Social Media and Market Mix - Essay Example

Social Media and Market mix Theoretical review of marketing Marketing mix, also referred as the four p’s, is the process of assessing how an organisation can balance the key elements of product, price, place and promotion in order to meet its sales objectives and at the same time satisfying the needs of the customers (Bidgoli, 2010). Social media is a technology that connects people through social networks such as twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Marketing relationships can as well be built through the social media by building relationships, driving repeat businesses, and attracting new customers through friends’ sharing. Social media has become a new marketing strategy, whereby many consumers are using the social media to make decisions to buy products and services. Social media has rendered the traditional marketing alone to be insufficient since through it consumers have started making efforts to conduct their own market research for products and services rather than waiting for organisations to advertise for the products. They also use the social media to view the products’ information from company websites and to view the comments of other consumers concerning the products. Organisations as well have made efforts to place their companies on social media and have benefited from it by reaching a number of qualified buyers for their products (Bowman & Gatignon 2010). The rising number of people using the social media has facilitated companies to be able to effectively market through the media, and giving them the ability to have dialogues with the prospective consumers and giving them the required feedback. It has also enabled marketers to have knowledge of the specifications needed by the customers. According to Sweeney & Craig (2011), a company needs to determine the strategies that it intends to use on social media and the sites that it chooses to engage in. through the social media marketing strategy, people can pass along marketing messages. The first step involved in getting into social media marketing for an organisation is determining the strategic hierarchy for your company. The company is then expected to build a relationship that will create the awareness for sale which enhances interaction between the prospective and existing customers and the company’s representative on the social media. These customers direct their friends to the interaction and this way the company is able to build stronger relationships. The organization is able to build a following which gives a widened and strengthened relationship between the company and the followers unlike the traditionally used direct mails. The company is able to keep up with the competitors using the social media. The company should also develop their personal profile on the social media (Bowman & Gatignon 2010). Segmenting, targeting and positioning is an important aspect of marketing and successful selling for any business organisation. The practices can be carried out in the social media using dashboards and marketing software which enable the company profile, monitor and segment their customers. Doing this in the social media has great importance since it enables the company to put different customers into groups of customers with common characteristics, traits, needs and preferences such as social class, age, spending power and buying attitudes. This enables the company to identify the customers who are likely to act or purchase in the same way. The company is also able to attain a successful marketing by identifying the market segments whose needs are not met by the standard form of products. The company can then supply these needs in a profitable form. Another importance is that a company can reach a wide range of target markets using the social media. According to Friedrichsen (2012) the company can join the online community where its target market meets, observe their conversations so as to understand their problems, needs and preferences. The company can then take the next step of positioning different products for the different segments identified. Through the dialogues with consumers in different segments, the company is able to present and position its product in ways that are aimed at meeting the customers’ demands, show its competitive advantage from their competitors and address the arising issues of different customer segments. Market segmentation is also easy using the social media since the company can easily segment its market using the different groups that the customers are involved in on the social media. The company can easily determine the different needs, preferences and traits from different groups and can then position the right products and information aimed at conveying value to these different groups (Sweeney & Craig 2011). Marketing in the social media entails holding dialogues with customers, existing as well as prospective. According to Sweeney & Craig (2011) there are many challenges that are associated with these dialogues. The first challenge is dealing with brand issues that arise. Marketers face the challenge of the possible tarnishing and blemishing of the company’s brand by people who may add negative comments on the dialogues held with the customers. These negative comments may arise from customers who might be having issues with some other products but decide to bring them up to convince the present customers otherwise. Another challenge is the threat of identity theft where other people create other accounts in the social media with the same name as that of the company and start claiming that it is the same company. The marketers might then need to go through a long procedure before recapturing the lost identity. There is still another challenge of having an anonymous person controlling the company’s social media page. These people may end up going through customer dialogues and might end up offering the wrong information to the customers. There is also the challenge of the conversations and dialogues with the customers becoming unavailable as a result of change in terms and conditions for operation in the social media or being deliberately deleted by account hackers. There is also a challenge of exposure concerning what the customers wish to buy and what their preferences are. Many people including the competitors may access this information and they may later try to convince the customers otherwise (Eid 2012). Social media marketing application to a company Beats by Dr. Dre is one of the companies that use social media marketing. The company deals with consumer earphones and headphones as well as subscription to music. Since its origin in 2008, beats music attained a great success by marketing through social media. Since the first month of its operation, it was able to get a thousand subscribers within a day and between 2010 and 2012, it was able to earn around one billion dollars from sales, a success that was attributed to social media marketing. It had a considerable number of audiences in the YouTube. Headphone users found their destination on YouTube where they would engage in interactive interviews and channels with some popular artists. With continued expansion through social media marketing, beats music was launched in 2014 to operate in digital and music industry. It has therefore succeeded in introducing its music service to the world using the social media marketing on YouTube and i-tines where it has earned a large number of paid subscribers and listeners. It continued to offer partnerships with celebrities and the consumers found it worth to pay the required subscription fee and the consumers had an opportunity of playing the music after they had paid. Beats music then attained brand recognition. It did this by using its headphones as an exclusive product that could be used by regular people as well as celebrities. It was able to win the trust of many consumers since its marketing was effected through the social media networks such as YouTube, Facebook and twitter. In these social networks, it was able to engage and interact with several consumers. The company has also used the image of Serena Williams a tennis superstar as she uses Beats by Dre headphones to listen on top of its twitter page. This image has attained many views as if brings out the picture of how Serena is propelled by the earphones to undertake her training for a match. The image on the company’s YouTube and Facebook pages is also intended to inspire. It also uses words that inspire its consumers and make them feel that they are able to feel the same way as celebrities by using its headphones. Marketing mix which consists of the four Ps, product, price, place and promotion is still relevant in online marketing. According to Gay et al (2006), product is essential in marketing since without it the company have nothing to offer to the market. The company has to determine how to effectively sell its products online by determining the nature of its products. In the case of Beats by Dre, the product is the earphones and a service which is subscription to music. The online product availability is made online as well as the information concerning it and the company is able to customize the online product to suit consumer needs. The second P is the price. The online price determination in this case is dependent on various factors such as knowledge of competitors, customers’ propensity to spend and the value they place on the product. Online price is usually lower and this is attributed to reduced direct and indirect cost involved in online marketing. There is an online website that allows companies to compare their products with those of the other companies and this gives them a guideline to the prices they should set (Bidgoli 2010). The third P is place which describes the distribution channel that is used in marketing. The online place in this case has extended to the ability of serving the customers who are the consumers for the headphones and the music subscription in the case of Beats by Dre beyond the geographical boundaries. The online ‘place’ involves disintermediation whereby the intermediaries in offline marketing are eliminated. The distribution speed and convenience in the case of online marketing is enhanced and is therefore conducted in a faster and more convenient way than in the case of offline marketing. Technologies such as electronic data interchange are used for providing real tine exchange of information. The final p is promotion. In this case, online promotion enables Beats by Dre to reach a large number of audiences for its content. Online promotion enables the company to use multichannel promotional strategies for its products. The online marketers are expected to post the appropriate promotional messages and images that incite the audience to purchasing the content. There are dedicated websites that companies use for online promotion, as well as the active social media sites (Gay et al 2006). From the Information Resources Management Association (2014) social media has proven to be an important communication tool for companies as well as the customers. Organisations are therefore using it as part of their marketing mix. For Beats by Dre, social media is the main channel of marketing and thus qualifies to be part of the marketing mix. Through it, the company customers who are the headphones consumers and music subscribers can express their thoughts and views concerning the products of the company and concerning the company at large. They can also raise complaints in case of dissatisfaction. In addition, the social media has proven to be an efficient and effective way for the company to communicate with their customers, listening and responding to their concerns and problems. The company has also acquired the ability to manage its portfolio of customers effectively by keeping them motivated by using motivational messages and images on its social media networks. The company has achieved great marketing success as a result of using the various social media networks for its marketing. Since the social media marketing has resulted to success for the company, it is therefore a part of the company’s marketing mix. The recommendations therefore for the company’s social media marketing is that it should aim at finding the up to date ways of informing the customers of the new products available, engaging them by requesting their views and comments and attracting and relating to them. Another recommendation is that the company should also ensure that it possesses the right security to the social networks so as to ensure the protection of the company as well as the security of the customers. The company should also ensure that they provide the right and true information to the customers and ensure that they keep the record of the existing customers who are loyal to the company and provide them with incentives in order to motivate them for their loyalty (Gay et al, 2006). Reference list Bidgoli, H. (2010). The handbook of technology management. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons. Bowman, D., & Gatignon, H. (2010). Market response and marketing mix models: Trends and research opportunities. Boston: now. Eid, R. (2012). Successful customer relationship management programs and technologies: Issues and trends. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference. Friedrichsen, M. (2012). Handbook of Social Media Management: Value Chain and Business Models in Changing Media Markets. Berlin: Springer Verlag. Gay, R., Charlesworth, A., & Esen, R. (2006). Online marketing: A customer-led approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Information Resources Management Association. (2014). Digital arts and entertainment: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications. Sweeney, S., & Craig, R. (2011). Social media for business: 101 ways to grow your business without wasting your time. Gulf Breeze, FL: Maximum Press. Read More