Mid Sweden University

Problem:WeChat has dominated the social media network in China and in some other Asian counties. Beyond as a friendly social media application, WeChat ecosystem along with its commercial functions open a new channel for companies to conduct their marketing activities. For business, utilizing WeChat as a marketing tool plays a more and more crucial role for companies, especially for the small medium enterprises. However, companies can also be easily suffered by ineffective and unsuccessful marketing effects if this new tool is inappropriately used. Therefore, it is necessary and important to understand WeChat marketing from different aspects, in order to avoid improper utilization, and enhance users’ experience, brand awareness and loyalty.Purpose:The purpose of this thesis is to provide insights on why and how companies and customers adopt WeChat as a business platform, what impact of WeChat’s functional features on its usage could be, how to increase brand awareness and users’ loyalty via WeChat marketing.Methodology:In order to give accurate answers for the considered research problems, a qualitative study with supported by the data from interviews is used as the main research method in this thesis. The interviewees are chosen from eight Chinese companies who have experience in WeChat marketing. The study and the design of the questions used in interviews are based on the following theories: technology acceptance model, brand awareness, and customer engagement.Conclusion:The findings show that the reason why companies tend to use WeChat as a marketing tool is due to its convenience, popularity, and near-zero cost. However, the effectiveness of WeChat marketing does not always hold for all companies since the perceived usefulness and ease to use could be varying among different type of business and various customer groups. This has been verified in interviews. Also, by WeChat marketing, companies can significantly attract users’ attention. The customers’ attitude, experience, and brand awareness, towards III marketing activities can be in general positive as long as companies’ marketing activities follow some specific principles, such as keeping the posted content interesting and attractive, and avoiding to bother customers by too many commercial advertisements. Overall, both companies and customers can be benefited from proper marketing activities on WeChat.