Marketing mix-up: Why everyone is all the sudden talking about social media?

Social Media: a Marketing Mix must?

 

Social Media seems to have become one of the inevitable elements of marketing mix. Have you noticed that in quite a lot of companies today there is a great demand for online marketing, primarily through social media marketing and SEO? What was wrong with our marketing strategy until now? Can we survive without social media?

Swept away by social media

 

Observing the communication reality online one can easily find out that there is a lot of pressure about implementing comprehensive social media marketing, SEO (sometimes interesting enough, called SEO optimization, which honestly does not make any sense!), online advertising, traffic control, etc. There are also numerous articles like this one found in Forbes stating that social media marketing is going to become the absolute must in 2014 and there ia a list of media seeing growth and decline.

As a business manager one gets completely swept off their feet by social media marketing promisses forgetting the uniqueness of their business and old and tried out maxima as “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Managers are convinced that optimizing their online policy is what is going to save their business. But is that true?

Is social media appropriate?

 

First and foremost, it is essential to understand that not every business is carved to be social. A simple example can be James Nicholls’ scientific research publication, “Everyday, Everywhere: Alcohol Marketing and Social Media—Current Trends” (Alcohol and Alcoholism Vol. 47, No. 4, pp. 486–493, 2012). The article discusses social media tactics used by alcohol brands in the UK and their consequences including creation of lasting habits. One can easily predict that many more articles like that discussing fast food companies, candy producers, soda producers, tobacco companies, possibly even companies staying behind environmentally bad products.

 

The danger of being social

Social media is social not only because it gathers consumers and gives companies the possibility to communicate directly and more effectively with target groups. It provides consumers with the power to communicate and discuss with each other and spread news. If there is just one opinion leader out there who finds out something discrediting about your company or the way you do business it is going to spread like wild fire. Because scandal sells even more that sex. Social media means transparency and exposure at levels which you have never experienced before. Many businesses are just not ready for that.

On top of that social media means that you need to provide valuable regular updates. You might want to be funny, or clever, or innovative, or whatever you want. But you need to be able to keep it up. Nobody will follow dull updates and they will not be of any value to you. When did we all get so productive and innovative and funny that we can keep it up daily for the foreseeable future? When did we deceive ourselves into believing that we are the only ones trying to follow such a strategy? Too much funny, too much innovation, too much cleverness is at the end simply too much.

Stuffing social media with corporate messages is going at the end to have the same effect as commercials on TV. Companies need to understand that they are not wanted on social media. Users of social media are people who want to come in contact with their friends, family or like-minded. This is also the reason why apps like Facebook AdBlock are appearing all the time.

Not only that every company’s arrival on Social media is going to avert consumers who in most cases see advertising on social media as too intrusive and violating their privacy, it is going to become significantly less effective in the future. Keeping in mind Facebook’s targeting methods it basically means that both you and all your competitors will have a shot at your target group. How is that better than advertising on TV?

Having a page on social media is more acceptable but as noted above it is not for all as many businesses will be accused in manipulating consumers or creating unhealthy habits or committing another sin. Using your page as an open communication channel is all alright but it is not going to be your miracle cure. Consumers are always more likely to socialize with a brand they are familiar with. For that reason new or not popular brands need to employ heavy marketing before a social strategy can be possible. Beware also of overexposing yourself. More presence will possibly make you visible in the eyes of consumers. Depending on your strategy, that can bring around more damage than good.

Looking back at the very core of social media we encounter another one of its downsides. The almost unlimited freedom of information dissemination makes it impossible for companies to control their image without manipulating posts and comments. However, even doing that will not save them from angry consumers. Regular users are gods in the social media space. The examples of stars’ death hoax are becoming ever more. If someone writes for example that their sister was poisoned by your product and everybody needs to share it to support the grief, they will. No matter if the story was true, the shadow of doubt will fall on your product and you will face losses. Are you ready to face the hoax?

Even if you have all your polices straight and you are 100 % sure that nothing can hit you unprepared you still need to be careful when voting for social media marketing. Analyzing consumer data is still pretty much in the shadows and social media users are not aware of how and how much information is gathered and used for marketing purposes. This is dangerous and might damage your image if information on shadowy data collection is connected to your company’s name. Nowadays there are pieces of data “uncovered” everyday and consumers are getting angry. Even though you were probably just a user of a service the CSR standards demand that you research and keep your supply chain clean. Thus, you are guilty.

Much more can be said about why not to go social. But this as all decisions concerning corporate communication should be made based on your strategy. If you are certain that engaging in social media marketing will be good for you, do it. It does work for many. What you really need to do prior such a decision though, is to make sure that you have double covered all scenarios and have your crisis communication policy close to you at all times. Just in case.

Last but not least, remember to not forget to employ traditional marketing and its basic principles. They still work.

 

DIDI

Global or local marketing strategy?

 

Today globalization means much more than travelling or drinking Cola all around the world. For companies it means a series of urgent questions and strategic decisions which are always due yesterday. A firm has generally few options – to operate locally while competing with local and global competitors, to operate globally while competing with global and local competitors, and to operate globally with localized strategies, thus to compete with global and local competitors as a local entity with the advantage of being a global company.

Each of these strategies makes sense in a certain context. Operating locally is mostly possible when we talk about small companies as with a company’s expansion its market necessarily also expands. However, there are several pluses which small companies should take advantage of. Firstly, it is fairly easy to network, create and manage strong relations with your local community. This way one can ensure loyalty and support for the business. Secondly, engaging in CSR is easy and effective. It is also incredibly visible within the community. Last but not least, one could profit from developing unique partnerships with local suppliers and other companies creating a desirable or protective business climate in the area. It is important to remember that investing in a community gives you some negotiated rights but it also gives you possibilities to control and develop your business environment.

Usually it is advised that strong and established global brands follow a global strategy. That means that a unified marketing strategy with minimal adjustments as language or other small details important at local level is implemented. Examples here are brands as Coca Cola, Harley Davidson, etc. Normally those brands have already been heavily marketed on both established and new markets so their arrival is anticipated and all values attributed to them are incorporated in consumer minds.

As great as that sounds it does have its downsides. Cultural differences, rivalry between countries or religious differences can trigger a market failure for a product marketed in such a way. On top of that one should always be on the watch for anti-globalists as their voice can be pretty loud and their arguments loaded with tragic emotion do affect many consumers and communities. Once again we could take Coca Cola as an example suffering in Asia from its way-too-American branding. The anti-American movement in many of those countries turned a few years ago into a campaign against all American products. Brands like Coca Cola were the main target.

Furthermore, global brands are attributed descriptions as impersonal, money-machines, mass production garbage, killers of culture and local business, invaders, etc.

So one could ask oneself – why market globally?

Just as mentioned above the globalization of a brand makes sense in certain cases. Marketers calculate expected profits and losses in connection to different strategies and if it turns out that losses are not expected to be major or are predicted to present a lesser cost than localizing the global strategy, it is a rational choice to go for global.

However, such a choice is quite more complicated. It also depends on what type of a product or service we offer and what are the standards in the countries where it will be marketed. Some products as toothpaste are generally expected to have similar qualities all around the world and can therefore be marketed globally with almost no necessary modifications. However, marketing something like cigarettes or alcohol which is a subject of a number or local regulations or something like lingerie the commercial of which might simply be banned in some countries as a result of moral censure presents us with a challenge. It requires consideration of a long list of factors highlighted by a thorough research of different prospect markets. That is what is called localized strategy.

In such a case a brand is built around a tight unbendable value core around which the product/service is shaped to meet market needs and requirements. Corporate policy though focuses not only on selling its product but on being accepted by local communities. That is necessary especially in controversial markets but is always advisable.

Allowing your branches to work semi-independently strategy-wise allows for local adjustments and for true involvement with the local community. Such a strategy which incorporates CSR elements benefitting local communities and developing a dialogue with them helps counteract the negative perceptions in connection to being a global brand and creates an environment of trust and mutual support. Needless to say, that will greatly affect sales.

However, there are also some cases where such a global – or multi-branch – company does not have a choice but to allow for independency and local policy for their branches. Such a case I have seen. Factors there were completely different core competences of employees, completely different customer base, different levels of popularity of company name in the two locations, different practices, different expectations and requirements of market based on some cultural differences, and so on. Incredibly enough, the goal was maximal unification – instead of maximum profit or efficiency. The result, not so incredibly, was a struggling local branch.

That is why making a decision concerning your global strategy should be based on thorough research and several major considerations:

1. What are the pluses and minuses of marketing globally?

2. What are the pluses and minuses of marketing locally?

3. What are the expectations of our main consumer base?

4. What are the needs and expectations of our prospect consumers?

5. Is our product/service replicable or it will be modified when entering the new markets?

6. What characterizes the new markets?

7. Who are our competitors? Is it at all worth it to enter certain market?

8. Are there strong local communities? Should we approach them? How?

9. Does our advertising need modification?

10. Are there some religious, cultural or other rules we should respect?

11. How will entering the new market affect our established market and our brand?

Those are just some general concerns which will likely have to be modified in accordance with your specific business, product, and of course market. The main point is that in marketing there are no simple decisions as the right decisions are based on facts, data, and prognoses. 

That is why no matter the size of your company or the budget you have, do yourself a favor and spend as much as needed on strategy. Otherwise you risk spending more on failed strategy.

DIDI

What advertising is not

Advertising has always been an important part of any communication strategy. But what does that mean in practice when deciding on marketing strategy?
I was recently asked to look through some university notes meant to help students prepare for their state exam. As I read I realized that there was a serious problem. It seems that many consider commercials to be the center of any marketing activities. And this is what they are not.

Stakeholder Management: behind the commercial

 

A commercial is designed not just according to the desire to sell certain product to certain target group. A commercial is designed as a visible end of a long marketing process. That is because even before designing a product or a service one should make sure that there is market for such product or service. That includes a comprehensive analysis of consumer needs and desires, of competition, of resources, of market tendencies. A successful product is usually designed in collaboration with target groups. Communication specialists always advise that consumers and other stakeholders are empowered when it comes to decision making. And this is a reasonable advice as practice shows that empowered stakeholders are more involved and thus less likely to switch to another company/brand. This implies that potential consumers along with all other stakeholders will be involved in the design and production of a product. Therefore they will not need to be informed about the new product through commercials.

A very good example of empowered consumers are brand communities as the Apple community. There we talk about much more than a product or a consumer need. What drives sales is the brand community’s culture. It is a question of pride to own an Apple product and it is always desired to have the latest model. The same we observe with the Harry Potter community. What can make a 10-year-old spend a night in front of a book store in order to get the new book as the first? It is not advertising. It is much more. Behind Harry Potter we can find a whole industry bringing the characters to life making them important part of the children’s lives through producing dolls, posters, creating stories, online communities, myths, etc. Thus it is superficial to regard advertising as a central marketing activity.

Kotler says that marketing is as an iceberg – what you see on the surface is just the tip of the iceberg. And this is where some less experienced companies stumble. Not understanding the importance or scope of marketing is fatal.
 

Advertising and types of commercials

Advertising offers good possibilities for reaching out to wider consumer segments, for establishing status or class, for promotion, for additional information, for keeping up interest, for comebacks. And used as such it will serve its purposes. Especially if designed accordingly and distributed through the right channels.

There are three general types of commercials – rational, based on promoting quality, stability, and price; emotional, designed to prompt an emotional response; and class-establishing, promoting luxury and exquisite lifestyle. There are furthermore commercials meant to accompany a product’s launch, to stabilize market positions and reach new consumer segments, to remind of the existence or characteristics of a product and finally to announce a comeback.

Media Strategy 

The media we choose for a commercial depends on the marketing strategy just as much as the commercial itself. Everything starts with analysis, mapping publics, budget, status, goals, and strategy. Nowadays typically used media as TV, radio and newspapers are no longer as effective as they have once been. This is mainly because of the enormous impact internet has on our lives today. Most people use it to get informed about products, read reviews, contact consumer communities. That is why it is almost useless promoting quality or other characteristics. People have the power to find the very truth about a product. For that reason today it makes much more sense to advertise the existence of a product, especially valid in the case of small or new companies, the class of the product and its superiority – why should we consider buying it.

However, we should not forget that today’s society is flooded by products and services and it becomes more and more obvious that other differentiators are needed to turn consumers’ attention towards one self and their product. It is advised that as long as you cannot provide a product impossible to copy, you have to invest in building an image that will make your product more desirable than the products of competitors. Doing so includes different types and mixes of activities as CSR, brand communities, partnerships, welfare, support of causes or science/medicine/sport/culture/etc., discussion groups, company outreach, transparency, reporting and many more depending on the branch.

That is why I will say it once again – advertising has its purpose, goals and results when used as a part of a thorough marketing strategy. It should not be underestimated, but even more importantly, it should not be overestimated.

DIDI