Food and non alcoholic beverages: Branding through social media

Abstract

Food and non-alcoholic beverages industry in India has shown major growth and development as one of the fastest growing sectors in India in terms of new products introduced and markets captured. The young population of India who are the major consumers of this sector have meanwhile grown up with internet and a majority of them are prolific users of social media. Brands have discovered social media as a vehicle for marketing communications during this last decade. Major food and non-alcoholic beverages companies are now using popular social media to reach their customers. This article describes a study on the use of social media by the brands in this sector. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube users have been studied through a survey to understand the impact of brand communications by food and non-alcoholic beverages brands. Overall satisfaction with social media brand communications, brand equity. and purchase intention has been studied. Social value in this context refers to the perceived benefits of enhancing customer's social well-being and relationships. Followers of a brand's communications through various platforms are people who share some common interest on a certain brand. The social aspects enable customers to share information and help others solve product related problems. Their educational qualifications and familiarity with internet and web 2.0 technologies ensure that they have a higher participation in social media. It was observed that 60% of the sample consists of students followed by professionals, businesspeople and private employees. This is also consistant with the age groups where majority are between 18–25 since most people study during this age.