Role of social media in building brand Identity for restaurants in the hospitality Industry in context of Pakistan

Abstract

The brand identity and service dominant logic is giving a new pace to the business world since past few years with the introduction of the post-modern marketing and viral marketing as a component of the online marketing strategies using the social media forums. Professor David F. Larcker says that “Companies appreciate the potential that social media can have to transform all aspects of their business: branding, reputation, communication, outreach, and identifying strategic risks,” (Katie Pandes, Stanford Graduate School of Business, 2012). This has specifically given the dynamic force to the hospitality industry, facing increased competition, hospitality companies are driven to project a positive image to their stakeholders. Therefore, these organizations have begun to develop new organizational identity programs as part of their strategies to achieve their desired outcomes through online marketing. The proposed study intends to explore such viral marketing practices through social media and their impact on the hospitality industry specifically in context of Pakistan, for gaining insight of the customer’s perspective that how our hospitality sector is implementing these techniques for the purpose of brand building and how the elements of simulation, viral marketing, employee involvement, merchandizing, hybrid consumption, etc. are being promoted by using social media. This research study analyzes the role of social media in the definition of the organizational identity of the restaurants and café culture in Islamabad and the way they are promoted, employing a qualitative research methodology based on the secondary data. The entire study revolves around the audience and consumer perspective of the social media who are the ultimate customers of the restaurants and how impactful are the post of these websites and pages for shaping the audience’s views and opinions about a hospitality service.