Marketing to Millennials in Virtual Community - SME Perspective Applied
No Thumbnail Available
URL
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Economics |
Master's thesis
Unless otherwise stated, all rights belong to the author. You may download, display and print this publication for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Authors
Date
2010
Major/Subject
International Business
Kansainvälinen liiketoiminta
Kansainvälinen liiketoiminta
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
109
Series
Abstract
This study aims to find out how Millennials, new generation of internet users perceive social media marketing conducted in virtual communities. Additionally, this study focuses on providing SMEs guidelines on how to apply marketing for this specific group of consumers. Theoretical framework has been conducted after approaching theories from three perspectives: social media, transition in marketing and consumer behavior and virtual communities. Quantitative research methods have been chosen in order to provide generalizable results. Data was collected through a web-based survey published in Petsie.fi and received 520 completed questionnaires. Two multivariate statistical data analysis methods were applied. Firstly, factor analysis was conducted to find out similar behaviors and secondly, data was processed further with cluster analysis to form customer segments. Results suggest that there are five distinctive customer segments in Millennials that need to be taken into consideration separately in marketing planning. Additionally, virtual communities were found out to be excellent venues for targeted marketing and provide also good platform to have required two-way conversations with the Millennials. However, trustworthiness and transparency were called for.Description
Keywords
social media marketing, millennials, virtual community, web advertising, multivariate analysis