Social Media Marketing Tools Used by Procter and Gamble - Case Study Example

Advertising/marketing using Social Media Contents Introduction 3 Social media marketing tools used by Procter & Gamble (P&G) 4 Other Advertisement methods used by P&G 4 Campaign process of P&G 5 Risks of social media marketing to P&G 6 Recommendations for improvement 6 Conclusion 7 References 9 Introduction The advertising and marketing plan is the one of the important areas of consideration for international businesses. The multinational companies have expanded their business by taking the opportunities of increasing demand in the overseas and emerging markets. In order to penetrate the markets, increase market capitalization and retain the market share, the companies are required to make their customers aware of the products and service features and at the same time communicate the advantage of choosing their products over their competitors. These activities fall under the category of advertising, marketing and promotion of products and services of the business. The multinational companies like Procter and Gamble, therefore, pay lot of attention and undertake strategic measures for selecting the appropriate channel for advertising and marketing of its products. The social media has emerged as a significant tool for advertising and marketing of the products and services. The globalization of the markets and the increasing economic status of middle class people all over the world have changed the style of livelihood of the customer. The changing habit and culture has resulted in the increase of activities through the online mode and internet. This has increased the adoption of social media as a tool for advertising and marketing by multinational companies like P&G as they have been able to reach out maximum number of customers in the least possible time in a cost effective fashion. Social media marketing tools used by Procter & Gamble (P&G) The multinational US enterprise, Procter and Gamble operates in various markets across the globe. The products of the company include personal care products, cleaning agents, food and beverages. The company has a global social media policy in place and uses Face-book as the social media marketing tool for advertising, marketing and promotion of its products to the world-wide customers (Procter and Gamble, 2014, p.1). The other social media marketing tools used by the company is Skype and You-tube. These social media marketing tools are used by P&G in line with their global social media policy. The company believes in remaining up-to-date with the macroeconomic and technological advancements in order to understand and satisfy the needs of their customers. The social media marketing tools like Face-book, Skype, and You-tube have been adopted by the company to make use of the benefit of the technology in order to engage, learn and listen to the customers in the world wide markets. These social media marketing tools have helped P&G to know the changing demands of the customers and then implement necessary changes in the business to meet the market demands (Kotler, 2009, p.63). The advertising and marketing through the social media marketing tools have led to a revenue generation of $84.17b in 2013. Other Advertisement methods used by P&G Apart from the advertising and marketing methods in social media, P&G uses other methods of advertising like the business views published in the corporate websites, news releases in the corporate newsroom, business events and the contacts with the media, suppliers, sponsors, etc. While the social media marketing methods are the virtual means of engaging with the customers, the other advertisement methods like the contacts with the media, sponsors, suppliers as well as the business events help the company is directly interacting with the customers (Sekhar, 2009, p.16). The company also updates the news on the business operations on the corporate websites. Procter and Gamble believes that the study of the ground information on the market is important for strengthening the bond of mutual faith between the customers and the business. The company also maintains good relationship with the suppliers so that the appropriate raw materials could be collected in order to supply the end product to the market that matches the quality and the price features demanded by the customers (Witcher and Chau, 2010, p.48). The sponsors of P&G are also biggest advertisers of the company that leads to the flow of information on the brand image of the company. Campaign process of P&G The campaign process of Procter and Gamble is decided strategically to obtain the desired outcomes from the advertising and marketing costs incurred by the company. The first step in the campaign process of P&G is the conduct of feasibility study of the demand of the market for the products of P&G, namely personal care products, food and beverages, clean agents, etc. Once the feasibility study is favourable, the company identifies the target segment of customers. This is followed by the selection of the advertising and the marketing tool for promoting their products. In case of the domestic markets, the company uses the approach of conducting business events in popular places that are visited by the target customers. The company also establishes good relationship with the sponsors in order to spread the brand goodwill in the market (Doole and Lowe, 2005, p.81). The relationship bond with the customers and the suppliers are important for sustainability of the business. In case of new markets, emerging markets and other parts of the world, the physical promotional methods may be costly. In such cases, the company uses the social media marketing tools to promote their products (Evans, 2010, p.57). The company undertakes search engine optimization approach for prompt response to customers’ online activities. Risks of social media marketing to P&G P&G faces the risk due to its heavy dependence on the social media as a marketing tool used the company for its world wide customers. The first and foremost is the legal risk that has become an increasingly important consideration for P&G. There are several laws in various markets that it operates and consumer rights laws are a concern for the company. The postings of the company through social media are held in the world-wide web and any lawsuit filed by the consumers due to mis-commitments, mis-selling, etc could impose heavy penalties on the business. The security of the online transactions is another area of risk for the customers of P&G (Bajaj and Nag, 2005, p.95). However, the company has adopted encryption technologies for which they have been able to mitigate frauds in online transactions. The use of social media marketing is a virtual medium of engagement of the company with the customers. Thus direct public relations are compromised by the company due to which brand loyalty is likely to decrease for P&G. The online marketing by P&G is publicly viewed all over the world through the use of internet. Thus there is a risk of duplication of the innovative methods by the competitors that could reduce the uniqueness of the P&G strategy (Plant, 2000, p.37). Recommendations for improvement The following ways have been recommended through which P&G could improve the advertisement campaigns through the social media marketing tools. On of the ways of improving the advertisement campaign is to list the feedbacks of the customers on the products of the company. The favourable as well as the unfavourable comments of the customers could be listed in columns by the company in the social media sites like face book, Skype, etc (Rayport and Bhasker, 2003, p.75). This would provide the customer’s of P&G on the user experience and the value for money obtained by them after purchasing the P&G products. The measures taken by P&G in order to address the areas of dissatisfaction of the customers could also be highlighted through the social media. Another recommendation in the use of social media marketing tools is that the company could look to share the statistics on the performance, quality, prices of the products as compared to that of the competitors (Zarrella, 2009, p.63). The customer could get a comparative idea on the position of P&G products in the competitive market and then take informed decisions in purchasing the products of P&G. Conclusion The advertisement and marketing of products by Procter and Gamble through the use of social media marketing tools have opened up the horizons of target the customers in the new and emerging market all over the world. The company uses the face book as the primary tool for advertising and marketing its products. The other social media channels used for marketing and promotion of P&G products are Skype and YouTube. Apart from the social media marketing, the company updates business views and news on business events in the corporate website of the company. This information is viewed by the customers all over the world who takes informed decision on purchase of the products based on the available information in the internet. P&G has been able to increase its revenue earnings as a result of the strategic implementation of online marketing campaigns apart from the traditional methods of sponsorship, business events, etc. Due to the e-commerce mode of business of P&G, there are various risks that the company had to bear in terms of legal and regulatory bindings, security of online transactions, duplication of innovative approaches by the competitors and loss of brand loyalty due to decrease in direct public relations in the online advertising and marketing methods. References Procter and Gamble. 2014. P&G Corporate Newsroom. [Online]. Available at: http://news.pg.com/. [Accessed on 6 march, 2014]. Kotler, P. 2009. Marketing Management. New Delhi: Pearson Education India. Plant, R. T. 2000. Ecommerce: Formulation of Strategy. New York: Prentice Hall Professional. Bajaj, K. K. and Nag, D. 2005. E-Commerce. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Rayport, J. F. and Bhasker. 2003. E-commerce. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Zarrella, D. 2009. The Social Media Marketing Book. Sebastopol: OReilly Media, Inc. Evans, L. 2010. Social Media Marketing: Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media. Stamford; Pearson Education. Sekhar, G. V. S. 2009. Business Policy And Strategic Management. New Delhi: I. K. International Pvt Ltd. Doole, I. and Lowe, R. 2005. Strategic Marketing: Decisions in Global Markets. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Witcher, B. J. and Chau, V. S. 2010. Strategic Management: Principles and Practice. Cengage Learning; USA. Read More