The Effects of Social Media Usage on Brand Resonance during and After the Gezi Park Protests in Turkey

The social media was actively used during the Gezi Park events that existed in Turkey, which is one of the most important social movements in Turkish history. Starbucks was chosen as the research object since it got the worst reaction from the protestors. The study’s primary objective is to reveal the differences between the Starbucks’ brand resonance during the protests and five months after based on the negative accusations on the brand. The main finding is that the brand resonance of Starbucks increased after the Gezi Park events according to the time of the events’ brand resonance. Also the youth social media users had an effect on Starbucks’ brand resonance during the events. Besides the study discovered that while the content about the accusations on Starbucks were active on the social media the customers didn’t purchase the brand’s products until the events were ended and the contents were lessened.


Social Media's Effects on Brands during Protests
Customer socialization is defined as the "processes by which young people acquire skills, knowledge, and attitudes relevant to their functioning as customers in the marketplace" (Ward, 1974:2). Wang et al. has worked on social media's effects on peers' purchase intentions guided by Ward's customer socialization theory. They argue that in social media settings, customers learn attitudes and purchase behaviors through written messages that peers send. Additionally they indicate that if customers identify themselves with a group then they develop 'weintention' and want to maintain a self-defining relationship with the group. Also they are willingly engage in community activities and place greater value on relationships with the community (Wang etal., 2012:200,202). In social media, negative opinions about brands or companies are formed by and propagated via thousands of people within hours. In addition, massive negative online dynamics are not only limited to the business domain, but they also affect organizations and politics (Pfeffer & Zorbach & Carley,2013:118). If a social media platform is formed around the dislike of a product/service then the negative opinions and

Conclusion
This study revealed that the social media usage of Turkish citizens had an effect on Starbucks' brand resonance during events. Similar with the literature data, this study also brought out the information that the users of social media during events were predominantly youth individuals who shared and spread constant information about the protests. Therefore, the study emphasizes the power of networked citizens during the Gezi Park events. The major finding of this paper supports the hypothesis that the brand resonance of Starbucks increased after the Gezi Park events according to the time of the events' brand resonance. Since during protests most of the protestors were exposed to and produced negative social media content about Starbucks' behavior and after the events less amount of negative content was produced and spread it has been thought that the reason of this rise in Starbucks' brand resonance was social media usage.
The literature data has shown the brands that were affected by the power of social media.
According to a research result that has been underlined before, a coffee chain has never made a comment about Gezi Park events but an information came from nowhere about the brand's positive attitude towards the protests spread and became viral that made the brand got into the prestigious brands list during events. This story could be the example of the social media's power during events as well as Starbucks' story. In spite of Starbucks' statement that they have helped the protestors, the negative reactions from social media went on going, as they have never done any help at all. The ongoing negative content made the brand got the first place in the list of prestige loosing brands.
The study showed that after the accusations went on going on social media during the events, most of the customers didn't purchase the brand's products. But after the events' effects and the negative content on the social media were lessened the customers preferred to purchase the brand's products again as well as the behavioral loyalty, attitudinal attachment, sense of community and the active engagement dimensions were increased. The results of the study were also coherent with Wang et.al (2012)'s claims as the protestors identified themselves with the others on social media who had the same opinions with them and they showed the same