Effect of Social Media on Consumer Behavior and Marketing
10 October 2014, by Timo Mandler
The German Research Foundation (DFG) has authorized a new research group spearheaded by Universität Hamburg. The project, marketing hedonic media products in the context of digital social media, is the first research group working exclusively in the field of business to receive DFG funding. Other participating universities are the University of Münster, the University of Cologne, and the Kühne Logistics University. Prof. Dr. Henrik Sattler from the Institute for Marketing at the University of Hamburg is the project's spokesperson. The project, which will run for six years, will receive a total of €1.5 million over the next three years.
Prof. Dr. Dieter Lenzen, President of the University of Hamburg: „I congratulate Prof. Sattler and all participating researchers to this great success and I am proud that the University of Hamburg is making a strong point again, demonstrating our competence and leading position on the field of marketing and media management. Seven out of 189 German DFG-funded research groups are located at the University of Hamburg, at another 13 projects the University is at least partially involved, giving the university a leading position on this field.“
Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, or YouTube influence consumer behavior on a rising level. Digital social media do spread information much faster, consumers are influenced less and less by classical commercials and ads, but more and more by opinions posted on social networks. Consumers do gain unexpected power compared to firms. This is in particular true for hedonic media products, i.e. products with entertainment purpose such as movies, books, computer games, or music.
The research group analyzes how firms can build and manage social networks for brand communications, how extreme and negative word-of-mouth effects (online firestorms) can influence a brand’s value, or how virtual stock markets and crowdfunding mechanisms can be rated in social media.
Next to the researches at the four German universities involved, the research group involves some international fellows, e.g. from Columbia Business School, Penn State University, Cornell University (all from the US), IDC Herzliya (Israel), and London Business School. The DFG established nine new research groups. These groups usually collaborate from different locations and interdisciplinary, offering researchers to focus on current issues and to establish innovate working patterns.