Brand Wagon

After movie stars it is now brands which are hogging the limelight on social networking websites. “Three popular social networking sites— Facebook; Twitter and Orkut— show that not only has there been an increase in the number of brand clubs registered on these sites,the fan following of these clubs has also been increasing,” says Kunal Bahl,CEO,Jasper Infotech,as he points out how flavoured yoghurt brand Cocoberry has over 45,000 fans on Facebook,KFC has 7,416 fans worldwide and Mc Donald’s and Dominos Pizza have 14,261 and 12,000 fans respectively.

Bahl says that the trend has been triggered off by websites like his SnapDeal.com. “Portals like SnapDeal have revolutionised the e-commerce industry,by enabling small and medium sized retailers to cost effectively acquire hundreds of customers by offering discount deals at their establishments. “Besides,we have seen that consumers like to share information about deals virtually — whether it’s of restaurants,movies or weekend getaways. This,leads to cost savings on the marketing side and leads to more brand awareness,” Bahl adds. Incidentally,SnapDeal has about 70,000 fans on Facebook and is a very active community on Twitter.

G S Bhalla,Managing Director,Cocoberry,too agrees,“Online branding is a growing avenue. However,very few marketers are consistently interacting with their target audience on day to day basis over these sites,” Bhalla says they launched their first retail outlet and brand page on Facebook on the same day. “On an average we receives more than 25,000 updates or posts every month and have a current fan base of over 50,000,” Bhalla says. Interacting with the Cocoberry Facebook community members on a daily basis helps them understand customer needs better and assists them in meeting expectations. As for the consumer,“It keeps us updated about the new products,discounts and schemes,” smiles Ankit Gupta,a fan of KFC.