Apple’s First Social Media Guru, Research Paper Example

Social media is an essential part of a company’s strategic plan. Not only has social media become a fundamental part of media marketing campaign. With the advances in technology, it has become a force that many companies have to incorporate into their business plans. One of the biggest parts of technology and the force of the internet is social media. With social media platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and countless others, it has overtaken many ways in which companies big and small communicate, advertise, and market their organizations. The biggest of the social media platforms remains Facebook with close to a billion users worldwide, next would be Twitter, and other competitive platforms that harbor over billions of potential customers, and employees.

The way in which businesses are run is that many customers are turning to online for their shopping and information needs. The increase in online shopping has prompted many organizations to hire marketing agencies and consultants in order to study the behavior of consumers in hopes of pulling these customers to their organization. Social media has helped to propelled many businesses to set up their online presence in helping to build their social media brand. Online marketing and social media helps saves organization costs in set up, infrastructure, rental costs, and overhead. Relying just on traditional advertisements to target incoming consumers is the bigger strategic plan. Briefly, online social networking and social media is the most populous part in strategic management. Social media helps with allowing the companies to create their public presence through an articulate and bounded systems where people are able to build connections. This is primary factor in new companies building their brand, and more established companies to expand their brand through their online social presence. Targeting customers is a focal part of making organizations a win, all the more significantly the expenses of getting new clients is around six to seven times more than the expense of keeping the current customers. With the way the economy is fluctuating, and the higher costs that advertisers must pay to promote it is best to reinvest simply in the organization’s brand by putting resources into new clients by building on their social media efforts. There are a few reasons that organizations lose clients. With innovation opening up new channels on the rising advertising trait of the web that takes into account more shopper choices, audits, and data. Brands now need to accomplish more to make their vicinity known and join with clients; additionally they need to battle even more so as to keep those clients consideration. The most well-known purposes for client misfortune are: terrible encounters; a change they could call their own desires; the attention to the certainty their issues may be settled by somebody more efficient, and clients are more intrigued and persuaded to begin another collaboration.

L.L. Bean

Taking a look at L.L. Bean one of the most popular stores for women, has revitalized their brand by developing unique ways to transfer their catalog operations to a social media platform. L.L Bean is considered one of the most successful compared to Lands’ End’s, online catalog merchants. The website alone has garnered over $100 million in sells, putting them in the dominant market position, and providing them with record sales numbers. Taking a gander at their site, it is obvious they use a mixture of procedures and ideas were utilized as a part of adding to their online site. Among the initial introductions, are a perceptual process in which they snatch the shopper’s consideration by using tactile presentation to make a passionate investment. Their items were at first coddled the outside man, and gave an inventory to chasing and outside wear. Presently when entering their site, it demonstrates a clean interface of garments for ladies, men, and youngsters. They have remarkably actualized their items and products to provide food the whole family, which only appears to display their clothing. Their image message is apparently passed on through their utilized of clean standard textual style and illustrations.

According to L.L Bean, even on their landing page it has a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Their brand has surpassed many of their competition in helping to be a standout from other clothing online companies. According to an excerpt from Business Week, “L.L. Bean has done more than install such e-tailing basics as designing a Web site that makes placing orders intuitive and package tracking simple. … [L.L. Bean] opened the site to customer ratings and reviews of its wares, even if they’re negative.” (Silverstien, 2010) The way in which their target their customers through their social media efforts, they are able to chat and call their customer service agents, and also have created an efficient model for their company’s website. Not only did L.L. Beans change the way they communicate with their customers, but they are consistently upgrading with the times. They use the likes of social media to effectively be mention a thousand times more than their competition.

Land’s End

The closest competition for L.L. Bean is Land’s End. For many aging companies, Lands’ End had also decided to expand their brand by upgrading with the times. For their social media strategic efforts, the company has utilized Pinterest, a growing company that creates an intersection of social media and style, allowing for its users to post “pins” of different objects on their page. This style of visual branding helps not only new organization’s with targeting potential customers, but older companies as well reaching a new demographic. For their social media brand, Lands Ends incorporates loyalty marketing, social media marketing, traditional advertising, email marketing, digital marketing, and direct mail. For adding to their social media brand, the company utilizes data programs, affiliate and social marketing, display advertising, and a focus on organic and paid search. This helps in creating a drive integration, which for the company and their marketing strategies helps to improve the organization’s performance.

Both L.L Bean and Land’s End are trying to modernize their website, and their strategies in targeting youth, and more social media savvy customers. In doing so, Land’s End has created ways in which increase their social media mentions from the different social media platforms. For Land’s End part in focusing on Pinterest and other young social media sites, they are able to collaborate with blogs in order to circulate their products to a wider demographic. Not only is Land’s End focusing on Pinterest, but also mobile social marketing, and paid search. They like many other organizations have utilized Facebook social platform. According to their social media expert, “As properties like Facebook have made changes to their platforms, it has required us to adjust our strategy to garner maximum engagement with our customers.” (Natalie Crain, n.d) In increasing their brand, the company relies on increasing their relevancy in their social media arena. The company’s goals are to consistently engage with and maximize their customers’ ability to shop on their website. Mobile and social media has played an integral part in helping to communicate with their customers.

Apple

A large part of social media is creating different ways in which to reach the target audience. Nobody has been able to do that better than Apple. Apple will soon be the most important company that creates innovative e technology, making its way to be the world’s first trillion dollar corporation. Since their inception in 1976, the Californian company has attained world-wide recognition through their many innovative products that range from mobile technology, to computers, software and hardware, and upcoming creative products. They are increasingly outdoing their competition and have gained a loyal following of customers that are loyal to the brand. With the advent of social media, instead of just relying on their brand recognition they have increased their social media presence in the internet world. According to their social media guru the Apple brand has created, “a fun, upbeat environment — on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, on all of the social platforms your brand has a presence on — in which your current and potential customers can talk to each other.” (Shandrow, 2014) While many experts believe that Apple avoids social media strategies, they have profiles on almost all popular social media platforms. They are even launching on upcoming platforms such as Tumblr, Twitter, and others in order to secure their presence in the future. For many of their social media profiles, not all are officially run by the company.

Their ability to build on their brand, while continually gaining brand recognition through their social media efforts, sets the company apart from other organizations. Unlike Land’s End and L.L Beans, they have not had to rely solely on social media to increase their brand. Unlike the two previous companies, Apple, has already established a well-known brand that has international customer loyalty, that with the launch of each product they continue to break sales records. Building an organization’s brand is fundamental in creating longevity in a technology run society. Not only is many of the customers turning to online sites to do shopping, but also to find out information on their favorite organizations. Through social media, there is continuous communication with customers, organizations, and media experts to incorporate in their plans.

Works Cited

Crain, Natalie. Emarketers. N.d. Web. 21 Feb 2014. http://www.emarketer.com/corporate/clients/lands-end

Land’s End. 2015. Web. 21 Feb 2015. http://www.landsend.com/

L.L. Bean. 2015. Web. 21 Feb 2015. http://www.llbean.com/?nav=gn

Silverstien, Barry. “L.L. Bean.” Brand Channel. 6 May 2010. Web. 21 Feb 2015. http://www.brandchannel.com/features_webwatch.asp?ww_id=483

Shandrow, Kim Lachance. “Apple’s First Social Media Guru on the NO.1 Away to Market Your Brand.” Entrepreneur. 21 Nov 2014. Web. 21 Feb 2015. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/240091