Examining Social Media Marketing Strategies for Building Brand Awareness: A Case Study of Instagram Foom.id

The rapid development of technology in the digital era has facilitated easy and quick communication. This has led to the emergence of digital marketing innovations that significantly impact the sales of products and services. In the electronic cigarettes industry, Foom_id has been actively engaging in marketing communication through social media since 2019. The objective of this research is to examine the social media marketing strategies implemented by Foom_id on Instagram to enhance brand awareness. This qualitative research adopts a case study methodology. Data collection involves in-depth interviews with individuals responsible for managing Foom_id's Instagram account. Construct validity is employed to ensure data validity, while data analysis utilizes the technique of pattern matching. The findings of this study indicate that the utilization of social media marketing strategies in marketing communication through Instagram can effectively enhance brand awareness. Foom_id creates engaging content, including Q&A sessions, collaborations, and trending topics, to increase consumer awareness


INTRODUCTION
In the current digital era, technological advancements have made communication easy and fast. With the widespread access to the internet, new innovations continue to emerge, particularly in the field of digital marketing, which significantly influences product sales and services. Digital marketing has particularly targeted the younger generation, who are drawn to easily accessible and innovative platforms. According to Kemp (2022), as of January 2023, there were 273.52 million internet users in Indonesia, with 167 million being active social media users.
Social media has become a prominent platform for marketing communication, allowing users to share information through forums, wikis, virtual worlds, and social networks. In Indonesia, numerous social media platforms are widely used by the general public, including Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp, which facilitate communication even when direct interaction is not possible.
The current generation heavily relies on the internet, leading to the development of online businesses and institutions, contributing to economic growth. Social media has become a valuable tool for business development, incorporating advertising and marketing strategies (Putri & Alvin, 2023;Verenia & Alvin, 2022;Winata & Alvin, 2022). Social media marketing is a technique used to sell products or services, mainly through the use of captivating content to attract consumer attention (Ferdinandus & Alvin, 2023). Undeniably, social media marketing is a form of online marketing that encompasses social networks, social news, virtual worlds, and opinionsharing platforms.
The increasing number of Instagram users has a significant influence on marketing in various industries, including the electronic cigarettes industry. Therefore, by utilizing social media marketing, electronic cigarette businesses can attract their target market on Instagram through engaging and relevant content. Instagram is a suitable platform for brand owners to promote their products, with numerous benefits in terms of digital marketing and promotion (Chaffey & Chadwick, 2022;Yasmin & Alvin, 2023). Many individuals prefer to shop through Instagram compared to other social media platforms. One Instagram account with distinct marketing characteristics is @foom_id. Foom aims to differentiate itself in the electronic cigarettes industry by creating a recognizable and memorable brand. Brand awareness is crucial for a brand to be recognized and remembered by the public and to become top of mind within a specific product category.
According to wartajakarta.com (2021), Foom is a company that sells e-cigarettes as electronic nicotine delivery systems in Indonesia. Established in November 2019, Foom offers a variety of nicotine-infused liquids with flavors such as mango, watermelon, grape, and more. Foom has collaborated with thousands of vape shops across Indonesia for product distribution and ensures easy access for consumers by making their products available in nearly 4,000 Alfamart stores. Additionally, Foom products can be purchased online through their official website (Foom.id) and various e-commerce platforms in Indonesia.
Foom strives to build meaningful relationships with its consumers and potential customers to benefit both parties. Their use of social media aims to enhance brand awareness. Brand awareness refers to a buyer's ability to recall and recognize a brand in detail when making repeated purchases (BİLGİN, 2018;Kurniawan & Rewindinar, 2021) In a highly competitive market, where numerous local electronic cigarette brands have emerged, social media usage becomes crucial for brands to establish recognition and recall among consumers. Through engaging content and active communication on social media platforms, Foom successfully increases awareness and captures the attention of its target audience. It is the exploration of Foom's marketing communication and its role in building brand awareness on Instagram that has motivated this research.
Based on the background information, the following research question is posed: What are the social media marketing strategies employed by Foom.id to build brand awareness on the Instagram platform?

METHODS
This research will employ in-depth interviews to gain a comprehensive understanding of the social media marketing strategies implemented by Instagram Foom_id to enhance brand awareness.
Three key informants will be interviewed, namely:

Aldi Pratama
As the Head of Team Creative and Brand Lead, Aldi Pratama holds responsibility for overseeing the utilization of Instagram Foom_id's social media channels. He is involved in designing the social media marketing strategy, particularly through the development of a content calendar. Aldi Pratama also coordinates the creative team and social media team to execute marketing activities on the social media platform.

Taqi Makarim
Taqi Makarim is a Creative Designer involved in designing the content that will be featured on Instagram Foom_id. He actively participates in content creation for Foom's social media accounts, contributing as a content creator for the brand.

Pingkan Triocta
Pingkan Triocta serves as the Social Media Specialist for Instagram Foom_id. Her role involves analyzing current trends and identifying relevant topics that can be incorporated into the brand's content strategy. Pingkan Triocta is responsible for creating engaging and impactful content for Instagram and plays a pivotal role in the brand's social media presence. By conducting in-depth interviews with these three informants, this research aims to gain valuable insights into the strategies employed by Instagram Foom_id in utilizing social media platforms, content creation, and trend analysis to enhance brand awareness. The perspectives and expertise of these informants will provide valuable data for the analysis and discussion of the research findings.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Based on the data obtained from in-depth interviews with three participants, namely Aldi Pratama, Taqi Makarim, and Pingkan Triocta, the author will analyze and correlate the findings with the concept of social media marketing according to Heuer. The research analysis focuses on the implementation of Foom_id's communication marketing on Instagram to enhance brand awareness.

Foom_id Social Media Marketing Strategy
Social media marketing can be defined as an internet marketing form that involves creating and sharing various content on social networks to achieve branding and promotional goals . In the case of Foom, the use of social media platforms, especially Instagram, allows for easy product promotion, branding activities, and engagement with a large audience. According to Kemp (2022) there were 273.52 million active social media users in Indonesia as of January 2023. Foom utilizes social media marketing strategies to promote its products and engage with consumers through content that showcases the brand, its products, and encourages interaction. The use of social media marketing strategies is a suitable choice for Foom_id to execute its marketing communication through Instagram.
Following the guidelines proposed by Tuten and Solomon (2018), the first stage is the Situation Analysis. In this stage, Foom conducts competitor analysis, product category analysis, and consumer market analysis. Aldi and Taqi mentioned that Foom performs research to identify the strengths and weaknesses of competitors in terms of products, social media presence, and branding. Foom aims to adapt and improve its social media marketing strategies based on these findings. Furthermore, Foom conducts product category analysis to understand the characteristics and unique features of new products. Understanding the target audience is also crucial, and Pingkan highlighted the importance of demographic, psychographic, and behavioral analysis to determine the target market.
SWOT analysis, encompassing internal and external factors, is another essential aspect of the Situation Analysis. Foom identified its strengths, including active communication on social media, a diverse product range, and affordable prices. Weaknesses included a focus on online sales and limited availability of offline stores and booths. Opportunities lay in the growing trend of electronic cigarettes among young people, while threats involved sensitive social media regulations related to content and keywords associated with nicotine. The next step is to identify Social Media Marketing Objectives & Budget. Foom's objectives include increasing consumer awareness of the brand and building a direct relationship with consumers. Budget allocation is tailored to achieve these objectives. According to Tuten and Solomon (2018), objectives are specific statements about planned social media activities and the desired outcomes. Foom adjusts its budget to execute social media marketing activities effectively. In cases where potential high-impact strategies require additional funding, Foom's team submits budget proposals to management.
Profile and target audience of social consumers is another crucial aspect. Foom's target audience consists of men and women aged 20-35, belonging to the A-B social class. Foom focuses on understanding the demographics, behaviors, and needs of its target consumers to align its marketing efforts accordingly.
Regarding social media channels and vehicles, Foom utilizes multiple platforms, including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube. However, Instagram serves as the primary social media platform for Foom's marketing activities due to its large user base and high engagement levels. Instagram allows Foom to easily promote its products to the target market and analyze competitors' promotional strategies. Foom prioritizes Instagram over other platforms like Twitter and TikTok, which are mainly used for entertainment purposes.
Creating an experience strategy involves identifying creative message tactics. Foom establishes a content pillar strategy comprising emotional, new trends, product, promotion, and festive content. Additionally, Foom frequently conducts product giveaways to attract new followers and engage with its audience. The choice of content and utilization of features on Instagram, such as feeds, stories, reels, and highlights, contribute to Foom's marketing strategy. Due to certain social media regulations, Foom focuses on maximizing available features while ensuring compliance.
The positioning of the brand plays a vital role in conjunction with the creative strategy. Foom aims to position itself as a lifestyle brand, offering products that fulfill consumers' lifestyle needs, not just their nicotine requirements. This positioning is reflected in Foom's product designs, which are trendy and unique. Foom builds closeness with its users by reposting mentions from followers on Instagram Stories and conducting Q&A sessions on Instagram feeds and stories.
Establishing an activation plan involves scheduling and executing the social media marketing plan. Foom utilizes content planning and content calendars to organize the timing and frequency of content posting. This ensures consistency and alignment with marketing goals.
Lastly, managing and measuring the success of implemented strategies is essential. Foom conducts monthly meetings to evaluate the effectiveness of its social media marketing strategies and whether they have achieved the desired objectives. The success of the strategies is measured through engagement indicators, such as increased followers, likes, and views. Instagram's insights tool is used to assess engagement metrics, and the evaluation informs future social media marketing strategies, aiming for continuous improvement.

Building Brand Awareness
According to David A. Aaker (Santoso et al., 2020), brand awareness refers to consumers' ability to recognize or recall a brand as part of a specific product category. Foom implements various initiatives to enhance brand awareness. For instance, Foom features "voice" content on Instagram, which includes interviews with former conventional smokers who have transitioned to using Foom products. This approach gradually increases awareness and attracts new consumers from the conventional smoking segment. Collaborating with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) is also vital for raising Foom_id's awareness. Rogers (Levin, 2020) defines KOLs as individuals with greater exposure in mass media. Foom collaborates with KOLs such as UUS, Boy William, and The Prediksi, who resonate with the millennial and Gen Z target market.
To achieve top-of-mind awareness in its product category, Foom positions itself as a lifestyle brand. Consumers not only satisfy their nicotine needs but also fulfill their lifestyle preferences when purchasing Foom products. Foom actively conducts marketing activities, including collaborations with various brands and KOLs, to enhance brand awareness.
Based on Instagram insights data from the past four months (March 29, 2023 -July 2, 2023), Foom_id experienced a 5.6% increase in followers, from 55.7 thousand to 65.6 thousand followers. This signifies that Foom's social media marketing strategies have successfully gained approximately 9,900 new Instagram followers within less than a year, contributing to the enhancement of brand awareness.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this research focuses on Foom_id's Marketing Communication on Instagram to enhance brand awareness. The findings indicate that Foom_id has effectively implemented marketing communication activities in line with the stages of social media marketing strategy (Tuten & Solomon, 2018). The strategy begins with market analysis, including competitor analysis, product category analysis, and target market analysis. This is followed by an analysis of external and internal factors using SWOT analysis. After conducting the analysis, Foom determines the objectives of its social media marketing strategy, which primarily aim to build consumer awareness of the brand and foster closer connections with consumers. Effective strategies employed by Foom include leveraging Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) for product promotion and conducting giveaways to attract new consumers to their social media platforms. Foom utilizes various content pillars, such as emotional, new trends, product, promotion, and festive, in their social media marketing activities.
Foom's preference for Instagram as the primary social media platform is due to its convenience in delivering messages to consumers, analyzing competitors' promotions, and effectively targeting their desired market. Although Foom faces restrictions on certain features due to the sensitive nature of nicotine-related content on social media platforms, they make efficient use of available Instagram features, such as feeds, reels, stories, and highlights. Evaluating Foom_id's success in building brand awareness can be measured through indicators such as monthly increases in followers resulting from their social media marketing efforts, as well as engagement metrics such as views, likes, comments, and shares. Foom also utilizes tools such as TPI and Instagram insights to evaluate their social media marketing activities. By comparing the achieved engagement metrics to the target goals, Foom can assess the effectiveness of their social media marketing strategies in building brand awareness.
This research highlights the importance of strategic social media marketing activities in enhancing brand awareness. Foom_id's implementation of various tactics, including market analysis, objective setting, content planning, collaborations with KOLs, and evaluation of results, has contributed to their success in increasing brand awareness and engagement with their target audience.