Web 2.0 and social media

In order to look into how social media impacts celebrity branding, it is first important to understand the fundamentals of social media. The following chapter will describe and explain social media seen in the lights of the second generation of online technology referred to as ‘web 2.0’.

4.1.1 From a ‘push’ to ‘pull’ society

Dinesen’s (2008) work on web 2.0 describes how this ‘evolved stage’ of the internet created a fundamental shift in the power between company and consumer. She describes how society went from ‘push’ to ‘pull’ in relation to how marketing and business in general was conducted. The consumer was now in the front seat, with businesses trying to keep up with the needs of the consumer (Dinesen, 2008:17).

Berthon splits the idea of web 2.0 into a ‘locus of activity, a ‘locus of value’ and a ‘locus of power’

(Berthon, 2012:262):

(Figure 4)

The locus of power explains the power shift from company to consumer. Dinesen explains this shift as a result of the vast amount of information that is now made available to the average consumer because of the internet. Additionally, social media has made it possible for consumers to share opinions, thoughts, or reviews on products and brands, which everyone with an internet connection can now get access to (Dinesen, 2008:16-17). According to Dinesen, this has created a race between the consumer and companies. Consumers are quickly implementing the new technologies of web 2.0 into their lives, while most companies are struggling to implement these changes at the same pace (Dinesen, 2008:18).

To stay within the realm of music, this can be exemplified by the emergence of ‘Napster’ and music/file sharing services. These consumer-created services were met with strong opposition of every business that made its money selling music, film or anything else that could be reduced to a downloadable file and shared accordingly (Dinesen, 2008:19-20). However, over a decade after, the music business now revolves around downloading and streaming of music (IFPI, 2018). This example is a perfect illustration of how the consumer managed to pull huge corporations like music labels and retailers to rethink their entire business model, in order to meet the needs of the average music

The locus of value explains how the rise of social media now means that most of the value-added content is now created by the consumer. It is the network of these consumers, which constitute the

‘social’ in social media. The media is simply a vehicle for the user-created content created by the

‘creative consumer’ (Berthon, 2012:263).

The locus of activity makes it very clear that “while web 2.0 is technological, its effects are sociological and little short of revolutionary in their implications for businesses.” (Berthon, 2012:262). In other words, web 2.0 is what enables social media and the increased consumer value production.

Essentially, the model also illustrates that ‘social media’ and ‘creative consumers’ are based on social interactions between people, which are made possible by web 2.0

Dinesen also mentions, that the technological advancements has resulted in the ‘smart consumer’.

Referring to the next generation in the western world as the ‘DotNet generation’, it is argued that marketing is digested and analyzed by the consumer from a very early age. This is done through all the new technology, which they were born into using (Dinesen, 2008:20). Expanding on this point, new technologies, such as social media, now means that the consumer is picking and choosing their own media landscape. Today, every consumer has an opinion that can be shared in various ways on various social media platforms through comments, reviews etc. Dinesen explains that these

phenomena facilitated the pull society (Dinesen, 2008:21).

4.1.2 A shift in credibility – E-WoM

Web 2.0 also marks a shift in credibility. Research shows that people rely much more on ‘a person like yourself’ in their purchase decisions than they used to (Dinesen, 2008:89-91). In fact, according to the survey conducted by Edelman, data shows that in Europe 57% consider friends and family to be a credible source of information. Friend and family are only trumped by business magazines (66%) and industry reports (63%) (Edelman, 2006:29). The research can be considered indicative of a general societal tendency. Fromm’s (2013) findings on how to do marketing to millennials also suggest that

friends and online-friends are playing a key role in the purchase decision. Research from Boston Consulting Group further point out that 70% of all millennials involve their friends in their buying decisions, and get approached by their friends for advice as well. Approximately a 15% increase compared to earlier generations (Fromm, 2013:25).

4.1.3 Influencer marketing

The previous section pointed out the high influence that friends have on millennials during the purchase decision. In combination with social media, this has led to new fields of marketing. One of these is ‘influencer marketing’. In many ways, celebrities serve as an influencer on social media, when being part of e.g. a brand partnership. Because of this, it is important to understand the fundamentals of this marketing field. The following chapter will briefly explain the term, how it works, and how this is related to celebrity branding on social media.

Brown’s (2008) literature on influencer marketing views traditional marketing as partly damaged. This is because of the vast amounts of advertisement people of the post-modern society have digested over the years. This means that the average consumer has become too used to the patterns and persuasive methods of traditional marketing (Brown, 2008:114).

The previous section pointed out the high influence of friends on millennials during the purchase decision. Brown also touches on this notion of a higher influence of friends on millennials during the purchase decision. ‘It’s no coincidence that WOM marketing is rising at the same time as social media technologies. They are part of the same phenomenon in which people prefer to communicate with other people on personalised level and (to some degree anyway) intimate basis.’ (Brown, 2008:147).

Basically, influencer marketing draws a lot of similarities to word of mouth (WoM) marketing, but additionally holds a much higher potential than traditional WoM because of the massive reach a single person can have on social media. Throughout this thesis, this phenomenon will be referred to as ‘E-WoM’.

In short, influencer marketing on social media is when companies provide free products and sometimes pay a person, who is very popular on social media, to promote their product and share their experience with it. Popular people on social media are referred to as ‘Social Media Influencers’

(SMI), and for the most successful ones it is a full-time job. Freberg defines SMIs as ’a new type of independent third party endorser who shape audience attitudes through blogs, tweets, and the use of other social media.’ (Freberg, 2010:1).

4.1.3.1 Is a celebrity an SMI?

Celebrities, due to their large following on social media, can be viewed as social media influencers because of the massive reach they have on social media. This enables them to influence the way people talk about a e.g. product in a given social context. However, what separates celebrities from SMIs is the fact that a celebrity’s large number of followers is a result of them being a public figure because of their success as an artist, musician, actor, etc. This was also defined by Pringle and Binet:

‘a celebrity is known to be extremely good at something beyond appearing in advertising, and it is their outstanding skill in their chosen field of endeavor.’ (Schlüschen, 2016:1941). On the other hand, an influencer is basically a successful creative consumer as described by Berthon (Berthon, 2012:262).

SMIs built their follower-base by using social media, while celebrities utilize social media to interact with their fan-base. It is important to define SMIs and celebrities separately, as celebrities are not only judged on the attributes of their person, but also the attributes of their primary career that made them a celebrity to begin with.