Conversational Marketing mit dem Kommunikationsinstrument WhatsApp: Analyse von Potentialen und Herausforderungen für österreichische Unternehmen

Abstract

WhatsApp has established itself as a private communication platform and is also increasingly being used by companies as a marketing channel. WhatsApp marketing is not yet as widespread on the Austrian market as it is in Germany, India or Latin America. These examples show the attractiveness of the platform for companies: higher open and click rates compared to traditional email newsletters, no risk of non-delivery due to spam folders and high reach. Despite the potential benefits, there are concerns about data protection, particularly in the DACH region. These concerns lead to uncertainty and a lack of know-how among companies, which inhibits the use of WhatsApp as a marketing tool. The aim of this master's thesis is to analyze and evaluate the potential and challenges of WhatsApp as a communication channel for Austrian companies. The thesis is divided into seven chapters. After the introduction and the problem definition, the theoretical part explains the basics of conversational marketing as well as the function and development of WhatsApp as a communication tool. In the empirical part, qualitative expert interviews are conducted in order to gain practical insights. The methodology includes a systematic literature analysis and qualitative content analysis according to Mayring. Experts from various fields, including agencies, companies and software providers, were interviewed in order to gain a comprehensive insight into the use of WhatsApp in marketing. The results of the study show that WhatsApp offers great potential as a marketing channel. The high reach and direct, personal communication via WhatsApp lead to stronger customer loyalty and higher conversion rates. Companies that use WhatsApp report open rates of almost 100 percent and conversion rates of between two and five percent. At the same time, there are challenges, particularly in terms of data protection and costs, when using the WhatsApp Business API, which enables WhatsApp to be used as a marketing channel in compliance with data protection regulations. Companies can make strategic use of this API by using external software, so-called business solution providers. Finally, the paper formulates recommendations for companies that want to use WhatsApp as a communication channel and emphasizes the importance of best practices and a well thoughtout implementation. In addition, the author provides research recommendations for further studies and work that can deepen this topic. The master's thesis expands the existing state of research with specific findings for the Austrian market and provides practical recommendations for companies that want to use WhatsApp effectively in their customer communication.

Date of Award	2024
Original language	German (Austria)
Awarding Institution	Johannes Kepler University Linz
Supervisor	Markus-Maximilian Eiselsberg (Supervisor) & Andreas Auinger (Supervisor)