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Social media marketing
Over the years, the prospects of business activities, the growth of the global economy, and the growing populations have spurred the growth of various businesses worldwide. As such, the numbers of firms competing for the limited available resources have increased exponentially.
To make themselves stand out, creative companies have adopted the use of modern technology to create an edge over their competitors. One such use of technology to help the company stand out includes the use of social media for various business purposes. This report focuses on the use of social media by a selected company to perform social media marketing and therefore create customer value.
Social Media
Social media refers to the computerized network driven set of technologies that assist users in the creation and sharing of information with other users through various websites and applications (Obar & Wildman, 2015, pp. 746 – 747). The use of such networks has grown immensely in terms of numbers as well as usage. At the end of 2018, for example, the social media giant, Facebook Inc., had a monthly user base of about 2.2 billion users (Statista, 2017).
Similarly, Australia has had an increase in the numbers of social media users. Statistica reports indicate that Australia had an estimated 17 million Facebook users by January 2018. These users range from ages 13 to 65 and even older (Statistica, 2018).
In addition, the usage of social media has expanded from simple networking of friends, colleagues, and family, which was the initial intended use of social networks. Today, the use has spread to include all aspects of personal life and business. Big corporations are no longer left behind but are now part of the social media bandwagon. The growth in numbers of social media users, as well as the capabilities of the social media networks, has inspired businesses to take up social media as important tools in their portfolio to enable them to access their users in a faster and convenient way.
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Social media marketing
Among the key areas that inspire businesses to join social media is the ease with which they can access millions of their potential customers. The use of social media by companies is largely driven by the will to engage the growing numbers of users and also market their products to them. Social media marketing refers to the various strategies and processes adopted by various users of social networks in a bid to gain online traffic and attention (Saravanakumar & Sugantha, 2012; Hoffman & Fodor, 2010).
Business ventures are taking up social media marketing to allow for the use of better and cheaper alternative marketing for their products and services online. In addition, social media marketing is used to manage the brands of the company by addressing complaints and assessing the satisfaction of the consumers in an easier and faster manner compared to using other traditional channels.
Customer value
Customer value refers to the use of various tools available to the company to deliver the needs and desires of the specific user (Payne & Holt, 2002; Woodruff, 1997). The reference to customer value is imperative to the success of any firm. In this regard, many companies have taken up understanding the needs and wants of their clientele in a bid to increase sales as well as to foster a long-lasting relationship with the customers.
In addition, the firms are investing much more into research and development of new ideas, products, and brands as a means to understand the customer needs better. Such an improved understanding of customer requirements enables the companies to deliver customer value, as well as create customer value models that will help them in their development and customer management (Anderson & Narus, 1998).
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Jetstar
In order to further understand the use of social media in creating customer value, I will use Jetstar Airways to show how a firm can successfully use social media and social media marketing to create customer value. For Jetstar Airways, the company has a wide social media presence. It is among the few corporations that have taken up numerous social media accounts on various websites.
Jetstar Airways has social media profiles on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, and Instagram. This is not the case with most other companies who opt to use just a few accounts that they can successfully manage. However, Jetstar Airways, despite having a widespread presence, has managed to stay active and in touch with their customers on the various social media platforms.
Jetstar Airways Social Media Marketing
Jetstar Airways has taken on social media marketing as a serious marketing approach in a bid to lure in more customers as well as develop a long lasting relationship with their current customers. In this regard, Jetstar Airways commits up to 40% of their total marketing budget into social media and other online channels (JetStar, 2011). Given the size of the company, this is a sizeable investment and shows the firm’s commitment to the use and value of social media marketing to its growth and success.
In this regard, and owing to the size of the company, Jetstar Airways uses different accounts for the group level of the company, as well as other regional and market specific profiles (Jetstar Newsroom, n.d.). These are intended to enable personalized service and faster reach to specific categories of clients, a feat the company has managed to successfully achieve.
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Jetstar Airways and customer value
According to an interview with the Chief Marketing Officer of Jetstar Airways, the airline took a strategic step to invest and improve on their digital marketing approach (Cameron, 2017). The approach used by the firm was a learning first and capability second, where the initial focus was on building expertise around digital marketing.
The second approach was building automation and personalization systems that would further assist in customer service and handle the various factors that contribute towards the improvement of customer value. These include internal factors such as a unifying vision, increase of the projects’ returns, and improvement of the effectiveness of communications (Cameron, 2017; Snyder & Tai, 2014).
The firms’ activities, especially the localized pages on Facebook and Twitter, are designed to engage the customers and keep them communicating with the brand. Examples of these pages are the main Jetstar Airways pages, Jetstar Asia, Jetstar NZ, and Jetstar Australia. These provide relevant information and tips on both company and flight-related topics, as well as general life issues that get their followers talking and sharing the content. Such engagement allows for the growth of the brand’s online presence and the creation of better relationships that lead to the development of customer value.
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Therefore, in conclusion, Jetstar has managed to create customer value through the effective use of various social media platforms. From the engagement in social media, the company is able to grow their online presence and educate potential customers about their products and services. The connection between such customers and the brand grows with the satisfaction of having their needs and wants, as well as expectations met as they had envisioned.
References
Anderson, J. C., & Narus, J. A. (1998, December). Business Marketing: Understand What Customers Value. Harvard Business Review: Financial Management. Retrieved April 4, 2018, from https://hbr.org/1998/11/business-marketing-understand-what-customers-value
Cameron, N. (2017, August 10). CMO Australia. Retrieved from Why technology, training and content go hand-in-hand in Jetstar’s marketing transformation: https://www.cmo.com.au/article/625817/why-technology-training-content-go-hand-in-hand-jetstar-marketing-transformation/
Hoffman, D. L., & Fodor, M. (2010). Can you measure the ROI of your social media marketing? MIT Sloan Management Review, 52(1), 41 – 49.
JetStar. (2011, March 22). Jetstar to direct 40 per cent of marketing budget into social media and online channels. Retrieved from Jetstar Airways Newsroom: http://newsroom.jetstar.com/jetstar-to-direct-40-per-cent-of-marketing-budget-into-social-media-and-online-channels/
Jetstar Newsroom. (n.d.). Jetstar social media. Retrieved from Jetstar Newsroom: http://newsroom.jetstar.com/jetstar-social-media/
Obar, J. A., & Wildman, S. (2015, October). Social media definition and the governance challenge: An introduction to the special issue. Telecommunications Policy, 39(9), 745 – 750. doi:10.1016/j.telpol.2015.07.014
Payne, A., & Holt, S. (2002, December). Diagnosing Customer Value: Integrating the Value Process and Relationship Marketing. British Journal of Management, 12(2), 159 – 182. doi:10.1111/1467-8551.00192
Saravanakumar, M., & Sugantha, L. T. (2012). Social media marketing. Life science journal, 9(4), 4444 – 4451.
Snyder, D. J., & Tai, P. A. (2014). Customer Satisfaction At Low Cost Airlines: A Case Study Of Jetstar Pacific Airlines (JPA). The Clute Institute International Academic Conference, 254 – 265.
Statista. (2017, December). Number of monthly active Facebook users worldwide as of 4th quarter 2017 (in millions). Retrieved from Statista: The statistics portal: https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/
Statistica. (2018, January). Breakdown of Facebook users in Australia as of January 2018, by age group. Retrieved from Statistica: The statistics portal: https://www.statista.com/statistics/680581/australia-facebook-users-by-age/
Woodruff, R. B. (1997). Customer value: The next source for competitive advantage. Marketing in the 21st century, 139 – 153.
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