A study into online fashion brands use of blogs in creating brand awareness in women aged 16-25

Abstract

The purpose of this research project was to investigate the new phenomenon of businesses using online blogs to market their brand. The study looked at eight online fashion brands, which all engage with popular fashion bloggers. It contributes to the understanding of how a brand can use well-known bloggers to reach their target market, whether the target population engage with blogs enough to create brand awareness and to investigate the possibility of integrating blogs with other social media sites to increase brand exposure. The literature review provided a strong background for this research project. It looked at the emergence of social media and the development of traditional marketing techniques to incorporate this new two-way communication between businesses and consumers. It then went on to look at the concept of blogging, the motivational factors for blog engagement and the idea of brand community. An understanding of electronic word of mouth and what brand awareness means added to the understanding of this new marketing technique. A mixed method research design was adopted to facilitate both statistical data and a further understanding of consumer's views on the concept of using blogs to create brand awareness. Quantitative data took the form of a questionnaire taken by the required 16-25 year old female sample, with 107 completed. The qualitative data was a follow up interview from the questionnaire sample, of which 6 interviews took place. Google Drive data collection graphs were used and key theme tables helped to identify and discuss upon the findings of the research in relation to the objectives outlined in the introduction. Findings indicated that whilst brands use of fashion blogs does not independently create strong brand awareness, online fashion brands could still benefit from using fashion bloggers with a strong social media presence to increase their brand awareness. This dissertation aimed to gain an understanding of this new way of marketing by using blogs and social media to expose your brand and to draw upon key ideas that can be useful for brands that wish to adopt this method in the future.