How social media can influence a marketing campaign free essay sample

How social media can influence a marketing campaign There are three stages in developing an effective marketing communications campaign – in other words, telling your target market customers about the benefits of your product. The first stage is engaging the target market in the marketing campaign to let them know that you, as a marketer, understand their needs, wants and aspirations. A well-known manufacturer with an Australian brand that has been called iconic decided that its product needed a lift and held a competition for consumers to name the new product. The manufacturer was Kraft Australia; the brand was Vegemite and the product was the familiar savoury spread that had cream cheese added to its ingredients. The company believed that consumers who took part in the competition would develop an increased awareness of the new product, and that they would experience sensory stimulation and build some form of emotional attachment to the brand; all of which would contribute to their levels of engagement with the brand. We will write a custom essay sample on How social media can influence a marketing campaign or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The second stage is informing, and in the case of Vegemite, Kraft informed its customers about the brand, attributes and benefits of the new  vegemite, and how those product characteristics represented value. The final stage of developing effective marketing communications is the action; that is, the customers’ purchase behaviour that they should take after exposure to Kraft’s marketing communications. Consumers will purchase the product if they believe that Vegemite will satisfy their needs, wants and aspirations. a Kraft decided to call the new vegemite iSnack 2. 0. As it turned out, many consumers went online to angrily protest about the company meddling with the established. Vegemite brand name. Kraft  admitted its error and four days later pulled the iSnack 2. 0 brand name, confirming the power of social media to influence corporate branding decisions. In hindsight, why do you think that Kraft passed the product development and re-branding tasks of the new vegemite to the market? b a Based on: ‘Three stages of marketing to real people’, by Michael Kiely, Marketing, October 2009, p. 59 b Source: ‘Web-emites take snack attack to new level’, http://www. smh. com. au/opinion/blogs/the-pitch/webemitestake- snack-attack-to-new-level/20091001-gei3. html, 2 October 2009 (Accessed 15 March 2010)