Sample Work - Recommendation of Karra Yerta Wines

4. 4.1 Increasing website presences Creating Facebook page

An important channel for marketing communication as well as online interactivity is Facebook (Romero, 2012; Huang, 2012; Reyneke, Pitt and Berthon, 2011). Facebook is the largest population than most of the worlds nations (Indrupati and Henari, 2012; Xia, 2009). In 2010 it was second to only Google. Reyneke, Pitt and Berthon (2011) reported that Generation Y (i.e., those who were born between 1976 and 1999) use Facebook as an alternative to e-mail. According to Arrington (2010) in February 2010, 118 million people spent 6.5 hours each on Facebook, making it a much stickier site than Google. Figure 3: Comparison between Google and Facebook (a Snapshot from Arrington 2010 Study)

Source: Arrington, 2010 Consequently, when considering a marketing communication strategy a leading question to the marketers worldwide is whether the relationship between the businesses and the customers has changed due to emergence of Facebook. How strong is the impact of Facebook in developing and sustaining the relationship with the customers? These questions assume a background question as to where do the community of users live and interact in the virtual world (Romero, 2012). Success stories of many businesses have become instrumental in embracing what Weber (2007, p. 3) describes as learning market to the social web. Thus one of the prime 1

areas of interests to the marketers is the use of social media as an effective marketing tool within an integrated marketing strategy. The following figure (Figure 4) shows the layers of social web in context. Dahlen et al. (2010) used concepts of Bickerton, Bickerton and Simpson-Holley (1999) in explaining the implementation of marketing communication consisting of

presentation, interaction and representation. Presentation includes electronic brochure, newsletter, magazine, advertising hoarding or TV commercial. These illustrate products and services. Interaction is a two way communication between the business and the customers. Representation includes the replacement of organisation by elements of activities by technology. Technology performs the tasks/roles of employees such as stock control, data updates and producing sales channels. In the above figure intranet uses interment technology which is specifically designed to communicate within a company. Extranet usually selects such audiences as suppliers, key customers, strategic alliances and other stakeholders. E communities are sites that are rich in professionally generated contents focussed on common interests. Social networks as is implied in the network that connects people of the similar interests. Facebook is just one of them. Figure 4: The Social Web in Context

Source: Dahlen, M., Lange, F. and Smith, T. (2010), p. 450 Since Facebook has proved to be a very strong marketing communication channel for marketing the products and services of a company beyond doubt; it is essential to understand it as a marketing communication strategy and to draw recommendations 2

for its implementation (which has been done at the end of the paper). Two prominent marketing strategies are used in the Facebook: pages and advertising. Number of organisations present in the Facebook is increasing day by day. Pages ensures the basic presence of an organisation and its products and services while advertising is the primary demand-generated vehicle for companies that want to do social network marketing. Karra Yetra Wines has a page in the Facebook, although its presence is very quiet. It has not been found in advertising (Treadaway and Smith, 2012). Figure 5: A Snapshot of Karra Yerta Wines Facebook page

Thus the following recommendations can be offered: 1. 2. 3.

References:

Arington, M. (2010), Hitwise says Facebook most popular US site, available at: http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/15/hitwise-says-facebook-most-popular-u-ssite/, accessed 23 September 2012. Bickerton, P., Bickerton, M. and Simpson-Holley, K. (1999), Cyberstartegy: Business Strategy for Externanets, Intranets and the Internet, 2nd edition, (Oxford: Butterworth-Heineiman)

Dahlen, M., Lange, F. and Smith, T. (2010), Marketing Communications: A Brand Narrative Approach, (West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons). Helvie-Mason, L. (2011), Facebook, Friending, and FacultyStudent Communication, in Charles Wankel (ed.) Teaching Arts and Science with the New Social Media (Cutting-edge Technologies in Higher Education, Volume 3), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp. 61-87 Huang, E. (2012) Online experiences and virtual goods purchase intention, Internet Research, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 252 274. Indrupati, J. and Henari, T. (2012) Entrepreneurial success, using online social networking: evaluation, Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 47 62 Reyneke, M., Pitt, L. and Berthon, P. R. (2011) Luxury wine brand visibility in social media: an exploratory study, International Journal of Wine Business Research, Vol. 23 No. 1, pp. 21 35. Romero, N. (2012) Social reading and the creation of customer loyalty clubs or communities to improve communication with our users and reduce costs in marketing and advertising, The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 63 67. Romero, N. (2012) Social reading and the creation of customer loyalty clubs or communities to improve communication with our users and reduce costs in marketing and advertising, The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 63 - 67 Treadaway, C. and Smith, M. (2012), Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day, 2nd edition (Indiana: John Wiley & Sons). Weber, L. (2007), Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business (NJ: John Wiley & Sons) Xia, Z. D. (2009) Marketing library services through Facebook groups, Library Management, Vol. 30 No. 6/7, pp. 469 - 478