Network perspective on two marketing strategies to appeal potential customers

Abstract

This thesis highlights the crucial role of network mechanisms in shaping companies' economic outcomes, emphasizing the adaptive and predictive capacities of brands that understand customer behaviours. Information flow and peer pressure among diverse economic agents play a significant role in the decision processes to purchase a product, particularly during information gathering. Companies employ a wide range of marketing strategies to influence customers’ decisions, including two strategies analysed here: Celebrity Endorsement, and market expansion through alliances. The Word of Mouth Communication will also be an important factor in the analysis. This study focuses on two real-life cases that implemented these strategies. Nespresso serves as the initial case study that employed the celebrity endorsement strategy using the image of George Clooney, while the second case centres on Marimekko's expansion strategy using the image of a local brand Uniqlo. We show that these distinct strategies in fact operate similarly if we analyse them from network perspective.