French ski resort' attractiveness through Instagram

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the different ways to use Instagram for French ski resorts to support their branding strategy. The research was executed in three stages: literature reviews, observations and an interview. In the literature review, the author first focused on branding and its components, the consumer decision-­making process, consumer engagement and the different Instagram’s features to achieve emotional connections between a brand and its followers/users. Building strong connections with customers is essential for brands to develop and maintain a loyal and lifelong customer relationship. Observations examined the differences between the three most followed French ski resorts about their practices on Instagram. After this, the author focused on Val Thorens which is the highest resort in Europe. The two most successful posts and the two less were analyzed to determine which factors are causing success and which ones generate less engagement in the eyes of its followers. Then, the community manager of Val Thorens was interviewed regarding the branding strategy of the resort and his insights about Val Thorens’ Instagram profile. It was discovered that it would be beneficial for Val Thorens to create more appealing content, captions with more hashtags to have a better and bigger visibility. However, one of the main and relevant factors about Val Thorens’ habits on Instagram and which reflects the global idea of the resort is to provide the best atmosphere for its visitors. It is achieved through the community manager’s team which takes care of every tourists and skiers in a personalized and humanized way on Instagram. Val Thorens is a good example of a ski resort which has built strong emotional connections with its visitors