Additionally, monitoring the metrics helped Papastratos learn lessons that were applied to the rest of the social media campaigns. Future studies in the tobacco industry will help create a framework for successful social media management in this area.
Necessity of the study
Higher sales and cost reduction are certainly some of the goals of social media marketing, but these activities can also increase brand awareness, brand engagement and word of mouth. Social media can address all these goals and the relevant set of criteria is used depending on the social media type and the respective goal (Hoffman & Hodor 2010).
Objective of the dissertation
More than 50% of social media users follow brand pages in their fan pages and companies increase their spending and invest more in their social media to promote their relationships with consumers and communicate with them. As companies become more involved in blogging and social networking, the need to evaluate social media activities and estimate return on investment (ROI) has become a necessity.
Structure of the dissertation
The Web 2.0
Recognizing the effect of Web 2.0 in consumer decision-making, understanding the value it gives to consumers and the motives for using these applications are the first steps to integrating them into corporate commercial strategies. While Web 2.0 is technological achievement, it has sociological effects and revolutionary implications for business (Berthon et al., 2012).
From traditional marketing to digital marketing
Original marketing concepts were designed around products and production (Marketing 1.0) and evolved in a consumer-centric way in an attempt to reach and fulfill consumers' needs. From the consumer's perspective, the use of Web 2.0 applications offers several benefits, from cost reduction and convenience to efficiency and richer information.
Social Media
- YouTube
Most of the content is user generated, but media companies can also upload content. The service has become extremely popular and is described as the 'SMS of the Internet'.
Definition of Social media marketing
Consequently, the list of "friends" contains links to each friend's profile, allowing users to walk a network path just by clicking to each node. Most social networks also provide a mechanism for users to leave messages or comments on their contacts. SixDegrees merged features that existed before, such as allowing users to create profiles, list friends, and navigate friend lists, and was promoted as a tool to help people stay connected.
However, at that time, people did not have an extensive network of friends who were online and the platform itself did not have many capabilities after friends' connection. As social networks and user-generated content began to grow, more features were implemented such as video sharing (YouTube), photo sharing (Flickr) and music listening (Last.FM).
Use of Social media in Marketing: Benefits and Limitations
Use of Social Media in marketing
As stated by Mangold and Faulds (2009), brands' participation in social media can shape discussions about brands and their products. Social media, used alone or combined with traditional media, can also be used to engage consumers. Consumers feel more engaged with a brand when they can submit their feedback and are more likely to spread word of mouth or post on social media.
The same study also mentions the use of social media to support a cause, as people tend to communicate things to which they are emotionally connected. Social media is gradually being used by companies as an important digital marketing tool and has sidelined traditional marketing strategies. Companies use social media to run polls, contests and even let consumers express their ideas.
Benefits and Limitations of Social Media Marketing
Firms can gather information from social media and understand how consumers feel about their brands. According to Sinclaire and Vogus (2011), the use of social media can drive organizational change that can be a significant benefit for companies. As mentioned by Brethon et al. 2012), bureaucracy is an impediment to implementing a social media strategy.
Social media requires speed and flexibility, and bureaucracy can kill the effectiveness of social media marketing. Companies must meet all requirements for the collection, processing and storage of data generated by social media. Financial: Misuse of social media can impact stock prices and result in fines from regulators.
Path to effective social media marketing
Whatever the ultimate solution, it's essential to understand that social media is all about participation and sharing, rather than direct sales. Social media is all about interaction and sharing, so companies need to ensure their content is fresh and engaging. After all, social media users are people who understand that things don't always go smoothly.
As stated in the previous chapters, it is essential to identify the goals of a social media strategy before implementing one. Awareness, reach and frequency are necessary to determine if social media content is getting attention. In any case, social media serves several business purposes, so its effectiveness must be measured.
Social Media metrics
Co-creation • number of visits • number of creation attempts • number of references to the project in other media (online/offline). Impressions' measure the number of times social media content has been seen online and 'reach' the number of people who interact with the content (Neiger et al., 2012). Reach is driven by the number of people accessing a brand's content, and of course the higher the reach, the greater the visibility.
It is derived from the average sales impact of a brand message multiplied by the number of word of mouth messages. Other popular metrics that can be used to measure WOM according to Hoffman and Fodor (2010) include the number of posts, reposts/shares, and the number of responses to friend referral invitations for platforms such as Facebook. For Youtube, the number of likes and shares count for WOM, while for Twitter the corresponding metric is the number of retweets.
Case study as research method – The case of Papastratos
Another criticism of case studies emerges from the fact that very long case studies must be well structured and systematically organized. In this chapter we will examine the case study of Papastratos, a subsidiary of Philip Morris International and its lunch in social media. In a heavily regulated environment in terms of advertising, due to the nature of the product, Papastratos joined the social media not for advertising reasons, but to promote innovation and share corporate messages.
In addition, social media was used for recruitment reasons, as the transformation was accompanied by a large investment and more than 400 jobs. In the case study we will emphasize the use of Facebook, as a social medium and specifically in "Pare Thesi" and "Smoke Free TIF" campaigns. Through this case study, we will examine how social media was used for the above objectives, which metrics were monitored by the organization and what defines a successful social media strategy for Papastratos.
The history of Papastratos in tobacco industry
The latest innovation from Philip Morris is heated tobacco products that are accompanied by an electronic device called IQOS, which has changed many different aspects of the way the company operates. Soon after, the company expands its business in the resting country and installs the most up-to-date equipment in its branches. After the end of World War II, the company struggles to regain its position.
The company aims to establish its brands in the market, to be competitive in the long term. Consequently, the company seeks to stabilize its position in the other markets and invests in building and improving its sales and distribution network in the rest of the world. During 2017, Papastratos Facebook page was launched, which aims to promote corporate awareness and communicate the major changes in the company.
Marketing in tobacco industry and regulations
Philip Morris has invested in the last 15 years about 6 billion dollars, not only in an effort to develop innovative products, but also to improve its relations with consumers. It ranks 45th in terms of patent applications and is the only tobacco company on the list. Tobacco products contain nicotine, which is highly addictive, so the demand for tobacco is inelastic.
The demand for tobacco products is inelastic and consequently a lowest possible price is imposed for cigarettes. For example, Marlboro's brand image is built in the famous cowboy, a highly recognizable brave man. The health warnings were introduced in the Greek market in the 80s and informed consumers about the harmful effects of smoking.
Use of social media for Papastratos
Papastratos Facebook page: Key evaluation metrics
Engaged Users: The total number of unique users who engaged with the Facebook Page during a given time period. Pare Thesi' campaign launched in July 2017 to serve the extensive recruitment process for the 400 vacancies arising from the conversion of the Papastratos factory into an industrial unit for the production of heets for IQOS. Based on the recruitment process, Papastratos built an integrated communication with the brand within the framework of the "Pare Thesi" campaign.
The most successful video in terms of reach, clicks and interactions is “Pare thesi –VR”. Among all job-specific posts, the one with the highest interactions was the video for “Pare Thesi-Statistician, which exceeded 7,000 interactions and had more than 70,000 clicks. Papastratos "Pare Thesi" campaigns were perceived as very successful by the organization, not only because they achieved their objective, which was to collect many eligible applications, but also because they signaled the internal digital transformation and the launch of corporate social media.
Papastratos and “Smoke Free TIF”
Social media marketing has intangible benefits such as brand awareness, brand engagement and word of mouth. As mentioned in the previous chapters, the use of social media can drive organizational change (Sinclair and Vogus, 2011) and social media can help organizations collaborate more, learn quickly and engage with customers and business partners (Bingham and Conner, 2010). The organization overcame the hurdle by recruiting people with relevant experience and consulting with a marketing agency specializing in social media.
The basic element of social media is user participation and that is why the company emphasized on interaction measurements. To understand the full potential of social media, it is necessary to define key performance indicators. The only effects of social media that the organization emphasizes are brand awareness and generated word of mouth.
Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: A study of the effects of social media marketing, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier. Use, barriers and measurement of social media marketing: an exploratory study of small and medium-sized B2B brands.
