Social media and brand awareness: a case study in the fast
moving consumer goods sector

Abstract: We live in the midst of a global communications’ boom where the use of
social media between individuals for personal and professional use is
widespread. It has been predicted that 2010 is the year when the use of
social media for branding purposes will really take off in the corporate
sector. The purpose of this thesis has been to look at how social media can
create brand awareness. The specific area of fast moving consumer goods was
chosen. This study is of an exploratory, descriptive and qualitative
character, and by looking at a single case, it has been possible to
withdraw necessary primary and secondary data. The most important findings
were that the theoretical framework does explain how the company in the
case study uses social media to create brand awareness. The great challenge
that came up in the case study was for the company to find the right
balance between providing contents of great interest for the audience,
while at the same time respecting what kind of information the company can
really go out with- it is about being relevant in social media and in all
other channels of communication. This means a constant need for learning
and developing new knowledge, for measuring and following up. Regarding the
different degrees of brand awareness however, it was difficult to show to
what extent the real case builds on the theoretical framework: that there
exist a clear strategy for how to reach the different stages of brand
awareness, from the weakest (recognition) to the strongest (word-of-mouth).
What was considered more important by the company in the case study was to
integrate social media in the total communications and PR-strategy, a task
which is actually being performed at this very moment.