Analysis of Facebook message of automobile brands in Korean market : focus on 3 Korean domestic and 5 foreign brands

With a strong level of engagement through media, social networks expand communication territory in a manner that traditional media lacks the ability to, with the distinctive features of “participation” and “sharing.” With increasing engagement and penetration, social networks shed light on new channels of communication apart from traditional marketing norms and provide standards of adapting the rising power of their use. Marketing practices of Korean car markets is a typical example of integration of social media because the market contains fierce competition among brands. A difference in social media marketing appears between brands developing new products series with enough resources to do so and brands with suffering financial difficulties. Utilization of social media, one of the most powerful message delivery tools, is a barometer to estimate effective marketing implementation. Facebook messages conveyed by select automobile companies can be classified and compared to verify differences and commonalities regarding the structure of four brand equity factors raised by David Aaker: awareness, loyalty, quality and associated image. The results revealed that local brands and imported brands have focused on different equity categories and each brand has a different marketing emphasis. The imported brands are more focused on brand awareness and perceived quality as opposed to Korean local brands and their focus on loyalty. BMW delivers names of individual cars with new technology but Mercedes-Benz advertises their brand heritage in Facebook.