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   International Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2017, Volume 11, Issue 4, 620-629.
The Review of Theoretical Aspect of E-Marketing
Behrije RAMAJ
University Haxhi Zeka, Ismaijl Qemajli, U.K'-s. Street, Peje 30000, Kosovo, Tel.: +37745614424, Email: behrije.ramaj@unhz.eu.

Fatos UKAJ*
University Hasan Prishtina, Prishtina 10000,  Kosovo, Email: fatos.ukaj@gmail.com.

ABSTRACT
E-marketing is considered as a new philosophy in the tourism industry and as a recent applicable practice, where Internet is placed as a communication target via electronic tools. Regarding aspiration and theoretical definition, there are different opinions by authors of this field, some of them use the synonyms and refer to E-marketing as Internet marketing, Digital marketing or Electronic marketing. Nowadays, increased customer confidence in electronic media and tools has increased the value of online information and advertising, where for many economic activities has affected the reduction of promotion costs by increasing the value of the product and sales growth. E-marketing does not just matter in selling products or providing services through information technology, a strategic model is much more important or rather a process where the brand value is intended and the basic concept of traditional marketing is met, in this way, meeting customer demand by creating loyal customers. The basic purpose of the research is to address the historical context in order to show the latest developments and to identify possible directions for future research.
JEL Classification: L86; M31; Z33.
Keywords: E-marketing; Internet; Tourism Iindustry; Customer.
* Corresponding author.
1. INTRODUCTION
E-marketing is an innovative activity because it develops new ways of interacting with clients (Lovelock, 1995) and provides new service delivery systems (Dabholkar, 1994). E-marketing relies on technologies to enable interactivity, and thus differs from other marketing practices, providing customers with access to information, while using interactive technologies allows consumers to provide business information (Brodie et al., 2007). Efficiency of electronic marketing was a result of increased loyalty, sales growth and impact on customer attractiveness (Sharma and Sheth, 2004). Digital Marketing appeared at the end of the year 2000 but without any formal definition, but having a lot of confusion in the right design and using several synonyms, such as internet marketing, e-marketing, and digital marketing. These terms are similar and can be used simply as synonyms for each other. However, concepts have emerged one after another, including many different purposes. Digital Marketing is a more inclusive vision because it is the latest notion and can be defined as multi-channel e-marketing (Ana.s, 2012). The idea of electronic marketing can be the kind of marketing in which the objectives are achieved through the use of electronic communication tools such as Internet, interactive TVs and cell phones. Digital marketing embraces a wide range of strategies, but what sustains its success is the cohesive, centric approach to these strategies. Marketing is about communication, and the internet has become a communication center. The interconnected nature of the web allows us to follow and observe these conversations, and provide entry points for all stakeholders (Rob Stok, 2012).
The paper is focused on presenting the views of various authors who have defined and addressed E-marketing in general, in the theoretical aspect, with a particular focus on the tourism industry. The main objectives of the paper are:
1. Research, comparison and presentation of the opinions of different authors who have treated e-marketing in general terms.
International Journal of Economic Perspectives ISSN 1307-1637 © International Economic Society
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   International Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2017, Volume 11, Issue 4, 620-629.
2.
 Research, comparison and presentations of the opinions of different authors who have treated e-marketing in tourism.

3.
Presentation of e-marketing applications in tourism. In addition, the research questions are proposing below:


1.
How is E-marketing defined by different authors?

2.
What does the E-marketing strategy include?

3.
Is E-marketing prioritized in tourism?



2. METHODOLOGY
The literature review is directly incorporated into source materials as part of the process of this formal research. In this paper, the theoretical and historical review type will be applied. The review of theoretical literature helps to analyze already existing theories, their relationships, to what extent the existing theories are being researched and the development of new hypotheses to be tested. Often this form is used to help create or detect current inadequate theories in the absence of appropriate theories to explain new problems or research. The analysis unit will focus on a theoretical concept or on a whole theory or framework. By reviewing the literature will be defined and analyzed relevant researches that are available in particular for the research topic. Basic resources that will be used to access information include:
•
Sources from scientific journals

•
Professional websites

•
 Relevant libraries
Primary sources will be analyzed and presented.




   Source :(Myll.rniemiVarvana,2015),
Figure 1. Conceptual schema of Literature Rewiev
Table 1 is presenting fundamental reference sources addressing and treating "E-marketing".
International Journal of Economic Perspectives ISSN 1307-1637 © International Economic Society
http://www.econ-society.net
   International Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2017, Volume 11, Issue 4, 620-629.
Table 1. Literature Sources
Stokes (2011)
• Interactive use
• Utilizing digital channels Kotler & Keller (2005)
•
Advertisment/Annoucement

•
Communication

•
Promotion via Internet webs and serivces


Krishnamurtay (2006)
• Reference of Internet use Strauss Ansary (2006)
• Managing Customer Relationships
Chaffy (2002)
•
Online channels

•
Reduce the cost of the transaction



Coviello et al. (2001)
• Use of the Internet and interactive technologies Shipside Steven (2002)
• It is a new attitude towards the public
Brodie et al (2007)
• Intermediaries, Dialogues and Identifiers Samiee (1998)
• Encouraging environment
Vella Kester (2008)­
• Targeting how to reach customers Chaffey &Smith (2008)
• Increasing product value and increasing sales
Strauss & Frost (2001)
• Use of data and electronic applications
Table 1 was a summary of previous studies which done by researchers.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW
Internet Marketing is sometimes referred to as online marketing or e-marketing, where it is actually any "online" marketing activity that is undertaken using technology and the Internet. (Jones et al., 2011). An online marketing definition defines it as: a company's attempt to market products and services and establish customer relationships via the Internet (Kotler, Amstrong, 2013). Internet Marketing and Electronic Marketing are often used as synonymous to be implied as the same thing (Strauss and Frost, 2005; Coupey, 2001; Chaffey, 2003; O'Connor et al., 2004). Stokes (2011) argues that "marketing has to do with communication and the Internet has become a communication center," arguing that, through the interactive use of the Internet an organization is able to attend conversations between its customers and the company.
Additionally, Stokes (2011) describes e-marketing as a way of using digital channels to develop marketing for a particular brand. Current research uses the following definition: "E-marketing explains how the company tries to notify buyers, communicate, promote, and sell their bids via internet" (Kotler and Keller 2009). Pestek and Civic (2010) suggest that some companies do not set strategic goals before developing their websites and other electronic marketing activities. In fact, electronic marketing uses digital technology and electronic media specifically on the Internet for trading or selling goods. According to Hoge & Cecil (1993), electronic marketing is simple but does not affect the important aspect of customer relationship.
International Journal of Economic Perspectives ISSN 1307-1637 © International Economic Society
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   International Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2017, Volume 11, Issue 4, 620-629.
Similarly, Strauss and Ansary (2005) defined E-marketing in their latest book as the use of information technology in the process of creating, communicating and giving value to clients and managing customer relationships in a beneficial way for organizations and its holders. Dave Chaffey (2002) defines E-marketing as "Applying digital technologies that form online channels (Web, e-mail, databases, mobile pluses / Wireless & TV digital) to contribute to marketing activities aimed at achieving, gaining and retaining customers through the purchasing process and the customer's lifecycle) by knowing loyal customers (profiles, behavior, appreciation, and loyalty) and by providing integrated communications and online services that match their individual needs. E-marketing increasingly makes the marketing function responsible for 'supply management'. E-marketing, as a technology-based activity, is considered as one of the main aspects of marketing practice that involves the use of the internet and other interactive technologies to create and mediate the dialogue between the company and its clients (Coviello et al. 2001). The two basic applications of electronic marketing are: on one hand, to improve information regarding market sales and decision-making processes within the company and, on the other hand, to increase and improve customer relations.
Modern use and database computerization lead to a more efficient control of information flow and a faster and more consistent processing of information. The Internet can be used in many ways to contact consumers or potential buyers for presentation of goods or corporations from "banners" on various websites or through personal websites through advertising. There is a need to have a clearer understanding of the implementation of e-marketing, both for problems as well as opportunities for organizations on how this technology can be used to carry out marketing activities processes and organization more effectively and efficiently than relying on traditional marketing practices (El-Gohary, 2012). Moreover, Brodie et al. has defined electronic marketing, as how the use of the Internet and other interactive technologies have created and brokered the dialogue between the company and customer identification. E-Marketing is characterized as dependable technology to enable interactivity as it involves setting up an electronic dialogue that provides individual consumers with access to information access, and on the other hand, the use of interactive technologies also allows those customers to provide information for various businesses (Brodie et al., 2007).
E-marketing tools have many advantages for tourism and hospitality organizations, as well as other organizations such as: providing hospitality services that enhance the ability to communicate directly with customers and create conditions for all businesses of all sizes build competitive edge, allowing hospitality companies to reach potential customers faster and more effectively, significantly increasing and facilitating access to the entire world. Also, supporting interaction between consumers and hoteliers, consumers can look for and buy products and their favorite services without any geographical or time limitations, customers can easily tailor their particular products or services, provide suppliers with a better understanding of the needs of their customers. Eventually, suppliers can enjoy lower cost benefits distribution, a fairer competition for businesses of different backgrounds and this creates an equitable rules arena for small-size hotels and might have higher incomes (Nezamabad, 2011). Online Marketing may be considered as an approach that targets potential customers and information on the Internet has a decisive impact on consumer decisions (Vella and Kester, 2008). Online Marketing is a relatively strategic aspect that has been implemented not long ago. It is getting a very high implementation, where it is of importance to almost all businesses. Online marketing can be considered as a functional aspect of the marketing strategy. Online Marketing may not be a particular activity, but an integral part of the marketing program. The Internet has become an important tool for promoting and distributing tourist services (Palmer & McCole, 2000).
Furthermore, Online Marketing offers many benefits when compared to traditional media channels. Online marketing strategies can improve customer relationships, operational efficiency, marketing effectiveness and company’s performance when properly implemented (Dlodlo and Mafini, 2014, Eid and El-Kasswawy, 2012). Parrott et al. (2010) also point out that, unlike traditional methods, online marketing also allows traders to see in real-time what is wrong and where there is possibly a business advantage over the Internet and so businesses can quickly adapt to improve their results. According to Schleberger (2011), online marketing has become one of the most efficient central functions in many industrialized countries in recent years. It is also claimed that the tourism industry can not function efficiently without the proper application of online marketing, due to changes in the opportunities and internal and external threats to the tourism industry. There are different opinions about the impact and overall expectation of internet companies and marketing functions in particular.
According to Harrigan et al. (2012), Internet marketing involves the use of Internet technologies to reach customers. Online marketing is a combination of internet and marketing use to sell products and to advertise the company.
International Journal of Economic Perspectives ISSN 1307-1637 © International Economic Society
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   International Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2017, Volume 11, Issue 4, 620-629.
The same basic principles as traditional marketing apply, except that everything happens at a much faster speed and the company has to fight with others worldwide and not necessarily only with those in its direct business field (Lloyd and the Croatian , 2008). The high level of inviolability of services/ mixed products can be seen as one of the main barriers to use of internet marketing in the future (Gary, 2013). Ramsey and McCole (2013) address the unique nature of an industry in using Internet marketing, also stressed that adoption has been largely dependent on external pressure from business competitors as well as supply chains. Thong and Yap (2005) notes that businesses can apply online marketing as a result of their competition, so that their competitors do not have the advantage in this regard. Fillis et al., (2014) speculate that there may be a businessman who is dictated primarily by the ultimate client, supplier or distributor who does not want to embrace online marketing as a technology for businesses but have more interest and prefer traditional methods. If an organization has a large amount of data and transactions, then it is more likely to prefer online marketing where it can help streamline operations and deliver efficient processes within the organization (Thong and Yap, 2005).
Online Marketing has enabled customers to search multiple product bidding companies at virtually no cost so they can reach the desired information (Allen and Fjermestad, 2010). One of the key goals is to build contact and a direct connection with consumers where they will be able to make a product-related bid (marketing-based marketing or one-on-one marketing) using their online marketing platforms (Elliott and Rutenberg, 2010). Strategy as a general direction of the company, reflects responses that are based on information from the environment (Jennings and Zandbergen, 1995). The electronic marketing strategy involves using electronic methods and touches on traditional marketing in two ways. First, it increases efficiency in established marketing functions. Second, e-marketing technology transforms many marketing strategies that result in new business models that increase customer value or enhance company profitability (Strauss and Frost, 2001a). Strategy as a general direction of the company reflects feedback that is based on information from the environment and this can explain the strength of the relationship between performance size and a specific marketing response from the company (such as market orientation). Walker and Ruekert (1987) prefered strategic orientation, specific dimensions in performance and marketing activities to have a conditional connection: companies choose a kind of strategy to excel in particular performance dimensions and execute each strategy by choosing marketing activities. Online marketing is "the process of building the creation and preservation of customer relationships through online activities to enable the exchange of ideas, products and services that realize and fulfill the goals of both parties" (Mohammed et al., 2001).
Digital marketing, e-marketing and online marketing are the same terms that refer to online marketing or online websites, online advertising, e-mail, interactive newsagents, interactive TVs or mobile phones (Chaffey & Smith 2008). E-marketing is at the centre of e-business, which means getting closer to customers and understanding them better by adding value to products,  expanding distribution channels and increasing sales through electronic marketing campaigns by using digital media channels (Chaffey & Smith 2008). Strauss and Frost define e-marketing as "Using data and applications for conception, execution and distribution planning and creating ideas for commodity and service prices to create exchanges to satisfy individual and organizational goals" (Strauss and Frost, 2001b). Finally, E-marketing strategies include the use of existing communication, data and network development to provide personalized and uninterrupted communication between the firm and its customers and to offer value over traditional networks (Watson et al., 2002). Over the last few years, the overall trend in travel businesses around the world has been adopting new electronic marketing strategies that utilize more and more advanced technology applications on the Internet today.
One of the key technology applications used in promoting travel business is the use of social networking websites (Nusair et al., 2012). The impact of some factors that are considered essential to the use of e-marketing in hotels. For example, a strategy for the hotel level, the existence of a hotel marketing function and the control of the marketing function in the development, implementation and monitoring of electronic marketing results and, database and building relationships with clients (Pe.tek & .i.i., 2010). A summary of e-marketing applications in tourism is provided in Table 2, where marketing e-applications are introduced in tourism and the most common types of online business. Many hospitality industry specialists believe that to compete effectively, companies such as hotels, cruises and cruise lines need uninterrupted connection to their computer reservation system (KRS), including a global distribution system ( GDS). If a hotel wants to increase its international business and its reservations through travel agents, the existence or development of such a system would of course be seen as a force (Philip Kotler, John T. Bowen, James C. Makens; translated by Arta Rexhepi, Fatlum Adili, 2014).
International Journal of Economic Perspectives ISSN 1307-1637 © International Economic Society
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   International Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2017, Volume 11, Issue 4, 620-629.
Table 2. E-marketing Applications in Tourism

When it comes to the implementation of electronic marketing in the field of tourism in hotels, it can be said that the acceptance of electronic marketing is determined by many factors, for example, the skills of the owners and the resources available to the hotel and the organizational culture of the hotel, the cost of adopting the electronic marketing, hotel size, ease of use and compatibility, competitive pressures, government influence and market trends, hotel infrastructure, cultural infrastructure and e-marketing tendencies (El-Gohary, 2012). According to Coviello et al. (2001), from the list of electronic marketing activities in innovative and modern technology, E-marketing is considered as one of the main aspects of marketing practice involving the use of the Internet and other interactive technologies to create and mediate the dialogue between hotels and customers. The model showed in Figure 2 presents the key segments of the electronic marketing model presented on the basis of analysis of theoretical literature and empirical research.

Figure 2.
Electronic Marketing Model for the Development of Tourism Services

International Journal of Economic Perspectives ISSN 1307-1637 © International Economic Society
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   International Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2017, Volume 11, Issue 4, 620-629.

Figure 2.
Electronic Marketing Model for the Development of Tourism Services (Continued)

The electronic marketing model distinguishes five key segments of electronic marketing to create a strategy for a tourist company based on the following points:
1.
Analysis of the current situation

2.
Setting electronic marketing goals.

3.
Establishing an electronic marketing strategy.

4.
Implementing the electronic marketing strategy.

5.
Controlling/evaluation


The marketing strategy is a key part of the company's overall strategy. Part of the strategy process is an analysis of the current situation where special attention should be paid to the analysis of external and internal factors, where a more complex analysis should be carried out by electronic marketing. After the general analysis, the formulation of electronic marketing purposes is made by determining sales promotion, market research and planning and also infrormation about services. Particular importance in this model is the formation of an electronic marketing strategy focusing on access to new markets, the complexity of electronic marketing, and long-term cooperative relationships. Finally, a strategy can not be successful unless constant control is done.

4. CONCLUSION
The basic purpose of the research is to address the historical context in order to show the latest developments and to identify possible directions for future research. By using interactive technology, E-marketing offers very good opportunities for the tourism industry, a fact that has enabled it to create a new attitude of tourists and has impacted the product value increase and sales growth. Thanks to the use of digital channels by referring to the use of Internet and online means of communication, companies have reduced the cost of information, especially, the promotion costs; it is also possible to obtain the information from tourists. Managing tourists' relations has become very easy for the company, where it has influenced the creation of continuous contacts between tourists and hotels. Another important point is also the decreasing of the cost of transactions, because almost all reservations are made online by tourists, and this shows an increased trust by customers where the greatest impact has been the building of relationships with clients.
International Journal of Economic Perspectives ISSN 1307-1637 © International Economic Society
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   International Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2017, Volume 11, Issue 4, 620-629.
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BL
31,2

Received 17 March 2018
Revised 30 March 2018
Accepted 3 April 2018


The Bottom Line Vol. 31 No. 2, 2018 pp. 98-113 © Emerald Publishing Limited 0888-045X DOI 10.1108/BL-03-2018-0012

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Internet-based digital marketing strategies for data-rich environments
A social network perspective to study gossips
Faiqa Kiran
National College of Business Administration and Economics, Lahore, Pakistan

Ahsan Zubair
Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan

Irum Shahzadi
Department of Business Administration, Government College University,
Faisalabad, Pakistan, and


Aamir Abbas
University of Sargodha (Layallpur Campus), Faisalabad, Pakistan
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to .rst bring to light the essential digital strategies to study organizations. Second, how businesses can improve their strategic capabilities by using the information gathered from internet sources or networks. Third, this study investigates how employees in an organization tend to engage in positive and/or negative gossip and how gossips affect coworker-rated informal in.uence in organization and supervisor-rated performance. Social network analysis is used to .nd the underlying relationships between gossips, coworker-rated in.uence and supervisor-rated performance. Design/methodology/approach – This research paper is divided into two parts. The .rst study based on profound synthesis of literature. Major digital sources to study organizations are identi.ed. The strategies requirement for each channel is identi.ed. Suggestions are given to managers to improve strategic decision-making based on big data. The second study is a cross-sectional study where questionnaires (survey) are used to elicit data. Social network analysis is used to analyze the data using ucinet 6 software.
Findings – The .ndings of the study pinpoint the skills required to analyze large data, available in organizations. The second study .nds out that close friends are more engaged in gossips than coworkers who have only working relationships. The friends having high structural embeddedness are more likely to be involved in negative gossips. Coworker perceives those employees who are engaged in negative gossips as having high informal in.uence. However, there is negative relationship between negative gossips and supervisor-rated in.uence. Research limitations/implications – The research study is cross-sectional in design; however, longitudinal design can be used to gain more insights about negative gossips and their effects. Second, a very small sample is used in this study.
Practical implications – This study can be used to understand informal communication network in the organization. Managers can use this channel to pass information quickly, as informal channels are faster than formal communication channels. This research can be used to understand the underling relationships between the coworkers in organizations Originality/value – This paper provides guidelines to organizational life and information on how the informal networks within organization can be studied.
Keywords Big data, Digital technology, Gossip, Friendship ties, Structural embeddedness, Work.ow ties
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Digital and internet technologies are transforming the world, new digital economy is rising and marketing environment is becoming more dynamic. This era of information technology requires fresh business practices and processes (Wymbs,
2011). The digital information and technology used for marketing-related position allow companies to be more competitive (Molinillo
and
Japutra,
2017). Businesses are using electronic devices and internet for acquiring and retaining customers and employees by developing an integrated, targeted and measurable
business
strategy
(Grishikashvili
et
al.,2014).
Gossip or talking about others is present everywhere in our social environment. One can .nd it on news channels, magazines, television shows, internet websites, etc. Even our daily face-to-face conversations are .lled with gossips. Nearly two-thirds of our daily conversations are about social topics and have references of some third party.
Almost everyone is involved in gossips, but it is mostly considered as a negative activity. Most of the religions warn against gossips. Islam teaches Muslims not to engage in back biting of others. In business literature, gossips are considered mostly as a negative activity. Gossips waste time, decrease productivity, lower employee morale and trust, hurt feelings and reputation and may result in turnover of valued employees (Hennessy,
2008).
Gossips are considered as a dysfunctional activity but it is present in every organization. This study explores why gossips are widespread in all organizations by .nding out what types of relations and network structures support the .ow of gossips. Do individuals who participate in gossip get any bene.ts from it? These questions motivated this study. Two kinds of gossips, positive and negative, can be spread in organizations.
In this study, we are exploring the marketing strategies based on digital marketing by using the technology of internet in data-rich environment; social network evidence has been taken from gossips wandering around the world. We conducted two different studies to check all these implications and merge it to get implications in society by this updated technology usage and by using these types of marketing strategies.
2. Study 1
2.1 Internet and business strategy
The internet has changed the business strategies, instead of forcefully pushing the marketing messages to customers. Now managers are using interactive permission-based push digital marketing strategies to send the messages to perspective consumers (Wymbs,
2011). Large amount of consumer data is available on internet and especially social media. Businesses are using big data and its application for generating information for such huge sources of data and using it for business intelligence.
The main purpose of the .rst study is to identify .rst the analytical skills required by managers in the modern data-rich environment. Second, how businesses can improve analytics capabilities by following the essential steps for internet-based digital marketing strategies. The second research study investigated how social network analysis can be applied to check the role of gossips, a dysfunction activity in organizations on employee performance. This study explains how employee networks in organization can studied.

2.2 Analytical skills for business
Big data is a new analysis tool for business and social sciences. In digital world, the amount of the data that can be used to create information and knowledge is increasing terri.cally. The challenge is not only the increase in volume of data but also the availability of different types of data (images, videos, text, etc.) (Kaisler
et
al.,2013). The automatic access to big data generates many opportunities for business intelligence; it also brings challenges to both practitioners and researchers (Fan
et
al.,2015). Kaisler
et
al.
(2013)
identi.ed three main challenges associated with big data, storage, processing and management.
Many data sources are available digitally for marketing intelligence tasks, such as customer opinion data mining. Data sources include social media data, transactional records, search engine queries, etc. Different analytical methods depending upon the characteristics
of
available
data
can
be
applied
to
extract
marketing
intelligence
data
(Fan
et
al.,2015). Analysis techniques based on single data source only provide a few insights, leading to potentially biased decision. More precise business intelligence requires incorporation of heterogeneous information from different sources. Integrating big data is not an easy task; it requires new methods, applications and frameworks for effective big data management in the context of marketing intelligence.

2.3 Business strategies for big data
This study explores different viewpoints of business intelligence and proposes a framework to manage big data. First, different data sources are identi.ed and suitable methods for analyzing these data are given for business intelligence.
The proposed framework provides guidelines for companies to select appropriate data sources and methods for managing big data for strategic goals. Many consumers search the products on internet. Business need to pay attention to the search queries they use on internet (Skiera,
2012). Keyword monitoring helps the marketers to maximize exposure to their
website
through
search
engines
(Kumar
et
al.,
2013a, 2013b). Businesses can obtain click stream data of their websites by listing the click behavior of customers when they are using their website. Click stream data provide electronic record of user activity online. Moe
and
Fader
(2004)
explained that clickstream data provide not only information about visitors traf.c on Web like visit frequency, characteristics of items viewed and visit duration, but also insights about consumers future visit to retail outlets and purchase behavior.Business uses two main approaches to analyze clickstream data. “Site centric” gives details about the consumer behavior on the given site, ignoring the consumer behavior on competitors website. “User centric” provides details about different consumers across various websites, search engine and user demographics.
Social media is among the most promising tools of marketing on internet, and provides a platform
to
businesses
to
directly
connect
with
the
consumers
(Neti,
2011). Many businesses are focusing on social media to engage customers. Social networks provide lots of consumer data that marketers can use for different marketing campaigns. Social media can be used to generate electronic word of mouth (EWOM). Businesses need frameworks and a set of measures to calculate value of individuals word of mouth in terms of its viral impact and net sales in.uenced
by
the
EWOM
(Kumar
et
al.,
2013a, 2013b). Kumar and his collegues gave two metrices to measure in.uence of each user to generate viral information by using “customer in.uence value” and “customer in.uence effect.” Seeding strategies are used by business to .nd the users who have high in.uence value. Social network analysis is used to identify the potential seed users, who can spread message at an amazing rate (Hinz
et
al.,
2011)(Table
I).
Data source Measurements Tools Metrics
Search queries (Sponder,
2004) (Skiera,
2012) Clickstream (Bucklin
and
Sismeiro,
2009) Social media (Kumar
et
al.,
2013a, 2013b) (Hsu
et
al.,
2014)
Blogs
Community forums (Tellis
and
Tirunillai,
2014) Recruitment webites Keyword monitoring
Listing website page clicks
Consumer pro.les Size of brand mentions Social media campaigns
Positive , negative or neutral Conversations
Perspective employee pro.les Search engine optimization (SEO)
Clickstream data
Seeding strategy Data mining Classi.cation Clustering Regression Web traf.c Traf.c via search engine Site stickiness Website traf.c Site centric User centric Demographics Volume Alignment with organizational goals Identi.cation of right social media channel Learning valuable insights about customer Valence of posts
Volume and valence
Demographics Volume

Digital marketing strategies
Table I.
Summary of internet data sources, measurements, tools and metrics
Reward-based referral programs are popular among managers to acquire new customers. Such customers are more loyal and require less marketing effort than non-reffered customers, so they generate more revenue at a lower cost (Schmitt
et
al.,
2011).
Online communities and forums also serve as an important instrument of internet business. Managers can gain deep insights about the consumer and product experience and collect data about how they are using the products and what the improvements are required to
delight
the
customers
(Kumar
et
al.,
2013a, 2013b).
Data-driven business does not mean that there is no involvement of managers in the decision and all the decisions are based on calculations of decision support software or information gained by analysis of big data (Kumar
et
al.,
2013a, 2013b). In this dynamic era, data sharing culture in the organization is the need of the day. Strong analytical skills based on the use of information technology and statistics are required for marketing in the twenty-.rst century. However, most important skill for marketing are business skills so that marketers have a deep understanding of the market and consumers, and are able to run pro.table customer relationship by delivering superior value using digital technology (Rogers
and
Sexton,
2012)(Figure
1).

Figure 1.
Skills required for internet marketing
Businesses are increasingly using internet-based marketing strategies. We discussed the concept of big data, and then identi.ed sources for big data intelligence. Rogers
and
Sexton
(2012)
gave .ve key steps for an effective digital marketing strategy in the modern dynamic and data-rich marketing environment. Businesses need innovative and effective measurement strategies to design ef.cient marketing strategies and measure the return on marketing expense. Managers need to follow these steps to create a winning strategy:
•
Set objectives .rst: Every marketing effort must be focused on achieving some clear business objectives. Keep performance indicators can be developed for achieving the marketing objectives;

•
Design metrics to ensure marketing is linked to those objectives: Managers must develop metrics to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaign so they evaluate their performance by looking at the objectives and the ways they are using to achieve them;

•
Gather the right data for those metrics: After designing the measurement metrics, managers must identify what type of data they require for analyzing the results;

•
Communicate to the entire organization what your objectives are and how they are being measured: They most important point is that everyone in the business must be aligned with the marketing objectives so they must be shared to improve marketing effectiveness and for continuously improving business strategy and measuring techniques.

•
Evaluate and reward employees in part on how well objectives are achieved: After communicating the objectives, measurement models and data requirement to all the employees, the last step is to acknowledge those who are responsible for the success and improvement in current business strategy.


3. Study 2
3.1 Gossips in organization
Gossip or talking about others is present everywhere in our social environment. One can .nd it on news channels, magazines, television shows, internet, websites, etc. Even our daily face-to-face conversations are .lled with gossips. Nearly two-thirds of our daily conversations are about social topics and have references of some third party.
Almost everyone is involved in gossips, but it is mostly considered as a negative activity. Most of the religions warn against gossips. Islam teaches Muslims not to engage in back biting of others. In business literature, gossips are considered mostly as a negative activity. Gossips waste time, decrease productivity, lower employee morale and trust, hurt feelings and
reputation
and
may
result
in
turnover
of
valued
employees
(Hennessy,
2008).
Gossips are considered as a dysfunctional activity but it is present in every organization. This study explores why gossips are widespread in all organizations by .nding out what types of relations and network structures support the .ow of gossips. Do individuals who participate in gossiping get any bene.ts from it? These questions motivated this study. Two kinds of gossips, positive and negative, can be spread in organizations.
4. Literature review
Gossip is de.ned by researchers as, “idle talk” or “small talk” by two people about a third person. Unlike rumor which is de.ned as the public communications that are considered to be a way to help us in coping with our angst and ambiguity or simply our insecurities, gossip has the trait of “inner-circleness,” which is most common among the persons who have a common ground and mutual interest. Academic researchers have also concluded that gossips are mostly having speci.c consequences and purpose (Gluckman,
1963; Goodman
and
Ben-Ze’ev,
1994; Rosnow
and
Georgoudi,
1985; Sabini
and
Silver,
1982; Spitzberg
and
Cupach,
1998; Rosnow, 1988,
2001).
With the somewhat comparatively little research focusing on the positivity or negativity of gossips, it is mostly assumed that gossips are used for negative outcomes in mind most of the time, but this is not entirely correct. In 2004, a study theorized that gossiping is linked with the “evolution of human intelligence and social life” (Dunbar,
2004). This makes it questionable when is the gossip positive and when it is negative.
Gossip is a form of informal organizational communication (Waddington
and
Michelson,
2007). Two basic types of gossips, positive and negative, occur in different organizations. Gossip is generally considered as negative but it is not always concerned with abuse. Positive gossip also has a certain role in organizations. Gossip is not always the cause of rule breaking, as it can also be used positively for the purpose of rule strengthening. Gossip affects reputation and positive remarks about another person in his/her absence, which can help in building that person’s reputation.
There are three basic functions of positive gossip. It can be used to inform, entertain and in.uence. Gossip also helps in understanding the organizational norms while working in groups or teams (Dunbar,
2004). Some researchers believe that gossip helps individuals to release stress; express and communicate emotions; gain support; and reduce uncertainty, anxiety and aids in problem-solving. It provides emotional support to the employees who engage in gossiping. In case of organizations, gossip is a source of expression of care and concern about people or the organization, sharing of information and knowledge, development of inter-organizational networks, establishment of work or team relations and dissemination
of
organizational
culture
(Waddington
and
Michelson,
2007).
Gossip’s negativity or positivity depends upon who is analyzing gossip activity. As discussing negative attributes of others in their absence is a purely negative activity from an individual perspective but can be helpful for the group who discusses this, as they will refrain from such kind of negative activities in future and learn from the experiences of others. Both negative and positive gossips have certain value in the organizations. Negative gossips result in low employee moral, wastage of time and turnover of promising employees (Hennessy,
2008).
In the current study, we assume that the gossipers who engage in gossip know about the organizations and their surroundings and understand the value of gossip they start. So in this study, the person who starts a gossip knows its value and the effect it can produce.
For .nding the relationship it is of utmost importance to .nd out the ties that de.ne the gossip to be positive or negative. It can be assumed that the negative gossiping arises because of placing more trust in the other person, as negative gossip starts from some information disclosed which is close to one’s heart. This piece of information that ends up being a gossip advocates the involvement of trust between the parties thus claiming close relation or friendship tie (Rosnow,
2001).
But on the other hand, the positive gossip may end in af.rmative results, which may be favorable for both or at least one party. This makes the assumption that the work.ow ties, where trust is not of much concern, will be the one where positive gossip evolves and is seen while negative gossip is mostly related with friendship ties or closed ties.
These assumption lead to the following hypotheses:
H1a. Regular interaction between two coworkers will be positively associated in transmission of only positive gossip.
H1b. A work.ow tie between two individuals will be positively associated in transmission of only positive gossip.
H1c. A friendship between two individuals will be associated in transmission of both positive gossip and negative gossip.
Structural embeddedness can be thought of as a measure of cohesiveness between actors. It should also be noted that along with the two directly involved parties related with gossiping third parties, who may or may not be the ones which the gossips are about, also in.uence the trust. These third-party ties are known as “structural embeddedness.” In other words, “structural embeddedness” will be high when the ego and alter will have common third-party ties. Thus, assuming the relevance of trust it can be said that the more the structural embeddedness is present, the more the negative gossiping will occur and vice versa because the mutual relationship ties existing between the two people will increase the level of trust. Hence, it is hypothesized that:
H2. Friends sharing high levels of structural embeddedness will be more likely to engage in negative gossip than with friends sharing low level of structural embeddedness.
Not with standing clarifying the structural predecessors to negative and positive gossip, we additionally want to see how taking an interest in gossip systems is identi.ed with workers’ results in their association. In the event that we were to discover a positive impact for gossiping on co-workers, it may clarify partially why gossiping is so universal. Moreover, we planned to research whether the sort of gossip (positive vs negative) would lead the gossiper to encounter distinctive authoritative results. The accompanying study looks at how gossip relates with two individual outcomes: the workers’ in-part execution as appraised by their supervisors and the representatives’ casual impact as evaluated by their coworkers. We consider the connection in the middle of gossiping and these conclusions from social effects.
From the social correlation perspective, one can assume that when the gossiper positively gossips with people, they are also taking and giving views on others along with getting to know what to do better and how to do better. This also helps in .nding out what to avoid as the gossips will identify what was considered as bad by the coworkers while at the same time increasing performance. In other words, they will be implicitly comparing themselves with others. But gossip can also have a negative effect on the gossiper in case it is negative gossip. In the hierarchy, it will always be interpreted as wrong by the upper level management. This is why it is very uncommon that the negative gossiper will be given high rating by the supervisors and colleagues, whereas the person responsible for positive gossiping will be given high ratings by both colleagues and supervisors leading to better performance once rewards and positive reinforcements come in the formula along with the knowledge of what traits have been appreciated by the supervisors in the past with the help of gossiping. On the other hand, informal ties in the organization leading to information sharing may increase or decrease in.uential power among coworkers. The reason is simply the richness of the information being shared by gossiping. The person who shares more positive or negative gossip will have more informal in.uence among coworkers in the organization. Hence, it is hypothesized that:
H3a. There will be a positive relationship between the number of people with whom an individual engages in positive gossip and coworker-rated in.uence.
H3b. There will be a positive relationship between the number of people with whom an individual engages in negative gossip and coworker-rated in.uence.
H4a. There will be a positive relationship between the number of people with whom an individual engages in positive gossip and supervisor-rated performance.
H4b. There will be a negative relationship between the number of people with whom an individual engages in negative gossip and supervisor-rated performance.
5. Research methodology
Before starting data collection, we conducted a pilot study in a small branch of a private bank. The branch selected for pilot study comprised six permanent and .ve contractual employees. We collected data from the permanent staff only and they all were involved in gossips. The result showed that gossiping was present in the private sector. Both positive and negative gossiping surrounded coworkers affecting the in.uence rating and performance rating somewhat.
Data were collected from a 13-member team and their supervisor at a branch of.ce of Ring Road Traf.c Police in Lahore, Pakistan. We also conducted semi-structured interviews with employees of traf.c police about employee satisfaction and working environment. They all declared that gossiping was found in their organization. Most of the employees we interviewed also mentioned that gossip existed in both positive and negative sense. Hence, we concluded that gossips would be a good topic to study in an organizational setting.
We selected a small team of 13 members because it would be easy to apply whole-network approach. We asked different questions to the respondents (ego) about their relationships with the coworkers/colleges (alters). It was suggested that if enough egos are sampled, this process would produce a precise portrayal of the relationships in the entire network
(Marsden,
2005).
All the team members were male. Average age of team members was 31 years and average tenure of the team members was 7.4 years. Two team members were MPhil degree holder, eight were master degree holders and two were bachelor degree holders.
The response rate was 100 per cent, as the respondents completely .lled the questionnaire and there were no missing data.
Sociometric
data
were
collected
to
evaluate
relationship
between
peers
(Scott,
2001). Two kinds of relational bonds were considered among peers in this study, namely, work.ow ties and friendship ties. For sociometric data collection, each respondent was given a rooster of 13 employees of a team of Ring Road Police. All the employees had regular interaction with each other.
We asked different questions from the employees to understand different types of relational bonds among them. The detailed questionnaire is attached in the Appendix
section. Each respondent could nominate alters for more than one relationship. For instance, an individual could consider somebody to be both a friend and a coworker. One item question was used to measure each network relation (Wasserman
and
Faust,
1994). Detailed description of survey questionnaire is given below (Grosser
et
al.,2010).
Each respondent was asked to answer the following question about their coworker. “Indicate coworker whom you interact regularly.” The data collected were binary coded (“1 = coworker whom you interact regularly and 0 = coworker whom you do not interact regularly”) and entered into a matrix of 13 x 13. This regular interaction in ties matrix was maximally summetrized. Maximally summetrized means that a tie or relation is assumed if only one actor in the dyad mentions that particular relation exists.
The respondents were asked, “Are you required to work directly with this person to get your work done?” These data were binary coded (1 = required to work with and 0 = not required to work with) and entered into a 13 x 13 matrix. This required work.ow matrix was maximally summetrized.
To measure the friendship ties the respondents were asked, “Do you consider this person to be a close friend (you have con.dence in this person).” The data is entered into a 13 x 13 matrix and were binary coded (1 = friend and 0 = not friend). The matrix was maximally summetrized.
In case of work .ow-only ties, we had to separate those actors who were both required to work with and were also considered friends by the same actor. To get the required work .ow tie only, we simply multiplied the required work.ow matrix with friendship matrix and subtracted the original work .ow matrix from the resultant matrix, leaving behind required work.ow only tie. This matrix was binary coded (1 = work .ow only tie and 0 = other).
Two questions were asked about gossips from the respondents. First question stated, “Do you engage in gossip with this person?” The data were entered in 13 x 13 matrix and were binary coded (1 = yes and 0 = no). Second question asked about was “sharing information about others is a natural occurrence in our social life. If you engage in of.ce gossip with this person, is it most often positive gossip, negative gossip or even blend of both.”
The data were entered in 13 x 13 matrix and coded (1 = positive gossip, 2 = negative gossip and 3 = both positive and negative gossips). The gossip matrix was then further recoded to extract the positive and negative gossip matrices.
The positive gossip matrix was formed by recoding (positive gossip = 1, negative gossip = 0 and both positive and negative gossips = 0). We also measure the degree of centrality of positive gossip network. Thepositivegossiptiesweremaximally symmetrized.
The 13 x 13 gossip matrix was further decoded to isolate negative gossip by recoding (positive gossip = 0, negative gossip = 1 and both positive and negative gossips = 1) (Figure
2).

The structural embeddedness is de.ned as the extent to which ego shares mutual ties to third parties with alter. Structural embeddedness for each dyad was calculated by multiplying the friendship matrix with its transpose. This resulted in 13 x 13 matrix, where value of each cell represents third-party ties shared by actors both ego and alter.
In the network questionnaire, we asked each respondent to rate the informal in.uence of their coworkers on a Likert scale of .ve where 1 = “no formal in.uence,” 2= “low formal in.uence,” 3= “neutral,” 4= “moderate formal in.uence” and 5 = “high formal in.uence.” The data were entered into a 13 x 13 matrix.
The supervisor of the 13 member team rated the team’s performance on a separate survey. Performance was rated on a six-item scale of overall performance. The following questions were used to rate the performance and a .ve-point Likert type scale was used.
•
Employee’s quality of work is higher than average.

•
The employee’sef.ciency is much higher than average.

•
Employee strives for higher-quality work than required.

•
Employee’s ability to perform core job tasks.

•
Employee’s job knowledge with reference to core job tasks.

•
Employee’s creativity when performing core tasks.


6. Analysis
The value of adjusted R2 is 0.07 and p-value is 0.997, hence the H1a is rejected and no signi.cant relationship is found between regular interactions between two coworkers in transmission of positive gossips. The value of adjusted R2 is 0.086 and p-value is 0.009, hence H1b is also rejected, and no signi.cant relationship is found between work.ow tie and transmission of positive gossips. The value of adjusted R2 is 0.381, hence H1c is signi.cant and there is a positive relationship between friendship tie and transmission of both positive and negative gossips.
The value of adjusted R2 is -0.138 and F-value is 0.282, hence H2a is signi.cant and there is a positive relationship between friends sharing high levels of structural embeddedness and negative gossips. The value of adjusted R2 is -0.138 and F-value is 0.282, hence H2b is signi.cant and there is a positive relationship between friends sharing low levels of structural embeddedness and negative gossips. Hence, H2 is proved, and friends sharing high levels of structural embeddedness will be more likely to engage in negative gossip than with friends sharing low level of structural embeddedness.
The adjusted R2 is 0.367 and F-value is 8.682, hence H3a is rejected and there is a negative relationship between number of people with whom an individual engages in positive gossip and coworker-rated in.uence. The value of adjusted R2 is -0.079 and F-value is 0.958, hence H3b is accepted and there is a positive relationship between the number of people with whom an individual engages in negative gossip and coworker-rated in.uence.
The value of adjusted R2 is -0.167, hence H4a is rejected and there is no signi.cant relationship between the number of people with whom an individual engages in positive gossip and supervisor-rated performance.
The value of adjusted R2 is -0.211 and F-value is 0.257, hence H4b is accepted and there is a negative relationship between the number of people with whom an individual engages in a negative gossip and supervisor rated performance.
7. Limitations and future directions
7.1 Study1
The advance internet and communication technology has given tremendous opportunities to marketers and can be used to create low cost wining business strategies. There is need of more rigorous research in this area to get bene.t from true potential of big data to understand consumers (Kumar
et
al.,
2013a, 2013b). Empirical investigation to show how individual consumer’s data available through internet can be used to powerful marketing campaigns. Business can discover new analytical techniques to gain deep consumer insights from unstructured social media data.
Similarly, the informal and formal employee networks in organization can be used to foster fast and positive communication.
8. Conclusion
Developing internet-based digital marketing strategies and analytical for data-rich environment promises new opportunities to understand customers and to develop strong relationship with them. In digital age, consumers are more powerful than ever because they have access to large amount of information, same is true for companies as they have more data about consumers, which can be used to develop innovative products to delight customers.
The .ndings of the second study highlight the important consequences of gossips in organization. The coworkers who are close friends are more likely to engage in negative gossips. However, the coworkers who have only working relationship generally are not involved in any kind of gossip.
An important contribution of this study is to highlight the importance of relationship between network embeddedness and negative gossips. This explains that two directly tied coworkers in friendship network share many common friends. They all are more engaged in spreading negative gossips than those who do not share common friends.
The research .nds a signi.cant relation between negative gossips and coworker-rated informal in.uence. This states that coworkers rate employees who are engaged in spreading negative gossips as having high informal in.uence in organization.
However, there is negative relation between negative gossips and supervisor-rated performance.
This type of research is useful in understanding the importance of gossips in organization, and provides a detailed understanding of informal communication network in the organization. Managers who understand this casual channel of communication can use it to convey some information more rapidly than through the formal channels. Managers can use this information to minimize the negative outcomes of gossips.
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Waddington, K. and Michelson, G. (2007), “Analysing gossip to reveal and understand power relationships, political action and reaction to change inside organisations”, CMS Conference, Manchester.
Wasserman, S. and Faust, K. (1994), Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications, Cambridge University Press, Mahwah, NJ.
Wymbs, C. (2011), “Digital marketing: the time for a new ‘academic major’ has arrived”, Journal of Marketing Education, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 93-106.
Further reading
Borgatti, S.P., Everett, M.G. and Freeman, L.C. (2002), Ucinet 6 for Windows: Software. Chevalier, J.A. and Mayzlin, D. (2006), “The effect of word of mouth on sales: online book reviews”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 43 No. 3, pp. 345-354. Salmivalli, C., Lagerspetz, K., Bjorkqvist, K., Osterman, K. and Kaukiainen, A. (1996), “Bullying as a group process: participant roles and their relations to social status within the group”, Aggressive Behavior, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 1-15. Tom French, L.L. (2011), “We’re all marketers now”, Marketing & Sales Practice, McKinsey Quarterly.
Appendix Digital




marketing strategies


Corresponding author
Aamir Abbas can be contacted at: aamir.abbastuf@gmail.com

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Article
Digital Marketing Actions That Achieve a Better Attraction and Loyalty of Users: An Analytical Study
Juan Jos. L.pez Garc.a 1,* , David Lizcano 2 , Celia MQ Ramos 3 and Nelson Matos 3
1 Social Faculty, University Distance of Madrid (UDIMA), V.a de Servicio A-6, 15, 28400 Collado Villalba,
28040 Madrid, Spain
2 School of Computer Science, University Distance of Madrid (UDIMA), V.a de Servicio A-6, 15, 28400 Collado
Villalba, 28040 Madrid, Spain; david.lizcano@udima.es
3 Escola Superior de Gest.o, Hotelaria e Turismo, University of Algarve, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal;
cmramos@ualg.pt (C.M.R.); nmmatos@ualg.pt (N.M.)
* Correspondence: juanjose.lopez.g@udima.es; Tel.: +34-696-634-589
Received: 26 April 2019; Accepted: 5 June 2019; Published: 8 June 2019
Abstract: Currently, the digital economy contributes decisively to an increase in competitiveness, especially as a digital transformation involves migrating to new technological models where digital marketing is a key part of growth and user loyalty strategies. Internet and Digital Marketing have become important factors in campaigns, which attract and retain Internet users. This study aims to identify the main ways in which users can be gained and retained by using Digital Marketing. The Delphi method with in-depth interviews was the methodology used in this study. The results of the research show the most important actions for achieving user recruitment and loyalty with Digital Marketing from the opinions of consulted experts. The limitations of this study are those related to the number of experts included in the study, and the number of research papers consulted in the literature review. The literature review and the results of this research are used to propose new solid research with a consolidated critical methodology. This research deals with a new approach that will optimize web technologies for the evolution of user trends, and therefore, will be of academic and professional use for marketing managers and web solution developers. The conclusions of the investigation show the key factors, discarding others that do not a.ect the optimization of conversions in B2C businesses such as the duration of the session and the rebound percentage. Likewise, the results of the research identify the speci.c actions that must be carried out to attract and retain users in B2C companies that use the Digital Marketing ecosystem on the Internet. The requirements for companies that wish to implement a model to optimize conversions using the current digital economy are also shown.
Keywords: digital marketing; websites analytics; lead generation
1. Introduction
It could be said that the Internet has been the factor that has most in.uenced the cultural, economic and social changes seen at the beginning of the 21st century. Now, the consumer is the focal point of business activities and the target of Internet strategies [1].
Companies provide their customers with positive experiences when using social networks and web 2.0 platforms in order to strengthen their relationships with clients. These companies also need to .nd out the reasons why customers identify with one brand or another on the Internet [2,3].
Traditional marketing, considered by Kotler as “the identi.cation and satisfaction of the needs of people and society in a pro.table manner”, constitutes an exchange between consumers and companies in the market, where entities generate value and welfare for customers. However, worldwide Marketing has evolved rapidly in recent years, diversifying the approach, techniques and tools used [4].
Future Internet 2019, 11, 130; doi:10.3390/.11060130 www.mdpi.com/journal/futureinternet
These modern marketing tools all have ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) integrated into the advertising strategies of companies so that they can compete adequately in the new
2.0 markets [1,5].
Micro, small, and medium enterprises can use this technological business perspective to modernize and acquire the necessary tools to achieve a permanent position in the market and above all in the

2.0 sector, and successfully identify their clients on the Internet [6,7].
Ambler and O’Reilly used these facts to suggest a change from the traditional Marketing model to Marketing using new technologies on the Internet and especially Digital Marketing [8,9]. Currently, in most cases, consumers can easily obtain a lot of information online before making purchase decisions. They have access to suppliers everywhere in the world and also have up-to-date market prices in real time [5,9].
The most modern trend of digital marketing arrives with Kotler, Marketing 3.0 “in the mind of the consumer” [10]. Three years later, Marketing 4.0 “the importance of trust and .delity” [11].
This has been the incentive for the creation of new Internet marketing strategies such as strategic alliances, exclusive points programs, discounts coupons, banners, and even communication strategies that had not been previously used, such as SEO (Search Engine Optimization), SEM (Search Engine Marketing), SMM (Social Media Marketing) or ASO (App Store Optimization).
Di.erent authors, starting from a traditional base, have developed di.erent strategies that have evolved from traditional Marketing to Digital Marketing. Di.erent institutions have been created in the non-academic research sector to study strategies with these characteristics. Institutions such as the EIAA (European Interactive Advertising Association), the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) or the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) are examples which show the interest that the business sector has in this area.
In order to show the conceptual and theoretical interest of academic authors in this area of research, the various existing studies into Digital Marketing must also be explained. Authors investigate di.erent types of Digital Marketing strategies with di.erent characteristics [12].
As we have previously noted, the growing use of Digital Marketing as a technique to achieve sales in digital environments has led to a variety of published research in the .rst decade of the 21st century, “Marketing Communication and the World Wide Web” initiated the scienti.c study of these technologies and Internet Marketing [13].
In recent years, there has been a lot of academic research published about Digital Marketing. Especially relevant are works [14] in which new ways to advertise on the Internet compared to o.-line media are shown [15], Web Analytics can be used in Digital Marketing techniques; the interesting work of Jayaram and Manrai [16] analyzes user behavior with AW on social media, digital campaigns and mobile applications, and the mathematical algorithm proposed to analyze the e.ectiveness of Search Marketing (Content Marketing) in any sector [17].
Other works show how Digital Marketing has increased business opportunities for companies, and explain how advances in ICT have improved Digital Age Marketing [18]. Nabout, Bernd, Tanja and Gerstmeier make a pro.tability analysis of Search Marketing techniques [19]. Pierre and Lester propose a measurement model for Digital Marketing techniques when using search engines and the work of Nabout and Skiera show ways to improve the investment made in search engines [20,21].
Research has also been done into the categories and subcategories of Digital Marketing on the Internet. The aim of this research is to understand how users investigate and consequently make decisions to buy goods or services with B2C channels. These channels are in.uenced by Digital Marketing strategies which have only existed for around 10 years.
This document is organized as follows: the .rst section contains the literature review. The second section explains the importance of digital marketing. The third section describes the conceptual framework and develops the hypotheses. The fourth section explains the methodology used. The .fth section presents the results found. The sixth and seventh sections show the discussion and the conclusions of the study.


2. Related Works
Net economy is a very important principle. The economy has not changed, but there are new instruments and technologies that support economic processes; the economic use of data networks. It is based on four technological innovations (telecommunication, information technology, media technology, and entertainment) that impact the possible ways in which information, communication and transactions are managed. It refers to the commercial/business dimension of electronic data networks and is therefore a digital network economy. Di.erent electronic platforms perform the execution of information, communication, and transaction processes. The starting point for its expansion is the development of the information society. The basis of the Net Economy is formed by four technological innovations: telecommunication, information technology, media technology, and entertainment. These innovations continue to signi.cantly impact the possible ways in which information, communication and transactions are managed. The increased support of business processes using electronic systems takes center stage here. There are a number of terms for this that can be identi.ed, which can, to some degree, be used synonymously [22,23].
The use of the Internet in the last decade has been one of the most significant examples of globalization. In this new Era of Information and the New Economy, Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce) is one of the main methods for achieving new commercial, labor and social relationships [24].
There are currently a lot of social changes in which new technologies are responsible for changing di.erent aspects of economic and social life. The Internet is constantly being used for new ways of doing business [25].
The quality and performance of business services are improving and are being driven by the use of innovative processes for logistics and the automation of services. Management, quality and speed of data transmissions have become the key factors for competitiveness on the internet [26].
The use of the Internet conditions all stages of the new economy, which, together with Electronic Commerce, o.ers new ways of doing business such as the new Marketing techniques in the 2.0 environment [1].
Traditional Marketing techniques have evolved to incorporate new Digital Marketing techniques, in which potential customers are considered as users. These users are people who buy or use products and services on the Internet, and who also become prosumers by generating content that interacts with the brand by means of the Internet [27]. Globalization has caused constant changes in which information and knowledge play a prominent role. New business models are being seen in which the traditional concepts of business, customer, taxation, and currency are changing. From a historical perspective, it can be seen that the economy has had to adapt its methods to satisfy the needs of individuals. New techniques have evolved for what some authors consider the New Economy or Information Economy. Global information networks are transforming the world, causing changes in di.erent areas of human activity, such as competitiveness, employment, and quality of life.
Time and distance cease to be obstacles for new technologies. Internet content can be given to a mass audience or a small group of experts looking for a global or local link [28].
Marketing is a form of marketing based on the use of digital media with the aim of structuring direct conversations in which the consumer feels identi.ed [29]. Through Digital Marketing, the aim is to boost the e.ciency of commercial actions in these ecosystems. Kotler, Shalowitz, and Stevens, referring to Digital Marketing, de.ne it as, “a social and management process through which di.erent groups and individuals obtain what they need and want, creating, o.ering and exchanging products with value for others” [30].
The economic and social changes that are associated with globalization give new economic and production characteristics to companies. Producers and suppliers of goods and services have worldwide access to inexpensive transmission of information for commercial or social purposes [31].
One of those changes is being caused by m-commerce. Commerce through mobile phones or tablets (m-commerce) is de.ned as the purchase and sale of goods and services through wireless handheld devices [32]. We are facing an online commerce adapted to touch screens and with su.cient usability levels to be able to complete the sales process of a product from these devices that can be connected to the Internet by mobile phone networks or by WIFI access [33].
The adaptation of e-commerce websites to these devices to increase the number of visits gave way to a new concept: the APP (in English) or mobile application [34]. Also, the social commerce and especially, the collaborative economy is playing an important role in the aforementioned changes.
Thus, for years, there is a similar model like collaborative consumption or social commerce: collaborative economy, although it has some distinctions that characterize it as an economic model of its own. Prior to its appearance, and especially before the Internet and Web 2.0 were born, product exchange was limited to the most immediate geographical area of the consumer [35]. However, there would not be a collaborative economy, as we know it, without the appearance of the web 2.0 technology. Hence, it is the result of taking out of the digital environment the culture created on the Internet for the last .fteen years [36].
The concept of the “sharing economy” is coined under the term “collaborative economy”, which began to be mentioned in 2012 in a special way in the tourism sector [37]. Nowadays, thanks to the technologies mentioned before, we can access goods and services from all over the world through four segments: collaborative consumption, contributory production, peer-to-peer .nance, and open knowledge. Collaborative consumption is the most widespread and developed segment in the market. On its behalf, the contributory production designs a new industrial peer-to-peer production model, based on the makers movement, the Do-It-Yourself culture (DIY) and the application of the methodological principles of free manufacturing software. The combination of these principles leads to the beginning of a new industrial revolution that democratizes physical production, in the same way that blogs and social networks have democratized content publication [38].
In practice, companies start to use the Internet as a new sales channel, substituting personal visits, mail or telephone calls with electronic alternatives. Digital Marketing, therefore, is an alternative that can reduce costs and is a fundamental tool in business performance. However, the emergence of Electronic Commerce and the development of new marketing techniques questions traditional commerce and gives new problems, while also increasing some of those which already exist.
The fundamental basis for the development of Digital Marketing in the business environment is the Internet. This is the technology that permits the use of electronic marketing techniques and has allowed the creation of the World Wide Web, as we know it today. It is the technology that has allowed the evolution and adaptation of traditional marketing techniques for the new digital environment. A list of de.nitions of Digital Marketing is given below in Table 1:
Table 1. De.nitions of Digital Marketing.
Author  De.nition
American Marketing Association (AMA) (2013) [39]  Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging o.erings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
Kotlet (2008) [31]  “What a company does to publicize, promote and sell products and services on the Internet.”


3. Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses Development
Due to the rapid changes in Internet and the use of Marketing in the 2.0 environment, there was little academic research about Digital Marketing available until a few years ago. A review of the main research journals dealing with the type of research we are interested in shows that the main topics of research which have been carried out are Digital Marketing, Electronic Commerce, Social Media Marketing, B2C and B2B practices, Email marketing, Digital campaigns, Search Engine Marketing and Optimization (SEM and SEO), Web Analytics for Social Media and Digital marketing, Mobile marketing and Video marketing.
This study aimed to discover the factors which in.uence the number of Leads obtained on the Internet by a company. This was done by analyzing the online consumer purchase process. A detailed literature review was undertaken to .nd out how these factors are used in the main Internet Marketing channels [1]. The actions taken in the online consumer purchase process for Leads acquisition and loyalty were grouped into the following research categories and then studied [15].
Conversions are the actions which the webmaster or web designer wants users to take. Some examples of conversions are purchase, completed form, user registration, subscription to a service, duration of the visit, comment on content, share content, download a document and request a call.
The following hypothesis was proposed after taking into account the above:
H1: The duration of the B2C session a.ects the number of conversions achieved.
A new user is considered to be a user who visits a website for the .rst time. In technical terms, a new user is a user whose browser does not have a previously stored cookie [4].
A bounce is a visit to a website that does not connect with the website and immediately leaves it. There are tools that consider a bounce to be a visit only sees one page on the site. However, others consider a bounce to be a visit which is shorter than a number of prede.ned seconds. Another very important indicator is the bounce rate of a website (globally). This is calculated as the number of rebounds from the total number of visits. It is an excellent indicator of the quality of the contents and how well the audience accepts them, as well as the strategy proposed. Authors indicate that the bounce rate can be calculated for the entire site, for a section or group of contents or for individual content [40].
The following hypothesis was proposed after taking into account the above:
H2: The bounce rate in B2C a.ects the number of conversions achieved.
The number of conversions can be a measure of the success of a campaign and gives information that can be used to act accordingly by either optimizing the campaign content (banners, keywords, and bid strategy) or modifying the daily or monthly investment budget. As seen in the section about non-scienti.c studies and research into Digital Marketing and Web Analytics; tra.c sources are needed in order to analyse the actions made and tra.c received on a website.
The following hypothesis were proposed after taking into account the above:
H3: The source of the tra.c in B2C a.ects the number of conversions achieved.
The tra.c sources can be categorized for analysis into direct tra.c; SEO tra.c; SEM tra.c; social tra.c; display tra.c; referred tra.c; Emailing tra.c and tra.c from other sources. The following hypothesis were proposed after taking into account the above:
H4: SEO and Direct Tra.c are the actions that most in.uence the number of conversions achieved in B2C businesses.
SEO is a subcategory within Digital Marketing, highly researched for its impact and its economic value for the company [40].

4. Methodology
The Delphi technique was used in this investigation. This technique is one of the research methods used for prospective investigation. Delphi is a prospective method that is considered suitable for analysing opinions made about any topic. These opinions must be made without any pressure or in.uence from the experts that make up the group. This method means that the results of any consensual study can be validated for the near future [41,42]. The Delphi technique is .exible and uses consensual decision-making by experts for the subject under study. This technique uses a structured process to obtain information from a previously selected group of experts for a range of questions that are important for the subject under research. Self-administered individual questionnaires are presented using web tools and are added to by spontaneous opinions and anonymous comments that can be given at any time.
Experts never exchange opinions with each other due to the risk that they may in.uence each other’s responses. The Delphi technique systematizes a strategy for the analysis of opinions and comments that can be understood as a type of group interview that has some special characteristics [43]. The Delphi technique is a process that questions a group of specialists (carefully selected previously for their knowledge and professional experience) and uses the answers from successive questionnaires to .nd consensus of the answers given. The main objective of this methodology is to .nd a consensus of opinion for the ideas or aims that the investigation proposes [44]. It is interesting to note that the Delphi method, mainly due to the small number of participants—between 6 and 30—does not produce statistically signi.cant results [45].
The di.erent stages used in the method can be seen in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Diagram showing the stages in a Delphi study. (Based on Hsu and Sandford, 2007; Torrecilla-Salinas et al., 2019 [46,47].
First of all, the main research question must be stated. This is designed by a group of experts who are coordinated by the Delphi technique. A protocol must be established to ensure the correct evolution and development of the investigation. Once the main question has been correctly posed, the questionnaire prepared shown in Table A1 (in Appendix A), as Delphi Questionnaire 1 must be given to the selected experts. Once the results of this anonymous process are obtained, an in-depth analysis of the answers is carried out. To do this the group must be structured with the methodology protocol [48]. Then, once the answers to the .rst questionnaire have been analyzed, a report is made of any answers or opinions that di.er from those given by the group. Once the discrepant answers have been analyzed, a second Delphi questionnaire is sent. In order to do this e.ectively, the conclusions of each round must be expressed clearly and concisely [49]. At this point the Delphi process is repeated again and the questionnaire is sent to the selected panel of experts and the answers are collected. These are analyzed and categorized in order to structure the discrepant responses or opinions about the proposed problems. Afterwards, the answers and the evolution of the comments made by the panel of experts are analyzed and a draft report of the conclusions of the study is prepared. Some authors suggest that this draft report should be given to the panel of experts to ensure that they con.rm the results and conclusions of the process [48].
A .nal report is then prepared in which the evolution of each of the stages and questionnaires in the process are described [48]. In the event that any member of the panel of experts does not agree with something, the Delphi process should repeat the rounds of questionnaires until a consensus is reached.
The pro.les of each of the experts who participated in the Delphi process panel are presented below. Experts from di.erent areas of Digital Marketing were selected to enrich the variety of opinions expressed in the results:
•
Professionals from multinationals in the sector, such as Google and Facebook.

•
Professionals working in di.erent digital agencies in the Spanish and Portuguese markets.

•
Professionals who work in traditional agencies with o.ine services but also occasionally provide some digital marketing services to their clients.

•
Professionals who outsource digital agencies.

•
Freelance professionals who provide digital services.

•
Professionals who carry out digital marketing actions internally.


This was considered a wide representation of the sector. More than 120 professionals from each digital marketing area were invited to participate. The participation achieved was low, but more than seven experts were found for the group of experts. This means that the results were relevant, as stated in the literature review. Among the most common limitations and weaknesses that the Delphi method involves explain that there is a low potential response. They also point out the cost and the high consumption of time to mold opinions. These days, all these limitations can be overcome thanks to the current speed of electronic communications, email and techniques that that boost the participation of experts (recognitions, improvement of online reputation or publicity of results) [50].
Today, authors such as Heiko, di.erentiate two main concepts when processing the data collected by Delphi. One of them is “consensus”, which means convergence of opinions towards a certain value, and the second one is “stability”, which means that values are consistent through di.erent rounds [51]. Dajani, Sinco. and Talley discuss that this “consensus” does not make any sense without “stability” and propose a decision tree to determine stop criteria for Delphi methods, considering both elements. These arguments justify the choice of this method [52].
Regarding the characteristics of the experts consulted: according to gender 83.33% were men and 16.67% women. Regarding age, the majority (77.7%) was in the age range of 35 to 49 years and (22.3%) was in the range of 20 to 34 years. The majority educational level was Master’s Degree (77.7%), Bachelor’s degree (16.66%) and Vocational training (5.55%). About employment, the majority was Agency managers (83.33%) and researchers (16.67%).
The questions asked in the Delphi process were:
A 5-point interval scale was used to evaluate the items in the questionnaire, where 5 gives maximum importance to an item and 1 gives the least importance. Average importance is shown by a value of 3.
A series of recommendations were followed during the design of the study questionnaire to avoid the common method bias associated with the responses given to a range of di.erent questionnaire questions [53].
Questions using familiar terms for the experts surveyed were asked. Secondly, the con.dentiality of the answers was guaranteed so the survey respondent could answer honestly. Finally, random changes were made in the order of the questions to verify that the questions were answered frankly, and not randomly [54].

5. Results
The Delphi methodology states that the panel of experts must reach a consensus of opinion for the concepts and questions which are given to them. In this study the panel of experts was made up of 14 people and there were two rounds of questionnaires.
The way the Delphi technique was used to reach a consensus among experts and some of the results obtained are given here. The rest of the results are presented in the discussion section. The .rst phase for the Delphi question naira asked about the main theoretical concepts for recruitment actions and user loyalty to ensure that the panel of experts identi.ed the concepts [55].
The questions in the first Delphi questionnaire were grouped into categories (see Table 2) which were: (i) Capture strategy; (ii) Leads capture strategy in social networks; (iii) User experience; (iv) Strategy for converting clients into repeat clients (loyal customers); (v) Technologies according to their importance for the future of the actions of capturing leads on the Internet, and finally, (vi) Technologies according to their importance for the future of the actions of capturing leads on the Internet.
Table 2. Development of the Delphi method Questionnaire of Delphi survey.
Delphi
Digital Marketing Recruitment Strategy
CA1  The strategic planning of the recruitment actions
CA2  The elaboration of an annual report of actions for User Capture
CA3  The control and monitoring of each one of the Capture actions carried out quarterly
CA4  The management of the volume of Capture actions according to the number of Leads obtained
CA5  The Digital Marketing department must have a specialist exclusively for the actions of User Capture
Tactics to Capture Leads in Digital Marketing
LA1  Search Engine Marketing
LA2  Advertising Display
LA3  Email Marketing
LA4  Social Ads
LA5  Video Advertising
Capture Leads in Social Media Marketing on Social Networks
ME1  Facebook
ME2  LinkedIn
ME3  Twitter
ME4  Instagram
ME5  Others
User Experience for Lead Capture in Digital Marketing
UX1  Landing page design
UX2  Web page load time
UX3  Number of .elds to be .lled in the form
UX4  Customized o.ers
UX5  Colour of objects that represent “calls to action”
Conversion Strategy for recurring customers (loyalty)
LO1  Strategic planning of conversion actions for recurring clients is an essential part of the Digital Marketing plan
LO2  The control and analysis of user responses to the loyalty actions carried out
LO3  In the Digital Marketing department, there must be a specialist exclusively for sending, managing and controlling the actions aimed at converting customers into recurring customers
Conversion of customers into recurring customers (loyalty)
CO1  Online after-sales service
CO2  Gift vouchers
CO3  Customer rewards (free premium options)
CO4  E-mail marketing
CO5  Testimonials on the web
CO6  Discounts/O.ers
Future Leads Capture
FU1  Voice search
FU2  IOT (Internet of Things)
FU3  Mobile World
FU4  Arti.cial Intelligence (AI)

The Delphi methodology was used in two stages and the results of the second questionnaire have already been analyzed to ensure consensus in the panel of experts.
Figure 2 shows that 92.9% of experts agree that each of the recruitment actions should be controlled and monitored quarterly (sum of the percentage of opinions for options 4 and 5).

Figure 2. Control and Monitoring of recruitment actions.
In this case, we can see that the panel of experts agrees on the question raised, so the subject is veri.ed, and the Delphi procedure can continue. In the case of the importance of Search Engine Marketing actions used to capture leads on the Internet (see Figure 3), we can see that three of the experts do not agree that it is important for the recruitment strategy. In this case the comment of the expert is recorded, and a comment is made to raise the question again in another way:

Figure 3. Search Engine Marketing actions used to capture leads on the Internet.
The analysis consisted o.ending the importance of each Leads recruitment and loyalty channel on the Internet. For example, 64.3% of the panel of experts believed that Linked In was the best option, followed by Facebook with (14.3%).
Another result shows the comments given by the experts (see Figure 4). These indicate that Leads can be recruited if the content is structured following the methodology and strategic categories of B2C and B2B. The second round of questionnaires took into account the comments and opinions of the experts from the .rst round and changed the questions accordingly. The results are shown in Figure 5, where it can be seen that the most e.ective social network for Leads recruitment in B2C is Facebook (80% True and 20% False).

Figure 4. Recruitment using social networks. Figure 5. Comparison of leads recruitment on social networks.

The most e.ective social network for Leads recruitment in B2B is LinkedIn (80% True and 20% False). In this case, as a preliminary result we can con.rm that the panel of experts agrees. However, using the Delphi methodology, the experts must agree on the comments and opinions which are made. In this study, there was an expert who still did not agree with the statements made in questions 4 and 5 in the second round of questionnaires. When using the Delphi methodology and the decision-making process for each expert in order to agree on comments to reach a consensus, the addition of the expert’s ideas at each stage of the process makes the analysis process more complex. In this study, the factors that were taken into account from the questionnaires were those for the actions that promote Leads recruitment and the conversion of recurring clients (loyalty).
The Delphi study was supported by a conclusive statistical analysis. The aim of the quantitative analysis was to show the results obtained from the data sources of the 30 companies in order to see if there was a relationship between the results obtained in the Delphi process and from the in-depth interviews carried out with the experts. Quantitative variables were measured with means, standards, minimum and maximum deviations, histograms and bar graphs. Percentages and sector graphs were used for qualitative or categorized variables. The quantitative data was analysed with a set of statistical techniques in order to understand the data and the relationships which exists between the variables. The quantitative data analysis used simple systematic methods to organize and prepare the data, (i) to detect if errors exist in the design and collection of data; (ii) treatment and evaluation of missing data;
(iii) identi.cation of atypical cases (outliers) and (iv) veri.cation of the underlying assumptions in most of the multivariate techniques (normality, linearity, homoscedasticity). This phase of the research process is considered conclusive because it gives objectivity to the study and reinforces the previous research phases.
In the following discussion section, each of the actions under study is considered and the preliminary results of this research are given.

6. Discussion
The Delphi methodology was to reach a consensus of opinion about the actions that maximize the recruitment and loyalty of leads in a Digital Marketing strategy for on-line consumers in B2C businesses. The results of the Delphi process were organized into two large groups of actions, which were (i) Recruitment and (ii) Loyalty (conversion of recurring customers). For the .rst group, the results showed that the actions should be divided into three subgroups:
(i)
DDBB. Generation of Leads from actions that use information in Databases.

The actions that use a Database for Leads recruitment could be grouped into two types of strategies:

(i)
Campaigns on Twitter and (ii) Email marketing campaigns. The Database information can be obtained in two ways: (i) Purchase of quality databases or (ii) Construct a database using the actions mentioned above.

(ii)
Advertising (Ads) on social networks.


Two social networks stood out for leads recruitment campaigns, (i) Facebook and (ii) LinkedIn. Although advertising on all social networks works correctly, segments the audience, and achieves high conversion ratios, the panel of experts believed that advertising is most e.ective on two social networks, Facebook for B2C-type businesses and Linked In for B2B-type businesses.
(iii) Special Digital Marketing Actions.
There are two types of special actions for Digital Marketing strategies, (i) Display Advertising and
(ii) SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing).
Display-type actions are e.ective due to the high amount of segmentation used and the impact on direct audiences. These actions are called RTB actions, although they are commonly known among experts as Display-type advertising. Marketing on Search engines can also be seen to be an e.ective strategy because it receives the highest amount of business in the digital market in Spain. The most e.ective strategies are organic positioning of searches and sponsored searches on search engines and blogs.
Loyalty actions (Recurring customer conversions) have two main categories of actions due to their e.ectiveness: (i) After-sales service and (ii) Email-marketing services.
(iv) After-sales service
There was a complete consensus on this point from the two rounds of questionnaires. The results showed that freemium-type compensation actions are most e.ective.
When using this type of actions, the business allows customers to test new products or services using a freemium strategy so that the client trusts the business and tries new experiences for free, although the long-term strategy is to turn that user into a premium user of the product o.ered.
(v) Email-marketing sends
For Loyalty actions (Recurring customer conversions) email-marketing strategies are the most e.ective as they o.er discounts and personalized promotions for each of the segmented groups in the Database (BBDD).
The theoretical framework was con.rmed by the feedback obtained from the panel of experts, and then the next stages of the Delphi process started. The panel of experts who agreed to take part was made up of 18 experts from the Digital Marketing industry. The conclusions made from the information and comments given by the panel of experts are given below:
The actions to generate the Database aim to attract Leads in order to contract B2C-type businesses. The experts suggest that the Leads should be gathered with campaigns on Twitter and Email Marketing due to the nature of these social networks. In addition, the Data bases of Leads for B2C-type businesses should use two main channels to obtain the Leads: the purchase of quality databases and the generation of a database of customers that the company has.
The social networks that are most useful for the capture of leads for B2C-type businesses are Facebook and Twitter because they are social networks that share content in a non-intrusive way with advertising campaigns which provide the user with interesting information and content. The social network that the panel of experts preferred for Loyalty actions (actions to convert customers into recurrent/loyal customers) for B2C was YouTube. It is the social network that has the best ratios of content categorization and segmentation as it uses visual adverts which are related to the content a user is watching.

7. Conclusions
The results of this study have important practical implications for Managers of Digital Communication Agencies and people responsible for online content and e-commerce stores, as well as for Academics and Researchers.
The results of this research conclude that the future of Leads generating actions in the mobile ecosystem will be in.uenced by voice searches from mobile devices and the in.uence of Arti.cial Intelligence (AI), although the panel of experts indicate that this will happen in the long-term.
The same situation as for Recruitment actions is expected for Loyalty actions (conversion of recurring customers). In his case however, innovation is introduced using the Internet of Things (IoT). Experts point out that (IoT) will be less intrusive than certain current advertising actions and that, therefore, it will be consolidated in the future as one of the strategies for user loyalty.
In comparing with other authors from Europe and USA we have evidenced that (AI) and (IoT) is being incorporated in digital marketing actions and probably will be very important in the near future [56,57].
Within the broad ecosystem of possibilities o.ered by Digital Marketing on the Internet, this research demonstrates and clari.es the speci.c actions that must be carried out to attract and retain Leads after studying the consumer’s on-line purchase process.
The research hypotheses were formulated and then tested by using of the prospective research technique known as the “Delphi method”.
The Delphi method is a prospective methodology for .nding consensus on any type of short-term future question. This methodology found that the future of Lead recruitment and Loyalty of users for B2C-type businesses must be mobile friendly because of the increase in the use of this technology and the purchasing power of the users. The most in.uential technologies for Leads recruitment of B2C-type businesses will be Voice Searches and Arti.cial Intelligence. These must also be Mobile Friendly.
From the results of the study it can be seen that customer loyalty actions (conversion of clients into recurring/loyal customers) improve the results of long-term online recruitment campaigns for B2C businesses. SEO and SEM search engine marketing campaigns should be carried out to attract customers and clients for B2C companies.
It can also be seen that customer loyalty actions (conversion of clients into recurring/loyal customers) for B2C-type businesses should be grouped into two types, (i) After-sales service and (ii) Email Marketing.B2C type businesses should use After-Sales Service with Freemium-type actions or Testing of products because they are highly e.ective with a high success rate.
Therefore, it is important to analyze how each user’s results contribute to the global results in order to determine which measurement has no direct relationship with the achievement of conversions.
Email marketing actions for B2C businesses should use (i) Discounts and (ii) Personalized O.ers for the customer. These actions are highly attractive for customers and can provide the company with a lot of useful data and Leads.
The results of this study show that the information for a Database which will be used for Leads recruitment for B2C-type businesses should be obtained with campaigns on Twitter and Email Marketing campaigns.
B2C businesses in the future will use arti.cial intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT) technology as the most e.ective Customer loyalty actions. It is very important for companies to have a diversi.ed marketing strategy which includes di.erent digital marketing actions. Companies that sell general products or services should not only focus on one type of audience. They must consider several targets and adapt their message for each of them. This sector is evolving at considerable pace and it is very important to constantly update the strategy.
There are three main limitations to this research:
1.
Limitations due to the rapid growth and development of the digital ecosystem and also due to the research sample.

2.
As this is a relatively new research category, previous research is relatively scarce, which means that the thorough literature review conducted in this research is of great relevance. The use of the literature review and the results of the research can be used to propose new research with a consolidated critical structure.

3.
There is only a moderate participation rate in the Delphi surveys, which although it complies with the established minimums it could be improved. 120 invitations were sent out and 18 participants were obtained. The results could have been more representative with more participants.



8. Future Research
Expansion of the geographical scope. Future investigations could be extended geographically to other countries, given that our research is limited to Spain and Portugal. Expansion of the digital marketing techniques used. Since digital marketing is constantly evolving some of the emerging techniques may be included. Future research can use the results of this doctoral thesis to widen knowledge in the analysis of webs, as well as in studies of digital marketing by di.erent disciplines and sectors.
Author Contributions: Designed and wrote the paper, J.J.L.G.; conceptualization, D.L.; methodology, J.J.L.G. and D.L.; investigation, J.J.L.G.; writing—original draft preparation, J.J.L.G.; writing—review and editing, J.J.L.G.; supervised the work, D.L., C.M.R. and N.M. All authors have read and approved the .nal manuscript.
Funding: This research received no external funding.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to the experts who have participated in the study, and without whose e.ort and dedication this research would not have been possible.
Con.icts of Interest: The authors declare no con.ict of interest.


Appendix A
Interview Guide
Introduction
Body
Table A1. Guide for the Spanish interview.

Blocks  Questions
Digital Marketing (Marketing Digital)  How would you explain the di.erence between Recruitment and Loyalty of users in Digital Marketing? Are the strategies of User Recruitment and Loyalty independent of each other? Why? What is the importance of the actions of Capturing users in Digital Marketing? What value do User Loyalty actions have in a Digital Marketing strategy? What are, in your opinion, the main techniques for attracting users in Digital Marketing? And, if we talk about concrete actions, what would you highlight? If we talk about user loyalty techniques in Digital Marketing, which ones could you identify? Could you high light some speci.caction?
Web Analitics (WA) Content Design and Structure (UX)  What is the use of the AW in Digital Marketing? What types of AW or Data can we .nd in a Digital Marketing strategy? Should companies establish a measurement strategy based on AW? With regard to the strategy of User Capture . . . What is the function of the AW and why is it important? And from the point of view of user loyalty . . . What is the use and importance of the AW? How would you de.ne the user experience on a website? How important is the design and content structure of a website in a Digital Marketing strategy? What graphic elements would you highlight in the design and structure of content in a Digital Marketing strategy? If we talk speci.cally about user experience on the web, what role does the AW develop? With regard to user loyalty . . . What changes exist in the Design and Structure of content?

What is the importance of the concepts described above -User Assignment, User Loyalty, AW and Global Digital Marketing Design and Content Structure -regarding the Digital Marketing strategy? Why is its development Strategy important or not? How is the Digital Marketing strategy conditioned by these concepts?

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From websites to social media: exploring the adoption of internet marketing in emerging industrial markets
Abdel Monim Shaltoni
Department of Marketing, College of Business, Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to explore internet marketing adoption in emerging industrial markets across several internet-based technologies (i.e.
social media platforms, static and transactional websites).
Design/methodology/approach – This study is mainly based on an exploratory research design and investigated the online presence of 570
industrial organizations in terms of their involvement in social media. This study also examines if websites are used for basic marketing
communications (brochureware) or for conducting advanced marketing activities. An online survey is used to explore the relationships between
several factors and internet marketing adoption.
Findings – The study found that half of the investigated organizations are using the internet as a one-way communication vehicle through static
websites. The study also revealed that decision-makers in emerging industrial markets are enthusiastic about social media, particularly Facebook.
In addition, internet marketing adoption was positively related to perceived relative advantage, compatibility, organizational innovativeness,
competitor and customer pressure.
Practical implications – From practitioners’ perspectives, the .ndings can help decision-makers identify the current levels of involvement in
internet marketing. At the macro level, the high percentage of organizations with minimum involvement in internet marketing calls for conducting
awareness initiatives to educate industrial organizations, particularly small-and medium-sized enterprises, about the opportunities offered by the
internet.
Originality/value – The .ndings from this study enrich internet marketing research because it focuses on industrial organizations in emerging
markets, which is a rarely examined context despite its importance and potential.

Keywords Social media, B2B, Internet marketing, Compatibility, Relative advantage, Electronic marketplaces, Emerging industrial market,

Organizational innovativeness, Competitor and customer pressure
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
Since the mid-1990s, the internet has received growing levels of attention by academics and practitioners because of its commercial potential. According to a recent report from Frost and
Sullivan[1],
the
business-to-business
(B2B)
market
size
on the internet is projected to grow to $6.7 trillion by 2020, which is double the business-to-consumer (B2C) size. Although there are many bene.ts associated with internet marketing, industrial organizations vary in adopting it. More speci.cally, one organization may have a state-of-the-art website that allows online transactions with distributors, while another organization in the same sector (e.g. pharmaceuticals) might run a static website that provides basic information about their products. Similarly, some organizations are very active on several social media platforms (i.e. dedicated YouTube channel and daily updated Facebook business
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/0885-8624.htm
pages). Other organizations neither have websites nor social media accounts.
Several studies were conducted to understand how and why organizations
vary
in
their
online
presence
(Abebe,
2014;
I.nedo,
2011;
Levenburg
et al.,
2015;
Simmons
et al.,
2011;
Shah
Alam
et al.,
2011;
Tan
et al.,
2009;
Tiago
and
Maria,
2010;
Wymer
and
Regan,
2005).
These
studies
generally
address
the
B2C
context
(Siamagka
et al.,
2015).
Yet,
a
few
efforts focused on internet marketing in the B2B context (Michaelidou
et al.,
2011;
Panayiotou
and
Katimertzoglou,
2015),
and
none
were
found
to
do
so
in
emerging
markets.
In
addition, the relevant previous studies investigated one internet technology (i.e. transactional websites). Exploring more than one technology at the same time provides better insights because it allows for comparison of adoption levels. It is also important to point out that there is a constant need for new research in the domain of internet marketing adoption because the internet never stops evolving, from Web.1 to the
Thanks go to Dr Nael Alhusami, the CEO of Amman chamber of industry, for his valuable insights and support.

Received 7 June 2016 Revised 27 November 2016
Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing 32/7 (2017) 1009–1019
25 February 2017

© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 0885-8624] 7 May 2017
[DOI 10.1108/JBIM-06-2016-0122]
Accepted 10 May 2017
Abdel Monim Shaltoni Volume 32 · Number 7 · 2017 · 1009–1019
Semantic Web and from basic internet-enabled devices to the Internet of Things (IoT).
To address these matters, this paper’s main research issue is to explore the current status of internet marketing adoption in emerging industrial markets across different internet-based technologies (i.e. social media platforms, static and transactional websites). To shed more light on the main research issue, the paper explores how technological, organizational and environmental factors are related to internet marketing adoption in the context of emerging industrial markets. The following section provides a theoretical framework that discusses internet marketing adoption. This is followed by the methodology, analysis and discussion. Finally, conclusions, limitations and future research are presented.


Theoretical background
Internet marketing has been generally de.ned as the use of internet
technologies
to
achieve
marketing
objectives
(Roberts
and
Zahay,
2012;
Strauss
and
Frost,
2014).
Conceptual
work
has pointed out the impact of the internet on the marketing mix
(Chaffey
and
Ellis-Chadwick,
2016),
how
the
internet
differs
from
traditional
media
(Michaelidou
et al.,
2011)
and
the
creation
of
a
new
retail
channel
(Yoo
and
Lee,
2011).
Please note that terms such as “Internet marketing”, “e-marketing”, “social media marketing” and recently “digital marketing” are used interchangeably by researchers and practitioners
(Shaltoni,
2016).
In
this
article,
the
term
internet
marketing is preferred, as the technologies investigated are internet based. Other information and communication technologies that could be considered by many to be within the domain of e-marketing (e.g. electronic point of sale, data mining, etc.) are beyond the interest of this study.
The impact of the internet on marketing in the B2B context is thoroughly discussed in the literature. Advantages include, but are not limited to, marketing communications with stakeholders, direct on-line selling, lower search cost, .nding more substitutes for products, comparing prices and entry to new markets, addressing competitive pressures, better customer
service
and
improved
company
image
(Chaffey
and
Ellis-Chadwick,
2016;
Roberts
and
Zahay,
2012;
Strauss
and
Frost,
2014).
Moreover,
industrial branding through the internet can be boosted by creating relevant and exciting content that is delivered through social media channels (Lipi.inen
and
Karjaluoto,
2015).
Overall, the internet continues to offer endless marketing opportunities, which enhances expectations that most organizations will have high levels of involvement in internet marketing. But this is not occurring, organizations vary in their adoption of the internet to achieve marketing objectives, with some using it for communication purposes and others for conducting commercial transactions or even for transforming the whole marketing function. Shaltoni
and
West
(2010)
summarized these levels as follows: the communication level, or brochureware, which is simply a one-way communication from the organization to its stakeholders. The transaction level where organizations conduct transactions using internet marketing resources. Finally, the transformation level in which internet marketing strategy drives corporate strategy.
Moreover, organizations in the industrial market, particularly small-and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), tend to start their online journey with electronic marketplaces, which refers to an electronic environment in which buyers and sellers meet to exchange goods, service and information (Turban
et al.,
2012).
Terms such as marketspaces or e-markets were used in the early 1990s. The focus at that time was on inter-organizational information systems to exchange information about prices and product. In the context of emerging economies with weak national systems, Abuhamad
and
Shaltoni
(2013)
argue that organizations need latest technologies associated with international collaborations, which is the case with electronic marketplaces, to improve their innovativeness and market penetration. In other words, electronic marketplaces could differentiate winners from losers
(Rohm
et al.,
2004).
Researchers
(Lee
et al.,
2011;
Sila,
2013)
and
practitioners
are increasingly .nding that value creation in the form of time and place utilities is greater in electronic marketplaces than in the traditional marketplaces because geographical constraints and time limitations do not exist.
With regards to social media in the industrial organizations’ context, diverse platforms of social media (i.e. blogging, photo sharing, video channels, etc.) have been the subject of increasing interest. In general, social media offers many bene.ts and opportunities to industrial organizations, as it helps in attracting new customers in addition to cultivating relationships
with
existing
ones
(Kho,
2008;
Siamagka
et al.,
2015).
Social media can also be used to improve collaborations with customers and consequently accelerate innovation
(Wang
et al.,
2016).
Furthermore,
Rapp
et al. (2013)
emphasize that B2B marketing professionals can use social media to improve brand loyalty. These bene.ts to B2B organizations may turn directly into increased revenues and greater
return
on
investment
(Lacka
and
Chong,
2016).
To
gain such bene.ts, control over content creation is a critical issue. Huotari
et al. (2015)
suggest that organizations can in.uence content creation in social media using direct or indirect methods. Examples of the former include adding new content and participating in discussions through corporate user accounts. Examples of indirect methods include training employees to create content and perform activities that in.uence other users to create favorable content for the company. Such content is not limited to professional networks only (e.g. LinkedIn) but also includes personal ones (e.g. Facebook).
In general, social media business pages/pro.les are easy to manage and normally cost nothing to establish. On the other hand, establishing and managing a website requires time and money, although this has been minimized because of the developments in content management systems (CMS) such as Joomla
and
Drupal
(Chaffey
and
Ellis-Chadwick,
2016).
That
is why decisions-makers, particularly in small organizations, may tend to prefer social media over having a dedicated website for their business. But social media pages do not ensure absolute marketing success because implementation requires a strategic perspective to ensure the desired outcomes (Hsu,
2012).
In
the
near
future,
websites
will
continue
to
be
important for all businesses because they allow better search engine marketing, full control of content and consequently

Abdel Monim Shaltoni Volume 32 · Number 7 · 2017 · 1009–1019
better
branding
(Strauss
and
Frost,
2014).
In
other
words,
social media business pages are very important, but not enough.
In the context of B2B, many marketing decision-makers still perceive social media sites as being less important because there is a common perception that social media is more relevant to B2C markets and that they cannot support B2B marketing
objectives
(Michaelidou
et al.,
2011).
Such
a
view
is
further con.rmed by the Jussila
et al. (2014),
who
found
that
nearly 60 per cent of business executives in B2B markets perceive social media as being unnecessary. These doubts about the role of social media could be attributed to marketers’ poor understanding of how to use social media for B2B
marketing
purposes
(J.rvinen
et al.,
2012)
and
the
fear
that marketers are unable to control the exchange of information, which may risk con.dential information disclosure
(Simula
et al.,
2013).
Interestingly,
a
recent
study
by Siamagka
et al. (2015)
observed that some innovative marketers in the UK established B2B .rm social media presence, and many of them aim to increase their investment in social media marketing. In other words, decision-makers in developed industrial markets are slowly beginning to recognize the value of social media. Siamagka
et al. (2015)
further add that the most popular social media platforms among B2B organizations is LinkedIn.
Given the bene.ts of different internet marketing applications discussed above and the variation in its adoption, it is interesting to explore the factors related to internet marketing adoption in the context of emerging industrial markets. Reviewing the literature reveals that several studies were conducted to examine the role of a range of factors that could
affect
organizational
adoption
of
the
internet
(Ahmad
et al.,
2015;
Al-Qirim,
2007;
Harrison
et al.,
2005;
Levenburg
et al.,
2015;
Lynn
et al.,
2002;
Simmons
et al.,
2011;
Sila,
2013).
These
studies
can
help
in
understanding
the
factors
related to internet marketing adoption in emerging industrial markets. Reviewing the literature also shows that most of the e-business adoption studies use, fully or partially, the Technology Organization Environmental framework (TOE) (Tornatzky
and
Fischer,
1990)
and
Diffusion
of
Innovations
(DOI)
(Rogers,
2003).
A
similar
conclusion
was
suggested
by
Oliveira
and
Martins
(2011),
who
conducted
an
extensive analysis of literature and found that the most widely used theories in technology adoption studies are the DOI and the TOE. A possible explanation is that the internet is considered as a technological innovation (Prescott,
1997).
More speci.cally, the internet introduces new methods in most, if not all, marketing functions, including promotion (i.e. search engine marketing), distribution (i.e. cybermediaries), pricing
(i.e. dynamic prices), market research (i.e. e-surveys) and customer relationship management (i.e. online live chat).
In brief, the DOI theory addresses the diffusion of an innovation over time and/or space. Everett Rogers introduced the DOI in the early 1960s. Since then, the DOI has become one of the main theories in the innovation literature. According to Rogers
(2003),
adoption
takes
place
in
a
singular
unit which could be an organization or an individual. When an adoption takes place across a system, then DOI is said to happen. DOI suggests that several attributes of innovations
(e.g. relative advantage and compatibility) are important in explaining whether an innovation is accepted and in determining the rate at which an innovation is adopted. The TOE
framework
(Tornatzky
and
Fischer,
1990)
addresses
the
relationship between organizational adoption of technological innovations and the factors associated with the organizational context (e.g. innovativeness), the environmental context (e.g. competitor pressure) and .nally the technological context
(e.g. complexity). It is noteworthy that although adoption and DOI theories have received considerable interest from marketing scholars, knowledge on how organizations adopt innovations is still considerably less extensive than the sum of its
parts
(Makkonen
and
Johnston,
2014).
In
this
study,
the
TOE framework is chosen as the theoretical basis for the development of hypotheses because it considers various contexts. Most importantly, the TOE framework, as discussed earlier, has been widely recognized as a well-established framework in the .eld of e-business. Elements from the DOI
(i.e. attributes of innovations) are also used.
The technological context in TOE comprises the technologies relevant to organizations (Tornatzky
and
Fischer,
1990).
Reviewing
the
literature
revealed
that
the
most
examined factors are those suggested by Rogers
(2003),
which
include: perceived relative advantage, compatibility and complexity of the technological innovation. Other factors suggested by Rogers
(2003),
such as trialability and observability, are generally associated with adoption at the individual level, which could explain why many organizational adoption
studies
do
not
consider
them
(Abebe,
2014;
I.nedo,
2011;
Levenburg
et al.,
2015;
Tiago
and
Maria,
2010).
In
general, industrial organizations are more likely to be highly involved in internet marketing if they perceive that doing so will offer new bene.ts that were not obtained using current methods (Beatty
et al.,
2001;
Scupola,
2009).
Perceived relative advantage may, for example, take the form of new markets, reduced transaction costs or better customer service (Chaffey
and
Ellis-Chadwick,
2016;
Shaltoni,
2006).
The
second factor in the technological context is complexity, which refers to an innovation being perceived as relatively dif.cult to understand
and
to
use
(Rogers,
2003).
Complex
technologies
create greater uncertainty about their successful implementation; therefore, they increase the risks inherent in the
decision
to
adopt
(Jeon
et al.,
2006;
Lin
and
Lin,
2008).
The third factor is perceived compatibility, which generally re.ects the level of IT knowledge and usage within the organization. The adoption of internet marketing can bring about signi.cant changes to work practices and consequently causes
resistance
to
change
(El-Gohary,
2012;
Grandon
and
Pearson,
2004).
Based
on
the
above:

H1. Internet marketing adoption level is positively related to perceived relative advantage.
H2. Internet marketing adoption level is negatively related to perceived complexity.
H3. Internet marketing adoption level is positively related to perceived compatibility.
The organizational context is related to internal organizational factors, such as available resources and business orientations (Tornatzky
and
Fischer,
1990).
A very relevant and

Abdel Monim Shaltoni Volume 32 · Number 7 · 2017 · 1009–1019
multi-dimensional factor that was used in several e-business adoption
studies
(Scupola,
2003;
Tarafdar
and
Vaidya,
2006)
is organizational innovativeness, which refers to the degree to which an adopter is relatively early in adopting an innovation compared
to
other
members
of
a
social
system
(Rogers,
2003).
Organizational innovativeness is an important organizational capability for achieving competitive advantage, particularly in emerging
markets
(Yu
et al.,
2013).
Top
management
support
represents a major dimension of organizational innovativeness because managers who are well-informed about emerging technologies can induce or force employees and other managers
to
consider
such
technology
use
(Sabherwal
et al.,
2006).
Innovation-oriented
organizations
are
more
likely
to
adopt internet marketing than are non-innovative organizations because their priority is to make signi.cant resource commitments to develop new products and because they tend to be early innovation adopters. Thus:
H4. Internet marketing adoption level is positively related to organizational innovativeness.
Finally, the external/environmental context is de.ned by Tornatzky
and
Fischer
(1990,
p.
153)
as
“The
arena
in
which
a .rm conducts its business”. The most investigated external factors
in
previous
e-business
adoption
studies
(Ahmad
et al.,
2015;
Al-Qirim,
2007;
Wymer
and
Regan,
2005)
are competitor and customer pressure. Competitor pressure re.ects the level of competition in the industry. In a highly competitive environment, organizations constantly need to keep up with technological advances to avoid losing their competitive advantage. Moreover, when the level of competition is high, organizations may adopt internet marketing, not on account of its actual relative advantage, but rather on account of competitors who have already adopted it (Fang
et al.,
2003).
The
last
proposed
factor
that
might
be
related to internet marketing adoption is customer pressure. In general, customers’ demands represent a major source of pressure
on
organizations
(Doherty
et al.,
1999;
Zhu
et al.,
2003).
This
common
sentiment
is
even
more
valid
nowadays
because the internet and other related technologies are creating powerful customers who have a wealth of accurate and
updated
information
(Strauss
and
Frost,
2014).
Based
on
the above:
H5. Internet marketing adoption level is positively related to competitor pressure.
H6. Internet marketing adoption level is positively related to customer pressure.


Methodology
This study is mainly based on an exploratory research design because it aims to understand internet marketing adoption in a new/unexplored context, which is emerging industrial markets. Elements of explanatory design are also used to test the research hypotheses.
In this study, the exploratory research design played a major role in identifying and analyzing Jordanian industrial organizations in terms of their involvement in internet marketing. In brief, the Jordanian economy is considered to be emerging because while it has some characteristics of a developed market, it does not meet developed market standards. In other words, Jordan is progressing toward becoming advanced, as it is regarded a safe threshold for an emerging economy. According to the Jordanian investment commission (2016), the industrial sector is a signi.cant contributor to Jordan’s $38bn gross domestic product (GDP), accounting for over a quarter of Jordan’s economic growth. The main industries include extractive industries (i.e. Calcium carbonate, building stones, oil shale and phosphate), fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, cement, textile, fertilizers, plastic materials, fast-moving consumer goods, information and communication technologies.
Before conducting the main investigation, three unstructured exploratory interviews were performed at the Amman chamber of Industry with the chamber’s CEO, IT manager and industrial development manager. The interviews were conducted face-to-face and lasted for around 45 minutes each. Each interviewee was asked about his/her opinions regarding what drives Jordanian industrial organizations’ involvement in internet marketing; then they were asked about speci.c platforms (e.g. online marketplaces and social media) and their current usage and potential for industrial organizations in Jordan. It is noteworthy that the interviews were conducted at the early stages of this study for explorative purposes only (i.e. getting better insights into the Jordanian industrial sector). Therefore, basic analytical techniques were used such as looking at patterns in answers and the repetition of
phrases
(Bernard,
2000).
The
interviews
also
helped
in
getting access to information about industrial organizations and in gaining insights into the factors which could be related to internet marketing adoption in emerging industrial markets.
The main exploratory investigation was conducting a detailed analysis that addressed how industrial organizations are involved in internet marketing. The Amman Chamber of Industry database was used as a sampling frame because it provides updated information about organizations from different industries. The analysis, which was conducted during early October to mid-November 2016, included 570 organizations in several sectors. The organizations were investigated one by one to discover: 1 If they have websites; if yes, how they were used (i.e.
communication vs transaction). In brief, a website would
be classi.ed as basic/communication if it is a one-way
communication from the organization to the site visitor.
In other words, visitors of the website cannot conduct
transactions apart from basic communication through
e-mail. A website would be classi.ed as transactional if it
offers one or more transactions including customer service
(e.g. live chat, forums, etc.), online ordering and partner or distributor login.
2 If they have a social media page/presence across the following platforms: Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. The nature of the social media page was also further investigated. For example, in the case of Facebook, an effort was made to identify if the page is neglected (i.e. no updates, no or little communication with customers, very basic information about the organization) or well-tended
(i.e. updated on a daily or at least weekly basis, active communication with customers, plenty of media).

Abdel Monim Shaltoni Volume 32 · Number 7 · 2017 · 1009–1019
It is noteworthy that the initial plan was to focus on websites analysis, with little attention to social media because many previous studies indicated that social media is less important in
the
industrial
market
context
(Michaelidou
et al.,
2011;
Jussila
et al.,
2014).
As
research
progressed,
social
media
importance was clear. Consequently, a decision was made to include them in the main investigation. Also, other social media platforms were considered (i.e. Twitter, Instagram, Flicker, YouTube Channel), but a preliminary analysis showed that they are rarely used. Consequently, these platforms were not further investigated in the full analysis. In an effort to make sure that dropping them was not a problem, YouTube channel were considered in the full analysis and only 7 per cent were found to use it.
The explanatory part of this study was mainly based on self-completion web questionnaire. The rationale behind this choice is that questionnaires serve a number of functions by translating the research constructs into a series of questions and allow the use of larger samples and consequently perform the statistical tests which are required to examine the study’s hypotheses. The constructs were measured using multi-item indicators that were adopted or adapted from previous studies (Beatty
et al.,
2001;
Shaltoni
and
West,
2010;
Fang
et al.,
2003).
To
strengthen
the
validity
of
the
result,
this
research
followed Churchill’s
(1979)
recommendations by thoroughly reviewing the literature and conducting an experience survey. Four marketing professors were asked to evaluate the face validity of the items (i.e. representation of the construct and clarity of construction). Only items that were approved by the professors were admitted into the .nal items pool. It is noteworthy that a pre-test was performed to detect any possible problems. In all, 40 companies were invited to participate in the pre-test. Five invitations bounced back because of what appears to be an error in e-mail address or deleted e-mail. Six responses were received and no major problems were detected, but few modi.cations were made to the survey design and the invitation letter to better suit the web nature. Please note that the six responses from the pre-test were not included later in the main analysis. After
Table I Summary of the methods used in this study
developing the items, a self-completion online questionnaire was sent to 480 SMEs who provided e-mail address. Marketing managers, or business owner in the case of small and micro organizations, were considered as key informants. The survey focused on SMEs because the variations in internet marketing adoption between them are obvious, which is not the case of larger organizations. The European commission de.nition of an SME being less than 250 employees was adopted. A summary of the main methods used in this study and the rationale for using them is provided in Table
I.



Findings and discussion
The unstructured exploratory interviews showed that interviewees shared many thoughts, with the IT manager having a natural focus on the technical issues. According to the interviewees, the main inhibitors of internet marketing adoption are related to decision-makers’ attitudes toward engaging in e-business. More speci.cally, most commercial B2B transactions in Jordan are still based on face-to-face communications; consequently, internet marketing is expected to make a limited impact in the near future. The CEO and business development manager highlighted the importance of conducting awareness campaigns and workshops about internet marketing, which helps in changing the knowledge and attitudes of decision-makers. The interviewees also con.rmed the need for local online marketplace, as currently there are none. Such marketplaces will better serve the interest of local organizations, particularly SMEs, because it can be tailored to their needs. None of the interviewees provided speci.c answers regarding industrial organizations involvement in internet marketing (i.e. percentage of organizations that have active Facebook accounts), and they all expressed the need for such research.
As to the current practices of internet marketing, the main exploratory effort showed that half of the organizations use their websites for communication purposes. A small percentage (6 per cent) conducted commercial or business

Method Description Rationale Time/place
1.
Analysis of adoption A detailed analysis that addressed industrial organizations involvement in the web and social media platforms

2.
Online survey Self-completion web questionnaire that was sent to marketing decision-makers in Jordanian industrial organization


3. Other methods

3.1 Exploratory unstructured 3.1 Interviews in early stages of the

interviews research with Amman chamber of Industry CEO, IT and business development manager

3.2 Experience survey 3.2 Four marketing professors were asked to evaluate the questionnaire
3.3 Pretesting the 3.3 Questionnaire was sent to 40 questionnaire organizations The analysis generated data that was used to 2015-2016 address the main research issue through Amman exploring and comparing industrial (Jordan) organizations involvement in internet marketing The questionnaire enabled the use of large sample to generate data for examining the research hypotheses
3.1 Explore the views/thoughts of the experts who are directly involved in managing the Jordanian industrial sector


3.2 Improve face validity of the questionnaire
–

Abdel Monim Shaltoni Volume 32 · Number 7 · 2017 · 1009–1019
transactions. Only 2 per cent of the investigated organizations were found to run company/enterprise portals that allow business collaboration with partners, distributors and employees. Furthermore, around 80 per cent of communication websites across most sectors were static with four to .ve main links: about us (including history, visions, mission and management), our products, career, news and contact us. The rest communication websites were dynamic in the sense that they looked professionally designed and included more links/sections, such as comprehensive product catalog in different languages, updated news and career center. Special experiences were found in some speci.c industries. For example, in the painting industry, links/pages such as “virtual decoration” were established to enrich the website and, perhaps, impress visitors. The analysis also revealed that 57 per cent of small organizations (below 10 employees) did not have websites, while 35 per cent of medium-sized organizations (10-50 employee) and only 3 per cent of large organizations did not have websites, which indicates that organizational size plays a role in industrial organizations’ web presence.
The ACI database did not provide information about the usage of electronic marketplaces. Therefore, the researcher explored ten international electronic marketplaces and found a limited presence of Jordanian organizations in only three of them, namely, tradekey.com, ec21.com and bizbilla.com. More speci.cally, in the case of tradekey.com, around 250 product listing for Jordanian companies were found, while in the case of ec21.com, the list did not exceed 100. Comparing these numbers to thousands of product listing in industrialized countries of relatively similar population size (e.g. Sweden and Belgium) con.rms that electronic marketplaces are underutilized in Jordan.
With regards to social media, Facebook analysis results showed that the majority (71 per cent) has Facebook accounts/pages. However, only 31 per cent of the investigated organization are serious about their Facebook accounts. The rest are neglected in the sense that they are not updated or had little content. In .ve cases, the pages’ latest posts were created a year before the analysis was conducted (i.e. 2015). On the other hand, the well-tended Facebook accounts had daily or weekly new posts that included media (i.e. videos/photos) in addition to posts dedicated to answering customer questions and complaints. The relatively high percentage of Facebook adoption among Jordanian industrial organizations is in line with the numbers provided by Internet
Worlds
Stats
(2016),
which shows that around 62 per cent of Jordanians use Facebook. The results also indicated that the size of the organization played a lesser role in the case of Facebook than it did with websites. In other words, the percentage of well-tended pages were relatively similar for both SMEs and larger organizations.
In the case of LinkedIn, 41 per cent of the investigated organizations did not have accounts, while 59 per cent did. This indicates that LinkedIn is second to Facebook. Comparing this to developed countries context shows some difference, as the most popular social media platforms among B2B
organizations
in
the
UK
is
LinkedIn
(Siamagka
et al.,
2015).
There was no need to further investigate if the LinkedIn accounts are neglected or well-tended because 88 per cent of them were simple pages that only included basic information about the organization, contact/addresses, website link, number of employees, etc. Similarly, in the case of YouTube, the analysis was simple, as the type of content to be analyzed was straightforward. More speci.cally, an organization either has or does not have a YouTube channel. The results indicated that the overwhelming majority of the sample (93 per cent) does not have a YouTube channel; bearing in mind that if an organization has a video or more on YouTube, it does not mean that it has a channel. In other words, an organization needs to have a dedicated YouTube channel to be considered in this analysis as active on YouTube. Regarding organizational size, larger organizations outperformed their SMEs counterparts in their LinkedIn and YouTube presence. Again, the difference is less than what was found in the websites results.
Interestingly, further analysis showed that among the organizations who have websites, 73 per cent are present on Facebook, almost half of this percentage have well-tended Facebook accounts. On the other hand, among those who did not have websites, 57 per cent had social Facebook accounts (25 per cent of the total investigated organization), which indicates that many organizations that do not have websites are still active online using social media platform, particularly Facebook. Most importantly, the investigation showed that around 19 per cent of the total sample are minimally involved or not involved at all in internet marketing (i.e. no Facebook account,
no
website)
(Figure
1).

With regards to the survey, after two reminders, 105 usable responses were received, which represents a response rate of 22 per cent. A chi-square test was performed to compare early and late respondents. The results revealed no signi.cant differences (p > 0.05) between the early and late respondents on the tested variables (e.g. adoption levels), which implies that non-response bias is not a problem with this study. Also, Cronbach’s alpha test showed that the reliability coef.cients of all the scales met or exceeded the 0.7 cutoff; details are found in Table
II.

Internet marketing adoption relationship with each factor was examined using Pearson correlation to identify strength and direction, which is an approach followed by previous studies
that
examined
e-business
adoption
(Gallear
et al.,
2008;
Sila,
2013).
The
results
showed
a
statistically
signi.cant
and positive relationship between adoption and perceived relative advantage, perceived compatibility, organizational innovativeness, customer and competitor pressure. This supports H1 H3, H4, H5 and H6. Unexpectedly, no signi.cant relationship was found between internet marketing adoption and perceived complexity, which means that H2 cannot be supported. Details are shown in Table
III.

The results supported the positive relationship between internet marketing adoption and perceived relative advantage, which is consistent with previous studies that investigated organizational adoption of the internet (Al-Qirim,
2007;
Beatty
et al.,
2001;
Lynn
et al.,
2002;
Shah
Alam
et al.,
2011).
The negative relationship between perceived complexity and internet marketing adoption was not supported. One explanation of the unexpected results might be that internet marketing resources/technologies are becoming easier to implement. The perceived complexity result is consistent with

Abdel Monim Shaltoni Volume 32 · Number 7 · 2017 · 1009–1019
Figure 1 Analysis of internet marketing adoption among Jordanian industrial organizations (websites and social media/SM)
Organizations size (Number of organizations analyzed)
Further analysis


Notes: All percentages in the table are based on the total number of investigated organization (570);
Table II Constructs, items and reliability test of the research construct

Construct Items* Alpha
Relative advantage  Internet marketing enables better communication with customers  0.83
Internet marketing improves our organization’s reputation
Internet marketing increases our ability to compete
Internet marketing enables us to reach new markets
Complexity  The skills we require to be involved in internet marketing are sophisticated  0.73
Learning to use internet marketing is dif.cult for us to do
Compatibility  Using internet marketing .ts with the way we work in our organization  0.86
Implementing the changes caused by the adoption of the internet is compatible with our
organization’s culture
Innovativeness  Our organization is at the leading edge of technological innovation  0.87
Our organization is .rst to develop new products
Our organization is .rst to develop new markets
We actively seek innovative ideas
Competition level  In our industry, competition is intense  0.72
In our organization, we quickly learn about new internet marketing actions taken by our competitors
There are frequent price wars in our industry
Customer pressure  Our customers demand the use of internet marketing in doing business with them  0.74
We will lose our customers to competitors if we do not adopt internet marketing
Internet marketing  In our organization:  0.71
adoption levels  We use internet marketing to communicate with stakeholders
We use internet marketing to conduct business transactions

Sources: * Adapted from Beatty et al. (2001); Fang et al. (2003); Mehrtens et al. (2001); Lynn et al. (2002); Rogers (2003); Shaltoni and West (2010); Fang et al. (2003); Srinivasan et al. (2002)
Table III The relationship between internet marketing adoption and the factors associated with the technological, organizational and environmental contexts (Pearson correlation)
Construct  Relative advantage  Complexity  Compatibility  Innovativeness  Competitor pressure  Customer pressure
Internet marketing adoption  *0.63  -0.14  *0.61  *0.45  *0.42  *0.57
Note: *Signi.cant at the 0.01 level

Abdel Monim Shaltoni Volume 32 · Number 7 · 2017 · 1009–1019
some
studies
(Ahmad
et al.,
2015;
Sila,
2013)
and
inconsistent
with
others
(El-Gohary,
2012;
Jeon
et al.,
2006).
The
reasons
for such disagreement could be attributed to the methods used by the researchers (i.e. sample type, size, data collection methods, etc.), the time frame and the focus of the study (i.e. technology examined, type of organizations). The hypothesis addressing perceived compatibility was also supported, which is in line with the .ndings of Grandon
and
Pearson
(2004)
and Tan
et al. (2009).

The results also showed a positive relationship between organizational innovativeness and internet marketing adoption. This .nding supports the argument that innovative organizations are more likely to adopt e-business because they tend to be early adopters and because their priority is to devote signi.cant
resources
to
developing
new
products
(Sabherwal
et al.,
2006;
Tarafdar
and
Vaidya,
2006).
The
.ndings
are
also
in line with a recent effort in developed countries by Siamagka
et al. (2015),
who found that perceived usefulness/relative advantage and organizational innovativeness are the main determinants of social media adoption by B2B organizations, while perceived ease of use was found to be insigni.cant. Concerning the external environment, which included customer and competitor pressure, the correlation results showed that both factors positively impact internet marketing adoption,
which
is
in
line
with
previous
studies
(Ahmad
et al.,
2015;
Al-Qirim,
2007;
Zhu
et al.,
2003),
but
the
coef.cients
were slightly lower than those of perceived relative advantage and compatibility, which suggests that the external factors are of less importance. It is noteworthy that the results reported in Table
III
can be used for exploratory purposes only because according to Hair
et al. (2010),
coef.cients
below
0.7
cannot
be used for con.rmatory purposes.




Conclusions and future research
The main research issue in this study is to explore the current status of internet marketing adoption in emerging industrial markets and the factors related to its adoption. To address this issue, a detailed analysis of how industrial organizations are using websites and social media was conducted. The .ndings shows that half of the industrial organizations in emerging markets are using their websites as brochureware for basic communication purposes. Furthermore, 57 per cent of the small organizations investigated do not have websites, which is surprising given the low cost involved in developing basic websites. This also indicates that many decision-makers in emerging industrial markets still do not value the importance of websites for their businesses. In addition, the .ndings shows that 25 per cent of the investigated organizations do not have websites but are active on Facebook, which indicates that many decision-makers in emerging industrial markets are enthusiastic about social media. However, this conclusion does not re.ect the whole picture, as one-third of the organizations analyzed have Facebook pages that involve little interaction with stakeholders. Other social media platforms
(i.e. YouTube channels) are rarely used by the organizations investigated in this study.
Interestingly, after nearly 20 years since the internet went mainstream and changed many fundamental marketing practices, around 19 per cent of the organizations investigated are not involved in internet marketing, meaning they have neither websites nor social media presence. Another contribution of this study concerns the factors related to the adoption of internet marketing. The .ndings supports the hypotheses for relative advantage, compatibility, organizational innovativeness, customer and competitor pressure. Unexpectedly, the perceived complexity hypothesis is not supported. These .ndings suggest that many decision-makers in industrial organizations still do not perceive internet marketing as bene.cial. Perhaps, they think that it is not compatible with the nature of B2B markets.
From a managerial perspective, decision-makers in emerging industrial markets can use the .ndings of this study to compare their involvement in internet marketing with other industrial organizations of relatively similar size. Decision-makers are also advised to evaluate how their staff, particularly those in marketing, perceive the bene.ts of the internet and whether it is compatible with their culture and IT infrastructure. The evaluation can later help them take the necessary actions to grasp the bene.ts of the digital world. Another implication concerns the use of websites. Although social media importance and growth for industrial organizations are obvious, marketing decision-makers are advised not to depend on social media completely and ignore their own company websites, particularly for branding purposes. Furthermore, to enhance internet technologies adoption in emerging industrial markets, it is necessary that governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) introduce awareness initiatives (e.g. projects and workshops) to educate businesses about the opportunities offered by the internet.
The results from this study should be interpreted with caution, primarily because internet marketing is changing rapidly. New disrupting technologies and platforms are constantly introduced into the market, which makes research in this domain time sensitive. Furthermore, governmental and non-governmental initiatives in the .elds of B2B e-commerce may change the dynamics of internet marketing in a short time. With regards to data analysis, the results can be used for exploratory purposes only because the analysis conducted for examining the hypotheses did not involve advanced dependency techniques and the correlation coef.cients were not high. Another issue to consider is the generalizability. Although Jordan is a good case of an emerging economy because of its political stability and economic growth, having more countries in the analysis would have improved the generalizability of the results. Suggested further research may be targeted toward replicating this study in different countries or using advanced quantitative techniques for con.rmatory purposes. Future research may also focus on how business culture (i.e. the importance of personal communication for .nalizing a deal) impact the adoption of internet marketing in the industrial sector. Finally, future research may also focus on each major social media platform separately to gain more speci.c insights into what drives the advanced level of adoption for each of them. Overall, the .ndings from this study enrich the internet marketing adoption research and offer insights for future researchers and decision-makers in industrial markets.

Abdel Monim Shaltoni Volume 32 · Number 7 · 2017 · 1009–1019

Note
1 http://ww2.frost.com/news/press-releases/global-b2b-e­
commerce-market-will-reach-67-trillion-usd-2020-.nds­
frost-sullivan/,
(accessed
29
May
2016).



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Abdel Monim Shaltoni


About the author
Dr Abdel Monim Shaltoni has extensive experience in the .elds of marketing and e-business. He holds a PhD in e-marketing from the University of Birmingham. His research interests focus on the organizational adoption of e-marketing and marketing practices in developing
Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing
Volume 32 · Number 7 · 2017 · 1009–1019
countries where he secured research funds and published in top international peer-reviewed journals and conferences. Dr Shaltoni is currently the Director of the undergraduate program at Alfaisal University, where he teaches at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Abdel Monim Shaltoni can be contacted at: ashaltoni@alfaisal.edu


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“Social media marketing, functional branding strategy and intentional branding”
AUTHORS Mohammad Fahmi Al-Zyoud
Mohammad Fahmi Al-Zyoud (2018). Social media marketing, functional branding ARTICLE INFO strategy and intentional branding. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 16(3), 102-116. doi:10.21511/ppm.16(3).2018.09
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.16(3).2018.09
RELEASED ON Friday, 20 July 2018
RECEIVED ON Sunday, 04 February 2018
ACCEPTED ON Tuesday, 12 June 2018
LICENSE This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
JOURNAL  "Problems and Perspectives in Management" 
ISSN PRINT  1727-7051 
ISSN ONLINE  1810-5467 

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© The author(s) 2019. This publication is an open access article.

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Received on: 4th of February, 2018 Accepted on: 12th of June, 2018
© Mohammad Fahmi Al-Zyoud, 2018
Mohammad Fahmi Al-Zyoud, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Marketing, School of Business,  Al-Ahliyya Amman University, Jordan.

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Mohammad Fahmi Al-Zyoud (Jordan)



Abstract
It has been suggested that social media marketing may be inclined more towards functional branding than intentional branding. The present study empirically exam­ined the relationship between social media marketing strategies, intentional branding and functional branding with a view to determining where social media marketing strategies are more strongly inclined towards intentional than functional branding. Quantitative data were collected from 133 participants from Jordan marketing depart­ments using questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS. The results of the study con­firmed the relationship between social media marketing strategies. However, results showed that social media marketing strategies are more strongly inclined towards in­tentional branding than functional branding suggesting that social media marketing strategies are oriented towards intentional branding. The study recommends examin­ing the idea of intentional branding and its role in controlling the image of the brand
among customers. 
Keywords  social media marketing, functional branding, intentional 
branding, e-marketing 
JEL Classification  M30, M31, M37 



INTRODUCTION
Utilizing the web, online networking, portable applications, and other advanced correspondence innovations has moved toward becoming part of billions of individuals’ everyday lives. For example, the pres­ent rate of web use among American grown-ups is around 87% and is more like 100% for statistic gatherings, for example, school taught and higher-wage grown-ups. More youthful individuals – the up and com­ing era of mass customers – also have a very high usage (Kervyn, Fiske, & Malone, 2012). Individuals likewise invest expanding energy on the web. For instance, in the UK, during the most recent decade, the num­ber of hours spent online by grown-ups has dramatically increased, and now midpoints 20.5 hours per every week. Online networking has powered part of this development: worldwide, there are currently more than 2 billion individuals utilizing web-based social network­ing, and Facebook alone now has around 1 billion dynamic clients per each day (Bernritter, Verlegh, & Smit, 2016).
1. PROBLEM STATEMENT
According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), social media can be defined as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideologi­cal and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content” (p. 61). O’Reilly (2005) de­fined social media as a broad concept that explains and presents the equipment and tools, which can evolve a content, which is generated by the users and able to be shared. According to Paquette (2013), social me­dia provide many aspects that enable the organi­zations to share their brand and attain the needed attention to it. For example, social media websites can generate consumers’ sentiment, motives, con­tents, attitudes and prospects through the virtual community that they build for the brand (Andrei & Zait, 2014; Hashem, 2016).

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Technology and marketing
The globalization of the world has been accom­panied by technological advancements. These ad­vances have brought changes in the marketplace and, in particular, in marketing communication industry and enabled companies to use digital marketing strategies to market and create val­ue for their products. To this extent, several re­searchers agree that companies that make use of technology succeed in marketing their products and services (Ghorbani, Fakhimi, & Ghorbani, 2013).

According to Chang (1996), for a company to create value for its product and succeed in mar­keting its products, it must ensure its marketing strategies are supported/backup with technolo­gy. Agreeing with Gingington and Zorob (1997), Foroudi et al. (2017) revealed that there is an in­teraction between marketing and technology, es­pecially during product development. Similarly, Schneider (2003) argued that a stronger link must be created between marketing and research and development. Schneider (2003) believes that in­novation may take vision and creativity. However, it is not sufficient for commercial success, as the vision and creativity of technologists cannot be clear enough to yield products/service that appeal
to millions without investing in marketing.

Exploring the role and impact of technology in the marketing industry, Sooknanan and Crichlow (2014) also acknowledged that technology has a profound impact on e-marketing for North American businesses. According to Soonknanan and Crichlow (2014), regardless of the category, service or product, marketing is an important factor when it comes to the success of a business. Soonknanan and Crichlow (2014) further indicat­ed that the proliferation of the Internet had revo­lutionized the marketing industry. It has altered the environmental dynamics and business envi­ronment in which marketers and businesses oper­ate and changed the manner in which companies relate internally and externally with consumers as well as each other. Again, the proliferation of the Internet has also increased the available me­dia from which marketers can use to market their products. Indeed, marketers can now choose from an assortment of Internet-based marketing alternatives (e-marketing); traditional media (ra­dio and television), as well as non-mass media al­ternatively, including event marketing and direct mail. The availability of these marketing channels means consumers can be focused and creative when dealing with the increasingly demanding and sophisticated consumers.
Elsewhere, Applegate, Austin, and McFarlan (2002) acknowledged that new communication technologies, and, in particular, the Internet, have revolutionized the marketing communica­tion landscape. They described the transform­ative effect of the Internet as seismic. Similarly, Zeng, Huang, and Dou (2009) acknowledged that interactive technology including smart cards, m-commerce, enhanced computational speed, enhanced search services, GPS tracking and bi­ometrics can be used to customize market strate­gy. Again, technological developments, including the search engines, peer-to-peer communication vehicles, advanced mobile interfaces and devices and social networks created online, have extend­ed the ability of marketers to reach out to consum­ers through various touch points such as shopper marketing (Shankar et al., 2011). Through shopper marketing, consumers and business can interact and conduct business. During shopper marketing, marketers plan and execute marketing activities that influence shoppers when making purchases (Shankar et al., 2011). Shankar believes that shop­pers can work together with shopper marketing to create clear messages, improve products, iden­tify promoter and act as links to in-store activ­ities. This way, they can demonstrate the value and importance of social media to retailers and marketers.


2.2. Social media websites as marketing tools
Social media websites have evolved from simply offering a platform for people to link up with their friends and families in addition to the ability to reach and review their favorite products and ser­vices. Retailers and marketers alike utilize social media sites to provide consumers with the oppor­tunity to shop and use it as a way to reach their consumers. Social networking sites are considered by shoppers as easy to use and useful. This makes them shop items through social media sites (Cha, 2009). According to Cha, it is easy for companies to reach their target customers through social me­dia because of the availability of diverse consum­ers accessed via these sites. He indicates that this creates a platform for companies to market their products/brands/services to possible customers.

T.llinen and Karjaluoto (2011) and other (Liu et al., 2011; Dennis et al., 2009) hinted that social media websites are being used as marketing tools to in­crease marketing communications by increasing user-generated content (UGC) and customer in­teraction. According to Dennis et al. (2009), social media websites have helped marketers to embrace interactive communications by moving away from the traditional one-way communication to two-way communication with customers getting a chance to engage and participate in the commu­nication loop. Supporting this view, Weinberg and Pehlivan (2011) hinted that marketers have recog­nized this new reality and are now considering so­cial media as a state-of-the-art avenue for promot­ing products/services. This repetition of citations is really boring! Companies have recognized that social media can be used to elevate and increase multidimensional interaction and increase us­er-generated content and, therefore, dedicate part of their budget towards social media marketing. Approving this assertion, Aho Williamson (2011) confirmed that in 2011 in the U.S., businesses in­vested about USD 6 billion in social media market­ing. Van Zyl (2009) and Riegner (2007) also agree that companies are using social media websites for marketing to generate content and increase customer engagedment. Social media are charac­terized by two factors: customer interaction and engagement and user-generated content. Van Zyl (2009) argues that these two characterize market­
ing communication. Others (e.g., Muniz & Schau, 2009; Riegner, 2007; Parent et al., 2011) clarify the importance of user-generated content and cus­tomer interaction and the creation of content in marketing by indicating that user-generated con­tent help to increase customers’ value experience, and that customer-based content creation and ac­tive interaction help a business enterprise to build a strong and long-term competitive advantage.
According to Muniz and Schau (2009), fluent and
interactive customer service encourages purchas­
ers to take part in service and product creation.
Supporting their view, Hanna et al. (2011) argued
that social media websites allow customers to take
active roles in marketing of the product. Weinberg
and Pehlivan (2011) also believe that social media
empowers consumers and allows to create the re­
lationship between customers and organizations.


2.3. Branding and service design
Branding is the way a company or business en­terprise is personalized in the consumers’ minds. Building and managing a brand, its name, its rep­utation and its identity is critical to the success of any company. How, where and when a company connects with its customers is determined by its branding and by how much consumers of its prod-ucts/services relate to its brand. In today’s com­petitive market, the branding is the company’s strongest differentiator.


2.4. Functional branding
In service design, functional branding involves creating or improving services with the aim of en­hancing user experience. It involves creating ser­vices by applying service design with a view to de­liver a branded experience to the user. Functional branding enables a company to differentiate itself by positively reinforcing the value of its brand through design. Every time the user interacts with the company’s brand, the company seizes that opportunity to influence their perceptions. Functional branding is aimed at turning every in­teraction into a branded experience by ensuring that users receive a positive experience and the interaction conveys the company’s brand values. These user experiences appeal to consumers emo­tionally and have excellent usability and function­ality. Functional branding depends on the com­prehensive and overall branded experience. As such, it can increase brand equity and brand loyal­ty (T.llinen & Karjaluoto, 2011).

Customers typically buy functional brands to sat­isfy their functional need. In the consumers’ mind, functional brands are often tied to specific prod­uct categories. These brands typically share the as­sociation of the user with other brands belonging to the same category. These brands should differ­entiate from brands of the competitor by stressing either better economy or better performance. For example, BMW’s produces products that compete on performance. It maintains category leadership in automobile by spending heavily on research and design (R&D) to produce automobiles that have a greater cutting edge design, are faster and more luxurious than competitors (Lawford, 2009). For this reason, cars produced by BMW are known for their elegant and sophisticated styling, as well as for high performance. Accordingly, new car mod­els launched by BMW are positioned based on its marketing and elegant and sophisticated qualities.
In contrast, Kia automobile company is known for producing car models that compete based on their perceived economic value rather than on perfor­mance. Although Kia spends part of its money on research and development, the focus is on identi­fying ways to minimize costs through simpler de­sign, increased manufacturing efficiency and more modest features. The ability of Kia to produce rel­atively cheaper, but attractive and high-quality products, makes it to compete others. This shows that a company that establishes and manages a functional brand focuses on a marketing mix: ei­ther on the price and place (for superior economy) or product/service itself (for superior performance). Messaging and advertising should not only support the link between the category and the brand, but also emphasize what should make a brand/product superior, either in price and value or functionali­ty and features. Examples of functional brands in­clude dish soap, cell phones and automobiles.


2.5. Intentional branding
According to Rick (2008), all businesses need
a brand. Regardless of the purpose, industry or
size, an engaging and attractive brand is abso­lutely essential. However, it is not just any brand but an intentional brand. This is a type of brand, which is built willfully, with purpose and plan­ning. According to Pietro and Pantano (2012), a brand is created out of perception and this per­ception is, to a prospective consumer, a reali­ty. Pietro and Pantano (2012) further indicated that a brand built without intention is subject to open interpretation by customers. According to Shu-Chuan (2011), this explains why it is impor­tant for a company to be in the driver’s seat while building a brand. This means conveying the right image, as well as delivering the right message that serves its target customers and, consequently, its business and itself. An intentional brand is au­thentic, sincere, confident, valuable, credible, ac­countable, and result-driven. Intentional brand­ing includes the branding decisions that are made when developing the look and feel of a company in order to make it create the best identity that reflects its target market. According to Chi (2011), a brand is a like a company logo; its font choice, paper weight, lighting, color selection, photo style, the feeling brand evoke emotions in the custom­er. International branding means the company being in control of message it sends to its audi­ence. A clear and not confusing message means the company is doing its job correctly. Intentional branding reflects image branding. It is aimed at creating specific perceptions in the minds of the user. Companies that embrace intentional brand­ing tend to differentiate themselves, because cus­tomers perceive them as proving unique image or association. These companies either establish image based on luxury and high style or on prod­uct features. They make use of advertising to cre­ate associations that do not depend on features. Managing intentional branding is a function of establishing an emotional link with the consum­er, as intentional branding largely depends on the ability of the company to tap into the desires of the consumer to be admired or belong to a cer­tain group. For this reason, advertising plays an important role in marketing of these brands, as well as publicity and sponsorships.
Cox (2010) identified nine keys to building an in­tentional brand: authenticity, confidence, sincerity, accountability, credibility, experience, value, re­sults, referrals. Cox (2010) further suggested that intentional branding efforts should work to differ­entiate a company in its market; where if it tends towards the disruptive side, the intentional brand­ing efforts should follow the lead of the product.


2.6. Brand – positioning
Brand positioning is an important concept in marketing that was first conceptualized by Ries and Trout as part of value proposition and brand identity that describes how a company can com­pete effectively within the target market. It can al­so refer to the message that a company imprints in the customers’ mind and the prospects regarding its service or product and how it differs from what competitors are offering. Companies often devel­op a brand position with a view to define the spe­cific place/position to be occupied by the brand in the consumers’ mind.

Four elements define brand positioning: target market; frame, category, competitive set or refer­ence; differentiation; supporting points or proof. According to Maarit Jalkala and Ker.nen (2014), it is impossible to complete a positioning statement without defining a target market. Companies can only develop a strong positioning of their brands by understanding the target market. A brand may appeal to many target markets. However, it each
market may require a different position.
For a company to determine the category, com­petitive set or frame of reference it will use in de­fining its brand positioning, it must understand the relevant options that consumers (target mar­ket) see as available. The frame of reference de­fines the company’s marketplace that positions its brand and facilitates its differentiation and defi­nition. Differentiation or unique selling proposi­tion (USP), value proposition or brand promise is typically what makes a brand unique or differ­ent from others in its frame of reference. Singh Kalafatis and Ledden (2014) noted that it gives consumers a reason to choose to buy the brand, as strong differentiation clearly separates a com­pany’s brand from competitors. It is a decision guide that serves to increase the behavior stand­ard and operational efficiency for the company. Brand positioning is defined by supporting points or proof of why the target market should believe the company. Supporting points are attributes of a brand that supports the claim that it is the best brand in the market. Brand positioning is an im­portant element of marketing and brand strategy. Communicating brand position externally to the market and internally to the organization helps to make company’s marketing program more fo­cused, efficient and effective.


2.7. Social media and branding/ positioning
Social media can serve as channels for marketers to conduct marketing activities, including cus­tomer service, customer relationship management, sales promotion delivery channel, lead genera­tion, paid advertising channels, as well as brand­ing (Schmitt, 2012). As noted in eMarketer (2013), marketers identify social media platforms as a branding channel that companies can use in or­der to create brand attention and awareness, pro­mote customer loyalty and engagement, increase brand popularity, encourage word-of-mouth con­nections with consumers regarding a brand and to drive the attention towards a specific brand. These branded social activities can involve a range of ac­tivities, such as dialogue, engagement experienc­es, socially published branded content, and social participation of brand persona (Hutton & Fosdick, 2011; Falls, 2010).
Stelzner (2013) observed that marketers may use social media to expose their target customers to a brand message, to improve search rankings, to in­crease traffic to their brand, and increase custom­er loyalty towards their brand. Doorn et al. (2010) also believe that companies may use social media to increase customer engagement. According to Doorn et al. (2010), customer engagement extends beyond purchase. It is behavior-based and focus­es on a brand. According to Doorn et al. (2010), purchasers may engage with the brand along the following characteristics: scope (geographic and temporal), valence (value), form (type of resources used), customer goals for engagement and impact.
Merchant (2006) argues that social media plat­forms offer a form of identified performance and that brands are part of it. This way, they allow con­sumers to share branded content and their own opinion with their network. Falls (2010) agrees with Merchant and adds that in the social media, consumers’ response is measured based on wheth­er they bookmark, refers to others’ blogs, links, connect, click, subscribe, connect friends, submit an idea or an inquiry or purchase a brand.


2.8. Is social media marketing functional or intentional?
Based on the literature, social media marketing tends more towards functional branding than in­tentional branding, as it utilizes brand posts and brand pages to create services with the aim of en­hancing user experience. As noted by Lipsman et al. (2012) one of the most meaningful, organic and influential ways via which brands use social me­dia marketing is brand posts and brand pages. As noted by Tafesse (2015), brand pages represent an interactive and dedicated platform, which is cre­ated by brands or companies on the social media websites aimed at increasing brand communica­tion and customer interaction. Brand pages ena­ble brands to cultivate personalized, regular and direct interaction with them and create an active

online community (Kim, Spiller, & Hettche, 2015; Ashley & Tuten, 2015).
Brand pages are made up of a community of brand fans, customers, consumers, influencers, employ­ers’ fans, and others who subscribe to the update of a brand voluntarily (Zaglia, 2013; Pereira et al., 2014).
Customers who follow or like brand pages often expose themselves to other consumers’ comments, fan posts and reactions and to regular commu­nications of a brand. Brand pages are associated with interactivity tools, including comment, like, private, share, public messages, and leaving pri­vate messages on the pages. These tools empower users to express their feelings, voice their opinions and share personal experiences about a brand. To real-time user, this interactivity creates an envi­ronment for co-creating a rich brand experience (Zaglia, 2013; Tafesse, 2016).
Brand posts represent a frequent, unpaid and con­cise updates sent out to fans and customers on a daily basis and which are authored by brands. Brands directly send updates to fans and cus­tomers in their newsfeed or whenever they vis­it brand pages they are subscribed to (Ashley & Tuten, 2015; Lipsman et al., 2012). Brand posts are sent out to customers as recurrent updates. They ensure brands maintain their presence on the so­cial media platforms. They serve to strengthen the relationship between the brands with custom­ers by offering the ongoing conversations’ theme. They support multiple types of media, including photo website links, text, photo) and communi­cate brand experiences and meaning (Gensler et al., 2013; Tafesse, 2016). Brand posts can be uti­lized in building brand awareness, delivering emotional stories, introducing new products, stimulating purchases, and educating customers (Taecharungroj, 2016; Kim et al., 2015). Brand posts have automatic response options, including
share, comment and like. They play an important role in connecting brands with fans and customer (Taecharungroj, 2016).



3. METHODOLOGY
This section described the methodology followed to conduct the present study. It details the study approach, the tool used to collect data, the study population, sample size and sampling technique used.
3.1. Study approach
This study assumed the quantitative approach to the research, which involved collecting quantita­tive data that could be numerically represented and manipulated to help to describe and explain the possible relationship between social media marketing and functional branding than inten­tional branding, as suggested by Sukamolson (2007,
p. 2). In line with the view by Zalaghi and Khazaei (2016), and Borrego, Doulas, and Amelink (2009), this study was deductive in that it was narrow in its approach and aimed at confirming or testing the hypotheses.


3.2. Data collection tool
Data were collected using the structural question­naire. The questionnaire contained two sections: section A and section B. Section A contained ques­tions on demographics of participants. Section B contained questions on study variables. The ques­tionnaire contained closed-ended questions with answers that required respondents to rate based on the Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5 with 1 de­noting strongly disagree, 2 – disagree, 3 – neutral, 4 – agree and 5 – strongly agree. The questions focused on three constructs under investigation: functional branding, intentional branding and so­cial media marketing. Functional branding was operationalized into usability and customer in­teractions and questions were designed to meas­ure these two variables. Questions were tailored towards determining whether, from the respond­ents’ perspective, social media marketing tends more  towards functional branding than inten­tional branding, as suggested in the literature. The questionnaires were distributed through drop and pick to study participants.


3.3. Population and sample
The study population consisted of managers, lead­ers and heads of departments of organizations within the Jordanian iron and metal industry. A convenient sampling was used in this study. The sample consisted of 150 participants including leaders, managers, heads of departments and em­ployees from the Jordanian marketing department. However, out of the 150 questionnaires send to the participants, 133 responded to and sent back the questionnaire. This converted into response rate of 88.6%, which is reasonably good. This sample size was also large enough to justify the conclu­
sion reached and the generalization of the study findings to the general marketing field.


3.4. Data analysis
The quantitative data collected using question­naires were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17. Accordingly, correlation analysis and descriptive analysis were undertaken. Reliability test was also done using SPSS to ascertain the reliability of the question­naire to measure the study variables. Data were presented in the tables.


3.5. Questions and hypotheses
The current study seeks to examine whether social media marketing strategies are inclined towards intentional or functional branding. From that point, it seeks to answer the following questions:
3.5.1.Questions of the study
1.
What is functional branding and how it ap­pears in social media marketing?

2.
What is intentional branding and how it ap­pears in social media marketing?

3.
What is the orientation of social media mar­keting between the functional strategy and the intentional strategy?

4.
Which strategy may attract a custom­er to convert from a browser into a paying customer?


3.5.2. Main hypotheses
H1: Functional branding positively and signifi­cantly influences social media-based mar­keting strategies.
H2: Intentional branding positively and signif­icantly influences social media-based mar­keting strategies.
H3: Social media marketing strategies are more strongly inclined towards intentional brand­ing than functional branding.



3.5.3. Sub-hypotheses
H1a: Usability positively and significantly in­fluences social media-based marketing strategies.
H1b: Customer interaction positively and signif­icantly influences social media-based mar­keting strategies.
H2c: Intention positively and significantly in­fluences on social media-based marketing strategies.
H2d: Ability positively and significantly influences on social media-based marketing strategies.
H3e: Social media marketing strategies are more strongly inclined towards ability and intention than usability and customer interaction.


Figure 1. Conceptual framework relating functional branding and intentional branding variables with
social media marketing strategies




4. RESULTS: ANALYSIS
4.1. Age
Based on the respondents’ age (one of the demo­graphic variables), 60.9% of respondents were aged 33-40 (Table 1). This appeared to be logical given that this age range is more apparent within organ­izations for individuals to hold such a position in marketing and advertising that are based on tech­nology and Internet. Individuals at that age are ex­posed to technology and able to use in their daily work activities.
Table 1. Characteristics of respondents based on their age

Cumulative
Age
19.5
80.5
Valid
100.0


4.2. Education

As shown in Table 2, majority (46.6%) of the re­spondents in the marketing department are holders of MA degree or equivalent qualifications with the frequency 62. There are also more PhD holders in the marketing department than Bachelor’s holders, as there were more respondents with PhD degrees (38.3%) than those with Bachelor’s degrees (15.0%) (Table 2). Again as can be inferred from Table 2, most of respondents who held higher positions mar­keting and advertising in an organization held a post graduate degree, which indicates high competence
and high knowledge of the field and deep interest.
Table 2. Frequency and percentage of sample characteristics according to education
Cumulative
Education
15.0
61.7
Valid
100.0




4.3. Experience
Table 3. Frequency and percentage of sample characteristics according to experience
Cumulative
15.0
80.5
Valid

91.0
100.0

As shown in Table 3, 65.4% of the respondents had experience ranging 11-16 years with a frequency of 87 individuals. It can also be seen that 15% of the respondents had experience ranging 5-10 years. This indicated that organizations from which the sample of the study was drawn used technology
in its marketing and advertising activities and in­
creased its interest during the last decade on using
social media in marketing.




4.4.Descriptive analysis
As shown in Table 4, respondents were largely in agreement with most of the suggested responses to the questions. As the table showed, the mean of paragraphs scoring higher than 3.00 was a good indicator, as it suggests that participants either agree or strongly agree to the statements that were detailed in the questionnaire with re­gard to social media marketing and function­al branding. As can be seen from the table, the mean of the responses from respondents in re­lation to social media was above 3 (i.e., 3.744 for the first question, 3.7770 for question 2, 3.59.40 for question 3 and 3.7.068 for question 5. This confirms that participants agree or strongly agree that marketing through social media can create and exchange user generated content; consumers’ sentiment toward marketing can appear through using social media; social me­dia has the ability to highlight the consumer’s

Table 4. Descriptive statistics
acceptance of new technology; and social me­dia marketing can create a virtual community for the brand. Similarly, with the mean value of responses scoring above 3 for the function­al branding and intentional branding variables (usability and customer orientation, ability and intentional variables) (Table 4), respondents agree that functional branding and intentional branding play an important role in social media marketing. These results indicate that individu­als are positive about the involvement of social media within the marketing field and how it can help in developing the marketing process lead­ing to more customers and better branding.
Std.
Question
N


Minimum Maximum Mean

deviation Social media marketing
Marketing through social media can create and exchange user
133
1.00
5.00
3.7444
1.04195
generated content Consumers’ sentiment toward marketing can appear through
133
2.00
5.00
3.7970
.97514 using social media Social media has the ability to highlight the consumer’s
133
2.00
5.00
3.5940
1.14175
acceptance of new technology Social media marketing can create a virtual community for the
133
2.00
5.00
3.7068
1.05012
brand

Intentional branding
Intentions

Intentions give confidence in the brand

.93610
Intentions give more authenticity to the brand

.98791
Intentions present the brand more sincere and genuine

.88441
Intentions build assurance within the customer

.94355
Intentions increase the accountability of the brand

.98785



Usability
The function of the brand supports its usability
Functional branding deviates the intention in the customer into reality through its functions
Functional branding doesn’t leave the brand open for interpretations
Intentional branding gives more details to the characteristics of the brand
Through functional branding, the usability and handling of the product becomes easier


Customer interaction
Customer interaction increases the brand equity Customer interaction increases the customers’ functional needs Interaction gives more perspective to the brand Social media marketing gives a slight sense of customer
interaction
133  2.00  5.00  3.8120  .95466 
133  2.00  5.00  3.8120  .92237 
133  2.00  5.00  3.6466  1.00902 
133  2.00  5.00  3.5564  1.13760 
133  1.00  5.00  3.3684  1.38976 
133  2.00  5.00  3.5263  1.07717 
133  2.00  5.00  3.5865  1.04539 
133  2.00  5.00  3.4511  1.06931 
133  2.00  5.00  3.6165  .98259 





4.5. Reliability test
Depending on the reliability using Cronbachs’ al­pha, the test indicated a total value of 0.971, also, Cronbachs’ alpha for every variable was greater than 0.60, this can be regarded as a logical value referring to the questionnaire consistency.


4.6.Hypotheses testing
The following section presents the testing of the
hypotheses based on the variables of the model in
accordance to their influence.
H1: Functional branding positively and signifi­cantly influences social media-based mar­keting strategies.

As can be inferred from Table 5, functional brand­ing and social media marketing are strongly and positively correlated (R = 0.476). It can also be con­firmed from Table 6 (F = 19.074) that the relation­ship between social media marketing and func­tional branding is significant suggesting that func­tional branding positively and significantly influ­
ences social media-based marketing strategies.
Table 5. Correlation analysis between social media marketing strategies and functional branding

Std. error of Model
Table 6. Regression analysis between social media marketing strategies and functional branding
ANOVAa Sum of Mean Model

df
F Sig.


.000b
1

– –


Linear regression was used to test this hypothesis; it was noticeable that R (0.451) was the correlation of the usability and social media-based market­ing strategies. In addition to that, F value of 33.417 was significant at 0.05 level. Based on that, there is a statistically significant influence of usability on social media marketing (Tables 7 and 8).
H1a: Usability positively and significantly in­fluences social media-based marketing strategies.
Table 7. Correlation analysis between social media marketing strategies and functional branding: usability


Model summary
Std. error
Adjusted R
Model
R

R square
of the
square
estimate
1
.451a
.203
.197
.86705
Table 8. Regression analysis between social media marketing strategies and functional branding: usability
ANOVAa Sum of Mean Model

df
F Sig.

.000b
1

– –

Linear regression was used to test this hypothesis; it was found that R (0.472) was the correlation of customer interaction and the social media-based marketing strategies and F value of 37.489 is sig­nificant at 0.05 level. So, there is a statistically sig­nificant influence Customer Interaction and social media marketing (Tables 9 and 10).
H1e: Customer interaction positively and signif­
icantly influences social media-based mar­
keting strategies.
Table 9. Correlation analysis between social media marketing strategies and functional branding: interaction



Std. error of Model


H2: Intentional branding has a positive and sig­nificant influence on social media-based marketing strategies.

As can be seen from Tables 11 and 12, the analy­
sis shows that the intentional branding and social
media-based marketing strategies are strongly
correlated (R = 0.918) and that the relationship is
statistically significant (F = 346.096) at p = 0.05
significance level, which means that intentional
branding has a significant influence on social me­
dia-based marketing strategies.


H2a: Ability has a positive and significant in­fluence on social media-based marketing strategies.

As can be inferred from Tables 13 and 14, ability and social media marketing strategies are strongly and positively correlated (R = 0.488) and that the re­lationship is significant at p = 0.05 significance level at F = 40.942. Thus, there is a statistically significant influence of ability on social media marketing.


As can be observed from Tables 15 and 16, inten­
tion and social media-based marketing strategies
are correlated (R = 0.908) and the relationship is
statistically significant at p = 0.05 significance
level at F = 613.369. Thus, there is a statistically
significant influence of intention on social media
marketing.


H3c: Social media marketing strategies are more strongly inclined towards ability and inten­tion than usability and customer interaction.
As can be seen from Table 17, among participants,
there is a strong inclination towards intention and
ability (which are variables of intentional brand­
ing) than usability and interaction (variable of
functional branding) with means of intention and
ability being higher than those of interaction and
usability suggesting that participants believe that
social media marketing strategies may be more
inclined towards intentional branding than func­
tional branding.





5. DISCUSSION
This study sought to determine empirically wheth­er social media marketing is more oriented to­wards intentional branding rather than functional branding, as suggested in the literature. Results suggested that though both functional and inten­tional branding influence on social media mar­keting strategies, social media marketing strate­gies tend to be more inclined towards intentional branding than functional branding. This is con­trary to what has been suggested in the extant lit­erature that social media marketing may be more oriented towards functional branding rather than intentional branding.

This finding suggests that through social media,
the organization would be able to build a commu­
nity for its brand as a sort of what is called con-
sumer-brand relationship (CBR). The idea of this
type of community is the fact that it is built on
social media so it is more of an online communi­

ty and there is no way to be offline. This is called “Online Consumer Community (OCC)” (Andrei &
Zait, 2014; Fournier & Alvarez, 2011).
The OCC is seen as a somewhat new concept, but the way it is used and operated still differs across studies, (Bhat & Reddy, 1998). This is evidenced by many jargons that appeared through the previous studies which highlighted the role of social media in marketing like online product communities, online brand communities, virtual communities, virtual consumer communities, virtual P3 communities, and virtual consumption communities. However, all of these terms refer to what Hsu and others (2007) defined as “A cyber space supported by infor­mation technology … centered upon the communi­cations and interactions of participants to generate specific domain knowledge that enables the partici­pants to perform common functions and to learn from, contribute to, and collectively build upon that knowledge” (p. 6) or what Porter and Donthu (2008) defined “An aggregation of individuals or business partners who interact based on a shared interest, where the interaction is at least partially supported and/or mediated by technology and guided by cer­tain protocols and norms” (p. 115).
Along with many other researchers, Stephen (2015)
drew the connection between the fact that market­
ing can be applied through social media and the
fact that social media can alter the human behav­
ior, or, in the marketing scheme, ‘customer behav­
ior’. Through applying the concepts of sentiment,
motives, contents, attitudes and prospects, which
can also be generated through social media mar­
keting, it can be seen that the influence of social
media can be more intentional for the organization
than functional, because, through the feelings that
social media can generate in the consumers, the
organization can take full control of the messag­
es that are being delivered to the audience about a
certain product, brand or service (Agariya, Johari,
Sharma, Chandraul, & Singh, 2012; Keller, 2009).
According to the analysis of the study and the hy­
potheses testing, it can be seen that social media
tools as an approach to marketing appeared to
enjoy a better influence in intentional branding
compared to the functional branding. The reason
behind such results is attributed to the fact that in­
tentional branding is concerned with how the cus­
tomers see the brand. This, in turn, is controlled
through the organization and how it presents its
brand through the tools that social media presents
for them, like the design, the shape and the deliv­
ery (Paquette, 2013).



CONCLUSION
The current research study aimed at locating social media marketing tools within the frame of func­tional and intentional branding; through the quantitative approach and the questionnaire as a tool, the research distributed the questionnaire to 150 individuals from which 133 were retrieved proper for sta­tistical processing. The questionnaire was built by the researcher, and it has taken into perspective di­mensions of both functional branding (usability-customer interaction) and intentional branding (abili­ty-intention). The results of the study indicated that social media tools within the marketing frame ap­peared to be more of intentional branding tool than functional, as it presented for the marketers all the needed tools to control the messages that reach their customers about the brand of the product/service.
Based on the previous discussion and the results of the study gathered data, the researcher presented the following set of recommendations:
•
It is important for the organization to choose the suitable social media marketing tools for their brand; if these tools can perform magic for the brand, it is not necessary that it suits all brands and all services.

•
Even though social media tools in marketing are mostly intentional, which revolves around control­ling the image of the brand within the heads of the customers, customer interaction is really impor­tant as part of the marketing idea. It is nevertheless highly recommended to use and benefit from all the tools that are presented to the marketers from social media.


Being authentic and direct to the point is something which is really important in marketing, having the control over how customers see the brand is something worthy, but authenticity and genuine must be a big part of it. Based on that, organizations shouldn’t manipulate the trust and truth.

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