Selling Products on Social Media Research Paper

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Marketing Theory

Business and industry have evolved and changed greatly over the course of their existence. Similarly, the way in which the goods and services they sell have been marketed has changed greatly as well. Perhaps one of the greatest shifts in marketing came with the emergence of the internet. Ads on the internet changed everything. More recently, social media and advertising on the same has changed things even more. This report shall cover several important topics. Whilst looking at the tactics and marketing of three different organizations, there will be an assessment of social media advertising strategy, how new products are handled on the same and so forth. There will also be a sample social media pitch with real-world history and tactics in mind. While social media has its limitations, it has generally been a boon to advertisers and marketers.

Analysis

The focal point of this report will be three companies that advertise on social media. The three firms used in this report come from a website article published by Marketing Land (Kasteler, 2016). In looking at that advertising, there will be an assessment of the efficacy of that advertising and how their social media advertising strategy fits into their overall marketing plan. The overall theories that are present in each marketing plan will also be covered. One company that has made great use of social media is Staples. As most people know, they sell office supplies such as pens and post-it notes. One of the primary marketing ideas to keep in mind with Staples is that the products they sell are rather boring and uninteresting. Indeed, there are only so many ways to market and sell office supplies. However, they have been able to do so in an interesting way. For example, they use the concepts of product, placement and so forth to make funny and interesting pictures that they post on Facebook. This is effective as a strategy because it takes something normal and uninteresting and makes it memorable. This tends to resonate with customers and can lead to people wanting to shop at and buy from staples. This is important brick and mortar retailers are struggling a great deal due to stiff competition from online retailers like Amazon. Of course, Staples does have other selling avenues such as printed circulars in newspapers and via advertising in commercials. However, Staples recognizes that social media is very much the “modern” form of advertising. There is a good amount of efficacy and performance that comes with doing social media advertising that gets people to remember them and recognize that Staples is doing its best to be a modern and forward-thinking organization, at least in terms of marketing its goods. It does help Staples that everyone needs pens and supplies for the office. Even so, Staples has to put itself out there due to competition, as just mentioned, from Amazon. Even Target and Wal-Mart are out there as competitors. These pithy social media posts are ways to get on the proverbial radar of consumers. That sort of resonance is important (Kukar-Kinney & Carlson, 2015).

Another company that makes heavy use of social media is actually a beneficiary of social media users turning things into their own animal. Meaning, Uber is a newer company that has certainly made heavy use of social media as a way to advertise.

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However, there is a confluence of a few things external to Uber that have nonetheless benefited Uber greatly. The first is that many people, up to 84 percent, make purchase decisions based on the recommendations and suggestions of their friends. Combine that with the fact that many Uber users themselves have coined the phrase “I’m going to Uber it home tonight”, and this has led to a lot of business for Uber. However, Uber has not just sat idly by and let this all happen on its own. They have offered incentives for people in exchange for a social media share. This takes the word of mouth that is already organically growing independent of what Uber is doing on social media and it makes it even more than it was. In this case, Uber still has to take care of the traditional P’s of marketing. Uber is still mostly handling the price, product and place. However, a lot of the promotion is a bit of a wave that Uber did not themselves create. Even so, they have jumped on that wave and this makes an effective marketing campaign even better. Since social media is all about word of mouth and friends and since friends suggest things to buy to other friends, this is a perfect example of a company using social media to their advantage. The social media marketing of Uber fits into their overall marketing campaign quite nicely because Uber is all about having things be online, cashless and otherwise easy to use. Obviously, Uber has had issues and problems and they have been all over the media. In terms of marketing alone, there is not a huge need for Uber to have a strong marketing mix outside of social media. However, they have had to do some public relations triage due their prior missteps. At this point, they seem to be doing fairly well (Verschoor, 2017).

A third example of a company that does a great job with social media does so without making a thick or obvious sales pitch. That firm would be Pampers. Of course, Pampers sells diapers for infants and toddlers. Not unlike what they do with their conventional advertising, Pampers often does a great job with its social media ads in terms of using emotion and, in this case, motherly feelings to sell their product. One example of this would be the online video they posted of a mother with her two newborn twins. There was no overt sales or marketing gimmickry other than a Pampers logo on the edge of the video. Everything else in the video focuses on the mother as she holds the infants. It is simple, to the point and does not require a lot of hard selling. Even so, it is something that resonates and covers all of the important marketing facets at the same time. Beyond that, it is something that does not need a lot of translation from other forms of advertising. Indeed, a television commercial could be adapted to a social media ad with only a few tweaks and changes. Still pictures from the ad could be used in situations….....

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