By Brenna Lindsay and Tristan Garthe (Group 100)
Social media provides abundant opportunities for marketers. As part of the integrated marketing communications mix, social media can strengthen and expand relationships through targeted brand building in a fast and cost-effective way. Increasingly intelligent web/online data analytics assist marketers in obtaining immediate feedback on the product and enables corrections to be made as required. But is there a right way to use the dynamic channels that social media provides and what are the ethical dilemmas faced by social marketers?
Lets look at the following video was recently published on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKz3l8wM_JE
It is a video of a young French tourist claiming to be looking for the Australian father of her unborn child. The video was published by leading news agencies around the world and the original clip attracted more than three million views. An accompanying Facebook page included posts from Amyot about her distress and even suicidal thoughts. Shortly after it went viral, the videos and Facebook pages were revealed as a viral marketing campaign devised by the owner of a Sunshine Coast digital marketing agency (Sunny Coast Digital Marketing), for a local real estate business (Holiday Mooloolaba).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv4wyfmheLY
Holiday Mooloolaba says it has generated the equivalent of $10 million in advertising for the town – and market awareness with a global audience.
Discussion questions:
- Do you think this was a successful use of social media in the integrated marketing communications mix?
- If it meets the marketer’s original goals isn’t it then a success?
- What are the ethical dilemma’s of social media as part of integrated marketing communications?
- How can social media be used effectively as part of the integrated marketing mix?
- Can social media create long-term value?
References:
Iacobucci D (2014) Marketing Management (MM), South-Western, Cengage Learning, Mason
Keating E (2015) ‘SMEs under fire for ‘pregnant French tourist’ marketing hoax’, Smart Company, Thursday, 03 September 2015 1:57, http://www.smartcompany.com.au/marketing/48259-smes-under-fire-for-pregnant-french-tourist-marketing-hoax.html
Marketing Management Blog 
Nice blog! I believe that social media done right does have a big positive impact on business value as well as help marketers build meaningful approach to relationship-building with their customers. Social Media can actually play a huge role in creating brand awareness among the masses. It really helps to engage customers and thus presents great opportunity to build a good base of loyal customers in the long run.
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Hi BRENNALINDSAY,
Thank you for the blog post. It was very smart of you to pick a recent issue as part of the blog post.
I would like to add a few points here.
Ethical issues: The post definitely shows how effective social media can be in reaching a certain number of audiences. However, it revolves around the ethical issue of deceiving the audience to achieve communication objectives.
With respect to your first question, it is spot on number success but in terms of creating value, Holiday Mooloolaba was not able to address the values of customers in the right direction. Imagine the extent of sympathy and curiosity to help the French woman and the reaction when it turned out to be a viral video campaign.
Social media like all other medium in IMC has to be aligned with data and research that shows customer insights. Being a marketer, one has to stay away from the term ‘Socially awkward’ which arises when social media creates negative consequences for a brand.
Long-term value: Social media platforms can definitely generate long-term value by firstly targeting the right customer, communicating and interacting on the right mediums on a timely basis. The content that is shared needs to be valuable to the customers. It has to be a mix of company content and industry-related media that customers enjoy viewing. In the end, it all about making them love the brand through social media.
Best of luck with the reflective essay.
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Good Blog! In reference to first question the first video grabbed attention of nearly 3,290,521 viewers but when the viewers came to know about its reality that it was a marketing stunt, the comments which we can see do not suggest that the viewers liked it. If something is fake, it creates a very negative image of the brand so the content of the ad is equally important. And hope so it does not create a long-term value.
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Good Blog
Social media is a platform for marketers to market their products to the people .It brings customers and markets closer which helps the marketer in terms of customer loyalty.Social media increases in brand recognition which makes marketers easy and more accessible to the customer makes you feel more familiar and reconcilable to people,more opportunity to convert to the customers .When ever there is a good post on the social media customers tend to follow and chance their choice. Social media plays a major role in the business in increasing customer’s involvement with the marketer and also to understand the customer needs.Overall a good read
Good Luck
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Thanks for the blog.
I think this was a successful use of social media – in that it generated a massive amount of attention. Where I think it failed is that it’s left me at least, with a really negative perception of the marketing company involved, and therefore the area he was working to advertise.
To me I don’t think that there is a separation between ethical dilemmas in social media to any other type of IMC. I think there is definitely an ethical issue with this stunt, but something similar could have also been done through print in the past.
Social media can definitely create long term impact, but I think that marketers need to be careful that the long term effects are positive and not negative, and it does seem a little easier to cross the ethical line (either accidentally or deliberately) on social media.
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Thanks, really good feedback and analysis of the questions!
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Well a brilliant topic to start with and a very well executed blog.
Social media can definitely create long-term value by continuously evolving. Constant updates and engagements with the viewers/customers can definitely extend the longevity. The content and the information provided needs to be relative and more descriptive about the core topic, slight hindrance from the topic won’t do harm.
Regarding meeting the goals – I would say it did meet his initial goals but the intent with which people shared the post was different. There will be a breach of conduct here. After revealing the truth, it looks bleak that the people would still like to be associated with it. Having said that, the marketer has definitely achieved his initial target of making Mooloolaba famous.
Social media, according to me, is the most effective and economical medium for communication. The using of it depends on the product or service that is being provided. May be in this case the Marketer did achieve his goal of making the place popular but doing the same in case of raising charity or a campaign would not have worked.
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Hi bloggers – well done on picking a very relevant, modern topic.
I think a point for you to consider for your reflective essay is that social media is very effective but not only just for commercial, private enterprises. My view is that social issue marketing (e.g. gay marriage, animal cruelty, refugees, funeral for well respected celebrities, domestic violence, global warming ) is particularly effective because people are happy to spread the message via facebook, twitter, linkedin etc much more than a private product such as McDonalds or Nike.
Remember Kony 2012 – this is an example of a social issue going viral…..
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Great blog!!
i want to answer third question which asks about the ethical dilemma’s of social media as part of integrated marketing communications.
There are several ethical dilemma’s associated of social media associated with integrated marketing communications in which few of them are Puffery which refers to exaggerated claim of a product’s superiority or the use of subjective or vague statements that may not be literally true. – Puffer y ( commercial exaggeration ) is legal. second is Deception which is when the consumer is led to believe something which is not true. – Deception is making false or misleading statements.
few more are promotion of CONTROVERSIAL PRODUCTS • which are Tobacco , Alcohol ,Gambling ,Drugs
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Hi, thanks interesting blog.
Personally i think this was an interesting and creative use of social media to achieve a goal. and it certainly gave Mooloolaba its a lot of focus and attention. If this is what the marketers set out to achieve than it was certainly a success, However it was in my opinion deceptive and once it became clear this wasn’t real I wonder whether it still had the same impact.
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The advert only fulfilled the goals of the marketer but in a way that it was deceiving the customer. I believe for a businesses to create a long term value it has to be ethical in its undertakings. Otherwise if customers may learn of its unethical ways of doing business it may lose customer loyalty in the long term. Integrated marketing communication should improve the company’s ability to reach the right customers with the right messages at the right time and in the right place..
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Found this blog rather thought provoking, inital reaction to the fabricated dilemma of the French tourist was positive, in respect to the ability to generate high volume and exposure in arelatively short period at little expense.
The further this is investigated from a IMC position, the more questionable the campaign is. From a marketing managers perspective is this kind of publicity going to generate the kind of brand awareness that is desired and is it in keeping with the overall marketing strategy of the company.
If you are trying to market a wonderful part of Queensland’s Sunshine coast, does this work for you in attracting customers ? and are they the customers you want to target?
I certainly believe that sound social media presence is integral in the modern marketing mix, though as MM continues to reiterate, it is just a part of the overall strength of the marketing strategy.
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Thank you for the blog.
Different social media channels is focus to differnet audience groups. For example Facebook might more targeting young adults, LinkedIn might be better suited for targeting a broader audience within the professional sector. So, If company want social media be used effectively as part of the intergrated marketing, they need using right social media channels.
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Thanks for the interesting blog
Social media is a rapidly expanding powerful tool used by companies in promoting their brands, with the objective of reaching a continuously rising number of users within a short period of time. One of the main advantages of social media is that the message reaches a large number of market segments either directly through the free interaction between the actual users, or by creating a word-of-mouth marketing between users and nonusers of social media.
Social media can be divided into four social zones including social community such as networks and public forums, where the key focus is on relationship building through shared interests/activities. Social publishing involves disseminating of content to the audience through blogs, media sharing sites, etc. Social entertainment which clearly refers to gaming related sites, and social commerce which plays a role in the consumers purchasing decision making process and facilitates online purchases.
I think, understanding how the four social zones impact the ability to market a brand, and comparing their capabilities is essential for the effective use of social media as part of the marketing mix.
Click to access social_media_mktg.pdf
https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=gNHGBQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT11&dq=social+media+marketing&ots=MQJyBNcGjb&sig=HNTzpevYE1h4Uv9Qpru1Fczr2T0&safe=strict#v=onepage&q=social%20media%20marketing&f=false
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Interesting story! A part from general brand awareness, it’s hard to see any positive message or association that would have been generated with the holiday provider. Maybe for a small local company awareness is enough to increase sales? Working on the motto “any publicity is good publicity”
Thomson (2012) writes that the difference between IMC and traditional advertising is that IMC is a “process that continually impacts the relationships with customers, prospects and stakeholders”
In considering the impact of social media in this context, it’s clear that social media it is a vital part of the IMC mix that can define the failure or success of a targeted marketing communication.
• It enables an interaction with the brand that traditional advertising cannot – think of campaigns like “share a coke”,” hug me”, “Ice bucket challenge”
• It can create an emotional connection with the brand through the sharing of experiences with friends and family.
• Social media gives a company a visible and real-time “word of mouth” feedback on the experience customers are having in relation to a good or service. This can generate positive or negative results.
I read an article about the product placement, advertising and social media response from a “Zamals” campaign on the recent series of the bachelor (popped up on my news feed). The article highlighted the negative social media coverage in relation to the product placement on the show. How effective the IMC campaign and social media was in improving the brand is questionable in this case.
Source
http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/integrating-social-media-your-integrated-marketing-communications-imc-plan
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1. Do you think this was a successful use of social media in the integrated marketing communications mix?
• Yes, it was successful short term, yet long-term the brand message is not honest and misleading. Can the visitor trust what happens there, what might happen next?
• If it meets the marketer’s original goals isn’t it then a success?
2. What are the ethical dilemmas of social media as part of integrated marketing communications?
• One point might be different sense of humor or different cultural associations as to what is right and what is wrong.
3. How can social media be used effectively as part of the integrated marketing mix?
• By being applied and accepted by those who understand the process and what is involved.
4. Can social media create long-term value?
• Long term value is created by repeat purchases, which are based on trust just to mention one aspect.
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Thanks for your interesting blog.
Social media has increased the importance and needs with the development of the technology and economy. We are always attracted by some new products or brands via this tools. Thus, the role and the truth of these channels provided through the social media are becoming more important than before. Moreover, the ethical dilemmas is needed to be considered when the company release some promoting ads or news. From the customers’ perspective, we could be interested in some new products showing in the platform in social media, however, we should always keep to remind to make the purchase decision in a sensible way. There are still existed some risks and uncertainty factors for such unknown experience. From the suppliers’ perspective, they are responsible for the trustworthy social media. Not only it can increase the recognition of the products or any brands promoting showing in the platform of social media, but raise the brand loyalty among the customers which can be better for the further development of the company or long-term development of the brands.
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Interesting blog and good questions to ponder. It is everyone’s responsibility to act in ethical manner not for just short term but also for long term to attain sustainability. Even though the advertisement of French woman video and Holiday Mooloolaba has gained many views, once it is known that the purpose was not real it looses the share in long term. I can relate this with my real life example. As a child I liked WWE very much. As I grown up, I came to know that the stunts are not real. This made me to loose my interest in WWE. So it is always advisable to be real and ethical and IMC helps to attain this in quick time.
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Ethically i have no problem with the campaign, all marketing is manipulative in one way or another. The fact is that they made it clear what they were doing, which i prefer much more than coco pops ads blaring during afternoon cartoons indoctrinating the kids. I don’t know what metrics they will be able to get from this to measure it’s effectiveness but the exposure for Mooloolaba is undeniable.
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Different take, thanks for the feedback teick
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Teick,
Great post. Interesting observation about all marketing being manipulative, an observation I hadn’t considered myself.
Thanks
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Great post.
Regarding IMC, any medium can be used for the purpose of correctly/cleverly communicating your product/service to the consumer or for the purpose of unethically communicating the same to the consumer. The problem with some social media sites is they are vastly unregulated, hence they are open to misuse on many levels. Therefore it is up to the firm to use it responsibly. So, to answer the post questions, consider the following:
– Do you think this was a successful use of social media in the integrated marketing communications mix?
Exposure, reach and frequency are improved, so yes to that. Regarding the form of communication, no, because it has used misleading information to generate publicity for a product/service.
– What are the ethical dilemmas of social media as part of integrated marketing communications?
‘Businesses are unsure how and if it should be regulated. Further, a major impediment to businesses is the issue of security and privacy.’ (Bush, Venable & Bush 2000, pg. 247) This problem has by and large not been resolved. How is privacy managed? Regulation is necessary to stop the type of event in this post from reoccurring?
– How can social media be used effectively as part of the integrated marketing mix?
There are many example of firms who use social media in their IMC strategy, such as Apple, Nike etc. The purpose being to effectively hit their target audience.
– Can social media create long-term value
‘The results suggest that social media is a leading indicator of firm equity value (supported by Granger causality tests) and has a stronger predictive value than conventional online consumer behavioural metrics.’ (Luo, Zhang, Duan 2013, p. 159) So yes, social media impacts long-term value, solidifying itself as a strong presence among the IMC mix.
Bush, V. D, Venable, B. T, Bush, A. J 2000, ‘Ethics and Marketing on the Internet: Practitioners Perceptions of Societal, Industry and Company Concerns’, Journal of Business Ethics Vol. 23 ( 3) , pp. 237- 248 .
Luo, X, Zhang, J, Duan, W 2013, ‘Social Media and Firm Equity Value’, Information Systems Research Vol. 24 ( 1) , pp. 146- 163
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Great Blog
Online networking and social media has become a new stage for advertisers to showcase their products and themselves to the general population .It brings clients and markets closer which helps the advertiser as far as client loyalty. Social media increments in brand acknowledgment which makes advertisers simple and more available to the client makes you feel more recognisable to people which in turn increases the goodwill of the organisation,more chance to change over to the customers or new customer base. If there is a attractive post on the social networking sites, customers have a tendency to interpret and change their decision. Online networking assumes a noteworthy part in the business in expanding client’s inclusion with the advertiser furthermore to comprehend the customers needs. Recently I came across a word called “sentimental analysis” which says that these sites keep a track of the products you look at or surf more and then they send you mails or attractive offers based on the surfing, this is the new way of targeting potential customers. Overall well written blog
All the best.!
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Good blog,
Social networking sites are great platforms to promote a product. But the life of these advertisements are very short. We have been seeing a lot of videos shared on Facebook. But most of these videos creates an impact for a very short period. People do not need much time to forget about a video and move on to the next happening video.
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Hi bloggers, great to see that you guys have picked the recent and ongoing topic.
I would like to add few points on this topic
The ways in which social media is adding value to the products are:
Co-Create Products, demand forecasting, Distributing Business Processes, Market Research, Marketing Communications, Lead Generation, Social Commerce, Customer Care, Collaboration, Matching Talents to Roles.
I feel the social media has a very great impact on marketing as now a days many people use social media and also many people are always online on websites such as Facebook and twitter. The videos posted by the company’s and also posts are very effective as it is spread to the whole world within seconds and the message is shared across.
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Social media marketing has emerged as new medium to put across your message. Its become a fad that must be taken advantage of while it’s still in the spotlight. To others, it’s a buzzword with no practical advantages and a steep, complicated learning curve.
The medium has become a must for any business seeking to secure a place in both the traditional and digital marketplace. It provide low-cost tools, web and mobile based, that can be used to combine technology and social interaction with the use of words.It helps personalize the “brand” and helps you to spread your message in a relaxed and conversational way.
With more and more number of people spending time on social media sites its become imperative for businesses to use it as a tool to promote and sell their products and services.
Variety of businesses have their social presence through , Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ where you can find them flaunting their products or announcing their product line. Even a renowned automobile company like BMW used Facebook to promote their 1-Series Road Trip.
with many big companies using socila media platform it is likely that socila media is going to play a long term role in business arena.
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This blog is interesting.As we know there lot of marketing methods we seen and there are lots to come.When people wants a creative marketing strategy to show up their product or services,they goes to the maximum and this is one of those.here they tried to do marketing with human emotions and they won this.Ethically its a cheap way to attract people,but they all need is the popularity for their product.This video clearly underline that its not important how you show,But its important that what you show.
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I believe this is a nice blog as it shows as the importance of several social media channels and the way they focus on a variety of audiences. Online networking can really assume an immense part in making brand mindfulness among the masses. It truly serves to draw in clients and along these lines presents incredible chance to construct a decent base of steadfast clients over the long haul.
Anyway its a well written blog.
All he best.
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