IN DEGREE PROJECT INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT,SECOND CYCLE, 15 CREDITS

, STOCKHOLM SWEDEN 2018

Future of online marketing: Consumer Recommendations

ANGELINA MALLO

MIRA VINCZE

KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYSCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT

FutureofOnlineMarketing:ConsumerRecommendations

by

AngelinaMalloMiraVincze

MasterofScienceThesisINDEK2018:341KTHIndustrialEngineeringandManagement

IndustrialManagementSE-10044STOCKHOLM

MasterofScienceThesisINDEK2018:341

FutureofOnlineMarketing:ConsumerRecommendation

AngelinaMalloMiraVincze

Approved

2018-06-13Examiner

TerrenceBrownSupervisor

AzizaAl-GhafriCommissioner

SmartsonContactperson

KarlHändel

AbstractThepurposeofthisthesisistoresearchhowconsumerrecommendationscanbeusedin termsofmarketingandsalespurposes in theFastMovingConsumerGoodssector.Duetotechnologicalchangesandashiftfromtraditionaltodigitalmarketing,thewayofcommunicating to the audience has changed. Consumer recommendations, microinfluencersandsocialmediaplatformsareapartofdigitalmarketing that is growingprogressively.Theparadigmofthethesisisinterpretivismwithfollowingaqualitativeresearchmethod,inductivereasoningandacasestudyinfocus.Thefindingsshowthatdigitalmarketing,thankstoaspectsassocialmediaande-commerce,hasbeengrowing,however has not completely taken over themarketing field. Influencers are getting abiggerroleasmarketingtoolswiththeshiftofpowerevolving.Duetothesereasonsiswhyandhowconsumerrecommendationshavebecomesuchabigtrendnowadays.

Key-wordsmarketing, digital marketing, social media, influencer, consumer recommendation,crowdsource,crowdscore,FMCG

AcknowledgementsFirst,wewould like toexpressourgratitude towardsour thesis supervisor,AzizaAl-Ghafri and our Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management KTH programmedirectors, Terrence Brown and Gregg Vanourek. Second, we would like to thankSmartson,especiallyKarlHändelandJonathanDanemo,forthecollaborationwiththeirorganization, for allowing us to use their clients and for supporting us with anyinconveniencesduringthethesis.

AbbreviationsAEC-AttractEngageConvertmodelAI-ArtificialIntelligenceFMCG-FastMovingConsumerGoodsPOS-PointofsaleSME-Smallandmedium-sizedenterprisesVR-VirtualReality

TRITA TRITA-ITM-EX 2018:341

www.kth.se

1

TABLEOFCONTENTS1.INTRODUCTION 31.1Background 31.2Problemdiscussionanddefinition 41.3Researchquestion 41.4Purposeandscopeoftheresearch 41.5Delimitations 51.6Dispositionofthepaper 5

2.LITERATUREREVIEW 62.1Definitions 62.1.1FastMovingConsumerGoods 62.1.2MicroInfluencers 62.1.3Crowdsource 72.1.4Storytelling 82.1.5ConsumerRecommendation 9

3.CASESTUDY 103.1BackgroundandHistory 103.2Attract-Engage-Convertmodel 113.3CampaignProcess 12

4.METHODOLOGY 144.1Researchparadigm 144.2Researchmethods/strategy 144.3DataCollection 154.3.1QualitativeandInductive 154.3.2Primarydata 164.3.3Secondarydata 18

4.4Ethicalconsiderations 184.5Credibilityofthefindings 194.5.1Reliability 194.5.2Validity 204.5.3Generalizability 20

5.FINDINGS 215.1Results 215.1.1Motivationsfortheservices 215.1.2Useofresults 225.1.3Keyingredientforamarketingcampaign 225.1.4Digitalversustraditional 225.1.5Visibility 235.1.6Importanceofconsumerrecommendation 235.1.7Challenges 24

5.2Shifttodigitalmarketing 265.2.1E-commerce 265.2.2Shiftofpower 265.2.3DepartmentandCareers 27

2

5.2.4.Socialmedia 285.2.5Technologicalchanges 28

5.3BehaviouralAnalysisoftheConsumer 305.3.1ConsumerPurchasingBehaviour 305.3.2Cialdini’s6ForcesofInfluence 30

6.DISCUSSION 327.CONCLUSION 347.1Conclusion 347.2Limitations 347.3PotentialAreasforFutureResearch 35

REFERENCES 36APPENDICES 39Appendix1:Interviewquestionsforpersonnel 39Interviewee1-CEO 39Interviewee2-Headofproduction 39Interviewee3-CTO 39Interviewee4-DigitalStrategist 39

Appendix2:Interviewquestionsforclientele 40

3

1.INTRODUCTION

1.1BackgroundThe traditional brick-and-mortar stores are no longer the only option for purchasingproducts.Withthegrowthofe-commerce(Statista,2018),thereareendlessoptionsforthecustomerstochoosefrom.Notonlydotheyhavetheoptiontobuyproductsfromallovertheworldbye-commerceeliminatingthegeographicalbarriers(Khurana,2017),butbythistheyalsogetthechancetonotonlygoforproductsthatareonlyavailableintheir neighborhood or in their country, and thus having a bigger variety of choices.Moreover,asthesameitemsmightbesoldbydifferentbrands,storesandretailersthecustomershavetheoptiontochoosefromthemaccordingtoprice,location,oranykindofpersonalpreferenceabouttheretailer.Just having Sweden as an example, now people have the option for going for e-commerce stores, such as Linas Matkasse or Mathem, to order their FMCG productsright to theirdoorsandnotevenhaving tostepout fromtheircomfortzonesof theirhouses.Besides thesebusinesseswhosolelyofferonline services,nowadayseven thetraditional grocery stores likeWillys, ICA or Coop for example, are offering shoppingonlineaswellanddeliveryservicestokeepupwiththechangesoftheindustry,besidesalsokeepingtheirphysicalstores.TheFMCGindustryiscompetitive,notonlywhenitcomestothedifferentretailers,butalso when it comes to the brands and their products. A lot of brands have similarproductsandtheyhavetofindwaystostandoutfromtherest.Thatiswhymarketinghasbecomeacrucialpart in theFMCG industry,andwithall thedifferent trendsandhealthawareness, thewaythebrandsmarket themselvesandtheirproductscouldbedecisive.Awayofmarketingthathasbeengrowing inphasewithdigitalization is theuseofsocialmediaandinfluencers.Thispresenceandgrowthofe-commercenotonlyshaped theway people buy and sell but also thewaymarketing is done. Before, thetraditional way or marketing way much more used, however, this has drasticallychangedaspeoplelivemoreofanonlinesphere(DurmazandEfendioglu,2016).E-commercehasnotonlyaffectedthewaypeopleshopbychoosingonlineoverphysicalstores,butalsodigitizationhasbeenplayingarelevantroleinhealthandpersonalcareand thus the FMCG sector. Newproducts or revamped ones are offered on a generallevelnowasnewsabouthealthconcernscomeout, thiscanbethankedalldueto theonlinesphereasthespreadofnewshasneverbeenquickerwiththehelpofforexamplesocialmediasites.AstudyshowsthathealthandpersonalcareproductsamongFMCGproducts are most generally purchased online, with 59% of the shoppers from thesurvey reported that theypurchase their health products online.Householdproductswereclosebehindwithapercentageof51(MarketingCharts,2018).Just thinkof, going to the store today tobuy somemilk.Therewillmost certainlybemorethanonekindtochoose fromwithoatmilk,coconutmilkoralmondmilkbeingjusta fewexamplesof thehugevariety.Thiscomparedtoadecadeagowhenregularcow milk or lactose-free milk was the primary choices to purchase from. Differentproductsappeartothemarketfordifferentreasons,forexamplelactosefreemilkornutmilksdueto lactose intolerance.Health issues isonereasonformakingnewproducts

4

available to the public, but another factor can be trends and technologicaldevelopments.Inthelastcoupleofyearspeoplehavestartedtoopentheireyestothevegetarian and vegan world even more than ever before, and due to these reasonsFMCGcompaniesare trying toexploit itbyofferingproducts thatareappeal tomorepeoplewithdifferentlifestyles.Influencingothersandthusthephraseinfluencerhasbeenaroundforalongtime,eventhoughtheworditselfmightnothavebeenusedinthesameway.Justthinkofpolitical,spiritualorreligiousleaderswhointhepastandstillareinfluencingpeople’slivesanddecisionseithernegativelyorpositively(Zietek,2016).However,thephraseinfluencerevolvedintosomethingdifferentinthe21stcenturywiththedevelopmentandspreadofsocialmedia.Nowadays,perhapsotherthanthemedicalandlegalexperts,anyotherprofessionalsespeciallysalesperson’slackthecredibilityduetotheirpastwrongdoingsandaggressivebehaviorofconductingbusinessandthusabadreputationhasevolvedaround them (Zietek, 2016). This iswhere the nowadays term of influencer come inplace,withmicro-influencersbeingthemostreliableastheyareusuallynotmotivatedby financial rewardsorperksbut share theirhonestopinion for themerepurposeofhelpingothers.

1.2ProblemdiscussionanddefinitionDue to the high variety of FastMovingConsumerGoods and the constantly changingchoicesthatarebothavailableonlineandinstores,itisgettingmoredifficulttomarketandhavean influenceon thissector.Newchoicesarecomingoutdailyor justsimplynewerversionsarebeingofferedtothepublic.However,manyoftheseactuallyfaildueto companies not knowing enough about the target group’s needs andwants. This iswherecompanieslikeSmartsoncomesinhandy,andwhyconsumerrecommendationisbecomingabiggerphenomenonandwhyitisbecomingmoreimportantforcompaniestofocuson.Digitalmarketinghasgonethroughquiteabigchangeintherecentyears.The problem of the underlying research is based on the fact that FMCG sectoralcompanies nowadays have difficulty in gaining attention due to the high number ofcompetition.Thisiswheretheimportanceandpurposeoftheresearchlies,togiveaninsighttohowcompaniescanandshouldworkwithdigitalmarketinghavingafocusonconsumerrecommendations.

1.3ResearchquestionHowcanconsumerrecommendationsbeusedintermsofmarketingandsalespurposeswithintheFastMovingConsumerGoodssector?

1.4PurposeandscopeoftheresearchThe purpose of the research paper is to determine and discuss how technologicalchanges affect marketing and sales as a whole in the FMCG sector. This is done byfocusing on consumer recommendations and giving information about why it isimportant and how it already does and will have an even bigger impact on digitalmarketinginthefuture.As this is a case study in partnershipwith Smartson an additional aim of thewholeresearchistoprovideinformationforthecompanytounderstandtheroleofconsumer

5

recommendationbetterwithintheFMCG.Afurtherscopeofthepaperisthatitwillbeusedwithin a communication plan for Smartson. The company'swhole purposewiththe research was to provide insight information and for them to use the resultinternally.

1.5DelimitationsThemain focus, and thewhole thesiswill revolve around Smartson and its services,thereforeithasthelimitationsofnothavingmorecompany’sintake,besidesthegeneralsecondary research based data. Another delimitation is geographical based, meaningthatonlythoseweretakenintoconsiderationwhooperateinSwedenasawhole,oratleasthaveSweden-basedoffices.Lastly,ourinterviewlimitationscarrythefactthattheinterviewsareonly conductedwithpeoplewhoareworking forSmartsonandareorwere in business with them. Smartson is working in both FMCG and consumerelectronics testing, therefore the opportunitywas given to take both into account, orjustfocusononeortheother.However,achoicewasmadetofocusonFMCGsincethissectorislessexploredintermsofinfluenceofrecommendations.

1.6DispositionofthepaperChapter2:LiteraturereviewThischapterwillsummarizealltherelevantbackgroundinformationthatisneededinorder to understand the findings and outcome of the research. It consists of theapplicabledefinitionsofimportantphrases,suchasFMCGorinfluencers.Chapter3:CaseStudyThis chapter gives the necessary background and historical data of Smartson.Furthermore,explanationsoftheirservicesandsystemswillbeprovided.Chapter4:MethodologyThis chapter deals with the researcher’s choices ofmethods and strategies, which isimportant tobediscussbeforehand, inorder tounderstandhow the informationwasgatheredthroughoutthepaperandwhythosemethodswerechoseninthefirstplace.Chapter5:FindingsThe following chapter will present the results and findings of the interviews andmeetings provided by both Smartson and their clients. Here the answers of theintervieweesarecollectedandgrouped together inaway that itgivesanswers to theresearchquestionandgeneraltopic.Chapter6:DiscussionThediscussionpartwilldemonstratetheanalysesofthewholeresearch.Meaningthatalinkbetweenthefindingsandtheliteraturereviewwillbepresentedwithasummaryoftheresearch.Chapter7:ConclusionThischapterwillputapointtotheresearchbyconcludingtheresearch,andhavinganadditional demonstration of the limitations and giving advice for areas to futureresearch.

6

2.LITERATUREREVIEW

Theliteraturereviewconsistsofonemainchapterofwhichpurposeistoexplainalltherelevant topics, theories and definitions that will be used throughout the paper andthereforeareimportanttobeunderstoodatthebeginninginordertobeabletofollowthefindings,discussionandconclusionlateron.

2.1Definitions

2.1.1FastMovingConsumerGoodsFast Moving Consumer Goods, which is abbreviated as FMCG are products that sellsquickly and are both produced and sold at a somewhat low cost. There are differentsegmentstoconsiderwhenmentioningFMCG,whicharefood,beverage,cosmetics,andhousehold items. The FMCG industry is in the business to business segment,abbreviatedasB2B,whereitisthemostcommonthattheretailersconnectsthebrandwith the customer base,who then can purchase the products through these retailers(BondesonandLiss,2016citedfromAljunaidiandAnkrah,2014).As suchproductshavea lowprofitmargin forcompanies, it isnot the individual salethatcreatesasignificanceforthecompaniesbutthevolumeofsalesattheend.Ontheother hand, FMCG products even though have a lower growth level compared toelectronics,theyhavestablereturnswithmoreregularincomeastheyarerequiredtobe rebought often. These tend to bemore of a need products rather thanwant, andthereforeitcanbepredictedbettertoseehowthemarketwillreact(Dallegro,2018).Due to this notion of FMCG goods to be relatively cheap and therefore are moreaffordabletomany,thesectorisquitecompetitive(Zhouetal.,2015).Becauseofthis,companieswithinthissectortendtopaymoreattentiontotheirpackagingtobeup-to-date and to stand out, and also branding is getting more important for the sector,however this can be challenging as brand loyalty tend to be rather low with FMCGbrands.AnotherchallengethatZhouetal.(2015)mentionedwasthegrowingpresenceofforeignproductsonthemarkets,whichfurtherextendsthecompetitionandlowerstheexistenceofloyalty.Thisaccompaniedwiththepresenceandgrowthofe-commerceandwithproductstobeabletobetransportedquickerthanevermakesthejobofFMCGcompaniestobeabletostayontheirfeetevenharderandmorechallenging.

2.1.2MicroInfluencersThe expressions: “influencers” and “micro-influencers” within these contexts arerelatively new terms in themarketing industry and therefore there are no clear andcommonlyuseddefinition. Zietek (2016)offered twoexamplesof definition, one thatdefinedaninfluencerassomeonewhohassuperiorpowertohaveanimpactonotherspurchasing behavior through a social media network. This is usually due to theseindividual’sfrequentcontentcreationandtheabilitytobepersuasivethatledtoahighnumberoffollowing.AnotherwayZietek(2016)describedthephenomenonwassimplysomeone who regardless the number of their following are well connected andthereforecaninfluenceasignificantlylargernumberofpeople.

7

Mediakix(InfluencerMarketingAgency,2017)describesamicro-influencerassomeonewithanamountoffollowers,typicallybetween1,000and100,000followersonasocialmediaplatform.Duetothelowleveloffollowingthesemicro-influencerstendtoseemmoreofanauthenticwayofreachingpeopleandmightbeconsideredmoretrustworthythanthe influencers(Zietek,2016).However, inthecaseofSmartsonthetermmicro-influencerisusedwithinthecontextofsomeonehavinglessthan2,000followersonasocial media site. They actually use a different term for the influencers or so-calledtestpilots during a campaign, which is “friends-influencers”. These have even lessfollowingthanwhatthecommondefinitionofamicro-influencerwouldsuggest.The influencer can be someone who has built a niched platform for their followers,some examples are photography, travel or fashion. Influencermarketing has becomethe newest form of word-of-mouth, that both companies and influencers has beentakingadvantageof,eventhoughitisnotthateasyandrelatively“cheap”anymoreasitwasatthebeginning(Zietek,2016).Atthebeginninginfluencersusedtogetafree“gift”that they had to share a story about tomotivate other buying it, however, nowadaysinfluencersrequireasalaryfortheirmarketingpurposesontheirpages.Smartsonusethesesocalledmicro-influencerstotesttheproductsoftheirclients,andnotnecessarily for thegeneraluseof influencingothersbut toget an insight towhatpotential customers think. As on the other hand, contacting and collaborating withinfluencersforbusinessopportunitiesusuallydoesn'tinvolvegettingfeedbackbutto,asthe name itself says, to influence people to buy it, therefore solely havingmarketingpurposes.Whileinfluencersmayrequireonetopayforthepost,amicro-influencerontheotherhanddoesnotseethisasabusinessopportunitybutasawayoftestingoutanewproductthatheorshemightbeinterestedin.

2.1.3CrowdsourceThe definition of crowdsourcing provided by Brabham (2013, p.19), is “an online,distributed problem-solving and production model that leverages the collectiveintelligence of online communities to serve specific organization goals”. The onlinecommunities,inanotherwordcalledcrowds,areinsomewaymotivatedtosharetheirexperienceofaproductandinthatwayspreadthewordthroughtheonlinecommunity.Crowdsourcing is about letting go of the idea that everything should come from theorganization,acceptingandmakingitpossibleinwaysforthepublictocontributetotheorganizationinasharedprocess,andthustoinfluenceoneanother.The word “Crowdsourcing” was first used by Jeff Howe in 2016 in his book calledCrowdsourcing. He defined the word as: “Crowdsourcing represents the act of acompanyorinstitutiontakingafunctiononceperformedbyemployeesandoutsourcingittoanundefined(andgenerallylarge)networkofpeopleintheformofanopencall.Thiscantaketheformofpeer-production(whenthejobisperformedcollaboratively),but isalsooftenundertakenbysole individuals.Thecrucialprerequisite is theuseoftheopencallformatandthelargenetworkofpotentiallaborers.”(Hultberg,2016citedfromHowe2006)In the research by Hultberg (2016) in the food and beverages industry (consideredFMCG,see2.1.1)andcrowdsourcing, the findings indicatesthat in theFMCGindustry,crowdsourcingisusedmostlyformarketingpurposes.Theideabehindcrowdsourcing

8

can differ, it can be for reasons such as outsourcing process of creating marketingmaterial.Anotherreasonmentionedistogetinspiration,whichcanhelpthecompany’sideationprocess.Crowdsource is needed for example for a crowdscore, which is the end result of acampaign.Thismeansthatwheneverascore isseenonaproductthat is theresultofsuch processes. An example would be, 74% out of 800 test-pilots recommends thisproduct (seeFigure1 for illustration). The crowdscore is labeledon theproducts forpeople to seeand tomotivate them for tryingout theproductbygiving themavalidproof.

Figure1:ExampleofacrowdscoreprovidedbySmartson

2.1.4StorytellingStorytelling isawayofmarketingbasedoncreatingastoryaroundtheserviceor theproductandthusmakingitmorerelatabletothepublic.Withstorytelling,itispossibleto create an emotional connection between the product and the targeted audience(Duarte, 2013). It is in the recent years that storytellinghasbeengivena rolewithinmarketing and communication. Ahsan (2017) writes about a recent research thatshowed that using target videos visualizing storieswas able to increase the viewer’spersuasion and understanding. People have always been interested by stories, andpeoplewhomasteredstorytellinghavegottenamuchbiggerattentionfrompeopleasthesemakethepersonandthetopicmoreinteresting,ascomparedtojustsharingrawfacts (Alsing and Bergman, 2009 cited in Mossberg 2006). According to Mossberg(2006),astorytouchespeopleemotionallyandstimulatestheirfantasies.Whenstorytellingismentionedinconnectiontomarketing,itisoftencalledcorporatestorytelling (Alsing and Bergman, 2009), thismeans that the story is connected to abusiness,whichcanmeanbothaproductoraservice.Manyorganizationsbuildastoryaroundtheircompanythattheytrytobroadcasttotheirtargetedaudience.Byhavingaunique story, it can differentiate the businesseswith similar products or services bymaking it stand out from the competition. Corporates can also create a story thatrepresentsthemandtheirpurposeofexistence.Both micro and major influencer are closely connected to storytelling. In one hand,micro-influencersareusedsothatcompaniescancreatestorytellinginawaythattheyareinmostofthecasesaskedtosharetheiropinionfora“free”product.Thiscaneithermeantopost theiropinionsonline,orhaving themfill ina format,which thencanbe

9

used for marketing purposes. On the other hand, major influencers by collaboratingwiththemandgivingthemtheopportunitytousetheproducttheycancreatetheirownstoryarounditandsharethatwiththeirfollowing.Theformerisnotnecessarilyaskedtobepublicizedbythetester,whilethelatterisaskedbythecompanyasthisisdoneforthesolepurposeofboostthebusinessandsalesofacertainproductsorbrand.

2.1.5ConsumerRecommendationConsumer or customer recommendations originally comes fromword-of-mouth, thatcan be positive, neutral or negative (Wen-Kuo et al., 2008). If the word-of-mouth iscategorizedaspositive,itcouldmeanthattheconsumerispositivelyrecommendingtheproduct or service to others (Darke, 2006). Thus, the definition of consumerrecommendation is when people give positive comments willingly to others about aproductorservicetheyhavetriedandhadsomewhatgoodexperienceswith it (Wen-Kuo, Heng-Chiang and Seng-Cho T, 2008) Since the term word-of-mouth could alsoimply negative and neutral experiences, the term consumer recommendation is usedwhen entailing forpositive feedback and experiences. It is important tomention thattheconceptissomethingvoluntarilydoneandnotforcedtodo.Theindividualpersonshouldwant torecommendtheproductorservicebecauseofpositiveexperienceandnotbecauseheorshewillgetsomethingoutofit.However, thesecanbestimulatedbysomekindofamotivational factor.Forexample,some FMCG e-commerce retailer sites often reward thosewho provide reviews. Thiscanbedonebyofferingthemforexample:freeshipping,aoneuseonlydiscountcode,orhavingaVIPsystembythemoreoneisactivethemorediscountstheygetonthelongrun.Finding recommendationsonlineon socialmediaplatforms like Instagram, Facebook,Blogs,Snapchat,etc.,couldimplythatthepostisacollaborationwiththeinfluencerandthebrand.Thismeansthatthereisadealorcontractbetweenthemthatsayswhattheinfluencer should post about the product or service. This cannot be considered aconsumerrecommendationsinceitmeansthattheinfluencerisgettingsomethingoutof it. It can still mean that the influencer recommends the product, but it cannot becategorized in the consumer recommendation category. However, it is common thatpeoplebuyaproductonlineandthenleaveareviewonthatwebsite.Thatismostlikelydonevoluntarilyandthepurchaserhadnothingtogainfromwritingthereviewexceptbeingkindenoughtogivehisopinionontheproduct,whetheritispositiveornegative.Those are two different types of recommendations and it is important to be able toseparatethemfromoneanother.

10

3.CASESTUDYDue to the fact that the thesis is in collaborationwith Smartsonand thatmost of thedata,factsandinformationareeitherrelatedtothemandtheirsector,orwereprovidedbythecompanyit isimportanttodiscussthecompanyitself.Adetaileddescriptionofthecompanydiscussingtheirbackgroundwithmilestonesisprovidedtogetaninsightto why they were established and how they have an impact (3.1). Furthermore,SmartsonhasamodelcalledAttract-Engage-Convert(AEC)thattheyfollowonadailybasis when collaborating with their clients (3.2). And finally, demonstrating theircampaign process is provided (3.3). This whole segment is based on the meetings,websiteanddocumentsthathasbeenhandedoverfortheresearchbySmartson.

3.1BackgroundandHistorySmartsonworks with Social RecommendationMarketing, meaning that they use testpilotstotryaspecificproduct.Thesearethenaskedtosharetheirexperienceswhichisthen turned into recommendations in a way so that it can be used for marketingpurposes.ThetestpilotscansignupthroughSmartsontotryproductsfromclientsoftheirsandsharetheirexperiences,mainlythroughSmartson’swebsitebutalsoontheirownsocialmediaplatformsiftheywanttoorareaskedtodoso.Smartsonwasfoundedin1999inordertohelpconsumersmakebetterdecisionswhenitcomestopurchaseswiththeoriginalideabeingtosummarizeprofessionalreviewstohelp consumers. At that time, they also had an editorial office where they didcomparative tests for magazines and websites. In 2005 they started their editorialjourneytogetherwithjournalists,andsoonSmartsonbecameastrongcontentproviderformediapublisherslikeAftonbladet,MSN,Expressen,andAmelia.In2006, for the first time, theywereable to invitepeople to tryproducts themselvesandsharetheirexperiences.Thisisregardedastheirfirstcrowdsourcecampaigninthecompany. In 2009 theyhad their first campaignwithin the FMCG sector,with havingover10,000people signedup toparticipate as testpilots for trying anew juice fromArla.Thiswasamajormilestone forSmartson, since theysuccessfullymanagedtheirfirstcampaignsince2006,whentheyfirststartedwithproducttesting.In2012Smartsonstartedexpandingtonewmarketsandnewproductcategories.Itwasnot only FMCGbut also cars and sport, for example. Their concept of product testingwasworkingwellenoughthattheywereabletoexpandtoandtheDanish,NorwegianandFinnishmarketsaswell.Eventually,theeditorialpartwassoldofftoTTGroup,andSmartsonbegantosolelyfocusonconsumertestingfulltime.In2014Smartsonreachedanother milestone by hitting a record of consumers, by having McVitie’s DigestiveCheesecakeCreamstestedwith20,000packetssentto10,000testers.By 2015 they had expanded further than theNordic countries as Smartson had theirfirst campaign in the Netherlands with Nestlé, where 1,500 testers were sent to trythree kinds of dog food from the PRO PLAN. Besides reviewing the product, the testpilotswereencouraged to sharephotos.Netherlands today is regardedas the secondstrongestmarketafterSweden.InthisyearSmartsonalsoenteredtheSpanishmarketwithCooperVision.

11

Itwasin2016thatthesocalled“Crowdscoremania”happened.Theamountofclientsthat were using crowdscore in their communication plans had never been so highbefore. Companies started displaying the crowdscore on the packages, in TV-commercialsandonline.Smartsonreached400,000followersandenteredanothernewmarket, this time UK. During this year, a study was conducted to see how well isSmartsonasacompanyknowninSweden.Thesurveythatwasconductedamongmenandwomenbetween18-74yearsoldinSweden,withresultsshowing37,8%hadheardaboutthecompany’sservicewhile53,4%hadnotandhavingtherestdidnotanswer.TheirplanforthefutureistofurtherexpandintheEuropeanmarket.Theydotestingnot only for FMCG products but for electronics as well. Currently they worked withcompanies indifferent industries, someexamples arePolarbröd, Lotus, Sevan, FindusandArlaintheFMCGindustry.OtherclientsthatdonotoperatewithintheFMCGsectorforexampleareLG,K-Rauta,SmarteyesandElectrolux.

3.2Attract-Engage-Convertmodel

Figure2:TheAECmodelThe Attract-Engage-Convert (AEC, as shown in Figure 2) is a model created bySmartson,thatinvolvesthreedifferentsteps,henceitsname.Thephasescaneitherbeimplementedinorderalltogetherorseparately.(1)AttractbycuriosityThisphaseisaboutattractingpeoplethroughcuriosityofaproductorservice.Peoplewillgettheopportunityoftryingsomethingnewbeforeeveryoneelsefortheexchangeofgivingtheir feedbackandengagementabout theproduct.Theattractphasehas thepurposeofbeingopenforeveryonewhoiswillingtobecomeatest-pilot.However, insomecasesthebrandcanbelookingforaspecificconsumerbaseandwillchoosetheirtest-pilotsaccordingto their targetgroup.Moreover,duringacampaign it isoftensethowmany testpilots tobeused.Thisphase in theAEC-model is repeatable foreverynewtestcase.(2)EngagebyexperienceThisphaseisaboutengagingthetestpilotsthroughtheirownexperiencesoftryingthebrand’s product or service. The purpose is to give the people the right tools andinspirationtobeabletocreatetheirownexperiencesthatcanbesharedthroughsocialmedia for example. The experience and user generated content is the focus of thisphase.Theengagementfromtheconsumercanbeindifferentformats,someexamples

12

are reviews, videos, photos, testimonials and blog posts and on can be shared ondifferentplatforms.Anotherimportantpointisspreadingtheexperiencethroughword-of-mouth.Ifenoughpeopletrytheproduct,itcanbeenoughtospreadtheirexperiencesthroughword-of-mouth.(3)ConvertbyrecommendationsThis phase is about converting the test-pilot’s experiences to recommendations. TheSmartsoncrowdscoretogetherwithtestimonialscanbeusedasanendorsementfromthedifferentproducts.Iftheproductreachesahighrecommendationitcanincreasethepopularityoftheproductandthereforeincreasethesales,aswell.

3.3CampaignProcess

Figure3:Smartson’scampaignprocessinsixstepsThefollowingsteps,whichareillustratedinFigure3,aretypicalinacampaignprocessbySmartson.Thesestepsshowhowacampaignusuallylookslike,howevertheyarenotnecessarilypartoftheAECmodel,thereforeitwasneededtobediscussedseparately.1.ProductionThisphaseinvolvescreatingthecontentandmaterialthatisusedforthecampaign,inotherwordsthis isthestageofthebackgroundwork.DuringthephaseSmartsonandthecompanyorbrandhasthemostcontactcampaign.Outofalltheotherstepsthiscantakeupthemosttime.2.InvitationThis phase involves the open invitation for people to become test-pilots for a certaincampaign and it usually takes a week. Becoming a test-pilot gives people theopportunitytobethefirsttotryanewproductorservice.Multiplechannelsareusedtoreachpeopleduringthisphase:invitationviamail,socialmedia,smartson’swebsiteandthe client’s company website or their brand’s channels. Although the company isinvolvedinthisstageinmeansofhavingtopostaninvitationthemselvesaswell,theyarenotpartinanyotherway.3.SelectionandLogisticsDuring this stage the target group is selected based on information as demographic,geographical location, interest and social content skills; based on all the specificrelevantrequirementsthatthecampaignandthebrandinquestionneedsordemands.Moreover,attheendofthisstageafterthetestpilotswerechosentheproductissentdirectlytotheconsumers.Thewholeprocessusuallytakesfivedays.

13

4.ExperiencesThisiswhentheexperiencesofthetest-pilotsaresharedaftertheyhadtimetotestit.Thewhole “experience” phase lasts in between two to fourweeks. In this phase theactualcontentandstoriesarecreatedtobeusedlaterbythebrand,onthetypicalsocialmediasitesasFacebook,InstagramorTwitter.Basedondifferentagreements,thetest-pilots can be required to answer forms and questionnaires related to the product orservicetheyhavetested.5.CrowdscoreandTestimonialsInthisphase,itisaboutaggregatingalltestimonialsfromthetest-pilots.Asummaryiswrittenof thecampaignand theresultswith thecrowdscore, that isused topromotethe product based on how much it was liked by the test pilots. This is used formarketingpurposestoincreasesales.Thewholeprocessusuallytakesupaweek.6.AlwaysonThisisanoptionthatthecompaniesmightormightnotbeinterestedin.Thisinvolvestheoptiontobeabletoactivatethecampaignagaintogainevenmorestoriesfromtestpilotsinordertogetfeedbackandthustoreachmoreconsumers.

14

4.METHODOLOGYTheaimofthischapteristodemonstratewhichmethodswereusedandtoarguewhythey were chosen in the research paper in the first place. This is important to bediscussed beforehand, in order for the reader to understand the whole paper anddiscussionsbetter.Thepurposeofthemainpartsthatwillbeexplainedinthissectionisto showwhatwentdown in thebackgroundof thephases of the research,whatwasdonethroughoutthesedifferentphases,howtheinterviewswereconducted,andhowthedatawascollectedforthepaperasawhole.Themethodologyismainlybasedonthebook called “Business Research: a practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduatestudents”byJillCollinsandRogerHussey.

4.1ResearchparadigmThe research paradigm is important to be discussed in order to understand how theresearch was conducted, by understanding the underlying philosophies used by theresearchers(CollinsandHussey,2014).Besidesprovidingthephilosophies,aparadigmalso gives a guideline for the researcher to follow. The two paradigms that the bookdealswitharepositivismandinterpretivism.Theformeristheapproachofrelyingonsingularandobjectivefindings,whichismoreappropriatewithaquantitativemethod.Thelatter,thatisactuallyfollowedthroughouttheresearch,liesontheassumptionthataresearchshouldbesubjectiveastheresearcherstakeapartoftheresearchandgivetheir intakeandopinion, thus their role in the research isnot for thesolepurposeofobservation.Thisparadigmisusedmostlywithqualitativeresearchmethod.Theseareallinlinewiththeresearchthatwasconductedbytheresearchers.

4.2Researchmethods/strategyThemethod that one chooses to follow is closely linked to the paradigm,whichwasdiscussedpreviously(4.1.).Sincethestrategyistofollowtheinterpretivistparadigmitsets the basis for most of the methods that the research was based on and theresearchersfollowedthroughoutthecase.Thechosenmethodologyiscasestudy,whichisanempiricalresearchapproachthatis“usedtoexploreasinglephenomenon(thecase)inanaturalsettingusingavarietyofmethods to obtain in-depth knowledge” (Collins and Hussey, 2014, page 68). Casestudiesareconsideredtobeusedmainlywithininterpretivism,whichisinlinewithourparadigm (Collins and Hussey, 2014). Moreover, it can also be described as anopportunistic case studywhich occurswhen one can study and research a particularcase(OtleyandBerry,1994,citedinCollinsandHussey,2014).Withinthiscontextthecase is considered to be the business itself (Smartson) and the people that wereinterviewedtogatherin-depthknowledge,inotherwordstheemployeesandclientsofthe company. Furthermore, Ryan, Scapens, and Theobald (2002, cited in Collins andHussey, 2014) differentiates four types of case studies, these are: descriptive,illustrative, experimental, and explanatory. In our case the most fitting ones aredescriptive,whichaimstodescribeacase;andalso illustrative,whichaimstodiscussinnovative practices used by certain firms. The first one is fitting because the paperaimstoexhibitthecaseitself,andthelatterisimportantbecausethepaperisbasedonthe interviews with the companies who provide the background information for theinnovativetechnologicalchangeswithintheconsumerrecommendationsegment.

15

Thethesiswasconductedintriangulation,whichrefersto“theuseofmultiplesourcesof data, different researchmethods and/ormore than one researcher to investigate”(Collins and Hussey, 2014). The research paper was conducted and written by twomaster students, which refers to investigator triangulation. Furthermore, a mix ofsourceswereused,bothprimaryandsecondarydata,whichwill furtherbediscussedlater on in this chapter. Moreover, the discussion and the paper was conducted andwritten by using multiple sources from different period of time. This refers to datatriangulationbyEasterby-Smith,ThorpeandJackson(2012,citedinCollinsandHussey,2014). By following the triangulation approach, bias can be diminished and greaterreliabilitycanbepresentedthroughoutthepaperthaninasingularmethodapproach.

4.3DataCollectionDatacollectioncanbedonethroughobtainingprimary,secondary,orbothdata.Inourcaseasthisisamaster’sthesis,collectionofdatawasdonethroughthemixofthetwotypesofsources.Fortheprimarydata,findingsandconclusionsfrominterviewsarethemain sources of data. The interviews are with people holding a relevant positionworking at companies that are clients of Smartson. Secondary data will be providedfromtheliteraturereview.Inthis,dataanalysiswasconductedthroughresearchingtherelevanttopicsandbackgroundinformation.Thisvarietyofdatacollectionandanalysiswillresultingivingamorecomprehensiveresearchwithbetterfindingsanddiscussion.ThroughouttheresearchtheCARSchecklistbyMcGraw-Hillwastakenintoaccountasitisimportantandveryhelpfulintermsoffindingandevaluatingsourcesaccordingtohow:credible,accurate,reasonable,andsupportivetheyare fortheresearch(Tamási,2013).Thefocuswasputontolookforsourcesthatarerelevantaccordingtomethod.Firststartinganalyzingthesourceaccordingtohowcredibleistheauthororpublishingsiteinthegiventopic.Thenmovingontotheaccuracy,onlythosesourcesthatareup-to-date in a timelymanner,meaning thatonly those sourceswere taken intoaccountthatarenotoldandinthatsenseoutdatedasthethemeoftheresearchfocusesonthefutureofdigitalmarketing.Withreasonability,itwasimportanttolookforsourcesthatlackbiasandfocusmoreonbeingobjectivewithfactsanddata.Moreover,thesourcesshould be supported, meaning backed by some kind of a scientific background orreference list to make sure that bias is reduced. This method was mainly followedduring the search for secondary data, while with primary sources, i.e. with theinterviews only those professionals and experts were taken into account who wererelevantandcredibleinthecasestudy.

4.3.1QualitativeandInductiveA research can follow a quantitative, qualitative, or amixedmethod of the two.Whyconducting a qualitative research over quantitative more suitable and fitting in thiscase? Quantitative is more fitting with researches that aremuchmoremathematicalbasedwheretheresearcherwouldneedtocalculate,measureandanalyzethefindingsandtoprovidetheresultsinanumericalform(Svensson,2015).Thismethodismoretechnicalbasedwheretheresultmighttendtobemoreobjectiveaswillprovideasinglesolution for a problem, situation or case. On the other hand, qualitative is the moresociety-basedmethod,wheresubjective findingsaremorecommonas theresearch isdonethroughobservations.Inthiscasetheresultswillprobablyenduphavingmultiple

16

answers for an arising question or problem (Svensson, 2015). In this research,qualitative is more suitable for a case that solely rely on data that presents humanbehavior and where data collection is primarily done through interviews andresearching secondary data. Themain reason that this type of research was chosen,however, is that none of the findings come from calculations or statistical analysis,therefore conclusions can be made that the paper is solely based on qualitativeresearch.Besides the qualitative research approach, the paper also focused on following theinductive research approach. Meaning that reasoning is developed firstly throughobservationsduringtheinterviews,followedbylookingforapattern,andfinishedwitha theory based on the observations and pattern. The approach aims for creatingmeaningfromthedatacollectioninordertobuildupatheory(Research-Methodology,2018).

4.3.2PrimarydataThe secondary data that was discussed and provided in the literature reviews wasaccompaniedwiththeinterviewstoprovidemoreinsightintheformofprimarydata.Thepurposeoftheliteraturereviewwastolinkthefindingstotherelevanttheoryandtosupportthoseviewpoints.

4.3.2.1STRUCTUREOFTHEINTERVIEWThe interviewswereconducted inasemistructuredwaywithasetofpredeterminedopenquestions.Withthismethod,ouraimwastoleadtheinterviews,howevertoalsogivetheintervieweesopportunitytounfold.Meaningthatboththeinterviewersandtheinterviewee to have the opportunity to come up with questions according to theanswers and thus to provide greater knowledge than otherwise would have beenpossible.Themaintopicsthatweretakenintoconsiderationduringtheinterviews,andwasputthemostattentiontoweremotivations,experience,andmostimportantlythetechnological changes they thoughtwill have the biggest impact on digitalmarketingand consumer recommendations. Data collection and processing throughout theinterviews were conducted by recording it, only after the interviewees were askedabout it. Meanwhile the interviews, noteswere also taken by one of the intervieweraskingthequestionsandrecording,andtheotheronetakingnotes.Inthefollowingchapter,itisstatedwhichwayofconductingtheinterviewswereusedwith the different interviewees. Moreover, check appendices, where the interviewquestions are stated: Appendix 1 for Smartson employees, where different questionswereaskedaccordingtotherolesoftheinterviewee;andAppendix2forthecompanieswherethesamequestionswereasked.

4.3.2.2PARTICIPANTSELECTIONTheselectionoftheintervieweesarebasedontheclienteleandpersonnelofSmartson.As mentioned previously under delimitations, all participants are or were incollaborationwithSmartson,andwerechosenaftera thoroughdiscussion inorder togetthemostinsightfortheresearch.Furthermore,asmentionedbefore,thefocusisputon the FMCG sector, therefore only those companies of the clientele were contactedwhoseproductsfall intothiscategory.WiththeemployeesofSmartson,thefocuswas

17

putonthosewhowerethoughttohavethemostcomprehensiveknowledgeandinsighttothesystemsofSmartson,anditsbackground.Theinterviewswereconductedintwophases.ThefirstonefocusedoninterviewingtheemployeesofSmartsonforthemainpurposeofobtainingbackgroundinformationforthe theoretical parts about the company, their services, and their AECmodel. In thisphase the interviewswere conducted face-to-face in theheadofficeof Smartsonwiththefouremployees.Thesecondphasewasconductedafterthefirstonewasconcludedin order to be able to use the findings from the first one so that more insight andknowledgecanbedrawnfromit.Also,thiswasdonetohavethesufficientbackgroundinformation for the researchers to obtain in order to move on and understand thesysteminthefirstplace.Thisphasewaseitherconductedinperson,viaskypeoremail.

Phase1Inthisphase,alltheinterviewswereconductedinperson,andonanaveragelastedfor30minutes.ThesewereallconductedintheSmartsonofficeononeday.Lateron,inthefindingstheresultsfromthesewillmentionedandreferencedaccordingtotheirgivenshortening (S1,S2,S3,S4). Main objective of this phase was, firstly, to receive moredetailed information of Smartson’s background and their services and systems. Andsecondly,tohavesomesimilarorexactsamequestionsforbothclienteleandpersonnellater,whichwasimportantinordertodrawcomparisonsoftheanswersthatwasgiven. Interviewee

1(S1)

Interviewee2(S2)

Interviewee 3(S3)

Interviewee4(S4)

Role CEO Head ofProduction

CTO Digital StrategistCo-Founder (previouslyCEO)

Table.1:PersonnelofSmartsonandtheirrole

Phase2Thesolepurposeandobjectiveofthisphasewastogaininformationfromtheclientelebyhaving the samequestionsasked fromall.Even thougha semi-structure stylewasfollowed,thiswasimportantinordertobeabletocompareandcontrasttheresults.IntheFindingstheintervieweeswillbereferencedandmentionedaccordingtotheirgivennumber. Interviewee1 Interviewee2 Interviewee3 Interviewee4

Company CapriSun(CocaCola)

N!cks(Lubfoods)

Orkla Purina nordics(Nestlé)

Role Manager CategoryPlanning

MarketingManager

Senior BrandManager

Head of MarketingDepartment

Date 13May2018 17May2018 18May2018 18May2018

18

Conducted Viaemail Inperson inperson viaskypeTable2:Externalcompaniesandtherolesofinterviewees

4.3.3SecondarydataBesidesconductinginterviewsandobtainingprimarydatainotherways,itisimportantto conduct research for secondary data. The purpose of this is to provide moreknowledge and also to give a basis for the research. The literature review is animportant part of the paper due to reasons as creating a foundation for the thesis tostandon.Therearemanydefinitionsandtheoreticalpartsthatshouldbeexplainedforthe readerbeforehand, so that the readerwillbeable to see thewholepictureof thepaperanditsfindings.Moreover,havingacomprehensiveliteraturereviewwillmakeitpossible to draw parallels between the findings and conclusions from the conductedinterviewsand the literature review. Saying it in anotherway it is to find connectionbetweentheobtainedandpresentedsecondaryandprimarydata.Moreover, it isalsoimportant to have both in order to be able to find and uncover possible gaps forimprovements. Since the findings from the interviews will be our primary data, theliterature review will consist of secondary data from relevant academic articles andliterature.

4.4EthicalconsiderationsInthischapter,theethicalconsiderationsoftheresearchpaperwillbediscussed,thatmayormaynothaveanimpactonthedatacollectionandparticipantsoftheresearch.BrymanandBell(2011,p.156)discussestheethicalprinciplesandaccordingtothem,theyarebrokendownintofourcategoriesofconcern:1.whetherthereisharmtotheparticipants, 2. whether there is lack of informed consent, 3. whether there is aninvasionofprivacy,and4.whetherdeceptionisinvolved.Thesecategoriesofconcernhaveallbeentakenintoconsiderationwhenconductingthedata sampling through interviews. Bryman and Bell (2011, p.156) differentiatesmultiple harm types, for example physical harm, harm done to the participantsdevelopmentorself-esteem,stress,harmtocareerprospectsorperhapsharmtofutureemployment.Although, it canbestated that that there isanextremely lowpossibilitythat the participants will experience themselves in a situation of being harmed. Theintervieweeswillnothavetheirnamesmentionedinthepaper inordertonotviolatetheir privacy. Their role in the company, however, will be mentioned as well as thecompanytheyworkfor.Furthermore,theconductedinterviewswererecordedwiththeconsent of the interviewee’s. There was an assurance that he or she completelyapproved of the recording, otherwise the interview would not have been recorded.Moreover, theywereassuredthattherecordingswereonly fortheresearchersuseofthesolepurposeofhavingabetterstructurebyhavingabackupfile,butwouldnotbegivenouttoothers.Thetopicofthethesis, thequestionstotheparticipantswouldnot invadeanykindofprivacyoftheparticipants.Thequestionsarenotpersonalones,butarefocusingonthetopic itself. The purpose of the interviews is to gain the participants experience ofworkingwithSmartsonandexpertiseofthetopicrelatedtothethesis.Thelastcategoryis regarding involvementofdeception.Tomake sure that theparticipantsdonot feel

19

deceived in any way, the purpose of the interview was clearly explained before itstartedtomakesurethattheyknowitandarewillinglyparticipatinganyways.

4.5Credibilityofthefindings Qualitative researches arewidely criticized due to its nature of being subjective andrelyingmoreontheresearcherswhenitcomestofindingsandresultsthanforexamplea quantitative research does. This is where reliability, validity and generalizabilitycomesintodiscussallthecredibilityofthefindingsandsystemsasawhole.

4.5.1ReliabilityForaresearchtobereliableitshouldanswerthequestionwhetherarepeatedresearchwouldbringthesameoutcomewiththesameresults(CollinsandHussey,2014). It ismoreapplicablewithinthecasesofquantitativeresearches,whileatinterpretivismitisless important as these tend to bemore subjective.Within quantitative researches arepeated studymay bring the exact same result, however, as said before due to thenature of qualitative researches being much more subjective it is questionable andratherchallengingtobringthesameorevensimilarresults.OutofthefiveapproachesthatSilverman(2009,ascitedinLeung,2015)suggestedtofollowinordertoensurethepaperanditsresultsofbeingreliable,thefollowingwereused:constantdatacomparison,useoftables,andalsocomprehensivedatause.Therewasaresearchconductedpriortotheinterviews,andalsoasinformationwasgained,regarding if it confirmedour theoriesornot thepaperwaschangedaccording to thisinformation.Moreover,thefindingsoftheinterviewswerecomparedtooneanothertomakesure that the findingsarecoherentandnotonlyappear inonecase.Theuseoftableswasusedinthiscontexttocomparetheinterviewsinordertofindoutthemostrelevantissuesthatispresentedintheresultsandfindings.Anotherproblemwitharesearchthat liesmoreonthe findingsof interviewsarethattheparticipants involvedmaybebiased towards certainquestions, or thepurposeofthe whole interview (Leung, 2015). This involves both the interviewees and theinterviewers as bothmay show signs of bias and thus errorsmay occur. A potentialproblem with interviews can be that someone, besides the interviewers and theinterviewee,wouldjoininthesessiontomakesurethatonlythosequestionsareaskedandanswered,whichforexample,donotviolatecompanypolicy.Anotherissuecanbethat the intervieweemight give ananswer thatheor she considers the rightone, forreasonssuchasnotlookingstupidinfrontofothersbysayingsomethingfalse(CollinsandHussey,2014).Inthiscase,withSmartson,itwasnotaproblemasonlythosewhoactuallycontributedtotheinterviewwereintheroom.WiththeclienteleofSmartsontheonesthatwereconductedinpersontherewerenooneelseintheroom,sowasthesamesituationwithclientele interviewsthatwereconductedinperson.Withtherest,meaningtheonesthatwerenotconductedinperson,itisassumedthattheinterviewswerealoneforthatperiodoftimeandwerenotpressuredbyanyone.As the participation was voluntary we can conclude that it is assumed these peopleshare their honest opinion with the utmost professional way. Moreover, as theparticipants were told their answers would remain anonymous and even if theinterviews were recorded at the end these would be deleted, thus bias, false and

20

misleading informationwereable tobe reduced. Intervieweebiaswere reducedwithfollowingthesemi-structuredinterviewstyleinordertogivetheparticipantsachancetosharewhatevertheyfelt likewouldbeusefulfortheendresults.Therefore,wecanconclude that such errors, false information and bias was minimized and wereinsignificantforthepurposeoftheresearch.

4.5.2ValidityValiditywithinaqualitativemethodentailshowsuitableandappropriatearethetools,methods, processeswerewithin the phases of the research for its purpose, researchquestionanddesiredoutcome(CollinsandHussey,2014).Itanswersthequestionhowwell the researchers have been able to achieve the initially set out goals and howsatisfactorywerethefindingsaccordingtothis.Themethods andprocesseswere all chosen after a thoroughdiscussion according totheresearchquestionandthefactthatthepaperisbasedonacompany,duetothisthemostsuitableseemedtobeacasestudywhichsetthemethodofaqualitativeresearchthatisbasedmoreonthefindingsoftheinterviews.Tomakesurethepaperisvalidtheinterview questions were changed multiple times before the meetings happened inordertomakesurethatthequestionsareappropriateandfittingforthecase.Moreover,Smartsonwasalsoshownthesequestionsandwereaskedtogive feedbackaccordingfrom the perspective of an expert’s eyes and add suggestions. The writing up of thepaperwasdonethroughoutaperiodofapproximatelythreemonths,duringwhichtheresearcherswent back and forth adding, editing and deleting parts tomake sure thepaperisvalid.Moreover,astherewasanoppositionsetouttogiveusfeedback,itwasall taken into consideration andwas changed tomake the researchpapermore validaccordingtothosecriticisms.

4.5.3GeneralizabilityGeneralizability answers the question whether the findings of the research may beapplicable and appropriate in other researches as well (Collins and Hussey, 2014).Methods thatwasused, suggestedbyLeung(2015)andCollinsandHussey(2014) toaddress this issue were the use of triangulation of the two researchers; constantcomparison of the findings anddiscussing these; extensive audit of the paper and itsfindings; and well documented interviews and findings prior to the writing up thepaper. Following all of these methods and processes all make the research moregeneralizable,however,due to the “subjective”natureof aqualitativepaper,which isdependent on the researchers own way of thinking and the findings of the fewparticipants it can challenge the generalizability of the outcome. Taking all this intoaccount, if theprocessesandmethodsweredonecorrectly itcanbeassumedthatthefindings of the paper can be generalized to a similar case or firm within a similarcontext.

21

5.FINDINGSWhenanalyzinganddiscussing the interviews twomainpartswereseparatedandanadditional one from themeetings and interviews at Smartsonwere added. Thus, thischapter will be divided up into technological based and non-technological basedfindingswiththeresults(5.1)andtheshifttodigital(5.2).Besidesthese,abehavioralanalysis (5.2) is provided according to the findings from the Smartson personalinterviews.Asmentioned in themethodology theanswersof the intervieweeswillbereferencedaccordingtotheirshorteningprovidedinthatchapter.Everythingthatstartwith an ‘S’ are people who are employees of Smartson, while with giving the label‘interviewee’areallexternalprofessionals.

5.1ResultsWhen analyzing and discussing the results of the interviews, seven points could bepointed out. These were the (1) motivations for such services of consumerrecommendationandtestpiloting;(2)howtheresultswereused;(3)whattheythoughtthe key ingredient is for a successfulmarketing campaign; (4) the use of digital andtraditional marketing channels; (5) visibility; (6) the importance of consumerrecommendation; and lastly (7) the challenges they face with both marketing andconsumerrecommendations.

5.1.1MotivationsfortheservicesDuring the interviewswith the different companies we came to understand that themotivations forusing theservices that isprovidedbySmartsoncanvaryeventhoughthe services that theyoffer are limited. Smartsonprior to the interviewswith clients,mentioned thatnotalluseorvaluerecommendation, someonlyused theservices forthesolepurposeofgettingascoreformarketingpurposes,butbesidesthatdonotworkwithitlateron(S3,S4).OnechosetocollaboratewithSmartsonbecausetheywantedtoincreasetheawarenessofarelativelynewbrand.Theywantedtogetthebrandoutthereandthoughtbyusingtest pilots they could have a good start for it. Also, they kept in mind that it is anopportunity togainpotential customers.By letting the test-pilots try theproduct, thepossibilityofthemtopurchasetheproductlateronwillbehigheriftheyareconvincedofagoodproduct(Interviewee1).Interviewee4wasonthesamepage,butinadditiontothattheywerealsointerestedingettingacrowdscoretoputontheproductthatwastested.Theyhadthebeliefthatahighcrowdscorecouldincreasesalesofthatproduct.Similarly,Interviewee3werealsomoreinterestedinthecrowdscoreastheyusedtheservicesforproductsthatneededanextrapush.However,hementionedthathebelievestestpilotingismoreimportantwithexpensiveproductssuchaselectronics,thanwithFMCGproducts.Lastly, Interviewee 2 talked mostly about wanting to test the product and gainingfeedbackfromthetest-pilotsthatcouldbeusedinimprovingandupdatingtheproduct.Theywantedtheconsumer’sopinionoftheirproductandthoughtthebestwayofdoingthatwouldbethroughacompanyasSmartson.

22

5.1.2UseofresultsThemostsurprisingfindingthatwasobtainedabouttestpilotingandtheuseoftheseresults is that at the end most did not use their crowdscore that was provided bySmartson.Even thoughasmentionedbefore, for some itwas their initialpurpose.Ontheotherhand,theygotmoreuseoutofthefeedbacksthatthetestpilotsprovided.Forexample,Interviewee2statedthateventhoughtheygotagreatscoreof87%theygot a better score from a newspaper, so they went with that crowdscore in thecommunicationplan for the givenproduct.However,when the feedbackswere takenintoconsiderationmanycomplainedabouttheuseofpalmoil,sotheyremoveditfromalloftheirproducts.EspeciallywithintheFMCGsectoritisverycrucialtolistentoyourcustomers andunderstand their needs andwants as the competition in this sector isveryfierce.Anotheronestatedsimilaractions,theydidnotusethestampeventhoughtheygotagoodscore,howevertheygotmoreusefromthefeedbackandtheconsumerrecommendations(Interviewee3).Ontheotherhand,Interviewee1mentionedtheuseof the Smartson logo with the crowdscore result that was used with posts and POSadvertisements.

5.1.3KeyingredientforamarketingcampaignWhenaskedaboutwhattheintervieweesthoughtwasthekeyingredienttoasuccessfuldigitalmarketingcampaigntheonephrasethatcameupfrequentlywastheimportanceofhavingarelevantcontentforyourtargetgroup.Besidesthisstandingoutamongalloftheothercampaignsandadsisveryimportantandactuallymightbethehardesttoachieve,thatiswhythetone,frequencyandthechannelsshouldbechosenaccordingtothetargetgroupandalsoaccordingtowhatthecompanywantstoachieve(Interviewee1,3).Smartson (S4) pointed out how critical it is to do something that interests people insomeway,itdoesnotneedtobecoolorfancy,butitshouldberelatableandvaluabletothe potential consumers. It has become clear in the past years that not being toocommercial is thekeytosuccess,andthat it ismuchbetter ifbrandsaimforcreatingresponse by making consumers engage (Interviewee 3). This for example can beachievedthroughaiming forviralmarketing.Surprisingly thoughonlyonestated thathaving consumers as ambassadors has been a key ingredient in their marketingcampaigns(Interviewee1).Anotheraspectthatwasemphasizedistheimportanceofbeingagileinordertomovequicklyandtoneverhaveanestablishedmarketingstrategy(Interviewee1and2).Thisis important because every product requires a differentway of communication plan,andduetothefactthattheworldofmarketingischangingsorapidlyassocialmediaisevolvingandothertechnologiesandchangestoitalsoaffectit,itisimportanttochangeaccordingtotheseinordertostayrelevant.

5.1.4DigitalversustraditionalWhenitcametotheuseofdigitalmarketingversustraditionalmarketing,theanswersfromtheintervieweeswerequitemixed.Ingeneral,however,aconclusioncanbemadethatnoneofthecompaniesworksonlywithdigitalortraditional,butratheramixofthetwo.AccordingtoInterviewee1,theyutilizedigitalmarketing,forexamplesocialmedia

23

butalsoinstorePOS(point-of-sales)campaigns.While,Interviewee3statedthattheyuse almost each and every channel of marketing, however, also stated that the onlymediaoutletthathasnotbeencompatibleoreffectivewastheuseofradiowithFMCGproducts.All the interviewees are in agreement that the digitalmarketing is themost effectiveand efficient way, especially when wanting to reach a certain niched target group.Furthermore, they all stated that traditionalmarketing still has a relevantpart in theindustryevenifdigitalhasbeentakingabiggerportion.Thus,wecanconcludethatallof them emphasized the importance of combination of both digital and traditionalanalog.However, it was pointed out that the use of digital marketing is becoming moreimportant due to the fact that it is cost efficient in comparison to the traditional(Interviewee2,4).Onementionedthatthetraditionalmarketingcanbepreferredwhenwanting to spread the company as a whole, but not when the aim is to market thedifferent brands or new products (Interviewee 2). Therefore, it is very important totailorthemarketingandtheuseofthechannelsaccordingnotonlytotheproductitselfandthetargetgroup,butalsototheseasons(Interviewee3).

5.1.5VisibilityWithintheFMCGsectorvisibilityofproductsinstoresplayacrucialrolewhenitcomestoadvertisingtheproducts,whichcameupwitheveryinterview.However,itwasalsostated that the most important is actually the not only this, but the combination ofvisibilityanddistributioninthestores.Thisisduetothefactthatconsumersdonotliketo search for the product, therefore these should be available, out in the sights andshouldbeeasilyrecognizablebyeitherasignificantlogo,designofthepackaging,orthecolorschemeofitcanbeusefulinsuchcase.ThisisexactlywhatInterviewee1statedthat a distinctive POSwith recognizable elements such as an outstanding pouch andcolorisrelevant,sothatcustomerswillidentifytheproductimmediately.Thisisatrendthatisnotonlyimportantinphysicalstoresbutalsocrucialonlineine-commercestoresaswell for FMCG brands. Consumerwill bemoremotivated to buy a product that isdisplayedonthefrontpageasusuallytheyarenotkeenonhavingtogothroughallthepages. This iswhy it is essential for FMCG companies to have good relationshipwithonlineretailerssotheywillfavortheirproductsoverothersintermsofvisibility.

5.1.6Importanceofconsumerrecommendation“Sameas todaybutevenmore”, thissayingcommonlycameupduring the interviewswhenthepresenceofconsumerrecommendationswasaskedabout.Itwasclearthatnoonewere able to answer thequestionhow this systemwill change and evolve in thefuture, but one concern was very clear that it will still have a huge impact. Thus,everyone suggested that constantly keeping up with the changes and changingmarketingstrategiesaccordingtotheseisveryimportanttokeepthefeetofthebrandandcompanyontheground.The changes of social media, however, can make it more difficult to track theserecommendations. Moreover, the growing presence of private profiles is anotherchallenge that the brands need to take into account. These people still can influence

24

their friends, families and followers regarding on how much people follow them,howeverthecompaniescannotseethisortrackitforbusinesspurposesorforjustthepurposeof feedbacktoknowyourcustomersbetter. It isnotnecessarily importanttofollowoneanotheronasocialmediasitetobeinspired, justobservationplaysahugeimpactnowadays.In every interview, it became clear how important consumer recommendations andinfluencersalreadyhavebeenlatelyandeverypersonembraceditspresencewithinit’smarketing purposes.However, as said before (in the literature review) there is a bigdifferencebetweencertaininfluencers,andtowhichonethebrandusessolelyreliesonwhat thebrandwants toachievewith it. Interviewee2, forexample,pointedout thatwithin consumer recommendation it is influencer marketing that will be even moreimportant,bothSMEsandbiggercorporatecompanieswillsoonrealizeitsimportancemuchmoreandwillbecomemorecreativeinusingsuchservices.ItalsobecameclearthatwithintheFMCGsectorit isactuallymoreimportanttousesuchinfluencersthanwithintheelectronicssectors,asbrandloyaltyislesspresent.Thevoiceofconsumersisgoingtobeevenmoreimportant,actuallybrandsareclosertotheirconsumersthaneverbeforeandmakethemactiveintheircommunicationplan(S4).AnotherissuewithconsumerrecommendationthatS4statedwasthatcompaniesask for reviews from consumers, for example via email, however they do not giveanything back in return for their time and effort. This is where Smartson’s servicescomesin,theyprovidethemeansforbrandstoreachpotentialconsumersforfeedbackthatalsoincludesafreeproductsotheycantestitoutastestpilots.

5.1.7ChallengesQuestionsregardingthechallengesthattheexpertshadtoorarefacingwithmarketingandconsumerrecommendationshadthemostdivergentanswers,dueto the fact thateven though they all operate in the FMCG sector they offer significantly differentproducts.Interviewee4mentionedhowcrucialitistofindtherighttouchpointsinordertomakethe advertising work better. Another example was how to market products that areconsumedbykidsandthusfindinganacceptablewaytocommunicateandmarketthatwiththeparentswhentheyarenottheactualconsumers(Interviewee1).Notbeingtoopushyisthekeyinthiscase,whichisrelevantinbothcases:towardstotheparentsandtotheirchildren.Something that was brought up as a challenge by Interviewee 2 was that biggercompaniesmoreoftenhaveabiggerbudgetformarketingpurposesandthereforehavethe opportunity to use both traditional and digitalmarketing tools inmore channels.For smaller companies thebudget canbe relatively small andbecausedigital ismorecostefficient,theyhavetofindtherightwaytomarkettheirproductssometimesonlythrough these options. In this case, another challenge discussed was the dilemma ofchoosingtoworkwithmajorormicroinfluencers.Fromtheinterviewee’spointofview,themajorinfluencerhasthepossibilityofreachingmorepeople,butthequestionisifitisworthit.

25

Do people believe the major influencers when they market different products orbrands?Gettingthousandsoftest-pilotsandhavingthemrecommendittotheircircleoffriends and family,can make a huge different. Perhaps even more than if a majorinfluencer recommended a product through their social media platform. Smartsondifferentiated three categories that can be used: the so-called “friends-influencers” astheycallit,microinfluencers,andmajorinfluencers.Dependingonwhatthecompanieswanttoachievewithacampaignanddependingonhowmuchfinancialbudgettheygetfor it usually around 10major influencers are used during one campaign, or 100 ofmicroones,whereasthousandsof“friends-influencers”canbeusedwithinacampaignastheseusuallydonotgetpaid,butall theyget iseitheracouponforadiscountora“free”giftsotheycanputtheproducttothetest.TheFMCGindustrychangesveryfastandthecompetitionisfiercewithnewbrandsandproducts beingmarketed every day. It is a challenge for companies to keep upwiththesechangesandstayinguptodate,especiallyforbiggercompaniesbecauseaccordingtoInterviewee3theycansometimesactslowerthanthesmallercompanies.Withnewhypes,trends,orjustgeneralnewsabouthealthissuesarebeingissuedeverydayitischallenging to keep the brand relevant and to renew “old-fashioned” products or toreleasenewonesaccordingtothesechanges.Oneexamplethatwasmentionedwasthatricecakesused tosellverygood,but since it turnedout tonotbesohealthyand thesales dropped very quickly they had to act and instead now corn cakes are the newhype.

26

5.2ShifttodigitalmarketingSmartphones contributed to a big shift as obtaining information whenever andwherever you can make it possible for brands to take use of it. Within the digitalenvironmenteverythingchangesandgoesquickly.Duetothesereasonsduringthelastcouple of years, a shift has slowly been happening in the industry of marketing andtechnology.Duringtheinterviews,multipletechnologyrelatedshiftsandchangescameup. Starting with e-commerce (5.2.1) and the shift of power (5.2.2) it has createdopportunityfornewcareerstodevelopandforchangestobemadewithincompanies(5.2.3). Following these, the importance of social media (5.2.4) will be mentioned,finishing itupwithwhat the futureholdswith technologicalchanges thathasalreadybeeninplace(5.2.5).

5.2.1E-commerceSincetheshift todigitalhasbeenhappeningandevolving,sohasthewayshopping isdone from customers going to retailers to e-commerce. People are shopping onlinemorethaneverbecauseitisconvenientandmoreefficient.Theconceptofe-commercecame up in every interview as everyone embraced its presence and how it shapedmarketingasawhole,aswell.AccordingtoSmartson(S4),peoplewillcontinueinthispathtoshopmoreonline,FMCGproducts included.This isespecially trueasmore information isbeingcommunicatedtowardsthecustomersonline,suchasmoredetailedinformationofwhattheproductsare and how to use it, with some offering reviews by other customers. Due to thesereasons,andalsobecauseoftheconvenienceofanonlinestoree-commercewillevolvemuchmoreandthepossibilitytoselldirectlytoconsumersisalreadybecomingeasier.Forinstance,deliveryisalreadyfasterthanever.Asmentionedbyinterviewee3droneshavebeentestedtodeliverproducts.However,barriershavealsobeenpointedoutasitisverycostlyforthecompaniestoshipproductsespeciallythisfast,withsomeofferingnextdaydeliveries.Besidesthisanotherexampleforabarrieristheresendingproblemthat e-commerce companies are facing (interviewee 3). Companies are losingmoneywhenever people send back products as the shipping costs are paid twice by thecompany. This is all due to the fact that even though it is more convenient to shoponline,due tonotbeingable to tryor testproductsahead it can result inpurchasingsomethingthatturnsouttonotbepleasingforone.

5.2.2ShiftofpowerInfluencers are not a new phenomenon, just think of for example representatives ofbrands or sales persons. Even though these are a bit different examples of ways ofinfluencing, theyinawaycanberegardedas influencers.Digitizationhascreatedthisnewwayofinfluencingpeopleandthepowerofconsumershasbecomesomethingelseandmuchbiggerthaneverbefore.Therefore,twosegmentcanbeseparatedfromoneanotherthatwillbementionedanddiscussed,oneofwhichisinfluencersandtheotheraretheconsumers.The power used to be in the hands of the magazines, newspapers and TV channels,meaningthatconsumersdidnothavepoweratallwhenitcametomarketing,besidesthe word-of-mouth. Due to the technological advances, today that is not the case

27

anymore.Todayinfluencersareusedtomarketbrandsandproductsbecausetheyhaveanumberof followingandtheycanactuallyreachout topeople inamoredirectwaythanthemediacan.Whatmattersnowisnottheopinionsrepresentedinamagazinebyeditors,butitistheopinionsofconsumers(S4,S1).AnexamplementionedwashowmuchtheattendanceofaPReventhaschanged,asbeforeitwasimportantfordifferentrelevantmagazinestobepresentattheevent,howevernowthemajorityoftheseareinfluencers(S4).Outofallofthese,Interviewee4regardedbloggersasthemostimportantmajorinfluencertype, they have been able tomake careers out of their blogs because it is used as amarketingplatform.Workingwithanichedinfluencerandreachingtherightaudienceisbetterthanpostinganadinthenewspaperforinstance.Peoplenowadaysarebetteratfindingoutwhattherealdealiswithproducts,eitherifitselectronicsorFMCGasitissoeasytojustsearchonlineforreviews.Peoplechoosetofollowtheinfluencersbecausethereissomethingthattheycanrelatetoaboutthemandthatisitwhatgivestheinfluencerapowerthatcan be used for business purposes. Apart from themajor influencers, the consumerswerealsomentionedwithshiftofpower(S1,S4).Companieshavebeenseeingthisshiftandareusingittotheiradvantage.Someonlinebrandsevengivediscountsforpeoplethatsharetheirreviews.

5.2.3DepartmentandCareersWithashifthappeningfromthetraditionaltodigitalmarketingandbecauseoftheshiftof power, there are necessary changes in the way marketing is handled within thecompanies.Fromtheinterviews,aconclusionwasdrawnthateachandeverycompanyhas their ownway of dealingwith this, however, itwas clear therewas a significantdifferencewithbigger and smaller companies,which is thatbiggeronesas theyhavemore budget usually deal with marketing through an external agency. Smartsonembraced this change as they mentioned that with more products and moreinformationprovidedonlinebrandsneedhelptohandletheconsumersandpartlythatiswheretheirservicescomesin(S1).Interviewee 2 for example has someone in-house part-time that is responsible forinfluencers and brand ambassadors. They are also currently looking for someone tobecome their social media manager. Having people working solely for social media,influencers and brand ambassadors shows how important digital marketing hasbecome.With Interviewee 4, they have an e-commerce team that also works closelywith digital marketing since those areas are somewhat related. However, instead ofhavingonesocialmediamanager,thepersonwhoisthebrandmanagerforeachbrandisalsohandlingsocialmedia.Interviewee3ontheotherhandhasonedigitalmanagerwho is responsible for everything that revolves around the digital world. The digitalmanager is responsible for deciding what approach to take in the online sphere,including digital marketing. In addition to that, they also use an external agency forsocialmediamaterialbasedonwhattheywanttoachieve.Therefore,theycurrentlydonothavesomeonein-housemerelyresponsibleforsocialmedia.ThisisalsothecaseforInterviewee1,astheyhandlealltheirmarketingthroughanexternalagency.

28

Besidesthechangesmadewithincompanies,peoplenowhavecareersbasedonmakingcollaborationswithcompanies.MentioningSmartsonwhosewholebusinessisbasedonconsumerrecommendationsandpartlyonsocialmedia,theirbusinessevolvesaroundcollaborationswithcompanies.Moreover,careersbecominganinfluencerwerecreatedbasedonthepresenceofsuchservicesandnowhave thehugepower in theworldofmarketing.Therearenowmanagementcompanieswhosebusinessproposalisbasedonconnectingtheseinfluencerswiththerightcompaniesforbusinesscollaborations.Thispresencehasbeengrowing frombusinesses changing theirprofile, sameasSmartsondid, tonewcareersopeningup.Theystartedout inonewaybutchangedandsoldoffthe editorial part of the company as they saw a bigger future within consumerrecommendations.Moreover, thesemajor influencersalsoopenedupthedoors to thefreelance community to grow even bigger with photographers, stylists and makeupartistson topof their list. Just takingYouTubeasanexample,peoplepreviouslyonlywenttoittosharetheirownvideoswithfriendsandfamilyandtowatchmusicvideos,toanewbusinessopportunityforinfluencerstosharetheirthoughtsonaplatformthatallowsthemtobemorepersonalthanjustviatextsonblogposts.

5.2.4.SocialmediaThe shift from traditional marketing to digital marketing has allowed the space forconsumer recommendations, both throughword-of-mouth but also socialmedia. Theintervieweesregardedsocialmediaasthenewwayofwordofmouth.Sincethewayoflivinghasaccelerated,wordofmouthhaschangedaccordingtoitaswell.Itiseasiertojust ask quickly someone, even if you do not necessarily know that person, on socialmediaaboutaproductorclothingtheypostontheirsite.Theriseofsocialmediahasledustowherewearetoday,andhasshapedmarketingtoadifferentform.Withsomanypeopleactiveonsocialmediaplatformsonadailybasis,itwouldbea shame forbrandsnot to trymarket it.All of this in the lastdecadehascompletelychanged the termsofmarketingand isoneof thereasons thathascausedtheshiftfromtraditionaltodigital.OneexampleisInstagram,whichisoneofthebiggestsocialmediaplatforms.Theyareworkingtowardsusingtheapplicationformarketingpurposesandtheyaremakingiteasier for the brands to use it for those purposes. First they released the function ofhavingabusinessprofile,whichenablesstatistics,suchasreachandnumberofviews,meaningthattheycanalsochoosewhatcategorytheyworkwithintomakeiteasierforthepeopletofindthem.Anotherfunctionisthatwithbusinessprofilesyoucanalsoaddvisibilityofpricesfortheproductsonapictureandadirectlinktothesitewhereitcanbepurchased.Interviewee2mentionedhowInstagram’s“Mystory”sixmonthsagowasnothingandbusinessesdidnotuse it formarketingpurposes,however in just suchashort period of time this has changed a lot and it actually became the number onefeatureoftheplatform.

5.2.5TechnologicalchangesThere are certain technological changes that will further evolve consumerrecommendations and the way people are shopping and using e-commerce. Theseaspectsallcomeshandinhandinawaythatifonechangesitwilltriggertheothersto

29

follow.Duringtheinterviewsmultipletechnologieswerementionedthattheythoughtwillhaveabigimpact.OneexampleisPersonalization,whichwasmentionedbyInterviewee4.Rightnowthisismaxedoutwithe-commercesitesgivingrecommendationsbasedonpreviousordersorwhat people have looked at previously.However, an example thatwasmentionedwasthatnowitispossibleforpetownerstoorderpersonalizedfoodaccordingtotheneedsandallergiesoftheirpets.ThisaspectisprovidedbecauseofAIandautomationin general (S1). AI is regarded as the biggest factor in technological evolution(Popomaronis, 2017). E-mail subscriptions are also regarded as a personalizationexample, which is important as to keep potential customers updated with sales andinformations aboutnewproductsbasedon theirprevious searches and/orpurchases(Hall,2017).Virtual Reality (VR) wasmentioned by Interviewee 3, saying that in the near futuretheremightbesomethingasavirtualstore.Throughthevirtualstorepeoplecanshopasiftheyareinthestorewhentheyactuallyareintheirhomes.Theywouldbeabletoseeexactlywhatproductsareavailable,justlikeintherealworld,excepttheyaredoingitinthecomfortoftheirhomes.Forinstance,themakeupandcosmeticsstoreSephoraprovidesavirtualtryon,sothatpotentialcustomerswhomightnothaveashopnearthemcanexperiencethestorereality.

30

5.3BehavioralAnalysisoftheConsumerDuringtheinterviewswithSmartsonitcameupmultipletimeshowconsumerscanbeinfluenced in a way to convince them of buying certain products. In this chapter,different relevant topics and theories are discussed in order to get a morecomprehensive analysis of the consumers, startingwith (5.3.1) consumer purchasingbehavior and themeaning of it. Followedby discussing (5.3.2) Cialdini’s six forces ofinfluence.Thebehavioralanalysisoftheconsumerisanimportantpartwhenitcomestomarketing,motivatingandinfluencingpotentialcustomers.Byknowinghowtoreachyourtargetconsumer,knowingabouttheircultureandpatternsandwhataffectsthem,influencing them into buying a certain product or service will become muchsimpler. Forexample, inapsychologicalaspect it is interesting to lookatwhydentalcareproductssuchastoothpasteortoothbrushcommercialsallhaveadentistinit.Dopeople really tend to listen to people such as experts andprofessionals in fieldswhoknowsbetterthanthem?

5.3.1ConsumerPurchasingBehaviorThe definition of “Consumer Purchasing Behavior” according to Oxford Reference(Oxfordreference.com,2018)is“thebuyingbehaviorofindividualsandhouseholdswhobuygoodsandservicesforpersonalconsumption”.Therearemanyfactorsthatmattersin the decision of making a purchase, for example there are certain people that cancontribute to thedecisionofapurchase.This includes (1) the initiator, someonewhofirstrecommendstheproductorservice;(2)theinfluencer,someonewhostandswiththeideaofpurchasingthatproductorservice;(3)thedeciderthatdecidestomakethepurchase;(4)thebuyerasthepersonwhoendsupmakingtheactualpurchase;and(5)theuserwhowillusethepurchasedproductorservice.“Consumerbehavior is thestudyofhow individuals, groups,andorganizationsselect,buy,useanddisposeofgoods,services,ideasorexperiencestosatisfytheirneedsandwants”(KotlerandKeller,2011,p.151).Inotherwords,thismeansthatthemarketersmustunderstandtheconsumersandtheirbehavior inordertobeabletosatisfytheirneeds.KotlerandKeller(2011)continueswiththatthebuyingbehaviorisinfluencedbyfactorssuchascultural,social,andpersonal.Theculturalfactorisbroadandcanmatteralotwhenitcomestotheconsumerbehavior.Forexample,twopeopleofthesameagethat grew up in different countries will have two completely different views onthemselvesandonhowtheyviewtheirrelationshipstoothers.Marketersshouldviewdifferentculturescloselytounderstandthemarketandthepotentialconsumers(KotlerandKeller,2011).

5.3.2Cialdini’s6ForcesofInfluenceCialdiniandGoldstein in theirarticle “TheScienceandPracticeofPersuasion”(2002)focus on researching how one person can influence other. They differentiated sixprinciples that illustrates this, these are liking, reciprocation, consistency, scarcity,socialvalidationandauthority.

1. Likingissimplyaboutthefactthatpeopletendtofavorandgiveintopeoplethattheylike.Researchshowsthattherearefourreasonsforlikinganotherperson,whichcanbephysicalattractiveness,similarity,cooperationandhowmuchthepersonlikesyou.

31

2. Reciprocationcomesfromthesaying“favorsfromothersshouldberememberedfor a thousand years”, it is a Chinese proverb meaning that we should repayothers forwhatwehave received from them. It alsomeans thatwe shouldbepushed towards fairness and justice in all circumstances, so that trust can bebuiltinbetweenoneanother.

3. Consistencyreferstomakingpeoplemorecommittedtotheirearlierpromisesorresponsibilitiesina“non-threatening,jovialmanner”.

4. Scarcityinthiscontextreferstoitemsandopportunitiesthatarerareormaybeevenunavailable,aremorealluringtousthanthosethatarerightinfrontofoureyes.Ifaproductisreleasedwiththepurposeofbeinglimitededition,itismorelikelytogetsoldoutthananitemthatwillalwaysberestocked.

5. Itiscommontoturntothepeoplearoundusforguidanceforhowtothink,feel,behaveandespecially if it isanareatheymightnot feelcomfortableorcertainenough to trust their own feelings and thoughts, this iswhat social validationmeans.

6. “We tend to defer to the counsel of authority figured and experts to help usdecidehowtobehave,especiallywhenarefeelingambivalentaboutadecisionorwhenweareinanambiguoussituation”.Theproblemcanbethatwerelymuchmoreonanauthorityfigurethatcansteerusintothewrongdirection.Researchprovided indicates that people favor to listen to experts who seem to beimpartial than by experts who has something to gain. This is all related toauthority.

These six forcesof influencebyCialdini canbe related to consumer recommendationbecausebasically it is all about influencingothers andhowothers seepeople aroundthem.These are sixprinciples that can and shouldbe considered if orwhenworkingwith consumer recommendation and turn them into your favor. One example, whichwasmentionedintheintroductionofthischapter,isthetypicaltoothbrushcommercial,wherethepersonrecommendingthetoothbrushisanactualdentist.Peopleseethatassomeoneinauthority,wherethedentisthasmoreknowledgeinthisareaandthereforecanbetrustedwithhersorhisrecommendation.Furthermore,Peoplearemorelikelytobeinfluencedbypeopletheylikethemselvesthanbystrangerswhoarewaytopushyandaggressive.Meaningthatpeoplewouldratherreceiveandfollowarecommendationby someone close to them, familyor friends, because that is someone theyknowandtrust.

32

6.DISCUSSIONInthischapter,thefocusisputtofindconnectionsbetweentheliteraturereview,casestudyandthefindingsinordertosummarizetheresearchpaper.Duetothis,themainpointsmentionedisinrelationtoconsumerrecommendationanddigitalmarketingsoabroadanswercanbeprovidedfortheresearchquestion.Asurprising findingwas inconnectionwiththeuseofmarketingchannels.The initialthoughtswerethatcompanieswouldbemoreintodigitalmarketingintheFMCGsectorthan it turnedout tobe.Ontheotherhand, ingeneral thecompanies inquestionstillrely on traditional marketing as well, and try to mix both to reach the potentialcustomers.Eventhougheveryoneemphasizedhowimportantdigitalmarketingisandhowmuchwillitevolveinthefuture,itisverysurprisingthereforethattherewereonlyafewcompanieswhoactuallyworkedin-housewithit,andunderstoodtheimportanceof social media and its services of marketing. Especially since the intervieweesmentioned how digitalmarketing is cost efficient andmore useful to reach a nichedtargetgroup,ascomparedtotraditionalmarketingchannels.It is thanks to the technological changes and digitization that online marketing andconsumerrecommendationshavebecomesoimportantandwidelyusednowadays.Oneof the main changes was e-commerce that came up in every interview. With theexpansionof theonlinesphere it is important tomention that trusthasbecomeabigissue. Building a community and having them to share their stories, thoughts andreviewsabouta singleproductor thebrandasawhole is very important (Thimothy,2017; and Hall, 2017). This is very crucial as there is a trust issue going onwith e-commerce sites and brands as the consumers cannot test these products beforepurchase.Thisiswherehavingtheconsumerstoengagebystorytellingandrecommendproducts comes handy. Due to the importance of having them engage is whypersonalizationandVR,whichinthiscasevirtualstores,cameintoexistenceinordertohelptheconsumersandtogivethemmoreoptions.Duetothepreviouslymentionedtechnologicalchangestherehasbeenashiftofpowerin the marketing field. Since there is a shift happening from traditional to digitalmarketing, there isalsoashiftofpower. It isgettingmorecommonforbrandstouseinfluencers as their way of communicating to their targeted audience. This way ofmarketing seems to be increasing because it has proven to be efficient. Peoplenowadaysarehighlyactiveonsocialmediaandfollowpeoplethatsharetheirinterestsandhobbies.Sousingtheinfluencerstoreachouttopeople isgettingmoreandmorepopular.Ingeneral,itseemsaspeoplearetiredofthetraditionalmarketingandwouldratherseenewinnovativewaysofcommunication.Storytellingisawayforpeopletobeable to relate to the brand. They can recognize themselves and create their ownconnectiontothebrand.Itisthesameregardingconsumerrecommendations,gettingarecommendation from someone you know and trust can mean so much more thanhearinganadontheradioorTvthatpeoplegenerallycannotrelateto.Smartsonstartedworkingwithconsumerrecommendationsquiteearlyonanditseemsasnotmanybrandshaverealized the importanceof consumerrecommendationsandSmartson’s services yet. People are quick to praise digital marketing and consumerrecommendations but slow to actually adjust their marketing strategies to digital.However,withthisshifthappening,companiesandbrandsareusingdigitalmarketing

33

progressivelyandiftheshiftcontinuesinthisphase,traditionalmarketingmightnotbeusedatallinthefuture.

34

7.CONCLUSION

7.1ConclusionThephrase“thecustomer isalwaysright”gotadifferentmeaningnowadayswith theuse of social media sites and consumer recommendations. As the findings anddiscussionhaveprovidedpeopleareprone tobemotivatedand influencedbypeoplethey can relate to. This can either be major influencers they follow or just ordinarypeoplewhosharetheirstoriesandthoughtstohelpoutothers.Thereisnotasinglestrategyforaproductorbrandtobemarketedandadvertised.Allof the companieswhowere taken into account followed a different path andway ofdealing with digital marketing and consumer recommendation. Also, it became clearthatwithdifferentproductsandthustargetgroupsadifferentstrategyormethodneedstobefollowedinordertosucceed.WiththeresearchquestioninmindasofhowconsumerrecommendationisimportantwhenitcomestomarketingintheFMCGsector,wecanconcludethatcompaniesshouldkeepaneyeandtracksuchreviewsaswellasputabiggeremphasizeonhowtomakeauseourofconsumers.Thesereviewsattheendhaveabiggerimpactashavinganon-relatable commercial on TV. Consumers are having a bigger role and have thepossibilitytosharethoughtsasreviewsduetotheshiftofpower.Theyaremoreawareof their choicesand look for reviewsbeforepurchasing,which isnotonly relevant inbiggerpurchasesnowadays.Due tohealth awareness, such as allergies and trends asveganism which can be connected to environmental awareness, consumers are tochoose the better options for themselves. Another aspect is that FMCG products ingeneralaregettingmoreexpensive,eveniftheyarenotonthesamelevelaselectronicsfor example, therefore a review from others could make an impact. For example,ordinarycowmilkistodaythecheapestoptioninthestore,however,sincepeopleareawareofenvironmentalissuesaswellashealthissues,theywouldstillbuyforexamplethealmondoroatmilkwhichcanbedoubletheprice.

7.2LimitationsAsthepaperandtheresearchentailsseverallimitations,itresultsinthegeneralizationofthefindingsandresultstobelimitedaswell.Althoughthepaperprovidedadequateresults the limitations have to be provided and discussed before, in order for futureresearchareastobediscussed.First of all, limited timewas provided for the research to be conducted. Due to this,manydelimitationsweresetpriortostartingtheresearchphase.Oneofthesewere,asstated before, that the research only focuses on Sweden based companies.Moreover,these companieswere all professionally connected to Smartson. The companieswhowere interviewed were all provided by Smartson and only those were chosen andcontactedwhooperateintheFMCGsector.Secondly, as the data collection were primarily based on the interviews and dataprovided by Smartson, it could conclude in the results and findings to be rathersubjective.AstheresearchwasconductedincollaborationwithSmartson,thelimitationof this study ismainly related to these restrictions of only using data that Smartson

35

sharedwithus,andtheirpersonnelandclientele.Duetothedifficultyofgettingpeopleinterested in participating in interviews, the amount of interviews done for thisresearchpaperwerenotasexpected.Thirdly, a big limitation of the research was the time constraints. However, thislimitationisnecessaryasthevolumeofdataotherwisewouldhavebeenenormoustohandle. These limitations all narrow the outcomes of the research, however, somelimitationneeded tobe set andsomehad tobegivenpriority,whichnaturallywouldresultinnotshowingthewholescope.

7.3PotentialAreasforFutureResearchThischapter iscloselyconnected to the limitationsof thepaperaswhatwewerenotabletodointhisresearchpapercouldpotentiallybedoneinthefuture,whichwillbediscussed.If more time were given, more thorough research could have been conducted byinterviewingmoreexpertsandcompanies.Also,itcouldbeveryinterestingtocomparetheresultsofthisthatofanothercountryorjustingeneraltoFMCGcompanieswhoarenotclientsofSmartson.DuetothepreviouslymentionedgeographicallimitationofonlySweden based companies to be taken into consideration, it could be studied furtherwhat the digitalmarketing trends are in different countries. As Nordic countries aremore similar to one another, perhaps putting emphasize on and researching otherEuropeanorevennon-Europeancountrieswouldresultindifferentfindings.Due to lackof time,thispaperonly focusedon theFMCG industryandbrands in thatmarket.Apotentialarea for futureresearchcouldbeother industriesandtocomparethemtooneanother.Also,perhapsdoingacomparisonofdifferentbrandsandputtingtheir products in comparison to each other. The research could be a part of twomarketingstrategieswhereoneinvolvesonconsumerrecommendationsandtheotheroneadifferentstrategy.Lastly,tothenfollowtheseproductsduringthesalesphasetogetactualdirectdata.Moreover, due to the qualitative nature of the research paper and the interviews, itcould be a great opportunity to broaden the findingswith a quantitative research. Itwouldbeapossibilitynotonlytoresearchfromtheperspectiveofthecompanybutalsoofthetest-pilotsandpeoplewhowillbegivingtheactualconsumerrecommendations.This could be interested from a psychological aspect as what are their thoughts ontesting products are. As an alternative, how keen they are on giving reviews andrecommendationsonlinefrombothcasesiftheyareprovidedafreetestproductornot.And lastly, howmuch theyactually trust recommendations frompeople around themandonsocialmedia.Therefore,ingeneralforfutureresearchitcouldbeinterestingtogettoknowmoreabouttheconsumersandtheirviewsonconsumerrecommendations.Thiswouldresultinaresearchofthesamebusinessareabutwithadifferentangle.

36

REFERENCESAaltoHagman, F. and Sonde, C. (2011). InnovationCrowdsourcing - Exploring theuseofaninnovationintermediary.Linköping:LinköpingUniversity.

Ahsan,A.(2017).Consumerratings-reviewsanditsimpactonconsumerpurchasingbehavior.Stockholm:KTHRoyalInstituteofTechnology.

Alsing,C.andBergman,Å.(2009).Storytellingasamarketingstrategy-Astudyofusingstorytellinginthehospitalityindustry.Gotland:GotlandUniversity.

Bondeson,P.andLiss,S.(2016).LeanProduction&SustainableSupplyChainsintheFast Moving Consumer Goods Industry. Stockholm: KTH Royal Institute ofTechnology.

Brabham,D.(2013).Crowdsourcing.UnitedStatesofAmerica:TheMITPress.

Bryman,A.,Bell,E.,Mills,A.andYue,A.(2011).BusinessResearchMethods.Canada:OxfordUniversityPress.

Chung, C.M.Y. and Darke, P.R. (2006). The Consumer as Advocate: Self-Relevance,Culture,andWord-of-Mouth.MarketingLetters,17(4),269-279.

Cialdini,R.andGoldsten,N.(2002).TheScienceandPracticeofPersuasion.[online]Influenceatwork.com. Available at: https://www.influenceatwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Cornell-HotelRestAdminQrtly.pdf [Accessed 11 May2018].

Collins, J., and Hussey, R. (2013) Business research: A practical guide forundergraduateandpostgraduatestudents.Palgravemacmillan.

Dallegro, J. (2018). Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). [online] Investopedia.Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fastmoving-consumer-goods-fmcg.asp[Accessed15April2018].

Duarte,N.(2013).Resonate.Hoboken,N.J.:Wiley.

Durmaz, Y. andEfendioglu, I. (2016). Travel fromTraditionalMarketing toDigitalMarketing.DoubleBlindPeerReviewedInternationalResearchJournal,16(2),pp.34-40. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303940843 [Accessed28April2018].

Hall, J. (2017). 7 E-Commerce Trends To Pay Attention To In 2018. [online]Forbes.com.Availableat:https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhall/2017/11/19/7-e-commerce-trends-to-pay-attention-to-in-2018/#17aa03966e5e [Accessed 20February2018].

Hultberg,E.(2016).PerspectivesonCrowdsourcing.Stockhlom:KTHRoyalInstituteofTechnology.

Khurana,A. (2017).WhyE-commerce IsTaking theRetailWorldbyStorm. [online]TheBalance.Availableat:https://www.thebalance.com/advantages-of-ecommerce-1141610[Accessed21February2018].

37

Kotler,P.andKeller,K.(2012).MarketingManagement.14thed.PearsonEducationLimited.

Leung, L. (2015). Validity, reliability, and generalizability in qualitative research.Journal of family medicine and primary care, 4(3), p.324. Available at:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4535087/[Accessed9May2018].

Marketing Charts. (2018). E-Commerce in FMCG: 3 Trends to Know - MarketingCharts. [online] Available at: https://www.marketingcharts.com/industries/cpg-and-fmcg-81839[Accessed25May2018].

Mediakix | Influencer Marketing Agency. (2017). What Is A Micro Influencer?.[online] Available at: http://mediakix.com/2017/07/what-are-micro-influencers/#gs.Cp7afVk[Accessed15Apr.2018].

Mossberg,L.(2006).Storytelling.Lund:Studentlitteratur.

Oxfordreference.com. (2018). Consumer buying behaviour - Oxford Reference.[online] Available at:http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095634202#)[Accessed7May2018].

Popomaronis, T. (2017). E-Commerce In 2018: Here's What The Experts ArePredicting. [online] Forbes.com. Available at:https://www.forbes.com/sites/tompopomaronis/2017/12/15/e-commerce-in-2018-heres-what-the-experts-are-predicting/#4dc8c2556deb [Accessed 20February2018].

Research-Methodology. (2018). Inductive Approach (Inductive Reasoning) -Research-Methodology. [online] Available at: https://research-methodology.net/research-methodology/research-approach/inductive-approach-2/[Accessed9Apr.2018].

Statista.(2018).Globalretaile-commercemarketsize2014-2021|Statista.[online]Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/379046/worldwide-retail-e-commerce-sales/[Accessed23May2018].

Stergiou, D. (2013). Social Engineering and Influence. Luleå: Luleå University ofTechnology.

Svensson, P. (2015).Kvalitativ och kvantitativ undersökningsmetodik. [Powerpointpresentation] Föreläsning 2 inom kandidatarbetet. Chalmers University ofTechnology. Availableat:https://student.portal.chalmers.se/sv/chalmersstudier/programinformation/maskinteknik/kandidatarbete/Documents/20150225%20Vetenskapsmetodik%20fo%CC%88rel%202%20PS.pdf[Accessed19February2018].

Tamási, J. G (2013). Lesson 3: How do i know how good sources are. Lecturepresentation, Academic Skills 1 SKIB101, International Business School, deliveredSeptember2013.

Thimothy,S.(2017).TheFutureOfE-Commerce:AreYouInOrAreYouOut?.[online]Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2017/07/17/the-

38

future-of-e-commerce-are-you-in-or-are-you-out/#6afab72d37d8 [Accessed 19February2018].

Wen-Kuo, C., Heng-Chiang, H. and Seng-Cho T, C. (2008). UNDERSTANDINGCONSUMERRECOMMENDATIONBEHAVIORINAMOBILEPHONESERVICECONTEXT.Taiwan:NationalTaiwanUniversity.

Zhou,S.,Wang,X.andSun,D.(2015).StudyonFMCGinventorycontroloptimization.In Logistics, Informatics and Service Sciences (LISS), 2015 International Conferenceon(pp. 1-4). IEEE. Avaiable at: https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.focus.lib.kth.se/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=7369819&tag=1 [Accessed22April2018].

Zietek, N. (2016). Influencer Marketing - the characteristics and components offashioninfluencermarketing.Master.TheSwedishSchoolofTextiles-UniversityofBorås. Available at: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:972106/FULLTEXT01.pdf[Accessed16April2018].

39

APPENDICES

Appendix1:Interviewquestionsforpersonnel

Interviewee1-CEO1. Roleinthecompany?What’syourbackground?2. WhatwerethebiggestchallengesthatSmartsonhadtoface?3. Whatdoyouthinkchangedthemostfromthebeginningtonow?4. How did technological changes shape the company? And which ones do you

thinkwillhavethebiggestimpact?5. Wheredoyouseethecompanyinthefuture?5yearplan?10year?6. HowweretheAEC-modelcreatedandimplemented?

Interviewee2-Headofproduction1. Whatisyourroleinthecompany?Whatisyourbackground?2. Whatwerethebiggestchallengesyouhadtofacewithinthecompany?3. Docompaniesreachouttoyouordoyoureachouttothem?4. Howdoesapartnershiplooklike?5. WheredoesSmartsoncomeintotheirmarketingphase?6. Whatdoyouknowabouttheimplementedresult?7. HowweretheAEC-modelcreatedandimplemented?8. Howdoes a technological change impact the process and theAEC-model?And

what technological changes do you thinkwill have the biggest impact on bothSmartsonandtheAECmodel?

9. How do you keep track of the test pilots “storytelling”/engagement on socialmedia platforms? Since there are changes as instagram's “mystory” thatdisappearsin24hour.Diditgothardertokeeptrackinthepast1-2yearsthanitwasbefore?

10. Whatistheaveragetimeofonecampaign?Fromfirstmeetinguntilyouconvertcustomer’sexperiencetomarketingmaterial.

11. WhoisthetypicalandalsooptimaltestpilotforSmartson?

Interviewee3-CTO1. Roleinthecompany?What’syourbackground?HowdidyoucometoSmartson?2. WhatwerethebiggestchallengesthatSmartsonhadtoface?3. Whatwerethebiggestchallengesyouhadtofaceinthecompany?4. Whatdoyouthinkchangedthemostfromthebeginningtonow?5. How did technological changes shape the company? And which ones do you

thinkwillhavethebiggestimpact?6. Whatdoyouthinkisthebiggestproblemwithconsumerrecommendation?How

doyoutrackit?7. Doyoudobrandmonitoring?Ifso,howdoyoukeeptackofthefeedback?What

platformsdoyouusetospreadawarenessofservicesofSmartson?8. DoyouuseadvertisingforSmartsontogainclients?Whatkind?

Interviewee4-DigitalStrategist1. Whatsisyourbackgroundandrolewithinthecompany?

40

2. Howdid the company came to existence?Did you start the companywith theintentionofmakingitwhatitistoday?Ordiditchangealongtheway?

3. Whatdoyouthinkchangedthemostfromthebeginningtonow?4. Howdidtechnologicalchangesshapethecompany?5. WhatwerethebiggestchallengesthatSmartsonhadtoface?6. Wheredoyouseethecompanyinthefuture?5yearplan?10year?7. Howdoesapartnershiplooklike?8. Whatdoyouknowabouttheimplementedresults?9. HowharditisforcompaniestoworkwiththeresultsofwhatSmartsondoes?10. DoyouuseadvertisingforSmartsontogainclients?Whatkind?

Appendix2:InterviewquestionsforclienteleQuestionsabouttheperson

1. Whoareyou?Whatisyourbackground?2. Whatisyourroleatthecompany?

Company related questions, with a focus on the future of marketing and consumerrecommendations

1. Whatchannelsofmarketingdoesthecompanyuse?2. Whatisthemosteffectiveorimportantchannelsforyourmarketingasawhole?3. Whatarethekeyingredientsforasuccessfulsocialmediastrategyorcampaign?4. Howdoesthecompanybenefitanduseconsumerrecommendations?5. What do you think about the importance of consumer recommendations and

howdoyouthinkitwillchangeinthefuture?6. How does the company work with user generated content for marketing

purposes?Howdoyoutrackit?7. WhatarethebiggestchallengesthatyoufacewithmarketingandwiththeFMCG

sector?8. Which technological changes do you think will have the biggest impact? Both

negativeandpositive.9. Howdoyouworkwithmarketing? In-housedepartment, ifyeshowbig it is, is

thereanyoneresponsibleforsocialmedia,orperhapsthroughanagency.10. Howdidyoudecideonwhichoneismorebeneficialforthecompanyandfora

certaincampaign:microinfluencersversusmajorinfluencers?QuestionsregardingthecollaborationwithSmartson

1. HowwouldyoudescribethecollaborationwithSmartson?2. Whatwerethemotivationsforusingsuchservices?3. How did you use the results from Smartson? Did you have a challenge of

implementingtheresult?DidyouperhapsneedhelpwithitfromSmartson?4. Howisthemarketingforasmartsontestedproductdifferentfromaproductthat

wasnottested?5. Doyouplantoworkwithproducttestinganduserrecommendationagain,ifso

how?6. Did you work with consumer recommendation before collaborating with

Smartson,ifshowdiditgoandhowmanytimes?

41

7. Hasasmartson-productsoldmorethanaproductthatwasnottested?Wasthereanoticabledifferenceperhaps?