Specific Features of the Communication Strategy of

Sports Brands Promotion in Social Networks

Marina V. Terskikh
Faculty of Philology and Media Communications; Chair of General and Applied Linguistics
Dostoevsky Omsk State University
Omsk, Russia
[email protected]

Abstract — The study presents the analysis of the social Using social networks in the company’s activities is a
marketing communication tools used to position and promote relatively new way to spread information – potential customers
sports brands. Since sports products are closely associated with have not been tired of this channel yet, it is interesting for
sports as a social value system, it is obvious that advertising and them, and provides a huge number of marketing tools. One of
public relations specialists turn to social marketing potential that the most effective marketing approaches in the digital sphere is
allow to combine smoothly commercial goals with socially working with online communities.
oriented activities. According to the analysis of sports brands
accounts, messages of a socially oriented nature take almost a II. BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH
third of all posts, which allows companies to promote not only
their own products, but also socially significant values such as Research shows that social networks became an integral
healthy lifestyle, healthy attitude towards your body. The main part of the human life; the number of social networks’ users has
trend of positioning activity in social networks is the been gradually growing. According to Brand Analytics agency,
hybridization of the used genres, suggesting a combination of at the beginning of 2018, there were 22.4 million people
advertising and socially oriented genres that allows to hide the actively using Facebook, the number of Instagram users grew
advertising message, as well as to veil its manipulative nature. substantially and now amounts to 48.5 million people, Twitter
did not attract new users, nevertheless, its audience makes up
Keywords — digital space; social marketing; corporate 37 million people, active audience of VKontakte increased up
responsibility; social communications; social networks; speech to 35 million people. The basic advantage of promotion via
genre social networks is a targeted influencing of the audience in
question, their involvement in the communication process, and
I. INTRODUCTION the possibility of immediate feedback.
We know that communication through traditional channels
Due to these reasons, social networks, being an instrument
has been gradually becoming less efficient because of
detraction and lack of interest on the part of the consumers’ of values’ creating, positioning and promoting of commercial
audience. Therefore, using digital marketing is of immediate products, have recently become an area of interest for
interest, because it provides us with new digital communication specialists from different fields of knowledge [1]–[5].
channels featuring a wide range of promotion possibilities. An Social networks allow us to organize a community of
integrated approach towards the company and its products’ people interested in the product and provide them with the
promotion that is based on an interaction of different content that meets their requirements. Apparently, in this case
technologies, and continuous two-way connection of we are not talking about the advertising content because these
advertisers and end consumers of a product or a service, is days people tend to trust advertisements much less than before.
connected with smart communication policies in social That is why we can witness one of the brightest trends of the
networks. past years – “packing” the information about the product in the
In the context of digital marketing, personalization, content, which evokes a positive response of the target
meaning understanding of real intentions, wishes, and needs of audience and allows them to think of the company as a socially
customers, together with transferring an experience, which is oriented one. Social marketing as a philosophy of coordination
relevant and important for the target audience, starts playing and aligning the interests of the organization, consumers, and
the key role. Digital marketing is a part of our lives – we society is becoming a powerful mechanism that attracts
communicate, entertain ourselves, and receive information via attention to the product, creates a positive attitude towards it,
a plurality of digital channels. It is important to use these tools makes it a part of the recipient’s cognitive base, and – as a
correctly, thus by taking consideration of the audiences’ digital result – boosts sales.
preferences we could form their loyalty to the brand, involve Commercial goals of a company may combine with its
them into communication processes by constant appealing and social activities successfully; sometimes they disguise
using gamification resources, create an elaborate feedback themselves as social activities, thus putting the recipients off
system, etc. their guard. The aim of social marketing is the same as the aim

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of public service announcements, in other words, they are both like giving up” (Reebok); “Challenge circumstances. Create
used to improve lives of individuals and society. However, we your own rules and watch your fears” (Puma). Information
cannot but mention some commercial goals that may go about the product becomes a part of the motivation message.
unnoticed behind the company’s social responsibility.
The analysis of sports brands’ Facebook accounts allowed
The concept of social or socially oriented marketing is us to bring to light the following set of phatic (aimed at
based on the following idea: resolving social problems can be building and preserving contact) and advertising genres.
effective in both commercial and social sense because these Among phatic genres we defined the following speech patterns:
goals do not contradict each other. small-talk, addressing, advice, congratulation, well-wishing,
greeting, and social support genres, such as inspiration,
Using social marketing tools may prove especially encouragement, approval, praise, compliment. The main
successful if social profile lies at the core of the product advertising genres were announcement, notice, promise,
promoted (sports brands, healthy food, educational services, professional advice, report, invitation, motivation (an appeal to
etc.). buy). From the point of view of the intention, all genres listed
The methodological approach applied lies in the attempt to have one goal – to sell; that is why when we are talking about
research the specific nature of social marketing as a special phatic genres we mean a mimicry between advertising and
communicative activity using linguistic tools. The aim of the phatic genres. Anyway, it is important for the recipient to
paper is to research the genre specificity of some sports brands’ perceive them this way.
Facebook accounts (Puma, Reebok, and Adidas Originals), In the context of socially oriented genres, we are interested
define correlation and integration of advertising genres and in the genres of social support. Social support is understood as
genres of social support that build a motivation field around the “a communicative act implementing the addresser’s intention
brand and create socially important values and priorities. to influence the addressee in order to improve the addressee’s
Social networks become a great tool to disguise commercial self-awareness (self-consciousness, self-esteem, general state)”
goals as social ones. This can be explained by the nature of [6, p. 53]. In case of promotion of the sports brands’
social networks, because they are platforms where different production, the result of social support is the recipient’s
people gather, often simultaneously, in order to communicate. motivation to perform some socially important actions that may
If the company manages to arouse some interest and create a improve his or her life.
certain atmosphere the users may start acting as advertising Let us discuss the messages posted by Reebok being a
agents, who share information about the company, its products fruitful material for an analysis. In Reebok’s account, we may
and services on the Internet free of charge by reposts, find a full scope of the genres included into our classification
invitations to the communities (groups, portals, forums, blogs), of phatic and advertising genres used in this social network (the
etc. analysis is based on about a hundred of the messages posted by
This possibility is of great value for the companies because Reebok in 2017–2018).
positive reviews of real people have always been the best type The company is very active in its communication with the
of advertising, Unfortunately for a company, its advertising target audience – it often uses the genre of small talk (8.3%). It
messages are unlikely to create a “communicative hysteria”, is the only brand that uses phatic genres of congratulation and
that is why its positioning communication becomes indirect. greeting, which are very important in terms of forming the
Discussion of important topics, sometimes vital for the consumers’ loyalty. As for advertising genres, it often uses
recipient, should lead to the company’s product; thus, the announcements (21%) and notices (11.3%). It is important to
classic advertising pattern “problem-solution” can be implied say that some part of these messages disguises as everyday
in the discourse of social networks differently. For this reason, communication strategies including the phatic genres of care
advertising genres are often substituted with phatic ones, and encouragement.
sometimes we may encounter even some hybrid genre forms
(phatic and informative) that are determined by the formal Due to such approach, advertising messages become
criteria of evaluation of positional posts’ effectiveness – likes, indirect. Paying attention to the ratio of announcements and
reposts, comments, etc. In contrast with socially- and value- notices, we can argue that this sports brand chooses events for
oriented messages, advertising text can hardly provoke an its promotion as important elements of socially responsible
intensive reaction. business’ activities – open-air workouts, workshops of famous
fitness-instructors, etc. Reebok does not often use the genre of
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION motivation expressed by a call for an action (2.3%), so the
Even a brief review of the content published on sports consumers would not feel the pressure during their decision-
brands’ accounts allows us to make a conclusion that sports making process.
brands, along with sports equipment, “are selling” a certain The bulk of the messages from Reebok’s account advocates
lifestyle, an attitude towards the person’s body, self, and the for sport and a healthy lifestyle. In the process of its
whole world. communication with the audience, Reebok often uses the genre
Most of the advertising messages in this sphere include a of encouragement and inspiration because everyday motivation
motivation component: “Function becomes form. Sport to become better by going in for sport is very important.
becomes style. Integrity remains integrity” (Adidas Interest in sport means the necessity to purchase sports
Original);“Pain is power. Remember that the next time you feel equipment and sportswear. Besides such posts are very

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effective from a psychological point of view – the consumers light will always come eventually, so just hold on and wait”
are very likely to return to the brand’s page to receive a new (visual component – Cara Delevingne in Puma T-shirt).
“motivation charge”, to feel their own resources.
(12) Plus size model Candice Huffine rejects the idea of
(1) Set a goal, reach it and think about a new one! Life is perfection! Here are her rules: be yourself, find the time for
movement, not a comfort zone. spiritual development and positive thinking, remember that
fitness helps to be successful. “You’ll be proud of yourselves,
(2) There are no borders for the life in movement. and this is the best you can do!” (visual component – Candice
Wherever you are, whatever you do – be ready for anything. Huffine in Reebok outfit).
(3) Stop making excuses to stay at home! Each new The commercial element of these communication activities
workout is a holiday! may not be apparent, but it exists for sure – if the recipients
(4) There are things that make you a man every day. Do not have made sport an integral part of their lives, they can make
forget about them and move on. this brand’s product an integral part of their existence as well.
(5) Be a hero in MAD MAX DOJO’s team and come to the IV. CONCLUSION
next “Fighter’s run” workout. Remember that your success lies
As the analysis shows the communication activities of the
in practice! This Sunday, the Victory Park on Poklonnaya Hill!
sports brands in question is adapted to the specific nature of
This example (5) includes the phatic genre of social networks. In their accounts, the brands use different
encouragement (‘Remember that your success lies in phatic genres to form the consumers’ loyalty by appealing to
practice!’), as well as the advertising genre of announcement, their social needs. There is no doubt that advertising genres are
because it announces the day and the place where the event will used more often, and even the posts, which are perceived as
be held. On the other hand, it should be noted that the phatic ones, include a vague advertising message. Talking
announced event makes us perceive the company as socially about Puma’s account we can’t help but notice that advertising
oriented because its activities allow the recipients to organize genres do prevail there (about 70% of all messages). This
their free time and take part in a health-promoting activity. corresponds to the main purpose of this tool – selling the
product. However, nearly one-third of the messages promote
Facebook texts tend to be hybrids, because two advertising not only the product but also sport as a socially- and value-
genres are usually combined, thus enhancing the effect of the based system. This allows us to reckon this usage of phatic
message – an announcement may include some promise, which genres as a tool that assures the digital space interactivity,
heightens the audience’s interest. The most frequent hybrid is a being a benefit of modern digital marketing.
combination of a phatic and advertising genre. It is very
important for communication in the social network because it From the genre-based point of view, the most part of the
helps to disguise an advertising message. There is an example texts analyzed are hybrids that include an advertising message
of a regular combination of an announcement and social packed in the motivation context.
support genres.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
(6) It is raining, it is cold, so what? Keep on training with a
new ClimaHeat collection (Adidas). The reported study was funded by RFBR and Government
of the Omsk region according to the research project № 17-14-
(7) Rain is no obstacle! At any weather, your run is under 55001.
control with newUltraBoost sneakers (Adidas).
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