New Product Launch through Social Media and Point of Sale Promotion
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In this paper, the authors demonstrate that a new product can be successfully launched into a new market using only social media and point-of-sale promotion (POS) without the use of above-the-line promotion tactics like advertisements and PR. This study was done considering the changing paradigm of buying behavior with the development of social media as means for consumers to connect and identify themselves in relation to other human beings.
Market simulation methodology was used to conduct the market research with 47 respondents. All the users belong to the same social media user community where the test product was promoted using a dummy product page, 15 days prior to the simulation and covert influencers were asked to promote the product page during the 15 days. Before the day of simulation, 47 respondents were randomly chosen for study. These respondents were shown TV ads in a controlled setting followed by a retail showroom experience conducted in a controlled environment and responses were measured using questionnaires in 3 stages - before display of TV ads, after display of TV ads and after POS experience.
This study concludes that if a brand is able to generate favorable third party reviews, positive word-of-mouth and is able to reach its target segment via social media, it has a higher chance of being considered by the customers for purchase.
Keywords
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