Building brand equity through social media marketing in international SMEs

The increased use of social media has created a whole new approach for international companies to reach customers across the national borders. That is why, international companies are forced to integrate social media into their marketing strategy in order to survive in competitive markets. Especially for small and medium-sized companies, social media might be a necessary tool to build their brand in cost-effective way. This thesis seeks to gain deeper understanding the role of social media marketing and its impact to brand equity in international SMEs. The reader is introduced to the concept of social media: What it is and how it can be used part of marketing processes in international companies. Also, the theory of brand equity is established with suggesting different explanations and features of the concept. Finally, the thesis provides an overview of how small and medium-sized international companies can utilize social media marketing in order to build their brand equity. The study was conducted through semi-structured interviews with four international SMEs based on Finland. With use of secondary sources such as academic literature, websites and social media sites of the companies, the study proposes a conclusion of the importance of social media marketing in context of brand equity with focus on international SMEs. The results show that international small and medium-sized companies are noticing the importance of social media marketing and it proved to be one of the most effective marketing tools for each case company. The creation of social media strategies proved to be important due the changing nature of social media. Furthermore, findings revealed that with social media marketing, case companies have been able to increase their brand equity, especially brand awareness and brand loyalty. However, most of the case companies argued that social media marketing solely is not enough to guarantee the increased brand equity