Social Media: Harbinger of Institutional Change and Its Impact on Branding

Masahiko Aoki (J Inst Econ 3(1):1–31, 2007), a Japanese economist, defined institutions as ‘stable and shared belief systems about the likely behaviour of the members of a society in a variety of unforeseen events; they are sustainable and significant patterns of social interactions which result into shared awareness amongst the players concerning a particular equilibrium path of the game’. If we analyse the definition of institution given by M. Aoki, social media can not only be considered an institution but also a harbinger of institutional change as it has brought a sustained change in the behaviour of the members of a society. It is a vital tool for social interactions over the past two decades. The dominance of the social media as an institution can be felt as it has sufficed to metamorphose the process of consumer buying behaviour. This chapter is an attempt to give the institutions and institutional change a new dimension in the emerging markets with the integrated marketing communication perspective. The aim of this chapter is to bring forth the impact of social media in building a ‘brand’. If taken in the perspective of institution and institutional change, social media has drastically affected the way consumers explore, research and share information about the brands. This chapter provides a theoretical perspective along with a review of literature about the impact of social media on branding giving. The chapter focuses on the various aspects like types of social media tools used by the marketers, most dominant brands and their social media branding strategies and also tries to pave the way for future research in the concerned field of study.