Roundnet is a net sport-inspired primarily by concepts from volleyball. It was originally created in 1989 by Jeff Knurek although the equipment he created for the game became outdated and lost popularity in 1995. The sport experienced a revival in 2008 when Spikeball Inc. began promoting it.

Problem:Spikeball is a relatively new sport. As a result, it struggles to get its name recognized when compared to other giants in its industry. Spikeball requires quite a bit of agility and athletic prowess making a younger audience ideal for their brand, but without an effective way to reach this target market, sales will fall.

Solution:TikTok perfectly lined up with the company's key demographics making it the ideal platform to spread its product. On their TikTok site, Spikeball regularly posts highlights and clips of people having fun, while playing the game. These highlights successfully attempt to generate excitement to play the game by featuring people playing the game is fast-paced, exciting, and often humorous ways.

Results:The videos have proven to be wildly popular. The company even has a submission option where people who bought their own spikeball nets can be featured on their Tik Tok profile, leading to even more sales. The account currently has over 305k followers, 5.7 million likes, and 50 million views.

The five steps in the social media marketing "purchase process" model that can influence a brand's consumers:

2. Increase awareness
4. Influence desire
6. Encourage trail
8. Facilitate the purchase
10. Cement brand loyalty

Questions:

1. In the Spikeball Inc. case study,which of the 5 purchase process steps was most utilized by the brand?

2. Why was TikTok selected for branding purposes? Explain