INTRODUCTION
Since the onset of computers and the internet, almost everything today can be done online. The World Wide Web was able to connect people with each other and has made everyone feel a lot closer. We can play games, read books and news, or do daily chores like paying bills through online services. Online boutique shop and food-delivery stores are also trending nowadays for more convenient and hassle-free shopping. Today, our social connections have been built around the internet.
In lieu to the growing need of people for the easiest way to communicate, marketing strategies has been built to be able to study and comply with consumer’s behaviour over the internet. According to The Chartered Institute of Marketing or CIM, marketing is a process of management that is responsible for the anticipation, identification, and satisfaction of customers resulting to profits. Furthermore, consumer behaviour is the study of the processes which involves selection, acquisition, usage, or disposal of needs and services of individuals or groups.
A company which has strived because of its seemingly good understanding of consumer behaviour is YouTube. The company’s understanding of consumer behaviour has put it as one of the most influential web and marketing site all over the online community.
This paper will: (1) give a brief background on YouTube’s creation up until its current condition; (2) examine what they do and how they are able to relate with consumer’s behaviour; and (3) what other businesses can learn from this site.
DISCUSSION
YouTube is a fast growing community known for its readily available music videos and instalments of movies. It comes with viewer’s reviews and recommendation and is the most popular online video site. From its beta launch on May 2005, it has grown since after a decade-long of being online. Users and watchers can reach over four billion hours a month and seventy-two hours of upload every minute. YouTube was frequently used for fast-sharing of news, ideas, and concepts throughout the world. It has also been one of the roots of trends for the last decade, together with Facebook and Twitter.
The Video-Sharing Site: YouTube
Since 2005, YouTube has contributed toward many popular stars and talents. YouTube’s first video that got its one million hit was an advertisement video for Nike starring the soccer player Ronaldinho. From then on, it revolutionized the digital age as traditional media companies enters the stage. One of these media companies is The NBC Network. This deal struck the beginning of later key partnerships to several providers.
When Google saw YouTube’s potential, it bought the site for $1.65 billion. It gathered more attention and was able to launch its Partner Program, where everyday people can turn their hobbies into business. In 2007, they begin to open up the site for advertisements. As the site grew bigger and went to mainstream, the U.S. Congress joined in and launched official Congressional YouTube channels. This gave American citizens more access to the government that was foreseen to be impossible.
YouTube did not only become popular over the entertainment industry. It was also able to launch social campaigns such as the It Gets Better Project. It supports the LGBTQ community in sending advocacies and extending help to those who are bullied because of their sexuality.
In the year 2011, YouTube incorporated live broadcast and streaming on their site. It was a huge step for people all over the world because events like news coverage, concerts, or sports games can be seen online. Soon, they were able to launch their original channels and is said to be like a television for most households (Dickey, 2013).
YouTube as Marketer
In analysing this history of YouTube and its trend in development, it is evident that the site adjusts according to the needs of its viewers or – for the purpose of this paper – its consumers. YouTube’s understanding of their consumer’s behaviour has led to its growth from being a simple video-sharing site to a business and marketing platform. An assessment of emerging values of orientation and trends allowed further improvement or shift in new products. The fast phase of change in important global values such as pleasure, interest, comfort, and self-respect signals the changes in accordance to people’s use (Lamont et al, 1977). In a study in 1999, which is the start of the internet revolution, people’s characteristics were studied to predict online consumer’s behaviour. It does not only point out to demographics but is also connected to a person’s lifestyle or time starvation (Bellman et al., 1999).
This process of defining and analysing consumer’s data to help marketers define its market is known as marketing segmentation. Identification of demographics and psychographics of a market’s consumer helps in improving and adding contents to the site. Demographics identify the age, gender, family structure, social class and geographic location of a consumer. This may prove problematic as the internet is huge and identities are hard to verify, but can still be applied for most cases. It can be noticed that most adult-video contents in YouTube are restricted to a certain age. Although it can easily be bypassed, this marketing segmentation still hinders negative feedbacks and bigger repercussions. On the other hand, psychographics pertains to the personality, lifestyle, values, and attitudes of people. This is seen thru, social and environmental awareness projects which YouTube supports. Gaining sympathy adds to their popularity among groups of people.
YouTube was able to sustain its consumer’s interest as it continues to find ways to make the site more exciting as seen from its timeline of important historical key points mentioned above. New product development is important to a growing market. In the new marketing concept, getting an optimum project design and process has a more impact than the old ideology of mass-producing unchanging but stable products (Webster, n.d).
Understanding the changing values that influences consumption patterns is useful for every marketer, also to have a framework integrating; deep-rooted personal values; generalized consumption values; and product-attributed beliefs. Value and cultural conditioning presents the levels of abstraction in an arranged hierarchical network. These three domains to be investigated are referred to as global or generalized personal values, domain-specific values and evaluations of product attributes (Lamont et al., 1977). From the processes made possible by information technology, the era of mass customization came from the era of mass production. Its availability and accessibility to the mass contributes to its growth.
The first domain focuses on personal values which are important in making choices and evaluation procedures. The second level of domain contends that behaviour comes from economical transactions, social and religious values, group interactions. The third domain is less abstract than the two for it is more descriptive in is based on evaluative beliefs. Expectancy-value research mostly uses the third level domain to predict brand appeal.
Another factor from which YouTube’s popularity came is its impact on consumers. Pop culture became the inspiration of marketers to exploit much more products to be consumed by people. It is noticeable that YouTube’s videos with the highest hits are those with entertaining element, most of which tickles people’s curiosity. In addition to this, celebrity fanatics like to be updated with their idols. The best and fastest way to be updates is to find videos and interviews of their favourites.
At present, scandals are more likely to be broadcasted first now on the internet than on television. This is what YouTube tried and succeeded to emulate. The name YouTube and its tagline broadcast yourself actually came from the thought of one being able to have a program on his own in a tube or television-like device, which is the monitor. This is the branding of the site that works well, and has a good recall to consumers.
Consumption sometimes means buying products not for what they do, but for what they mean. This is where brand image comes in action to match people’s personality and with the help of the aforementioned domains. It helps consumers discover commonalities and form bonds. In addition to this, virtual consumption transcends time and location barriers between viewers. This is what makes YouTube very popular to the mass.
This feature of YouTube surpasses television’s ability for more audience participation. Before, feedbacks for television are slow. It is only on the development if internet and cellphone technologies that feedback became instant, whereas YouTube can get access to feedbacks in a matter of seconds. Not only feedbacks, but it also allows for achieving reviews. Reviews help marketers strategize their marketing plan as consumers tend to have varying and changing taste on products. This is another aspect of studying consumer behaviour in marketing, reputation management is a must.
In 2007, YouTube received a one billion dollar file suit from Viacom. These were about copyright complaints claiming that users of YouTube frequently uploaded materials which cost Viacom huge amounts of revenue. The judge’s ruling was in favour to YouTube and Google’s motion for summary judgement. It was said that Google holds provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
YouTube as a Marketing Platform
As YouTube grows in population, it became a platform for many projects as well as businesses. It became a stepping stone to those who wants to grow their marketing companies and harbour more customers. As a marketing platform, YouTube allows everyone to upload videos, subscribe to channels, and watch almost everything that there is to watch. YouTube’s biggest feature that helps with marketing is being able to leave reviews, like what was mentioned earlier in this paper. Customer feedback is always important when doing business. It provides an instant knowledge to the marketer which videos are favoured mostly.
In this way, marketers are presented with another aspect of consumer behaviour, motivation. Motivation identifies as the driving force why we do what we do. It mostly occurs when there is a need to satisfy one’s desire. When the ideals of a person coincide with his present state, he becomes motivated by the need to reduce tension by eliminating the need. The intensity that follows such a need grows as tension is not eliminated. If we compare it to food, this is our craving for something. As a marketer, YouTube creates channels which satisfy one’s needs and reduce their tension.
Marketers create tension – yes, there is such a thing when marketers create tension. This is where creative and effective advertising comes into place. The illusion of presenting a product as something that someone terribly needs motivates this type of advertising. Therefore, it is good for business. Reducing tension governs the mechanism of human behaviour. This is the Drive theory which focuses on biological needs. YouTube for one allows satisfying people’s needs to see the trailer of their favorite series or much-awaited movies, seconds after it has been officially released. Like what was mentioned earlier, it has come to a time where the internet is the fastest communicating medium and information-dispersion platform.
Another theory is the expectancy theory where people are motivated by desirable outcomes. Marketers inside YouTube continue to propagate as consumers always look for something new. Some marketing strategy, which marketers have, is offering an incentive to those people like being the 100th person to comment in a video. These are mostly scam, but nonetheless a marketing strategy that benefits marketers. People have motivational directions presenting their needs that can be listed in different categories.
One direction follows the utilitarian and hedonic needs; the former being the objective attributes of a product and the latter as the subjective form. Products centered in attaining these needs of consumers lead to a stronger motivation. Another motivation is the need for achievement. These are products which signify success. Since YouTube and Google are held in one, marketers are motivated to create a Google + (plus) page which is then connected to YouTube. Branding a marketer’s product through this gives a business more credibility. When people search about a certain product, take it for example, a coffee and a coffee shop. One would search for cafes around the vicinity, those who have a Google + page will more likely get more customers as being able to appear on the internet can mean more review, thus more success.
Also, people’s need for affiliation encourages people to participate in forums and group discussions in a thread. Again, commonality between consumers buoys up a business. People flock together and consume products to alleviate loneliness. YouTube allows for communication between people. Some people makes it a platform to express themselves which is sometimes harder on the physical world, so in turn are transformed into thoughts and channels in the virtual world. Another is the need for uniqueness. Consumers always look for something new and fresh. YouTube, however, has been around for almost a decade now and is still on the trend. Keeping their contents and pages fresh allows for this same with Facebook and Google. Combining these two assures hit among the consumer world.
The last need to be satisfied by consumers is need for power. Being able to hide behind the mask of the internet is what YouTube offers to consumer as power. Being able to hide behind false accounts and targeting channels is what gives the consumers of YouTube the feeling of being able to control their environment. Although it creates a huge opportunity, it also presents certain dangers such as having a ruckus about controversies and scandals. Since comments and reviews of some videos can are on public, some people can be degraded and criticized by the mass in a matter of minutes. This became problematic as people tend to be uncontrollable.
According to Maslow’s Model of Needs, people want to satisfy their needs from the lowest level to the highest level. The first level, starting from below, is the physiological needs of people including water, sleep, and food. The second level is concerned with security and safety. The third level is the abstract of feelings, love, friendship, and belongingness. The fourth level reaches for people’s prestige, status or ego. And the fifth or topmost level is the self-actualization which includes the fulfilment with experiences.
CONCLUSION
YouTube emits strong market intelligence. Webster said that a customer’s orientation towards products is more than a set of beliefs and should always be supported by up-to-date and well-researched information about its behaviours. These behaviours include the needs, preferences, and habits of customers. The values of consumer behaviour must always be the central of all marketing structure.
The new marketing concept calls to define the business as seen from the outside. A marketer must always be informed about his consumer and must always attend to their needs matching the capabilities of one’s business. Being an expert in this line of strategy upholds for much more success. Professionals must also be able to operate with the tom-level “marketing information function”. This calls for the need of the highest information technology that there is, especially for big companies who want to launch big into the world.
As a marketing platform, YouTube was able to compete with the other known video-sharing site like Vimeo and Flickr. The websites managers and developers strategize well to maintain the number of viewership that YouTube gets.
For most, YouTube is still the most user-friendly and the widely-known website made for video marketing and advertising. It understands consumer behaviour well as it transforms together with people’s develop different preferences. It also satisfies business needs as it offers a very simple way of earning reviews and feedbacks. This in turn increases YouTube’s publicity, although this may include scandals that have been attached to the company, it still overpowers the fact that it is being talked upon between groups of people. As it is always said, there is no such thing as good or bad publicity. When something is being talked about, it accounts for its popularity.
YouTube handles everything well and still has more for the future. Together with Google, it would continue to dominate the internet world as it understands much about marketing and consumer behaviour.
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