Social Media Marketing
The emergence of social media technology has made it possible for an individual to communicate with a large number of people related to products and companies that offer them. It indicates the positive impact of consumer to consumer marketing in the diversified market. Social media is considered a hybrid tool for promotional activities. The main reason is that in the context of traditional advertising, it enables the companies to communicate with their customers and in the context to non-traditional advertising it enables customers to communicate with each other directly (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Various companies use social media as the internal and external communication tool like Coca-Cola. Social media is considered a technology-based dialogue, which is conducted via platforms like blogs, social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube), and wikis (Reilly & Hynan, 2014).
Social Media use by Coca Cola
As part of its marketing strategy, Coca-Cola uses social media to inspire the happiness moments of the people, build the brands, and to promote fun. The main aspects that inspired the company to involve in social media marketing include reduction in costs and increase in the reach. Social media marketing’s cost is lower than traditional marketing tools (e.g. TV ads). In addition, social media enables the company to reach customers that might not be communicated due to limitations of distribution channels linked to remote locations. The use of social media enabled the company to increase reach and decrease the cost (Sashi, 2012). Moreover, the company increased the level of engagement with the customers that led to cognitive, behavioral and emotional engagement activities. Hollebeek, Glynn and Brodie (2014) supported the fact that due to high level interactivity in social media, a relationship is developed between brand and consumer that affect the consumers to involve in cognitive, behavioral and emotional activities. Furthermore, Coca-Cola uses the social media to communicate the customers about its efforts to social responsibility and ethics that increased its image as trustful and sustainable brand (Reilly & Hynan, 2014).
Commitment of Coca-Cola in relation to Interaction with Customer through Social Media
Coca-Cola is committed to follow ethical and social responsible guidelines to interact with the customers through social media. Following are the commitments of the company:
The company is committed to be transparent in social media engagement.
It is committed to protect the privacy of consumers in relation to privacy policies and rules and regulations.
It is committed to respect the copyrights, trademarks, publicity rights and third-party rights.
In addition, the company is committed to be responsible with respect to use of technology.
Moreover, the company is committed to monitor attitude in relation to social media space, develop feasible protocols to build social media presence and to keep record of participation in the context of laws and regulations (Coca-Cola Company, 2016).
Examples of Social Media Tools used by Coca-Cola
Facebook
Coca-Cola uses Facebook to promote its products, answer the questions, and to enhance demand through targeted marketing strategies. In addition, the company uses the tool to inform stakeholders regarding sustainability initiatives. Its page is the second most popular page on Facebook. The company shares the ownership with its fan base as the company got 1, 028, 360 likes on Facebook (Fournier & Avery, 2011). It can be ascertained by the fact that in 2012 the company used its Facebook page to market the partnership with musician will-i-am in introducing EKOCECLE. The aim was to promote the Coke brand associated with the making of products from recycled material. The company also shared a video covering music and commentary from will-i-am to indicate products that can be made from the used bottles of Coke (Reilly & Hynan, 2014). The company developed a number of apps like “When will happiness strike” and “Ahh Gievr that enable the people to send a personalized message with a free Coke to a friend on Facebook (refers to Appendix A and B).
The company uses twitter to promote the products, share information with customers regarding products and discounts, engage them and build a community through interactivity. The company not only targets the young people, but the people of ages over 65. The company has 2.4 million followers from all over the world on Twitter. In 2014, the company experienced huge following as @cocacola Tweeted about 1, 994 times. In turn, the company enjoyed 81, 925 engagements that led to more than 1 billion impressions in 30 days. One of the examples of the use of Twitter by Coca-Cola is the offer made by it to purchase 8-ounce bottles of soda for $5/piece with personalized names on them (refers to Appendix C) (Adweek, 2015). Moreover, appendix D identifies the engagement level of people on Coca-Cola’s Twitter account (Shively, 2014).
YouTube
The company uses the social media i.e. YouTube to promote the products and services and to inform stakeholders about the sustainability initiatives. Sustainability is the key factor of success for the company as part of their mission of refreshing the world, inspiring the people’s moments of optimism and happiness, generating value and making a difference. The focus on “Three Ws” (well-being, women and water) inspired the company to work for the empowerment of women entrepreneurship, well-being of society and water management. For instance, following URL https://youtu.be/RxJYcAGXxoY identifies story of Bessie Mogale’s successful entrepreneurship through Coca-Cola’s 5by20 program (Jarboe, 2015). In addition, the company introduced YouTube channel i.e. CokeTV to identify interests of youngsters. The episodes are hosted by British YouTube stars Manny and Dodie with target themes like gaming and music. The aim behind channel launch was to put the brand into the world of YouTube and to reach young people as YouTube is the tool with high level engagement (Roderick, 2016) (refers to Appendix E).
Other Social Media Tools used by Coca-Cola
The company’s presence on the Tumblr indicates the best storytelling medium to engage customers and promote products. The company is involved in balancing product placement through random images to be fun-oriented, which is important in case of social content. This technique made the company’s Tumblr blog a destination page. Appendix F identifies the company’s efforts to increase the reach through Tumblr blog with tagline “Where happiness lives Online” (Coca-Cola, 2016). Furthermore, Appendix G provides a notion about the brand’s posts, reblogs and unique people. Appendix H identifies the reblog longevity from 4/22/2014 to 5/22/2014. In addition, the company uses Instagram and Pinterest social media tools as part of their social media marketing (Shively, 2014). There are 538 posts on Instagram, 1.3 million followers and 640 following that indicates the popularity of the social media and the effectiveness of company’s strategy through share a Coke and a Song tactic (Instagram, 2016).
App
The company should develop an app to achieve further success and target youth. The below app is designed for the Android phones to target young people. The app will enable the young people to follow Coca-Cola and record their songs. They will send the songs through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and best singers will be awarded. The app is aligned to the marketing strategy of the company i.e. to promote happiness, inspire others, and focus on sustainability (e.g. changing people lives).
Conclusion
The above analysis provides an overview of the social media marketing of Coca-Cola and its success in achieving competitive edge. According to Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) UK, the company is the best at social media marketing (Bold, 2015). The company uses the social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Timblr and Instagram to promote its products and services, reduce cost, build community through engagement, interact and communicate the stakeholders about the sustainability and ethical efforts. The company focuses heavily on the promotion of happiness and fun through its products and services and targets the consumers by focusing on their interests. In addition, the company is committed to work for the society and environmental well-being and for this it uses the social media tools like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. The focus on products and services, consumers’ interests and sustainability through social media enabled the company to achieve top position in beverage industry.
Reference
Adweek. (2015). Coke's New Twitter Ads Call Out Viewers by Name Social promos get personal By Christopher Heine. Retrieved from: http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/cokes-new-twitter-ads-call-out-viewers-name-165174
Bold, B. (2015). Coke best at social media marketing, says IAB survey of brands and agencies. Retrieved from:http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/1377100/coke-best-social-media-marketing-says-iab-survey-brands-agencies#7ItZ16E8hD8D7Ask.99
Coca-Cola Company. (2016). Social Media Principles. Retrieved from: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/online-social-media-principles
Coca-Cola. (2016). Tumblr. Retrieved from: http://coca-cola.tumblr.com/
Fournier, S., & Avery, J. (2011). The uninvited brand. Business horizons, 54(3), 193-207.
Hollebeek, L. D., Glynn, M. S., & Brodie, R. J. (2014). Consumer brand engagement in social media: Conceptualization, scale development and validation. Journal of interactive marketing, 28(2), 149-165.
Instagram. (2016). Coca-Cola. Retrieved from: https://www.instagram.com/cocacola/?hl=en
Jarboe, G. (2015). How Coca-Cola is sharing its Sustainability Story via YouTube. Retrieved from: http://www.reelseo.com/coca-cola-sustainability-youtube/#ixzz4FFg3gapU
Mangold, W. G., & Faulds, D. J. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business horizons, 52(4), 357-365.
Reilly, A. H., & Hynan, K. A. (2014). Corporate communication, sustainability, and social media: It's not easy (really) being green. Business horizons, 57(6), 747-758.
Roderick, L. (2016). Why Coca-Cola’s CokeTV must prioritise authenticity to reach young consumers. Retrieved from: https://www.marketingweek.com/2016/07/04/why-coca-colas-coketv-must-prioritise-authenticity-to-reach-young-consumers/
Sashi, C. M. (2012). Customer engagement, buyer-seller relationships, and social media. Management decision, 50(2), 253-272.
Shively, K. (2014). Lessons from Coca-Cola’s social media strategy: cohesive campaigns and creative content. Retried from: http://simplymeasured.com/blog/lessons-from-coca-colas-social-media-strategy-cohesive-campaigns-and-creative-content/#sm.001byxhlpaoqek910i21nshsjm98o
Appendices
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Appendix E
Appendix F
Appendix G
Appendix H
