Marketing on Instagram : A qualitative study on how companies make use of Instagram as a marketing tool

The last years technological developments have lead to significant improvements in Internet usage, availability and the way people interact online. Recent statistics show how Internet and foremost social media usage increases rapidly, which have been noticed by companies, increasing their presence on social media platforms as well. Previous research has extensively been conducted within the area of social media marketing. However, the focus has mainly been put on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and social media platforms in general. The purpose of this qualitative thesis is to get a deeper understanding of how companies currently make use of the social media platform Instagram for marketing purposes and activities. Moreover, the thesis aims to investigate companies’ awareness and concern regarding their potential reach of 12-15 year olds on Instagram. The thesis aims to provide new insights that can be added to contemporary research within the field of social media marketing. The research question of concern is: How do companies make use of Instagram as a marketing tool? Semi-structured interviews were conducted on seven marketers working for Swedish companies present on Instagram. The empirical findings were analysed and presented through the different building blocks in Kietzmann et al., (2011) Honeycomb of social media, which worked as a foundational skeleton to the study. Other relevant theories were additionally compared with the empirical findings and four themes or approaches were determined. Two main, and one minor theme or approaches of how companies make use of Instagram as a marketing tool were determined. The first approach of Instagram marketing includes companies that we have chosen to call the “rookies”. They are relatively new to Instagram and/or have not been distinctively active in the way they interact on the platform. The rookies share characteristic of being in an experimental stage, trying to find their optimal usage of Instagram. The second approach of Instagram marketing includes companies that we have chosen to call the “Oldies”. A characteristic identified among these companies is a rather extensive Instagram experience, gained either through long-term presence or through distinct active presence during a shorter period of time. However, Company 4 could not be included in any of the above-identified approaches, as their marketing tendencies on Instagram follow a slightly different character. Their specific approach of Instagram marketing belongs to what we have chosen to call “The exception”. It was moreover brought to surface that the interviewed marketers seemed to have no ethical concern regarding the increasingly present 12-15 year olds on Instagram, as they do not believe they reach this group of young users. The final conclusion is how all of these approaches generate from the fact that Instagram is new platform where companies are learning by doing how to best make use of the unique characteristics of Instagram. We would like to encourage firms planning to create an Instagram account to embrace some of these characteristics. 1. The real-time aspect; Instagram users feed constantly updates with the latest content, creates an excellent opportunity for marketers to promote goods and products at a relevant and specific point in time. 2. Hashtags; as Instagram allow for little statistical information we argue that hashtags are great tools for reaching out to specific customer groups. By using hashtags connected to certain topics of interest among ones targeted users, companies can arguably attain enhanced customer interest