Led by social networks and user-generated content, the number of posts available in the market is impossible to be rationally processed by customers. The micro-segmentation goes along with this trend, and there are multiple categories of the same core product available for the consumers in the market. What is the role of the brands in this context? In a way, they serve as a mental shortcut that consumers use to help “rationalize” decisions that would be impossible to make by analyzing all the options available. Brands also try to find more distinctive signals to stand out and differentiate from others. Signals like more green, ecologic, or inclusive brands are now part of the claims of the brands. Do they really help consumers to make better decisions? Or are they ignored by the customers as they become the rule instead of the exception? The Role of Brands in an Era of Over-Information provides knowledge to better understand the digital branding process and its implications in choosing products, services, or organizations. The book also contributes to the development and consolidation of recent concepts linked with branding and over-information, providing practical cases where these concepts show their relevance. Covering key topics such as marketing, new media, sustainability, and internet branding, this premier reference source is ideal for marketers, influencers, business owners, policymakers, managers, industry professionals, researchers, academicians, scholars, practitioners, instructors, and students.

On the one hand, the Internet increases information transparency for consumers - they are now able to obtain objective, trustworthy information on retailers' existence and reliability as well as on products and services in realtime, at any time from virtually any place in the world. On the other hand, the Internet provides tools to businesses to strengthen their consumers' bonds with their brands, e.g. through offering platforms for consumers to engage in brand-related behavior for fun and entertainment during their free time or through offering businesses the opportunity to personalize offerings for their customers. For the first time, this book analyzes and describes the roles that both brands and the increased information transparency play in purchase decision processes. It gives answers to a wide range of questions: Does the Internet empower consumers in a way that strengthens or weakens functions of brands? Can information substitute brand functions? Are brands becoming even more important in the age of empowered consumers? What are the impacts of this development on brands, on intermediaries and retailers, and on prices and product quality? And what are the implications for brand management? This book is addressed to a practice oriented as well as to an academic audience. It delivers new insights and perspectives to marketing, product and brand managers, to consultants, and to all other professionals who are interested in this topic.

Master's Thesis from the year 2006 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 1,0, University of Lugano (Faculties of communication sciences and economics), language: English, abstract: It is easier for consumers to consummate transactions when they are aware of sellers and, moreover, when they have confidence that sellers will deliver as promised. The reputation of sellers - or the brand - is one means by which businesses have traditionally promoted buyer awareness and bonded their promises to deliver (Klein & Leffler, 1981). Brands as "a collection of perceptions in the mind of the consumer" (Bates, 2006) are relevant for many choice and purchase decisions (Meffert, 2000). Consumers link a range of associations to a brand, from associations that include characteristics which can be perceived by the senses (e.g., an engine’s horsepower, a product’s design, or a brand’s visual presence in visual or promotional campaigns) to characteristics associated with a brand’s identity (origin, reputation, and personality); and from perceived rational benefits (the product and its functions, the transaction process, or the relationship between the consumer and the brand/supplier) to emotional benefits which consumers perceive to be related to a brand (self-expression, image transfer, or self-realization) (Perrey et al., 2003; see also Aaker, 1996). By delivering all this information to consumers, brands can facilitate consumers’ purchase decisions. At the same time, information provided by sellers and by third parties can be an alternative mechanism for making consumers willing to undertake transactions. Through the Internet 1 , an ever-increasing amount of information from branded sellers, unbranded competitors, and third party information providers (“information intermediaries”) is provided to consumers. Consumers are now able to obtain objective, trustworthy information on retailers’ existence and reliability as well as products and services in real-time, at any time from virtually any place in the world - markets become increasingly transparent and information asymmetries between sellers and buyers decrease. The so empowered consumers may, as a consequence, become willing to patronize lesser-known, rather than branded, retailers (Deregatu, Rangaswamy & Wu, 2001). [...]

This book examines issues and implications of digital and social media marketing for emerging markets. These markets necessitate substantial adaptations of developed theories and approaches employed in the Western world. The book investigates problems specific to emerging markets, while identifying new theoretical constructs and practical applications of digital marketing. It addresses topics such as electronic word of mouth (eWOM), demographic differences in digital marketing, mobile marketing, search engine advertising, among others. A radical increase in both temporal and geographical reach is empowering consumers to exert influence on brands, products, and services. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and digital media are having a significant impact on the way people communicate and fulfil their socio-economic, emotional and material needs. These technologies are also being harnessed by businesses for various purposes including distribution and selling of goods, retailing of consumer services, customer relationship management, and influencing consumer behaviour by employing digital marketing practices. This book considers this, as it examines the practice and research related to digital and social media marketing.

Tracking the seismic shifts in consumerism over time, this cutting-edge Research Agenda provides a theoretical and methodological roadmap of brand management research in the third age of consumption. Leading experts and pioneers of key concepts in brand management give insights into the exponential growth of the field and identify promising directions for future investigation.

In the last decade, the use of data sciences in the digital marketing environment has increased. Digital marketing has transformed how companies communicate with their customers around the world. The increase in the use of social networks and how users communicate with companies on the internet has given rise to new business models based on the bidirectionality of communication between companies and internet users. Digital marketing, new business models, data-driven approaches, online advertising campaigns, and other digital strategies have gathered user opinions and comments through this new online channel. In this way, companies are beginning to see the digital ecosystem as not only the present but also the future. However, despite these advances, relevant evidence on the measures to improve the management of data sciences in digital marketing remains scarce. Advanced Digital Marketing Strategies in a Data-Driven Era contains high-quality research that presents a holistic overview of the main applications of data sciences to digital marketing and generates insights related to the creation of innovative data mining and knowledge discovery techniques applied to traditional and digital marketing strategies. The book analyzes how companies are adopting these new data-driven methods and how these strategies influence digital marketing. Discussing topics such as digital strategies, social media marketing, big data, marketing analytics, and data sciences, this book is essential for marketers, digital marketers, advertisers, brand managers, managers, executives, social media analysts, IT specialists, data scientists, students, researchers, and academicians in the field.

• The aim of this Special Issue is to examine the current major topics concerning the use of social media and big data in sustainable tourism practices and to encourage interdisciplinary discussion among researchers regarding these issues. • This Special Issue covers all relevant areas of the debate, including 15 selected papers based on the following core ideas: smart tourism and big data, social media in the tourism industry, and online reviews and tourist behaviors. • This Special Issue discusses wide-ranging topics and research questions with regard to the smart tourism city, the impact of social media, online reviews, and tourist behaviors, and it represents a call to action for scholars to engage with broader social issues.