The impact of social media marketing on brand awareness: a case study of New Zealand Dairy

Abstract

This internship report, "The Impact of Social Media Marketing on Brand Awareness: Shining the Spotlight on the New Zealand Dairy Industry—Effects of Using Social Media Marketing as Brand Awareness: A Case Study of New Zealand Dairy,” examines brand recognition in specific demographics in the New Zealand dairy industry: undergraduates, non-consumers of dairy products, and postgraduate students, consumers of dairy products. The study seeks to establish the extent to which social media marketing can be useful in increasing brand awareness of sports organizations among the two groups. The report also focuses on understanding consumer engagement activities done on social media by the dairy brands and assess the effectiveness of advertising placement on social media for the specific consumer segments. The research also shows that students utilize mainly Facebook and YouTube and that undergraduate students use varieties of social media platforms more than postgraduate students. As for brand familiarity, both groups rated themselves in the middle ground, but undergraduates acknowledged being more involved with the brand’s social media accounts than postgrads. Of all the content types, undergraduate students most interacted with product information and promotions content types. For instance, social media networks had a positive effect on brand image, particularly among the undergraduate students, and also determined the purchase behavior among these students. However, the study identified that both groups tended to show low actual levels of interaction with New Zealand Dairy’s content across the site, suggesting that more interactive approaches need to be employed. Based on the findings of the report, the following recommendations are proposed with a view to improving the social media marketing strategies used by the New Zealand dairy industry: targeted content to the audiences, concentrating on the mainstream platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, embracing market engagements, using analytical data, and testing various content types. By implementing these recommendations, the New Zealand dairy industry can effectively leverage social media to enhance brand awareness, drive consumer engagement, and ultimately, increase sales.