Chapter 19 – Using Social Media to Connect with Consumers
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2. Recent Activity on the Four Social Networks.
a. [Figure 19-4] Shows the growth of the four major social media.
b. Number of users is a measure of size of audience.
c. Market share indicates the use of the website relative to other sites.
b. In terms of number of users:
• Facebook: 1+ billion users (with market share 2x larger than YouTube)
C. How Social Media Produce Sales [LO4]
An example shows how a PepsiCo brand manager can use social media to produce
sales and profits for a product or brand.
1. Role of the PepsiCo Brand Manager.
a. Composes title, copy, and images or photos for the PepsiCo social network ad.
b. Specifies the web address to which its ad should link based on the PepsiCo
brand’s social media marketing goals.
c. To increase awareness and build up a fan base, links the ad to:
• The PepsiCo website.
• The PepsiCo Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest sites.
d. To encourage and produce new sales that can be tracked, links the ad to…
• A coupon code.
e. Defines the characteristics of the target segments to reach on a given site:
• Starts with demographic characteristics like geographic region, sex, age
range, and education.
• Adds factors like relationship status and user interests.
2. Role of Social Media.
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a. Ads and videos on social media like YouTube and Facebook are less likely
than traditional print ads to have a marketing objective of immediate sales.
• Social network images are often on the screen for only seconds.
• A more likely goal is to have viewers:
– Go to the advertiser’s website.
[Video 19-2: Pepsi MAX Video]
b. PepsiCo’s “Friend Finder” YouTube video is an example of this strategy.
• Building on highly successful “Uncle Drew” and “Test Drive” videos.
• “Friend Finder” begins with observation that 1/3 of people lose their
friends at music festivals, and then goes on to show people using the
Friend Finder app to follow drones and find their friends!
• The video reinforces the product’s tag line of “Live For Now.”
• As a product in the mature stage of its product life cycle, Pepsi MAX uses:
– An entertaining message to make its diet beverages…
D. Measuring the Results of Social Media Programs
• [Figure 19-5] Performance measures for social media divide into those:
a. Linked to inputs or costs.
b. Tied to outputs or revenues.
• The ideal performance measure for both conventional and social media is one that
ties actual sales revenues to the cost of the ad or other promotion.
1. Performance Measures Linked to Inputs or Costs.
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a. Performance measures linked to the costs (inputs) appear in Figure 19-5.
• Cost per thousand (CPM).
– Ties to the number of times the ad loads and a user might see it,
but not whether the user has actually reacted to it.
b. The most useful measure is cost per action (CPA), which most closely ties the
cost of the social media ad to the sales revenue it generates.
2. Performance Measures Linked to Outputs or Revenues.
a. Measures for evaluating how a brand manager’s social network promotion is
doing reflect the two-way communications present in social media.
b. These measures:
• Tie to output results in terms of “fans,” “friends,” “followers,” or
“visitors” to a social network site.
• Can be a first step to estimating the sales revenue generated.
c. From a brand manager’s viewpoint, here are some of the frequently used
Facebook measures, moving from the more general to the more specific:
• Users/members. The individuals who have registered on a social
networking site by completing the process involved, such as providing
their name, user ID (usually an e-mail address), and password, as well as
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• Unique visitors. The total number of unique visitors to a Facebook Page
in a given time period; if you visit three times in one day, you are counted
only once.
d. The measures listed above are often more specific than comparable ones used
in traditional media.
e. It is far simpler to electronically track the social network users who click on a
website or ad than it is to track consumers who receive traditional media.
3. Specialized Focus for Other Social Networks.
a. Communities can form around ideas and commonalities, regardless of the
physical location of their members.
b. Smaller networks like Pinterest may be more successful for some products.
c. Pinterest:
• Is a virtual pinboard and content sharing social network.
• Allows users to:
– “Pin” or share images of their favorite things.
– Create customized, themed “pinboards” to categorize these images.
E. Carmex Goes Viral with Luck and a LeBron James Bear Hug
• Brand managers want their promotions to go viral, resulting in millions of dollars’
worth of free brand exposure.
• Carmex Lip Balm had this experience!
19–25
1. The Background.
2. The Half-Court Hero Contest.
a. Carmex created the “Carmex and LeBronJames.com Half–Court Hero”
promotion in 2012.
b. The promotion featured:
• An online entry form.
• Weekly prizes leading up to…
[Video 19-3: Carmex Video]
c. On January 25, 2013:
• Michael Drysch:
– Walked to center court at American Airlines Arena…
– Between the third and fourth quarters…
– Of the Miami Heat-Detroit Pistons game…
• Afterwards:
– The crowd erupted as Michael turned and pumped his fist.
3. The “Shot Seen ’Round the World” Goes Viral.
a. Instantly, the footage of Half-Court Hero winner Michael Drysch’s incredible
hook shot and the celebratory bear hug from LeBron James went viral online.
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b. Michael was interviewed side-by-side with James after the game by NBATV.
c. The video was the #1 Play of the Day on ESPN’s SportsCenter.
d. The Carmex brand team immediately arranged a public relations tour for
Michael Drysch that included:
• Four Miami area news stations.
• A trip to New York City with appearances on:
f. Within three months, Carmex’s Half-Court Hero shot:
• Had been seen by over 30 million YouTube viewers.
• Became the most-watched video ever on the NBA’s YouTube channel.
g. The promotion earned Carmex over 500 million media impressions across
TV, print, online, and social media.
4. Social Media Lessons for Brand Managers.
a. Watch for opportunities to “manage luck.”
b. Small, smart investments can pay off in big ways when your brand gets lucky.
c. Find ways to use both social and traditional media to:
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LEARNING REVIEW
19-7. What is the difference between and marketing significance of a “passive receiver”
for traditional media and an “active receiver” for social media?
19-8. Stated simply, how can an advertiser on Facebook expect to generate sales?
19-9. What did the Carmex team do quickly to exploit its incredibly good fortune after
seeing Michael Drysch make his “Half–Court Hero” shot?
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IV. THE FUTURE: SOCIAL MEDIA + SMARTPHONES
+ EXOTIC APPS [LO 19–5]
• Trends in marketing’s use of social media reflect what scientists call “mirror worlds”
or “smart systems.”
• These are really the convergence of the real and digital worlds.
• A smart system is a computer-based network that triggers actions by sensing changes
in the real or digital world.
A. The Convergence of Real and Digital Worlds
The convergence of real and digital worlds is the result of the proliferation of
interlinked:
• Smartphones. • RFID tags. • Apps.
• Tablet devices. • Databases. • Other elements.
• Sensors. • Algorithms.
1. Smartphones.
a. Have changed marketing in the last 15 years.
2. Databases and Algorithms.
a. Finding prospective customers often involves market segmentation that
requires databases searched with exotic algorithms.
b. Algorithms are models used to query, organize, manipulate, and present data.
c. The survival of those owning databases depends on their finding ways to
make them as useful as possible to potential advertisers.
d. For databases, Google is the hands-down winner.
• It indexes 47 billion unique web pages.
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– Not just the “blue links” of website addresses.
e. Google now offers Google+, a social networking service to obtain data about
individuals by name, personal interests, and identities of friends.
f. Recently, Facebook announced its own search engine algorithm.
• Users can query about people, places, photos, and interests.
• Example:
– “Restaurants recommended by friends” lets Facebook give advertisers
3. Apps.
a. Are small, downloadable software programs that run on smartphones and
tablet devices (also known as mobile apps or applications).
b. Are accelerating the convergence of the real and digital worlds.
c. Apple’s App Store offers 2.2 million apps and Google Play offers 2.8 million
apps.
d. Consumers typically spend two hours a day using about eight apps.
[Web Link 19–4: Clash of Clans]
h. Games such as Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga exploit real world-
digital world convergences. Successful new video games all:
• Build on personal-rewards psychology.
• Can be played on small, smartphone screens.
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i. Time magazine analyzes how designers of the Candy Crush video game use
key elements to link the digital world to the personal real-world satisfaction of
players:
• It’s better with friends.
• It never ends.
B. Mobile Marketing: Tightening Links to Marketing Actions
• The real and digital world convergence has increased of mobile marketing, which:
a. Is any marketing activity conducted thru several Internet networks where…
• Mobile marketing has led to three recent smartphone apps:
a. Price-comparison searches. Users scan product bar codes to search over
500,000 stores.
• These smartphone apps have caused huge opportunities and challenges for
conventional “brick-and-mortar” retailers.
• The clear point of difference in mobile marketing is its unique ability to empower
users by continuously connecting with them individually.
a. Involves learning about user likes and personal characteristics and sharing this
information with online friends and (often) marketers selling products.
b. Will lead to connected users having more influence in the marketplace.
• In the future, we may see:
19–31
1. A Consumer Purchase Where Sensors Have Some Control.
a. A vending machine:
• Scans your face to identify your age and gender and then changes its
display.
b. The results of the candy and dinner offer are measurable for marketers.
2. A Consumer Purchase Where the Buyer Controls All.
a. At Tesco Home Plus, shoppers use smartphones to:
b. In this example, buyers achieve great convenience—an unqualified success.
3. On Privacy: How Much “Convergence” Is Too Much?
a. Smart systems are fine up to a point.
• We are comfortable letting convergence find us a timely deal at a local
restaurant using a location-based app on our smartphone.
b. Here’s where we most of might say enough!
• 2000+ times per day online Internet activity is tracked of an average user.
• 3000+ “shopping tendencies” Acxiom can measure for nearly all U.S.
households.
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LEARNING REVIEW
19-10. What is an example of how the real (physical) and digital (virtual) worlds are
converging?
19-11. What are apps and why are they important?
19-12. Can personal privacy become a problem as the real and digital worlds converge
with smart systems?
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APPLYING MARKETING KNOWLEDGE
1. In your new job as a retail store manager you decide to add mobile marketing to your
promotional campaign. Describe how a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon could
increase sales in your store.
Answer:
2. You and three college friends have decided to launch an online business selling clothes
college students wear—T-shirts, shorts, sweats, and so on. You plan to use Facebook
ads. What “likes” or interests do (a) college men and (b) college women have that
might help you in planning your Facebook strategy?
Answers:
a. College men’s interests. Sports, fitness, humor, and video games.
b. College women’s interests. Fashion, music, and healthy living.
3. You graduated from college four years ago and now have an information technology
(IT) job. Your company just announced it will move all the IT work overseas in three
months. Go to the LinkedIn site, register, and determine what information you would
put on your LinkedIn site to help you find a new job.
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4. What is the significance of user generated content when contrasted with social media
and traditional media?
Answer: We can compare the presence of user generated content (UGC) in social and
traditional media by looking at the three basic criteria that UGC must satisfy:
5. You are a brand manager for a sneaker manufacturer like Nike or New Balance and
are trying to use Facebook to reach (a) college-age women and (b) men over 55 years
of age. What three or four “likes” or interests would you expect each segment to have
when you try to reach it with Facebook?
6. In measuring the results of a social network, what are the (a) advantages and (b)
disadvantages of performance measures linked directly to revenues versus costs?
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Answers: Performance measures linked to revenues (outputs) compared to costs (inputs)
have contrasting advantages and disadvantages:
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BUILDING YOUR MARKETING PLAN
Remembering the target market segments you identified in Chapter 9 for your
marketing plan:
1. (a) Identify which one of the four social networks described in the chapter would be
most useful and (b) give your reasons. Would you consider other social networks like
Pinterest? Why or why not?
2. Briefly describe (a) how you would use this social network to try to increase sales of
your products and (b) why you expect target market customers to respond to it.