Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Branding Transformation Through Social Media and Co-creation: Lessons from Marriott International

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2018

Abstract

Branding has shifted from brand as a resource owned by the firm to brand as a collaborative activity co-created by the firm and its stakeholders. Using a single case study approach, this paper uses Marriott Hotels International, to explore how Web 2.0 has transformed the landscape of brand management. It aims to uncover how co-creation of brand value is being carried out between companies and consumers through social media. Wide-ranging secondary research data was reviewed and semi-structured interviews were conducted with Marriott managers. Findings suggest that past marketing and branding mantras of consistency and control are no longer relevant. Companies can co-create brand value by adopting a strategy that incorporates brand communities, brand stories and influencers in the co-creation of their brand narrative, in real time. This study contributes to furthering the understanding of branding theory and practice in the age of Web 2.0 and will be useful to managers in formulating future branding strategies and building their competitiveness.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 189.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Algesheimer, R., Dholakia, U.M., Herrmann, A.: The social influence of brand community: Evidence from European car clubs. J. Mark. 69(3), 19–34 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balmer, J.M.T.: Corporate brand management imperatives: custodianship, credibility and calibration. Calif. Manag. Rev. 54(3), 6–33 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berry, L.L.: Cultivating service brand equity. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 28(1), 128–137 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berthon, P.R., Pitt, L.F., Plangger, K., Shapiro, D.: Marketing meets Web 2.0, social media, and creative consumers: implications for international marketing strategy. Bus. Horiz. 55, 261–271 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Booth, N., Matic, J.A.: Mapping and leveraging influencers in social media to shape corporate brand perceptions. Int. J. 16(3), 184–191 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  • Brodie, R.J., Glynn, M.S., Little, V.: The service brand and the service dominant logic: missing fundamental premise or the need for stronger theory? Mark. Theory 6(3), 363–379 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buhalis, D., Foerste, M.: SoCoMo marketing for travel and tourism: empowering co-creation of value. J. Destination Mark. Manage. 4(3), 151–161 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  • Christodoulides, G.: Conference commentary: breaking free from the industrial age paradigm of branding. J. Brand Manag. 15(4), 291–293 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dall’Olmo Riley, F., de Chernatony, L.: The service brand as a relationship builder. Br. J. Manag. 11, 37–50 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  • Denzin, N., Lincoln, Y.: The Sage handbook of qualitative research. 4th ed. London (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gensler, S., Volckner, F., Liu-Thompkins, Y., Wirts, C.: Managing brands in the social media environment. J. Interact. Mark. 27(4), 242–256 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grönroos, C.: Relationship approach to marketing in service contexts: the marketing and organizational behaviour interface. J. Bus. Res. 20, 3–11 (1990)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grönroos, C.: Service logic revisited: who creates value? and who co-creates? Eur. Bus. Rev. 20(4), 298–314 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grönroos, C.: Value co-creation in service logic: a critical analysis. Mark. Theor. 11(3), 279–301 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hatch, M.J., Schultz, M.: Toward a theory of brand co-creation with implications for brand governance. Brand Manag. 17(8), 590–604 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haarhoff, G., Kleyn, N.: Open source brands and their online brand personality. J. Brand Manage. 20(2), 104–114 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helm, C., Jones, R.: Extending the value chain: a conceptual framework for managing the governance of co-created brand equity. J. Brand Manage. 17(8), 579–589 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hospitality Net: World’s top 50 Hotel Brands by Value: Inaugural Report by Brand Finance (2016). Retrieved 14 June 2017, from: https://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4075683.html

  • Iglesias, O., Ind, N., Alfaro, M.: The organic view of the brand: a brand value co-creation model. J. Brand Manage. 20(8), 670–688 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ind, N.: How participation is changing the practice of managing brands. J. Brand Manage. 21, 734–742 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kietzmann, J.H., Hermekens, K., McCarthy, P., Silvestre, B.S.: Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Bus. Horiz. 54(3), 241–251 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kohli, C., Suri, R., Kapoor, A.: Will social media kill branding? Bus. Horiz. 58(1), 35–44 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leung, D., Law, R., van Hoof, H., Buhalis, D.: Social media in tourism and hospitality: a literature review. J. Travel Tourism Mark. 30(1–2), 3–22 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lusch, R.F., Vargo, S.L.: The service-dominant logic of marketing: Reactions, reflections, and refinements. Mark. Theor. 6(3), 281–288 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lund, N.F., Cohen, S.A., Scarles, C.: The power of social media storytelling in destination branding. J. Destination Mark. Manag. (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  • Malthouse, E.C., Friege, C., Gensler, S., Lobschat, L., Rangaswamy, A., Skiera, B.: The impact of new media on customer relationships. J Serv Res. 13(3), 311–30 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  • Marriott.: Marriott Rewards Premieres Season One of “Six Days, Seven Nights,” the First Original Snapchat Video Series from the Travel Industry (2017). Retrieved 20 July 2017, from: http://news.marriott.com/2017/03/marriott-rewards-premieres-season-one-six-days-seven-nights-first-original-snapchat-video-series-travel-industry/

  • Merz, A., He, Y., Vargo, S.L.: The evolving brand logic: a service-dominant logic perspective. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 37, 328–344 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muniz, A.M., O’Guinn, T.C.: Brand community. J. Consum. Res. 27(4), 412–432 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neuhofer, B., Buhalis, D., Ladkin, A.: Smart technologies for personalized experiences: a case study in the hospitality domain. Electron. Mark. 25(3), 243–254 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Payne, A., Storbacka, K., Frow, P., Knox, S.: Co-creating brands: diagnosing and designing the relationship experience. J. Bus. Res. 62(3), 379–389 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peters, K., Chen, Y., Kaplan, A.M., Ognibeni, B., Pauwels, K.: Social media metrics: a framework and guidelines for managing social media. J. Interact. Mark. 27(4), 281–298 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prahalad, C.K., Ramaswamy, V.: Co-creation experiences: the next practice in value creation. J. Interact. Mark. 18(3), 6–14 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rihova, I., Buhalis, D., Moital, M., Gouthro, M.B.: Social layers of customer-to-customer value co-creation. J. Serv. Manage. 24(5), 553–566 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ritchie, J.R., Lewis, J., McNaughton Nicholls, C., Ormston, R.: Qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers, 2nd edn. Sage, London (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  • Samuely, A.: Q&A: How Marriott’s real-time command center cultivates social engagement, geo-fencing (2017). Retrieved 22 July 2017, from: https://goo.gl/HFK6kg

  • Schau, H.J., Muñiz, A., Arnould, E.J.: How brand community practices create value. J. Mark. 73(5), 30–51 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shorty Awards: Pokemaster catch em all (n.d). Retrieved 10 July 2017, from: http://shortyawards.com/9th/real-time-pokemon-activation

  • Sigala, M.: E-service quality and Web 2.0: Expanding quality models to include customer participation and inter-customer support. Serv. Ind. J. 29(10), 1341–1358 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tiago, M.T., Veríssimo, J.M.: Digital marketing and social media: why bother? Bus. Horiz. 57(6), 703–708 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Durme, J., Brodie, R.J., Redmore, D.: Brand equity in collaborative business relationships: exploring the development of a conceptual model. Mark. Theor. 3(1), 37–57 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vargo, S.L., Lusch, R.F.: Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing. J. Mark. 68(1), 1–17 (2004a)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vargo, S.L., Lusch, R.F.: The four service marketing myths: remnants of a goods-based, manufacturing model. J. Serv. Res. 6(4), 324–335 (2004b)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Viglia, G., Minazzi, R., Buhalis, D.: The influence of e-word-of-mouth on hotel occupancy rate. Int. J. Contemp. Hospitality Manage. 28(9), 2035–2051 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woodside, A.G.: Brand–consumer storytelling theory and research: introduction to a psychology & marketing special issue. Psychol. Mark. 27(6), 531–540 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yin, R.K.: Case Study Research, Design and Method, 5th edn. Sage, London (2014)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Tourism and Hospitality, Faculty of Management, Bournemouth University, Poole, UK

    Sharon Nyangwe & Dimitrios Buhalis

Authors
  1. Sharon Nyangwe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Dimitrios Buhalis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sharon Nyangwe .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom

    Brigitte Stangl

  2. Business School, Centre for Tourism Studies, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland

    Juho Pesonen

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Nyangwe, S., Buhalis, D. (2018). Branding Transformation Through Social Media and Co-creation: Lessons from Marriott International. In: Stangl, B., Pesonen, J. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2018. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72923-7_20

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation