Digital marketing strategy adoption for online brand presence: real estate agents' perspectives in Cape Town

Abstract

The adoption of technology to construct a digital marketing strategy is crucial for brand competitiveness. The implementation of a digital marketing strategy is dependent on employees' attitudes and behaviour towards using technology. However, the role of employees in building online brand presence seems to be neglected in extant literature. We explored real estate agents' use of digital marketing strategies to build online brand presence in the real estate sector in Cape Town. This study empirically explored the applicability of the technology acceptance model in a new context. An interpretivist exploratory qualitative research was adopted. Individual face-to-face depth interviews were conducted with real estate agents to determine their perceptions of usefulness and ease of use, attitude towards use, and behaviour towards the use of technology to build real estate online brand presence. Interviews were audio recorded, then transcribed to textual format whereafter ATLAS.ti software was used for data analysis. This study found that real estate agents applied various digital marketing strategies such as social media, YouTube, websites and e-mail marketing to build online brand presence in the Cape Town real estate sector. Moreover, the technology acceptance model is applicable in the same sector.