Marketing Assignment: Role of Social Media in Brand Promotion

Question

Task: Write a marketing assignment on the topic "Roles of social media in global marketing of brands" in around 3000words.

Answer

1. Introduction
Social media platform plays an essential role in brand promotion and awareness. In today's world, social media is known as the best opportunity which is available to a brand for connecting with the customers (Alalwan et al. 2017). It is a common medium to socialise because it helps in winning the trust of the consumers. Social media is known as a new mantra for various brands. It is found that marketers are trying to make use of various social media opportunities.There are some initiatives of social media which is being implemented at a higher rate in comparison to the earlier initiatives. In this report, research will be done on the role of social media in the global marketing of the brands. Some solutions to the research questions will be found in this study.

1.1 Background of the research
There is an immense growth in social media over the past decade with internet and technological innovation like Twitter and Facebook (Kasemsap, 2018, p.425). It has become an important part of daily life. Social media tries to cater the needs of the individuals. Engagement of customers can be in different forms like having a conversation with the audience, activities like blogger outreach and replies to the queries. Lead generation is possible through social media. According the CMO Survey which was published in the year 2016, it was seen that the expected marketing budgets of social media to be doubled within the five years. There are many companies which are still learning to develop their strategies for social mediaso that domestic marketcan be managed (Heggde&Shainesh, 2018). However, there are some brands that are adapting their messages mainly for the global audiences.

1.2 Problem Statement
It is essential for the brands to have social media posts that are interesting, practical and vivid (Lin, Swarna&Bruning, 2017, p.621). In the year 2013, it was seen that the universal adoption of Twitter and Facebook were among the leading brands. Social media is having the power of gaining engagement, market share and attention of the international audience (Lin, Swarna&Bruning, 2017, p.621). However, there is a critical concern of managers in case of marketing decisions on how and what needs to be posted on social media (Agarwal& Wu, 2018). Such decisions are crucial because the post will be impacting the characteristics of the brand, its popularity in form of likes and shares.

Further, it is seen that most of the brands are able to just keep a focus on their domestic market and not the international market. Then there are differences due to the culture in different places. According to Agarwal& Wu, (2018), it is becoming difficult for the brand to adapt to the changes in multiple markets. Customers all over the world are having different tastes and requirements. It becomes difficult for managers to handle and track the changes taking place due to social media. The traditional way of marketing is being challenged due to the presence of various channels of social media.

1.3 Research Questions
RQ1. How do social media play an essential role in product marketing and brand promotion? RQ2. How do marketers get benefits through social media marketing?

2. Critical Literature Review
2.1 Role of Social media in global marketing
There was rapid technological development and adoption of social media by the brands in the world (Curiel, 2020, p.229). Social media has progressed into a billion-dollar industry in today's world. It is due to the growth of some sites like Facebook and Twitter. The growth of the business can take place internationally by the target market identification. This is also known as niche marketing. It means to find a specific group of people who have higher chances of purchasing the product.

Social media creation has allowed businesses to thrive by knowing the target markets. It is found that there are many global industries and companies which are having the capability of spending millions of dollars in billboards, commercials and other opportunities. Social media is an affordable market option for reaching multiple international markets. It is transforming and shaping the future of international marketing. Social media has made word of mouth influential in the global market (Sheth, 2020, p.3). There is an explosive growth of social media which seems to have developed the global mindset and global village. International marketing is creating value which is specific to each of the country. The five main characteristics of international marketing through social media is given below in the diagram.

Figure 2.1: Five characteristics of international marketing differences
(Source: Self-Developed)

2.2Brand Equity
Brand equity is a common phrase which is used in the industry of marketing and refers to the perceived worth of a brand (Keller &Brexendorf, 2019). There are companies which can create brand equity for their products by making them memorable and of superior quality. If the company is a having a positive brand quality then customers are also willing to pay a higher price for the products. Most of the companies are trying to stay active on social media and also paying close attention to customer views. In this way, the company is having a full opportunity to understand what the brand means to the customers (Keller &Brexendorf, 2019). There is an influence of social media activities on brand equity. It leads to brand loyalty and awareness.

Figure 2.2: Brand Equity
(Source: Keller &Brexendorf, 2019)

2.3 Social media marketing challenges and impacts on global brandings
According to Curiel, (2020, p.223), the cultural challenge is quite common, because most of the companies are not paying attention to the cultural context of different markets. The recognition of the brand in foreign markets lower when compared to the domestic market. It is because of the tone and the style of messaging on social media. Marketing through social media requires some investments in terms of monetary and human capitals. Hence the segmentation of the market is quite essential. There is a possibility of some issues in social media communication with the users.

By providing a global focus on social media marketing by the companies there are some positive impacts ( Curiel, 2020, p.223). It is because of the communication channel which is created by the companies on platforms of social media like Facebook and Twitter. There are some companies which are trying to make content or culture agnostic campaigns. There are brand awareness and loyalty among customers through social media marketing.

3. Research Methodology
Research methodology helps in critically evaluating the validity and reliability of a study (Sahu& Singh, 2016). The research has been undergoing an in-depth analysis and the research questions are mentioned below.

RQ1. How do social media play an essential role in product marketing and brand promotion?
RQ2. How do marketers get benefits through social media marketing?
Qualitative research design has been used by the researcher for a better understanding of the concept and its complexities (Sahu& Singh, 2016).

3.1 Data Collection
For this research project, secondary data has been used by the researcher. The information has been extracted from journals, news articles and books. All the journals taken has been from Google Scholar and CQ University Library. Latest journals have been taken and all are peer-reviewed ones. The researcher has been focusing on the changing behaviour of the users in case online brand promotions and purchasing power. Some of the common keywords used for searching for the information have been social media engagement, advertisement, and social media marketing. According to Glesne, (2016), qualitative research can be used and hence 6 companies have been focused and their strategies of social media have been collected. Given below are the six companies which have been taken into consideration for the secondary method.

• Flipkart E-Commerce Firm
• Samsung Electronics
• McDonald’s
• Vodafone
• Diesel
• Fastrack

Official links for all the information like social media strategy and advertisements have been provided in Appendix A of this report. Proper studies have been done through all the links which have been collected.

3.2 Data Analysis
Qualitative data analysis has been performed by the researcher and this means all the information are non-numeric in nature (Research-methodology.net, 2020). Thematic analysis has been performed for analysing the data sets. There is a lot of flexibility through thematic analysis so that different patterns and relationship can be found for building the theory. There have been four different themes for analysing the data. It has been related to social media strategy and advertisements. There have been different colour codes been assigned for identifying the pattern or the themes from the data. This has been displayed in Appendix B.

4. Findings
4.1 Social media strategies for brand and product promotion
In Samsung, it is seen that there is a growing importance of social media. It puts communication to another level. The company is mainly evolving from Facebook and its global content. Samsung is making video clips, live event coverage and many more (Brand24.com, 2020). They are also experimenting with new tools and platforms so that they can be closely linked to the community. However, for Flipkart, their social media strategy is based on consumers being the king (Talkwalker.com, 2020).In their strategy, the influence is being provided by the celebrity through social media channels. They are trying to engage customers through competitions on the social media platform.

In the same way, Vodafone is having a social media communication strategy. The company is providing services to the customers through Twitter which is their marketing medium (Marketingweek.com, 2020). Fastrack is known as the early adopters of social media and they have always pulled off some good campaigns on Twitter and Facebook (Socialsamosa.com, 2020). They keep experimenting and innovating new ideas for maintaining their presence on the social media platform. Other companies which have been taken for the analysis is not having a proper social media strategy. The information clearly shows that those companies are focusing on other sectors or factors related to social media.

4.2 Key metrics for social media marketing
The focus of key metric has been mainly provided by McDonald’s. The company is making use of their social accounts for advertising and promoting new products. This also helps with community engagement (Socialmediatoday.com, 2020). It means that the company is trying to be involved in a customer's conversation. The company is authentic and transparent which is their key point. There is an honesty maintained by for social communication. Most all the companies taken for the analysis is into personal social engagement. It means they handle all the positive and negative comments and tweets properly.

Quality content is one of the most essential factors for companies in case of global marketing.

McDonald’s ensured that the posts on social media and the campaigns were successful (Socialmediatoday.com, 2020). The company is making use of their social media account on a large scale so that brand equity keeps growing. Fastrack saw that it had more male interacting customers than the female ones(Socialsamosa.com, 2020). The company is using the platform for building engagement and for product awareness. On Twitter, there is much interaction and engagement initiating by Fastrack. For better interaction, most of the companies make use of hashtags on Twitter.

4.3 Usage of social media by the brands globally
Vodafone is one step ahead when compared to other companies for making greater use of social media(Marketingweek.com, 2020). They are trying to look beyond customer services. This includes advocacy, engagement and influencer identification. The company is also making use of integrated communication tool. Vodafone is having a method for tracking their success. The company is making use of Twitter as a customer and not a marketing medium. It is seen that Diesel is celebrating the loss of 14,000 followers. This shows that they are focusing on other factors on the social media platform. The company had lost the followers from Instagram. It was found that the company had turned this into an antagonistic approach through their campaigns. According to Diesel love is more important than the followers (Digitalagencynetwork.com, 2020). The company is also known for making a splash on special occasions. Samsung is known to be working internally and externally according to the skills and experiences of the employees on making strategy and creative work for Facebook and other platforms (Brand24.com, 2020). The company creates a buzz by use of various keywords for each of the projects. It is found that McDonald’s is encouraging the customers to ask questions on social media so that the company can answer the concerns (Socialmediatoday.com, 2020). Through this tactic, the company is known to be matured and engaging.

4.4 Benefits gained marketers through social media
There are a lot of benefits which are being gained by the marketer through social media. Samsung is able to manage its effectiveness on social media efforts (Brand24.com, 2020). The social media and marketing team is looking at their activities through different angles. In this way, they are trying to improve their other upcoming campaigns. McDonald's is having growing brand equity and they are being specific even to the smaller and local customers. According to Vodafone, the communication strategy is being expanded(Marketingweek.com, 2020). They are moving a key step ahead in how social media channels are being used by the mobile operators.

Fastrack is getting proper service feedback about their post on Facebook and Twitter(Socialsamosa.com, 2020). They are able to track the sentiments of people. This contributing to advertisements and branding.All the conversations can be tracked and monitored. In the case of Diesel, the company is quite transparent which is providing brand loyalty and trust among the followers on Instagram. This shows that Diesel had the confidence of managing all the tasks on Facebook and Instagram (Digitalagencynetwork.com, 2020). All the companies which are under the analysis show that the social strategy is robust and successful in the market.

5. Discussion
Qualitative analysis has been done by the researcher for knowing social media’s role in the global marketing of the brands. Hence, thematic analysis has been done and all the information collected has been divided into four major themes. The first theme has been based on the strategies related to social media marketing. It has been found Samsung is quite serious about their strategy. They feel that the customer is their king. Vodafone is also seen to be having a strong communication strategy for social media. Experiments and innovations are always done by Fastrack. On the other hand, Sheth, (2020, p.3), feels that word of mouth strategy is enough customer attraction. The main issue has been that there is hardly any discussion on the cultural environment before setting the social media strategy. In the next theme, some of the key metrics for social media has been analysed. McDonald's is using their social accounts for promotion and advertisement of new products. They are keeping a focus on community engagement. In the same way, Fastrack is trying to build their level of engagement. They are interacting through Twitter with the help of hashtags. McDonald's brand equity is quite essential. According to Keller &Brexendorf, (2019), close attention should be given to the views of the customers which is mentioned in the literature review section. Just defining the key metrics is not enough. It will be crucial to explain the executive strategy which should be followed by the companies.

The third theme is on the usage of social media by the brands. It is noted that Vodafone is looking beyond customer services on social media. They are having different ways through which success can be tracked. Again with the case of diesel, it is seen that although the company lost 14,000 followers they were celebrating this on Instagram. It is because they feel love is more important than followers. Samsung and McDonald's are trying to make use of some similar tricks for engagement.

According to Curiel, (2020, p.223), brand awareness and loyalty is improving through the usage of the platform in different ways. In the fourth theme, proper analysis has been done on the benefits which are gained by the marketers through social media. It is found that Samsung is managing its effectiveness through the efforts of social media. Campaigns are being improved because positive results are given by the customers. McDonald's is looking at the local customers and Vodafone is busy expanding their communication strategy. Improvements are being done through social media channels. However, customer feedback is lacking which is crucial for social media accounts of many companies. It is seen that just Fastrack is taking feedback about their posts on Twitter and Facebook. It is essential to know the sentiments of the customers. Without transparency, it is difficult to manage the customers on these platforms. Like for example, it has been noted that Diesel had the confidence of making use of their loss of followers on Instagram.

6. Conclusion
6.1 Addressing the research questions
RQ1. How do social media play an essential role in product marketing and brand promotion?
According to the thematic analysis it has been found various strategies are required for the purpose of brand promotion and product marketing. There are certain key metrics which needs to be followed by companies like understanding the trends of the customers. The content quality needs to be maintained so that product and the brand becomes famous. Apart from customer services the companies need to focus on engagement and influencing. There will be some growth and profit in the business through social media marketing.

RQ2. How do marketers get benefits through social media marketing?
There are a lot of benefits which can be gained through social media marketing. There is a growth in brand equity and strategy. Handling of the customers becomes easy and there is no such tension of competition in the market. Marketers can evaluate their social media accounts for understanding their success in the market.

6.2 Limitations
According to Greener, (2018), limitations is one of the most crucial parts of the research work. In this study, the researcher had limited time and resources for conducting primary data. Hence secondary data has been collected. The researcher had limited funds due to which the sources through which information collected have been limited. Due to this reason, only six companies have been considered for the analysis. This analysis has been limited to the companies which use social media on regular basis.

6.3 Recommendations
There are certain recommendations being provided to the companies so that they can manage their social media accounts in a better way.

• It will be quite important to discuss the cultural environment for each of the countries before the posts are uploaded on social media accounts. In this way, there will be hardly any issues or challenges related to culture.
• It will be necessary for companies to have execution strategies for campaigns on social media. For this, there needs to be step by step planning done.
• It will be essential for the companies to look after setting up of customer feedback on the posts of social media so that everything about the customer can be analysed by the companies.

Reference List
Agarwal, J., & Wu, T. (2018). The changing nature of global marketing: a new perspective. In Emerging Issues in Global Marketing (pp. 3-11).Springer, Cham.

Alalwan, A. A., Rana, N. P., Dwivedi, Y. K., &Algharabat, R. (2017). Social media in marketing: A review and analysis of the existing literature. Telematics and Informatics, 34(7), 1177-1190.

Brand24.com. (2020).Samsung social media strategy. Retrieved from: https://brand24.com/blog/social-media-strategy-by-samsung-electronics/ Curiel, E. (2020). Considerations on Global Social Media Marketing.In Digital and Social Media Marketing (pp. 229-237).Springer, Cham.

Digitalagencynetwork.com. (2020).Diesel celebrating the loss of followers. Retrieved from: https://digitalagencynetwork.com/diesel-celebrates-losing-14000-followers-for-the-brands-pride-collection/

Glesne, C. (2016). Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction. Pearson. One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458.

Greener, S. (2018). Research limitations: the need for honesty and common sense. Interactive Learning Environments, 26(5), 567-568.

Heggde, G., &Shainesh, G. (Eds.). (2018). Social media marketing: emerging concepts and applications. Springer.

Kasemsap, K. (2018). The roles of social media marketing and brand management in global marketing. In Social media marketing: Breakthroughs in research and practice (pp. 425-453). IGI Global.

Keller, K. L., &Brexendorf, T. O. (2019).Measuring brand equity.In HandbuchMarkenführung (pp. 1409-1439). Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden.

Lin, H. C., Swarna, H., &Bruning, P. F. (2017).Taking a global view on brand post popularity: Six social media brand post practices for global markets.Business Horizons, 60(5), 621-633.

Marketingweek.com. (2020).Vodafone using social media. Retrieved from: https://www.marketingweek.com/vodafone-eyes-greater-use-of-social-media/

Research-methodology.net. (2020).Qualitative Research. Retrieved from: https://research-methodology.net/research-methods/data-analysis/qualitative-data-analysis/

Sahu, S. K., & Singh, T. J. (2016).Research Methodology: Latest Edition. SBPD Publications.

Sheth, J. N. (2020). Borderless Media: Rethinking International Marketing. Journal of International Marketing, 28(1), 3-12.

Socialmediatoday.com. (2020).McDonald’s Social media.Retrieved from: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/how-mcdonalds-wins-social-ranking-number-one#:~:text=McDonald%27s%20uses%20their%20social%20accounts,involved%20in%20their%20customer% 27s%20conversation.

Socialsamosa.com. (2020).Social media strategy of Fastrack. Retrieved from: http://www.socialsamosa.com/2014/07/social-media-strategy-review-fastrack/

Talkwalker.com. (2020).Flipkart marketing strategy. Retrieved from: https://www.talkwalker.com/blog/flipkart-marketing-strategy

Appendices

Appendix B:

In this section, all the four themes have been coloured differently. There has been six companies which were considered for the secondary data and qualitative analysis. However, all the companies have not been successful for contributing in each of the themes. According to the first theme which is social strategy it has been found that only Samsung, Flipkart, Vodafone and Fastrack are having proper strategy. Hence they have been coloured with green. In case of the second theme which is the key metrics of social media, only McDonald’s and Fastrack are taking it seriously. Hence, McDonald’s has been ruling social media and Fastrack has been among the first ones to make use of Facebook. The colour of this theme has been pink.

The third strategy has been on usage of social media and it has been followed by Samsung, McDonald’s Diesel and Vodafone. They have been making proper use of social media when compared to other companies and hence the colour of this theme is yellow. Last theme has been on the benefits which has been gained by the marketers. The colour of this theme has been blue and it profitable to the companies Vodafone, Diesel, Samsung, McDonald’s and Fastrack.