Cb English for Marketing Case-study

UNIT 8 How well do you Tweet?

Part 4

In groups, decide whether a company can afford not to participate in Twitter. Give reasons for your answers.

Part 5

You work in the marketing department of a budget airline which has identified the need to develop a more customer-oriented approach in order to create competitive advantage. You have been asked to input your ideas into a report about how the airline might exploit Twitter in order to:

●●improve its brand image

●●get closer to customers

●●generate additional revenue

You should also consider the potential disadvantages of Twitter and how the company might overcome these.

Your manager has produced an outline for the report. In groups, discuss your campaign ideas for the parts of the report described below. One person in the group should take notes on the discussion. When you have finished, share your ideas with the rest of the class.

To: CEO

From: Marketing Director

Executive summary: promotional objectives and summary of proposed strategy and tactics

Background: what is Twitter?

The opportunity: potential benefits to us of exploiting this new channel Action plan: recommended actions for implementation

Improving customer service and customer engagement: tactical suggestions

Increasing brand awareness: tactical suggestions Revenue opportunities: tactical suggestions

Promoting our Twitter channel through other digital and traditional channels: tactical suggestions

Pitfalls to avoid: overcoming objections and potential disadvantages

Resource implications

You may find the following language from Cambridge English for Marketing

Units 6 and 8 useful:

●●creating a brand and brand identity (pages 51–53)

●●discussing digital marketing objectives and tools (pages 66–68)

Professional English

Cambridge English for

Marketing

TEACHER’S NOTES

UNIT 8 How well do you Tweet?

Before you begin …

Ask students if they recognise the three logos, which represent well known social network sites: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Ask students what they know about these sites and encourage them to think about the target audience each service is aimed at, focusing on demographic and psychographic variables (that is, the way in which a consumer’s personality and lifestyle choices influence his or her buying decisions).

You could also introduce students to the term ‘microblog,’ a form of blog using brief messages. Twitter updates are limited by 140 characters and can be posted through various methods including web form, text message, instant message and mobile applications. The rest of this lesson plan will explore the business and marketing uses of this channel.

Suggested answers

Facebook: considerable participation from all age groups with the largest segment of users aged around 18–24, followed by the 26–34 year age group. There are also a significant number of active users aged over 45. Facebook

is mainly used for keeping in contact with friends, making new friends and for joining groups with shared personal and professional interests. An increasingly large number of users access Facebook via mobile devices.

LinkedIn: aimed at professionals who can create and manage their professional identities online, reconnect with former colleagues and develop new professional relationships. Slightly older demographic (aged around 35–49) as used principally for professional purposes.

Twitter: a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to post their latest updates. The average twitter user age is 18–35. Increasingly used by businesses to get closer to customers, reach new customers, advertise offers, etc.

Note

Demographics are constantly changing so the answers given below are accurate at the time of writing

Part 1

a Students match the words and collocations to the definitions.

Answers

2  f      ​3  a      ​4  d      ​5  c      ​6  b      ​7  e      ​8  h

b Students discuss the questions in pairs before feeding back to the whole class. The key here is to make students aware that more and more consumers are active on these sites.

UNIT 8 How well do you Tweet?

UNIT 8 How well do you Tweet?

Part 3

a Students discuss the question as a class.

Suggested answers

Ideas might include: to deliver customer service and mitigate customer dissatisfaction; to get closer to customers and build trust; to build brand awareness and encourage brand loyalty; to exchange information in real-time; to make referrals/recommendations of products and services; to create a continuous online buzz of a company’s products and services; to encourage word of mouth marketing; to monitor the competition; to increase revenue.

b Students read the text before checking their answers in pairs.

Answers

The text mentions the following advantages:

●to create deeper and more progressive relationships with … customers

●social media enables companies to interact with customers in the communities where they (the customers) feel most comfortable and in control

●significantly increase(s) the engagement value of brands

●facilitate(s) a brand’s more personalized and direct exchange of real-time information

●help airlines to increase customer engagement, brand awareness, and revenue

●add value to their existing and new customer relationships

The disadvantage mentioned in the text is that Twitter requires a level of transparency that some brands are unaccustomed to (but which all customers require) which challenges the way business is traditionally done … especially for airlines.

c Ask students to work in pairs to suggest a definition for the words in bold. Explain that customer engagement and brand awareness are two separate items. Then ask them to match the words in the text to the correct definition. You could ask them how their own suggestions compare with the definitions 1–4.

Answers

1brand awareness

2customer engagement

3engagement value of brands.

4customer-oriented

Note

According to Dave Chaffey, online customer engagement refers both to improving single visit and multiple visit conversion rates on a web site. It also has a longer-term perspective of increasing visits or purchases to a site. See http://www.davechaffey.com/E-marketing-Glossary/Customer-engagement.htm for more on this topic). Brand engagement is a well known term which students need to be aware of.

UNIT 8 How well do you Tweet?

Part 4

Students discuss the question in groups, justifying their answers with real world examples where possible. This question encourages students to think about the implications of not using social media channels.

Suggested answers

Ideas may include: competitors stealing market share by creating a presence; impact on brand of not having a Twitter presence e.g. making the company look old-fashioned; customers using Twitter to talk about brands so at the very least organisations should monitor this channel to see what people are saying; customers expecting it as a real-time form of customer service especially for brands which do not have a particularly interactive web presence. On the other hand, students may argue that there is little evidence to date of organisations generating revenue from Twitter.

Part 5

This task provides an opportunity for students to think about the tactical implementation of a promotional channel such as Twitter. Students should also be encouraged to think about how they would promote this channel via other standard advertising channels. Get students to work in small groups and allow about 30 minutes for discussion and note-taking before sharing ideas with the rest of the class. Encourage debate where possible.

Suggested answers

Ideas may include:

●improving customer service and customer engagement: publicising favourite company testimonials; fostering a sense of community by sharing photos, links, videos, etc. may prove important in keeping customers’ attention; send a DM (direct message) instead of email; offer giveaways via Twitter to attract more followers and reach new audiences; offer existing followers exclusive deals only available on Twitter.

●increasing brand awareness: driving traffic to the main website; monitoring the airline’s brand using Search.Twitter.com; promoting events, updates and offers; developing the brand as a thought leader others want to follow; building PR by seeking out reporters, bloggers, etc; linking to the Twitter channel from other digital channels.

●revenue opportunities: selling-off inventory at a discounted rate, quickly filling seats, and advertising new routes; offering exclusive deals.

●linking from other social media sites such as Facebook; advertising the Twitter account via standard advertising channels such as newsletters; in-flight magazine; email campaigns, etc.

●problems to consider include: Twitter becoming potentially addictive and taking valuable time away from other more profitable marketing activities; destroying your reputation if used inappropriately; getting too personal with customers; the need to have an ongoing presence and to constantly monitor this channel. All of these have obvious resource implications.

Extension activities

1 Ask students to use their notes to write a full report as a homework activity. You may want to refer students to Unit 2 pages 27–29 for help with writing the executive summary.

2 Encourage students to find native speakers to follow on Twitter, e.g. celebrities, and to feed back their findings during the next lesson.