Social Media Strategies of Walmart and Costco - Admission/Application Essay Example

? Social Media Strategies of Walmart and Costco Introduction The way people and organizations communicate has changed because of new inventions and innovations in technology. The Internet has paved the way for social media which many commentators call the new game. It has often been claimed that the world is now living in a global village. Students who are studying and working hard in their studies are preparing for a “bigger and smaller” world. Their interaction with social media is a preparation for their future lives that may be filled with excitement and frustration as they battle the competition. But for organizations, it is an improvement for their marketing strategies. Social networking sites allow individuals and organizations to interact and know each other. For firms, this is one of the cheapest forms of marketing and advertising. Examples are facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn. Through these websites, people of different cultures are connected. Some websites have unique history. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and two of his friends; their primary aim was to connect with fellow Harvard students. Now, almost all kinds of people use facebook or twitter to interact. Organizations use these sites to communicate with their customers. It is an effective form of communication and interaction. For organizations, this is revolutionary and less costly form of marketing. They can improve their products and services and they are able to know their market segment better. Walmart’s account with facebook sounds enjoyable for children and young customers. Through this site, children can communicate with Walmart’s action and complaint department quickly. Costco’s products and services are also displayed at facebook. Costco has the same feel with kids, the way Walmart does. Marketing Marketing involves the promotion and selling of products and services. Philip Kotler (as cited in Laurence & Patel, 2009, p. 51) emphasized the needs and wants of customers in the definition of marketing. The Chartered Institute of Marketing focused on “identifying, anticipating and satisfying the customers” (Laurence & Patel, 2009, p. 51). Marketing involves selling, advertising, packaging, transporting of products. The marketing concept states that an organization should provide products that satisfy the customers’ needs through organizational activities that also help the organization to achieve its goals. (Jobber & Lancaster, 2003, p. 11) Customer satisfaction is a significant aim of the marketing concept. A firm has to find out what satisfies customers. The organization must continue to alter, adapt and develop products to keep pace with customers’ changing desires and preferences. The marketing concept stresses the importance of customers and emphasizes that marketing activities begin and end with the customers. (Jobber & Lancaster, 2003, p. 1) A marketing strategy can be likened to a recipe. The ingredients are the marketing functions. Recipes vary according to the dish, so different marketing strategies require differing blends of functional ingredients. If a minor ingredient is miscalculated or forgotten, a recipe may not be successful. The same is true with marketing strategy where all functional ingredients depend on each other for success. But marketing is not just providing products and services. It is also about delivering changing benefits to the customer’s changing needs. The American Marketing Association defines marketing as a set of activities and processes that focus on the delivery of products for the benefit and value of customers and clients, including all the stakeholders in the interconnected activity of business. (Laurence & Patel, 2009, p. 51) A part of marketing is customer relationship management (CRM) which is about maintaining positive relationships with customers, focusing on customer loyalty and adding value to the relationship. This is where social media marketing comes in. CRM is about marketing and analysis of customer behavior. Chaffey (as cited in King & Burgess, 2007) suggests a three-stage model of CRM in managing customer relationships. First, customers can be acquired through a clear communication in a value proposition. Customer loyalty can be gained by way of good service, which means quality service and the relationship can last for a long time if the products or services are delivered according to customer requirements. CRM uses information and communications technology to acquire data, creating a personal interaction with the customer. (King & Burgess, 2007, p. 422) Today’s marketers have the world as their marketplace. It is a bigger place to introduce and sell products but also a wider place to analyze and deal with. Before, marketers could only focus with consumer insight of a particular place and community, now they have the Internet and the “global village” to deal with. Mass customization has become a trend. Marketers have to refocus and find new ways of collecting and analyzing market data and information because of the new forces and trends in globalization. Information is the key; there are vast amounts of information about consumers in websites. This new wave of information needs broader and creative “geniuses” to arrive at fresh insights to meet consumer needs. To get closer to the customers, businesses have to work as cohesive organizations, using tools and technology and focus on knowledge-based economy, slowly moving away from the industrial economy. Social Media and Marketing Social media use networking sites, such as facebook, twitter, linkedIn, where users log in to chat and interact with friends and Internet users. Social media is considered a phenomenon and a trend in this age of intense globalization and high technology. Users of this kind of communication are not only individuals but organizations. When users log in, they are exposed to other users and organizations. Organizations can advertise and interact with other users. Social media is a revolutionary form of marketing where organizations can communicate with millions of subscribers and users. Users are in millions not just thousands. For example, facebook boasted of millions of active members. Myspace.com®, for example, has had about 47 million active members, a growth rate of 400 percent in 2005, making it the top-grosser in terms of membership (Kornblum as cited in McGlynn, 2006, p. 1). The use of MySpace.com has revolutionized relational maintenance by means of online connection. Social media has become so popular that advertizers recognize its importance even against other traditional forms of advertizing. Researchers are now studying it and are convinced of the impact of emails, blogs, chat, but have not thoroughly analyzed their impact on marketing. Through social media, customers can interact with other users or organizations so rapidly, can have the convenience of use, and can deliver a multitude of messages through online computers. College students use the Internet to acquire more friends. The Internet is widely used for emails. YouTube, a networking site which asks users to upload/download videos, has increased by million users. People popularly use the Internet because they have more freedom and comfort in their personal communications. Impact of Social Media on Walmart and Costco Walmart and Costco have used social media in their marketing strategies. Not only do they use it for marketing, they use it to acquire information from their customers about their products and services. This kind of marketing has improved both firms in terms of customer feedback regarding their products and services. Aside from their fashionable websites, both firms have accounts in facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and other social media websites. These organisations exhibit their products and services in these websites and have a first-hand encounter and interaction with their respective customers. Social media advertising is much cheaper than billboard or the traditional TV and radio advertising. Through these websites, they conduct online surveys to get a feel of their customers’ perception and complaints. Products and services are promoted, enhanced, and marketed by way simple accounts in social media or networking sites. References Jobber, D. & Lancaster, G. (2003). Selling and sales management, sixth edition. England: Pearson Education Limited. King, S. & Burgess, T. (2007). Understanding success and failure in customer relationship management. Industrial Marketing Management, 37(7), 421-431. Laurence, L. & Patel, K. (2009). Project marketing implementation and its link with project management project portfolio management. Communications of the IBIMA, vol. 10. Retrieved 16 July 2013 from http:www.ibimapublishing.com/journals/CIBIMA/volume10/v10n8.pdf McGlynn, J. (2006). More connections, less connection: An examination of the effects of computer-mediated communication on relationships. Retrieved 3 July 2013 from http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5449/m2/1/high_res_d/thesis.pdf Read More