Evaluation of the progress made by Dolmio in adopting Social Media. This report was made by a group of 4 MSc International Management students from Strathclyde Business School (UK). If you have any comment, please do contact us at contactdolmioteam@gmail.com or on Twitter at @eBenoitVaysse / @Solene_Oudet

1. Dolmio
Social Media Strategy
Michele Lombardo (201172648),
Solène Oudet (201188321),
Jonathan Planel (201165056),
and Benoît Vaysse (201170574)
Master of International Management
Supervisor Dr Jim Hamill
Coursework Assignment Social Media: Strategy and Management (MK804)
Due Date July 6th 2012
Word Count 3,499 words

2. Table of Contents
1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 3
2 Presentation of the company ...................................................................................................................... 3
2.1 Overview of the company ................................................................................................... 3
2.2 Country Selection ................................................................................................................ 4
2.3 Target Market ...................................................................................................................... 4
3 Current Social Media strategy.................................................................................................................... 5
3.1 Internal Social Media presence ........................................................................................... 5
3.1.1 Main website .......................................................................................................... 5
3.1.2 Papa’s Big Tomato Challenge ................................................................................ 5
3.2 External Social Media presence .......................................................................................... 6
3.2.1 Facebook ................................................................................................................ 6
3.2.2 YouTube................................................................................................................. 6
3.2.3 Wikipedia ............................................................................................................... 7
3.3 Overall Performance ........................................................................................................... 7
4 Main competitors’ strategy ........................................................................................................................ 7
4.1 Knorr ................................................................................................................................... 8
4.2 Heinz ................................................................................................................................... 8
4.3 Saclà .................................................................................................................................... 9
5 Implementation of a new Social Media strategy ........................................................................................ 9
5.1 Business objectives ............................................................................................................. 9
5.2 Customer segment ............................................................................................................. 10
5.3 Actions .............................................................................................................................. 10
5.3.1 Wikipedia ............................................................................................................. 10
5.3.2 Blog ...................................................................................................................... 11
5.3.3 YouTube............................................................................................................... 12
5.3.4 Facebook .............................................................................................................. 13
5.3.5 Website................................................................................................................. 14
5.3.6 Mobile App .......................................................................................................... 15
5.3.7 Pinterest ................................................................................................................ 16
5.3.8 Second Life .......................................................................................................... 16
5.4 Resources .......................................................................................................................... 17
6 Conclusion................................................................................................................................................ 17
7 References ................................................................................................................................................ 18
8 Glossary.................................................................................................................................................... 19
9 Appendix .................................................................................................................................................. 20
9.1 Appendix 1: Dolmio's Challenge Do it like Dolmio ......................................................... 20
9.2 Appendix 2: Facebook Users Criticizing Dolmio's Italian Positioning ............................ 20
9.3 Appendix 3: Facebook Users Criticizing Dolmio's Advertising Campaign ..................... 21
9.4 Appendix 4: Facebook Users Criticizing The Quality of Dolmio's Products ................... 21
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3. 1 Introduction
The rise of Social Media has revolutionized power struggles between brands and consumers and how
brands engage with consumers, since only 14% of consumers trust brand advertisements while 78%
of consumers trust peer recommendations (Qualman, 2010). Contrary to the old mentality
consisting of automating customer service, Social Media now puts customers directly in contact with
brands, which creates new expectations and a desire to be heard. Thus, companies must make the
most of Social Media to develop their brand value and brand attributes (Edosomwan et al., 2011)
and become aware that “Social marketing eliminates the middlemen, providing brands with the
unique opportunity to have a direct relationship with their customers and to both listen and talk”
(Weiner, 2009).
This report will analyze the current Social Media strategy of the pasta sauces’ brand Dolmio, contrast
it with that of its main competitors, and suggest relevant recommendations and best practices for
improvements. Our approach to measure Social Media performance and set key success factors will
respectively be based on the 6I’s framework, which stands for Involvement, Interaction, Intimacy,
Influence, Insight (Customers) and Impact (Business), and on the 4C’s framework, which stands for
Content, Consumer, Conversation, and Conversion.
2 Presentation of the company
2.1 Overview of the company
Dolmio is a brand launched in 1985 and owned by the American multinational Mars, Incorporated. It
operates in the packaged food sector and focuses on cooking sauces as well as canned and
preserved pasta. Dolmio wants to position its products as healthy and “easy to do”. Today, Dolmio
already has a strong presence in several markets such as the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia.
Dolmio’s strategy is to penetrate new profitable markets with a portfolio of products meeting the
local needs.
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4. 2.2 Country Selection
Given that Dolmio locally adapts its marketing strategy to each country for greater efficacy, this
report focuses on the UK market since it represents the largest existing market for the two flagship
products of Dolmio’s portfolio, namely the Canned Preserved Pasta and the Pasta sauces, as
illustrated in Table 1 below.
Table 1: Revenues in million pounds by country for 2011 (Euromonitor, 2012)
In addition, our choice has also been motivated by the higher number of Social Media users in the
United Kingdom compared to other countries in which Dolmio is present (see Table 2 below), which
will enable a greater impact for our new Social Media strategy.
Table 2: Number of Social Media Users in million by country in 2011 (Smith, 2011)
2.3 Target Market
In the United Kingdom, Dolmio has built its brand equity and its leading position on the quality of its
products and on the image of the Italian family embodied in the Dolmio’s family characters. Dolmio’s
targeted customers give great importance to family, work, leisure, and good food but are sometimes
too busy to spend time cooking. Two years ago, Dolmio decided to give a clearer Italian positioning
to its products through humoristic campaigns, which received mitigated opinions. More recently,
Dolmio seems to have decided to occupy the family segment, with cooking sauces made for at least
four people and the adoption of family packs. Dolmio has also recently launched two new product
ranges, Express and Pasta Vista, that offer individual and healthy meals ready to serve in a few
minutes and that target young working people with no time to cook.
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5. 3 Current Social Media strategy
In line with the words of Scott Cook, co-founder of Intuit, “a brand is no longer what we tell the
consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is” (Peters, 2012). Thus it is essential for
Dolmio to assess its e-reputation and current Social Media strategy in order to take the appropriate
measures.
3.1 Internal Social Media presence
3.1.1 Main website
Dolmio’s website is quite poor in usage of Social Media. The FOD (Feedback On Discussion) is very
limited with a general contact tab and the possibility to rate recipes (with no comment). The recipes
also offer social sharing and bookmarking functions with the possibility to share or bookmark on
Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon and MySpace.
There is no Mash-up; videos are embedded in the website but not from YouTube or another social
video platform. The website also lacks UGC (User Generated Content) and direct link to external
Social Media channels.
3.1.2 Papa’s Big Tomato Challenge
Dolmio has embedded a temporary website to the core one on the occasion
of the Papa’s Big Tomato Challenge running from March 31st to August 5th
2012 and targeting kids. It is a very interactive website with many games,
the use of Mash-up with Google Maps, and of UGC with the possibility to
upload ones’ photo for a game.
Internet users have to sign up and come back 5 days in a row to complete
the game, which builds loyalty and engagement with the brand. However, we can regret that no
direct interaction is possible.
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6. 3.2 External Social Media presence
3.2.1 Facebook
There is only one general Facebook page
for Dolmio that was created on September
nd
22 , 2010 on the occasion of an advertising
campaign involving a competition
DoitlikeDolmio (See Appendix 1), combined
with the creation of a specific webpage
www.doitlikedolmio.com. The challenge,
aimed at teenagers, encouraged people to
record a video of them imitating one
character of the Dolmio family. Using the
6I’s approach, even during the challenge,
Dolmio did not create a real interaction with its fans, with a very limited number of likes and
comments per post. The Facebook page has only been monitored during the two months of the
campaign, and then completely abandoned, leading to unanswered negative comments, a decrease
in the number of “like” and of people talking about the brand. The current total lack of monitoring
and interaction is very negative for Dolmio, with people directly criticizing its Italian positioning,
advertising campaign, and the quality of its product, urging Dolmio to react, with no success at all
(see Appendix 2, 3 and 4).
3.2.2 YouTube
As for the Facebook Page, the Dolmio’s
YouTube Channel, named Dolmio2010, had
been specifically created for the 2010’s
advertising campaign, and has not been
updated or monitored since then. Considering
the limited timeframe of the challenge, there
was a relatively good involvement in terms of
number of views and comments: 10 videos
posted, 164 subscribers, 276,000 views. Thus,
using the 6I’s approach, the results were quite
encouraging with a positive intimacy and many
interactions thanks to an active monitoring
during the two months. Nevertheless, conversations were mainly initiated by the users and not the
brand.
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7. 3.2.3 Wikipedia
The description of the brand is very succinct and might not answer the questions of the internet
users looking for information about Dolmio.
3.3 Overall Performance
The analysis of Dolmio’s individual Social Media channels shows that Dolmio’s presence on Social
Media is not successful with regards to the 6I’s framework, is very poor (no account on Twitter,
LinkedIn, Pinterest, no Mobile App or Blog) and completely lacks monitoring since the end of the
challenge DoitlikeDolmio in 2010. This leads to a very low volume of mentions and the incapacity of
Dolmio to create a positive buzz or generate business impacts. Overall, using Performance
Measurement tools such as SocialMention, we can note that comments about Dolmio are
ambivalent about the quality of the products and the Italian positioning.
4 Main competitors’ strategy
Taking into account market shares, Knorr, Heinz and Saclà are Dolmio’s three main competitors in
the United Kingdom (Euromonitor, 2011). In order to contrast Dolmio’s strategy with that of its
competitors, this part describes their fans community in three Social Media channels (see Table 3
below) and analyzes some of their notable Social Media achievements.
Table 3: Fans Community of Dolmio's competitors on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter
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8. 4.1 Knorr
Knorr is Dolmio’s most invested competitor in Social Media. Its main UK website, designed as a
recipe book, presents several social features such as social sharing.
Knorr’s Social Media strategy focuses on recipes’ recommendations and on the use of Knorr
products through educative and attractive videos and pictures. Knorr is quite reactive to comments
and successful in encouraging active participation through feedbacks and recipes’ suggestions.
However, the fact that Knorr monitors many different social platforms, namely several Facebook
pages corresponding to different products, in addition to a UK Facebook page, makes the
implementation of a strong ecosystem and homogeneous strategy relatively difficult to control.
Besides, the very strong focus on recipes on every Social Media channel might not be the most
effective strategy in terms of business impact.
Besides, it is interesting to highlight that Knorr is owned by the group Unilever whose strategy has
recently shifted away from using Social Media simply for massive fans acquisition to a stronger long-
term engagement via broader CRM programmes (Clark, 2012). Thus, Unilever’s strategy is to be
more in agreement with the 6I’s approach by increasing consumers’ involvement and intimacy as
well as daily interactions with them.
4.2 Heinz
Heinz’s Social Media strategy mainly focuses on Facebook. This choice is highlighted on the home
page of its UK website with the importance given to the Facebook page.
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9. In the United Kingdom, Heinz’s most recent and successful
social media campaign was for its Classic soups and was
achieved on Facebook due to the platform’ strong social
sharing features (MDG, 2012). The aim of the campaign was to
create a buzz, enhance fans’ engagement and drive sales with
the message that Heinz is the best medicine. The concept was to reward Facebook fans with an
exclusive offer enabling them to customize the iconic Heinz label with a recipient’s name before
sending it to a sick friend. During this one-month campaign, Heinz sold 2,000 personalized cans
through the Heinz UK Facebook page, doubling its fan base to more than 32,000 likes. Through the
emotional vector of sickness, Heinz managed to increase customer intimacy.
4.3 Saclà
Considering the 6I’s approach, Saclà is indisputably the weakest actor. Even if it has a presence on
the three main Social Media channels (although no Facebook page is dedicated to the UK market),
the interactions with consumers are really limited. This strategy does not create any intimacy or
involvement and therefore does not generate business impact.
5 Implementation of a new Social Media strategy
5.1 Business objectives
Our recommended new Social Media strategy is built to bring multiple business benefits to Dolmio
and is split among lag and lead objectives. Concerning lag objectives, our Social Media strategy will
help Dolmio keep its leading position in the United Kingdom by acquiring new customers and by
enhancing customer experience and loyalty. Regarding lead objectives, our strategy will strengthen
Dolmio’s brand awareness and improve its e-reputation that has suffered from negative and
unanswered customers’ feedbacks. Finally, our recommended Social Media strategy will have as
business objective to serve Research and Development thanks to the inputs of existing and potential
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10. customers, enabling Dolmio to adapt its products according to their needs and expectations.
5.2 Customer segment
Given the evolution of Dolmio’s positioning in the United Kingdom and of its e-reputation, we
recommend Dolmio to target relatively high-income working families that are also health-concerned,
cooking amateurs and interested in online educational tools for their children. According to Mintel
Oxygen (2011), this segment corresponds to the Online Socialites and Social Explorers. Online
Socialites represent 34% of Internet users present on social networks, 96% of them using Facebook,
and mainly shopping at M&S, Asda and Tesco. Social Explorers represent 19% of Internet users
present on social networks, 91% of them using Facebook, and usually shopping at Asda, Morrisons
and Sainsbury’s.
5.3 Actions
In line with the business objectives and customer segment, we recommend Dolmio to connect with
its customers via eight channels.
5.3.1 Wikipedia
Wikipedia is often used for initial research before looking for more precise information in the official
website and represents therefore the first image people will have of the company. Today, the
content on Dolmio’s Wikipedia page is obsolete and therefore does not give a positive and accurate
image of the company. It needs to be upgraded and updated.
Content: Relate the evolution of the company in a enhancing but subtle way and neutral
tone. As a Wikipedia page can be modified by anyone, Dolmio needs to constantly monitor
its presence on Wikipedia to keep the information up-to-date and prevent negative insights.
Consumer: First source of information, objective to generate clicks to Dolmio’s website.
Conversation: Not a platform for direct interactions with customers.
Conversion: Evolution of the Wikipedia page as a traffic source to the website - Google
Analytics.
Good practice: Coca-Cola
Wikipedia serves as a very rich and detailed source of information about Coca-Cola, from the
evolution of its products to that of its advertising.
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11. Every section is very detailed with direct links to relevant sources.
5.3.2 Blog
A blog will enable Dolmio to initiate conversations and enhance customer experience and loyalty
through the building of a strong fans community.
Content: Articles should be posted on a weekly basis with topics related to the origin and
quality of Dolmio’s products, culinary education tools for kids, healthy issues and recipes.
Picture and videos should be used in order to favour intimacy and involvement.
Consumer: The community will be built via Dolmio’s website and Facebook page and other
blogs sharing articles from Dolmio’s blog.
Conversation: For each article, FOD by readers will be encouraged through comments and
interactions with other readers and Dolmio’s website administrator.
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12. Conversion: Number and quality of interactions, time spent, number of visitors vs number of
new visitors - Google Analytics, Topsy, SocialMention.
Good practice: Scrambling Eggs
Scrambling Eggs (http://scramblingeggs.blogspot.fr/) is one of the most popular blogs for food-
related topics. It is written by Shelagh Ryan, owner of London Café. Without making direct
advertising for her business, she manages to build a strong fans community that brings new
customers to her café through word-of-mouth.
5.3.3 YouTube
Dolmio’s YouTube channel should be an initiator of online conversations and buzz, and create
affection to the brand by using emotional vectors such as humour.
Content: Post a video of recipe at least as often as a recipe has been published on the blog.
Also post past and current commercials to show the evolution of the brand. Videos should
be educational, targeted to families and using humour.
Consumer: Community mainly built via the external link on the website, blog and Facebook
Page.
Conversation: FOD and UGC will be used. Users will be encouraged to give their opinions and
share the videos thanks to engaging videos (such as Interactive videos).
Conversion: Number of views and comments, analysis of comments, buzz – Topsy,
SocialMention.
Good practice: Tipp-Ex
In its “Tippexperience” interactive video (http://youtu.be/4ba1BqJ4S2M), Tipp-Ex engage with
viewers, that become co-creators of the video, by asking them to choose the end of the video and
then replace the word “shooting” by something else (“hug” for example). The video went viral, with
more than 20 million views.
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13. 5.3.4 Facebook
In order to better control its e-reputation, foster interactions and attract new potential customers,
Dolmio needs to be very active on Facebook that represents one of its main Social Media channels.
Content: The Facebook page needs to be updated several times a week. Any comment,
positive or negative, needs to be taken into consideration, carefully and with humour. All
types of content (photos, poll questions, etc) should be used in order to trigger involvement
and intimacy.
Consumer: The involvement of Dolmio in Facebook groups related to its industry and
customer segment will enable the brand to attract new fans.
Conversation: Direct and daily interactions with customers will enhance customer
experience.
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14. Conversion: Number of fans, interactions, and people talking about Dolmio - Facebook
Insights, SocialMention, Topsy.
Good practice: M&M’s France
M&M’s France has been very successful in engaging with its fans through humour and rewards. In
one year and a half, M&M’s France reached over 1 million fans and the rank of third Facebook page
in France.
5.3.5 Website
Dolmio’s website will have to be redesigned to better target our customer segment and highlight the
quality and healthy nature of Dolmio products.
Content: Information should be precise and up-to-date, and the tone should be professional.
It should contain Mash-up from YouTube and Google Maps (such as Store finder for Dolmio
products).
Consumer: As the website will be the official window of the brand, the URL of the website
should be displayed in every support of communication, both online and offline.
Conversation: To improve customer experience, its market knowledge, and enhance its R&D,
Dolmio should set up FOD features for all its products. An online community should be built
to share hocus-pocus and recipes to increase influence and involvement.
Conversion: Evolution of the activity on the website - Google Analytics.
Good practice: Chelsea
Chelsea has succeeded in building a very strong fans community on its own website via the inclusion
of many social features.
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15. 5.3.6 Mobile App
Dolmio should strongly consider launching a mobile app that will enable to attract new customers
and enhance customer experience and loyalty through the use of the advantages of geo-localisation
and mobility.
Content: Through Geo-localisation (and Mash-up with Google Map), the app would enable
users to find the nearest store with Dolmio products. The app would also offer coupons,
rewards to customers, daily recipes’ ideas and a notepad platform for customers. Constant
updates (accuracy of distributors, validity of coupons) would be necessary.
Consumer: This app should be promoted on every Dolmio’s Social Media channel and
website.
Conversation: Conversation would only be possible via FOD.
Conversion: Number of downloads – App Store, Android Market.
Good practice: Sainsbury’s
Sainsbury’s mobile app has been very popular with more than 250,000 downloads in one year.
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16. 5.3.7 Pinterest
Pinterest is a new social sharing platform for photos that drives more traffic than Google+, Linkedin
and YouTube combined. For that reason, it is a springboard for Dolmio’s brand awareness in order to
attract new customers and foster loyalty.
Content: Update several times a day. Photos of recipes for visual support for blog articles.
Consumer: Via external links into Dolmio’s website and Social media channels.
Conversation: Via FOD and repins.
Conversion: Number of followers, repins, clicks ending on the blog – Google Analytics.
Good practice: Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods has developed a community of almost 30,000 followers on its Pinterest page dedicated
to recipes.
5.3.8 Second Life
Second Life could be used by Dolmio to develop its R&D and test its products before production.
Content: Virtual version of the products. The game should be updated every time Dolmio is
willing to release a new product to see its impact.
Consumer: Current Users of Second Life.
Conversation: Feedbacks from Second Life users.
Conversion: Number of purchases of the product on Second Life.
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17. Good practice: American Apparel
American Apparel has successfully managed to use Second Life as a platform to get feedbacks on the
development of new products and thus decide whether to produce them or not.
5.4 Resources
A Social Media strategy needs to be managed properly and constantly. The implementation of the
strategy by the right resources will create the conditions for success. We recommend allocating one
full-time community manager to monitor Dolmio’s Social Media presence and e-reputation. This
employee will be in charge of monitoring and measuring the effect of his or her actions through the
use of Social Media Management Tools. Actions will be monitored and measured at three levels: the
Individual Social Media channels, the overall buzz, and the business impact in relation to the
business objectives previously described.
6 Conclusion
The current presence of Dolmio on Social Media is very poor and ineffective. The brand is only
present on five different platforms (Core Website, Affiliated Website, Facebook, YouTube and
Wikipedia) and lacks interactions and involvement in all of them. Dolmio’s attempts on external
Social Media channels have been entirely devoted to punctual advertising campaigns, namely the
DoitlikeDolmio challenge in 2010. Since then, its Social Media presence has not been monitored and
managed at all, hurting Dolmio’s e-reputation with negative comments from Internet users feeling
completely neglected. This lack of involvement is all the more detrimental to Dolmio that its main
competitors (Knorr, Heinz, Saclà) are more and more active on Social Media.
Therefore, through the effective and constant management of eight different channels (Wikipedia,
Blog, YouTube, Facebook, Website, Mobile App, Pinterest and SecondLife) by a full-time Community
Manager, we recommend Dolmio to develop its online presence in order to strengthen its brand
value and meet several business objectives: increase customer acquisition, experience and loyalty;
enhance Dolmio’s brand awareness and e-reputation; improve Research & Development. To do so,
some platforms will have to be redesigned and updated while some others will have to be entirely
created. Besides, we advise Dolmio to move from its current segment onto wealthy families
concerned by healthy and tasty food, and interested in educational tools for their kids.
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18. 7 References
Clark, N. (2012), “Social brands: Unilever shifts focus from social media to word of mouth”,
http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1116155/Social-brands-Unilever-shifts-focus-social-
media-word-mouth/ (Accessed June 2012)
Edosomwan, S. et al. (2011), “The History of Social Media and its Impact on Business”, The Journal of
Applied Management and Entrepreneurships, XVI(3), pp. 79-91.
Euromonitor International (2012), Packaged Food 2012, February 2012, Retrieved from Euromonitor
Passport GMID database.
Euromonitor International (2011), Pasta in the United Kingdom, December 2011, Retrieved from
Euromonitor Passport GMID database.
MDG (2012), “Heinz UK Fans Warm Up to Facebook Personalization Campaign”,
http://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/heinz-uk-fans-warm-up-to-facebook-personalization-
campaign/ (Accessed June 2012)
Mintel Oxygen (2011), Social Media and Networking, May 2011, London: Mintel Oxygen Ltd.
Peters, T. (2012), “Your Brand Is the Sum of the User’s Entire Experience”,
http://timpeters.org/general/your-brand-is-the-sum-of-the-users-entire-experience/ (Accessed June
2012)
Qualman, E. (2010), “Social Media Revolution Video”,
http://www.socialnomics.net/2010/05/05/social-media-revolution-2-refresh/ (Accessed June 2012)
Smith, T. (2011), “World map of global social media usage”,
http://wearesocial.net/blog/2011/06/world-map-global-social-media-usage/ (Accessed June 2012)
Weiner, B. (2009), “Social Marketing Playbook”, http://www.360i.com/trk/360i-Social-Marketing-
Playbook.html (Accessed June 2012)
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19. 8 Glossary
Blog: Publishing Site
CRM: Consumer Relationship Management
Delicious: Social Bookmarking Site
Digg: Social Bookmarking Site
E-reputation: Image that Internet Users are having about a brand or a person
Facebook Insights: Web Page analysis service dedicated to Facebook page owners
Facebook: Social Networking site
FOD: Feedback On Discussion
Google Analytics: Web page analysis dedicated to the websites owners
Interactive Video: Video in which the viewer is required to interplay in a defined way
Internal Social Media: Social Media embedded into the website
LinkedIn: Social Networking Site designed for professionals
Mash-up: Combination of external resource into another one.
Mobile App: Internet application that runs on smartphones and other mobile devices
MySpace: Social Networking Site
Pinterest: Social Photos Sharing Site
SecondLife: Virtual World
SocialMention: Search engine for Social Web
StumbleUpon: Social Bookmarking Site
Topsy: Search engine for Social Web
Twitter: Micro-blogging Site
UGC: User Generated Content
URL: Uniform Resource Locator
Wikipedia: Publishing Site
YouTube: Social Videos Sharing Site
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20. 9 Appendix
9.1 Appendix 1: Dolmio's Challenge Do it like Dolmio
9.2 Appendix 2: Facebook Users Criticizing Dolmio's Italian Positioning
20

21. 9.3 Appendix 3: Facebook Users Criticizing Dolmio's Advertising Campaign
9.4 Appendix 4: Facebook Users Criticizing The Quality of Dolmio's Products
21