The effects of social media phenomenon on brand propagation and consumer procurement decision process as an word of mouth marketing trend

Thanks to increasing use of social media in recent years, many brands are engaged in a number of activities with a view to create brand awareness by reaching their target audience and to influence consumers' purchasing decision-making process by means of promoting their products and services in social media today. The most popular one among these activities is the social media phenomenon, who are thought to have a growing proportion of followers on social media and affect their followers. Internet celebrities, defined as opinion leaders of digital marketing, have also the leading role of a new marketing method. This marketing method is referred to as Phenomenons Marketing (Impressive/Esteemed/Influential Marketing) in the marketing literature. Brands using the Phenomenons Marketing method reach thousands of people in a short time on social media and also reduce their marketing budgets. The aim of this study is to determine the most admired features of social media celebrities, the confidence of followers on phenomenon, how they affect the process of brand awareness, whether they are effective in brand preference, and which product/service varieties the phenomenons affect their followers in their decision-making process. A face-to-face survey method was used in the study. An analysis was made by reaching 400 voluntary participants living in Afyonkarahisar province and who used social media and followed at least 1 social media phenomenon. According to the results of the analysis, survey participants described celebrities as more intimate, entertaining and sympathetic people with strong humorous sides. In terms of diversity of product services, women were influenced by the decision to purchase more personal care, fashion, food and beverage products, while men were affected by technological products and automotive-related phenomenon. In the process of brand awareness, although there were no significant differences between getting influenced by phenomenon and age groups, it was determined that celebrities had more active role in creating brand awareness than purchasing decision process. Keywords: Word Of Mouth Marketing, Phenomenon, Opinion Leader, Brand, Social Media