Monday, June 29, 2009

Where Social Media Fits Into The Marketing Mix

Over at the Copy Write blog, Jonathan Crossfield writes that he is often asked what he considers to be the wrong question about how businesses "can use social media to increase sales, income or awareness. He notes that because the question focuses on a business’ goals, rather than consumers, then the application of social media is probably doomed to failure.

Jonathan’s comments allude to an important mindset – the mindset of being consumer centric – something that is known as the marketing concept. Basically it is an approach where you start with the consumer and identify needs and problems and build an offering to satisfy them. So long as you keep the consumer in the middle of your offering then you are a log way to being successful.

It is also what separates marketing and sales at their most basic level. Marketing is about satisfying a customers needs/problems while selling is concerned with shifting product (and focussed more on what the salesmen can achieve from the transaction rather than what real benefit it provides to the consumer). Check out a post on marketingmag.com.au written by Andrew Wilson. It provides a great example about how Mazda re-invented itself by employing a marketing concept approach.

The offering, if it is a product, consists of 4 elements – product, price, place, promotion (the 4 Ps or marketing mix). If the offering is a service then not many people know/remember that 3 more Ps are added, they being;

  • The Process – The process that the consumer goes through to receive the service (think massage),
  • The Physical Environment – what does it look like? Is it classy, basic, rundown? This is different to '”place” in the 4 P’s as place relates more to where as in shopping centres, online, in-home etc and does not give consideration to the appearance of the location.
  • The People – the staff employed to perform the service.

Ok, so how does social media fit into all of this? The use of “fit into” is important in the question and ultimately should be what people ask Jonathan because social media doesn’t work by itself, in isolation from other activities. Instead, social media must be added into or used inside a company’s existing marketing mix.

Even if the company hasn’t approached their marketing from a theoretic framework then they will still have a product, price it, sell it somewhere and promote it somehow. If the offering is a service then they will also have a process in place to perform it, have staff that perform it and have a premises where the service is performed. Sometimes these elements are mixed together and executed well. Other times you wonder if the company gives a shit about you.

For some companies, it may be useful to do an audit on these marketing mix elements and think about how they relate to customers needs and problems. Then some thought can be applied to how to use social media in the existing marketing mix.

Jonathan gets asked and outside in question – how can social media be used? Instead it should be an inside out question and companies should go right back to square one – the consumers need – and then work out to see if and where social media can be used.7ps and SM

The diagram on the right shows the marketing mix – the consumer in the centre and the 4 Ps of a product around them and then the 3 Ps of service on the outside. The diagram shows, in dark blue, where companies can focus their social media efforts. For example;

  • Promotion – can social media be used to promote your offering? Be careful, social media isn’t like traditional media where you can just push a message. This is definitely the P that poses the biggest challenge.
  • Place – can social media expand the places where consumers can access your offering?
  • Process – can social media improve the process? For example, can customers place their coffee order over Twitter or use Facebook to RSVP to your events?
  • People – definitely the place where social media provides the biggest opportunity through connecting your customers with your staff. It also helps portray your companies personality and values.

The use of social media should focus on how it helps solve your customers problems or needs. Don’t let your social media use focus on how it helps you sell more product.

19 comments:

Kimota said...

Excellent post. Good to have some actual marketing theory to back up what I was saying. I agree, the marketing mag post is essential reading. There's nothing wrong about going back to basics every now and then. In fact, it is essential to analyse everything we do through that lens as it is the only way to identify when we're going off track.

tamir berkman said...

Thanks for this. What you're talking about is something we need to remind ourselves and our clients again and again with every "social media" brief we get. After all the buzz some think it's only another way to push products or messages. So we started thinking about it as "earned media" - which makes sense as it's something that is coming from, not the media perspective.

Don Schindler said...

I think you did an excellent job of the position of social media within the marketing concept - what are you trying to do.

The problem that I see more often than not is the amount of time and energy marketers wish to spend on understanding these principles and applying them.

Social Media (which is a bad term to me - it's not media and you don't buy it or at least the most valuable social media is not bought) is online word of mouth and must be treated with the same amount of care as offline word of mouth.

Would you care about running thousands and thousands of ads if you knew that you could track and encourage word of mouth? We need to drop the term social media and get back to the customer centric basics that you describe here.

Kimota said...

Don, you're spot on. Social media is the wrong term and you've just reminded me of a post I was going to write... Thanks... ;-)

Kjell Kallman said...

I too agree with Don - wrong term but it has caught on and we may be stuck with it.

Once people or clients understand it's about the discussion and not the sale, they seem to understand it better and adapt more quickly to the concept. It requires a shift in thinking as to what marketing is suppose to do vs. what we wish it would do - to me, that's building a relationship with a customer that hopefully lasts a very long time.

Thanks to Cavemanwine for the link to this blog. I'll continue to follow your posts going forward!

Daniel Oyston said...

@kjell - thanks for the comment and the kind words. I appreciate it and it is always nice to hear people like the blog.

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From what I understand, the social media equation should also be considered on the broad end and horizon of one's overall marketing campaign. A mix of short term and long term goals if you will.

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It is tough to deny that Social Media is an integral part of web marketing. We just cannot tap into the potential of social networks.

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In all honesty – I do quite a few of these things – just a bit differently at times maybe. I engage a heck of a lot – but they’re not always new people – although they are at times. I do a lot of thanking (at least more than 10 a day) – especially for RT’s and comments – whether to new folks or to ones I already know. Doesn’t matter – a thank you to anyone that’s done something nice for you is well worth it. But then again – you already know how I feel about that right ?

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