Chocolate brands winning on social media...but does it matter?

Canadean Custom Solutions recently conducted a survey in the UK which found that chocolate brands are the most popular Facebook fan pages among fast moving consumer goods industries.

Never visit the page again…​

However, it found that most Facebook fan pages were having little impact on influencing consumer shopping habits.

Michael Hughes, research manager at Canadean said that many ‘likes’ on Facebook will not necessarily increase sales.

“Whilst a good Facebook fan page can give a brand cool credentials, it is unfortunate for manufacturers that it will not necessarily influence buying behavior or drive sales."​

Canadean found that most consumers will like a brand to demonstrate to friends their outlook on life, but will most likely never visit the page again after liking it.

Online contrarians​

A recent study by Mourali and Yang in the Journal of Consumer Research​ said that companies trying to influence consumers to promote brands to their peers were doomed to failure.

"Peer-to-peer marketing and consumer empowerment may not be compatible. Empowered consumers resist social influence by either discounting the opinions of others or deliberately expressing opinions that diverge from those of other consumers,"​ said the authors.

The research found that people tend to deliberately express opposing views and will rebel against attempts to influence them.

"Many companies have embraced the concept of consumer empowerment. However, they should consider whether attempts to integrate social influence (word-of-mouth marketing, social network marketing, buzz marketing) might backfire with empowered consumers,"​ said the researchers.

Top 5 Confectionery Brands by Facebook fans​

Source: Social Bakers​