Description and Evaluation of Ballantynes Social Media - Case Study Example

Ballantynes Use of Social Media

• Description and Evaluation of Ballantynes Social Media

The introduction of social networks to the business environment has dramatically impacted the consumption and delivery of Ballantyne's products and services. This chapter seeks to describe and evaluate co-creation and service-dominant logic with relevance to social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Ballantynes business must, therefore, assess its marketing strategies to determine the effectiveness of the methods it is using to create a large customer base. Ballantynes Company has incorporated diverse social media networks to attain a competitive business environment to ascertain its presence in the competitive retail industry (Hall et al., 2016). Depending on the aspects being utilized, the organization may experience negative or positive results, affecting its customer services. Ballantynes can evaluate its social media presence using worditout.com to determine the logical concepts on the choice of words and language to use for daily transactions. Thus, social media is essential because it brings about accessibility to customers, increasing availability of content, and, most importantly, growing in product awareness within Ballantyne's retail environment.

Social media is a necessity for Ballantynes business, especially in terms of marketing. Consequently, Ballantynes Online stores enjoy their reliable presence on different social media platforms, thus ensuring time-space compression. Notable social networking sites include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Google+, but the latter is currently unavailable. Blackwell (2014) observed that it is vital to evaluate an online or social media presence within the contemporary business world. These platforms are highly valued as tools of business marketing today. Indeed, the Ballantynes organization has gone digital in light of the influence of social media.

Similarly, the firm desires to increase its profitability and market reach, which can be attained through social media for strategic marketing processes. In that regard, Ballantynes has heavily relied on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram to be more advantageous when compared to the mainstream media. Additionally, these sites are cheap to maintain and use. The issue of cost is essential because all companies desire to cut on cost while increasing profitability. It is possible to do that using social media without necessarily affecting the market potential.

Modern-day market specialists recommend that it is good to examine the number of people following Ballantyne Company and retweet on matters concerning its success. Marshall (2019) stated that if the number of those following the company is low, that must be an issue of concern for the firm. Any manager or company CEO needs to look at social media as a growth tool that is to be used to engage consumers and assess their loyalty levels (Manganari et al., 2011). A careful study and view of the Ballantynes' website seemingly qualify this description. The site provides a list of products and services offered by the company. Some of the listed services include tailoring and alteration, which means the company sells clothes, catering and managing functions, hair and beauty products, and florist services. They also provide after-sale services like home-deliveries, oversea, and gift wrapping. The website's usability principles, therefore, enable the active display of the organization's brands. Other vital information provided by the social networking sites includes store locations, opening, and operations hours, contact information, and terms and conditions of the Ballantynes retail industry (Ballantynes, 2020). The website is equally interactive because it incorporates Google Maps, which can be used by the consumers to find their way to one of the Ballantynes’ stores. Any interested person can get access to all the required information for an effective decision-making process based on the information provided on this website. The site provides consumers with an opportunity to subscribe to newsletters, hence accessing all updates on the offerings of the firms. Nevertheless, one crucial challenge is that Ballantynes is not readily apparent because the name is almost similar to Ballantynes, which is an entirely different firm.

As an integral Ballantynes social networking platform, Facebook is one of the leading social media with the largest subscription in the world. It also has a high presence in almost all countries. The allegation is that were it a country; it would be the most populous nation because it has over 2.5 billion subscribers, most of whom are adults. Clement (2020) stated that statistics reveal that as of the fourth quarter of the year 2018, Facebook had 2.3 million people using it every month. Such a large user-base attracts Ballantynes firm to take advantage of Facebook's achievement of time-space compression, and the firm precisely does that. Ballantyne has an active Facebook page where updates of products and other business-related services are offered. The platform, the products and services, events management, weddings, and fundraiser are posted on the page.

Furthermore, short videos are uploaded as a mechanism for opening the firm’s products to the world. Products like statues, business-related services provide light on the activities of the firm. Indeed, Facebook is an integral social networking site that enables effective customer services by Ballantyne's organization.

Ballantynes uses Facebook as a marketing tool. Schimel (2018) observed that all the prospects of growth for any company are on social media. Business executives today are influenced by social media when it comes to choosing vendors for their businesses. Most of them also established that social media tend to change consumer behavior in terms of purchasing (Manganari et al., 2011). In the case of Facebook and Instagram, apart from just being the top-ranking platform, it is vital to advertising because, as explained above, it has a large user-base, therefore being crucial in Ballantynes’ scalability. Besides, only as Ballantynes has done, companies can create personal spaces where they can post their product. However, Ballantynes does not seem to have conducted enough popularization campaigns because its followers and likes on the products are relatively lower. The case with YouTube is not any different because in one of the videos posted “Meaning of Christmas. Ballantynes Christmas Store Window. Christchurch, New Zealand," the views are 356 while there is only one similarity (Marshall, 2019). This implies that the company is not accessible. Therefore, it is essential for management to revamp their online presence initiatives. Increasing social media presence will make it easier for the clients to access the company's services and products, thereby enabling the organizational sales time-space compression.

• Description and Evaluation of the Ballantynes Store

Ballantynes’ store evaluation is an essential process as it spells out on the concepts that require improvement for the attainment of the set organizational objective (Manganari et al., 2011). Store evaluation is thus critical for the regular check of sections that are not up to the set goals. Therefore, this chapter considers the evaluation of technological aspects, merchandising habits, social networking aspects, and store personnel for the achievement of the synergistic overall performance of Ballantynes Company.

Ballantynes Ltd is the largest in the country and is an excellent source of employment globally. Since it utilizes the traditional store model, it is alleged to have occupied 11,000m square of space in Christchurch Central Business District [CBD]. Its operation model involves conducting business in catalogs, whereby it licenses four catalogs annually. The cataloging business has created and maintained traditions by stocking brandy, fashionable and up-to-date commodities through traditional stores. To better the experience and improve service delivery to customers, it provides a website that displays some of its major brands (Hall et al., 2016), among which have the intarsia technique and the argyle style of garments display. For the foreseeable future, the organization has attained supportive infrastructure with the incorporation of hybrid social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram, which have contributed to the global merchandise of contemporary fashions. The use of websites has also led to increased clothing offerings and sounding shopping experiences, an improvement to the previous sales logic.

Ballantynes has integrated new mode of hypermedia computer-mediated system that has made the firm at per with rapidly evolving technological revolutions. The infrastructural setting has led to interactive options between the company and the esteemed clients. The hypermedia computer-mediated system has made the managerial departments more knowledgeable and adopts sophisticated market signals, thus understanding the diverse opportunities and challenges of the market environment (Ballantynes, 2020). Similarly, convergent Digital Signage as a Service (DSaaS) has led to the instantaneous establishment of stronger customer relationships with effective corporate communications. Incipiently, Ballantynes' store alignment appears too competitive to other firms offering the same products. Motivated salesperson enforces strict alignment with the commodities offered, leading to successful marketing strategies. Engagement with co-creation theory has led to diverse support within the Ballantynes’ store departments. Through sustainability consumption, the firm has aligned its interests with consumers' perspectives in a manner that has dramatically contributed to organizational efficiency and resource productivity. Indeed, Ballantynes' technological models have led to corporate competence and sustainability within the retail setting. This has ensured effective and reliable customers’ experiences around Ballantynes’ services and products to consequential managerial focus.

Ballantynes retail company relies on competitive store personnel with vast knowledge and skills needed in the retail sector. Depending on the management strategy employed, the retailer concentrates on visual merchandising, alongside skillful employees and efficient salespersons. In whichever case, all factors are be put into consideration to ensure maximum profitability. The visual elements are a vital consideration in the retail store evaluation. According to Alic et al. (2017), a store’s layout and display designs are essential to Ballantyne's external and internal arrangements. The store has to emit a high level of professionalism, and the way products are displayed should attract customers to buy the listed products. Additionally, it is of great necessity for the products to adequately marked to prevent unnecessary confusion to the consumer. Poor signage has the challenge of misleading customers and may lower the customers’ experiences, hence reducing customers’ loyalty.

It is claimed that Ballantynes is a world leader in the retail knitwear industry. Therefore let us see what it has does to improve the visual aspects of its store and maintain good customer relationships. Hall (2016) explains that relationship building is one of the critical tools that have boosted Ballantynes' business and customer relations. The company is known globally for its effective relationship marketing, accompanied by superior product displays in its store. For instance, each product or wear is displayed according to the category of each gender—=the segmentation of luxurious and casual wears. The company has equally changed its marketing strategy. In the Contemporary Lounge, which is one of the most recent establishments, with the focus on young people. A quick look at the company's website and social media pages like Instagram provide even more excellent experience, where we find categories like women wear, menswear, shoes, children, homewares, gifts, food and wine, and accessories. The sites are interactive in that it takes you to the next page where there are more products, thus constituting user-friendliness. As suggested by Alic (2017), the store's image dramatically influences the consumer to make a decision of shopping within the firm rather than other competitors. Store image gives an impression of professionalism, and therefore, operative product display should be handled with care and close attention. In this regard, one can argue that, to a great extent, Ballantynes has superior visual aspects, hence its ability to remain competitive.

Additionally, salesperson's factor is also an element for Ballantynes’ evaluation. Ertekin et al. (2019), explain that retailers must understand the patterns that influence the consumer behavior. The researchers identified that the in-store shopping experience of the customer significantly affects their return behavior. Primarily, this is determined by salespersons' interaction with the customer. Different level of interactions with the salespersons affects the return of various customers, and this can be seen from how customers relate to a spectrum of companies in the same line of business. Hall et al. (2016), established that Ballantyne Store has touchpoint communication with their customers. The company ensures clear communication with the esteemed customers. However, to do this, the company provides its employees with well-remunerated and motivated work environment, thus increasing staff morale within Ballantynes organization. In essence, Ballantynes’ stores evaluation is a competitive advantage for the unlock of new opportunities as well as mitigation of market challenges. This advantage ensures the achievement of effective co-creation process. For efficiency, Ballantynes Company has to ensure both internal and external focus through adoption of effective technological models, customer relationship, merchandising abilities with the alignment of organization-centric view.