2. Chapter Five, Page 92-96 Summary - Key Concepts
In pages 93 to 96 of chapter five, the subjects of consumers, branding,
Integrated marketing Communication (IMC) and Social Media strategic planning
are discussed. As it relates to Social Media, the consumer serves as the
driving force. One theorist, Paige Miller, suggests that the Social Media
Marketing follows a customer-driven path. Social media provides an avenue of
learning through engagement and connectivity.
Branding is important to promoting a company’s purpose. Branding assists with
the consumer’s ability to recognize a product and creates a sense of consumer
loyalty. By engaging the consumer via Social media, it helps with forming
strong relationships between the business and the consumer. Many companies
like Coca-Cola, Samsung and Walmart have created a fan base by utilizing the
“fan” and “like” options on Facebook.
3. Summary cont’d
The Integrated Marketing Communication or IMC concept is an approach to using
branding to achieve strategic goals. The IMC concept incorporates the
company’s marketing to build an online presence and to build online trust.
Social Media strategic planning sets out to separate the brand from the
competitor. It seeks to separate the differentials of Social Media sites.
Taking for example Twitter and LinkedIn. Whereas, Twitter is considered a
real-time media outlet and LinkedIn is more of a platform for professionals.
One must be mindful of the appropriate media source for their specific
purpose.
4. Case studies (Success):
Food truck vendors have seized an opportunity present in Hyde Park,
Chicago where there was a university but very few places to eat
lunch. They drove daily to the campus and updated their Social
Media status (Twitter) about their location and the food they
are serving. This allowed a no-delay real-time interaction with
the customers.
Wendy’s used crowdsourcing and Social Media to promote one of their
products “ the Pretzel”. Customers were generating humoristic
tweets with the hashtag #PretzelLoveStories which had a great
success. However, many others did not instantly relate the
hashtag to Wendy’s. This opened the door to brand confusion
resulting in “Pretzel tweets”.
5. Case studies (Failure) :
A social media campaign that had a major failure is one of
KFC’s. The hashtag #IAteTheBones - meant to promote KFC’s
new boneless chicken - generated negative sentiment. Thus
associating the brand with choking & cannibalism.(Hannibal
Lecter)
Many other brands struggled with social media failures, such as
McDonald’s with #Mcdstories. led to people sharing negative
experiences they had at McDonald’s.
Also, Gap tweeting about Hurricane Sandy keeping everyone
at home and encouraging to do more e-shopping at its
website.
6. Lessons:
=> Social Media requires patience. Efforts should be made
steadily towards improving the quality of the content and
make it more authentic and appealing to the customer
(make the engagement leads to sales).
=> Digital Marketers should shifts their efforts from
trying to grab attention to holding attention. The
exchange between the brand and the customer should be a
valuable experience that wouldn’t lead to a negative
sentiment like the cases studied previously.
7. Discussion Questions: 1
Miller identifies the social media marketing customer-driven path as
finding, learning, validating, and advocacy.
Miller proposes utilizing advocacy after purchase as a step that’s
most unique to the Social Media consumer-driven marketing plan.
Engaging customers after exiting the purchase funnel companies can
build brand loyalty, smartly. Incentivizing consumers to write
reviews, rate the product, earn reward points, or dollars off
towards their next shopping trip are key. However, if a customer is
displeased with their purchase – their experience may be shared on
Social Media as well. Companies must be prepared and able to address
negative and positive online feedback.
8. Discussion Questions: 2
Brands may risk over-saturation of content and general
confusion if using native and sponsored content as a traffic
driver within contexts similar to traditional news stories.
If viewing an ad that resembles a traditional news story a
consumer may be confused if it is actual news or an ad. Such
confusion will be voiced then shared on Social Media and the
brand is then subject to addressing those concerns.
9. Discussion Questions: 3
An Integrated Marketing Communication plan is essential for
brands to grow product sales through indirect effects from
ongoing online communication. Using ‘brand-centric’ content
from customers via paid, earned, or owned media bolsters
engagement, crowdsourcing, and long-term brand relationships.
