B2c
Essays

Assessing the Effectiveness of Channel Structures, Global Advertising Campaigns and Sales Promotions on Profitability

The role of social media is without question the single most disruptive innovation re-ordering the balance of power of customer relationships in all industries and nations. Social media has given consumers a clear, loud and very visible voice to share what delights and disgusts them about the performance of brands and companies. Social media is the most powerful communication, collaboration and potentially the most revolutionary channel for making customer relationships more effective than they ever have been before. These platforms were in place and functioning within the social fabric of nearly all industries with service industries including airlines, getting the brunt of complaints on Twitter, Facebook and through the many other social media sites. During July, 2009 a flashpoint event happened that showed just how potent the real-time communication and information velocity on social networks is. Dave Carroll watched as his expensive, professional-grade guitar was tossed and dropped on the tarmac buy United Airlines (UAL) baggage handlers. After nearly a year of fighting with UAL and getting nowhere, Dave Carroll did what anyone with his innate skills and talent did; he wrote a song, recorded it and created a very entertaining video which within seven days crossed well over 50 million views globally (Shambora, 2010). United was still unphased, and to this day will not mention it in their financial statements, even after a Harvard Business Review case study has been written on how not to manage a public relations crisis in social media. This event set in motion a powerful catalyst of customers going on the offensive with videos, creating blogs, writing tweets and doing Facebook posts on the walls of companies who delivered exceptionally good or bad service. Now three years since the initial event, there is a Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) revolution underway. The intent of this analysis is to show how the availability and use of social media on the Internet is changing how businesses operate. Social media delivers the most precious information a company needs to survive, and that includes the brutally honest opinion of how they are performing relative to their customers' expectations (Greenberg, 2010).

The disruptive nature of social networks and their effects on marketing are revolutionizing every aspect customer relationships, including the re-ordering of marketing sales and services strategies. In aggregate social networks are bringing an entirely new level of insight and intelligence into how permission marketing, information acquisition and e-commerce strategies can be accomplished. The highest-performing marketing and sales organizations have successfully integrated the intelligence and insight gained from social networks via analytics and customer listening systems to better tailor selling, product and services strategies (Bampo, Ewing, Mather, Stewart, Wallace, 2008). Social networks have emerged as one of the most important and powerful platforms for aligning permission marketing to customer interest, segment and needs than any other development of the last decade. The insights gained from social networks in these areas are also completely revamping e-commerce strategies with much higher levels of personalization and more adept and agile multichannel marketing and selling strategies as well. The intent of this analysis is to analyze and evaluate how social networks are completely re-ordering the nature of customer relationships. The nascent yet very rapid growth of Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM), which is the combining of social networking-based prospect and customer information with the more structured and mature traditional CRM platforms is serving as the basis for many company's strategies in permission marketing, information acquisition and e-commerce strategies (Cooke, Buckley, 2008). The mercurial nature of social networks however has made it difficult for companies to gain greater insights into their customer bases. The reliance on advanced analytics in SCRM and CRM systems has made the task of completing permission marketing achievable. Social networking has however changed the entire dynamic of relationships with prospects, customers and the general public, infusing a much greater level of transparency and authenticity into the process. Ironically the majority of marketers aren't using social networks to listen and respond to customers, creating more effective relationships in the process. Instead the majority of marketers are relying on social networks and their many channels they represent to communicate un-directionally, going so far as to spam prospects and customers alike. What's needed for marketers to drive greater value from social networks is the ability to listen, create trust and sustain strong communication with prospects, customers and stakeholders throughout their spheres of influence. Marketers from both Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) companies have the potential to completely revolutionize their marketing, selling, service and long-term profitability by concentrating on these fundamentals (Doyle, 2007). The best practices of creating a very open, transparent and responsive level of communication throughout social media channels and across social networks permeate the companies getting the best results from these strategies. Consequently, their efforts at permission marketing, customer information acquisition and broader e-commerce strategies are significantly more successful (Harris, Rae, 2009). Companies excelling in this dimension of unifying social networks, permission marketing and customer information acquisition then driving effective e-commerce strategies include Amazon.com, Dell, Southwest Airlines and others who all have integrated social networks into their broader CRM platforms and strategies. Each of these companies have entire staffs dedicated to supporting their social CRM efforts and strategies, while also integrating unique customer data, managing ongoing marketing campaigns and responding to customer service requests that are initiated over social media channels. The net effect of this approach has been to galvanize the effectiveness of these social media channels for these companies (Jones, 2002). The best practices shown by Amazon.com, Dell, Southwest Airlines and others in this area of social networking is also showing that social networks can become a main part of any global, multichannel management selling and service strategy.

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