Introduction
Today, social media has become a factor that has a great influence on the global business environment. Social media is a force used to impact the customers' preferences and gather data about their behavior. Many companies have changed the ways they operate to adjust their activities to the current trends on the market, and these trends are heavily influenced by social media. Social media has also changed a lot from the published newspapers to the electronic sources and various social networks. Every day one can witness a great flow of information that is delivered to the global society through such networks, as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social networks.
Today, many companies rely on the data they gather from various surveys they conduct with help of these social networks. More than that, these networks have turned from the means of distant communication to the powerful advertising agencies. The greatest benefit of these networks is that they have an access to the personal data of their users, including their age, sex, marital status, occupation, working place or institutional affiliation, etc. Thus, they can target their ads to the specific audience, and the same way they can gather data about behavioral peculiarities of specific groups. Later, such data can be analyzed and sold to the companies or large corporations, so they will know what their potential customers like or dislike.
This is the main reason why many companies started using social media to achieve their strategic goals. Small businesses and large multinational corporations now include using the power of social media in their marketing campaigns. Such companies are aimed at advertising products to the target audience, analyzing preferences and purchasing behavior, and influencing the decisions of potential clients.
The main advantage of social media is that billions of people use their accounts in social networks on the daily basis. Therefore, companies can reach billions of people within a short period of time, and effective usage of social media can become a great competitive advantage of the businesses.
One of the ways how information can be retrieved from the social networks is posting a video and popularizing it with help of commercial ads and so-called mass influencers, who are people with thousands or millions of followers. In this way, millions of people will watch the video, and many of these people will comment on the video. Then, the company can analyze these posts and determine whether the viewers liked what they saw and whether the product will be popular if launched in the nearest future.
However, there are many other ways how social media can be used by the companies to reach their strategic goals. One of the examples how social media can help in achieving strategic goals of the business is a case of Virgin America Corporation, and this case will be carefully reviewed and analyzed in this paper.
Synopsys of Article
As a result of the American-US Airways merger, two gates at the Dallas Love Field Airport became available to be obtained by several airlines, and Virgin America competed against Southwest Airlines to control these two gates. At the time the battle started, Southwest controlled more than 80% of the gates and 90% of the air traffic (virginamerica.com, 2014). However, when American Airlines claimed their will to acquire US Airways, the US Department of Justice ruled that American Airlines had to give up its gates at Love Field Airport before it could acquire another company (Nash, n.d.).
Virgin America, a low-fare airline, wanted to gain control over the gates, but it had to compete with Southwest Airlines for them. Therefore, Virgin America launched a social media campaign aimed at asking customers to support the company’s claim to gain control over these gates. With this aim, Virgin launched campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and on a special website they have created called www.freelovefield.com to encourage travelers to support the company (virginamerica.com, 2014).
Goal of Organization
The goal of Virgin America was to gain enough support, so Dallas City officials could let them control two gates of Love Field Airport. So, the company focused on launching a creative PR/Digital campaign to gain enough support.
The first step toward to reaching the goal was showing the audience what they would get from letting Virgin America use the two gates of the airport. They decided to show local customers the product they would get, and landed the company’s new aircraft at the private airport at Love Field. This way they showed local customers the product they would be able to buy if they let the company use the gates of the airport that is located close to the downtown of Dallas City.
Thus, the main goal of Virgin America was to encourage their existing and potential customers to voice their support in favor of a better competition on the market and a better choice of products. The hardest thing was to compete with Southwest Airlines as it is a Dallas-based local airlines company, and this is the reason why Virgin America had to attract attention of local Dallas community and customers from other regions of the United States who regularly traveled to Dallas and would choose the company’s products if they could have an access to the gates at Love Field Airport.
Strategy Employed
Virgin America has chosen a strategy based on the usage of various social media to gain a mass support from travelers. The company launched a petition at change.org, and focused many efforts on attracting attention of a large audience to this petition campaign through such networks, as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube (Nash, n.d.).
Virgin America organized a #LoveToFlyVirgin rally, and the founder of the company, Sir Richard Branson, took an active part in popularizing the campaign. In Dallas, the company and Branson hosted an outdoor concert with an aim of raising the awareness about the issue with the gates. During the event itself, Branson found people with tablets and smartphones and asked them to sign the petition.
In addition, Virgin America filmed a video with Richard Branson, and this video was full of humor to deliver the message to the broad audience. This video was hosted on the official YouTube channel of the company, and it was viewed thousands of times (shortyawards.com, n.d.).
These efforts were noticed by national media outlets, and such mass media giants as Reuters, Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, Associated Press placed the stories about the media campaign launched by Virgin America, and this has also added millions of media impressions (shortyawards.com, n.d.).
Measurable Success Factors
Social media campaign launched by Virgin America helped the company receive more than 27,000 signatures, which became a great support for the gates. At the same time, other competitors failed to gain a massive support, and it resulted in a gain of control over the gates by Virgin America in three weeks after the campaign was launched.
It is estimated that social media campaign generated about 364 million of impressions, which equals to $22.2 in equivalent (shortyawards.com, n.d.). Although more than 60 million of people knew about the issue, only 27,000 of them signed the petition. However, it was enough to gain enough support, and Dallas City officials let the company use two gates of the Love Field Airport.
Conclusion & Analysis
It can be concluded that social media campaign launched by Virgin America was rather successful as the company managed to gain two gates. The main factor that helped the company receive support from a large audience was using social media through which the company delivered its message to millions of people. Thus, it can be stated that mass media can be used to popularize any idea, and social media campaign can have a great influence on the companies’ operations.
Today, organizations have to communicate with their customers using social networks as the current trend shows that more and more people spend a lot of time online on a daily basis. There is no need to contact the customers via emails or booklets, as social networks have billions of users, and companies can easily reach potential customers with help of these social networks. In the given case, Southwest Airlines did not engage in any social media campaigns, and this is the main reason why the company failed to gain control over the gates in the Dallas Love Field Airport.
References
Nash, K. (n.d.). How Social Media Can Influence High-Stakes Business Decisions. Britannia Communications. Retrieved 2 July 2016 from http://www.britanniacommunications.com/#!How-Social-Media-Can-Influence-HighStakes-Business-Decisions/c1vm9/1CC19AAB-A4DF-47B0-BEAC-1FC690600EBE
Shortyawards.com. (n.d.). Virgin America “Free Love Field" Advocacy Campaign. Shorty Awards. Retrieved 2 July 2016 from http://shortyawards.com/7th/virgin-america-free-love-field-advocacy-campaign
Virginamerica.com. (2014). Virgin America's 'Free Love Field' Campaign Takes Off. Virgin America. Retrieved 2 July 2016 from https://www.virginamerica.com/cms/about-our-airline/press/2014/virgin-america-free-love-field-campaign-takes-off
