The Impact of Social Media on Brand Awareness: With Special Reference to Facebook Use in Fast Moving Consumer Goods in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Today, traditional media is still a significant part of advertising strategies, but they are unable to reach to all members of the target audience on their own. In other hand, social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, also use as marketing strategy to enhance brand communication and promote and propagate product information among consumers in an efficient manner. As well as the trend of exerting social media platforms which FMCG industry carries out has a significant control over brand awareness and brand building. Therefore, this study has endeavored to fill the gap in marketing strategies, by examining the impact of social media marketing on brand awareness, with reference to Facebook use in fast moving consumer goods industry in Sri Lanka. The study sample was made of 200 people, both male and female, who reside in the Colombo district, use Facebook and have already liked at least one fast moving consumer goods brand. A standardized online survey was conducted via Google Docs to collect the data. The researcher has analyzed data concerning User Generated Communication and Firm Generated Communication which are main two components of social media marketing as the independent variables and brand awareness as the dependent variable to look at the correlation between these factors. The results have found that User Generated Communication and Firm Generated Communication have a positive correlation and impact with brand awareness. Hence, the conclusion has given as social media efforts positively influence brand awareness in FMCG industry. Thereby, the study has suggested to build platforms to enhance consumer’s engagement on creating user generate contents for their brands, create and increase more brand related and unrelated communication, combining traditional media with social media, achieving company target audience through Content/Adds/Apps to be more cost effective, have excellent brand management and good customer base.