenge that came up in the case study was for the company to find the right balance between providing contents of great interest for the audience, while at the same time respecting what kind of information the company can really go out with- it is about being relevant in social media and in all other channels of communication. This means a constant need for learning and developing new knowledge, for measuring and following up. Regarding the different degrees of brand awareness however, it was difficult to show to what extent the real case builds on the theoretical framework: that there exist a clear strategy for how to reach the different stages of brand awareness, from the weakest (recognition) to the strongest (word-of-mouth). What was considered more important by the company in the case study was to integrate social media in the total communications and PR-strategy, a task which is actually being performed at this very moment.Validerat; 20101217 (root