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Pinball Metaphors

Decent Essays

The rise of social media has been a global phenomenon since internet giant Facebook began, with one in seven people having a Facebook account (Hennig-Thurau, Hofacker & Bloching 2013). This has had an impact on the marketing environment in several ways, with the two most notable being increased active participation and a strong level of networked interconnectedness (Hennig-Thurau, Hofacker & Bloching 2013). These two changes have shifted the power from the marketer to the consumer, as the regular consumer now has access to vast amounts of information and has the ability to amplify their opinion globally (Labrecque et al. 2013). For this reason, it may be argued that in the 21st century, marketing occurs among consumers, and is no longer purely …show more content…

2013). This active participation can be described using the pinball metaphor, in which marketing in the social media environment is chaotic and interactive (Hennig-Thurau, Hofacker & Bloching 2013). This loss of control is one factor that strengthens the idea that marketing now occurs among consumers.
It is important for marketers to understand how to generate positive consumer-based brand stories (Gensler et al. 2013), and how to monitor negative comments, as over or under monitoring can impact the brands reputation (Hennig-Thurau, Hofacker & Bloching 2013). This impact can be seen when Nestlé over-monitored their website and deleted all posts criticizing them for their use of palm oil in their products. This deletion process was not in line with the pinball environment, and led to a publicised escalation of the crisis (Hennig-Thurau, Hofacker & Bloching …show more content…

2013). This can be seen through Microsoft allowing blogger Robert Scoble to talk about the company in a very personal way – which was monitored but also brought the company into a positive public light (Hennig-Thurau, Hofacker & Bloching 2013). This process is one that demonstrates that marketers do still hold power, and that marketing to consumers still exists, except it happens though different

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