Having done a number of marketing units, and being a frequent visitor to a number of social media sites, seeing the messages from the brands I am a "fan" of, I thought it would be good to look at how organisations have approached this phenomenon and what they have done to integrate this aspect of their marketing activities into their overall marketing agenda.
One particular brand that has struck me since the early days in using social media effectively is Coca Cola.
Although some early criticisms of Coke's use of the internet (in the early days of social media when chat rooms were still "the thing"), Coke has evolved as a very active social media marketer. See for example the Coke facebook page.
Coca Cola has seen social media as an excellent opportunity to connect with consumers. So much so that they have developed strict company policies and procedures to deal with social media. Social media, although it presents great opportunities, certainly poses great threats to even a brand as strong as Coca Cola.
One particular part of these policies that made it quite evident that Coca Cola is taking it seriously, is how they treat their online and social media activities (even though "inexpensive") with just as much respect as their other marketing activities.
I would like to hear what others think of this approach that Coke has taken. Are they being too serious, or are they being smart?
Ross
Great that you've found their SM policy... and it's very detailed! I wonder if it's a little too restrictive? Shouldn't social media be all about conversations? How natural would those conversations be if they are restricted by such detailed policies?
ReplyDeleteWhat do others think?
I think Coke is trying hard to create a "big brand" impression, with those restrictions and guidelines. Though it is a lot, I think it actually just show what Coca cola would have trained their SM representatives in real lives.
ReplyDeleteI can understand their policy, I just dont get why they need to show that much details to their customers.
Nice blog Ross. Why was I surprised that Coke has over 34 million facebook fans? Seriously why push the like button on the page of a huge multi-national?! Surely they must be offering freebies and it shows how easy they can buy folks. Am I the only one that was put off Coke as a kid after Colgate showed what it does to chalk??
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Ross, that social media presents great opportunities as well as great threats to various brands, as it is very easy for things to go viral on the internet. I am guessing that is why Coca-Cola is enforcing such a strict policy. However, if we compare with Dr. Pepper for example http://www.facebook.com/DrPepper and their "Road Rules" and Terms of use, I think we can see a much less restrictive policy which is working to the same effect.
ReplyDelete@IvanD: Maybe Coke have a lot more at stake than some of their smaller competitors, so they need to protect that massive brand value?
ReplyDelete@Hubba - interesting that they now have close to 33mil, when I looked up the FB page last night, they only had just about 32mil fans. What I like about coke (having been an FB fan for some time) is that they don't advertise "in your face". When it's a hot day, they just write something to all their members saying "happiness" or phases/words to that effect, makes you think as a consumer and just puts that niggle in your mind that coke will be the thing to have on a hot day.
ReplyDelete@IvanD, the Dr Pepper example is great, thanks for posting that. As we discussed in class on Monday, interesting that they mention they may remove posts which is in interesting contrast to how Coke handled the example that Wags gave in class on Monday.
@Nia, I like the policies Coke have in place, and similar to you, I understand why it is in place, but my take on their policies is it is more aimed at how Coke and its associates use this tool and focussed more on Coke's conduct whilst using this tool.
As I stated in my opening blog, SM provides great opportunities, but also great threats, and Coke seem to be taking proactive action to avoid any of it's representatives from potentially damaging their brand. If a damaging claim is made from inside, it could be detrimental.
I like this blog way of learning, some awesome discussions, keep 'em coming!
Ross
@Wags - Since Coke is considered to be one of the most valuable brands, I would totally agree.
ReplyDelete@Ross - No worries. I found that the most interesting contrast as well. It would be cool if we could see the different results from the different approaches.
Well done Ross! I think that's a very good example of SMM. It's interesting see how Cola-Cola put all its strong message "Live positively" in its Facebook. Also, Coca-Cola emphasises the fact that it's environmental friendly through the communication of some values: Climate protection, water conservation, recycling, and so on.
ReplyDeleteI think that the idea of saying that this Facebook was created by 2 fans (normal people) was fantastic because this connects the brand with its fans.
@ Ross. Nice opening post. Coke spend a fortune on social media. For example they capture and measure every conversation around diet coke, hanging on every word to try and understand the relationship woman have with word "diet".
ReplyDeleteHello all
ReplyDeleteThanks for your posts.
I think the difference between how coke and Dr. Pepper does it shows that this is still quite a new practice. I wonder if this also shows how seriously different companies take this idea of SM. There are some sceptics out there on the power of SM as a marketing tool, so I guess it depends on who runs the marketing show at the company as to how much is invested in SMM.
@Paulette, I completely agree, SM provides great opportunities to connect with fans, and you connect with people that wants to connect with you, which I think has great possibilities of strengthening loyalty between consumers and the brand.
@B more social, I was going to do a "themed" blog for the semester around coke to try to establish whether we would consider them to have good or bad or average practices, and measuring was going to be one of the things I wanted to look at, so I'm glad you brought it up. One thing that I think would be extremely difficult to measure would be how much of their SMM activities actually turn into dollars. It would be easy to say we have 32mil fans on FB, or 5000 mentions on twitter a day, but what does that actually mean in terms of bottom line?
Ross
I totally agree with you. I think social media act as an interactive platform for Coca Cola. As social media is operated by consumers, it is essential for them to pay more attention to it.
ReplyDelete