Discuss about the Strategies in Social Media Marketing Intelligence and Planning.
Emergence of social media has presented huge amount of opportunities for the organizations to gain competitive advantage in the market. Social media has helped organizations to implement effective marketing and communication tools for gaining popularity in the market. It provides wide range of online applications for the organizations for sharing experiences, information and perspectives with the customers. The constituency of internet-based social media has provided organizations the opportunity to revolutionize the marketing strategy completely so that it can able to create positive impact on the businesses. On the other hand, emergence of social media also has created challenges for the effective utilization of traditional marketing technique. Thus, it actually induced organizations to restructure their marketing strategy to create desired amount of impact on the market place.
In this report, the focus will be on the implemented strategies by the Woolworths Limited for the social networking sites. Woolworths is regarded among the top retail organizations in Australia. Woolworths is the second largest organization in terms of revenue in Australia (“Woolworths Supermarket – Buy Groceries Online”, 2016). The company has able to gain popularity in the market with its innovative marketing strategies. Woolworths has always tried to utilize the marketing strategy in such a way so that it can able to create major impact on the market. Social media marketing strategies of Woolworths have tried to include several factors in order to gain popularity in the market. In this report, the focus will be different strategies implemented by Woolworths to enhance popularity in the market. The report will also conduct an in-depth analysis in order to identify the future path for the organization.
As per the article by Andzulis, Panagopoulos & Rapp (2012) organizations will have to focus on the systematic implementation of strategies in order to establish its popularity in the social media platform. Woolworths also have implemented several strategies for the effective utilization of social media platforms. Firstly, Woolworths marketing strategy has focuses on the establishment of the brand identity on the several social platforms. Berthon et al. (2012) mentioned that brand identity helps to create space for the organizations in the social media platforms. For that reason, Woolworths marketing strategy focuses on the effective utilization of photos, logo of the organization, business related information effectively so that it can able to create popularity on the social media platform. As Woolworths’ deals in the retail industry, it marketing strategy focuses on the colorful presentation of the business information. It has helped the organization to develop a strong image in the social media platform. The marketing strategy of Woolworths on the social media platform also focuses on the effective utilization of company logo so that people can able to recognize the promotional campaign of the organization effectively.
Marketing strategy of Woolworths always focuses on providing best possible experience for the customers at the time of purchasing any products from any of the retail stores (Nellist et al., 2016). Therefore, marketing strategy of Woolworths has tried to highlight effectiveness of the provided customer service of the organization so that it can able to grab the attention of the potential customers effectively. Woolworths also tried to utilize its internet presence in order to provide business related information effectively to its target group. The organization is trying to highlight that it is focusing on providing the best quality products to its customers so that they are remain associated with the organization. As per the article by Burclaff & Johnson (2014), social media has become an integral part of modern day life style. People from different age and culture utilize social media on a daily basis. Therefore, it is actually providing lot of opportunities for the organizations to gain popularity in the market. Woolworths also have tried to implement combination of strategies so that they can get close to its potential customers in a much more effective way. It has been identified that social media presence of Woolworths has able to enhance the business opportunity for the organization.
Figure 1: Woolworths’ logo
(Source: “Woolworths Supermarket – Buy Groceries Online”, 2016)
Woolworths is among the prime supermarkets that is present all across the Australia. In fact, the company is also very popular in New Zealand as well. From the initial stage, Woolworths has tried to provide the best quality products at the cheapest price available in the market (Tuten & Solomon, 2014). As a result, Woolworths has able to gain popularity in an effective manner. Moreover, Woolworths has always tried to implement innovative marketing strategy to gain popularity in the market. However, the emergence of social media has influenced organization to reconstruct their marketing strategies in order to maintain its popularity in the market. From the beginning, Woolworths have consciously tried to develop a colorful image so that it can able to influence customers to think that they will have best possible experience at the time of purchasing any product from the organization. As per the article by Castronovo & Huang (2012), Woolworths marketing strategy always focus towards the youth. Therefore, increasing popularity of social media has provided new tool for the organization to get closer to its target audience. Many studies have highlighted the fact that emergence of social media has helped organizations to target youth of the community in an effective way. Social media marketing strategies include blog, sharing of different perspectives that have helped organizations to attract youth for purchasing the product of the organization. Woolworths also have tried to target youth of the economy so that it can help the organization to sustain its position in the market.
Figure 2: Official Facebook page of Woolworths
(Source: www.woolworths.com.au, 2016)
As per the article by Dos Santos, Svensson & Padin (2013) emergence of social media has provided no options for the organizations but to utilize it as an effective marketing tool. Several studies have mentioned that social media marketing can actually provide huge amount of benefits for the businesses of the organizations. Therefore, organizations have to be extremely careful at the time of selecting any marketing technique for the social media. Woolworths also have tried to implement several strategies in order to gain attention of the customers (Patroni, von Briel & Recker, 2016). For instance, Woolworths have tried to utilize conventional social media marketing techniques like blog and sharing of attractive picture in order to capture the attention of the potential customers. Woolworths have consciously tried to develop blog on the unique topic so that the readers can get easily attracted to it (Mitchell & Duquette, 2014). On the other hand, sharing of colorful pictures on the social media platform has helped Woolworths to become a popular name among the children as well. The marketing strategy of Woolworths has always tried to highlight the kind of quality they are providing to their customers. Therefore, Woolworths marketing strategy has included customer rating system on the social media so that it can able to influence many others to purchase products from the retail stores of the organization.
Figure 3: Official Twitter page of Woolworths
(Source: www.woolworths.com.au, 2016)
As mentioned by Feigin (2016) social media has provided organizations two-way communication platforms in order to implement any marketing strategy effectively. For that reason, Woolworths have always tried to influence customers to provide their feedback regarding the kind of experiences they have at the time of purchasing any product from the organization. On the other hand, social media marketing strategy of Woolworths also has influenced people to share any suggestion on the social media platform so that it can able to help the organization to improve its quality of service in a much more effective way. As highlighted by Kasian-Lew (2014) two-way communication has helped organization to utilize feedbacks and suggestions of the customers to represent itself as a customer friendly organization. Woolworths have always tried to provide the best possible services to all its customers in order to gain competitive advantage in the market. Therefore, utilization of feedbacks and suggestion have helped the organization to identify the exact areas that need to be improve in order to enhance the quality of products and services. Furthermore, marketing strategy of Woolworths has also tried to utilize social media as a platform to solve any queries of the customers in an instant way (Tussyadiah & Zach, 2013). In the present competitive business structure, customer service has become one of the major factors that can actually make or break businesses of any organization. Therefore, Woolworths have tried to utilize different social media platforms in such a way so that customers do not have to wait for getting any help from the organization (Meyer, 2014). In fact, Woolworths have developed a separate team so that it can able to utilize all the social media platforms in an effective way. Woolworths marketing technique on social media have able to provide organization a separate place on the mind of the customers. Woolworths marketing strategies on social media also focuses on the effective utilization of providing business related information to the customers. Therefore, it has helped organization to develop a strong connection with the customers. Furthermore, Woolworths also utilizes social media at the time providing any special offers for the customers (Rosenbaum-Elliott et al., 2015). It not only helps organization to enhance its present level of business but also help to enhance the popularity on the social media platforms. Woolworths utilizes several attractive pictures and graphic arts at the time of providing information related to any special offers so that it can able to grab the attention of the potential customers in an effective way.
As per the article by Lardi & Fuchs (2013), maintenance of privacy and ethics is necessary for every organizations in order to create maximum impact with the implemented marketing strategies. Social media is also not an exception, as it also induces organizations to follow several rules and regulations so that the implemented marketing strategies can actually able to create desired impact on the market. Woolworths also have tried to implement several techniques in order to maintain the privacy of the customers at the expected level. As per the article by Magro (2012) almost 66% of the people are concerned regarding their privacy in social media. Therefore, it has become absolutely necessary for the organizations to maintain the privacy at the expected level in order to achieve expected amount of impact by the implementation of the marketing technique. Woolworths have made a conscious effort to maintain the privacy level at the time of solving any customer’s queries. It has been identified that few organizations have tried to extract data from several social media platforms to initiate personal mail campaign, which eventually created legal issues. Therefore, Woolworths have made a conscious effort so that it does not have to face any difficulties in maintaining the privacy rules of the social media platforms.
Woolworths have focuses on several factors in order to maintain ethics in the implemented marketing strategy. For instance, Woolworths focuses on the “know your audience” (KYA) in order to increase the effectiveness of the implemented social media marketing strategy. This technique has helped Woolworths’ preferences, choices and interests of the customers in an effective way. Secondly, Woolworths focuses on remaining unbiased from any political, cultural or religious factors in order to capture all segments of the markets. In fact, Woolworths have made a conscious effort in order to influence people from all the background to purchase products from the organization. By remaining unbiased Woolworths has able to gain popularity throughout all the communities regardless of culture, education and political background. Woolworths also tried to remain transparent in their implemented marketing strategy so that people can able to understand the kind of benefits they can able to receive by purchasing product from the organization. Furthermore, Woolworths always tried to share the truth in their marketing campaign so that it can able to enhance the satisfaction level of the customers. As per the article by Malthouse et al. (2013), maintenance of ethics can help organization to develop strong brand image in the market, which will help to increase the trust level. Thus, social media marketing strategy of Woolworths have also tried to maintain all the ethical guideline so that it can actually able to provide huge amount of benefits in developing reputation of the organization in the market.
Figure 4: Woolworths prime ethical considerations
(Source: Burclaff & Johnson, 2014)
As per the article by Marchetto (2015) emergence of social media has completely revolutionized the way that businesses have been conducted previously. In fact, evolution of social media has provided organizations the platform to communicate effectively with the customers. Woolworths also utilize several social media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to communicate effectively with the customers. Woolworths tries to post several attractive videos and pictures to attract the attention of the customers. Woolworths also tries to induce people from all across the world to share their opinion regarding their thoughts and believes. Furthermore, Woolworths tries to utilize their Facebook page for gaining popularity in the global market as well (Tsimonis & Dimitriadis, 2014). Woolworths also utilizes Twitter page to tweet in several attractive topics. Furthermore, Woolworths marketing strategy is focused towards the colorful development of brand image.
Woolworths tries to utilize Twitter platform to develop effective communication channel with the customers. It also encourages people to share the post of the organizations so that people can able to see it in a much more effective way. It also focused towards developing effective development of marketing campaign in order to gain popularity in the market. Woolworths also use Instagram to share attractive pictures to gain attention of the customers. Furthermore, Woolworths also utilizes platforms like LinkedIn to become a globally popular name, which will create positive impact on the businesses of the organization. Woolworths also utilizes Pinterest to implement marketing strategies in an appropriate way. Woolworths marketing strategy always focus towards providing effective products and services to the customers so that they remain satisfied. Furthermore, Woolworths always tries to provide all the business related information to the customers through the utilization of several social media platforms. For that reason, marketing strategy of Woolworths in the social media platform has able to create major positive impact on the businesses of the organization.
Figure 5: Woolworths’ social media technologies
(Source: Castronovo & Huang, 2012)
Conclusion:
From the above discussion, it can be assessed that utilization of social media tools in the marketing strategy has become a necessary process from the organizations in order to gain popularity in the market. It has been identified that effective utilization has the potential to provide huge amount of benefits for the organizations, which will help to represent itself as one of the popular names in the market. Woolworths is among the top retail organizations in the entire world. Therefore, it has invested huge amount to develop an extremely effective social media marketing strategy for the organization. However, it is known that social media marketing require lesser cost compare to any other tools of marketing. Still, Woolworths have developed a separate team to create maximum impact by utilizing social media marketing technique. Thus, it highlighted the fact that effective utilization of social media marketing strategy requires specific skills and knowledge that organizations will have to develop in order to gain popularity in the market.
References:
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