Role of Social Media in B2B Brand Development: A Study from the Perspectives of the RMG Industry of Bangladesh

Surajit Sarbabidya

Social media has redefined the ways through which brand was developed earlier. Now-a-days repeat and integrated use of social media including blogging, micro-blogging, photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking sites have been very useful in creating a favorable and long-lasting branding image of the organizations.It is also now a common online media strategy in the leading firms of various industries. From this perspective the current study is an attempt to examine the role of social media in B2B brand development with special reference to Ready Made Garments (RMG) industry of Bangladesh. The current study is the embodiment of both primary and secondary data collection and their analyses in which, the secondary data have been collected from the recently published research findings and the primary data have been collected during the month of October 1, 2019 to November 30, 2019 from the sample size of125 respondents including IT officials and merchandisers of 10 RMG factories in Bangladesh using judgment sampling method through a structured and self-administered questionnaire based extensive survey. The current study found four components which enable social media based business-to-business (B2B) brand development for the RMG factories in Bangladesh through increased employee and customer awareness and engagement via content creation and sharing, viral marketing, user generated content, integrated marketing campaigns via photo sharing, video sharing and document sharing sites, etc.; customized and personalized services through two-way interactive and facilitative communication via live chat; enhanced relationships with the customers; electronic word of mouth (eWOM), channel integration and above all technological, socio-cultural, ethical, political & legal and environmental compliance. Thus, social media can be considered to enable holistic marketing to ensure B2B brand development by the Bangladeshi RMG industry in general and respective RMG factories in particular.