Samenvatting

This research has been conducted for the company Santa Fe Amsterdam in order to gain more brand awareness through the use of social media. Santa Fe Relocation is a multi-location company that helps with the relocation of expats worldwide. Santa Fe Relocation provides destination services, moving services, and immigration services to these expats. For the purpose of this thesis, the focus has been laid on the office located in the Netherlands, also known as Santa Fe Amsterdam. Even though the company provides its services to the expats, Santa Fe Amsterdam’s
main customers are corporations that hire the expats from abroad. The corporations fund the relocation of the expats they hire. In recent years, the Netherlands has seen a significant increase in expats, meaning the demand for relocation companies has risen. In 2014, there were approximately 300 relocation companies. In 2019, this number has risen to 590 (Trompert, S., 2019). For this reason, it is hard for Santa Fe Amsterdam to stand out. Therefore, the company has requested a research on how they can gain more brand awareness. Since brand awareness can be best achieved through the use of social media (Neti, S., 2011), this thesis focuses particularly on social media as a medium to create brand awareness. In order to help answer the research question, the following three sub-questions had been developed:
1. What are the characteristics of strong brands?
2. What are the steps to improve brand awareness?
3. Which social media platforms are most popular and influential as a branding tool?
The answers to these sub-questions subsequently provided an answer to the central research question: “How can Santa Fe Amsterdam improve its brand awareness through the use of social media?”. In order to answer the research questions, the author conducted qualitative and quantitative research in order to gather primary data. Qualitative research has been conducted in the form of structured interviews with three Santa Fe Amsterdam employees. Quantitative research has been conducted in the form of an anonymous questionnaire which was distributed online. In
answering the sub-questions, it has become apparent that Santa Fe Amsterdam lacks characteristics that make a brand strong. Additionally, Santa Fe Amsterdam as a local entity of Santa Fe
worldwide does not have presence on social media. This means that the company is neglecting a medium that provides a lot of opportunities to increase brand awareness (Neti, S., 2011). Lastly,
Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are the most popular and actively used social media platforms (Clement, J., 2020). Looking at the research conducted, it has become clear that Santa Fe
Amsterdam cannot improve its brand awareness online unless they create presence on social media. Furthermore, Santa Fe Amsterdam’s brand awareness could also be improved by enhancing aspects that have nothing to do with social media, such as improving the quality of the services provided.