ISBN: 978-93-94174-93-1

Meme Marketing and Consumer Engagement

Assistant Professor Department of Commerce, SRM Trichy Arts & Science College

Today's digital marketers incorporate memes into their promotional strategies for businesses, products, and services in a humorous, relatable manner and in line with the culture domestic to their audience. Memes are typically used to promote products and services by creating ads that go viral through multiple shares and replications on social networking sites. Memes can either be image, video, GIF and/or text-based and can either be created or copied from one site to another. Therefore, they are a great way to connect and communicate with consumers especially younger consumers, who have grown up using social networks and therefore tend to more readily follow trends online than do older consumer demographics. Compared to traditional marketing, meme marketing is very informal, humorous and is typically driven by the user base, rather than being branded ads. By aligning the brand's advertising the brand's messaging with what is currently happening in society, cultural references that are popular among the demographic of consumers and using trending topics, businesses using meme marketing can improve their visibility and create a closer emotional connection with consumers. The nature of humor, nostalgia, or commonality creates the likelihood of consumers engaging with the meme marketing content via the number of likes, comments and reposts. Utilizing meme marketing to connect emotionally with consumers, businesses using meme marketing allows the business to present itself as relatable and human, making it easier for consumers to connect with the business. In order for businesses to successfully execute a meme marketing campaign, it is important for the business to properly time product/meme advertising with the target audience, understand the cultural characteristics of the target audience, and articulated the intended message through the appropriate meme(s). Businesses that create memes that are funny, relatable, and have a wide reach will have success in building brand loyalty and developing brand recall through the utilization of low-cost creative marketing strategies using creative marketing strategies in order to generate positive results.

*Corresponding author; e-mail: selvalakshmi.d@asc.srmtrichy.edu.in

Cite this Chapter: Selvalakshmi D. and Akila A. 2026. Meme Marketing and Consumer Engagement. In: Dr. Lubna Suraiya Dr. P. Kanchana (Eds.). Commerce Reimagined: The Future of Trade and Transactions (Vol-III). Excellent Publishers, India. pp. 17-35. doi: https://doi.org/10.20546/978-93-94174-93-1_3_2