Question:
What marketing strategy or strategies has Facebook adopted since it was created? Answer this question by applying one or more of the theoretical approaches discussed in the course.What marketing options can you describe for Facebook if it wishes to remain a successful organisation throughout the next decade? Answer this question based on the circumstances that exist in 2014 and your best forecasts of relevant future industry factors.
Executive Summary
This report provides the necessary insights in to the overall business strategy and marketing strategy opted by Face book incorporation since its inception in the year 2004. The Report begins with a brief introduction about the growing popularity of the virtual social networking platforms and the leadership status of Face book in the social networking business. The key information about the company face book is also discussed. The report further discuses the nature of the company’s marketing strategies in an elaborate terms. Further the strategic Marketing options available for the company to maintain its key position in the market are also discussed. The findings of the study make it evident that keeping people engaged with the plat form Face book would be quite challenging in the recent times as lot of competitors may enter the online social networking business due to the low set up costs for this business. Continuing its journey through innovative features and offerings, and pulling large user bases; is the most promising marketing strategy, that the company face book may look forward to.
Introduction
The way in which people are interacting or staying in touch with their near and dear ones has drastically changed with the advancement in the technology and the Internet and mobile era. Individuals in the recent times prefer to interact with their friends and share their day to day experiences, using virtual social networking websites (Viswanathan & Dickson, 2007). Face book the market leader in the virtual social networking business has leaded this change in the lifestyles of the common people. It is not only the common individuals that prefer to use Face book to keep updated with their social circles, but the commercial entities, celebrities, small scale business, closely held groups and NGOs have also followed the suit (Copeland et al., 2012). The entities registering on Face book have to create their respective profiles on the social media site ‘face book’, by posting few of the mandatory information. Any of the information posted by the registered users may reach the people in the friend list of that user within a fraction of seconds.
The social media is indeed viral in nature and helps connect friends and acquaintances based in varied locations on a real time basis. The Internet is thus emerging as a powerful tool of speedy information transfer in the process of communication in the globalised era. The world of marketing and communication is also becoming more personal interactive and social. The Face book is the prominent platform in the today’s era, which fosters effective marketing communications for several commercial brands as well (Edwards, 2014).
Mark Zukerberg was the founder of the company face book which started its operations in the year 2004. The simple and user friendly operations offered by the website to its users made the Face book website, extremely popular and convenient medium of interaction among all the age group users. The Face book platform helps several individuals to stay connected with their families and friends and allows them to share and express what matters to them (Wan et al., 2008). The entire business model of this company is surrounded by simple concept of facilitates several entities, to know what’s going on around in the world in social context (Drake, 2012). Currently the company has one billion registered users availing virtual social networking facilities through this website. The Mission Statement of the Company is to make the entire world more open and connected with more ‘power to share’ entrusted in the hands of common people. Although the company is the currently market leader in the online social networking space, the Google plus feature of the Google incorporation is expected to give tough competition to the face book in terms of grabbing the online social networking business’s market share (Copeland et al., 2012). Face book became publicly listed in markets in the year 2012 and launched its Initial Public offering in February 2012. The stock of this company received tremendous response from the public within a period of three months from the launch of the IPO.
Marketing Analysis
The company Face book is in to the virtual social networking business and develops several programming interfaces that also allow integration of the Face book with several web and mobile applications. So far, the company never had to spend on excessive marketing and advertising budgets, as it had the first mover advantage while entering the virtual social networking business. The viral nature of its business and simplicity of its web operations to its users made it a quick success in the last decade (Edwards, 2014). The company has stayed as the market leader since its inception and had spent on few marketing strategies to promote its business, especially during its initial establishment stages.
The following are the prominent strategies implemented by the company face book that it used to attract maximum user profiles and obtained high popularity in short span of time:
Face book has already started taking some of the strategic steps that would help this company in moving forward in the social networking business. The company has equipped itself by starting to offer a Face-book centric internet to the new users of the social networking sites and internet technology at large. Face book Zero was introduced by the company in the year 2010 that offered a stripped down text version of the face book website to several internet carriers at almost free cost of service (Linder, 2012). Another strategic marketing option that the company is looking forward is of having Face book as the home page in the several android technology supported mobile phones. These strategic options would directly influence the growth and popularity of the core face book application on the web as well as the next generation mobile phones (Lyons, 2012). The company might also look forward to strengthen their search support tools and facilities, which are currently the core competency of their key competitor Google.
The search bar offered by face book currently is limited to searching the acquaintances and groups on the Face book with respect to their names, places, city, etc. The company can add more effective search tools and applications in their website as it obtains a large pool of social data every second. The effective sharing of this social data through latest technology search options can further help the company in retaining the already attracted one billion user base. Providing newer application and innovative tools and options on this platform may also curb the risk of its current users switching to other lucrative social networking platforms (Talbot, 2013). The social networking business is gradually becoming highly competitive due to the introduction of new technologies in the market. At this juncture, the company Face book needs to carefully deign an effective marketing strategy that keeps the users hooked and addicted to the face book screen (Drake, 2012). Continuous product innovation strategy and adaptations to updated service technology for both web as well as the latest mobile applications is the must be followed strategy that the company should adhere to retain its market share in the cut throat competitive markets (Bradley, 2002). Finally the company face book should always keep its core competency alive of giving social spin to the content posted on the platform by individuals and commercial entities. The future strategic marketing efforts put by the company should thus revolve around retaining its existing user base by keeping its audiences hooked and engaged through innovative and user friendly tools and applications.
Conclusion
The Company Face book has indeed emerged as the market leader in the online (virtual) social networking business as on date. The company has used several interesting and innovative marketing strategies to attract new users to its website. Recently the company also responded very effectively to the global mobile innovations and has successfully developed viable and user-friendly mobile applications as well. The company had benefited immensely in the past due to the explicit first mover advantage that it got in the online social networking business. However, with the advancement in the technology world, several new competitors have entered the virtual social networking business, posing a severe threat to the face book’s popularity and the current market leadership. Google is one of the promising competitors to the face book’s business that currently offers better social search tools in comparison to Face book. The Company should smartly adapt effective strategic marketing initiatives like increasing its web presence through advertiser’s web pages and coming up with more interesting tools to manage the social data acquired by the company (Mourdoukoutas, 2014). Retaining the current users to the Face book platform and keeping their interest hooked up in Face book is expected to become more challenging within the next few years.
References
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