1. BRANDCO: DEVELOPMENT
AND MARKETING OF A SOCIAL
MEDIA INDEX
Christopher Polakowski, MBA student
Bela Florenthal, Ph.D.
William Paterson University
2. INTRODUCTION
BrandCo is a New York City-based branding firm
that offers extensive services to major corporations
to improve their visual, verbal, and marketplace
identity:#
✴logo redesign #
✴brand engagement #
✴verbal strategy #
✴product naming#
The company seeks to diversify its services by
entering into the social media analytics sector
3. PURPOSE
To introduce a new service, a social media
index, that BrandCo has been developing for the
grocery industry#
✴It will help supermarket brands: #
utilize their social media platforms more
effectively #
capture new customers#
establish a social voice that creates a positive
online reputation
4. COMPANY BACKGROUND
Structure#
✴The company is managed by TM and GP (the owners’
names are not revealed to protect the privacy of the
company).#
✴TM graduated from the University of Cambridge in
England with an MA in Modern Languages and Social
Psychology#
✴GP graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art
in Dundee, Scotland#
✴Both have acquired a vast experience in working with small
and large corporations
6. SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths#
✴The company’s talented
personnel, reputation, and its
history of working with a
large number of companies
across various industries
facilitate business growth. #
✴BrandCo purchased a license
of specialized software that
provides social media
analytics to expand its
services to existing customers
and attract new segments. #
Weaknesses#
✴As a small company with only
two key players, talent and
workload is limited to the
availability of its personnel. #
New projects may be put
on hold or refused due to
limited personnel, time
restraints, and tight
budgets. #
✴Since the company is part of
an emerging industry, the
brand is still widely unknown.
7. SWOT ANALYSIS
Opportunities#
✴Due to the rise in social media usage by
consumers as well as the reliance on
peers for purchase decisions, some
companies have created social media
accounts to increase their engagement
and interaction with existing and
potential customers. #
!
✴While an overwhelming majority of
businesses utilizing various social media
platforms, only 26% agree in a survey
that they understand how to measure
their effectiveness.#
!
!
!
Threats#
✴Since it operates in an emerging
industry, competition will only intensify
if the need for social media analytics
becomes widespread. #
!
✴Besides the threat of increased
competition, the cost to develop and
purchase newer and more sophisticated
analytical tools also poses a threat. #
!
✴Since BrandCo is a third party branding
service, the cost may outweigh the
benefit of outsourcing social media
analytics and other social media related
services for large and even smaller
companies.
8. SOCIAL MEDIA INDEX
Supermarket Industry - Weaknesses#
✴While some supermarkets had created accounts
on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and
other social media platforms, other brands had
yet to create any social media accounts.#
✴Even for those supermarket brands that had an
account on different platforms, the company’s
research revealed that these accounts were being
utilized ineffectively.
9. SOCIAL MEDIA INDEX
Content-based Categories of Social Media Index#
✴BrandCo’s social media index provides supermarket
brands with a breakdown of their current social
media usage across content-specific categories.#
The company identified 19 categories after
analyzing the social media content of five
supermarket brand:#
• Examples: community outreach, brand
awareness, contests/promotions, and recipes
11. SOCIAL MEDIA INDEX
Social Media Index Formula#
✴This mathematical formula calculates an overall
social media score to depict a supermarket
brand’s influence over the supermarket industry.#
✴It accounts for volume, net sentiment, positive
sentiments, and sponsored presence. #
D1-19 = Sponsored Presence (75% Volume
[20% Net Sentiment + 5% Positive
Sentiments])
14. DIRECT COMPETITORS
Kout#
✴A free social media index that renders an accumulation score
between 1 and 100 to registered users (businesses and individuals) #
✴Uses different keywords from search engines’ populations to
determine social influence#
examines approximately 400 data points#
✴While this method measures searchability, it does not measure
emotion, interaction, or the ability to connect across all social
platforms and dimensions. #
✴Uses a formula that places the most significance on having high-
profile connections, friends and followers#
✴Has begun developing Klout for Business to help businesses gauge
their social media effectiveness using specific social media platforms
16. SOCIAL MEDIA INDEX
As BrandCo develops its social media index, it faces a few major
concerns:#
✴ What name should the product be given? What are the best
methods to market and advertise the index? How do you gain
customer attention, interest, and trust through an integrated
marketing communications (IMC) plan?#
!
✴ How does the company gain customer trust and enhance brand
equity for its new product?#
!
✴ What other products/services can be derived, and what other
industries and companies can be targeted? What pricing strategy
and tactics should be employed? How do the pricing strategy and
tactics relate to the IMC plan you proposed earlier?
17. TEACHING NOTES
What are the best methods to market and advertise the Index? How do you gain
customer attention, interest, and trust through Integrated Marketing
Communications (IMC) plan? #
✴The first step to gaining attention, interest, and trust should be by face-to-face
meetings with marketing personnel of supermarket brands (personal selling
method). #
This method is suitable because the index is unknown and targets businesses. #
By offering the product in a small, intimate setting, it diminishes the ‘sales-
pitch’ approach and projects feelings of exclusivity and friendship. #
✴Another avenue the company should follow in its IMC plan is promoting the
index using its website, creating a newsletter, and sending direct emails to
existing customers. #
✴To enhance the IMC plan, BrandCo can offer a soft sell to businesses, which
should increase customers’ trust and the product’s brand equity. #
The product has a trial period (sales promotion method) where customers
test whether it is effective and meets their needs.
18. TEACHING NOTES
How can the product be monetized? What pricing strategy and tactics
should be employed? #
✴The pricing objective that the company should use is value pricing,
which highlights the customer perceived value of the social media
index. #
The company can provide a subscription-based service where
customer can choose one of 2 service packages based on their
perceived needs. #
• When choosing the basic package, customers obtain access to
the software that generates the social media index for them and
gives them full control of the application. #
• In this case, BrandCo provides technical support but is not
involved in analysis and improving the performance of the
company.
19. TEACHING NOTES
How can the product be monetized? What pricing strategy and tactics
should be employed? #
✴The pricing objective that the company should use is value pricing,
which highlights the customer perceived value of the social media
index. #
The advanced package offers customers access and control of the
software in regards to posting statuses and photographs, but
BrandCo is responsible for tagging posts and analyzing trends. #
• The product has a trial period (sales promotion method) where
customers test whether it is effective and meets their needs.#
• Users who pick the advanced option will receive
recommendations from BrandCo including what and when to
post, which social media platforms are underutilized, and tips to
increase engagement.
20. TEACHING NOTES
What other products/services can be derived and what other
industries and companies can be targeted? #
✴The company may elect to expand the service to other
industries. #
BrandCo could target financial institutions, fashion
brands, production companies, and even restaurants that
actively use social media for marketing.#
✴Another area to explore is to provide consumers with their
social media scores targeting especially high net-worth
individuals, celebrities, authors, fashion and food bloggers,
and photographers—people who post and interact with
consumers to promote a recognizable personality.
