The purpose of the thesis was to develop the marketing on social media to find the potential customers for Alma Manu, which is located in the Pori region. The topics discussed in the interview were about the internal and external environment of the case company. The purpose of this thesis is to better understand current market conditions for the company and to find the potential customers for the company using social media marketing.
Objectives
Before developing the marketing strategy for the company through social media, it is important to know the current condition and current situation of the company in the market. The beneficiary of the dissertation will be the case company, as the dissertation will give the new ideas and suggestions for the development of social media marketing to find the potential customers and the author will gain new experience in writing dissertations about Finnish company about this. specific topic.
Research process
Research method
The interviews may be time consuming, but they can provide the truthful and in-depth information about the consumer groups, making it easier for the author to make the effective suggestion to the Alma Manu. This data gives the general idea about the status of the company in the current market and better for the improvement. For the empirical information, the author interviewed two customer companies and two representatives of Alma Manu and two companies who are an existing customer and one who is a potential customer and an individual customer who is an existing customer for Alma Manu.
Reliability and validity of the research
For secondary data collection, data was collected from various websites and from the website of the case company. Secondary data was collected by some other people and it was useful to gather information from them.
Introduction of the case company
Current business structure of Alma Manu
Marketing is the process of interacting with the customers and building a relationship with them. Marketing helps the company to be aware of their products or services in the market so that they can convince their customer of their product which is better than their competitors. It helps to understand the current customer demand and need so that the company can perform well to meet it and build a strong relationship with its customers.
Marketing strategy
- Market segmentation
- Branding
- Target marketing
- Positioning . 14
Some of the companies simply fall behind in positioning the brand in a correct way and defeat in the market. It helps the customers to accept the offers of the company and fulfill their demands. It becomes difficult for the company to predict the attitude of the consumers towards their products.
Social media marketing
Social media marketing process
The image above explains the process of social media marketing carried out by the company to achieve effective results. The process starts with the goal in which the company completes its own goals and acts accordingly in the process. The purpose of the company must be clear and have an effective social media marketing strategy to capture the attention of consumers.
Another part of the process is the channels which means the company needs to know the channels it will use for marketing through social media. Since there are many social media tools, the company should plan for the channels they will use for their business. The third part is implementation which means how a company implements its plan and what it includes and excludes in order to succeed in the market.
So, in this part, the company understands its status in the market by receiving various feedbacks from its customers, which it collects by listening through these social media. The last part is to analyze what it means to understand and evaluate the feedback received from customers regarding the company's product or service.
Social media tools in Finland
It is much cheaper than text messaging, so it is widely accepted around the world. One can create a page for their company on it and then create their own circles or community so that other members of the circle can see what the company has done or has done. This helps to create new advertisement for their products and make it popular because of its followers who see it when the company shares it on their profile.
The company can simply set up their own channel on it and specify their brand with a cover photo. Once the account is opened, the other user can simply subscribe or like it and this will give the company the best platform to popularize their product. Creating an account in LinkedIn is like the other social networks and it will help the company to advertise their vacancy and other opportunities of their organization.
It is considered a more powerful platform than Facebook or Twitter in the field of professional and company-focused media. It is one of the popular social networking platforms that allows its users to share their photos on other social media like Facebook, Flickr etc. The company can also post their ads on it as it appears as a news feed on their followers' account. .
Although the social media is much more popular among the young generation, it is also widely used by the other age group.
Benefits and challenges of marketing
The above dataset explains the age group of social media users in Finland from the year 2011 to 2016. It shows that the young generation uses social media relatively much more than the people in the age group of 35 years and older. Although the social media is much more popular among the young generation, it is also widely used by the other age group. plan based on the budget they specified for it, which makes the difference between the companies and their products.
Another challenge the company faces in marketing is the volume, quality and speed of their products.
Marketing planning
Marketing strategy of Alma Manu
Marketing communication of Alma Manu
The communication between the company and its stakeholders is not so effective as the company only communicates with its customers when they have any problems with the delivery of a newspaper or letter or due to payment. Some of his clients don't even know about the company, they directly contact the publishing company and order the newspaper, and the publishing house informs Alma Man about the client. Although the company's logo appears in newspapers and letters sent by Alma Man, some customers are still unaware of it.
Social media marketing of Alma Manu
Collecting primary data through in-depth interview
The manager stated that the company does not directly receive letters to be delivered. Currently, the company follows direct marketing but not social media marketing. The company has not done much in this area of marketing as very few activities have been done so far.
The company has always tried to act according to the market and the current market is influenced by social media. But still those offer cards do not reach the door of every potential customer of the company. The company is not able to take a step forward for the development of digital marketing in the company.
There are very limited competitors for the company in the area of newspaper delivery and letter delivery. The company is very strong in newspaper delivery field as it only has competitor called Jakelukeskus. The company is small with limited suppliers, so it is not the major competitor for Alma Manu.
The company expects new customers in this area and wants to occupy more space in the market.
Collecting primary as well as secondary data through structured interview
The owner believes that Alma Manu should be on social media to let customers know about the company and its services. It is common to look for a company's services on social media, as most companies are on social media. It is a much easier and faster way to find information about a company on social media.
The company needs to take a step forward in social media to communicate with its customers. The suggestion and recommendation to the case company is given by doing proper research on both the company and the target audience. It is necessary for the company to know how well their social media tools are accepted by the customers.
The sales manager deals with the direct marketing of the company but does not engage in any kind of social media marketing. Another option for the company is to hand over responsibility for social media marketing to the company's branch manager. The in-depth interview took place with the branch manager of the company to know both the internal and external environment of the case company.
The thesis also includes the company's current status within marketing and marketing communications. The proposal for the development of social media marketing in the case company is given by knowing the behavior, the perception of the existing as well as the potential customers towards the company. How social media is carried out in the company among the employees in their daily work.
