THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING AS A MARKETING TOOL ON CONSUMERS' BRAND AWARENESS

Abstract

urpose of this research paper has been to look at how social media can create brand awareness and its use in Ethiopia. This study is of an exploratory and descriptive nature whose primary objective is to provide insight into a new marketing phenomenon. A combination of structured questionnaire and structured interview is conducted to collect the required information. The researcher used the sample size recommended for unknown population by Corbetta (2003) which is 385. However, the researcher received 80 respondents. Convenient sampling method were employed to conduct the questioner and expert non probability sampling technique was used to interview experts. And the results were presented in different forms of graphical and tabular representations. The finding of this research paper indicates that most consumers pay attention to advertisements recommended and shared by friends and contacts on social media networks rather than the direct information provided or advertisement campaign made by companies, which is known as electronic word of mouth. On the other hand, companies are using social media marketing specially to reach their international customers, to create awareness of their brand and to improve their brand image. Nevertheless, they are facing several challenges which hinder the smooth application of social media marketing campaign. However, most local companies use other traditional forms of promotional channels most such as TV and radio advertisements. The research suggested that local companies should use social media network to present their brands with enormous reach, endless communication possibilities and with a very limited promotion cost and grab the possible opportunities of exploiting the brand building potential through the richest and fastest communication form available.