Brand Awareness through Instagram Advertising

Basudev Datta, Pritam Kaushik

MBA (2018-20) Student, Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune

ABSTRACT:

We live in an era where we are cluttered with a lot of information being generated every second. The source of it is TV, newspapers or increasingly popular online media. It has therefore become quite important for both Product and service-based companies to stand out amid all the buzz. As we have witnessed in recent years, technology has given new platforms through which companies can communicate and interact with their target audience. Social media has risen as the leading star. Out of these social media platforms, image sharing service platforms such as Instagram have gained huge success and attracted a large customer base. Instagram is basically a free, visual content sharing social network platform, focused mainly on sharing of pictures with friends/followers through an easy to understand and use mobile application. It recently surpassed 300 million registered users, which clearly indicates the growing appeal and the use of visual social media. As consumers are inclining more and more towards new social media platforms, brands must identify the change and learn to communicate in innovative methods. To gain that engagement, brands first need to understand which kind of content drives users’ engagement. The subject areas such as visual communication, brand communication/branding on social media as well as social media itself have been researched independently, but their combined effect i.e. visual brand communication and consumer engagement, has not been researched in the specific context of Instagram.  Our study will explore visual brand communication applied to visual social media platform i.e. Instagram, to understand what type of visual brand communication is effective to engage with customers and why. This theoretical framework presents Social media and visual communication in an in-depth manner, with focus on brand communication/branding, on social media platforms and a presentation on specific platform: Instagram.

1. INTRODUCTION:

In this modern world we live in, we are bombarded with ever growing information from various sources be it television, newspapers or online media etc. Both existing and potential consumers are regularly targeted with advertisement in order to grab their attention towards the products and services offered by firms (Hanna, Rohm and Crittenden 2011; Solis 2011).

Henceforth, it is very important for companies to outshine among all this hurdle created by technology. However, difficulty can still be faced by them in terms of degree of retentive recognition from any potential customer. With advent of various technological platforms, the method by which the companies communicate and interact with their potential and existing customer has undergone extreme overhaul (Chowdhury, 2019). Within various social media platform, we have two well established platforms i.e. Facebook and Twitter. However, there are many others evolving platform who are also trying to establish themselves in already existing social media ecosphere to shift the digital marketing techniques to next level (Walter and Gioglio 2014).

One of the most interesting social media platforms among the emergent group is INSTAGRAM which got huge success and has managed to attract a large user following (Fortune, 2014). The bare perusal of Instagram Platform clearly shows the simplicity of the concept in terms of public image sharing with practically minimum or in some case no text attached to wall posts (Joe and Anto, 2018). Instagram has recently managed to cross the mark of approximately 300,000,000 account holders which is way beyond Twitter’s account share (Adweek 2014). It clearly indicates that visual based social media platform is growing exponentially in comparison others which has caused shift in customer base from another platform to Instagram (Forbes 2014a). This drastic shift in public followership is an indicator for companies that to focus more on Instagram Ads. This opportunity was exploited by some brands by creating accounts in initial phase and tasted the success of new digital marketing platform in very early stage (FastCompany 2014; Walter and Gioglio 2014; Santhosh and Varghese, 2014). It is worthwhile to mention that approximately 80% of the world's leading brands are registered on Instagram by visual brand communication of their products and services.

The credit for successful venture of Instagram lies right in their core concept of image sharing (Read Write 2012) which helped them tap the emerging world of visual communication (Instagram 2018 and Walter and Gioglio 2014). There is well conceived saying that, “a picture tells more than a thousand words”, and same led the Instagram to exploit the power of visuals in brand communication to next level.

It goes without saying anything that pictures have more value addition capability in terms of brand image than text alone. Since, visual provides strong background to message and provokes the viewer’s emotions (Fahmy et.al. 2014; Forbes 2014b; Jamieson 2007). Furthermore, study clearly indicates that advertisement content grasping rate is function of more of visual representation then text alone (Content Marketing Institute 2014; Jamieson 2007). The combined effects of images posted in Instagram and external branding related activities adds much larger effect on brand positioning in mind of the viewers (Walter and Gioglio, 2014; Raman and Jaiswal, 2017) This is the reason most of the companies post pictures of their products in social media platform like Facebook and Twitter. However, in case of Instagram, most of the company’s posts, more like personal photos e.g. behind the scenes-shots or some pictures of their products which is being used in day to day life (Crimson Hexagon 2014; Walter and Gioglio 2014).

In current hyper-competitive market scenario, consumer’s awareness of brand is considered as very important parameter (Teixeira, 2014). It is well settled fact that with increase in competitiveness in market, the use of paid advertisement through social media has drastically increased which has been gaining attention of potential customer (BhatandFirdous, 2017; Priya et. al., 2018 and Joseph 2011). Thereby, making the process of brand awareness for both existing and potential customers ever increasingly challenging as day progresses by. It has severe repercussion for small companies which has limited resources in terms of both finance and time. Thereby, creating enormous challenges particularly in terms of keeping up with constantly emerging platforms and exploiting all the potential commercialized social media platforms in terms of best offers provided for businesses e.g. the wide range of paid advertising scheme. However, it is well conceived that in order to prevail over minds of both existing customers and to draw potential one (Gupta and Gupta, 2014; Joshi and Bhatt, 2018). The concerned platform need all-encompassing objectives for social media marketing communication in order to achieve desired level of success. Therefore, a study regarding how social media platform like Instagram can be utilized to influence consumers’ awareness of a brand with special regards to visual brand communication.

2. SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW METHODOLOGY:

Literature reviews in the domain of management studies are highly descriptive and critical as they are usually biased and lack academic rigour. However, literature in the domain of engineering and medical sciences have improved significantly by implementation of more organized and easily reproducible methodology (Tranfield, Denyer and Smart 2003). Henceforth, by following the basic principles of the methodical literature review techniques as mentioned in above-cited research paper, we are including subsections like the review’s scope, strategy for identification of relevant literature and the papers taken into consideration for critical overview.

2.1. Scope of the review:

International standards regarding scope of the review is well defined by two set of criteria i.e. “Form” and “Content”. We have included academic journal articles i.e. certified knowledge under “Form” criteria as they are subjected to critical peer review by expert researchers across world (Fernandez-Alles and Ramos-Rodríguez 2009). We have included some, reference book chapters and published articles of non-academic nature like reputed business magazines and analytical data published in newspaper and editorials as the research area is completely new. In terms of content of this paper, domain of this review is limited to Brand Awareness This is the reason most of the companies post pictures of their products in social media platform like Facebook and Twitter. Henceforth, we initially included some published content rich articles on the usage of Instagram Ad Tools with special reference to digital marketing and public relations domain. The research paper databases like Web of Knowledge etc. were selected based on the availability of peer-reviewed articles and add to that the relevance of same towards digital marketing management research.

Initial round of data search has yielded 387 results in July 2018 as reflected in Table 1. The contents of the 387 acknowledged research articles were process by one of the authors so as to eliminate the repetition of the datasets across the research database platform. We have extracted following information e.g. title of article, author’s name, publication year, name of journal, document type (Open or Closed Access), and database. From the above set, 345 duplicates research papers were eliminated which reduced the sample size to 42 articles.

Table 1. Database search vis-à-vis No. of items across different research databases

Figure 1. Y-o-Y distribution of publication on “Instagram Advertising” in Scopus (till 21.07.2018)

2.2. Identification of pertinent literature:

The entire process of identification of literature and thereafter review of the same, included searching combinations of the keywords e.g. “Visual Branding”, “Customer Engagement”, “Instagram advertising” and “Social Media”across above mentioned databases e.g. ScienceDirect, Academic search elite etc. In order to control repeatability of re-appearance of same research article across academic databases, one has to use same keywords repetitively across the different research database.

2.3. Systematic literature review results:

As per our database search using appropriate keywords, 116 articles were published between 2014 and 2018, same were considered in this review paper. Figure 1, clearly reflects that there is an increasing trend of research in social media technologies and its application in advertising and brand awareness asit is. As, it is well conceived fact that social media platform has emerged as advertising and marketing platform in recent time (e.g. Facebook and Twitter are launched in 2004 and went public on 2006).

3. METHODOLOGICAL REVIEW:

The aim of this Methodological review is to provide an overview of the methods used in research on ‘Brand Awareness through Instagram advertising’, without providing the complete details of the Research Designs and Procedure of the reviewed Literature. In Methodological Approaches terms, a short extract which explains the applied methods were pulled out from each article. A joint work session and consultation with a third author led to grouping of article Methodologies into (a) qualitative research, using mainly interviews and case studies (b) quantitative research, using mainly survey (c) mixed methods, combining both qualitative and quantitative approaches (d)non-empirical research, consisting mainly of conceptual papers and reflective essays.

Based on our preliminary studies, we have found that non-empirical research methodology was used in 20 reviewed articles which amount to 45.69%, followed by qualitative methods which is about 27.58% (n = 12 review papers), quantitative research methodology is used in as many as 8 articles amounting to 19.82%, and mixed research methodology is implemented in just 2 articles (6.89%).

We can see that many eminent authors of peer-reviewed journals have used non-empirical and qualitative approaches while review the research area on Brand Awareness through Instagram advertising. This clearly shows that research methodology adopted on emergent topics prior to their maturation stage (Tim Theeboom et. al, 2013). The main focal point of research on emerging topic is initially restricted to definitional issues and exploratory study. Thereafter, careful attention is given to before attention is given to various theory and methodologies (Tim Theeboom et. al., 2013). Early studies  conducted by many eminent authors in the domain were more conceptual in nature with theoretical discussions on potential business model and some cases certain amount qualitative research is also done to support the findings. This led to generation of good quality research in the domain.

Table 2: Research methodologies adopted by authors in concerned topic

4. THEMATIC REVIEW:

Instagram is more about visual element, so it is necessary for us to understand how Visual communication impacts the viewer (AniketGawas et. al., 2018). In this section we will discuss about how users of visual based social media platform interpret the pictorial presentation vis-à-vis textual content in section 4.1 and composition of the picture in visual advertising in section4.2. We will also be coveringthe importance of Aesthetics which is inherent property to images and Visual Literacy in Section 4.3 and Section4.4 respectively.

4.1 Interpretation of Images:

Visual Communication is one of the methods of conveying the information to person through pictorial presentation and same has been used in many research domains e.g. Science,Art,Psychology, Communication etc. (Smith et. al., 2005). Visual communicationhas strong bearing on the mind of the person both logically and emotionally. The developer of pictorial presentation designs the image in such fashion that directly conveys some or other information. However, the interpretation of the same is subject matter of the past experience, cultural background and social-economic background of the viewer. (Jamieson 2007 and Smith et.al 2005)

It well settled fact and medically proven that all logical and analytical processing are effective done by left and right hand side of our brain is subject to dominance level in case of particular person (Jamieson, 2007 and Smith et.al 2005).Many research studies clearly show people tend to quickly process and remember pictorial presentation more than text-based contentsand same is dependent upon cognitive processing capability of person (Fahmy et. al., 2014). Though, it is easy to connect to potential customers through visual branding and success of the same is dependent upon the perception the image creates and attitude of customer. Hence, a visual brand communication is said to be effective, only if same is designed in such a manner that the potential consumer is easily able tograsp the deeply engraved message in the image which ultimately led to retentive conclusion. Therefore, it is important for the brand to understand there consumers and target users, without which they can’t communicate the content and intention.

Some research studies clearly state that for best possible interpretation and grasping of the pictorial presentation, Denotation and Connotation plays major roles in terms of quick grasping of the deeply engraved message conveyed by picture (e.g. products, current slogan and brand) and making connection with minds of potential customer (e.g. upcoming marathon or adopting healthier lifestyle) (Fahmy et.al. 2014 and Jamieson 2007).

Fig. 2: Nike’s official Instagram webpage (Screenshot)

It is well conceived fact that in order to facilitate better recalling power in the mind of potential consumer, the product must be visual presented in such a manner that the same reflects how the product will add value to their day to day life (Rossiter 1982). It is very difficult to measure the effectiveness of connotations in a consumer's mind, and same has both good and bad repercussion of branding of the product (Jamieson 2007 and Smith et.al. 2005). Hence, it is recommended by Rossiter (1982) that in case of visual branding only those images are to be used which causing re-activation of grey cells of brain for better grasping and consequently retaining the brand name for longer time.

4.2 Image Composition: 

The images are created in such a fashion that it conveys the ideas, creativity and a message without any textual contents which is easily grasped and understood by potential user invariably.The degree to which consumer can grasp and quickly process the message conveyed through proper framing of the image at the inception stage of visual branding(Jamieson 2007).It is well settled fact as reflected in many research studies,human being tends to concentrate more on important contents of picture without giving any heed to the background. However, same is subjected to cleanliness of the image i.e. noise. In some cases, it is found that the degree of familiarity with image projected through visual branding has strong bearing on customer attraction factor as it connects potential user to their old memories (Rossiter, 1982 and Smith.et.al., 2005). Henceforth, image’s compositiondepicting the product in visual brand communication plays an important role and same is dependent onbrand’s expected result and user’s response. Medium of visual communication plays a major role in interpretation of the message by viewer. For example, customer differently perceive the same image shown in different advertising platform, one printed in newspaper and other posted in Instagram Wall. As, former one projects larger image as a result user pay attention to larger contents without going into smaller content.Whereas, in case of Instagram Wall, images are cropped to particular area of concentration. However, according to Rossiter (1982),  it is always preferred that any visual branding activity must be supported with some textual content for better grasping and retention by potential customer as done in earlier days and same is even prevalent in Instagram Advertising. The entire communication cycle of visual branding through Instagram is as depicted below 

Fig. 3: Flow of information in case of visual based communication channels (After Fahmy.et.al. .2014; Jamieson,.2007; Smith.et.al., .2005)

4.3 Aesthetics.

Aesthetics is highly variable parameter and varies person to person and to greater extent it is heavily dependent on subconscious preference and social-cultural background.For best outcome in terms of aesthetics of image showcased, the viewer’s mind must properly perceive and mentally process the image(Jamieson,.2007). Aesthetics is strongly influenced by platform in which image is first developed and shown as it practically limits the capability of creator of the image. In case of Instagram, their platform re-sizes all images to same resolution and provides same filters to all for further editing thereby, limiting the.image.viewing.capabilities. However, Jamieson (2007) is of the view that though the publishing platform creates limitations for creator of image. But, at same time allows creativity to stand out and attracts large viewership and captivate them for a moment through aesthetically and meaningfully designed images.

4.4 Visual Literacy: 

Visual Literacy is generally defined as ability of a person to interpret the deeply engraved meaning in the image and quickly grasp of information presented through the image. It is well settled fact that image is subjected to multiple-conclusion and this provide opportunity to the visual brand advertising firms to exploit the gap positively for attract customers.The first impression created by visual presentation has strong bearing as it creates retentive memory in the mind of the potential user for the product advertised (Jamieson,.2007, .Fahmy.et al., .2014, Smith.et al., .2005). 

5. Social media: 

In this section various visual based social media platforms will be briefly discussed with special emphasis on the Instagram. In order to highlight the importance of the visual brand communication through social media platform, various platforms are compared in this section to highlight the advantage the Instagram provides in comparison to other platform.Furthermore, in this section we have dealt with various challenges and opportunities that this visual based social media platforms provide to the companies.

5.1. Social Media Background:

It is well settled fact in current scenario that social media platform has encroached deep inside our day to day life activities. We tend to communicate with our family, friends and relatives through this interfaces rather than communicating with them through face to face communication even if they are physically accessible.

Research survey conducted by “WeAreSocial” back in 2015 to determine “Global Web Index (GWI)” clearly indicates that most of the user across well-established social media platform are between 16-24 years’ age group. It is worthwhile to mention some snippets of the report, regarding average usage of this platform by adults. It is found that on the average 2.82 out of 5.54 accounts belonging to age group 25-34 years were found to be active across platform. Survey further indicates that there is increase in daily internet usage by four multifold in comparison to 2014 (WeAreSocial 2015a). Hence, keeping in view above cited facts and figures, it can be statistically concluded that social media platforms are rapidly gaining momentum in day to day life activities of person and same is exploited by companies to advertise their product. Every company have different ways to communicate to their potential user through different visual brand communication techniques and every social media platform provides unique options to do the same. Before, advent of social media platforms many digital marketers use to opt for blog based digital marketing strategy through suitable blogging platform, the content of such advertisement used to textual based rather pictorial basedand same has assisted many firms to create point of sales with certain professional help (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). Now a day, many companies uses Twitter and Instagram social media platform for their marketing purposes in USA and same evident from Fig 4. as mentioned below.

Fig. 4: Comparison of top three social media platforms (After www.eMarketer.com, 2017)

5.2. Instagram:

It is one of innovative and free social media platform for visual communication which is primarily used for sharing visual content without much textual contents. The platform provides equal opportunity to all creator by re-sizing the images topre-fixed size and pre-standardized filters to create effects which is open to multiple interpretation. It is well conceived fact that most of the Instagram user usually share the photos without or with application image processing through filters and share the same in the platform alongside the location and some textual content which includes trendy Hashtags (SimplyMeasured 2015; Walter and Giolgio, 2014). In some cases, companies are also willing to go with video based advertising rather than image based to improvise the way the visual branding leave behind a retentive impression (Walter and Gioglio, 2014). However, the scope of this research paper is limited to brand awareness through Instagram advertising. The major differentiator factor between Instagram and other social media platform is that they started with mobile application based platform and later on shifted to website (Walter and Gioglio 2014 and Instagram 2018). They initially focused on app based image sharing platform as it adds mobility factor to visual communication done by individuals. However, with advent of different advanced visual communication platforms, Instagram opened door for web-based Instagram platform for product branding (Instagram 2018).

5.3 Pinterest:

It is noteworthy to mention about another visual based social media platform named as “Pinterest” which is among the fastest emerging social media portal with growing number of active user base (WeAreSocial, 2015a). They have also designed the platform based on visual content sharing in-line with Instagram with slight tweaking in terms of addon features.In case of Pinterest, the users are allowed to block, save a copy of original photo with or without filters categorically based on the theme (Gilbert.et. al., .2013). Bare perusal of both platforms gives us differentiating points between Pinterest and Instagram, Former one is more focused on theme based on visual communication e.g. Travels, Food etc. that’s why it allows the user to categorize the theme of the picture under consideration. Whereas, later one inspires the users more on personal photography capturing day to day life activities and sharing the same with respective followers(WeAreSocial, 2015a).

5.4 Tumblr: 

It is one of emerging blogging site which focuses one combination of visual-textual content sharing for best efficacy. With passage of time, some tools were added in the platform which enables the users to upload video-based contents, web-links to cited contents with or without textual contents which earlier used to be mandate. It is well conceived fact that founder of the Tumbler in initial phase didn’t develop the website explicitly for visual based content sharing through micro-blogging. However, with passage of time the approx. 70% of blogs were based on visual based contents inclusive of video and pictures (Chang.et. al., 2014). Referring to above cited paragraphs and contents mentioned in here-in, we easily differentiate the “Tumblr” from rest of the platform in terms of the fact that the “Tumblr” is blog based visual-textual content sharing platform.

5.5 Brand Communication in Social media:

With advent of various visual-based social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr etc.. Every firms have multiple options to target the potential customer base through multiple angle of attacks which is a clear indication that traditional way of brand communication is losing it’s shine as the day progresses by.

Identification of followers of the brand is very crucial parameters, as in many cases followers are not willing to share the content beyond themselves to the third party. Non-sharing of the contents beyond self, causes the brand to lose potential customer base (Peters.et.al. 2013). It is worthwhile to mention here-in that both customer and brands are provided with equal platform and no one has administrative authority over each other. Henceforth, in order to best possible brand following in Instagram, advertising firms should be careful about the contents posted in social media platforms (Peters.et.al., .2013). Survey conducted by De.Vries.et. al. . (2012) clearly indicated the behavioral traits of the followers in Instagram, it is evident from the research studies that brand-savy followers tend to regularly follow the contents published in various social media platforms irrespective of the mode of publication. Studies conducted by Hanna et..al., .(2011) clearly held that degree of following of contents published by firms in social media platform is solely function of motivation of the fan following. However, the mode of engagement varies across the followers and there is no trendline to indicate the same.

5.6. Engagement:

In order to have best possible outcome through Instagram Advertising Platform, engagement factor of the followers have strong bearing and same cannot be over looked. Any visual branding through social media platform is said to worthwhile, if the fan following is more inclined towards commenting rather than mere liking. However, current trends indicate that “Lurking” as best way of visual branding engagement.

5.6.1 Liking:

This is most common mode of engagement by fan following of the brand, who is advertising through visual based social media platform. It is one of least time-consuming mode of engagement among all. However, degree of engagement is subjected to attractiveness of the pictures and quickness in grasping power of the textual/visual contents by potential customer. In many cases, firms are of the view that “like” doesn’t give clear picture of the degree of reach in targeted customer base.

5.6.2 Commenting:

It is one of mode of engagement by fan following of the brand and considered to be second best option. Degree of reach into the targeted customer base, is high as followers tends to read and understand the contents before commenting as evident from comments. In some case they even tag their friends for further brand following. This invariably assist the firms to gather more followings and encroach the target customer base even further.

5.6.3 Sharing:

Sharing is not considered as one of preferred mode of engagement with brand through visual based social media channels. Keeping in view that process of sharing contents in Instagram is very complex process in comparison to Facebook. In most of the cases, followers in Instagram tag their friends, relatives and close acquaintances etc. while commenting in advertisement wall post which invariably causes chain reaction and content reaches his/her friend followings. This method of sharing the content may increase the degree of reach into the targeted customer base. However, the probability of same is very low in comparison to other mentioned methods.

5.6.4 Lurking:

It is most effective mode of brand engagement through visual based social media platform. This method needs new type of follower base designated as “lurker” who are generally driven by inspiration that can be derived from the deeply engraved message from the pictures posted by the advertising agency. However, in order to improve the efficacy of the “lurking” mode of engagement, company has to put some extra efforts to creation of the suitable images which can be easily convey the message to the targeted customer base. 

6. LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH:

Keeping in view the entire process of literature review, we can easily say that there are two limitations as mentioned below;

1.)   Selection of suitable keywords: This might have led to erroneously elimination of relevant research articles.

2.)   Filtration process of research articles: It is function of person-to-person biasness while interpreting the contents mentioned in shortlisted set of research papers.

3.)   Lack of latest survey data on Instagram Advertising: Though, usage of Instagram Advertising for marketing purpose in USA increased by 11.9 percentage point. But, there is no relevant research survey to indicate increase in efficacy of degree of reach to targeted customer base.

7. CONCLUSION:

Brand awareness is considered as one of the essential activities of marketing of any product line and social media platforms plays a major role in increasing degree of reach in target customer base through strategic brand awareness. More and more companies are opting for visual based social media platforms keeping in view affordability, coverage and attractiveness factors into consideration. In today’s era of increasing competitiveness among the similar product line, attracting the customer attention has become prime agenda and at same time difficult process too. This creates pressurizing situation for smaller brands as a result they join the race of social media advertising for efficient marketing.Instagram advertising has different advertising plans for different type of customer to ease off the extra load of amount to be invested in brand awareness program through their platform. Bare perusal of research articles clearly settles that fact that in order to increase the brand awareness through social media platform following factors are needed to be considered; 

1)   Brand Exposure

2)   Electronic word-of-mouth i.e. E-WOM

3)   Customer Engagement

Nevertheless, it is extremely difficult to quantify the efficacy of above cited factors on brand awareness through Instagram advertising due to lack of research survey as on date. 

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Received on 14.04.2019            Modified on 29.04.2019

Accepted on 12.05.2019           ©A&V Publications All right reserved