Hellooo there! Samantha here, representing Group 7 (Shandy, Jing Yi, Jeslyn & Mary). Here’s a brief recap of our project for those of you who missed it 🙂
OH CHA CHA (G1 – Group 7)
Tag: Social Media Strategies
G2 – Group 9 – Foodpanda
Hi everyone, just sharing with you a quick run-through of our group’s report for our chosen client, Foodpanda! 🙂
Introduction
Founded in Singapore in 2012, Foodpanda was the first of its kind to enter the food delivery market. With competitors entering the market in subsequent years, Foodpanda has always utilised an agile social media strategy to succeed in this ever-evolving and competitive market. In order to help Foodpanda continue achieving its goal, we utilised insights we gathered from interviews, surveys and focus groups to help us craft several social media strategies which we believe will build on Foodpanda’s existing strategies in a scalable manner.
Objectives of Social Media Strategy
The primary objective of our social media strategy was customer acquisition and retention, which we aimed to achieve by localising content, humanizing the brand, increasing brand awareness and engagement, and highlighting Foodpanda’s Unique Selling Points (USPs).
Localizing Content & Execution
We capitalised on each social media platform’s unique traits in order to localise content.
We recommend that Foodpanda use Facebook in conjunction with the 3M framework, and that they post more humorous Singaporean-centred content.
As for Instagram, Foodpanda can utilize the Instagram Story feature to implement spontaneous selling, utilizing Strategy 1 of social community marketing and selling.Â
Foodpanda can also engage in Brand Journalism on its blog, as it can target low-involved customers by engaging in subtle editorial-style promotion. Published blog content will increase Search Engine Optimisation, and will help keep Foodpanda at the top of consumers’ minds. Foodpanda can introduce the human element through a series of articles that feature different food hawkers. Furthermore, Foodpanda can amplify their content through strategic partnerships with well-known local media companies.
In addition, native advertising for Foodpanda can be done in easy-to-consume listicles or blog articles on various local social platforms. These articles should highlight Foodpanda’s main USPs or differentiators.
Lastly, we recommend creating a Telegram channel dedicated to broadcasting Foodpanda events, promotions and discount codes will amplify promotions. Telegram also has a useful feature that allows Foodpanda to keep track of how many people have viewed each message.
Three Brand Campaigns
Our first brand campaign, Foodpandamonium, is an ‘on-demand’ event that strives to promote user-generated content while generating buzz and ultimately increasing brand awareness for Foodpanda.
The second initiative, Scratch-A-Panda, is a brand campaign that seeks to help Foodpanda effectively reach out to their intended target audience whilst raising awareness of social causes.
Our third campaign, Panda Tales, adds a personal touch to Foodpanda’s social media activities with Panda Tales, a spin-off from the popular ‘Humans of New York’ initiative – It aims to shed light on the various unsung heroes of the F&B industry.
Evaluation
In order to overcome the limitation of potential lack of interest or participation, we have chosen to utilise a wider range of application tactics – Telegram, Native Advertising, etc – than are traditionally used. Additionally, we recommend conveying the actions taken after the campaign has concluded.
We also identified 3 main KPIs: To increase customer acquisition by 10%, to increase brand differentiation by 10%, and to increase social media engagement by 20%. In order to analyze the Return of Investment (ROI) of our tactics, we will ensure that every tactic will have a corresponding unique voucher code that will allow direct tracking and measurement.
Feedback indicated favourable responses to our proposed ideas, with any potential concerns being mitigated and solutions incorporated into our initiatives.
Conclusion
Given the highly competitive food delivery space in Singapore, brand differentiation – through the aforementioned tactics such as localization and various brand campaigns – is key to Foodpanda’s customer acquisition and retention goals. As such, the social media strategy frameworks we have crafted aim to humanize the brand, increase customer engagement and to position Foodpanda for scalable growth and expansion in Singapore moving forward.
Are influencers a dying medium?
I came across this interesting opinion piece on influencers, which was inspired by the controversial wedding of influencer Melissa Koh. I found it to be quite thought provoking and relevant to what we recently discussed in class, and it’s definitely worth a read.
It’s quite a long piece, so for those of you who are time poor, here’s the TL;DR:
- Many brands believe that the use of influencers are equivalent to word-of-mouth, and that consumers will blindly believe what is said
- Authenticity and transparency are two factors which should be highly prized by brands and consumers alike, however, sometimes brands fail to see this
- There are guidelines by the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore, in aims to increase transparency, and in turn, authenticity; However, these are not being adhered to
- Engagement in the long-run is built on trust and transparency
- Brands should evaluate which influencers they work with carefully
All that being said, in the end it’s up for consumers to ultimately decide – after all we have the power.
What do you think? Is it time to say goodbye to influencers?
Synthesio workshop at COMM346
Steven Zheng, the Regional Account Manager of Synthesio, APAC, along with his colleagues, Henry Chow and Kimly Anaissa, spoke about social listening (13, 14 September). The workshop session was very informative and enlightening for the students as the presenters walked through all the demos and helped students get practical strategies for effective social media listening for their group project.
Everyone had fun and gained a better understanding of this global-scale social media tool.
Synthesio kindly offers two weeks of access to the account for each and every group in COMM 346.
If students want an extension of the access, they can ask Prof. Kyu for extra account for their own research.
Thank you so much Synthesio! And we hope this collaboration will continue for the mutual benefit of both academics and industries through sharing insights and knowledge in this digital world.
PS. Please share your feedback or queries regarding building dashboard etc., if any, via the comment thread attached to this posting. Thanks!
G2 – What Flavour Do You Favour?
Hi guys! Thought I would share one of my favourite campaigns by Cadbury that used social media in a fun and creative way to raise awareness for its Dairy Milk brain in Australia.
Challenge Cadbury was facing: Chocolate industry was getting increasingly saturated and Cadbury was not doing enough to sell its Dairy Milk brand, which was hence becoming boring to consumers.
Consumer Insight: Everyone has a favourite chocolate flavour but they still like trying new flavours.
Big Idea: Create a buzz around people’s favourite flavours and raise awareness of the variety of flavours offered by Cadbury in the process.
Social Media StrategyÂ
What? Flavour-Matching Facebook-Powered Vending Machine
How? Vending machine’ scans users Facebook profiles and analyses their preferences based on ‘likes’Â (e.g. movie; tv shows; singers etc). Based on this analysis, the machine will choose a chocolate flavour that matches your personality.
End Result? A short description on your personality and of course, a free bar of chocolate that Cadbury believes matches your personality.
Why did this work?Â
- Used Facebook in an engaging and creative manner
- Generate excitement amongst consumers
- Integration of various mediums (e.g. TV adverts; print posters; sales promotions; Facebook engagement posts etc)
G2 (Group 8) – Barbieâ„¢
Background
Launched in March 1959 by Mattel, Inc., Barbie has sold over a billion dolls and is Mattel’s second largest brand after Fisher-Price. In 2015, sales figures reached an all-time low since 1993, and Barbie‘s attempts to reinvigorate the brand with new initiatives have only resulted in a 23% rise in the second quarter of 2016 – significant, but insufficient to restore Barbie back to its place as an industry giant.
Why Barbie?
Research shows that smart devices are becoming more popular with American children aged 12 and below and are increasingly being used to substitute physical toys. As a result, Barbie is becoming less relevant to their target consumers.
What do they need?
Having ventured into creating their very own Barbie tablet and interactive Hello Barbie doll, which were met with a resounding lack of consumer enthusiasm, Barbie needs to continue searching for ways to remain relevant in today’s technologically advanced society. They can use social media platforms to directly
- engage consumers in an interactive manner,
- gain exposure for their social campaigns, and
- encourage organic discourse about the change in their brand image.
How are they currently meeting these needs?
Current Social Media Tactic #1: Keeping up with Social Trends
Barbie has been focusing on breaking stereotypes – more specifically, they are advocating diversity and female empowerment, both of which are prominent current social issues. By doing so, they hope to shake free the controversies that have been dogging at their heels.
Barbie’s New Makeover – a product modification; doll body templates now reflect female shapes of all colours and sizes so as to promote inclusivity and body positivity.
‘You Can Be Anything’ – a viral marketing campaign showing girls that they can take on any career path of their choice.
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Current Social Media Tactic #2: Keeping up with Digital Trends
Research shows that American children below 12 years of age are increasingly preferring smart devices over physical toys as their mode of play. As a result, Barbie has tried to connect with consumers on social and digital media platforms, but these attempts have met with limited success and have room for improvement.
Dreamtopia – a movie about the endless possibilities inherent in a make-believe fantasy world that led to a spin-off web series with a matching product line.
Life in the Dreamhouse – a web series stylized as a mock reality show available on YouTube, Netflix, and various other streaming media sites.
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Research Question
How can Barbie utilize social and digital media to engage and build relationships with parents such that Barbie products become more relevant to their children?
Project Goal & Target Audience
To build a relationship between Barbie and young American parents aged 25 to 34 (B2C – between Barbie and their primary audience), thereby increasing relevancy of Barbie’s products to young American girls aged 3 to 11 (C2C – between their primary and secondary audience).
Our message? That physical toys and virtual games do not have to be mutually exclusive – both serve to enhance the entertainment experience for adults and children alike and provide increased opportunities for parent-child interaction.
Methods & Strategies
   
   
   
   
We plan on creating a game application on the iOS and Android platforms that will adopt an adventure-style storytelling with achievable goals that would allow consumers to feel more emotionally involved in the game and its characters, and thereby, drive brand loyalty and sales figures. To promote this, we will use Snapchat and the tried-and-true channels of Facebook and YouTube to reach out to both new and current consumers alike.
Why Snapchat? Because our primary target user demographic is Snapchat’s fastest growing segment and we can capitalize on that. Snapchat is also one of the few major social media platforms that Barbie has yet to use in their marketing efforts.
Snapchat
- Introduce Barbie game-related filters
- Pair filters with animation shorts
- Use shorts to mimic in-game experience
- Provide an easy, direct download link
Aim:Â Expose consumers to the Barbie brand and the new adventure-based Barbie game, allow them to find out more about what the game is about, and make the consumer download decision-making process simpler and thereby, more attractive.
iOS &Â Android application
- Create adventure-style storytelling with pursuable goals
- Tap on psychological need to pursue achievements
Aim: Tie digital engagement to physical sales by creating a new game-related doll line and including QR codes in each product package that will unlock new in-game content and items.
Facebook & YouTube
- Create advertisements for the game on YouTube
- Show expected in-game experience
- Share it on Facebook
Aim:Â As Barbie’s official Facebook page and YouTube channel have the highest following among their social media accounts, we want to utilize these platforms to reach out to their current consumers.
Conclusion
Barbie’s low product sales as a result of the rising popularity of virtual games on smart devices is not a sign that the company is getting too old to remain an industry giant in doll-making. Rather, it is a sign that Barbie should capitalize on this trend in order to bolster their product sales. To do so, we will be looking at Barbie’s current social media efforts so as to emulate the best parts, improve on the worst parts, and focus their social media efforts to obtain maximum results and sufficiently improved product sales.
