Perspectives

Application of Social
Media to Word of Mouth
Marketing and Promotion
of Luxury Brands
by Sandeep Bhanot
Abstract
Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue. Brands
are attempting to utilize social media to reach existing customers, gain new ones and build or maintain credibility and reputation.
More importantly, brands need to measure their visibility in the most popular social media relative to that of their competitors.
“Word-of-mouth” has always been the most effective form of marketing. People have always trusted their friends' opinions,
whether it is for a new deodorant or any other product. Word-of-mouth never stopped being important, but when mass media
became popular last century, brands could rely on advertising to broadcast their message to the world and word-of-mouth didn't
seem as important to some marketers anymore. Many marketers are spending millions of dollars on elaborate advertising
campaigns when often what's really needed to help influence consumers is a “word-of-mouth recommendation from a trusted
source” which “cuts through the noise” of traditional marketing methods. Online communities and social networks amplify word-
of-mouth and that the right message can resonate and expand, affecting brand perceptions and increasing sales. But what is
interesting is the way the article looks at the impact of word-of-mouth marketing – or, what McKinsey terms, “word-of-mouth
equity”.
Word-of-mouth equity is a brand's power to generate messages that influence the consumer's decision to purchase. In
essence, this is the average sales impact of a brand message multiplied by the number of word-of-mouth messages.
The concept of luxury has been present in various forms since the beginning of civilization. Its role was just as important
in ancient western and eastern empires as it is in modern societies. With the clear differences between social classes in earlier
civilizations, the consumption of luxury was limited to the elite classes. It also meant the definition of luxury was fairly clear.
Whatever the poor cannot have and the elite can was identified as luxury. Luxury brands are now using social media to reach out
to their customers which has resulted in greatly enhancing their brand image.

Keywords
Social Media , Word-of-mouth marketing, Word-of-mouth equity, Brand , Luxury brands.

Introduction
Social Media
Social Media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques.
Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue. Andreas
Kaplan and Michael Haenlein (2010) define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the
ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content”.
Businesses may also refer to social media as consumer-generated media (CGM). A common thread running through all
definitions of social media is a blending of technology and social interaction for co-creation of value. People obtain
information, education, news and other data from electronic media and print media. Social media are distinct from
industrial or traditional media, such as newspapers, television, and film. They are relatively inexpensive and accessible to
enable anyone (even private individuals) to publish or access information, compared to industrial media, which generally

FIIB Business Review. Volume 1, Issue 2, January - March 2012 9


require significant resources to publish information. One
characteristic shared by both social media and industrial
media is the capability to reach small or large audiences;
for example, either a blog post or a television show may
reach no people or millions of people. The use of social
media in a proper way can boost the image of a particular
brand and also the corporate image. Social media can
reach to more people who create greater awareness and
enhancement of brand image. Botha, et al. (2011) in their
article ''How sociable? An exploratory study of university
brand visibility in social media has said that social media
has changed both the way in which organizations and
their brands interact with their customers and the way in
which business gets done. Brands are attempting to
utilize social media to reach existing customers, gain new
ones and build or maintain credibility and reputation.
More importantly, brands need to measure their visibility
in the most popular social media relative to that of their
competitors. This study describes a tool for collecting
brand visibility information by looking at the visibility of
various South African university brands and their relative
positioning from a social media perspective.
Correspondence analysis is then used to portray the
various university brands in a multi-dimensional space
so that they can be contrasted with each other in terms of
their visibility in social media. The findings indicate that
South African university brands are not distinctly
positioned in social media and that none of them seems to
currently have a concerted strategy for engaging its
stakeholders in a particular social media. This means that
there are both opportunities for those who manage these
brands and also threats to these institutions for taking a
laissez fair attitude to social media in these times when
social media are coming to dominate the Internet in
particular and media in general.
Word of Mouth Marketing
Word-of-mouth has been the oldest marketing
tool but was relegated to the background due to higher
popularity of direct advertising. In the last century, the
mass media became popular and direct advertising soon
became a great tool in the hands of the marketing
professionals. At that time, the number of TV channels
were few, newspapers were few and the radio channels
were also few. So if you broadcast your message, almost
everybody is bound to notice the advertisement.
However, things have changed now with the expansion of
mass media. Higher number of TV channels means that
the companies have to spend much more to reach the
same number of people. Even on the same channel, there
are more companies advertising which means that an
average individual sees 1000-4000 advertisements in a
FIIB Business Review. Volume 1, Issue 2, January - March 2012
Perspectives
day. Moreover, there is a degree of distrust in direct
advertising and people are willing to rely more on the
recommendations and consumer opinions.
“Word-of-mouth” has always been the most
effective form of marketing. People have always trusted
their friends' opinions, whether it is for a new deodorant
or any other product. Word-of-mouth never stopped
being important, but when mass media became popular
last century, brands could rely on advertising to
broadcast their message to the world and word-of-
mouth didn't seem as important to some marketers
anymore. First TV got people's attention and later trust.
You could tell people whatever you wanted because you
knew they were paying attention. No matter how blatant
or irrelevant your message was, people used to listen. But
the landscape has changed. Now ads are everywhere. In
fact, people see and hear between 1,000 to 3,000
advertising messages every day. People still watch TV, but
they flick through the ads. They read the news online
instead of on paper. Recommendations and opinions for
every product and service are now available on the
Internet.
We have reached a point where:
14% of people trust ads
78% of people trust consumer recommendations
Source: Neilsen Global Trust in Advertising Survey, 2007
McKinsey and Co. estimate that 2/3 of the
economy is now influenced by personal
recommendations. People obviously still talk to each
other face to face, but the Internet has allowed
conversations to spread as light and speed around the
globe and be heard by millions within minutes. Thus, the
Internet is now the largest mass-communication
medium, by far.
Given the fact that the word-of-mouth and
recommendations from known people are trusted more
than any other form of advertising, it is important to take
full advantage of the social media which includes the
entire conversational media like social networking sites,
blogs, forums, etc. It could be a great tool to attract new
customers and give confidence to the existing customers
that they made the right decision by choosing your brand.
Literature Review
Social Media Kietzmann et al. (2011) says that
traditionally, consumers used the Internet to simply
expend content: they read it, they watched it, and they
used it to buy products and services. Increasingly, however,
consumers are utilizing platforms—such as content
sharing sites, blogs, social networking, and wikis—to

create, modify, share and discuss. This represents the
social media phenomenon, which can now significantly
impact a firm's reputation, sales and even survival. Also,
Dutta (2010) in his article on Social media strategy in
Harvard Business Review says that social media are
changing the way we do business and how leaders are
perceived, from the shop floor to the CEO suite. The best
businesses are creating comprehensive strategies in this
area, research suggests that few corporate leaders have a
social media presence-say, a Facebook or LinkedIn page-
and that those who do don't use it strategically, enough.
Today's leaders must embrace social media for three
reasons. First, they provide a low-cost, highly accessible
platform on which a personal brand can be built, which
communicates the identity within and outside the
company. Second, they allow rapid and simultaneous
engagement with peers, employees, customers and the
broader public, in order to leverage relationships, show
commitment to a cause, and demonstrate a capacity for
reflection. Third, they give an opportunity to learn from
instant information and unvarnished feedback. Aula
(2010), in his article, focuses on the threat and risk of
social media to the reputation of business companies. The
article mentions examples of events where it involves the
influence of social media and how publicity can give
negative impact to the reputation of a company. The author
notes the most popular and interesting social media
services based from the corporate perspective are Face
book, MySpace and Twitter. However, it says social media
expands the scope of reputation risks and boosts risk
dynamics. At the same time, Hunt, Kristin Gunderson
(2010) in his article investigates the important role of
social media in the recruitment of employees amongst
companies. It mentions that social media are not just for
socialization as it could also be used in hiring and
introducing some information about the companies. It
mentions that companies which don't embrace social
media such as Face book, LinkedIn, and Twitter as a
recruitment tool might lose quality candidates. Also,
Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein (2010) in their
study titled'Users of the world unite! The challenges and
opportunities of social media' say that the concept of social
media is top of the agenda for many business executives
today. Decision makers, as well as consultants, try
toidentify ways in which firms can make profitable use of
applications such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook,
Second Life, and Twitter. Despite this interest, there seems
to be very limited understanding of what the term “Social
Media” exactly means; this article intends to provide some
clarification. It begins by describing the concept of social
media and discusses how it differs from related concepts
such as Web 2.0 and User Generated Content. Based on this
definition, it then provides a classification of Social Media
which groups applications currently subsumed under the
FIIB Business Review. Volume 1, Issue 2, January - March 2012
Perspectives
generalized term into more specific categories by
characteristic: collaborative projects, blogs, content
communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds
and virtual social worlds.
Word-of-mouth in marketing : Bughin, J et al.
(2010) in their article, ''A new way to measure word-of-
mouth marketing, discuss the value to marketers of word-
of-mouth product recommendations, and describes a
method for measuring their impact.
Word-Of-Mouth 'equity' index is a value derived
from how frequently a message is conveyed and its
ultimate impact on the consumer's purchase
decision. Their research shows that the three
factors most important to determining how
influential a word-of-mouth recommendation will
be are the message's content, the credibility of the
person relaying the message, and the environment
within which the message is received.
Source : Jo Stratmann (2010)
Luo Xueming et al (2007), in their article 'Neglected
Outcomes of Customer Satisfaction', write that although
there is significant evidence that customer satisfaction is
an important driver of firm profitability, extant literature
has largely neglected two intermediate outcomes of
customer satisfaction, namely, a firm's advertising and
promotion efficiency and its' human capital performance.
On the basis of longitudinal analyses of large-scale
secondary data from multiple sources, the authors find
that customer satisfaction boosts the efficiency of future
advertising and promotion investments. This finding can
be explained by the possibility that customer satisfaction
generates free word-of-mouth advertising and saves
subsequent marketing costs. In addition, customer
satisfaction has a positive influence on a company's
excellence in human capital (employee talent and manager
superiority). This finding is highly novel, indicating that
human resources managers should have a strong interest
in customer satisfaction as well. Finally, the authors
investigate the moderating influence of market
concentration on both relationships. The uncovered
results have important implications for marketers in their
dialogue with financial executives and human resources
managers. Brooks Jr. et al. (2011), in their article 'Word -of-
mouth advertising in selling new products' discuss
informal networks of interpersonal relations
thatcontribute to the marketing of individual brands and
products. The article presents the evidence of
interpersonal networks and why and how groups react to
"word-of-mouth" communication. The importance of
opinion leaders within these groups, their particular
sphere of influence and the decision making power of these
individuals is discussed. The article addresses
11

internal dynamics of groups through the seeking and
gaining of information and the impact of group norms. The
types of groups where word-of-mouth marketing really
has an impact are also explored. Specific advice for
marketers as to how to influence these informal networks
is provided. Brooks Steve (2006), in his article 'How to
build buzzzzzz: The new rules in word-of-mouth
marketing.' discusses word-of-mouth as the most effective
advertising strategy. Mass media is losing its significance.
Advertisers want the consumers to discuss their products.
According to Laura Ries, President of Ries & Ries, the
success of top brands depends on their credibility. Since
new products do not enjoy brand loyalty, they need to build
up that credibility by word-of-mouth circulation. This kind
of advertising is a boon for food and dining. Topping the list
of word-of-mouth category in the U.S. is the restaurant
business.
Word of mouth for customer awareness Mahajan,
Vijay et al., in their article ''An empirical comparison of
awareness forecasting models of new product
introduction say that in modeling the adoption of a new
brand, an analyst may consider a consumer moving
through three stages in the process of becoming a
customer of the brand. These stages are: awareness, trial
and repeat. Since the sales or market share estimates
based on trial and repeat are contingent upon the
estimates developed for the awareness level, selection of a
particular awareness model can influence the predictions.
Brand awareness in a target market can be generated by
advertising, free samples, coupons, word-of-mouth
communication and other marketing activities such as in-
store displays. All of these marketing vehicles are
awareness generating stimuli. However, the awareness
generated is subject to decay due to forgetting over time.
The awareness level due to advertising generated in a
given time period depends upon the amount of advertising
dollars and the quality of the advertising campaign. Finally,
the reported results are based on two data sets and, hence,
warrant a certain degree of caution concerning the relative
performance of the models. Furthermore, inclusion of
other awareness stimuli in the respective models may alter
the relative performance of the models. However, in spite
of these limitations, the results do shed some light on the
usage of these models to predict brand awareness. Shu-
Chuan Chu; Yoojung Kim (2011) in their article,
''Determinants of consumer engagement in electronic
word-of-mouth (eWOM) in social networking sites,
present advertising research on word-of-mouth
advertising generated through social media such as online
social networks. The relationship between the
participation of social media users in word-of-mouth
advertising and the interpersonal relationships they
maintain through social media is considered. Network
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Perspectives
analysis of those relationships is said to suggest that
strength of the personal ties between social media users is
directly related to their participation in word-of-mouth
advertising from or to other users. Implications for
marketing management are discussed.
Word of mouth in social media Smith, Ted et al.
(2007), in their article, ''Reconsidering Models of
Influence: The Relationship between Consumer Social
Networks and Word-of-Mouth Effectiveness, say that in
today's fragmented media landscape, generating positive
word-of-mouth (WOM) among consumers has become an
important tool for marketers. Marketers are challenged
with identifying influential individuals in social networks
and connecting with them in ways that encourage WOM
message movement.
Findings contradict the commonly accepted notion
that WOM influence comes from an elite, highly-
connected few. Research suggests that most
people are moderately connected and are as
willing as the highly connected to share marketing
messages with others. Also, it is found that
influence is motivated by our basic human need
to be helpful by giving advice, and that people
share a common enjoyment in seeking out
valuable information.
Source : Smith, Ted et al. (2007)
This article also explores the nature of social
networks, their role in influence and the characteristics of
the most influential individuals. They also examine the
characteristics of viral marketing messages. The
implications of these findings for marketers are discussed.
Chatterjee, Patrali (2011), in his article, 'Drivers
of new product recommending and referral behaviour on
social network sites', presents research on word-of-mouth
advertising through product recommendations and
referrals by members of online social networks. The use by
brand managers of so-called "influencers", who are
persons whose recommendations are considered to have a
strong effect on other network members, is discussed. It
was found that user-generated recommendations were
more likely to be passed on as word-of-mouth advertising
by such influencers than were recommendations created
by marketers of those products, but were not likely to
generate more referrals.
Purpose of study
Extant literature reviewed has not focused on
how social media can help in word-of-mouth marketing.
Also, the effect of word-of-mouth on customer awareness
has not been explained. The purpose of this study is to
understand the importance and application of word-of-
mouth for marketing and how it results in customer

awareness and it can be used with social media to promote
a product. Also, we intend to study how luxury brands are
using social media to promote themselves.
Findings
A recent article in McKinsey Quarterly looked at
the impact of word-of-mouth-marketing for businesses
and how companies can take better advantage of buzz.The
article shows how many marketers are spending millions
of dollars on elaborate advertising campaigns when often
what's really needed to help influence consumers is a
“word-of-mouth recommendation from a trusted source”
which “cuts through the noise” of traditional marketing
methods. Online communities and social networks amplify
word-of-mouth and that the right message can resonate
and expand, affecting brand perceptions and increasing
sales. But what is interesting is the way the article looks at
the impact of word-of-mouth marketing – or, what
McKinsey term, “word-of-mouth equity”.
Word-of-mouth equity is a brand's power to
generate messages that influence the consumer's decision
to purchase. In essence, this is the average sales impact of a
brand message multiplied by the number of word-of-
mouth messages.
If businesses take these key driving forces into
account when pursuing excellence in word-of-mouth
marketing, the potential benefits are huge. Yet many
marketers avoid actively using word-of-mouth as it's seen
as an immature and somewhat unsophisticated approach
to marketing.
As a starting point, marketers should look at
word-of-mouth through social media. Social media
monitoring can be used to track how the message is being
spread online as well as the impact it is having on your
brand or business. Marketers should also engage in social
networks and online communities where they can help
guide and stimulate word-of-mouth by interacting with
customers and people who are interested in their business
or services. Any negativity or derogatory comments can
be addressed and managed in an appropriate and timely
manner and, more importantly, any good comments and
recommendations will be broadcast to the entire online
universe. Now that's really spreading the word.
Many of our clients and others we talk to are
considering using online communities or social networks
to influence the word-of-mouth for their brand or product.
They see the conversations that people are having about
their brand, recognise that these are influential, and want
to use them to impact positively on how people perceive
them.
It's true that online conversations are important
sources of word-of-mouth. As Forrester suggested earlier
this year, 83% of people trust recommendations of peers
or contacts and so harnessing the power of social network
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Perspectives
When assessing the impact of word-of-mouth
marketing, factors which need to be taken into
account are :
What's being said
In order to influence consumer decisions a
successful word-of-mouth message should
address important products or service features.
(While marketers tend to build campaigns around
emotional positioning, consumers actually tend
to talk—and generate buzz—about functional
messages).
The identity of the person who sends the message
The word-of-mouth receiver must trust the
sender and believe that they really know the
product or service in question. Otherwise that
message will not be trusted or spread any further.
The environment in which the message is
circulated
Messages passed within tight, trusted networks
have less reach but a greater impact than those
circulated through dispersed communities (Think
about the difference in hearing an opinion from
someone you know and trust, to someone you've
just met on the street), so there's usually a high
correlation between people whose opinions are
trusted and the members of networks that are
most valued.
Source: Bughin, J et al. (2010)
and online communities can be powerful. Influencing this
communication can reap serious rewards for an
organisation in terms of influence and opinions about the
brand, although it must, of course, be done correctly. Too
many examples (such as the classic Wal-Marting across
America) show the dangers of trying to influence word-of-
mouth and failing.
We can distinguish between social networks and
online communities. From a word-of-mouth
perspective, both offer opportunities but in very
different ways. Social networks are better for buzz
and Online communities for developing
something more sustainable.
Both buzz and sustainable word-of-mouth are valuable,
but in terms of building brand and building engagement, it
is the sustainable version that is more important. Buzz is
great for pushing out a message, whereas the sustainable
version creates the ongoing engagement and word-of-
mouth that builds brand and contributes to the
recommendations and referrals that are important in the
online world. So growing ongoing word-of-mouth is
something all brands should be thinking about.
13

Word-of-mouth advertising creates an awareness
campaign where your business information travels from
person to person, creating a world wind of awareness. For
a new business start-up, word-of-mouth marketing is
often the best and most effective advertising method.
Here are some steps that you can take to start a
viral word-of-mouth marketing campaign about your
business:
Acquaintances: Approach your friends, family and
neighbors initially, followed by contacting other people
you know in your community and beyond. To begin your
campaign, you may take a broad approach to spread your
information; ultimately streamlining your message to
your target market. Networking: Both online and off,
networking is the backbone of the word-of-mouth
marketing. You need to have a large network to build a
database of prospective customers. Find forums and other
groups where your target market 'hang out.' Website: It's
the Internet age. Establish your website with good,
focused keywords to get favorable results from the search
engines. Also, keep your website, user-friendly with easy
navigation and complete updated information about
everything regarding your business. Freebies: Everyone
loves to get something free. Create a free report or e- book
related to your idea or product and give it away to potential
customers, asking them to give the item to their friends
and family as well. Mailers: You can use email or postcards
or pamphlets about your business to inform your
acquaintances prior to calling them.
Word-of-mouth advertising has stood the test of
time and is effective for every business. There are simple,
affordable methods of starting a viral marketing
campaignthat will spread like wild fire. By putting into
place some or all of the ideas mentioned above, you can
create a world of advertising for your business.
With socially connected websites becoming more
and more ubiquitous, we have been trying to define what
this means for businesses and how it will affect their
marketing strategies in the future.
The widespread use of elements of collective
intelligence within websites to date, has created some of
the most successful websites including Amazon, eBay,
Youtube, Google, Groupon, Twitter and many others. This
trend is also accelerating with the introduction of Google
Places and Deals, Facebook Places and Offers and a
plethora of others.
Quite simply in many cases, it can be summarised
as 'electronic word-of-mouth'. It is widely accepted that
word-of-mouth marketing is probably the most effective
form of marketing – a direct referral from another person
who has experienced the product and has had a positive
experience. Similarly, the old school of marketing
maintains that negative 'word-of-mouth' has an equal or
greater damaging effect on a brand.
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Perspectives
In the social media space, the key difference is that
electronic word-of-mouth can spread rapidly and virally
and it emerges in places we are not always aware of. In a
negative scenario, because customers are far more likely to
report bad news than good, this can mean a forest fire of
negativity. In a similar way to a forest fire, it is almost
impossible to put the fire out, though it is possible to
manage the fire as best as you can to stop the spread,
particularly if our positive customers are able to get their
message to others. At the same time, if done badly, it can
have the effect of putting the fire out with kerosene and
then frantically fanning the flames.
As marketers, our role is always to make sure that
the positive aspects of our product outweigh the negative
and that the customer is able to understand why this is the
case. After all, it is unusual for someone to develop a
product which genuinely underperforms existing
products in the space at a higher price.
Discussion
Social Media and Luxury Brands
Luxury brands are hesitant to harness new
marketing technique. There are concerns over
maintaining exclusivity in social media. Gucci believes
accessibility in social media will build brand desire and
have over 400k fans. Estee Lauder has used social media to
promote their in-store makeovers Estee Lauder used
social media to make a connection to current, new and
could be/would be customers by offering free makeovers
and photo shoots at its department-store cosmetics stalls.
The photos from the shoots could then be posted on the
customers' social media profile. The Estee Lauder
eventsought to change younger consumers' perceptions of
the brand by creating an “experience” (the concept that
most luxury brands are based on). Jimmy Choo has used
social media to create excitement. The Jimmy Choo Trainer
Hunt in London invites people to “follow” a pair of designer
trainers as they “make their stylish journey around
London through the Four Square mapping location
targetapplication, checking in at the coolest, hippest
Places around town – from the Saatchi Gallery to
Shoreditch House – the trainers will update you on their
whereabouts in real time. And if they check into a venue
near you, you can catch them to keep them”. Prada
haveused e-bay style auctions to create on-line excitement.
They are in touch with how people live. They held a chic
ebay-style auction on their website to auction off their
sample pieces which was a way of artificially driving up
price and collectability of Prada 'artefacts'. Conversely
Mercedes have created a by invitation only club to re-
enforce exclusivity.
Burberry has deliberately limited social activity to
nurture existing customers. Burberrys own social
networking site that creates an experience targeted at its

trench coat customers. Customers can create a profile and
upload images of themselves wearing the Burberry trench
and comment and connect with other users. Burberry did
not neglect its Face book community, but it is simply giving
customers another outlet. The brand still uses its
Facebook channel (1.1 million fans), however launching
this community refines the audience from the
larger so cial networks and targets the more niche
customers who are passionate about the brand
2010 has seen a marked increase in luxury brands
using social media and innovating with it. This is one of the
findings in the latest L2 Luxury Digital IQ Index – research
led by Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing, NYU Stern.
The report shows how luxury brands have really pushed
their use of social media in 2010, realizing that the benefits
for them come from not just having a social media
presence but also from engaging people in social media
and online communities.
The report takes an analytical approach to the use
of social media in an attempt to quantify the digital
competence of 72 leading global luxury brands. The
ranking highlights some interesting observations – watch
and jewellery brands on a whole perform relatively poorly,
and a lack of investment in digital has seen brands such as
Prada and Dior punch below their weight in the use of
social media across their business.
Can I control Social Media?
One common theme we see when speaking to businesses
social media, is that they are looking for a way to control it.
Control the message, control the perception and control
the audience. This is where social media and electronic
word-of-mouth has changed the game somewhat. In most
cases, like conventional communication, it is not possible
to control the receiver, we can only take control of
ourselves and how we transmit and this is where social
media becomes a challenge for conventional marketers.
With direct marketing, we can select the audience
through profiling existing customers, we can define
themessage we want to send to them, we can connect our
product or service to the customers' needs and wants and
then generate a response through our communication.
Through social media, we have to help our
customers to communicate with each other and ideally,
those customers who have a positive message will
outweigh those who haven't had a good experience for
whatever reason – let's remember that all companies have
customers with a negative experience. You are not alone.
One final thought however, is the impact this may
have on future marketing. As with the massive
growth in search engine optimisation during the last
5-10 years, the next generation of marketing might
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Perspectives
well be 'reputation optimisation', where the positive
messages are sought, captured and then marketed to
others. For major brands, this is already happening,
though when it moves into mainstream businesses; it
may just be the next big thing.
References and Links
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mouth-marketing/
Anonymous (2010), 'Marketers using Twitter, Facebook to reach
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Anonymous (2011), 'Indian firms using social media to win new biz:
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Barwise, Patrick; Meehan, Seán (2010), 'New social media
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Author Profile
Dr. Sandeep Bhanot : Dr. Bhanot is an Associate Professor at SIES College of
Management Studies, Nerul, Navi Mumbai. He has been in teaching for the
last 15 years, teaching subjects like Statistics, Operations Research, and
Decision Science. He is also interested in research areas like HR and
branding. He has written around 100 articles pertaining to management in
Free Press Journal. He has written research papers on 'HR challenges in
mergers and acquisitions', 'Innovative HR practices used by corporates',
"Organisational Mentoring' in various national conferences. His research
papers on branding include ' Use of social media by companies to promote
their brands', ' Purchase behavior of luxury brands', 'Strategies used by
luxury brands in India' in various national journals.
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