International Conference on Management and Information Systems

September 22-24, 2013

Social Media Promotion in Emerging Market: An Indian Perspective

Mili Dutta milidutt@yahoo.com Birla Institute of Technology,Ranchi Bikram Kr. Dutta bikramdutt@yahoo.co.in Kejriwal Institute of Management and Dev. Studies,Ranchi R. N. Bhagat rnbhagat@gmail.com Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribagh
The tools of the promotion mix have been the centre stage for media managers for decades but the form of promotions are changing and marketers have to respond to the changing media needs. The integration of newer media capabilities and vehicles like Internet, mobile, direct marketing, public relations, publicity, event sponsorship etc. has witnessed new paradigms with respect to consumer engagement and interaction in the emerging economies and in particular India. Today the ability of promotional programs to deliver specific messages to target audiences has gained attention and market centric companies are focusing on developing and sustaining long term association with the customer. Thus focus on relationship marketing has increased which involves creating, maintaining and enhancing long term relationship with customers. The marketing mix elements- product, price, place and promotion play a pivotal role in the marketing process. Unlike the marketing program which needs to be cohesive with respect to the marketing mix elements, the communication program also needs to be integrated to achieve effective results and social media has rightly emerged to fulfil these objectives. Marketers have been constantly witnessing changes in the dynamic business environment. The way organisations undertake various promotional campaigns has also become highly competitive in the light of increasing complexities, newer innovative platforms and marketing channels. Thankfully the newer version of digital technology, need for faster communication, individualisation of content and networking technologies has altogether fuelled a new hope for todays promotional managers. The promotional strategies being used has also witnessed a paradigm shift and have prompted key strategists to have a renewed focus and a refreshed approach to the problem addressed in the light of these new found competitiveness. This competitive market has led to clutter and in their endeavour to come out of clutter and have a distinct image organisations are moving towards non traditional, untested newer turfs like social media to get the desired level of attention from the target audience. Social media is the preferred choice among todays young breed of promotional managers who are highly willing to test these risky newer forms of promotion with the sole aim to come out of the clutter. Firms are experimenting to gain attention and effectiveness for their promotional campaigns by setting up brand specific microsites as well as online communities while trying to leverage the social media platform as an extension of their customer relationship management (CRM) programs. The attention by organisations for social media promotions has taken by surprise and is significant in terms of not only the cost but also with respect to higher effectiveness and increased efficiency level. The level of engagement with the target audience through social medial is more engaging in nature facilitating a two way interaction and information exchange on real time basis which is very fast and eliciting the likely response in favour of the organisations offering. The focus of marketers has shifted to the emerging economies in the light of the level of technological, economic and sociocultural changes. The key characteristic of emerging economies chiefly characterised by faster technological adaptation, responding quickly to change, rising income level, increasing literacy rates, rising youth population. Thus all these factors being indicator of the increasing potential of the emerging market for marketers prompts for a higher level of engagement with the consumers at rational and emotional level and social media is rightly the preferred one to address it. It becomes evident to understand under what circumstances social media has drawn the attention and what factors prompts towards this paradigm change. The answer could be attributed to the new found need for some form of association and engagement among youths. Social media affects the response behaviour of the consumers or individuals as well as the organisations. Social media acts as a facilitator in the diffusion of innovations. All these demands for experiential marketing and social media sites like Facebook is one such platform offering higher level of involvement with brand. Further social media interactions being lively, instant and fast leads to enhanced experience for both the ISBN 978-81-924713-4-1 212

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September 22-24, 2013

organisation as well as the target audience. Thus social media platforms move ahead beyond co-creation to opening up for enriched engagement on a real time basis. The Twitter tweets stand testimony to the fact. Organisations are also using social media platform to have their corporate social responsibility campaigns, even Customer relationship management programs etc. apart from promoting their brand. The advancement in technology has led to dynamic growth of communication through interactive media in particular the internet, allowing back and forth information flow involving users engagemen t and participation on real time basis. Traditional forms of communication were one way in nature but this new media is participatory in nature allowing high level of involvement and engagement. It is equally important for both small and big organisations whose objective is to provide the latest and current information updates allowing some degree of involvement and engagement with the target audience. Thus internet as an effective marketing communication tool is being used as part of the Integrated marketing communication (IMC) program and social media is rightly facilitating the growth in achieving the objectives. One of the common social media platform Facebook has crossed 1.11 billion users at end of March 2013 with 4.5 billion likes and comments generated by users per day during 1 st quarter 2013. Recent instances of social media promotion in the launch of Ford Figo attracted 177449 likes, Toyota Etios Liva 59690 likes, Vodafone India 211667 likes, Honda cars India- 553501 likes, Samsung 477328 likes, Sony 308341 likes, Maruti Suzuki 117211 etc. are speaking itself about its impact and success. Today social media reaches 20% of world population. Brands like Pepsi, MTV, BlackBerry, Mahindra & Mahindra, Sony, Ford, Samsung, LG, Whirlpool, Idea, Airtel, Vodafone, Tata Tea, Coca Cola, Nike, Reebok, Adidas etc. are effectively making use of social media to connect with the target audience. The testimony to the fact is that PepsiCos spends 50 % of allocated budget for Frito-lays promotion to social media platforms and networking sites. With the bombardment of advertising messages across the same product categories has led to halo effect and under such circumstances target audiences are filtering the messages subconsciously. Thus the greater emphasis and need for something more engaging which is able to generate the interest of the target audience. The more engaging turns more beneficial in achieving the long term communication objectives. Thus social media works better for all sorts of businesses. The care has to be with respect to the selection of the target group. And social media have rightly filled the vacuum and have helped to come out of the clutter. The newer media vehicles have altogether opened plethora of opportunities in the emerging economies due to the shift in socio cultural preferences. Consumers in the light of new complexities want information processing from different media interactions to be more engaging having some degree of engagement. The question arises in the light of this discussion, how all this has happened in the emerging economies? The reasons could be varied; it can be attributed to the new found media alternatives, media vehicles, greater accountability of the account managers, better understanding of the consumer psychology, newfound technological capabilities, newer forms of consumer involvement and engagement. Consumer behavioural research has led to understand the way consumers come across different media and their effectiveness across different consumer groups varying or belonging to different age groups, gender, location, purchase situation, purchase frequency, purchase mode, purchase timing, occasion, offers etc. The key benefit of social media promotion is creation of groups having likeminded people belonging to social groups having similar interests sharing independent opinion about the brand or product and getting involved in portraying the image association. Thus social media has become part of todays organisation strat egy for consumer involvement and interaction leading to a favourable response towards the product, brand and company image. Under such circumstances it becomes evident to study the rising influence of social media as a part of organisational promotion strategy in the emerging markets. Key Words: Social media promotion, Integrated Marketing Communication, Experiential Marketing, Customer engagement

1. Objective of the study

a. b. c. d. To understand the concept of Social Media Communication. To explore the tools used in integrated marketing communication that has changed the promotional strategies of companies in the light of new media capabilities. To study the role of Social Media in promotional effectiveness of campaigns in emerging markets. Social media promotion as the new tool to gain competitive advantage.

2. Research Methodology
For the purpose of the study exploratory research has been undertaken .Data has been collected through various sources such as journals, articles, books, dissertations, websites and newspaper. It allows the researcher to familiarize him/herself with the problem or concept to be studied. It is the initial research, before more ISBN 978-81-924713-4-1 213

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September 22-24, 2013

conclusive research is undertaken. It helps determine the best research design, data collection method and selection of subjects. This study seeks to examine the growing significance of social media as a tool in achieving the marketing communication objectives of organisations in the emerging economies in particular with respect to India.

3. Conclusion
The real task for promotional managers in organisations is to decide on how much emphasis needs to be given to the different promotional tools towards achievement of their communications objective and what type of promotional tools are available in the emerging economies. And in its endeavour the social media as a new tool has grabbed the attention of all. Also in terms of promotional effectiveness and efficiency of select campaigns to specific target groups and specially the youths, the social media is the undisputed choice. Truly social media is being selected as the most preferred choice because of its uniqueness in comparison to traditional media on account of richer engagement opportunities where brands easily communicate providing a platform for audience to talk, express and exchange opinions both inside and outside. The most interesting part of Social media is that its an on-going conversation among the company and its target audience. New social media capabilities are being used by the account managers and in some instances companies have specifically hired social media managers undertaking the promotion of the companys stated objectives on the soc ial media platforms. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc. stand testimony to the fact of the growing engagement being used by companies to have their social media presence and getting connected with the target consumers thereby becoming part of their active lifestyle. It can be said that social media is allowing companies to have relationship with tomorrows potential customers also. Thanks to the general purpose technologies namely digitalisation, networking and individualisation that has propelled and fuelled the growth of getting engaged in social media activities with the active use of these general purpose technologies in emerging economies like India also. The amazing popularity of such devices and their network integration capabilities costing much less and offering on the go 24 x 7 seamless integration has been one of the major drivers being seen by promotional managers to create a distinct image portraying their brand association and relationship thereby coming out of the clutter. It can be said that social media acts as a direct, interactive and engaging medium. The key to success lies in the right method and level of engagement, credibility of information and its transparency. Those companies who will be able to move beyond the numbers and improve upon the engagement level with the customers through their social media pages will be able to rise above the clutter.

4. Limitation/ Scope for future work

The study is based on the recent instances and news happenings in the business scenario in particular by different companies with respect of the Social media in emerging economy with respect to India. This may not hold true in future years due to again new forms of media capabilities being developed is the assumption. Further the independent opinions of the agency people, account managers, companies objectives may vary at different point of time and at different situations and even with respect to the target audience based on the product characteristics also. Future study can be made in respect of the effectiveness of social media in the light of a companys product offering and the engagement sought vis. a vie different target segments characteristics towards achievement of its IMC objectives.

5. References
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September 22-24, 2013

14. http://www.brafton.com/news/social-marketing-reaches-20-percent-of-the-worlds-population,site accessed 30th April 2012 15. http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/world-overview/137-social-networking-and-ugc, site accessed 30th April 2012 16. http://www.inc.com/20-awesome-facebook-fan-pages-2011/index.html, site accessed 30th April 2012 17. Janice Nathanson, From Marketing to meaning: Toward a reconceptualization of social marketing, Library and Archives Canada Published Heritage Branch, Canada 18. Jeong, Hyun Ju, The effectiveness of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) campaigns on consumer responses to brands in social media: Impression management perspectives, http://search.proquest.com/docview/913389479?accountid=27562 19. Kitchen, P., & Schultz, D. (2003). Integrated corporate and product brand communication. Advances in Competitiveness Research, 11(1), 66-86. EBSCO http://search.ebscohost. com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=13380272&site=ehost-live 20. McArthur, D., & Griffin, T. (1997). A marketing management view of integrated marketing communications. Journal of Advertising Research, 37(5), 19-26. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=1841&site=ehost-live 21. McGrath, J. (2005a). A pilot study testing aspects of the integrated marketing communications concept. Journal of Marketing Communications, 11(3), 191-214. EBSCO http://search.ebscohost. com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=17926963&site=ehost-live 22. OGuinn, Allen & Semenik, Placing the message in conventional and new media, Advertising and Integrated Brand promotion, 4 th Ed., Thomson South Western, p.480 23. PR 2.0, The next level of PR, Pawan Chabra, 4ps Business & Marketing, 16 June 2011 24. Shimp, Terence A., (2008), Advertising and Promotion: An IMC Approach, Cengage Learning 25. Shainesh G, Customer Relationship Management, Macmillan India, 2005 26. Schultz, D.E. & Schultz, H.F. (1998). Transitioning marketing communication into the twenty-first century. Journal of Marketing Communications 4(1), 9-26. 27. The new rules of 2012, 4Ps Business and Marketing, 22 March 2012 28. Wilcox, Ugurlu & Caroline, Social media, existence, identity dynamics and experiential consumption http://search.proquest.com/docview/871701063?accountid=27562 29. www.facebook.com/MTV, site accessed 30th April 2012 30. www.facebook.com/pepsi, site accessed 30th April 2012 31. www.facebook.com/nike, site accessed 30th April 2012 32. www.facebook.com/hondacarsindia, site accessed 4th June 2013 33. www.facebook.com, site accessed 4th June 2013 34. Wind & Mahajan, 2002, Convergence Marketing, Journal of Interactive Marketing, p64

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