How Old School Marketers Are Mastering Social Media
Synopsis
HUL, PepsiCo, Mondelez, Maruti Suzuki, etc., had been deploying Social Media for a variety of purposes, the most important and common factor being customer engagement. HUL engaged its target audience with Facebook but did not follow it up in the later days. However, after few months, it noticed that the community was still going on. Taking a cue from that incident, HUL started to constantly engage with its online communities and also monitor the social chatter surrounding its brands. This case flyer lets the students/participants understand customer engagement on Social Media and how some of the FMCG giants in India and others are revving up to leverage the customer engagement potential of Social Media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. It also brings out the differences between customer engagement through Mainstream Media and Social Media.
Prerequisite Conceptual Understanding (PCU)/Before the Classroom Discussion
The students/participants should have a conceptual understanding of Social Media and the various types of Social Media. They should also have an idea of how companies use Social Media platforms to engage with their customers, what are the common Social Media platforms they use and the different forms of customer engagement practices they follow. They can read the chapter/material related to ‘Online Advertising, Social Media Marketing, and Planning Integrated Digital Marketing Campaigns’ from the curriculum taught in the Digital Marketing program.
Case Positioning and Setting
This case flyer can be used in the MBA/Post-graduate program for either of the following in Digital Marketing course/module:
a) To understand the differences between customer engagement through Mainstream Media and Social Media
b) The advent and growing popularity of the online/Social Media platforms and evolving forms of customer engagement through Social Media
Preamble to the Case Flyer Analysis and Suggested Orchestration
This case flyer tries to bring out the differences between customer engagements through Mainstream Media and Social Media. It also discusses the benefits and risks of using Social Media for customer engagement. It then analyzes Social Media campaigns of few Indian companies in India and how they monitor and manage the social chatter that surround their brands. The case flyer analysis was carried out as presented in Exhibit (TN)-I.........
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Case Analysis and Discussion
I. Customer Engagement: Mainstream vs Social Media
1. The dialog between a brand and its consumers to offer an honest experience between them is known as Customer Engagement. It is beyond the purview of Customer Service, which is to provide the assistance and advice to the customers before, during and after the purchase of products or services. Companies crave to continuously engage with their customers to create a meaningful consumer impact, build trust and generate either a change in behavior or attitude..............
2. The different ways through which companies engaged with customers in a pureplay Mainstream Media, before the advent of either digital or Social Media platforms, were through the use of various forms of advertising and marketing including public relations, traditional advertising, direct marketing, retail promotion, in-store promotion, sports/music/event marketing, experiential marketing, etc. ................
3. The primary focus of marketers or brand managers in pureplay Mainstream Media in building brand awareness and brand management with the customers was to grab the attention of the viewers/target customers towards their product, make their product stand-out in the crowd, promote the uniqueness of their product and subsequently increase their product sales.............
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