Introduction
Social media is a critical part of every human’s life, especially now that more registered and active individuals are more than two billion. At first, individuals thought of the various platforms as means of communicating or interacting with other people, for instance, family or friends. However, things have changed, and most people have elected to use the platforms as means of marketing their products or services to the audience. Unlike in the past, whereby brands advertised and waited to see if their efforts were fruitful, social media offers an opportunity to interact with customers in real time. This is important as it can help one get feedback early and understand how to react.
Prior to promoting products or services on social media, a brand needs to have objectives, choose useful sites, develop ads, and establish strategies to utilize, as well as the metrics they will apply to measure success. Selecting the best channel determines the performance of the online campaigns. The choice should also be impacted by the target audience and the most probable platform they prefer. For instance, Instagram and Facebook are two of the most frequently used applications. The two have a wide variety of uses which is ideal for any company in the food and beverage industry. This paper discusses the social media marketing strategy of Colonize Coffee.
Description of Colonized Coffee
Colonized Coffee is a company that processes and sells high-quality coffee at an affordable price for the low-income earner; thus, it is categorized among the food and beverage industry. This industry includes every organization involved in the transformation of raw agricultural goods into consumer food products. The overall supply chain includes processing, packaging as well as distribution. It does not cover the production of raw food, which is in the agriculture sector. From foodstuffs sold at grocery stores to cooked meals in restaurants, events, and institutions, the industry serves a wide range of retail outlets. The company in discussion aims to deliver the best quality coffee at reasonable costs to take advantage of and satisfy the young population of product lovers. This is due to the fact that younger people’s awareness and interest in the beverage is increasing, which makes it more attractive when it has good taste and great quality.
Nonetheless, numerous products of such kind are unaffordable to many, which is why the company offers a peculiar solution to the demand. The promotion efforts mainly focus on young people aged between twenty-five and thirty-five since the range shows individuals who only recently got employed (Pan, Torres & Zúñiga, 2019). This group comprises people who are also probably struggling financially but prefer good value for their money (Pan et al., 2019). In the event of psychographic factors, the culture of the product among the youth is continually evolving as well as developing (Li, Larimo & Leonidou, 2021). This is an indication that taste and quality preferences are becoming more intricate and demanding as well.
The majority of companies find it hard to clearly define objectives for their online activities. Creating awareness for Colonized Coffee will reduce the sales process and consequently increase market share. It is important that this company has analyzed its positioning strategies and understood the effect of social media marketing on the brand (Li et al., 2021). To establish uniqueness, the firm has created original content and personalized its promotions. This is significant in attracting the attention of the targeted audience.
Colonized Coffee has the purpose to increase its social media community and correctly target potential audiences. To minimize annoying advertisements on social media, a marketer needs to target prospective consumers only. In the case of this company, choosing probable customers and popping up an advertisement in their profiles is an ideal measure to undertake instead of pop-ups for all users. Brand reputation and popularity get better as the following improve. Another objective of this company is to strengthen the engagement approaches as this can increase customer loyalty. The main aim of marketers is to establish a pool of customers as well as maintain a long-term connection with them (Pan et al., 2019). Interacting with the most influential followers increases the organization’s awareness of more people. A brand ambassador with a significant level of engagement is an effective strategy.
Existing Social Media Platforms
Colonize Coffee is a company that mainly uses Facebook and Instagram platforms for marketing its products. For instance, the latter, use campaigns that aim to promote the beverage to the target audience. Using an Instagram campaign is an active marketing approach that is beneficial to a business such as the brand in the discussion. The food and beverage industry is a challenging market due to the stiff competition as well as a great range of small and large corporations that offer similar products. Thus, applying such tactics effectively means gaining an edge (Pan et al., 2019). The difference between passive and active marketing is that, on the one hand, an inactive ad is mainly in the time span at which it is aimed and is usually long-term.
On the other hand, active marketing involves a short-term advertisement, for instance, a special Valentine’s Day offer. This campaign by Colonized Coffee included the promotion of the online post that acknowledged and engaged consumers to purchase a single cup of coffee and get another one for free. Coffee is a type of beverage that suits business, casual, and romantic dates. Since the fourteenth of February is a day of celebrating couples or individuals that share a love for one another, consuming the product together while paying less than usual for two was an attractive offer. Thus, the campaign targeted both males and females aged eighteen to thirty. There are times whereby a passive marketing approach might work for a coffee-producing and selling firm—for example, employing a native ad that attracts clients that share a business’ values.
Regarding Facebook, the company’s social media team has purposed to maintain activeness in terms of interacting with customers. After producing and presenting a product online through an ad, consumers are asked to provide feedback upon consumption. Among all the platforms, this is the one that has more users than every other. It offers a larger market than the rest, which is why the company focuses on it. Apart from the two mentioned above, the organization also uses blogs on a channel such as WordPress. The main approach is to offer value and key information in the posts, whereby the product itself is a mere recommendation instead of being at the center. Thus, the strategy is based on researching the current trends of beverages and comparison in terms of quality. Through reviewing and teaching readers about coffee, the blog posts are useful and sincere (Pan et al., 2019). The direct and truthful connotations make the particular item viewed as a genuine offer. The main pros of this type of social media platform are that the audience is utilized to the continually updated content, and it also promotes user engagement.
Pros and Cons of Each Platform Regarding the Social Media Marketing Strategy
It is easy to measure the progress of the campaigns run on the platforms. This can be accomplished using metrics such as the rate of growth regarding the number of followers, comments per a single post, engagement by a follower, and reach. The first mentioned metric is among the least important ones due to seeing a post does not have an objective of encouraging a user to subscribe to the account. Nevertheless, the improvement can be one of the effects of a productive campaign.
Additionally, comments per a single post can also act as an indication of individuals’ reactions. Even if they are few, some users might utilize this section to express their reactions or as a means of inviting someone for a cup of coffee by tagging them online. Engagement per follower is an essential metric as many posts on Instagram, for example, remain unviewed due to continuous changes and development in the platform’s algorithms. For a business that wants to promote its product, this is important as it depicts the number of people who see the ad.
Lastly, there is a reach metric that depicts the number of individuals who had seen the post overall. This is essential as it may act as a representation of how well a post has been integrated into a platform’s algorithm. Apart from it being easy to promote products through social media, it is difficult to understand whether the viewers or new followers have enough income to purchase the products. For a company selling coffee, it is hard to know which specific users are capable of affording the beverage since some of them only use social media as a place of interaction and not a serious matter.
Overall Strategy for the Company’s Social Media Campaign
Colonize Coffee should choose to use another platform, such as Twitter which has proven to work for other brands. The application allows one to hold discussions through functionality called spaces (Wibowo et al., 2021). Here, the organization can understand the audience better since it enables individuals to communicate through the form of audio. Someone writing comments is good. However, it may fail to express the true reaction of the person. Language differences, especially for non-English speakers who only comprehend a few words, may act as a hindrance (Pan et al., 2019). Speaking is much better as it is easier to even gauge the tone of the speech, whether someone is excited about a particular product or unimpressed.
Company’s Mobile Computing Technology within its Marketing Strategy
Other successful companies have used not only social media in their marketing strategies but also incorporated mobile computing through the use of applications. The majority of people in all parts of the world have access to a smartphone (Li et al., 2021). In developing countries, the number is low but improves year after year (Li et al., 2021). Creating a mobile application that can be downloaded on Android, iOS, and Windows devices can be a great way of maintaining interaction with consumers. The users will see the new products by the firm and their prices as well as offer their feedback. A mobile application makes the interaction more personal, which improves the image of the company and loyalty from customers. It also does relieve the clients of the task of following the organizations’ online pages. One gets new information without having to be a follower.
Conclusion
The paper has shown why a company in any industry should incorporate social media in its marketing approaches. In this era, it is a critical part of all people’s lives, particularly now that those who have registered and continue to actively engage have eclipsed two billion. With the advancement of technology, the internet improved, and soon, various applications were developed with the aim of bringing people closer to one another. Individuals from different countries could communicate and share ideas without restrictions. As time progressed and more users subscribed to various platforms, brands realized that this could be the easiest way of promoting their items.
Not only does one have the ability to reach any amount of people they desire, but they can also receive immediate feedback concerning their products and services. This means that changes to an item to suit the demand of consumers can be accomplished quickly. This minimizes the amount of time wasted waiting to see the perception of the public through the sales. The conventional manner of marketing before social media was less effective and mainly involved selling items to clients without understanding their actual demands. Apart from utilizing the platforms, a brand can also opt for mobile computing. The paper has revealed that engagement in an application is more personal than in other ways.
References
Li, F., Larimo, J., & Leonidou, L. C. (2021). Social media marketing strategy: Definition, conceptualization, taxonomy, validation, and future agenda. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 49(1), 51-70. Web.
Pan, Y., Torres, I. M., & Zúñiga, M. A. (2019). Social media communications and marketing strategy: A taxonomical review of potential explanatory approaches. Journal of Internet Commerce, 18(1), 73-90. Web.
Wibowo, A., Chen, S. C., Wiangin, U., Ma, Y., & Ruangkanjanases, A. (2021). Customer behavior as an outcome of social media marketing: The role of social media marketing activity and customer experience. Sustainability, 13(1), 189. Web.