As it is the case with everything, the use of online social media has its pros and cons. On the E Marketing for Sensible Folks blog ( http://e-marketingforsensiblefolk.blogspot.com/2010/05/can-your-brand-thrive-without-online.html) the advantages and disadvantages of this new wave of marketing are described in detail. While reading the post, first thing that came into my mind was the concept of segmentation. At the end of the day, the most difficult task for the marketing team is to develop the right market segmentation. If this is done correctly then it will be easier to decide whether online social media will be beneficial or not given the targeted customers.
While for certain products especially those designed for younger generations, sites such as Facebook, Twitter and You Tube will for sure be successful. However, for more exquisite brands ( let's say Rolex ), the company might not want to spend the extra money on social media since in this case it won't make a difference. The customer base for exclusive products is formed outside of the "social" pool. Following an online social media campaign might even deteriorate the exclusive brand name since now everybody is aware of it, everybody can express an opinion that will not necessary support the product's intrisic value.
On the other hand, for a major part of products on the market, pursuing an online social media campaign is a must. Just by looking at the millions of users on Facebook, millions or even billions of views on You Tube one can sense the potential customer base that can be reached through these channels. The new social networking that takes place online has switched the trend in marketing from delivering a message to discussing it. Hence, the models presented by Jordan Julien on http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/121581 are all emphasizing the importance of efficient and effective communication. While this communication can sometimes be against a certain product, the company can rapidly respond back by defending themselved through the social media. Thus, the use of social media will create new job descriptions since monitoring it will take a full time employer.
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I think the concept of segmentation is really the main issue here, and at the end, social networks pages are starting to differentiate one from another leveraging on their types of users. On one hand, Linkedin target professionals who want to be informed about their peers, business news, job opportunities and I think it's a social network that every young professional must be subscribed in. YouTube and Facebook are of course targeted for teens who want to share personal experiences, multimedia and interact with their friends.
ReplyDeleteBut every kind of social network has something in common, once the reach an amount of subscribers they become very valuable for companies who want to be part of community...why? because it's a communication channel and with great, innovative advertising can increase customer loyalty, brand awareness, distribution, new customers, among others...
It’s clear that consumer habits are rapidly changing and this should in effect cause companies and advertisers to change the way that they Market their products so as to fit the changing habits of the consumers.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the first step is not the segmentation of the product but the segmentation of the non conventional form. The issue should not be on the learning curve on how to segment or how to spend advertising dollars in non conventional forms, it should be which nonconventional form to choose -if any depending on the industry. With the nonconventional forms of advertising, the consumers are going specifically to the different formats to seek out the company and then they are ordering the products so this is a pull system instead of a push system where the company is forcing the product on the consumers.
Online advertising was predicted to grow six times more quickly than traditional media. It’s a mistake to be a follower and be playing catch up instead of being an early adopter or even staying with the pack. The evidence showed that between 2007 and 2012 advertising spent on social media was projected to go from $600m to $6.9billion because that is the new way to reach the target market.
One of the major issues with using a new form of advertising is the measurability factor. Companies don’t want to take money away from traditional advertising form and transfer to a new format without being able to know exactly how successful the new format is.It is increasingly hard to measure each form of advertising but even with traditional formats, it is never an exact science.
You are right when you say that companies have to figure out their market segments, but once those are defined they can be used in social media. That's why I disagree with your assessment that "exquisite" brands would waste money for using social media. For instance if you know that your market includes professionals who have some level of affluence you could most certainly target certain mediums like luxury watch forums, investment forums and even Facebook. Facebook can certainly guess what's the affluence level of some users and feed them high-end product ads.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore brand dilution is not the fault of social media, it can certainly happen using normal mediums. In addition as illustrated on A Framework for Branding Through Social Media post companies could use the direct communication which is basically the same as putting an ad on a magazine. If done correctly it will not dilute the brand in print or online.
Direct communication also does not require a lot of resources... as Rene wrote here tools have become so automated that you can set monthly (or other cycles) budgets for your campaigns. Along those lines you would just set certain parameters that would work in conjunction with user data to figure out which users are worthy of seeing your ads. Google does it and they have been quite successful and I assume their customers have been successful as well if not they wouldn't be using them.
I agree with Joe that if social media is integrated correctly into a company's marketing campaign, it can truly be successful. However, the key is to choose the appropriate form of social media, or other form of online media, and perfect it before moving on to any other form of social media.
ReplyDeleteAna, I also agree that you would need a full-time person to maintain the online social network in order to carry it out successfully. In fact, in my department, we have held off on diving into social media as part of our marketing campaigns awaiting the funds to cover a full-time person that would be able to do the job entirely and effectively.
Each social media site has it's unique function and unique crowd. First, you must choose what platform is the best for your brand before you'll conduct a campaign.
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