Table Of ContentA Personal Brand through Blogging –
Its position and influence on consumers
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Master Thesis
Copenhagen Business School
11.11.2013
Authors:
Anette Løken, Cand. merc - International Marketing and Management
Ane Beate Haugen, , Cand. merc - Management of Innovation and Business Development
Thesis Advisor:
Liana Razmerita - Department of International Business Communication
Number of Characters : 272 753
Number of pages: 120
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First of all we would like to thank our thesis advisor, Liana, for all the help and valuable
directions throughout the thesis process. We would like to further express our
appreciation for her insights and inputs that have been of great value for the progress and
result.
Additionally, we want to show gratitude to our family and friends that have been very
supportive and encouraging throughout this process. We also would like to share
thankfulness for showing understanding for the time and effort this thesis has taken. We
could not have done this without you by our side.
Lastly, we would like to give a special thanks to each other for great and challenging
discussions, for new insights and understanding, and for a good collaboration. It has been
a tough but informative process that has given us valuable knowledge in many ways.
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The use of social media and in particular blogs has increased rapidly the last years. Blogs
are utilized by marketers but the field is lacking knowledge about bloggers ability to
create value, and thus become beneficial communication channels to take advantage of. It
is further required more research on how social media influencers, especially bloggers,
are perceived by consumers. Perceptions are impacting bloggers’ influence, defines their
brands, and consequently the credibility of their information and communication. It is
researched how individuals have created a brand through blogging that is positively
recognized and valued in the market. Additionally, the study is investigating how
personal brands influence consumers. For marketers there is a need to achieve a clearer
understanding of the effect of exploiting bloggers as a marketing tool to reach and
influence consumers.
It is utilized Web 2.0, blogging, communication, and personal branding theories to build a
foundation to analyze and answer the research question. A mixed approach of
quantitative and qualitative methods has made it possible to identify factors and reasons
to how a personal brand is created by a strong blog brand. The data also made it possible
to detect how bloggers are influencing consumers.
The study shows that people create valuable personal brands through blogging by
displaying authenticity, knowledge, new and inspiring information, and creating close
relationships with readers. Bloggers are found to be credible communicators and hence
perceived as valuable search options for information. This study demonstrated that
bloggers are found to influence consumers’ choices, opinions, and actions. Commercial
content communicated by bloggers is viewed as more credible than traditional marketing.
Findings indicated that blogging provides value to an individual’s personal brand in terms
of self-expressing knowledge and passions that means that people can attract new
businesses- or career opportunities. The position bloggers have in reaching and building
close relationships with readers, demonstrates that markers should exploit bloggers’
communication channel and influence power to interact with relevant target consumers.
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1.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1!
1.1 Problem Definition ......................................................................................................................... 3!
1.2 Research Questions .................................................................................................................... 4!
1.3 Purpose and Delimitation ........................................................................................................... 4!
1.4 Motivation .................................................................................................................................. 5!
2.0 Theoretical Background ................................................................................................................. 6!
2.1 Web 2.0 ...................................................................................................................................... 6!
2.2 The Blogging World .................................................................................................................. 8!
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4.0 Presentation of the Case Studies .................................................................................................. 51!
5.0 Empirical findings & Analysis ..................................................................................................... 55!
5.1 RQ1: How to create a personal brand trough blogging that is valuable and positively
recognized by consumers and marketers? ...................................................................................... 57!
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The Web 2.0 has opened up for new possibilities for business and communication
through new media channels. In e.g. with social media some businesses have become
obsolete while others have come to live, which can be seen in the fashion industry. The
fashion industry has been dominated by traditional marketing channels. Products or
brands covered in the media are considered to be superior, and fashion periodicals thus
have become a vital source of information and inspiration. By this, fashion magazines
and journals have been able to create a form of consumer intimacy that has provided them
with credibility and a large readership. Yet, with social media becoming more central and
popular, entrepreneurial consumers have started to increasingly dominate the digital
media channels (Pihl & Sandström, 2013). Social media refers to activities, practices, and
behaviors among communities of individuals who gather online to share information,
knowledge, and opinions utilizing conversational media. Conversational media can be
described as web-based applications that allow creating and transferring content in forms
of words, pictures, videos, and audios. In former research, blogs have been identified as
one of the various social media platforms (Mohammadian & Mohammadreza, 2012).
“In some industries, blogs have become popular and powerful intermediaries between
firms and consumers, reaching more readers than regional newspapers” (Pihl &
Sandström, 2013:310). In e.g. it has been identified consumers that write about fashion
and trends through blogs that have become so popular and powerful that they are
readership competitors to traditional media (Pihl & Sandström, 2013). Several fashion
brands are using social media activities to gain direct feedback from their customers. An
example is to invite fashion bloggers to front seats of fashion shows or to events. The
bloggers updates their followers constantly with feedback from the show or event on their
blog and other social media accounts (Kim & Ko, 2012). Hence, communities, networks,
and the developments in information communication technologies have enabled the
average consumer to become an active participant in creating and recreating value (van
Heerden, 2010). However, even though blogs have become more professional with time,
literature is still lacking information and data regarding the commercial aspects of social
media and blogs. According to Phil & Sandström (2013) a lot of research has been
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conducted on formation of blogging communities and several various usages of blogs
such as knowledge management and data mining, but the level of knowledge about how
bloggers make money and how they create value is small. Based on former research
within social media, social media influencers (SMIs’) have been identified to impact the
sphere. SMIs’ represent a new form of independent third party endorser who shapes
audience attitudes through social media platforms and applications such as blogs, tweets
and other social media networks. The characteristics of effective spokespersons have
been identified, but little research has been done on how the audience perceives these
SMIs’ (Freberg, Graham, McGaughey, & Freberg, 2010). Hence, there is minimal
information about what kind of position these individuals have in the consumers mind.
This creates challenges for firms when linking SMI’s to their products or services through
advertising or reviews. This is because consumers’ perceptions of the brand’s SMI’s are
impacting its image, and thus vital to create a positive attitude towards the brand (Freberg
et al., 2010).
Blogging has become one of the most popular social media and networking tools. A blog
can be defined as a personal web page with content displayed in reverse-chronological
order (Moen, 2012; Pihl & Sandström, 2013; Scott, 2011; Scoble & Israel, 2006). With
social media consumers are directly engaged in creating content and news, and therefore
becomes a part of the media. People share opinions, insights, experiences, and
perspectives with each other. Blogging is argued to be one of the most popular mediums
where individuals are involved by being a part of a conversation (Thevenot, 2007).
Approximately 120,000 new blogs are being created every day, equivalent about 1.4
blogs every second. Related to these blogs, about 1.5 million posts are created daily,
which corresponds to 17 posts per second (Thevenot, 2007). A lot of resources have been
invested to find out how firms can utilize blogs but there has not been a lot attention to
how bloggers can create and capture value, especially in industries where blogs have
become commercial intermediaries between companies and consumers. To become
commercially successful, bloggers must create value for readers and be able to capture
this value (Pihl & Sandström, 2013).
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With increased focus on developing a personal brand in a highly competitive marketplace
it is valuable and interesting to research how certain individuals have created a successful
personal brand through blogging. Personal branding entails being able to market one-self
to others and manage their personal brand in terms of how one wish to appear and be
perceived by others (Labreque, Markos, & Milne, 2011). Moreover, as Morgan (2011:13)
states “Branding success indicates building value for the quality of your work and
differentiating your future value potential”. A distinct and clear personal brand that
attracts potential partner or opportunities is becoming more crucial in an online world
where everyone is present. Thus, the ways individuals self-express are of high
importance. It is a lot of literature, information, and advices on what a blog should
contain, motivations for blogging and return of investment of utilizing social media in
marketing. However, there has not been a lot of research conducted on the success factors
that differentiate the most powerful bloggers in the market from others.
Based on the recent study performed by Pihl & Sandström (2013), there is lacking
research on how popular bloggers have created a successful personal brand through their
blog and what kind of position they have in the market. Thus, how value is developed,
captured, and taken advantage of within blogging. In addition to the advantages above
this research will also be beneficial for firms in order to achieve a better understanding of
the relationship between bloggers and their readers. This relationship is of value because
it will provide understanding of how consumers relate to the information and content the
bloggers communicate, and the potential to influence. Accordingly, this might deliver
knowledge to companies in how to utilize bloggers in a more advantageous way. Due to
increased attention to bloggers and their popularity among consumers many brands
choose to incorporate blogs in their marketing strategy. One of the reasons for why
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companies access blogs is that they can through blog text-mining estimate trends and
analyze how brands are perceived by the bloggers and the readers (Pihl & Sandström,
2013). However, there is not substantial research conducted on if or how successful
bloggers have impact on their readers. This information might be very important to
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Is one way to make qualitative data usable by a computer; http://infospace.ischool.syr.edu/2013/04/23/what-is-text-
mining/
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brands because it will provide insight of how much impact bloggers have on the
consumers when advertising for the brand. Thus, marketers will have an indication on
how to work with bloggers in terms of creating brand-awareness and loyalty, and
reaching existing and new customers.
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Based on the problem definition the research aims to answer the following research
questions:
RQ1: How to create a personal brand trough blogging that is valuable and positively
recognized by consumers and marketers?
1.1. What does a personal brand through blogging provide of value, benefits, and
opportunities for bloggers, consumers, and brands?
1.2. What kind of position do these personal brands hold in the market?
RQ 2: How do bloggers or personal brands influence consumers and trends in the
market?
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When writing a thesis it is important to state a specific purpose, as this will be a guide to
find the appropriate method to be able to answer the research question. According to
Halvorsen (2008) the purpose is to prepare contingent and scientific assumptions. In the
problem definition it is stated that this thesis aims to research how bloggers have created
a successful personal brand and what kind of position they have in the market. The
purpose of the thesis is therefore to uncover the underlying reasons to why these specific
bloggers have succeeded in creating a personal brand. Furthermore, increasing the
understanding of how bloggers are able to influence consumers which is argued to be
very useful for marketers (Orth & Malkewitz, 2008).
The purpose of this thesis is not to offer recommendations to new bloggers on how to
become a successful blogger. It is rather to offer an insight on elements that create strong
blog brands, and the actions of both bloggers and consumers as to call attention to how
firms can leverage this. The theoretical background together with analyzing data of
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successful elements in blogging that leads to influence on consumers will provide
findings and suggestions for further studies.
The research in this thesis is directed at Norwegian and Swedish bloggers, and thus will
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reflect a tendency in these countries only. According to Moen , Norway and Sweden are
the blogging spheres where it is most young girls writing about their daily-life. He further
states that most blogs outside Norway and Sweden involves genres like technology,
fashion, politics, or economics. Consequently, it might be that the data and results would
be different if the study were carried out in other countries. Furthermore, it is assumed
that the use of blogging might differ in other countries. Due to the limited scope of the
thesis it is decided to emphasize on blogging, and not include other social media
platforms they exploit such as Facebook (FB), Twitter, and Instagram. This is because the
bloggers employed in this study have primarily built up their personal brand through
blogging, but they are also utilizing the other social media platforms to communicate and
gain awareness about their blog.
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