Business Communication Assignment: Impact of Social Media on Hello Fresh
Question
Task:
The role of Social Media in Consumerism
“The Internet has completely altered the way many companies do business and people shop.
Mobile marketing has allowed customers to compare products and prices with the click of a button. Customers can also use social media to read customer reviews, ask for advice and product recommendations and provide word-of-mouth evaluations.
Technology continues to evolve and change the competitive marketplace. Customers can also make purchases online without having to visit a physical store.”
Business Communication Assignment Task: Short Report (Individual assignment)
Select one of the Australian industries/organisations listed below. You will have to research the company which you have selected.
In a short report (1,000 words), You will introduce the industry/organisation you are focused on.
Briefly discuss the findings you have researched. (Its founder, what industry it focuses on).
Briefly discuss the role which Social Media plays in this company. (How does it attract and influence customers; how does it satisfy customer needs and wants; how does it maintain customer loyalty)
Answer
Introduction
For the purpose of this business communication assignment, Hello Fresh has been selected to understand the role of social media in the company’s success. Hello Fresh belongs to Meal Kit Industry of Australia wherein it is engaged in the business of deliveries of meal kits. The company is based in Berlin, Germany. It prepares and pre-portions necessary ingredients that are required for a healthy meal and puts them in the subscription box with the recipe card. The company has attained global leadership in the areas of providing fresh, healthy and customized meal solutions to the people.
Hello Fresh was founded in 2011 in Germany and then it expanded its business scope into US in 2012. The company soon had become United State’s largest meal kit provider. The company has two key competitors in the industry: Blue Apron and Plated. The company has pasted over 100 of its competitors in the meal kit industry to become the top meal kit provider across the world. The company has around 280000 subscribers across the world and it delivers over 4 million meals every month in 7 countries.
Use of Social Media at Hello Fresh
Over the past few years company has achieved a huge customer base with the use of social media platforms to promote its business. Numerous influencers and bloggers on YouTube and Instagram have joined hands with Hello Fresh and they have also linked their affiliated program and offered praises to the company for its great taste and convenience. With the help of social media platforms, Hello Fresh knows its customers well. It has around 33k followers on Twitter, it has 43k followers on Pinterest, 360k on Instagram, indefinite number of placement ads on YouTube. The company’s social media strategy keeps on adapting with changing times and due to this it has earned a loyal customer and influencer’s following. The social media manager of Hello Fresh stated that the company focuses on the data as a centre point of everything and hence it has adopted the practice of social listening wherein it improves its overall business performance and efficiency of its marketing communication on the basis of the discussions that goes around the social media platform among the people. Among other factors, the company gives its success credit to its social media strategies (Hello Fresh Group, 2018).
Hello Fresh has very wide social media presence. It is among those companies which have strong presence on almost all the social media platforms and actively advertises about its business. The Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Account of company have collectively more than 2.3 million people. On Facebook and Instagram fan page it posts recent updates of its products and on YouTube it posts content in the form of advertisements. Sharing regularly the pictures, status and updates regarding the new meals and deals allows the company to attract more and more customers towards the business (Leon, Melissa, 2019). The company has always made use of Twitter and Facebook to stay connected with its customers. It addresses their complaints and concerns, takes their compliments to perform even better in the business. The regular response to its fan’s comments allows Hello Fresh to give them a sense of their company’s association with them wherein they are valued by the company. The reviews and feedbacks shared by the customers of the company helps it to better its customer service. Also, social media platforms give another advantage wherein the consumers of company’s products themselves act as the marketers for it by promoting the brand value through their positive reviews (Suby, 2017).
Hello Fresh puts itself as a supplier of fresh ingredients and through the social media platforms it promotes this message to the public by way of putting fresh hashtags and different photography. The company sees its social media channels as the forums to share engaging content, fun facts about food, general question and answers related to the products dealt by it. Hello Fresh has experienced highest growth rate of in its fans (Julius, 2019). Twitter is the main social media channel for Hello Fresh where it keeps posting necessary updates day and night to maintain a connection with its customers and fans. It offers various rewards to its customers for trying company’s recipes in real time. The company uses the Twitter Polls to know about the topics or foods that interests its majority of audience so that it can prepare the content of their relevance in future. The company re-tweet the images shared by its customers and it this way it keeps its customers involved in its business (Window, 2020).
With its impressive videos on the YouTube, the company shares its cooking advices to its fans and customers to engage them all with the company’s business activities. As cooking videos have lesser language problems and such videos are also easily sharable on the Facebook pages where people are virtually present in abundance. These practices do entice the people on social media platforms to purchase Hello Fresh Subscription boxes to start the cooking activities. In such ways company is doing wonders on the online platforms.
Conclusion & Recommendations
From the above report it can be said that Hello Fresh has a strong and impressive presence on all the key social media platforms and with the use of the strengths and power of these online platforms the company has grown tremendously over the last 8 years .Hence, it has now become the perfect example to demonstrate the contribution of social media to the business on the company’s success and growth. With the facilities of wide reaching audience, real time communication with fans and customers, the social media platforms are really contributing to the success of the business of all the companies who are making use of such services prudently in their business. The online presence of the business makes it easy for the companies to connect with its customers so as to understand their values and experiences with company’s products. Also, it generates a sense of customer loyalty among the audiences as they get the personal touch with the company and their values are valued by the companies. Hello Fresh shall make a strategic move towards creating its own YouTube page to increase its publicity over the YouTube.
References
Hello Fresh Group. ( 2018). HelloFresh expands to New Zealand: New geography is part of the announced global investment and growth strategy. Retrieved from: https://www.hellofreshgroup.com/websites/hellofresh/English/4999/news-detail.html?newsID=1724465
Hello Fresh. (2019). Annual Report. Retrieved from: https://www.hellofreshgroup.com/download/companies/hellofresh/Annual%20Reports/DE000A161408-JA-2017-EQ-E-00.pdf
Julius. (2019). Taking a Look at Hello Fresh’s Influencer Strategy. Retrieved from: https://medium.com/juliusworks/taking-alook-at-hello-freshs-influencer-strategy-35151b96d184
Leon, M (2019). HelloFresh Credits Meal Kit Success to Social Media Strategy. Business communication assignment Retrieved from: https://www.andnowuknow.com/headlines/hellofresh-credits-meal-kit-success-social-media-strategy/melissa-de-leon/62023
Suby, S. (2017). A Rare Peek Inside Hellofresh’s $880 Million Growth Strategy [Case Study]. Retrieved from: https://kingkong.com.au/rare-peek-inside-hellofreshs-880-million-growth-strategy-case-study/
Window, M. (2020). Q&A: HelloFresh's Sr. Social Media Manager shares tips on developing your social strategy. Retrieved from: https://business.twitter.com/en/blog/HelloFresh-tips-on-social-strategy.html
