Current Issues In Marketing

Current Issues In Marketing This report aims to discuss social network marketing, which is a current issue in the field of marketing. The report seeks to describe the importance and advantages of marketing on social networks for restaurants, particularly 21 Hospitality Group of restaurants. We also draw upon some issues which should be taken care of, when businesses go ahead with such approach to marketing. Introduction The internet and other digital media have transformed marketing (Chaffey, 2006). Customers are rapidly embracing the internet, so organization must have an effective visibility on Internet to prosper. The internet also has evolved over time, it is no longer just a source of information (Hof, 2006). The human need to share, cooperate and socialize has driven people to create their lives online. A relatively new but most popular means of achieving this is through social network sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, LinkedIn etc. A social networking site can be defined as one that allows Internet users the ability to add user-generated content such as: comments, review, feedback, ratings, or their own dedicated pages. (Burns, 2007) They provide a virtual community for members interested in a similar subject or just want to hang out together. Voice, instant message, conference and blogs, are the usual means by which members communicate in a social network site. (www.computerhope.com, 2010) (www.mlc.executiveboard.com, 2008) As social networking sites become part of life of their members, they have become a potentially useful marketing tool. Social networking sites are an important medium to reach a diverse demograpy, including young generation, women, business consumers, and older individuals. Research shows that over 80% of consumers trust advice from friends online, which is thrice that of via traditional media, while making any purchase (Ward, 2007) This report discusses issues in using social networking site for marketing and how it is relevent to restaurants and The 21 hospitality group (Cafe 21 group) in particular. Social networks and marketing The standard marketing mediums of television, radio, and newspaper are constantly losing their effectiveness. As consumers are spending more time online, companies are beginning to follow them to the Internet. Companies striving to be relevant, especially among younger consumers, are increasingly tailoring marketing campaigns specifically to social networks. Such campaigns hope to interact with customers over time, in what companies hope will be in a memorable way. (King, 2006a) Burger King managed to make more than 114,000 friends on MySpace, in a successful marketing strategy where they created a profile for their mascot, The King. Through their site, users could watch free episodes of many TV. As Gillian Smith, Senior Director of Media and Interactive at Burger King puts it, Consumers respect us more as a brand if we are giving them something they can use. (King, 2006b)Every industry is using social networking media for marketing, brand awareness campaigns, consumer engagement and reputation monitoring. The restaurant industry is no different. Restaurants are a social medium of interaction among people offline, so going online is just a natural extension.  Restaurants also have advantage over other industries using social networking media. Social media is about visuals, sharing ideas, talking and telling stories. Similarly food is also very visual, both physically and emotionally. It evokes conversations, experiences, memories, and stories that people s hare. This is what social networking websites are all about! Chances are that if its a restaurant people talk about them online, discuss, rate and recommend them to friends. Chatter is happening. It may be very beneficial for restaurants to know whether it is going good, bad or in between to keep their business successful and popular. (Fruchter, 2009). This way they can adapt better to customer prefere nces and delight. Social marketing has distinct advantages which make it a vital tool for a marketing campaign. The members of social networking sites are niche groups with particular interests. These specialized members are a highly-targeted audiences.(Burns, 2007). Return on Investment is one of the most important criteria for any marketing campaign. For businesses such as restaurants, social marketing is one of the cheapest methods. Considering that fact that such sites vastly improve visibility, restaurants ultimately get good publicity for free. Also traditional e-marketing tools like banners and link ads are losing their charm as not many people trust them. But with social marketing, restaurants can give a more human emotional touch to attract potential customers. Social marketing helps to spread information fast (me, 2010). It also creates interactive bond with the customers. Social Networking Ideas (for cafà © 21 Group) 21 Hospitality group should adopt a comprehensive marketing strategy on social networks. They can start by creating profiles, networks and blogs on facebook, twitter etc. On these, they can feature aspects of a restaurant each week, such as inside the kitchen, basic cooking tips, greetings from a hostess along with her favourite appetizers, drink recipes from the bartender, and so on. People will get to know employees and food better, which creates an intimate and welcoming atmosphere when they visit the restaurants. They can hold contests where people vote for favourite menu item, submit their own ideas for a dish or dessert to be served. This will make the customers feel empowered. The groups website and profile page should be mentioned on brochures, menus and bills to get people log in to them and connect. Most members have their birthdays and anniversaries listed on such site which can be used to give discounts to prospective members on special occasions. This method will make the customers feel good and attract them to the restaurants. Cafe 21 Group should inform customers about new events, menus and happenings through these sites. Also they should invite reviews and feedbacks from their customers. They should go all out to please the customers as the customer is always the king. (Mehta, 2009). The feedbacks will be helpful for the group in providing better services. In addition, Cafe 21 group can visit other local restaurants on these sites, befriend them and comment on their pages. Customers, who dont know Cafe 21, may become aware by seeing those comments. Also, they can tie up with web  sites  dedicated to tourism in North-East and include a link to Cafe 21 groups site on their page. Things to look out for Before diving straight into social networking, a planned approach is required, especially for frequent users who will most likely spread the news about the food and services to other users and their friends. It is essential to emotionally connect with them and make them friends of the brand (Li, 2007) Cafe 21 Group also need to pick the apt sites, the one that most closely matches the intended customers. Transparency in communication is must to flourish trust and brand loyalty. A lot of users navigate using Google, Yahoo, or links in e-mail. So, businesses need to optimize visibility on these. Also they need to ensure that their content is of high enough interest, quality, or value that it will serve as link bait or bookmark bait. (Burns, 2007) A research by ExactTarget and Ball State University says that Internet users, aged 18-34, are more influenced by direct email and mail rather than marketing on social networks (Leggatt, 2008). This highlights that creating trust is an absolute must for an marketing strategy to be successful. Participation in social media needs much more work than just signing up for an account and then posting the details of lunch or dinner. It is very essential to hear feedbacks, reviews and conversations of customers. It will be very helpful to find out who is passionate about the brand, and give them extra information which they can share with others. Vandegrift says. You dont have to pay people. Just find out who really cares about you and give them some access. (Perlik, 2009) Restaurants should also be ready to respond to negativity. A quick and right response is required in times of negative feedbacks and publicity to hold erosion of any customer base. Above all, restaurants should always have something interesting to add to the conversation. Just listing menus makes the posts boring. Readers should be provided unique information which they cant find elsewhere. Restaurants like Cafe 21 can offer insider discount deals and promotions or something interesting now and then. (Perlik, 2009) Conclusion All businesses aim to increase their customer base. Before the Internet, many spread the word through word of mouth. Social marketing has now taken over as the online version of word of mouth. Harnessing it, in the right way will results in more customers, more sales, and a higher level of visibility online than ever before. (me, 2010) With the Net, a new way of conducting business is available, but it doesnt change the laws of business or most what really creates a competitive advantage. The fundamentals of competition remain unchanged. Michael Porter (cited in Newing, 2002) Advertising on social networking sites have clear advantages but still businesses should move forward with caution regards to ethical amd moral issues. The advertising should be just enough to promote the brand and expand customer base and also should not invade privacy of the users of that site. Cafe 21 group should go ahead with marketing on social media. It will open a new medium to connect with customers, but they should understand that this can not be the full marketing strategy. They still need to have traditional strategic marketing plans to maintain competitive advantage. Current Issues in Marketing Current Issues in Marketing Marketing is the process by which the producer and consumer communicate to enable the producers to sell their products to the consumers. The producers engage in introducing their brands to the prospective or already existing customers, informing them of the various specifications which make their products to stand out from the rest (Jaworski et al. 2016, n.d). Due to the evolution of time, the marketing sector in the business industry is currently facing many challenges with the rise of digitized marketing. The increasing use of social media platforms as tools for marketing has caused a drastic change in the manner of strategies for marketing drawn by various companies (McDuffee 2014, n.d). The revision of the strategies is to ensure that despite the changes, the producers are still able to retain their market share or if better, improve it. According to Russ Klein, the chief executive officer at American Markets Association, he highlights that the digital transformation in the contemporary marketing world has become a problem, more than it is of benefit (Jaworski et al. 2016, n.d). Digital transformation has contributed much in more in adding to managerial problems due to the narrow perception in handling the transformation. As time goes by, it is not only the marketing strategies that shift but also the manner in which the various businesses handle their issues. Communication methods, internal crowd-source innovation, among others keep changing hence marketing must also conform to the strategies employed by the business in handling its businesses (Jaworski et al. 2016, n.d). Within the same scope, one should also realize that the business models shift with regard to digitization hence marketing of products might not be as simple as it was in the past. When considering the strategic marketing plan, the company must take into consideration various aspects of the market to ensure that the plan is suitable to counter the competition in play. Previously, planning was based on the positioning statements, proper branding, and the 4 Ps which are currently being ignored by many due to the introduction of methods such as content marketing, marketing automation, SEM, among others (McDuffee 2014, n.d). The introduction of these methods, particularly social media marketing, has caused a number of people to ignore the basics of marketing, hence drawing plans that might influence negatively on the future. Working without a strategic plan is compared to engaging in the construction of a building without a blueprint and as a result a business may not achieve much (McDuffee 2014, n.d). Every proper strategy should ensure that the business model, objectives, and brands are taken into consideration to pave way for better structured marketing strategi es. Currently, businesses are more focused into rushing to social media platforms to make known what they deal in (McDuffee 2014, n.d). such actions make their businesses appear as having become a campaign with no strong basis. In spite of the modern marketing strategies that are in place, the basics of conducting business have not changed. People engage in the exchange of goods and services, just as before, and as a result the old methods, now termed as obsolete, are still applicable. The improvement in the level of technology in use in conducting businesses has led to the digitalization of every procedure including marketing. In particular, the use of social media platforms is currently a marketing trend that has taken the business industry by storm, yet might not be as productive if other forms of marketing are not jointly involved. To achieve a marketing advantage, the entrepreneur should not narrow their mind to this form of marketing only, but also improve the old fashioned techniques. References Jaworski, B., Malcolm, R., Morgan, N. (2016). American Marketing Association: 7 big problems in the marketing industry. Marketing News. [Online] In http://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/7-big-problems-marketing.aspx   Accessed 9/1/2017. McDuffee, B. (2014). Editorial strategy and planning: Go back to the future with strategic marketing plans. [Online] Created 14/1/2014. In http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2014/01/back-to-the-future-strategic-marketing-plan/   Accessed 9/1/2017.