The following essay with consider the theoretical approaches to greater brand exposure when looking at the different online marketing techniques which are available for companies to use to engage their consumer and increase awareness. When looking into online marketing techniques, the research has been narrowed down into 3 main focal points of how mobile and online technology can be used to create interactive opportunities to generate greater brand exposure for online. Consumer perception is also a factor which also enhances brand exposure and has been explored in this essay, through the use of loyalty marketing techniques which are set up by brands to create awareness and encouragement to remain loyal to those brands.
Brand exposure is the ability for consumer to recognise a brand with ease (Keller, 1993). Findings showed that increases in exposure led to an increase in brand recognition and to more positive attitudes toward a brand (Grinsven, 2019). Consumer perception, awareness and loyalty of a brand plays a key part in the overall exposure. Following a study which was done on fizzy drinks, it was shown that the brand loyalty will be higher if a consumers awareness and perception of the brand are higher (K.Sultan, 2019). The ability to recognise a brand encourages consumers loyalty to purchase and continue to engage with the brand online and spread awareness through word of mouth. To continue to build upon brand exposure will inevitably increase the awareness of a brand, thus increase the consumer perception and eventually increase loyalty towards the brand itself. Brands earn value when they engage consumers to interact with the brand and share those interactions with others (Tuten & Soloman, 2017).
In a digital first generation, the increasing need for brands to engage their consumers is being more of a challenge. Spending on Mobile games reached $60 billlion in 2019 (McDowell, 2019) providing insight into the direction of the future marketing techniques used by brands. The link between brand exposure is evident through the use of gamification marketing techniques which are increasingly being used by a range of companies. Since the evolution of the augmented reality (AR) game, Pokémon Go, companies are continuing to follow in their footsteps and engage their audiences through mobile marketing techniques.
The use of AR provides brand with inspirational potential marketing engage their consumers with new marketing techniques (Rauchnabel, et al., 2019). AR features in the use of social media and brand apps are an emerging trending within the marketing industry and allows brands to engage their audience with a new, unique experience. The fashion brand Asos, have recently introduced the ability the ‘virtual catwalk’ into their shopping app which allows users to view products in real life. This essentially creates a more intimate purchasing experience for the Asos consumer and increases the possibilities of lower returns and higher satisfaction. retail spend on AI is forecast to grow from $2 billion in 2018 to $7.3 billion by 2022, according to Juniper Research. https://www.voguebusiness.com/technology/artificial-intelligence-physical-stores-kering-nike-alibaba
Alternatively, brands are able to measure exposure successes and failures through the community which social media marketing techniques have created. Social media provides brands with marketing strategies to increase exposure through consumer engagement and the ability to reach the on-demand consumer. Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) engages audiences on social media allowing them to share and engage with brands online. According to research, eWOM has a higher credibility that marketing based information online (Gruen, Osmonbekov &Czaplewski, 2006). EWOM is a useful tool for social media marketers as it allows consumers to spread information without any limitations, which increased a brands exposure to others. According to studies, even employee-shared content gets 8 times more engagement than the content shared by brands – https://www.b2bmarketing.net/en-gb/resources/blog/5-clever-offline-marketing-strategies-b2b-brands.
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