FOR 1452:  Marketing of Hedonic Media Products in the Age of Digital Social Media

• Subject Area: Social and Behavioural Sciences ; Humanities
• Term: from 2014 to 2022
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 163849297

The central goal of the proposed research unit is the investigation of the marketing of products in the context of digital social media (DSM). DSM are internet-based applications in which content is jointly and continually modified by users. DSM thus not only encompass social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and Snapchat, but also other possibilities of social interaction on digital platforms, such as product reviews or “following” certain users within a network. DSM lead to new and innovative data about social interactions in conjunction with large amounts of data. Nowadays, the digitalization affects most areas of life and thus leaves corresponding data traces, which are discussed under the heading of “datafication”. This development has important consequences for the marketing of products. Against this background, the research unit examines key questions in three interconnected topic areas during the first funding phase. Topic area A analyzes the network structures in DSM. The focus is on explicitly modelling these structures and understanding how interactions emerge. Topic area B examines consumer reactions to communication activities in DSM. That is, it analyzes how individuals are influenced by the overall activity within DSM networks. Topic area C addresses market reactions to marketing activities in the context of DSM. The common feature of all projects is the analysis of the effects of DSM on companies in the context of hedonic media products (HMP). On a meta-level, the central project addresses the societal impacts of marketing processes in DSM, in particular it investigates which consequences information and communication about DSM have for society. In the second funding period, the research unit’s focus on HMP in the first funding period will be extended to additional industries, as in the long run phenomena related to the marketing of HMP are expected to emerge in other industries as well. In the second funding period, the overarching objective continues to be a profound scientific understanding of the three topic areas of the first funding period (compared with the first funding period, the topic area A will not focus exclusively on network structures and is also more application-oriented). The results of the research unit’s efforts should provide companies with important knowledge about how to successfully manage products in the context of DSM and enable them to increase their international competitiveness. The central project continues to focus on questions about the impact of marketing processes in DSM on society.

• DFG Programme: Research Units

Projects

• Adoption and Diffusion Patterns in Network Structures as Drivers of Individual Consumer Behavior (Applicant Clement, Michel )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant Sattler, Henrik )
• Gamified market research in digital social media for brand management decisions; first funding period: Valuation of branding options for hedonic media products using virtual prediction markets (Applicant Völckner, Franziska )
• Needmining - Analyzing Social Networks to Guide New Product Development Activities; first funding period: Analyzing Networks to Guide Targeted Marketing Communication (Applicants Barrot, Christian ;  Schoder, Detlef Georg Gerhard )
• New Product Buzz: Measurement, Mode of Action and Influence of Dynamic, Collective Anticipation in Digital Social Media; first funding phase: Trash-Talk and Firestorm: Influences of Negative Customer Comments in Digital Social Networks on Brand Value (Applicants Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten ;  Sattler, Henrik )
• The Influence of Digital Social Media and Customers' Usage Frequency of Digital Media Products on the Marketing of these Products via Platforms; first funding period: The Influence of Social Networks on the Sequential Marketing of Short-Lifecycle Hedonic Media Products (Applicant Albers, Sönke )
• Visual brand presence in digital social media; first funding period: Setup and Design of Networks by Providers. (Applicant Heitmann, Mark )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Henrik Sattler