Analyzing A Marketing Case Study: Strategies, Ethics, Social Media, And Brand Testing Essay.

In pairs, analyse a marketing case studyand demonstrate your understanding of the theories and practice that you have studied in this course so far.

To be successful in marketing their business venture, entrepreneurs need to use modern cost efficient strategies to research the market and build an effective brand, including using social media and modern mobile marketing strategies. Testing your brand and managing a brand in the digital age needs to be conducted with scarce resources, and entrepreneurs need to be aware of trending cost efficient strategies available to test and determine the best ways to engage customers.

To complete this assessment task, you must:

1. Download the case study in the Assessment Resource folder for this assessment task in Blackboard.

2. Read the case study thoroughly and consider the following points:

a. The appropriateness of the chosen strategies.

b. The value of the strategies to build the brand.

c. Any ethical or potentially unethical behaviour you identified in the case study, and any impact of that behaviour.

d. How social media is, or is not, used as an effective tool for consumers to ‘evaluate’and ‘advocate’.

e. How the brand is tested across the strategies used.

2. Write an analysis responding to the above points and the following question:

a. How did the entrepreneur use marketing strategies to assist with market analysis and building a brand?

Ethical Behavior in the Case Study

Ethics refers to moral principles that govern good or bad behavior. Thus ethical behavior refers to conduct that is consistent with the moral principles. Ethical principles differ from one region to another due to cultural and moral values however there are establish general guiding principles that can be used to determine whether an action is ethical or unethical (Belle, 2017).

From the case study, some of the ethical actions that Ari and Jenna did include; first, seeking the consent of the trial participant before uploading their testimonial videos in social media. This can be justified by the fact that the participant willingly agreed to have the videos recorded in Facebook live which a social media platform. Therefore, they were aware that the videos will be uploaded and consented to that. This behavior was good since it is consistent to personal privacy ethical guidelines and thus it protected Ari and Jenna from privacy breach law suits (Davies, 2016).

Secondly, according to the case study the two declined to partner with a tour operator who was using unethical means to market and perform market research. The case study records that the fourth tour operator used push promotions to market and data scarping to perform market research. The operator was very unethical since there was no consent from the potential customers to have their data scrapped. Thus by declined the offer Ari and Jenna adhered to ethical standards (Davies, 2016). The impact of this is that their business will not suffer public bad will due to push promotions or legal suits due to data scrapping.

Using social media as tool for customers to evaluate refers to providing potential consumers with a social media platform through which they can assess the rating of a product by analyzing the comments of other consumers (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016). The proper use of this of this tool is evident in the case study. The case study records that Ari conducted social media polls in the various social media platforms that their business had accounts.  Through the polls, both positive and negative comments were made by various people. This provided a potential consumer with good insights about the product. Thus enabling the consumer to make a decision of whether to use or not to use Ezzy scooter.

Social media advocacy refers to leveraging the business relationships with the people who support it through social media. This is done so that the supporters can help the business in marketing by sharing their experience with the product (Kwon, Ratneshwar, & Thorson, 2017). From the case study Ari and Jena have used social media as an effective tool for advocacy in the following ways. First, during the trial people recorded their testimonials in Facebook live. These testimonials helped in improving brand position.

Using Social Media as a Marketing Tool

Secondly, the case study records that they also uploaded the videos and stories of the founders. When social media users watch the videos they will comment, these comments are part of the advocacy. Social media advocacy has already replaced the traditional marketing pitch and thus proper use of it can result to great success (Kwon, Ratneshwar, & Thorson, 2017).

Brand testing refers to the process of measuring the properties or the performance of a brand. It aims at determining whether a brand is meeting the consumer needs, the competitiveness of the brand against the competitors, and the sustainability of the brand in the market (Moulard,  Raggio, & Folse, 2016). In the case of Ezzy scooter, brand testing across the strategies is done in the following ways.

First, one of the marketing strategies used is social media marketing. In this strategy, the case study records that Ari conducted social media polls, through which they were able to know the viability of the product to the potential consumers (Habibi, Laroche, & Richard, 2016). Secondly, Ari and Jenna used free trial as a marketing strategy. In this strategy, they attracted 200 people who tested the product and provided a review about it. This tested the ability of the brand or product to meet consumers’ expectations.

The third strategy that Ezzy scooters used to market its brand is partnering with tour operators. In this strategy, brand testing was done through the tour operators who agreed to partner with Ezzy scooters. The four tour operators displayed confidence with the brand and its specification and thus agreed to list the scooter packages as part of their tour packages. According to Moulard,  Raggio, & Folse, (2016), strategic alliances are a major marketing tool that can be used to gain a competitive edge. Thus, since the tour operators have approved the brand, it is likely to perform well in the market, since they will supply Ezzy scooter with customers. 

References

Belle, S. M. (2017). Knowledge stewardship as an ethos-driven approach to business ethics. Journal of business ethics, 142(1), 83-91.

Davies, P. W. (2016). Current issues in business ethics. London, UK: Routledge.

Habibi, M. R., Laroche, M., & Richard, M. O. (2016). Testing an extended model of consumer behavior in the context of social media-based brand communities. Computers in Human Behavior, 62, 292-302.

Kwon, E., Ratneshwar, S., & Thorson, E. (2017). Consumers' Social Media Advocacy Behaviors Regarding Luxury Brands: An Explanatory Framework. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 17(1), 13-27.

Moulard, J. G., Raggio, R. D., & Folse, J. A. G. (2016). Brand authenticity: Testing the antecedents and outcomes of brand management's passion for its products. Psychology & Marketing, 33(6), 421-436.

Schivinski, B., & Dabrowski, D. (2016). The effect of social media communication on consumer perceptions of brands. Journal of Marketing Communications, 22(2), 189-214.