Social Media in the Automotive Industry - Term Paper Example

? [Critical Commentary – Prestige Auto serve] Changes in Marketing Environment With the increase inglobalization and international cooperation and trade, companies have become more interlinked, while competition has also increased. Today profits and losses, winners and losers are decided on the basis of second’s performance. We cannot attempt to take things lightly. The aim is to reach as many people, in as short span of time as possible and leave the most lasting impression. The marketing environment of a business is composed of individuals working for that business along with the outside forces which affect marketing campaign of their offered products. It is the management’s ability to build and maintain flourishing association with their target consumers. External factors involve both opportunities and threats which change continuously with the changing environmental factors (accenture.com, 2010). In addition, marketing environment consists of the actors and forces outside marketing that affect marketing management’s ability to build and maintain successful relationships with target customers. The marketing environment offers both opportunities and threats. The environment continues to change rapidly. The marketing environment is composed of Micro-environment and Macro-environment. Micro environment includes actors which are close to the company. These include customer markets, suppliers, advertising mediators, competitors and community. The Macro environment constitutes several other factors which are basically the larger communal forces that influence the micro environment. These forces are: demographic, economic, natural, technological, political and cultural forces. The transformation in the business environment is due to many reasons. Some of them are discussed keeping in view the automobile industry (Jain & R. K. Garg, 2011). 1. Demographic shifts Due to increase in population and urbanization, there has been a steady change in demographic factors. These factors affect market demand and consequently supply as well. With the change in the target market, the company has to maneuver its strategies accordingly. Customers desire newer, superior products at a lower price. The company’s primary target market is young men aged between 20 years and 30 years. These men are most likely having a couple of part-time jobs that put them in a better position to finance the cost of their cars. The main reason for targeting young men in their 20s is that they like to show off flashy cars. 2. Technological development and Innovation It is compulsive for organizations to keep up with the pace of technology. These changes in technology affect the mechanism in which the products are made and also the way in which they recruit and eventually their business culture. Invention of Smartphones has increased communication while social media have made it possible to reach target audience in a more convenient and effective way (Root et al., 2012). 3. Changing Global and Economical setup Due to recessions in the economy, there has been a market intervention approach, which has increased the coordination and dependency between public and private sector. Considering the prices of car specifically Prestige Auto-serve has segmented their cars in two categories which are luxury cars and super luxury cars. Both of these categories are focused specifically to the elite class of the society. The company sells prestigious cars including Mercedes, BMW, and Audi. It as well offers a couple of services including servicing cars, driving lessons, insurance services and financial services (Corwin et al., 2012). 4. Increased competition Due to the certain reasons, like increased valuation, customer awareness and competition, companies are required to venture into new markets, adopt new techniques, and formulate innovative strategies to gain that competitive edge which will make them stand out. If new businesses want to emerge as more compatible than it should have innovative ideas and policy that would distinguish it from the mainstream businesses. In this hope to become more innovative, companies are trying to introduce novelty in their perspectives and motifs. 5. Controlling Cost Since customers have a greater number of options available and have higher demands, therefore it is required to provide them products at cheaper rates. In order to fulfill customer’s desire, additional costs are liable to increase the price of the product while on the other hand company needs to be fully justified. Using modern marketing strategies like social media networking and blogging these can be considered as inexpensive methods yet very effective means for improving company image and promotion of products. Hence, adequate amount is being saved by the companies in the marketing by using social media as a marketing medium. Therefore companies are being facilitated to reduce the price of products and enhance the availability of lesser price products. All in all, surviving in today’s era requires constant vigilance, proactive approach and hand on management. The use of technology in your favor will make you a better company (Belskey et al., 2011). The automobile industry is currently facing imperative challenges in which globalization and digitization are rated as first priority objectives. Then there is a need of individualization, increased competition and other environmental factors which are affecting this industry. Moreover the safety standard along with social responsibility commitments is also termed as the contributing factors for changing marketing environment. The size of the company can nowhere be termed as the contributing factor of attaining success; the ones which can innovate and bring new products in the market with economical prices can survive and prosper in the future. The most compelling question is how a business or a company can remain competitive in its industry along with the rapid alternations and technological advancements occurring in the automotive industry. The element of success lies in being focused and responsive towards customers' requirements while remaining variable and flexible in their manufacturing, production or distribution. All these factors have made it essential for a company become adaptive to the ever-changing demands and requirements. Additionally it is also required to have problem solving tools and methods on hand which can be identified, selected and implemented promptly. The automobile industry has transformed into a complex network of associations where decisions made at any level affect the complete working operations of the company. The whole system is now integrated with customer’s needs and wants which indirectly affects product development, sale of product and expansion into new market (booz.com, 2012). The Rationale of The Social Media Used The company is relying on the Internet and especially social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to promote its product and achieve its desired target by making a blog based site and advertising on social network sites. The most important reason to use this form of marketing strategy is the target market. The company is targeting youngsters who are aged between twenties and maximum thirties. People at this age are the most active users and subscribers of social media sites. Secondly, the scope of social media marketing channels is very wide and reaches a great number of audiences. This contributes in increased market share of the company. Since the company has not been an active part of the market for a very long time and it is still in its early stages of development therefore social media seem to be a quite cheap and safe way of promoting. The cost is also a major factor because the cost of reaching customers is very much less than the one incurred on promotion of products through TV or print media. Additionally, interlinking company’s website to social media sites will increase company’s visibility and promote the brand name. Another advantage of social media is the flexibility offered to its users because of the availability of different forms of media like text, video and music. Considering the other element is the permanency factor, if a product is campaigning on TV, it will be promoted only during brief and limited commercials which will run for a very short span of time while products being promoted on social media sites stay visible for a longer period of time as long as it is saved in memory of the server (G. et al., 2013). Undoubtedly, Facebook and Twitter have been used worldwide due to its appealing features for not only entertainment but in marketing also. Many companies have launched their product details on the social media in order to acquire the customer’s critical over the product. Therefore, the company chose this medium to easily meet to the customer reviews and comments, and afterward scheme-out accordingly. Social media like Facebook and Twitter facilitates the companies to exhibit their policies and business campaigns online due to which the marketing efforts of the company get diminished but it also enables people to acquire every detail of the company through the sites without any fatigue (Wu, 2013). Improved content allows more people to indulge, and thus company put more efforts to create fascinating and convincing content which increases the probability of customers to engage with the company. Another advantage of convincing content that it lessens the company task in a way that customers obtain adequate knowledge about the criteria and consume less time to trust the insurance or financial company. In the social media world, the admiration of one customer for a particular product can be transformed considered in many, because the followers want the admired products to be more prevalent among friends. In this manner company products revolve around the social media with continuity and ultimately the product or service gets publicized. This is the only platform where daily billions of people interact with each other. Therefore, every other business is taking advantage of this platform for promoting their marketing campaign through social media (Horton, 2009). Personal Experience Influence of Selection of Social Media After reviewing Prestige Autoserve marketing campaign and the strategies adopted for following social media platform it seems to be a viable option at the moment. Moreover the social media integration helps a company in growing additional traffic, which not only helps the company in building a community around its brand, it will create an everlasting impression in the minds of their followers. The multiplicity nature of the social media would contribute significantly to growing the company’s market share. This would be critical to enhancing its revenue growth as well as profitability. At this particular stage the company would require the services of marketing professional having social media skills having effective communication skills for monitoring the company’s social media channels. Such professionals would be responsible for answering queries raised by the online visitors. Additionally, they would be responsible for looking for content that interest the target market, so that it can attract, as well as, maintain a heavy traffic. The company would need IT professionals to manage its website. The IT team would be monitoring the website to ensure that it performs as expected. It would as well be designing security measures to avoid fraud on the website. By monitoring the type of content the target market likes, the company would be able to make it available on the social media, which would help in creating a sustainable relationship with the target market. The company will as well integrate all the social media channels, for example, interlinking the company’s website with the Facebook, Twitter and blogs. All in all it will be a good package for this automotive company which will definitely generate results for them in the future (PLISKA, 2012). It is imperative to understand this shift which will yield real benefits for the business which are operating strategically. It is the requirement of time to act decisively, and execute the game plan of the marketing accordingly. The introduction of technological advancement has made it more feasible and economical to design penetration strategies which are effective yet inexpensive. Similarly the user or young generation using these technological gadgets is willing to experience new dimensions and innovative content on these devices. Hence designing promotion strategies on Facebook, Twitter and from blogging will create a line of followers. On these platforms the along with the basic information the company can easily place the technical information on their vehicles in an interactive and blogging form of content. In this manner the manufacturers of raw materials of vehicles can also market and promote their products though online marketing which will depict their strategic approach. They must choose which technologies to focus on in an influential manner and how to build up them in a method that will progressively more, and with greater conviction, create high returns on an increasing investment in innovation. All this requires that business should understand the technological inventions, customer preferences and how to work along with the growing complexity network of technologies. At the same time, the business is required to follow security standards in order to closely monitor regulations that have the prospective to shape automotive technologies, both at present and in the future. Bibliography accenture.com, 2010. 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