Waltrose: Digital marketing

Waltrose Name Institution Due Date Waltrose Executive Summary This paper seeks to understand engagement theory in the digital age. The company of focus is Waltrose and this report will seek to understand how the company uses its social media platform to engage its clients while trying to maximally benefit from them. In the end, recommendations on how Waltrose can improve its social media activities will be provided. Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Executive Summary PAGEREF _Toc3073662 \h 2Introduction PAGEREF _Toc3073663 \h 3Background Information: Waitrose PAGEREF _Toc3073664 \h 3Literature Review PAGEREF _Toc3073665 \h 4Application PAGEREF _Toc3073666 \h 7Twitter PAGEREF _Toc3073667 \h 7Facebook PAGEREF _Toc3073668 \h 9Conclusion: Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc3073669 \h 10References PAGEREF _Toc3073670 \h 11 Introduction The world is changing and with each passing day, week, month, and year, new ideas and inventions are announced. The world has become quite complex and those who thrive in it today are people who have mastered the workings around them. These people are not afraid to try new things and will do all that is within their power to make sure they survive and adapt to the changing times and conditions. Businesses and companies also forced to do the same from time to time. A good example is when the social media platforms came into existent. These platforms came with a frenzy and buzz that drove thousands if not millions of people towards them. People all over the world warmed up to the idea of communicating with friends who are thousands of miles away from them. This created a global community one that could be reached quite easily. A message today can go viral, and the whole world will know what happened in a country like Saudi Arabia. Businesses have also learned the craft of using these platforms to propel their sales further. Companies have adopted strategies which help them reach their clients much faster. While some appear to have mastered and completely internalized the workings of these platforms, others struggle. Background Information: Waitrose In the Supermarket industry, there is one company by the name of Waitrose. As per the company’s website, this company was conceived in 1904 when “Wallace Wyndham Waite, Arthur Rose, and David Taylor opened their shop in Acton.” These three individuals worked to ensure their business became a success. The company’s website notes that these three individuals “managed to create a successful business selling a wide range of grocery products.” To make the business stand out, the three individuals decided to adopt high standards in their business and also consider fair pricing which helped the business grow. However, not all partnerships work or are successful because it did not take long before Taylor left the business and left Rose and Waite. These two decided to soldier on and come up with Waitrose Limited in 1908. The company has had better days, but as indicated by Pooley (2018), the supermarket’s profits continue to fall which is as a result of the challenges being experienced by a majority of the British retailers. The success and survival of Waitrose cannot be said to be as it is today without the company’s online presence. As the markets change, so does the client’s habits. Today, people spend a lot of time online, and a majority of customers shop online. Others use social media platforms to sample different products and will mainly use other people’s reviews to take a stand. In the end, this forces companies to adopt measures that make them relevant to the current trends. Waitrose, for example, is present on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and tries to use these platforms to create or lure potential clients while also making sure its current clients are continually satisfied with their service. On Facebook, the Waitrose page is liked by 487,597 people, on Instagram the company has 373 thousand followers, and on Twitter, Waitrose has 322 followers and has managed to tweet more than 170 thousand times since it joined in 2009. Of the three, the company appears to be more active on Twitter with its last post as I write this paper being 6 minutes old. However, on Facebook, the company’s last post was on 1st February which means the company’s clients and potential clients have had to wait more than a month to get another post which may not be forthcoming. Literature Review A company that is working hard to push its brand through the old ways is one that stands to lose. Today, companies are shrewdly going about their issues. Companies take their time to study their clients and understand their behaviors which in turn helps them to find ways that they can use to increase their sales. This is essentially what Kumar et al. (2010) imply in their article when they note that companies need to branch out and seek to learn more about their customer’s engagement behaviors. Positioning oneself for the future means that a company has to make sure it is able to predict the reactions of the consumers or is able to find ways to manipulate the market and drive customers to one’s platforms. All the above necessitates the understanding of customer engagement behaviors. Dorn et al. (2010) provide a deeper understanding of customer engagement behaviors and even developed a conceptual model of the antecedents to showcase the antecedents of customer engagement behavior. Dorn and his colleagues went as far as to also provide their readers with some of the consequences customer engagement behaviors ca have on businesses, the society, and the customers themselves. Dorn et al. (2010) define customer engagement behaviors as the “customers’ behavioral manifestation toward a brand or firm, beyond purchase, resulting from motivational drivers.” In the article, other understandings of the term engagement are given with Calder and Malthouse (2008) noting that there is a clear distinction between engagement and liking. The two note that engagement cannot be compared to liking because the latter shows some connection while liking can simply be said to be a feeling which may or may not last. Dorn et al. (2010) is quite clear as it notes that customer engagement behaviors do “go beyond transactions.” However, these behavioral manifestations could be both positive and negative something which Dorn and his colleagues emphasize quite firmly. Additionally, they add that customer engagement behaviors could be “targeted to a much broader network of actors including current and potential customers, suppliers, the general public, regulators, and firm employees.” While it may not be clear, there are instances when negative customer engagement behaviors could lead to positive changes in a company. While there might be backlash as customers offer their disdain, in the end, the consequences could be positive. The above statement is supported by Cambra-Fierro and Melero-Polo (2017) whose paper is keen to showcase that when companies employ effective complaint-handling processes, it is possible to make sure the consequences are positive. Customers do find ways to share their concerns and today, the social media platforms have turned out to be a great addition in the world. Customers have had exchanges on the different platforms with companies while trying to make sure they have their issues handled. Brodie et al. (2013) take a di...