Engaging with consumers using social media: a case study of music festivals

Purpose – Social media has fundamentally changed the consumer decision process, and in the last decade a more nuanced view of how consumers engage with brands has emerged. Instead of the traditional purchase funnel, consumers research products and services during an extended evaluation stage, and after purchase, they often enter into an open-ended relationship with the brand, sharing their experience with it using social media. This paper describes the new consumer decision journey, and then adds to the body of research on events and festivals management by applying this new model to events and festivals. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a case study methodology with a multi-method approach to analyze the use of social media at three major music festivals. Case studies offer depth and comprehensiveness for understanding a specific phenomenon, enabling inductive and rich description, and are specifically welcome in new situations where little is known about the phenomenon. Findings – In general...