Social Networking and How it is used for Promotion - Essay Example

Social Networking and How it is used for Promotion Introduction The boundaries of promotion in modern society extend beyond the profit motive. Ethics, values, and responsibilities are involved. For promotion is being challenged, along with other aspects of business, to lead in new areas of responsibility that affect illiteracy, starvation, national welfare, international development, peace, and national security. In our society business is one of the major institutions that has the capabilities, resources, and motivation to meet social challenges. It also has the most to lose if social challenges are not met. To date, business, and particularly the marketing sector of business, does not have an enviable record of social accomplishments. Social networks like Facebook and MySpace become the main tools which promote social ideas and values ideals and preferences desirable for modern marketers. Through social networks, marketing is not a remote area of business operating on the periphery of society. Marketing activities reshape not only the economic but the political, social, cultural, and ecological aspects of society. Thus, while it has a vitalinterface with the economic, it is also directly involved in noneconomic aspects. The former, the economic, may influence greatly the life of business; the latter, the noneconomic, influences the life of society (Harris and Whalen 2006). The two are intertwined. Marketing thus is a social institution, an integral part of our social system concerned with fulfilling society's wants and needs, with delivering a standard of living, for the major business of marketing is customer satisfaction-hence marketing is intimately involved in public affairs and social progress. Marketing does exercise an influential societal role: marketing progress is a handmaiden of social change. In turn, marketing is influenced and shaped by the society of the times, and the forces of history. SWOT The framework for examining the organization environment is similar to the strengths and weaknesses (S-W) part of the review in the traditional SWOT analysis (i.e., organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats). The purpose of this internal analysis is to see what the organization has to work with as it begins to position itself to deal with the opportunities and threats identified through the analysis of the external environments (Paley, 2006). Strengths The main strengths of Facebook and MySpace are easy access and availability, large and diverse geographical audiences and communication and interaction possibilities. Individual competencies, both soft and technical. Leadership from the work team and department level up through the senior management team. Although leadership is certainly an individual-level competency, it is usually important enough to warrant breaking it out separately. Collaboration or collegiality, which refers to the extent to which individuals interact smoothly with others and feel part of a team both within and across work groups. The technological assets are available to the large geographical market. Facilities and heavy equipment, which includes an evaluation of their number, size, capability, state of repair, and safety. The structure, systems, and decision-making styles or processes support how things get done. Opportunities Strategic and tactical innovations do not demand great change in consumer habits, a fact that may shift the focus of the promotion job. During periods of expanding markets, volume, price, and distribution channels are important factors and mass promotion supports them. As markets mature, promotion becomes a competitive weapon. Now minor product adjustments are stressed to persuade consumers who know the product to select it over competitors' products, and to endeavor to increase the rate of use. Promotion through social networks does support the actual distribution and can be used to push or pull a product through distribution channels. By creating demand at the ultimate consumer level, promotion can influence retailer and wholesaler decisions to carry a product -- this pulls the product through the channels. To a large extent the product is presold (Klaassen, 2008). Weaknesses This medium is privately owned and is not condoled by the government. In some cases, social networks can exploit consumers and create false social values and prefe3nces. Reaffirmation of consumer choice, a postsale activity, is important. Continued promotion after a purchase gives the customer public acknowledgment of his wise choice, and tends to eliminate or reduce cognitive dissonance. The customer is reassured and resold. Repeat business is the avenue to continued success, and postsale promotion often the course to repeat business. Threats The main threat is misleading of a potential customer and unethical behavior of social networks. In many cases, competition faces social networks to break ethical rules and social responsibility issues. It should be used to take a broad view of the relative competence of the firm and the analysis must deliberately be driven from a customer perspective. It is therefore important to take into account both facts and perceptions. Customers' buying decisions are based on their perception of the relative advantages (price/cost, performance, quality etc) of the firms `offerings' versus that of either direct competitors or substitute products/services. These perceptions may or may not correlate with the facts. Successful businesses are those that effectively manage customer perceptions to ensure that their products/services are the preferred choice (Klaassen, 2008). Five P’s: Product, Place, Promotion, Price, Partners. Price In virtual environment, differentiation and price are linked. Normally achieving differentiation enables a price premium to be charged. However, this additional price potential may be sacrificed to enable increased volume/market share to be achieved (Paley, 2006). This in itself may provide a further competitive advantage as high volume drives down unit costs. n this case premium price reinforces the perception of premium product — in fact a lower price would damage the competitive positioning. Examples would be luxury cars or exclusive hotels where the tangible additional value provided, versus a lower profile competitor, is significantly less than the price premium attracted. The price reinforces the positive perception. Here brand image and exclusivity are directly supported by price. To reduce price would actually reduce attractiveness (Harris and Whalen 2006). Place Virtual place represents a unique environment. In fact, information is causing an even more fundamental revolution in many sectors. Moreover, the more savvy customers have started to use information to their advantage. Never mind more familiar strategies (sell existing products to new markets; sell new products to existing markets) — competitive advantage in this context comes from transforming the 'rules of the game' almost overnight, throwing away the old way of doing things and creating new industry paradigms (Paley, 2006). Promotion Social networks communicate their value/price offering to the consumer through promotion and promotion that may or may not be linked to a particular distribution channel. In a slight variation of the standard model, some industries (retail banks, for example) might own or manage their own outlet. The main of promotion strategies is to differentiate social networks from other websites. Facebook and MySpace differentiate their products from the other products that are for sale on the Web (Harris and Whalen 2006). Product Facebook and MySpace propose a unique service based on personal dairies. Where no real differentiation exists the business is operating as a commodity and the customer will choose on price and availability. A low cost competitive strategy will be required to support a lowest (or equal) price whilst still retaining average industry profitability. The differentiation matrixes should be used to map the business offerings and the relative position of competitors. Based on this analysis, alternative market strategies should be examined and a choice made (Harris and Whalen 2006). Partners Partners of social networks involve all stakeholders of the business from users to city administration and school or a region. With respect to the type of competencies likely to be important, a retail organization that devotes a large part of the budget to compensating employees tends to emphasize a different mix of skills in its sales force. This is evident on entering Saks Fifth Avenue after shopping at a discount department store. In fact, understanding where on the compensation continuum the organization competes for employees is frequently a critical piece of information (Harris and Whalen 2006). Consumer Behavior Population is an essential component of profitable markets. Yet population by itself is not sufficient; it must be supported by consumer willingness and ability to buy. To appreciate the role of population in the marketing scheme, we must view the family and the household as purchasing units, and consider such matters as stages in the life cycle, segmentation of markets by age groups, shifts from farm to urban living, changes in the size and composition of the family, the impact of education, and the addition of women to the labor force. Expanding markets are based on incentives to produce, grow more efficient, prosper, and improve oneself (Harris and Whalen 2006). Consumers are concerned with raising their own material well-being and cultural standards and providing wealth for future generations. For this, a favorable economic climate, technological advancement, and increased productivity are essential and reinforce the impact of an expanding population. Even so, the decades ahead will probably not witness smooth, continuous economic growth, but will be subject to irregular shortterm variations (Anonymous 2007). Children and senior citizens, who account for a major and increasingly greater proportion of our population, do not add to the working force. As a result, our overall productivity must grow to carry this burden and to raise the standard of living. Fortunately, Americans of working age -those between 16 and 65 -- are increasing considerably faster than those in the dependent brackets -- under 16 and over 65. In the United States, therefore, the resource situation is such that the expanse in population does not cause economic disaster. The potential for economic growth exists, the working population will have less of a burden to carry from dependents, and added population does provide market opportunity (Klaassen, 2008). Market Influences Increasing leisure, night and weekend shopping hours, and shopping centers located near homes encourage family shopping. The influence of either husband or wife varies with the particular purchase. For such items as automobiles, tires, and batteries, the husband may have the greatest influence; for children's clothing, home furnishings, and food items, the wife may be the most influential. Many factors establish the specific decision maker (Newman 2008). The importance of the decision is one consideration; place is another. For instance, if a decision is made in the home, as contrasted with a retail department store, the identity of the decision maker may easily vary. Groups witnessing a decision being made can influence what happens. Also, decision roles outside the home need not be the same as the roles within (Harris and Whalen 2006). Cities have a great influence on our way of life and, broadly conceived, serve partly as marketing institutions. Yet virtually no comprehensive and systematic studies have been made of the city's marketing role. Cities are areas for the concentration and dispersion of goods. But the physical flows of products through them have changed radically, as metropolitan areas have spread and become linked into a megalopolis. In the development of a large, sprawling megalopolis, the movement of people becomes as important as, or more so than, the movement of products (Brymer 2008). Retail services and the dispersion of goods have followed populations out of the core of cities into the suburbs. Services are becoming a more important part of consumption. A large proportion of products and services is purchased and consumed at a considerable distance from home. Therefore, transport to and from services is significant, and people become increasingly dependent on efficiently organized transportation systems. Many services involve direct contact between the person who furnishes and the person who receives them (Harris and Whalen 2006). The life cycle is a sociopsychological concept that affords a perspective for the decisions and choices made at each stage of life. It emphasizes family formation, expansion, and contraction or change in direction, and refers to trends in living through childhood, teen-age years, young adulthood, marriage, acquisition of a family, growth and divestment of children, and senior citizenship. Life cycle thus is a broader concept than adult cycle or family cycle and encompasses both (Newman 2008). Children will continue to exert a significant influence in our culture. Their future impact on purchases is likely to be even greater because of numbers-an increasing number of people are reaching marriageable age.. The teen-age market is thought to have a different underlying psychology. In teen-age situations, ambivalence develops. Teen-agers are sometimes treated as adults and other times as children. Sometimes they are quite independent and other times most dependent. Products take on different meanings for them. For example, clothing becomes significant to the teen-ager; it is a symbol of security and a means of self-satisfaction for him (Anonymous 2007). Communication and Promotion A consideration of marketing's social dimensions raises many significant questions. Included are: can or should marketing, as a function of business, possess a social role distinct from the personal social roles of individuals who are charged with marketing responsibilities? Does the business as a legal entity possess a conscience, and a personality, whose sum is greater than the respective attributes of its individual managers and owners? Should each member of management be held personally accountable for social acts committed, or omitted, in the name of business? Answers to these questions change with time and situations, but the trend is surely to a broadening recognition of marketing responsibilities, the development of marketing's social role. There has been a major change in the perception of business and marketing objectives (Brymer 2008). Previously, it was held that the sole objective of business was to make a profit -- its chief responsibility was to its stockholders. Business was not charged with the responsible use of business power. Now its perception of responsibility has been broadened to include society, and the new ideology seeks the justification of business in a social context. Business has as its objective the development and use of resources, human, financial, and physical, for the benefit of others than those in the social network, and for the community at large. Profits, however, are still of major importance, as are returns to shareholders, but executives now act with at least partial disregard for the single dictate of profit making (Harris and Whalen 2006). Mood effects are sometimes thought to be outside the boundary conditions of information processing models. Such a conclusion is premature and certainly inconsistent with the data reported. In fact, the present results suggest that at least some mood effects can be accounted for quite well in information processing terms. A reasonably simple model was developed and used to illustrate how specific a priori predictions pertaining to mood can be derived (Harris and Whalen 2006). Thus, the generalizability of this approach would appear to be very promising. Consumers do not appraise products on the basis of utilitarian functionality only, but are also concerned with the artistic and aesthetic qualities of products. Products are purchased on the basis of style, beauty, design, form, shape, and color as well as function and utility. Thus, social preferences are of concern not only to designers, architects, interior decorators, and artists, but also to marketers. and exposure to environments; sensibility, in the sense of being able to perceive and receive sensation; and morality, the beliefs and principles that set patterns for directing and judging behavior (Brymer 2008). It seems that American social preferences are improving. Among the major forces working to elevate American social preferences are rising real incomes, better and continuing education, mass-communications media, the efforts of informed tastemakers to influence the public, and the general desire for recognition, self-expression, self-achievement, and self-realization. Probably the most powerful single factor in improving ideals is formal education. Since the proportion of adults who have completed high school and are going to college will continue to increase, social preferences will be elevated. Taste is not an acquired or inherited phenomenon. It is learned. Therefore, opportunity exists for designers, manufacturers, and marketers to upgrade social preferences. Learning implies repetition over time (Newman 2008). What may be rejected in product design or color today may be viewed approvingly after a second, third, or fourth exposure. In social preferences and in tastemaking, the marketer is concerned with the question of how consumers learn to like things, and what influence familiarity has on the degree of liking. American consumers are often ridiculed, chided, and scorned for their social preferences. Consumers seem to be well aware of the necessity of improving tastes and satisfying aesthetic and psychological needs. First the functional, physiological, and safety aspects of products must be satisfied. Once these functional standards and values are identified and incorporated into products, the symbolic, aesthetic, and cultural dimensions, which are more related to product visibility and symbolism, become important. They are reflected in consumer purchases of good books, records, paintings, flowers, the application of better color sense, good style and design in the home, and a general upgrading of quality. These seem to indicate a "better life" and appreciation for aesthetics. Consumers are flexible, adaptive, and sensitive to change. They are mobiles in geographic and social terms and are optimistic about future income. Psychologically American consumers are geared to expect change. They anticipate and expect changes in automobiles, homes, refrigerators, and clothing very readily. They do not purchase items to last a lifetime, and products with long-lasting functional features do not necessarily represent either the best value or taste (Brymer 2008). American consumers are not merely blind conformists, followers, and emulators with homogenized social preferences. Besides being willing to emulate, they are also anxious to differentiate. They are discriminating in the kinds and types of purchase they make. They tend to express themselves and to emphasize their own individuality. As disposable income increases, and discretionary buying power is available to a broader consumer base, the opportunity for self-expression and individual differentiation will increase (Smith, 1998). This will be directly reflected in the design and manufacture of products. As income increases, and leisure, mobility, and related cultural activities become even more important pursuits, differentiation through consumption will be even more associated with status (Harris and Whalen 2006). Through promotion, a social network unleashes stimuli and supplies the marketplace or components of the marketing network with informative and persuasive messages in order to stimulate, reinforce, or modify behavior. Conversely, through feedback the marketplace and marketing network transmit information to a social network (Smith, 1998). Feedback provides useful information for the direction and control of promotion, and indicates adjustments that may be made in the media, form, message, and content of the communications, as well as in the other aspects of the marketing mix. Although discussed as a component of the marketing intelligence system, feedback is viewed here as part of market communications which includes promotion, personal selling, sales promotion, and related activities. The material that follows will develop two main themes promotion in the firm and promotion in society. Marketing communications, which require interaction between two or more people or groups, encompass senders, messages, media, and receivers. The sender of the communication is, of course, the social network, promotion agency, or both. The media may be salesmen, newspapers, magazines, radio, billboards, television, and the like. The actual message is the advertisement or sales presentation. The destination is the potential consumer or customer (Brymer 2008). Effective market communication requires an integrated promotional system that reaches from primary producer to ultimate consumer. Communications flow to markets through long, complex channels that includemanufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, consumers, agencies, and media. Each unit can break the chain or pass on the information as it sees fit. The amount and quality of information, therefore, depends on the channel. Formal channels, however, do not account for all marketing communications. Publicity, which is an integral part of many promotional campaigns and sometimes precedes the promotion and sales effort, lies outside them. Although it can be important in gaining market acceptance for products and social networks, publicity, like word of mouth, is often a relatively low-grade communications channel with a high degree of interference, distortion, and noise (Smith, 1998). Promotion and social network communications serve four basic management purposes. First, they bridge information gaps existing among manufacturers, middlemen, and customers. Second, they help coordinate the promotional activities of the total marketing system to achieve a coordinated thrust. Third, they help adjust the system to customer and consumer requirements. Fourth, they adjust and help in adjusting the product to customer needs (Brynko 2007). The task of marketing communications is to get people or markets to progress from a state of unawareness, or even negative reaction, to one of positive action. The stages in this progression are unawareness, awareness, comprehension, conviction, and action. Opposing the marketing communications in this endeavor are such countervailing forces as competitors' communications, predispositions, noise, brand loyalty, and habit. The concept of thresholds or limits is also a useful one in understanding market communications (Harris and Whalen 2006). Unless a social network spends at least a on communications, it realizes little benefit. Beyond this level, however, communications have a sharp impact, keep increasing in effectiveness, and then tend to reach a limit -- another threshold. For expenditures greater than b, little additional impact is realized. The mathematical theory of information is one that holds promise for the measurement of marketing communications. To date, its primary application is in electrical engineering (Smith, 1998). It deals with measuring the information content of a message, self-information, bits of information, entropy, the value of average information, loose channels, and noisy and noiseless channels. It provides operational definitions, measures, and a different basis for thinking about marketing communications. The idea of measuring the information content of stimuli, though particularly relevant, is not yet tractable, and the application of this part communications theory to practical marketing situations remains unattained (Brynko 2007). Leisure, a phenomenon of our age of relative plenty, is not an insignificant, peripheral, or extracurricular facet of our life style. It both results from, and influences, social, economic, and technological forces. Although leisure provides more free time for consumers -- and leisure time is increasing -- nevertheless, an interesting paradox occurs. In the future, time and not money has been termed the first constraint of consumption. In reality consumers are acquiring two new freedoms, discretionary time and discretionary mobility. "None has a greater stake in discretionary time and discretionary mobility than the marketing institution since both areas of choice will have a profound effect on consumer attitudes and wants as well as buying practices" (Smith, 1998). Thus, leisure, which is often associated with the semiretired and retired, has much broader impact. Expenditures for leisure are more than '"mere financial transactions from which economic deductions alone are in order. They are integral parts of living experiences, perceptions, and cultural meanings. It is in this view that a large garden-type apartment development at Seal Beach, California was developed and titled "Leisure World." (The FaceBook Economy 2007). Consumption is not a passive, costless, unenjoyable activity. Consumers do not receive their products and services passively or without considerable effort. They must make purchase decisions and expend energies, time, and money for both purchase and use of products. Consumers would like to do so conveniently. Convenience, like leisure, is time-related, but as a marketing factor it involves more than time. Many types of convenience are built into products, including form, time, place, packaging, quantity, combination, automatic operations, selection, credit, and readiness (Smith, 1998). Other types of convenience involve access and use. Also, convenience is generally sought in shopping. Increasing leisure time does not mean that consumers are willing to expend more time in making purchasesTo facilitate convenient purchasing, consumers resort to the practice of clustering. This is done by clustering in large cites, in primary shopping areas, and in shopping centers. Cities make possible application of the principle of aggregate accessibility or aggregate convenience (Harris and Whalen 2006). They provide consumers with convenient and frequent access to a wide variety of goods and services. A dynamic, abundant economy with widespread discretionary purchasing power, leisure time, and private ownership of automobiles stimulates mobility -- economic, social, occupational, and geographic. Two sets of forces are at work encouraging economic and social mobility. First, a steady upward flow of immigrants leaves the lower economic and social ranks empty. Second, upper opportunities exert a force to pull people up the ladders and are reinforced by immigration, which exerts a thrust to push them upward. It is only in a climate of abundance that both forces operate (The FaceBook Economy 2007). The completely mobile person moves freely from community to community, from different economic positions, and from one social level to the next. The mobile individual is driven by the belief that he should never rest content in his existing station (Smith, 1998). He knows that society demands advancement as proof of his merit, and he often feels stress and insecurity and is left with no sense of belonging, either in the station to which he advances or in the one from which he set out. Promotion can be appraised meaningfully only in terms of its effect on other aspects of marketing. As in all decisions, management is concerned with the returns on resources expended. A suitable rate of return should be realized on any investment in promotion, and since promotion has become a large item in the corporate budget, it necessarily creates considerable opportunities for increasing productivity (Harris and Whalen 2006). Conclusion Social networks performs the necessary functions of informing and persuading, which are both complementary and conflicting. Consumers want it to guide their consumption decisions in an objective manner, whereas advertisers want it to achieve mass selling by aggregating mass demand so that mass production can be stabilized and supported. The reasons for the use of promotion are clear. Promotion affects both costs and revenues; used effectively, it can increase sales and profits. It supplements and improves the effectiveness of other elements of the marketing mix, it alters the predisposition of potential purchasers, it provides information, and it gains brand loyalty, attracting customers and stimulating consumer desire and action. As a principal means of illuminating the attributes that differentiate a product, promotion is a competitive weapon that can secure a market niche and assure some stability in the marketplace by shaping demand curves, making them more inelastic, and extending markets. From the consumer's standpoint, social networks inform and persuade. The role of promotion in the marketing mix varies with the product and its stage of development. promotion compresses time horizons for the acceptance of products and facilitates the introduction of new products. Promotion through social networks also helps create and maintain marketing systems. It can foster interfirm coordination and linkages of manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers. For the marketing task is not complete with the sale of the product; satisfied customers must be retained. Promotion decisions and results are usually assessed in terms of shortrange considerations. Yet expenditures for promotion must be made in the light of longer time spans. advertise. References 1. Anonymous (2007). TESTING THE SOCIAL MEDIA WATERS. Sales and Marketing Management; Nov/Dec ; 159, 9; ABI/INFORM Global, p. 34. 2. Brymer, Ch. (2008). The Birds and the Bees. Adweek; Jan 7,; 49, 1; ABI/INFORM Global, p. 16. 3. Brynko, B. (2007). Social Media: What's on the Horizon? 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