Selling Products on Social Media

Marketing Theory
Business and industry have evolved and changed greatly over the course of their existence. Similarly, the way in which the goods and services they sell have been marketed has changed greatly as well. Perhaps one of the greatest shifts in marketing came with the emergence of the internet. Ads on the internet changed everything. More recently, social media and advertising on the same has changed things even more. This report shall cover several important topics. Whilst looking at the tactics and marketing of three different organizations, there will be an assessment of social media advertising strategy, how new products are handled on the same and so forth. There will also be a sample social media pitch with real-world history and tactics in mind. While social media has its limitations, it has generally been a boon to advertisers and marketers.
Analysis
The focal point of this report will be three companies that advertise on social media. The three firms used in this report come from a website article published by Marketing Land (Kasteler, 2016). In looking at that advertising, there will be an assessment of the efficacy of that advertising and how their social media advertising strategy fits into their overall marketing plan. The overall theories that are present in each marketing plan will also be covered. One company that has made great use of social media is Staples. As most people know, they sell office supplies such as pens and post-it notes. One of the primary marketing ideas to keep in mind with Staples is that the products they sell are rather boring and uninteresting. Indeed, there are only so many ways to market and sell office supplies. However, they have been able to do so in an interesting way. For example, they use the concepts of product, placement and so forth to make funny and interesting pictures that they post on Facebook. This is effective as a strategy because it takes something normal and uninteresting and makes it memorable. This tends to resonate with customers and can lead to people wanting to shop at and buy from staples. This is important brick and mortar retailers are struggling a great deal due to stiff competition from online retailers like Amazon. Of course, Staples does have other selling avenues such as printed circulars in newspapers and via advertising in commercials. However, Staples recognizes that social media is very much the “modern” form of advertising. There is a good amount of efficacy and performance that comes with doing social media advertising that gets people to remember them and recognize that Staples is doing its best to be a modern and forward-thinking organization, at least in terms of marketing its goods. It does help Staples that everyone needs pens and supplies for the office. Even so, Staples has to put itself out there due to competition, as just mentioned, from Amazon. Even Target and Wal-Mart are out there as competitors. These pithy social media posts are ways to get on the proverbial radar of consumers. That sort of resonance is important (Kukar-Kinney & Carlson, 2015).
Another company that makes heavy use of social media is actually a beneficiary of social media users turning things into their own animal. Meaning, Uber is a newer company that has certainly made heavy use of social media as a way to advertise. However, there is a confluence of a few things external to Uber that have nonetheless benefited Uber greatly. The first is that many people, up to 84 percent, make purchase decisions based on the recommendations and suggestions of their friends. Combine that with the fact that many Uber users themselves have coined the phrase “I’m going to Uber it home tonight”, and this has led to a lot of business for Uber. However, Uber has not just sat idly by and let this all happen on its own. They have offered incentives for people in exchange for a social media share. This takes the word of mouth that is already organically growing independent of what Uber is doing on social media and it makes it even more than it was. In this case, Uber still has to take care of the traditional P’s of marketing. Uber is still mostly handling the price, product and place. However, a lot of the promotion is a bit of a wave that Uber did not themselves create. Even so, they have jumped on that wave and this makes an effective marketing campaign even better. Since social media is all about word of mouth and friends and since friends suggest things to buy to other friends, this is a perfect example of a company using social media to their advantage. The social media marketing of Uber fits into their overall marketing campaign quite nicely because Uber is all about having things be online, cashless and otherwise easy to use. Obviously, Uber has had issues and problems and they have been all over the media. In terms of marketing alone, there is not a huge need for Uber to have a strong marketing mix outside of social media. However, they have had to do some public relations triage due their prior missteps. At this point, they seem to be doing fairly well (Verschoor, 2017).
A third example of a company that does a great job with social media does so without making a thick or obvious sales pitch. That firm would be Pampers. Of course, Pampers sells diapers for infants and toddlers. Not unlike what they do with their conventional advertising, Pampers often does a great job with its social media ads in terms of using emotion and, in this case, motherly feelings to sell their product. One example of this would be the online video they posted of a mother with her two newborn twins. There was no overt sales or marketing gimmickry other than a Pampers logo on the edge of the video. Everything else in the video focuses on the mother as she holds the infants. It is simple, to the point and does not require a lot of hard selling. Even so, it is something that resonates and covers all of the important marketing facets at the same time. Beyond that, it is something that does not need a lot of translation from other forms of advertising. Indeed, a television commercial could be adapted to a social media ad with only a few tweaks and changes. Still pictures from the ad could be used in situations where using video advertising is not possible or practical. In this way, the company is able to have something that fits in neatly with their other advertising and is actually pretty much the same content as their other advertising. However, it can all work with a few tweaks and changes based on the medium that is presently being used.
Since motherhood and raising of children is something that is forefront on the minds of many people independent of what Pampers does or does not do, a lot of what Pampers has to do is just avoid making mistakes with their advertising rather than having to figure out what to say. Indeed, Pampers could take several directions other than the obvious emotional or motherly one. For example, there are the common “poop” jokes and the videos of children playing while wearing the diapers. There might be a time and place for features like that here and there. However, Pampers can very much use the same already-present momentum that is in the diaper and related marketing space. Just like with Uber, they can save themselves a lot of time, money and effort and just ride the marketing wave and patterns that are already there. Another fact that greatly benefits Pampers is that a huge share of new parents out there are Millennials. Since that group is much more likely to be using social media in general, this makes the social media advertising all the more effective for them. They could, in theory, just advertise on social media and still target the mass majority of their target audience (Leyva, 2017). This is not to say that Pampers should disregard television or printed advertising. However, there is no need to spend too much money on those mediums since social media is quite cheap and more effective by comparison in general. Further, it is more effective in the case of Pampers since they don’t have to go outside of social media to hit their target market. The social media marketing mentioned above works because it is not complicated, it gets the message across and it gets some diapers sold.
The company that will be used to take a deeper dive when talking about marketing will be Uber. As mentioned in the relevant section, Uber is a company that shows the best and worst of social media and marketing in the modern time. Due to obvious and apparent missteps by former Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick and the apparently toxic culture that was previously present with Uber, they have greatly been in damaged control as of late. This is even more of an issue when considering that many of the customers of Uber are online and there are Millennials. It also stands to reason that the emerging Generation Z will be constantly online and aware of what is in the news sphere. In addition to being online and connected to social media and the world, Millennials are also very concerned with corporate social responsibility and the ethics of the companies that they buy from. As such, the ethical and legal problems that Uber is facing could obviously lead to people defecting to other rideshare firms like Lyft and the like (McGlone, Spain & McGlone, 2011).
To combat this, Uber has undertaken a 180-day campaign to make things better for its drivers. These include the addition of tipping, the modification of fare structures for things like wait time and so forth. However, Uber also needs to pay heavy attention to the horrible office culture and practices that were apparently going on in their San Francisco office. They need to use their social media and other campaigns to make sure that their users understand that the realize that things went horribly wrong, that this is not acceptable and that anything and everything that can be done to alleviate that will be put in motion. Further, this needs to be supported and proven by what they are actually doing. Thus far, they have done a fairly decent job of that. For example, there was a recent power play by Travis Kalanick to take back control of the company. However, that was slapped down. This is necessary because he can no longer be the face of the company due to how he contributed to the mess. In terms of marketing, social media and otherwise, Uber needs to prove that their stated values are improved and their underlying values are the same. If there is any disconnect between what they say they believe and what they actually believe, this will spread like wildfire on social media (Paul, 2017).
With the above in mind, the below is what Uber should do in terms of marketing and overall business practices. Much to most of this should be shared on their website, their social media avenues and their other online marketing avenues. Those would be as follows:
· Explain that the goal is to make Uber the “employer of choice” for people of all backgrounds and demographics. There will be a heavy focus on there being equality for women but there will also be openings and options for more mature workers as well as people from all ethnicities and races.
· Explain that the company is fully cooperating with all federal, state and other investigations. This would, of course, include the investigation being handled by former United States Attorney General Eric Holder
· Explain via marketing, social media in particular, that the safety and happiness of the customers as well as the employees/contractors will be of the utmost importance to Uber in the future
· Make it clear that there is an “open door” policy for employees, contractors and customers. Feedback can be given via email, via anonymous comments or whatever other mediums that people want to use. The feedback that is garnered from this must be thoughtfully analyzed and reacted to in the same way.

Conclusion
Staples, Uber and Pampers each have to market their items in a different way based on what they are selling, what has happened with their firms in the past and so forth. However, the net goal of all three firms is the same. They want to get the most positive and resonating exposure that they can gain. There can be challenges based on what demographics they sell to and the mediums they are most prone to use, including social media, television and so forth. Even so, all of the firms are finding ways to perfect and improve their marketing mix. However, it is clear that social media is the current wave of the future.















References
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Paul, S. M. (2017). Uber as For-Profit Hiring Hall- A Price-Fixing Paradox and its
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VERSCHOOR, C. C. (2017). UBER CULTURE CAUSES BIG LOSSES. Strategic Finance, 23.