Elsamari Botha

Managing the New Media: Tools for Brand Management in Social Media

Web 2.0 and social media have changed the ways in which brands interact with consumers. As organizations attempt to join the conversations in the online world, brand managers need to measure their firm’s visibility in social media, just as they would with traditional media. This study proposes a tool for collecting and analyzing data on social media brand visibility information. This tool is tested by looking at the visibility of various South African university brands from a social media perspective and using correspondence analysis to compare the brands in a multi-dimensional space. Findings indicate that South African university brands are not distinctly positioned in social media and that no single brand appears to have a specific social media strategy in place. Analysis highlights opportunities for those who manage these brands, as well as threats for organizations taking a laissez fair attitude to engaging in this new sphere.

Perceptions of South African practitioners on the structuring and tasks of marketing and communication managers within organisations

Abstract The structuring of marketing and communication management within key organisations in South Africa is changing. These changes are affecting the relationship between marketing and communication practitioners, as well as the key tasks they are responsible for within the organisation. Globally, companies are downsizing, restructuring and eliminating hierarchy. This article investigates how key South African companies have responded to these changes, by looking at how the marketing and communication functions are structured within the organisation. Marketing and communication managers from top South African companies were interviewed telephonically. Findings from the study indicate that the two functions are progressively moving towards an integrated approach. However, a commonly agreed organisational structure is still not pervasive. Each organisation structured the marketing and communication functions differently, and various perspectives existed on the key tasks of both marketing and communication managers. From these findings, it is evident that the relationship between marketing and communication, as well as the role and tasks of marketing and communication managers, is still very diverse in the South African context.

The Prosthetic Generation Is all Around Us : Feelings and Emotions About Knee Replacement Surgery and Their Impact on Overall Sentiment: An Abstract

In their attempts to reduce the uncertainty associated with knee replacement surgeries, patients turn to social media, where they commonly rely on the experiences expressed by other patients. In this study, we first employ IBM Watson to examine how patients talk about their emotions and express sentiment through their comments online. We then use a latent class cluster modelling procedure to segment these patients into distinct groups, according to their emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise), sentiment and their overall satisfaction with knee replacement surgery. Our findings show how qualitative online data can be transformed into quantitative insights regarding underlying market segments, which could then be targeted through different strategies by both marketers and healthcare practitioners.

The Importance of Measuring Control Mutuality in B2B Relationships in Developing Countries

This study takes an exploratory look at the influence of control mutuality in B2B relationships. Control mutuality relates to the power relationship and decision-making processes that take place within business relationships and has seen limited application in relationship management literature.

Product Involvement and the Relative Importance of Health Endorsements

ABSTRACT Product involvement is a fundamental part of the buyer decision processes, during supermarket visits, as individuals respond differently to stimuli under differing involvement conditions. This study aims to provide a better understanding of the role of nutritional endorsements in consumers’ food purchasing decisions, when evaluated across high and low involvement products. Although past research in this area does exist, a major limitation is that nutritional endorsements have been studied only for their direct effect as a single, isolated product cue on product perception—rather than its importance relative to other product cues, such as price and product branding. This study overcomes this limitation through a conjoint analysis involving a sample of supermarket consumers. The findings suggest that a health endorsement plays a smaller role in influencing consumer decision-making relative to brand or price, but it is stronger for the higher involvement product. These findings provide nutritional foundations and product managers with quantifiable evidence of nutritional programs’ influence in consumer decision-making, justifying the relevance of such endorsements and giving nutritional foundations specific leads for adaptions in their marketing and educational efforts.

The Influence of Social Presence on Online Purchase Intention: An Experiment with Different Product Types

Internet shopping is one of the fastest growing forms of shopping, however, many consumers search websites with the intention to purchase but then abandon the process before the sale has been concluded (Eastlick, Lotz, Shim & Warrington, 2001:398). General online sales figures have not increased as greatly as one would expect (Flavian & Guinaliu, 2006:602). Online social presence has been identified as a key influencing factor in online consumer behaviour. This study considers social presence, trust, perceived usefulness and privacy concerns as influencers on consumers’ online purchase intention. The contribution of this study lies in its investigation of the interplay between social presence and product type in its influence on online purchase intention and online trust. With an experimental design, we find that social presence has an influence on online purchase intention (OPI) and online trust, but that the relationship between social presence and OPI is moderated by the type of online product. This extended abstract first briefly addresses the background of the study, and the relevant hypotheses and conceptual model is provided. Thereafter the methodology is discussed and the findings of the PLS-SEM provided.

How to Impress Social Media Friends: The Social Motivations for Sharing Viral Content

In recent years, online advertising has become one of the most influential means of marketing communication. This stems from the rise of the Internet, which has quickly evolved into the fastest growing advertising medium of the decade (Ha 2008). Social media has come to the forefront of the marketing world as a result of this Internet boom and has been identified as a key online area for marketers to target, as it allows consumers and marketers alike to create content, share it, bookmark it and network at a prodigious rate (Asur and Huberman 2010). This allows marketers to create online advertising content and marketing messages which can subsequently be spread by the consumers themselves (Ha 2008). This translates into the message gaining greater credibility, as consumers trust other consumers more than the companies themselves (Brown et al. 2007; Cheung et al. 2007).

One Size Does Not Fit All: A Closer Look at Brands in the High Net Worth Market of the South African Emerging Economy

This paper aims to contribute towards answering a question that has plagued marketing managers: What do consumers in the African market look like? South Africa has often been seen as the gateway to Africa, and very little is known about these emerging market consumers. Even less is known of the consumers who drive consumption in these markets: the high net worth (HNW) consumer market, which was consequently the focus of our study. We conducted a large-scale survey of this market in South Africa, resulting in over 20 000 respondents. This paper reports on these findings, but also takes a closer look at how these consumers view and consume brands. We find that there are three distinct segments within this market, and that they consume brands in fundamentally different ways. Consequently, a one size fits all approach to marketing would not be effective in this market.