Chapter 17
DIRECT, ONLINE, SOCIAL MEDIA, and MOBILE MARKETING
MARKETING STARTER: CHAPTER 17
Samsung Electronics: Engaging Customers Globally via Social Media Marketing
Synopsis
One of the key reasons for Samsung’s ongoing success is its marketing strategy, which has greatly
expanded in recent years to take advantage of the surging digital opportunities for direct,
up-close-and-personal interactions with its and customers. All over the globe, Samsung has been
successful at driving consumer behavior from awareness to consideration to purchase through its social
media strategy. In Saudi Arabia, for example, it has been featured as the no.1 buzz brand for the last three
years. To create awareness about the new Galaxy devices, Samsung usually invites a group of influential
and socially active bloggers, Twitterati, and YouTubers for hands-on-sneak-peek events before the launch
of any new flagship device. One example is Samsung’s launch of the Galaxy Note 5 in New York in 2015.
Additionally, in the “Samsung Mobilers Program” active Samsung mobile loyalists are provided with
Samsung devices ahead of market release so they can freely talk about their user experience and provide
their feedback and insights on the assigned devices using their own social media accounts. The
Smartphone app, designed to keep customers connected with Samsung, is also fueling Samsung’s success
in the digital marketing arena, bringing customer’s support on the go. Samsung’s video home page gives
customers easy and tailored access to all videos for every Samsung product and marketing campaign,
which helps the electronics giant to showcase its range of phones and tablets, demonstrating that it can
cater to all tastes in an attractive way. Samsung makes use of Web and mobile email as an effective tool
for building long-term, one-to-one relationships with carefully targeted customers. It continues to engage
customers and create direct, personalized customer relationships, and has become a poster child for direct
and digital marketing.
Discussion Objective
An active 10-minute discussion of the Samsung story will help link students to key concepts around direct
marketing in its many forms. Samsung provides an excellent vehicle for illustrating the strengths of
effective direct, online, social media, and mobile marketing. It shows that good marketing is all about
creating value for customers and building strong customer relationships in order to capture value from
customers in return.
Starting the Discussion
To start the discussion, ask the class, “How many here have purchased a Samsung product?” It may make
more sense to ask whether there is anyone who has NOT purchased something from Samsung. Based on
the show of hands, ask for students to share their experiences. Was this a random purchase or are they
die-hard Samsung regulars? What is it about the customer experience that is so enticing?
Next, pull up Samsung’s sites and media platforms. Working with students, search for a few random
products that interest them. Click on products and delve a bit further into each page. Together, note how
each product search becomes its own discovery process. How does this reflect Samsung’s obsession with
customer service?
You should be familiar with these sites and platforms in advance so that you can move purposefully to
keep the discussion moving. But let the class discussion interactively guide the parts of the sites and
platforms that you explore. Start with the first question below, and then ask other questions as the
discussion allows. Throughout the discussion, keep your objective firmly in mind: to emphasize that good
marketing is all about creating value for customers and managing customer relationships in order to
capture value from customers in return. The final question leads the class into Chapter 17 and the
discussion for the day. Have fun with this one!
Discussion Questions
1. Just looking at Samsung’s main web page, what stands out about the company? (The point: The
features on the site points to its obsession with its customers. It’s all about connecting the
company and the customers.)
2. How has what we are seeing on this site contributed to Samsung’s performance? (As pointed out
in the story, thanks in large part to its obsession with customer satisfaction and customer
experience, the company has grown astronomically and profitably. Despite the debacle over the
Samsung Galaxy, the company has remained strong. Thus, by creating value for customers,
Samsung has captured value from customers in return.)
3. Why is Samsung an obvious choice for introducing the chapter on direct and online marketing?
(Samsung excels at creating direct, personalized relationships and satisfying online experiences
between its users. Many analysts view Samsung as a major model for direct marketing in the
digital age. Use Samsung to illustrate key direct marketing concepts throughout your discussion.)
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Use PowerPoint Slide 17-1 here
This chapter looks at the final IMC element, direct marketing, and at its fastest-growing form, online
marketing.
In many ways, direct marketing constitutes an overall marketing approach—a blend of communication
and distribution channels all rolled into one.
Remember, although this chapter examines direct marketing as a separate tool, it must be integrated with
the other elements of the promotion mix.
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
Use Power Point Slide 17-2 here
1. Define direct and digital marketing and discuss their rapid growth and benefits to customers and
companies.
2. Identify and discuss the major forms of direct and digital marketing.
3. Explain how companies have responded to the internet and the digital age with various online
marketing strategies.
4. Discuss how companies use social media and mobile marketing to engage consumers and create
brand community.
5. Identify and discuss the traditional direct marketing forms and overview public policy and ethical
issues presented by direct marketing.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
p. 510 INTRODUCTION
When you think of shopping online, chances are good that you
think first of Amazon. The company sells everything from books,
music, and electronics to tools, housewares, and more.
From the start, Amazon has grown explosively. Its annual sales
have rocketed from a modest $150 million in 1997 to more than
$107 billion today.
To its core, the company is relentlessly customer driven. Amazon
wants to deliver a special experience to every customer.
The Amazon “discovery” factor makes the buying experience
special.
Amazon is obsessively and successfully focused on delivering
customer value.
p. 511
Photo: Amazon
Assignments, Resources
Opening Vignette Questions
1 Many companies claim to be obsessed with customer
service. What sets Amazon apart from the others?
2 What is Amazon really selling?
3 As an Amazon user, do you mind viewing
customized advertisements on Amazon? Explain.
4 Can you identify any possible limits to Amazon’s
seemingly limitless growth? What are they?
p. 512
PPT 17-3
PPT 17-4
p. 512
PPT 17-5
p. 513
Define direct and digital marketing and discuss their rapid
growth and benefits to customers and companies.
DIRECT AND DIGITAL MARKETING
Direct and digital marketing involve engaging directly with
carefully targeted individual consumers and customer
communities to both obtain an immediate response and build
lasting customer relationships.
Companies use direct marketing to tailor their offers and content
to the needs and interests of narrowly defined segments or
individual buyers. In this way, they build customer engagement,
brand community, and sales.
The New Direct Marketing Model
Most companies still use direct marketing as a supplementary
channel or medium.
For a growing number of companies, direct marketing constitutes
a complete model for doing business.
Firms employing this new direct model use it as the only
Learning Objective 1
p. 512
Key Term: Direct and
digital marketing
PPT 17-6
p. 513
p. 514
PPT 17-7
PPT 17-8
p. 514
approach.
Rapid Growth of Direct and Digital Marketing
Direct marketing has become the fastest-growing form of
marketing.
U.S. companies spent almost $163 billion on direct and digital
marketing in 2016. Total digital advertising spending now
accounts for the largest share of media spending, even more than
television spending.
By 2019, mobile ad spending is expected to account for 29
percent of total U.S. ad spending.
Benefits to Buyers
For buyers, direct marketing is convenient, easy, and private.
Buyers can interact with sellers by phone or on the seller’s
website or mobile app to create exactly the configuration of
information, products, or services they want and then order them
on the spot. Finally, for consumers who want it, digital marketing
through online, mobile, and social media provides a sense of
brand engagement and community—a place to share brand
information and experiences with other brand fans.
Benefits to Sellers
Can target small groups or individual consumers
Low-cost, efficient, speedy alternative for reaching their
markets
Results in lower costs, improved efficiencies
Provides opportunities for building close customer
relationships
Offers greater flexibility to adjust prices and programs
and engage in real-time marketing
Gives sellers access to buyers that they could not reach
through other channels
Review Learning Objective 1: Define direct and digital
marketing and discuss their rapid growth and benefits to
customers and companies.
p. 513
Ad: Priceline.com
p. 514
Photo: Dunkin’
Donuts
Assignments, Resources
Use Discussion Question 17-1 here
Use Additional Project 1 here
Use Think-Pair-Share 1, 2, and 3 here
Troubleshooting Tip
Students have grown up with the internet, so few
concepts in this chapter will be totally new to them.
However, the vocabulary and terminology could be new
to them, so you will want to go through all the Key
Terms carefully.
p. 514
PPT 17-9
PPT 17-10
p. 514
Identify and discuss the major forms of direct and digital
marketing.
FORMS OF DIRECT AND DIGITAL MARKETING
The major forms of direct marketing are:
1 Face-to-face selling
2 Direct-mail marketing
3 Catalog marketing
4 Telemarketing
5 Direct-response television marketing
6 Kiosk marketing
Direct and social media marketing involves using digital
marketing tools such as websites, social media, mobile apps and
ads, online video, email, and blogs that engage consumers
anywhere, anytime via their digital devices.
The major forms of digital and social media marketing are:
1. Online marketing (websites, online advertising, email,
online videos, blogs)
2. Social media marketing
3. Mobile marketing
Review Learning Objective 2: Identify and discuss the major
forms of direct and digital marketing.
Learning Objective 2
p. 515
Figure 17.1: Forms of
Direct and Digital
Marketing
p. 491 Key Term:
Direct and social
media marketing
Assignments, Resources
Use Discussion Question 17-1 here
p. 515
PPT 17-11
p. 516
PPT 17-12
PPT 17-13
Explain how companies have responded to the internet and
the digital age with various online marketing strategies.
Marketing, the Internet, and the Digital Age
Much of the world’s business today is carried out over digital
networks that connect people and companies. These days, people
connect digitally with information, brands, and each other at
almost any time and from almost anywhere. The digital age has
fundamentally changed customers’ notions of convenience,
speed, price, product information, service, and brand interactions.
Today, it’s hard to find a company that doesn’t have a substantial
online presence. Even companies that have traditionally operated
offline have now created their own online sales, marketing, and
brand community channels. In fact, omni-channel retailing
companies are having as much online success as their online-only
competitors.
Learning Objective 3
p. 516
Ad: Home Depot
p. 516
Key Term:
Omni-channel
retailing
Assignments, Resources
Use Discussion Question 17-2 here
Use Additional Project 2 here
Use Small Group Assignment 1 and 2 here
Use Think-Pair-Share 4 here
p. 516
PPT 17-14 ONLINE MARKETING
Online marketing is marketing using company websites, online
ads and promotions, email, online video, and blogs.
The marketing website engages consumers in an interaction that
will move them closer to a direct purchase or other marketing
outcome.
Brand community websites do not try to sell anything. Instead,
their primary purpose is to present brand content that engages
consumers and creates customer-brand community. Such
websites waste no time trying to turn the inquiry into a sale, and
then into a long-term relationship.
p. 516
Key Terms: Online
marketing, Marketing
website, Brand
community website
p. 517
Photo: ESPN.com
p. 517
PPT 17-15
p. 518
Online Advertising
As consumers spend more and more time online, companies are
shifting more of their marketing dollars to online advertising to
build brand sales or attract visitors to their internet, mobile, and
social media sites.
Online advertising has become a major promotional medium. The
main forms of online advertising are display ads and
search-related ads.
Together, display and search-related ads account for the largest
portion of firms’ digital marketing budgets.
Email Marketing
Email marketing remains an important and growing digital
marketing tool. “Social media is the hot new thing,” says one
observer, “but email is still the king.”
By one estimate, 72 percent of adults prefer that companies
communicate with them via email; 66 percent of all emails are
now opened on mobile devices.
Not surprisingly, then, a recent study found that 25 percent of
companies say that email is their top channel in terms of return
on investment. Worldwide, more than 200 million emails are sent
out every minute of every day.
Email marketing lets marketers send highly targeted, tightly
personalized, relationship-building messages. But marketers walk
p. 517
Ad: Gillette
p. 517
Key Term: Online
advertising
p. 518
Ad: Warby Parker
p. 494
Key Term: Email
p. 519
a fine line between adding value for consumers and being
intrusive and annoying.
Spam is the unsolicited, unwanted commercial email messages
that clog up e-mailboxes.
To address these concerns, most legitimate marketers now
practice permission-based email marketing, sending email
pitches only to customers who “opt in.”
marketing
p. 519
Key Term: Spam
Assignments, Resources
Use Think-Pair-Share 5 here
p. 519
PPT 17-16
PPT 17-17
Online Videos
Online videos involve companies posting digital video content on
brand websites or on social media sites. Some are made for the
web and social media. Others are ads that are used on TV and
other media but are posted online to extend their reach and
impact.
Good online videos can draw audiences in the millions.
Marketers hope that some of their videos will go viral. Viral
marketing is the digital version of word-of-mouth marketing.
Viral marketing involves creating videos, ads, or other marketing
content that is so infectious that customers will want to pass it
along to their friends.
Brands also conduct online marketing through various digital
forums that appeal to specific special-interest groups.
Blogs and Other Online Forums
Blogs (or web logs) are online forums where people and
companies post their thoughts and other content, usually related
to narrowly defined topics. Blogs can be about anything, from
politics or baseball to haiku, car repair, brands, or the latest
television series.
Many bloggers use social networks such as Twitter, Facebook,
Tumblr and Instagram to promote their blogs, giving them huge
reach. Such numbers can give blogs—especially those with large
and devoted followings—substantial influence.
Review Learning Objective 3: Explain how companies have
responded to the internet and the digital age with various online
marketing strategies.
p. 519
Key Term: Viral
marketing
p. 519
Ad: Android
P. 519
Key Term: Blogs
p. 520
Photo: Nuts About
Southwest
p. 521
PPT 17-18
Discuss how companies use social media and mobile
marketing to engage consumers and create brand community.
Learning Objective 4
p. 523
PPT 17-19
p. 523
p. 524
p. 525
PPT 17-20
SOCIAL MEDIA AND MOBILE MARKETING
Social Media Marketing
Social media are independent and commercial online
communities where people congregate, socialize, and exchange
views and information.
Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and
Snapchat are just a few digital communities; according to one
survey, nearly 92 percent of U.S. companies now use social
media networks as part of their marketing mixes.
In addition to these large, general-interest sites, numerous niche
and interest-based social networks have also emerged to cater to
the needs of smaller communities of like-minded people.
Social Media Marketing Advantages and Challenges
Advantages include that social media are targeted and personal.
They are also interactive, making it easy to start and participate in
customer conversations and listen to customer feedback. They
lend themselves to real-time marketing, as they are immediate
and timely, as well as cost effective. The strongest advantage is
the engagement and sharing capabilities. Some social networks
are huge!
Many companies are still learning how to use social media
effectively, and results are hard to measure. A significant
challenge is the lack of control that a company experiences.
Once a conversation has begun, the company cannot control the
direction it takes, though it can impact it.
Integrated Social Media Marketing is not as simple as posting
some messages and promotions on a brand’s Facebook page.
Those companies that use social media successfully are
integrating a broad range of diverse media to create brand-related
social sharing, engagement, and customer community.
Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing features marketing messages and promotions
delivered to on-the-go consumers through their mobile devices.
Marketers use mobile marketing to reach and interact with
customers anywhere, anytime during the buying and
relationship-building processes.
The widespread adoption of mobile devices and the surge in
mobile web traffic have made mobile marketing a must for most
p. 521
Key Term: Social
media
p. 522
Photo: Snapchat
p. 523
Photo: Etsy
p. 525
Key Term: Mobile
marketing
p. 525
p. 527
brands. Today’s rich-media mobile ads can create substantial
engagement and impact. But companies must use mobile
marketing responsibly or risk angering ad-weary consumers.
In all, digital direct marketing continues to offer both great
promise and many challenges for the future.
Online marketing has become a successful business model for
some companies. However, for most companies, online
marketing will remain as one important approach to the
marketplace that works alongside other approaches in a fully
integrated marketing mix.
Review Learning Objective 4: Discuss how companies use
social media and mobile marketing to engage consumers and
create brand community.
Photo: Mobile
marketing, Taco Bell
p. 526
Photo: Mobile
marketing, Klip
p. 528
PPT 17-21
p. 528
PPT 17-22
Identify and discuss the traditional direct marketing forms
and overview the public policy and ethical issues presented by
direct marketing.
TRADITIONAL DIRECT MARKETING FORMS
Direct-Mail Marketing
Direct-mail marketing involves sending an offer,
announcement, reminder, or other item to a person at a physical
or virtual address.
Direct mail (including both catalog and non-catalog mail)
accounts for 30 percent of all U.S. direct marketing spending.
Characteristics:
Well suited to direct, one-to-one communication
Permits high target-market selectivity
Can be personalized
Is flexible
Allows easy measurement of results
Costs more than mass media per thousand people
reached, but the people reached are much better prospects
New digital forms of delivery have become popular, including
email and mobile (cell phone) marketing. But the disadvantage is
that traditional mail provides something tangible to hold, and can
be used to send samples. It creates an emotional connection a
digital message cannot.
Catalog Marketing
Learning Objective 5
p. 528
Key Term:
Direct-mail marketing
p. 528
Ad: GEICO
p. 529
PPT 17-23
p. 529
p. 530
PPT 17-24
p. 530
PPT 17-25
Catalog marketing is direct marketing through print, video, or
digital catalogs that are mailed to select customers, made
available in stores, or presented online.
With the internet, more and more catalogs are going digital. A
variety of web-only catalogers have emerged, and most print
catalogers have added web-based catalogs.
Advantages of web-based catalogs:
Eliminate production, printing, and mailing costs
Allow real-time merchandising
Allow unlimited amount of merchandise
Interactive content
However, printed catalogs are still thriving.
Advantages of printed catalogs:
One of the best ways to convince consumers to use the
online versions
Creates emotional connections with customers
Telemarketing
Telemarketing involves using the telephone to sell directly to
consumers and business customers.
U.S. marketers will spend an estimated $44 billion on
telemarketing, almost as much as on direct mail.
Business-to-business marketers use telephone marketing
extensively.
Outbound telephone marketing is used to sell directly to
consumers and businesses.
Inbound toll-free numbers are used to receive orders from
television and print ads, direct mail, or catalogs.
Do-not-call legislation (National Do Not Call Registry) has hurt
the telemarketing industry, but not all that much.
Do-not-call lists appear to be helping most direct marketers more
than it’s hurting them.
Shifting call-center activity from making cold calls to
managing existing customer relationships
Development of “opt-in” calling systems
p. 529
Key Term: Catalog
marketing
p. 529
Photo: Patagonia
p. 529
Key Term:
Telemarketing
p. 530
p. 530
p. 531
PPT 17-26
Direct-Response Television Marketing
Direct-response television (DRTV) marketing takes one of two
major forms:
1. Direct-response television advertising is short television
spots (often 60 to 120 seconds in length) which describe
a product and give customers a toll-free number or
website for ordering. Viewers can also watch 30-minute
or longer advertising programs called infomercials.
2. Interactive TV (iTV) lets viewers interact with television
programming and advertising. It gives marketers an
opportunity to reach targeted audiences in an interactive,
more involving way.
Kiosk Marketing
Kiosks are information and ordering machines. Many “smart
kiosks” are now wireless-enabled.
Key Term:
Direct-response
television (DRTV)
marketing
p. 531
Photo: Kiosk
marketing, Redbox
Assignments, Resources
Use Real Marketing 17.1 here
Use Real Marketing 17.2 here
Use Discussion Questions 17-3, 17-4, and 17-5 here
Use Critical Thinking Exercises 17-6, 17-7 and 17-8 here
Use Online, Mobile, and Social Media Marketing here
Use Marketing Ethics here
Use Marketing by the Numbers here
Use Additional Projects 4 and 5 here
Use Individual Assignment 1 here
Use Outside Examples 1 and 2 here