Benefits And Drawbacks Of Social Media Marketing Essay

Benefits And Drawbacks Of Social Media Marketing Essay This case introduces Web 2.0 social media in virtual worlds, networking sites, and video sharing sites, and entices students to explore the opportunities and risks they are confronted for brands. The case allows students to fight with the strategic and tactical decisions that accompany marketing communications strategy and to merge information on consumer behaviour with an understanding of brand objectives, in order to assess and evaluate new social media options. Foley, brand manager, is facing a more and more complex media environment in which her conventional media plan which is focused on television, print, and radio advertising, has become less popular due largely to declining audiences and a surge in advertising clutter, plus consumers tuning out. She is exploring emerging Web 2.0 social media options to determine if they can better achieve her branding and advertising objectives. Her challenge is to curtail the entire buzz surrounding Web 2.0 and to analyze the social medias p ossible for her brand by delving into the consumer dire needs and behaviours support Web 2.0 technologies Case issue: I think UnMe Jeans is a suitable brand for social media and the Web 2.0. Their target market is women between 12-24 years old, and this segment is consuming less traditional media, and increasing their consumption in the Web 2.0. With new technologies and platforms they can regulate the ads or somehow avoid them and still enjoy their favourite TV shows or any type of entertainment. I think its evident Web 2.0 is the right path for UnMe Jeans, the question is how to do it. The benefits social media offer to UnME Jeans are: The social media attracts more people than traditional media so they can reach more possible users as customers. They can target their audience with more accuracy and in a more efficient way. The idea is to make the costumers part of the social media community, to get them involved and get a deeper engagement with the brand. The drawbacks social media offer to UnME Jeans are: Lack of control of the content: Foley, Brand Manager of UnME Jeans, is faced with a challenge as she reconsiders her advertising media plan due to the increase of social media options on the emerging Web 2.0. These options become even more intriguing with the steady price increases of television advertising despite the growth of several unfavourable conditions. Working with her advertising agency, Foley must effectively use her brand management skills to choose which social media channel, if any that she should incorporate into her current advertising media plan. The advertising agency suggested three viable options, Zwinktopia, Facebook, and YouTube. Zwinktopia is a virtual world targeted to girls ages 13 to 24 with a focus on fashion and music, Facebook is a social networking, profile page site, and YouTube is a user-generated video-sharing website. I suggest that Foley pursue the Zwinktopia social media channel as a starting point to take advantage of the emerging Web 2.0 and also make a minor investment in the other options to develop their web 2.0 presence. Key issue of unme jeans: Looking ahead Foley the brand manager of unme jeans realise that the trends were driving the radical change in media market that had potential to reduce the effectiveness of her current media plan. The consumer media habit were rapidly changing because the peoples are more attracted towards the internet Driven by the proliferation of new technology like the personal computer dvd players and ipods these all new electronic devices are main reasons of changing consumer behaviour Foley the brand manager of unme jeans was confuse in between advertise in television and advertise in internet which is better for marketing. Foley advertising agency had provided her with a plan to bring her plan to three social media outlet. Zwinktopia, facebook , youtube. She knew that she wanted to do less talking at and more talking with her consumer and she wanted to use media outlet where consumer is more receptive offer brand story and which would foster the most constrictive dialogue about her brand She also wanted to use programme that would seamlessly integrate with and support her exiting media plan. But most of all she wanted to social media programme to make on impact on her sell. Swot analysis: Strength: Unme jeans was one of the most successful junior denim brand available in market The unme brand story revolved around celebrating the individuality of teenage girls and encouraging teens to speak out against peer pressure and conformity Unme jeans are available in upscale department store and especially retailer across the united state and sold at a slight premium to comparable the brand Weakness: The changing of consumer media habit and proliferation of new technology like a personal computer dvd player and ipods consumer were tuning out traditional media like television magazines news paper and radio and tuning into new media options Opportunity: The opportunity for the unme jeans is web 2.0 applications are those that make the most intrinsic advantage of that platform Delivering software essay continually update service that get better and more people use it. The web 2.0 is also called consumer co-creation because that gave consumers the ability to direct contribute to the online conversation and contain that was available on the web. Three web 2.0 advertise opportunity mainly are Zwinktopia facebook and you tube Threats: Remember that new things always get better and to advertise brand web 2.0 the company need to invest more on advertising which is not possible for every company. Analysis of the case: Just like any business problem, Foley is faced with several issues in making her decision to change her advertising media plan. With a full knowledge of the issues, Foley can better analyze her options in the process of making a justified decision. Rapidly changing consumer trends There is a clear indication that consumers media habits have evolved due to the proliferation of new technology. There are more outlets available that resulted in the change of how their market consumes media. Much of these changes were geared towards online outlets, especially among the younger audience. In order to remain successful, the company must ensure they can quickly respond to the rapidly changing. Formulation and evaluation of alternative: Benefits and Drawbacks of social media: Youtube: Benefits: Promotes high involvement and participation Large demographic availability, it allows marketers to target the audience appropriate for their product Some forms of experiments have shown optimistic results have given marketers an option to choose layout and position of their ads. For eg: participatory video ads, in-video advertising . Proven successful when used as the right channel and not only an alternative for Television ads. Drawbacks: High cost of marketing and additional cost on developing competently made videos. Lack of control over the content Still in research and test stage and it may back fire if not blended well. For eg: pre-roll ads. Language and location restriction Zwinktopia: Benefits: Promotes the ideals UnME stands for i.e celebrate individuality, non-confirming attitude. A new way of expression. Have the right demographics for UnME i.e teenage girls, the website are focused on fashion and music. Marketers can promote relevant ads in the virtual world. Can be linked to other social media like facebook  and Myspace. Drawbacks: May not influence real world sales for the company. There are over 200,000 virtual products which increase competition and fight for market share that may not give return for the company. Facebook: Benefits: Highest demographic segment among the target audience. Also has the highest average time spent on the website and highest frequent return of the user to the page. Easy access to information on the users, hence the target market can be served with relevant ads based on their profile page. Acts like a discussion forum where users interact with the brand and discuss their interests. Videos can be promoted on the website as well. Drawbacks: Since users may view over 500 pages of content the recall value may drop significantly. Lack of measurement tools to measure success. High cluttering on the network may make the users indifferent to the ads. May lead to over advertising and hijack  the very purpose Recommendation: Besides the fact that there are more people today than any other website that visit Facebook, On Facebook it is all about the interactions and discussions that occur between its users. So seeing the attractiveness of the platform as mentioned above Facebook can be used for advertisements to reach a more targeted audience in fewer costs. Another great feature of Facebook is the fan page. This feature allows a company or a brand or a product to create a Facebook page solely dedicated to it. There, users are enabled and encouraged to share opinions, information, criticism, or whatever else. When these kinds of conversations happen, it creates an atmosphere for free discussion and a buzz about that fan page. All these aforementioned features are just some of the countless great tools available on Facebook for marketers such as Foley to promote their brand. Social media provide sales professionals with the opportunity to listen and influence through their participation. Not using Facebook would simply result in a significantly missed opportunity for Foley. In addition to that, her brand will look inferior to the other brands that seize the opportunity of social media. Overall, using Facebook provides more impacts in terms of reach, frequency, receptivity and presence. In addition, page views, unique visitors and the time spent on the site in Facebook is larger than others. Therefore I recommend Facebook rather than Zwinktopia and YouTube. Of course, if the budget allows, the company uses other media platforms and have to make synergy effect based on Web 2.0 concept. It requires additional efforts, but it must be a good approach. As mentioned before, I recommend that Facebook is the best choice among three suggested plans. One of the reasons is the openness of Facebook. With the development of the information technologies, Facebook has evolved. Currently Facebook is not only a simple social website, but a big platform. The company uploads and maintains various types of contents, people can access Facebook via many different ways, and the contents of Facebook can flow through the Web. Therefore, if the company has an appropriate plan, it is possible to make big synergy effects. Implementation Plan Implementation Component: Managing Change X Instructional Practices Curricula An Assessment System X Professional Learning Communications ResourcesPurpose: To create a brand valuegh of unme jeans and advertise using facebook as a social media. Action Steps What Will Be Done? Responsibilities Who Will Do It? Timeline By When? (Day/Month) Resources Resources Available Resources Needed (financial, human, political other) Potential Barriers What individuals or entities might resist? How do we address this resistance? Communications Plan Who is involved? What methods? How often? Step 1: To use facebook to create ads related to the product. Advertising Agency May 2013 A. Facebook B. Human resource Time Deploy more people to create and upload the ads Everyone Step 2: To create fan page on facebook because of that users are enabled and encouraged to share opinions, information, criticism, or whatever else. Advertising Agency June 2013 A. Page maker in facebook B. Human resourse- creative team The tool of making pages might be difficult to use. Training and developing creative team Everyone Step 3: Social should be use and not neglected Advertising Agency N.A A. Facebook B. You Tube C. Zwinktopia A. lack of tech savvy people. B. create awareness about social media platform. Everyone Step 4: Advertising Agency Begin in August and continue throughout 2012-2013 A. Current Textbooks B. Internet C. Parents D. Time E. Manipulatives F. Training A. Time All teachers Step 5: Implement ELA Shifts 2, 3, and 5 All Teachers Begin August 2013 A. Document Cameras for Smartboards B. 6-Trait Rubrics C. Training A.Time B. All Teachers Evidence Of Success (How will you know that you are making progress? What are your benchmarks?) Evaluation Process (How will you determine that your goal has been reached? What are your measures?)