Procter & Gamble successfully used Facebook to connect with consumers and promote their brands. P&G set a goal for all their brands to have a significant Facebook presence in 2010. For Secret deodorant, P&G launched a Winter Olympics campaign around family and fun that was well received. This helped link P&G brands to feelings of prestige among consumers. P&G was also the first to directly sell products via Facebook. To be successful with social media, companies must evaluate their brand strengths, be comfortable with user control, and commit motivated workers to keep platforms updated. Strategic vision requires analyzing scenarios, capabilities, and developing a vision that builds on a company's core strengths. Apple used these techniques to transition successfully.

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Natalia Wong
1/8/15
Social Media & Marketing Strategies
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INTRODUCTION
A company’s strategic vision ponders on questions relating to its future survival. Planning
for what will come ahead will only place a company ahead of all the others. Many questions are
left to be answered when thinking of the companies strategic vision; such as: what needs to be
done for competitive advantage? What products should be made? What new markets should be
entered and what steps should be taken for its success? according to writer Paul J. H.
Schoemaker in “How to Link Strategic Vision to Core Capabilities.” Shoemaker describes four
steps to follow to ensure a good strategic vision connected with core capabilities (the unique
essences of the company). These steps are: coming up with possible futures the company may
encounter, conducting a competitive analysis, knowing your own company’s and competitor’s
core capabilities and lastly, developing a strategic vision. However, before getting into strategic
vision another important resource one must understand fully to launch a successful business is
the Internet. The Internet is a tool that if necessary can be used to completely rebrand a business
no matter how big or small in a short time. Also, according to Burson-Marsteller, a large New
York public relations firm, 11 million online users in the United states are the ones who affect the
buying decisions of 155 million consumers both online and off (404, Michael & William Arens
& Weigold). So not only is the Internet a great influencer, but also a digital tool used to get closer
to a company’s consumers. The perfect example is the digital tool Facebook and how it changed
the face of Procter & Gamble. Furthermore, even before we can set a strategic vision or dive into

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the digital world, we must understand target audiences and how various age groups interpret
digital media.
COMPUTER OWNERSHIP & INTERNET USE
In the American Community Survey Reports entitled “Computer and Internet Use in the
United States: 2013” by Thom File and Camille Ryan it states 83.8 percent of U.S. households
reported owning a computer; 78.5 percent having a desktop or laptop computer and 63.6 percent
having a handheld computer. In addition, the graph below shows the percentage of households
with computer and Internet use in 2013. It reveals that the age group 35-44 has the highest
computer ownership at 92.5 percent and highest internet use at 82.5 percent. The total opposite
of that result is the older age group, the age of 65 and older at 65.1 percent claiming computer
ownership and 58.3 percent claiming internet usage. It is safe to say that adults are using digital
media more often than any other age group possibly because this age group is already settled into
their careers and are financially secure and most capable to use the Internet to the fullest. The 65
years and older age group are retired and do not require everyday usage of the internet nor need
to use the internet to its full extent. According to the same graph homes of Asian origin have the
highest computer ownership at 92.5 percent and highest internet use at 86.6 percent. Homes of
Black origin have the lowest computer ownership at 75.8 percent and lowest Internet use at 61.3
percent. The homes in which resulted in a higher percentage is all due to the household income
being $150,000 and more as stated in the lower bottom of the graph.
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Two phases of online advertising is tracking and planning (532, Michael & William
Arens & Weigold). Planning should be done around what users are doing, which is displayed in
the chart below. The chart indicates that the highest amount of people upload photos and that is
because high quality images adds to the overall market value of anything. The second highest
percentage is 32 percent for online rating systems; a feature which both Amazon and Apple
utilizes to help new consumers know if the product they are buying is worth the money. Also,
this feature adds confidence and loyalty to new and old consumers.

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BLOGGING
Blogging at first you may think is popular among all age groups but that cannot be more
further from the truth. Blogging as declined in popularity among teens and young adults since
2006 according to Pew Internet surveys done by Pew Research Center. What may be the cause of
this decline you ask? Scientist believe it has to do with its increase in blogging by older adults.
Basically, working as an opposite attracts scenario, the kids stop blogging and the adults
correspond by blogging. It was discovered that one in ten online adults maintain a personal
online journal or blog. Quite a low average indeed, but overall the scattered percentages within
each age group makes up for the general population of bloggers. For example, in 2007, 24
percent of internet users ages 18-29 reported blogging, compared to seven percent of those 30
and older. Then by 2009, 15 percent of internet users ages 18-29 maintained a blog, which is a
nine percent drop in two years. Today, 11 percent of internet users ages 30 and older now have a
personal blog. The problem described above is lack of maintenance to personal blogs in the teen

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to young adult age group. Instead, adults and older adults are keeping blogs for longer periods of
time making their rate stable and even slightly increasing in the years to come.
TWITTER
Twitter is an increasingly important tool for digital marketing because it allows people to
interact using short messages that takes a small amount of time. Also, companies like Dell,
Apple, Starbucks, and others, it allows staying in regular contact with customers. Messages
through Twitter is short and to the point which attracts many users who like to quickly scan
through news.Young adults instead of teens are the ones leading the way to status updating on
Twitter. Scientist believe that 19 percent of adults use Twitter or similar services to post short
status updates and viewing updates of others online. In addition, altogether more young adults
are online wirelessly than any another age group; by laptop 55 percent and by cell or any
handheld 55 percent, and by any other device 28 percent as described in the graph below. Young
adults ages 18-29 years old seem to be the audience/ consumer that can be the tipping factor for a
successful online company because they are the savviest with various devices. Also, it is proven
that men and adults with high level income and education levels are the most likely to use the
internet. Men are more likely
than a woman to use a laptop
and access the internet
through a handheld device;
positively correlated with
educational attainment and
household income.

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MULTIPLE SNS PROFILES
According to Pew Center Research, a great change in the number of adults using social
networks and having multiple social network profiles have
grown between 2008-2009. The graph located at the right
indicates that in 2008, 54 percent of adults had one profile,
nine percent greater than 2009, but in 2009 only one year later,
36 percent and 16 percent of adults had two and three profiles
greater than the year 2008. For adult profile owners under 30
years old Facebook is just as popular as LinkedIn. Profile
owners between the ages of 18-29 years old, 71 percent had Facebook and 73 percent had
LinkedIn. Once again, young adults are towering above the other age groups in the social
network statistics. As described earlier, young adults have beaten teenagers for the top users of
Twitter and now, young adults have beaten adults age 30 and up in both Facebook and LinkedIn.
HEALTH SEEKERS / NEWS SEEKERS
Health is something important to just about any human being and it is no different in the
statistics of internet surfers using the internet for health information revealed in the graph below.
Overall, in adults ages 18 and older six in ten adults are online health information seekers
according to Pew Research Center. About 61 percent of adults are health information seekers; 38
percent look online for fitness and 21 percent look online for information on depression. In
addition, women are more likely to be health information seekers and also more likely to seek
information on fitness and weight loss. According to the chart entitled “Getting News Online”
also located below, 72 percent of adults look for general news online and 68% look for news on

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politics. And how often are these adults surfing for news online? For general news, 81 percent
looks for news daily and 59 percent looks for news weekly and 30
percent less often. When it comes to political news, 75 percent
search online daily and 61 percent search weekly and lastly, 41
percent less often. This result indicates, that weekly and less
often, adults would look up political news, and daily, adults would
rather search for general news online.
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PROCTER & GAMBLE / FACEBOOK
Procter & Gamble’s (P&G) associate marketing director Chappell stated that “the
possibilities now are becoming endless to develop a deeper connection” and he was referring to
building a deeper connection to consumers through the marketing tool Facebook according to the
research report “Facebook: Procter & Gamble’s Social Media Tool of Choice.” P&G’s first goal
that they set for themselves in 2010 was for all their brands to have a significant presence on
Facebook. However, P&G did not want to change their original communication strategies,
instead they wanted to use Facebook as a complementary marketing tool. P&G developed a
Facebook page for its Secret deodorant and because the launch was around the 2010 Winter
Olympics their campaign worked positively reflecting the Olympics and the idea of family
togetherness and fun. The catch slogan used was “to their moms, they’ll always be kids” and
after the very successful launch, consumers then started linking P&G brands with feelings of
prestige. This consumer awareness came with hard work from all the brands affiliated with P&G
and they did this by creating links to all Facebook pages attached to all of their social media
content. Furthermore, many youtube videos contained links that directly took consumers to the
Facebook pages.
Max Factor, one of P&G’s brands later became the first to sell directly to consumers via
Facebook. Then P&G devised a plan to affiliate their Secret deodorant with their campaign to
end bullying. As you can see P&G did not stray far from their successful Winter Olympics
campaign because they maintained the community feel of things in their idea. The bullying idea
then turned into a nation wide “Mean Stinks” project. Their Facebook page quickly generated
9,000 fans within its first ten days of its release. According to the report “Facebook: Procter &

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Gamble’s Social Media Tool of Choice” 38 percent of social network users pointed to other
consumers as the most reliable source of information about a brand, and that is the results and the
difference between a social media strategy and a traditional marketing strategy. In a traditional
marketing strategy marketers are always in control of the messages they want to convey and
thats not enough because consumers will rely greater on a fellow consumer than a company’s
word/ claims.
There is a downside to social media and that can occur if a brand rushes in unprepared.
Unpreparedness is a result of failing in evaluating the levels of the brand; that includes: strengths
to withstand pressures, comfortable in allowing users social media control, and a strong time
commitment and motivated workers can help keep a stable social media platform updated. In
addition, know weaknesses and know ways which positive light can over shine the weaknesses.
Lastly, social media can help build conversations and brand recognition, but the results can be
unpredictable. P&G did as well as they did because they discovered in order to make an impact
on their customers, “digital efforts do best when tied to a course or purpose” stated in “Facebook:
Procter & Gamble’s Social Media Tool of Choice.” In P&G’s success, that purpose was
community support and awareness.
STRATEGIC VISION & APPLE
Paul J.H. Schoemaker is the senior staff member at SEI Center for Advance Management
at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and is framework to a successful
strategic vision includes four steps which he in-depth explains by using Apple’s strategic position
in his magazine publication entitled “How to Link Strategic Vision to Core Capabilities.” His
viewpoint is much different from the information spoken about thus far because his focus is more

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of the managerial aspect of a company and what is needed in the core qualities of the company
for it to strive. However, overall his managerial vision is needed to understand successful
branding and marketing decisions and what results from well planned ideas.
The first idea Apple wanted to explore was to make their machines talk with each other as
well as with IBM. One way to do so was by collaborating with IBM, the leading business
machine manufactures. IBM then worked with Microsoft and developed OS/2 which was all
along aimed to making Apple’s machinery outdated. And so, the three powerhouse companies
battled for independence in hope of coming on top with a more superior machinery than their
competitors. With such intense competition, a company needs a method to help analyze its
environment. By using a scenario analysis/ method, this helps managers to map out possible
futures for the company.
First, a time frame must be mapped out in order to come up with a list of all factors that
might affect the envisioned time frame. Some factors to consider are technology changes,
product changes, competitor and investment necessity. Apple was able to change its entire
product in about 100 days. Apple tried to predict its future by mapping ahead its struggles, but
that road too isn’t easy and so they continued to weigh their negative scenarios and positive
scenarios. Scenario one predicted the slow down of computer sales because of a severe economic
recession. Scenario two predicted the economic growth in the computing and PC markets. Lastly,
scenario three includes both a mix of scenario one and two; the economy is booming, the U.S.
dollar is weak and yet PC markets are growing. In market segmentation the costumers needs and
characteristics of each group is important. Apple came up with six strategic segments: Big
business (Large quantities and computing power important), small business (more need for user

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friendliness and low network capabilities), home (one unit purchase and very price sensitive),
education/ university (Large quantities and less need for user friendliness), education/ elementary
(large quantities purchased and high need for user friendliness) and workstations (individual or
group buying; less price sensitive).
Next, the company must examine its self internally like the layers of an onion. Things to
examine are: relative strength, weakness in research and development, marketing, sales, product
quality, employee morale, compensation reputation and more according to Schoemaker. When
thinking of the company like an onion the design and marketing is the outer layers while the core
is the manpower and skills necessary. “The challenge is to think of the firm not just in terms of
its visible end products but also in terms of its invisible assets and core capabilities” said directly
by Schoemaker. He believes, that an above average return in an outcome the company wishes to
see can only come to light with assets and skills that are hard to imitate. This is where the
uniqueness of the company is important because with a unique market, new out of the box ideas
and designs can trigger inspiration.
In addition, Schoemaker comes up with the idea of “sticky assets” meaning for example
IBM could never become an Apple or Apple an IBM. “Sticky assets” are important in
understanding what the company’s present core capabilities are and how these need to be
adjusted in order to view positive future scenarios. Two things mentioned about “sticky assets”
that stuck out from all the rest is development cannot be speeded up with doubling investments
and cannot be easily imitated or transferred to other companies.
Once a vision is chosen from all the others because it makes the most sense for where the
company currently is right now, a new vision builds on what already exists rather than starting

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from scratch. In the past, Apple was very unstructured like most startups and by owning to the
user-friendliness of the software and building better products than the past products ensured
Apple a future where consumers are satisfied. Schoemaker goes on to directly state “flexible
facilitation, including techniques that encourage creative, nonlinear thinking, is essential to the
successful application of this process in management teams. Usually, follow-up staff work is
indicated of the scenarios or competitive portions, and external consultants may be useful if
limited in-house resources or expertise exist.” One can agree with such a statement when the
company has little resources in staff but many plans and aspirations for the future. The battle is
off to a good start once there are goals and plans, next is building the ideal team which will move
beyond the planning stages.
CONCLUSION
To conclude, many questions are left to be answered when thinking of a company’s
strategic vision. Strong managerial overseers must understand all the challenges in which the
company currently faces and predict scenarios that may interfere or improve the status over time.
Digital marketing with the use of social networks, an important tool that is the best inexpensive
way to brand and expand a company’s presence in a viral world should be exhausted and used
efficiently enough to locate and bring together target audiences. The internet is a great influencer
and if used correctly the blocks necessary to build up a strong foundation/ future will fall
together.
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Work Cited
Adesulu, Morenike. "Facebook: Procter & Gamble's Social Media Tool of Choice." 29 Sept.
2011.
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Arens, William F., Michael F. Weigold, and Christian Arens. Contemporary Advertising &
Integrated Marketing Communications. 13th ed. New York: Mc Graw Hill, 2011. Print.
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File, Thom and Camille Ryan, “Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2013,”
American Community Survey Reports, ACS-28, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC, 2014.
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Pew Internet & American Life Project. “Social Media & Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and
Young Adults.” Washington D.C. PewResearch Center, 2010.
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Schoemaker, Paul J.H. "How to Link Strategic Vision to Core Capabilities." MITSloan
Management Review.1977-2015. Web. <http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-to-link-stratrgic-
vision-to-core-capabilities/>.
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