Samenvatting

The digitalisation of our society is moving fast. Consumers seem to adjust their needs to this growing digitalisation, but multiple companies have trouble keeping up with the pace. One of these companies is Indola, an international brand that sells hair products such as hair colouring and shampoos for hairdressers. After realising Indola has been lagging behind on the digitalisation, where the customers are expecting an up-to-date brand, the management decided to relaunch the brand. This change also means a new Social Media strategy, which focuses on increasing online
mangagement for the target group on Social Media. Unfortunately, this strategy has been set up on an international level and has no country specific implementation. Therefore, this report will describe an implementation plan, which can be used to increase online engagement on the
Dutch Indola Facebook-page. To facilitate this plan, research has been conducted based on the following central research question: ‘What can Indola do to increase the online engagement for the target group on Facebook?’
To answer the research question, two research methods have been used: desk research and field research. With the desk research the current target group for this plan has been described. Furthermore, the current situation of the Dutch Indola Facebook-page has been assessed. This
assessment looked closer into the current reach and reactions of the page and assessed the current online engagement and popular posting hours on the page. The field research has been conducted using two different methods. Muntinga, Moorman and Smit (2011) state that there are six motivation; information, entertainment, social interaction, personal identification, empowerment and remuneration, that drive consumers to indulge in three different types of engagement, consuming, contributing, creating. By facilitating these motivations to the wishes and needs of the target group, the online engagement can be increased (Muntinga et al., 2011). This research has been centred on these six motivations. Firstly, qualitative research has been conducted using a focus group. This focus group interview filled in the literature based motivations to the wishes of the target group, as implementation options. Secondly, to test the results of the focus group for the complete target group, the results have been used as an indication for the topics in a survey. After assessing the results of the survey in a statistical analysis, clear findings could be drawn. One of the six motivations, Empowerment, has no positive influence on the online engagement of the target group. Therefore, this motivation will be excluded from the implementation. After assessing the options for the five remaining motivations, three implementation options for three motivations came forward with a positive influence on the online engagement. Four other implementation options appeared to have a positive correlation with the online engagement. The rest of the implementation options had barely any correlation with or a negative influence on the online engagement. Based on the findings above, it can be concluded that there are seven implementation options for five motivations that have apositive effect on the online engagement. By placing these motivations and their positive implementation options under the associated, according to literature, online engagement types, a gradual 4-step-path of increasing online engagement arises. In this path the low online engaged target group can be motivated to increase their online engagement and eventually reach the highest type of online engagement (creating). In conclusion, this 4-step-path answers the central research question and by implementing it, the final goal of increasing online engagement will be achieved.