Building brand equity through social media : evidence from Nestlé South Africa.

Abstract

Marketers are increasingly incorporating social media into their integrated marketing communications strategy to build and sustain their brand equity. Despite this development, there is scant research on building brand equity through social media in the fast moving consumer goods industry of South Africa. This study aims to fill this void. Through a single embedded case study, data from 25 research participants across different hierarchical levels of the organisation was collected. The findings show that social media contributes to building Nestlé's brand equity. They furthermore highlight the importance of engaging consumers on social media. There is also evidence which indicates that while there are some factors that are common in FMCG companies and other industries when using social media, FMCGs experience more legislation and regulations that are limiting to them, and they also face more competition due to the nature of the goods they are selling. This means that there are opportunities for brand managers to build stronger equity on social media through higher engagement and posting content that resonates with the consumers. However, there are also threats to using social media due to stringent regulations and from consumers who can influence others. The study has limitations as it was done in a single industry, therefore future studies could be carried out in other industries within the South African context.