YOUTUBE VIDEOS AS AN EFFECTIVE MEDIUM IN BRANDING - A STUDY AMONG URBAN WOMEN IN MYSURU CITY

Social media is an emerging field and with its range of tools for communication hence businesses are highly interested in tapping this medium for marketing. Social media Influencers especially YouTube content creators are used to communicate with the public using videos and podcasts. “As social media platforms expand and evolve, the advertising industry has had to change and adapt to continue to reach consumers. With social media growing in influence and advertising agencies allocating more of their media budgets to social, the advertising industry is in search of effective strategies to get the most return on investment when it comes to social. One of these strategies in recent years has been influencer marketing, which is a form of marketing where the focus is placed on specific individuals rather than a target market as a whole. It identifies the individuals that have influence over potential buyers, and orients marketing activities around these influencers.” The paper aims to study the role of YouTube as a social media platform and its impact on creating visibility for brands and to determine the effect of the views/opinions of You-Tubers on its viewers. It also explains the various promotional tools used by the content creators to effectively reach their viewers. A survey among 300 urban women you-tube viewers in Mysuru between the age 20-35 was proposed for this paper. The objectives of this paper would be to analyze the authenticity of the content generated by bloggers; to analyze the PR strategies used different brands, to understand the consumer behavior when it comes to buy a product marketed through blogs and to examine the role of bloggers in fashion industry. The study is based on Social Media Impact theory that states that “professionals must position themselves to benefit from fundamental changes that are occurring in the ways people decide on which products and services to consume, and how they actually consume them” (Mir & Zaheer, 2012). This paper would help to understand the rise in the use of social media fashion bloggers and as the storytellers of a brand and it's products. “Fashion bloggers are fast becoming an influential force within the fashion industry, which has been facilitated by the growth of new media.” However the study is limited to a few respondents from Mysuru and is subjective to researcher's and respondents understanding