the challenges and opportunities of using digital media to build positive relationships ·...

The Challenges and Opportunities of Using Digital Media to Build Positive Relationships

Research Essay

June 2018

Frances Guastalegname 698669

The University of Melbourne MECM90034 Marketing & Media in a Global Context

2,711 words


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction…………………………………………………………….. 3

Importance of relationship building…………………………………. 3

Challenges created by digital media…………………………………..

Bunnings Warehouse……………………………………………

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Opportunities created by digital media………………………………

MECCA MAXIMA………………………………………………

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Recommendations for ‘best practice’…………………………………. 10

Conclusion……………………………………………………………… 10

References…………………………………………………………….... 11

Appendix………………………………………………………………… 13


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INTRODUCTION

Building positive relationships between an organisation and its stakeholders is

fundamental to the success of a brand in today’s marketing and media environment.

With the growth of digital media, both challenges and opportunities arise when

developing and cultivating sustainable relationships. This essay first discusses the

importance of relationship building, and why organisations must aim to foster

favourable relationships with their consumers. Observing the brands Bunnings

Warehouse and MECCA MAXIMA, this essay will further explore some of the

challenges and opportunities marketing communications teams can face when using

digital media to foster these relationships. Lastly, this essay draws conclusions as to

what is considered ‘best practice’ when organisations aim to build and nurture

relationships with their key stakeholders.

IMPORTANCE OF RELATIONSHIP BUILDING

It is fundamental for organisations to build relationships with their stakeholders to

secure the overall success of the brand. Addressing customer loyalty, long-term

engagement and holistic resonance, building genuine relationships between an

organisation and its stakeholders bolsters the brand’s social capital, and somewhat

ensures future support for the brand by its stakeholders.

Keller (2001) defines the importance of relationship building between organisations

and their stakeholders through the use of a Customer-Based Brand Equity model

(Keller 2001; see Figure 1). Through this model, Keller explains that the formation of

a strong brand relies on establishing a recognisable brand identity, creating

appropriate brand meaning, prompting positive brand responses and fostering brand

relationships that reflect engagement and active loyalty (Keller 2001, p. 1). If done

well, these four elements to building a strong brand will ultimately result in the

formation of brand resonance, where stakeholders will express high levels of loyalty

to the organisation or brand, actively aiming to consistently engage with the brand,

and further recommend it to others through shared experiences (Keller 2001, p. 1).

Additionally, as considered by Holt (2003), the relationships, as well as attitudes,

behaviours and equity, developed between a brand and its stakeholders underpin the

overall perception of the organisation. This in turn helps to determine a brand’s


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‘health’, and the effectiveness of marketing communications strategies (Holt 2003, p.

11). When stakeholders perceive brand value to be high, they will rely more heavily

on said brand in their everyday lives, thus developing deeper relationships with the

brand and organisation (Holt 2003, p. 11). The creation of dependence on a brand

through daily use ultimately enables consumers to develop a favourable emotional

attachment to the product or brand, which helps to indicate the perceived value of the

brand by the consumer, and further the extent to which they will continue to engage

with the brand in the future (Holt 2003, p. 11).

It is important for organisations to build resonant relationships with their target

consumers or stakeholders as strong relationships will ultimately result in behavioural

loyalty, attitudinal attachment, sense of community, and active engagement (Keller

2001, p. 15). More simply, “brand resonance reflects a complete harmonious

relationship between customer and brand”, where organisations can reap benefits such

as increased price premiums and more effective marketing communications (Keller

2001, p. 17). Categorised by intensity, through strength of attitudinal attachment and

high sense of community, and activity, through high loyalty and frequency of

engagement, building relationships is crucial in ensuring a brand or organisation

remains relevant to its target consumers, and thus equitable and trustworthy in its

market space (Keller 2001, p. 16).

CHALLENGES CREATED BY DIGITAL MEDIA

Although it is fundamental for organisations to build strong and favourable

relationships with their stakeholders, digital media does present challenges that can

restrict or inhibit a brand’s ability to foster such relationships. Largely, studies

express the overall notion that although digital media is emerging as a useful tool in

building relationships, organisations are not readily making use of the tools available

to them, or creating content that is relevant to their specific consumer segments

(DiStaso et al. 2011).

Ineffective use of digital media tools ultimately remains the foundation on which

challenges in developing and fostering relationships are created. Booth and Matic

(2011) consider that as a majority, organisations are creating an online presence so as

to grow with changing technologies, yet this is often followed by poor efforts to


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engage with stakeholders in the digital space (Booth and Matic 2011, p. 185). Thus,

challenges arise when organisations do not attempt to engage in two-way

communication with their stakeholders, instead pushing content out into digital

platforms with no intentions to prompt conversation or engagement once the content

is made public. With the evolution of the World Wide Web, Web 2.0 requires both

push and pull communication to help prompt engagement and relationship

development between the organisation and consumers (Berthon et al. 2012).

Ineffectively connecting with stakeholders through the prominent use of one-way

communication is dangerous for organisations, as limiting consumers’ engagement

with digital content, and in turn the brand’s holistic online presence, effectively

prohibits the formation of active and loyal engagement behaviours. This subsequently

limits the opportunity for the organisation to build relationships with its consumers

and stakeholders through digital media through the lack of effective connectivity.

Furthermore, developing relationships between organisations and stakeholders

becomes difficult when there is disconnect between the content delivered through

digital media, and the position and needs of the targeted segment (Seo et al. 2009).

Irrelevant messaging often arises from poor segmentation and targeting of each

stakeholder segment when determining brand positioning, and if mismanaged,

ultimately restricts the success of communications strategies distributed by the

organisation. Creating messaging strategies that are irrelevant to their intended

audience frequently results in brands grasping all opportunities to distribute their

message to the consumer, as the message is not reaching its most relevant target

segment adequately (Kumar and Gupta 2016, p. 303). Furthermore, as consumers are

often rapidly switching between platforms and digital devices, messaging strategies

that are not relevant to the consumer will more readily remain unnoticed. To build

resonant relationships with their stakeholders, organisations need to adequately

segment their stakeholders, and in turn target these segments with content that is

relevant and specific, so as to prompt high levels of engagement with featured

content, and in time the organisation as a whole.

Bunnings Warehouse

Bunnings Warehouse (Bunnings) is an example of an organisation that struggles to

build relationships with its consumers and stakeholders in the digital space. Although


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Bunnings bolsters its marketing strategy on what the brand calls is ‘three strategic

pillars’ – that being, lowest prices, widest range and best service, Bunnings is unable

to transfer the success of its in store and traditional media communications into a

digital space (Bunnings Warehouse 2015, p. 8). With an overall weak online social

presence, Bunnings is effectively unsuccessful in building and fostering relationships

with their stakeholders, and therefore is relevant to consider as a brand challenged by

the rapid growth of digital media.

Currently, Bunnings focuses on the use of traditional media including television

adverts and print catalogues to ultimately push one-way communications strategies

out to its stakeholders. Although in recent years Bunnings has made attempts to build

relationships with its consumers through digital platforms, the mismanagement of

creative content and a lack of two-way communication on behalf of the brand results

in minimal success in fostering relationships. Observing the brand’s social media

platforms, it is evident that Bunnings most readily develops content for their

Instagram platform (Instagram 2018a; see Figure 2). The organisation’s Facebook and

Twitter pages contain little to no content whatsoever, while its YouTube channel

features informative ‘how to’ videos and archived television adverts (Facebook 2018;

Twitter 2018; YouTube 2018; see Figures 3-6).

Considering the brand’s Instagram platform, it is evident that Bunnings is attempting

to develop an online presence to more readily reach and create engagement with their

three main consumer segments of tradespeople, commercial businesses and do-it-

yourself (DIY) enthusiasts (Instagram 2018a). Although these three segments remain

Bunnings’ key branding priorities, the organisation’s primary consumers are now, as a

majority, DIY enthusiasts and tradespeople aged 15-34, who frequently engage with

content on inspirational platforms such as Instagram and Pintrest (IBISWorld 2017, p.

4). For these reasons, it is imperative that Bunnings use these digital profiles to help

foster relationships with these key segments.

However, Bunnings’ inability to define their target segments through specific

marketing mixes means the brand is unable to generate content that is relevant or

engaging to these stakeholders. To adequately build relationships with these

consumers, Bunnings needs to segment and target each of their stakeholder groups,


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and then develop effective communications strategies unique to each segment so

experiential value is added for the consumer (Hunt and Arnett 2004). To counteract

these challenges, Bunnings can create integrated communications strategies that aim

to fuse successful campaigns created for traditional media, with content distributed in

the digital space. This will allow Bunnings to continue to profit from their favourable

television adverts and print catalogues, while capturing their target markets with

similar messaging strategies through digital platforms.

Similarly, as Bunnings primarily focuses on one-way communication with their

consumers on their digital platforms, the brand is unable to foster relationships

through communications engagement and activities. Again observing the brand’s

Instagram profile, Bunnings does not provide call to actions for its consumers, or

engage with content featured on the platform after its initial posting (Instagram

2018a). Although consumers are seen to engage with content by posting comments

and questions relating to the contents of the post, Bunnings does not respond to these

comments, or prompt any further engagement from its consumers on the platform (see

Figure 6). Lack of engagement from Bunnings highlights missed opportunity for the

brand, as the challenge to engage in two-way communication on behalf of the brand

ultimately restricts Bunnings from building relationships with its stakeholders through

their digital media communications.

OPPORTUNITIES CREATED BY DIGITAL MEDIA

Despite the challenges digital media presents in building relationships between

organisations and stakeholders, there is ample opportunity for development and

fostering of successful relationships. The development of technology and the rise of

digital media ultimately affect the ways in which marketers are able to gather

consumer insights and buying intentions to enable data-driven advertising, as well as

shifting interactions to allow for cocreation between a brand and its consumers

(Kumar and Gupta 2016, p. 306).

Data-driven advertising exists as a prominent tool in digital media that creates

opportunity for marketers to build and cultivate relationships with an organisation’s

stakeholders. As consumer demand for personalisation grows, the opportunity to


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gather information in the digital space is vital to creating content and products

relevant and desired by each individual consumer (Kumar and Gupta 2016, p. 305).

Tracking consumer habits such as past purchases, search history, location and online

engagement, organisations are able to tailor communications strategies to each

specific stakeholder, so that they receive content they ultimately desire, as determined

by their previous behaviours (Recchia 2018). Despite privacy concerns, data-driven

advertising remains beneficial for both an organisation and its stakeholders: for the

brand, research through data collection helps to inform future communications

strategies, and for the consumer, better value is created through non-intrusive and

more personalised experiences (Recchia 2018). Fundamentally, digital media

provides the ability to gather big data through user engagement and activity, to

ultimately deliver content that is relevant to a brand’s consumer segments, so that

relationships built can be maintained through the constant assessment of data, and

adaptability of consumer-targeted content (Kumar and Gupta 2016, p. 305).

Similarly, cocreation and user-generated content in the digital space further prompt

opportunity for relationship building and consumer engagement. Holistically,

cocreation allows for “more participative, dynamic, and interactive relationships”

between an organisation and its relevant stakeholders, as the invitation to participate

in conversation help on an interactive platform ultimately informs high engagement

and developed loyalty to build resonance for the consumer (Kumar and Gupta 2016,

p. 306; Keller 2001, p. 15). Stakeholder participation in cocreation through content

engagement primarily allows marketers to alter communications strategies based on

interactions, to encourage higher levels of consumer engagement in the future, while

providing consumers with an experience that moves beyond pre-purchase

involvement (Kumar and Gupta 2016, p. 306).

MECCA MAXIMA

MECCA MAXIMA (MECCA), under the parent company MECCA Brands, is an

organisation that strategically uses opportunities created through digital media to help

build and foster relationships with its primary consumers. Defined as a destination for

‘Blockbuster Beauty’, MECCA positions itself as a one-stop interactive and

glamorous beauty destination, supplying global makeup brands, expertise and trends

to all beauty lovers (MECCA 2018). Grounded through this positioning, and a


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vibrantly active online social presence, MECCA is able to flourish in building

relationships through digital platforms with its consumers and stakeholders.

MECCA adopts data-driven advertising through its distribution of highly personalised

content. Consumers registered through the ‘Beauty Loop’ loyalty program receive

personalised emails on a weekly basis, reminding the consumer of their browsed

product history and items added to their ‘wishlist’, while providing inspiration and

ideas on how best to use the mentioned products (MECCA 2018; see Figure 7).

Additionally, through location-tracking data, MECCA notifies its consumers of in

store events and activities occurring nearby the consumer’s geographic location, and

further supplies product stock alerts when previously browsed products are low in

stock at the consumer’s closest store. Lastly, MECCA provides product

recommendations to its consumers by tracking a customer’s buying history, where for

example, the brand can recommend suitable newly-launched skincare items to a

consumer based on previously purchased skincare products. Through data-driven

advertising, MECCA is able to effectively build relationships with its consumers, as

the brand intimately addresses the needs and concerns of its individual consumers

through highly personalised content creation.

Furthermore, MECCA encourages high levels of cocreation with its consumers

through the brand’s social media platforms, particularly on Instagram (Instagram

2018b; see Figure 8). Through the use of the hash tag ‘#MECCABeautyJunkie’,

MECCA provides a call to action for its consumers to post Instagram content using

MECCA products, with opportunities to be reposted onto the brand’s official page,

and to win gift cards to spend in store (Instagram 2018b). Each Monday on their

Instagram, the brand provides their followers with their ‘favourite MECCA makeup

looks of the week’, to encourage content cocreation between the brand and its

consumers, as well as the building of an online ‘beauty community’ by highlighting

consumers’ creativity and talents (see Figure 9). Therefore, the use of cocreation to

ultimately create a digital mood board for their consumers allows MECCA to build

and foster relationships with their primary target market of beauty lovers.


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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ‘BEST PRACTICE’

Holistically considering the case studies of Bunnings and MECCA, it is evident that

high levels of consistent communication, engagement and interaction between the

brand and stakeholders are crucial for a marketer to build and sustain relationships

through digital media. For stakeholders to engage effectively and build resonant

relationships with an organisation, there needs to be elements of added value provided

to the consumer. Without any added value in communications efforts, consumers will

not readily engage with the brand to an extent that renders them loyal or resonant.

In comparison to one another, MECCA demonstrates better practice than Bunnings

when building relationships with their stakeholders through digital media. MECCA

uses the opportunities detailed above to develop and maintain favourable

relationships, particularly with their consumers, as they typically aim to provide a

personalised digital relationship. Contrastingly, Bunnings demonstrates missed

opportunities in building relationships through digital media, effectively challenged in

their digital presence and engagement with their consumers. As a result, this analysis

demonstrates that in order to achieve ‘best practice’ when building relationships

through digital media, consistent engagement that is valuable to each specific target

segment is required on behalf of the organisation.

CONCLUSION

Holistically, organisations face both challenges and opportunities when building and

cultivating relationships with their stakeholders through digital media. Maintaining

strong, loyal and favourable relationships with stakeholders is most crucial for

organisations in determining the success and further life span of the brand, while too

boosting brand equity through highly active and resonant consumers. Challenges such

as the misuse of digital media and ineffective positioning and targeting of

stakeholders can result in the inability to build effective relationships for an

organisation, while opportunities such as data-driven advertising and cocreation with

consumers can boost engagement towards loyal relationships. Therefore, it is vital

that organisations maintain high levels of consistent engagement with their

stakeholders via digital media, to ensure the development and cultivation of resonant

relationships.


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REFERENCES Berthon, P R, Pitt, L F, Plangger, K and Shapiro, D 2012, “Marketing Meets Web 2.0, Social Media, and Creative Consumers: Implications for International Marketing Strategy” in Business Horizons, vol. 55, no. 3. Booth, N and Matic, J A 2011, “Mapping and leveraging influencers in social media to shape corporate brand perceptions” in Corporate Communications: An International Journal, vol. 16, p. 185. Bunnings Warehouse 2015, Bunnings and You – Book 1, Bunnings Warehouse. DiStaso, M W, McCorkindale, T and Wright, D K 2011, “How public relations executives perceive and measure the impact of social media in their organizations” in Public Relations Review, vol. 37. Facebook 2018, Bunnings Warehouse Australia, viewed 26 May 2018, < https://www.facebook.com/BunningsWarehouseAustralia/> Holt, D B 2003, Brands and Branding, Harvard Business School Publishing, p. 11. Hunt, S D and Arnett, D B 2004, “Market Segmentation Strategy, Competitive Advantage, and Public Policy: Grounding Segmentation Strategy in Resource-Advantage Theory” in Australasian Marketing Journal, vol. 12, no. 1, Texas Tech University. IBISWorld 2017, February, Consumer Goods Retailing in Australia, retrieved from <http://clients1.ibisworld.com.au.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/reports/au/industry/default.aspx?entid=1720> Instagram 2018a, Bunnings, viewed 26 May 2018, < https://www.instagram.com/bunnings/> Instagram 2018b, MECCA MAXIMA, viewed 26 May 2018, <https://www.instagram.com/meccamaxima/ > Keller, K L 2001, Building Customer-Based Brand Equity: A Blueprint for Creating Strong Brands, Marketing Science Institute, pp. 1, 15-17. Kumar, V and Gupta, S 2016, “Conceptualizing the Evolution and Future of Advertising” in Journal of Advertising, vol. 45, no. 3, American Academy of Advertising, pp. 303, 305-306. MECCA 2018, About Us, viewed 27 May 2018, < https://www.mecca.com.au/about-us.html> Recchia, C 2018, The ABCs of Data-Driven Advertising, viewed on 25 May 2018, < https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/03/26/the-abcs-of-data-driven-advertising/2/#7b5e800fb271>


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Seo, H, Kim, J Y and Yang, S 2009, “Global activism and new media: A study of transnational NGOs’ online public relations” in Public Relations Review, vol. 35. Twitter 2018, Bunnings Warehouse, viewed 26 May 2018, < https://twitter.com/Bunnings> YouTube 2018, Bunnings Warehouse, viewed 26 May 2018, < https://www.youtube.com/user/bunningswarehouse>


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APPENDIX

Figure 1: Keller's Customer-Based Brand Equity model (Keller 2001).

Figure 2: Bunnings Warehouse's Instagram profile (Instagram 2018a).


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Figure 3: Bunnings Warehouse's Facebook profile (Facebook 2018).

Figure 4: Bunnings Warehouse's Twitter profile (Twitter 2018).


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Figure 5: Bunnings Warehouse's YouTube channel (YouTube 2018).

Figure 6: A sample post from Bunnings' Instagram profile, showing customer comments with no replies (Instagram 2018a).


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Figure 7: A sample of email content from MECCA MAXIMA (MECCA 2018).


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Figure 8: MECCA MAXIMA's Instagram profile (Instagram 2018b).

Figure 9: A sample of MECCA MAXIMA's Instagram posts. This post features different makeup looks reposted from #MECCABeautyJunkie (Instagram 2018b).

the challenges and opportunities of using digital media to build positive relationships ·...

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