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Running head: ICG’S SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING & ADVERTISING
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Social Media Integration into ICG’s Marketing and Advertising Campaigns
Joel Westfield
Kaplan University
Dr. Martin’s grading feedback:
Joel, good work getting your Unit 2 individual assignment submitted. I hope that you found this assignment
valuable, especially from the standpoint it covers current phenomena that we are all experiencing in terms
of social media in marketing and advertising campaigns. Following is my feedback. Excellent introduction! I
could clearly understand your purpose. You did a nice job discussing social media trends, and I was
especially happy to see you use multiple sources. Your recommendations section was fantastic because
you linked them to your simulation segments, you offered many suggestions, and also had a good
discussion about integrating strategies. Your paper was the last one that I graded out of about 37 students
(sorry!) but I can tell you that you were the only one to get 100%! Way to go – have a great Unit 3! Dr.
Martin
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Social Media Integration into ICG’s Marketing and Advertising Campaigns
Social media must be a part of Innovative Computer solution’s (ICG) marketing strategy
because consumers are spending their time online (Manternach, 2011). ICG’s participation in
social media advertising will send a clear message to consumers that the organization desires to
connect and engage with them. ICG is likely to be talked about in the social media. This makes it
essential that ICG participate in social media to influence the conversation so as to develop a
strong brand (Munger, 2012). If an organization like ICG is not talked about on Facebook, Yelp,
LinkedIn, and other social media sites, then it is losing business. Integrating social media into
ICG’s traditional marketing and advertising campaigns is essential for enhancing awareness of
the company’s Workhorse and Traveler brands, demonstrating the company’s interest in what
consumers have to say, and ultimately, enhancing ICG’s bottom line (Kotler & Keller, 2009;
Munger, 2012). Toward the end of developing an effective integrated marketing communication
strategy and differentiating the ad campaign to accommodate IGC’s Workhorse and Traveler
market segments, this paper has two primary objectives: 1) Explore leading edge trends in
integrating social media into traditional marketing and advertising campaigns, and 2) Make
recommendations for most effectively incorporating social media into the Workhorse and
Traveler market segments to develop an overall integrated and differentiated marketing strategy.
Integrate Social Media into an IMC Strategy: Leading Edge Trends
Determining what consumers want in a product, responding to the demand with the right
products, and going to where the consumers are to inform them that ICG has the products they
want are important factors in marketing (Cadotte, 2008). Traditional marketing and advertising
campaigns involving cost and price considerations, consumer satisfaction, promotions, and mass
market advertising are important to ICG’s marketing strategy. It is becoming increasingly
important for companies like ICG to support the traditional marketing strategies by integrating
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internet communication into the overall marketing strategy. Social media marketing is relatively
new and in its formative stages. As such, organizations are experimenting with it to find the right
recipes for success (Gunelius, 2011). Marketing strategies involving social media are still
evolving, but some trends offer tremendous opportunities for organizations among the first to
capitalize on them. The first leading edge trend is the proliferation of new social media platforms
that offer different flavors of marketing (Simone, 2012). Businesses have moved toward social
media in droves (Manternach, 2011). In addition to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn,
which 70%, 40%, and 58% of businesses use, respectively, there are relatively new arrivals.
These new arrivals include Google+ and Pinterest, to name just two. Google+ connects
marketers to consumers through circles (created by Google or the company) and hangouts that
allow video chats. Pinterest is a visually focused platform that allows organizations to showcase
products, specials, blogs, and other favorites or topics of interest by pinning them to virtual
boards (Simone, 2012). A second leading edge trend is the consumer location service (Gardner,
2012). This technology involves social applications such as Foursquare, Ban.jo, and Path. Add
near field communication (NFC) technology to the equation and the result is a treasure trove of
consumer data just waiting to be mined. One example of what these technologies can do is that
one can see when someone is on social media talking about something of interest such as ICG or
its products. This allows a company to connect with that consumer in real time.
The popularity of smart phones and tablets is giving rise to mobile marketing (Gunelius,
2011). Mobile marketing allows organizations like ICG to connect with consumers in real time
(Lewis, 2012). Much data useful in marketing can be gleaned when people are participating in
social media on their phones. Mobile marketing also involves applications such as Viggle.
Viggle bridges social media apps, which allow marketers to piggyback platforms (Gardner,
2012). So, for example, by watching a particular television program or video, a consumer is
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rewarded with coupons, promotions, or other rewards by an organization like ICG. Despite there
being a plethora of leading edge trends in social media marketing, the final one to be discussed in
this paper is content curation. Content curation helps brands become more relevant to consumers
by providing content of interest to them that they can modify to suit their needs (Gardner, 2012).
Technologies such as Pulse, Flipboard, Fancy, and Foodspotting help brands to become media
sources. Newsreading apps, e-magazines comprised of social media and other website content,
and food favorites are among the capabilities of these technologies. Some content curation will
actually accept payment for an organization’s products rather than providing a link to the
company’s website.
Recommendations
Research has yielded a number of recommendations for incorporating social media into
ICG’s Workhorse and Traveler market segments. First, the ICG marketing team must plant as
many digital markers as possible (Simone, 2012). Given the proliferation of social media
platforms, getting ICG’s Workhorse and Traveler brands in as many spots as possible will
increase the organization’s market segments search engine rankings. This should include not
only ICG Facebook & Twitter pages, but blogs, posts, pay-per-click ads on Google and Yahoo!,
and informative videos on YouTube, and foreign social media platforms to name just a few. It is
advisable that ICG employ people in the organization’s global markets to ensure maximization
of digital plants globally. A second recommendation focuses primarily on ICG’s Traveler market
segment. ICG’s Traveler customers are executives and sales persons who often participate in
LinkedIn. ICG must add a LinkedIn Company Follow button to its website (Beese, 2012). In
addition, ICG should develop a company page on the LinkedIn platform. The follow company
feature on LinkedIn allows for links to Twitter, blogs, and other social media platforms. For this
to work effectively, ICG must keep content fresh to maintain
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relevance to what is happening at ICG and in the lives of consumers (Sannino, 2011).
As the largest group of customers, ICG needs to use mobile applications in the
Workhorse market segment (Lewis, 2012). Because Workhorse customers are sensitive to price,
the mobile applications should include promotions such as coupons, discounts, and other price
reducing offers. Social media marketing that focuses on smart phones should include Facebook
news feeds, NTT DoCoMo in Japan, and the Viggle platform bridge (Gardner, 2012; Gunelius,
2011). Mobile marketing will allow ICG to better connect with consumers in the market for
computers and searching for product reviews posted by other consumers. A final
recommendation is to market the Workhorse and Traveler brands as media sources. Doing so
will involve content and user-generated curation. Curation is editorially selecting content that the
consumer audience will be interested in, and adding thoughts and expertise to that content
(Gunelius, 2011). Consumers also need to be able to modify the content to suit their needs as
well to create “personalized information platforms” (Gardner, 2012). ICG also needs to utilize
social and visual news reader applications such as Pulse, Flipboard, and Fancy, which will also
allow consumers to purchase Workhorse and Traveler products without adding the step of going
to ICG’s website.
The recommendations given above will achieve an integrated marketing communication
(IMC) strategy as well as a differentiation of ICG’s advertising campaign to accommodate the
Workhorse and Traveler market segments. There are a number of reasons for this. First, ICG’s
social media marketing and advertising will force the organization to pay closer attention to what
consumers are saying and to be more responsive to them (Bernstein, 2010). Essentially, ICG will
need to have two-way conversations with consumers (Munger, 2012). This will set ICG’s
Workhorse and Traveler segments apart as willing to connect and engage with consumers
(Manternach, 2011). By planting numerous digital markers, this will be all the more relevant.
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Second, incorporating social media into marketing the Workhorse and Traveler products will
heighten brand awareness by adding additional “outlets to ensure that [ICG’s] ad campaign is
seen” (Cadotte, 2008, pg. 165). Since nearly 70% of internet users also use social media, adding
mobile applications and content curation to ICG’s marketing mix, will maximize the chances that
the organization’s target segments see the Workhorse and Traveler products and talk about them
(Kotler & Keller, 2009; Manternach, 2011). Third, by marketing the Workhorse and Traveler
segments as media sources, consumers will begin to see the products as relevant to them. In this
sense, ICG’s social media marketing will amplify the company’s traditional marketing by
balancing the “free-form messaging” of social media with the control and consistency of the
traditional (Bernstein, 2010). This will serve to foster community, loyalty, and will initiate
conversations with consumers. Fourth, ICG’s presence on social media platforms, especially
LinkedIn and the Company Follow feature, will become critical elements in driving product
innovation, sales, research and development, customer service, and communications (Lewis,
2012). Finally, the recommendations made in this paper achieve a balance between IMC strategy
and differentiated ad campaigns by using social media to clarify the messages sent through
traditional marketing. Messages sent through traditional marketing can be interpreted in ways
ICG did not intend. Messages sent through traditional marketing are not easy to change
(Sannino, 2011). Social media will enable ICG to get the right message about Workhorse or
Traveler out by creating a dialogue with consumers.
Conclusion
To successfully market its Workhorse and Traveler brands, ICG must get customers’
attention, build their interest in the products by convincing them of their advantages, foster
desire that the products are what they want, and move them to act and make a purchase (Cadotte,
2008; Sannino, 2011). Effective marketing requires an integrated marketing communication
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strategy balanced with a differentiated advertising campaign that accommodates ICG’s
individual Workhorse and Traveler segments. Utilizing traditional marketing and incorporating
social media marketing will achieve this balance. Traditional and social media marketing cannot
be used exclusive on one another. Both are needed to achieve ICG’s marketing goals and to
ensure the success of the company and its brands (Manternach, 2011; Sannino, 2011). By
following the recommendations made in this paper, ICG will realize heightened global brand
awareness, strength, and loyalty, reach more consumers, achieve message consistency, and build
a reputation for being relevant to consumers and to their lives. To be sure, social media
marketing has risks. Organizations cannot control what others are saying about them or their
products on social media. An organization can guide the message and turn this lack of control
into something positive (Bernstein, 2010). Consumers tend to trust what strangers are saying
about a product more than advertisements. By leveraging the possibilities of social media
marketing, especially the leading edge trends, ICG can build stronger brands and a reputation for
connecting with and engaging consumers. Ultimately, by engaging consumers in conversation
through social media, ICG’s Workhorse and Traveler market segments will enjoy significant
sales increases and a high rate of return on marketing investment (Munger, 2012).
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References
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Bernstein, R. (2010, Jan. 20). Integrate social media with traditional advertising for higher
returns. Social Media Today. Retrieved from: http://socialmediatoday.com/SMC/167993
Cadotte, E. (2008). Tactical considerations in designing marketing strategies. In E. Cadotte
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Gardner, J. (2012, Mar. 5). Five huge digital marketing trends you can’t afford to ignore.
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Gunelius, S. (2011, Dec. 12). Which trends will shape social media marketing in 2012?
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