Abstract:

The aim of this study is to compare the efforts of global car brands to communicate to their environmentally friendly products and services globally and on the basis of the country. The research has conducted a content analysis of how eight global automotive brands have shared their environmentally friendly products and services on their global and local official Twitter accounts. These eight car brands have also been discussed on Twitter about environmentally friendly products, related special days, weeks and events. Thus, in the global official accounts of global automotive brands and in the Turkish accounts, the similarities and differences of social media communications have been tried to determine the causes of this situation. The data was collected by analyzing the environmental sustainability shared by brands on their global and local Twitter accounts for a year. When the 880 environmentally friendly shares were reviewed on the official Twitter accounts of the automotive brands, it was found that the brands made more shares on their global accounts. This difference is seen in both environmentally friendly products and services of brands as well as environmentally-related events, special days and weekly shares. Car brands do not only make environmentally friendly shares about their products and services but also make non-profit environmentally friendly shares that will create awareness. If you look at the media type of environmentally friendly posts, it seems that both global and Turkish official Twitter accounts mostly prefer photos or gifs. In addition, it has been shown that the car brands are aimed at promoting products or services in most environmentally friendly events. As a result, environmentally friendly and sustainable practices need to be shared in order for the consumer to connect with the automotive brands and feel commitment to the brand.

Abstract:

The aim of this study is to inquire the communication efforts of global automobile brands towards their environmentally friendly products and services, comparatively on a global and individual country basis. A content analysis was carried out on how the eight global automobile brands, which were evaluated within the scope of the research, shared messages on their environmentally friendly products and services in their official global and local Twitter accounts. The messages of these eight automobile brands on environmentally friendly products, related special days, weeks and events were also discussed. Thus, the similarities and differences between global official account social media communications and Turkish social media communications of the global automobile brands were tried to determine. The data was collected by analyzing brands’ environment sustainability messages shared in global and local Twitter accounts within a year. When 880 environmentally friendly messages in the official Twitter accounts of automobile brands are examined, it is seen that brands share more messages in their global accounts. This difference has seen in the environmentally friendly products and services of the brands as well as in the messages about the activities related to the environment, special days and weeks. Automobile brands share not only environmentally friendly messages related to their products and services, but also share non-profit environmentally friendly messages. Considering the type of media used in environmentally friendly messages, it is observed that both the global and local Twitter accounts mostly preferred gif or photo. Besides, it has seen that automobile brands aim to promote products or services in most of the environmentally friendly activities. As a result, it is necessary to share the environmentally friendly and sustainable practices in order to create a connection with the automobile consumers and create loyalty to the brand. 

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