Role of the Internet, Mobile and SNS in Global Brand Building - Ayam Brand Singapore - Case Study Example

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Table of Contents

Introduction3

Integrated marketing communications3

Information and communication technologies4

Advantages for Ayan Brand5

Conclusion7

Reference List8

• Introduction

The process of promoting brand values to the customers has undergone a major change over the last decade or so. Organizations no longer rely on the conventional marketing channels to reach out to the target customers. Rather, organizations in the modern era have become heavily dependent on the widespread application of Web 2.0 technology in order to promote a brand not in a particular region, but across the world (Mooney and Slobodian, 2016). Brand nowadays depend heavily on different digital marketing communication channels. The frequency of application of several contemporary marketing tools like Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) and Integrated Communication Technologies (ICT) has increased over the past few years (Leeflang et al., 2014). These approaches have become an integral part of the global brand building process.

Ayam Brand is a Singapore based packaged food product providing brand that had started its operation back in 1892 (Ayam Brand™ | SINGAPORE, 2016). For over a century, the brand has managed to work on its reputation of one of the trusted brands when it comes to packaged food delivery. However, due to the growing competition in the global food industry, tough times could be ahead for Ayam Brand, which could make it difficult for the brand to sustain a competitive position in the industry. Although the brand has followed the application of digital marketing to some extent, a scope for improvement is anticipated. Therefore, from a marketing consultant’s perspective, more effective integration of ICT and IMC can be focused, which is the major aim of the paper.

• Integrated marketing communications

It has become crucial to communicate the brand values to the customers effectively not only to have a competitive advantage over the rival brands, but also to survive in the industry. Integrated marketing communication (IMC) has turned to be a potent strategy for modern day brands to boost the brand communication procedure by combining the best promotional tool to optimize marketing campaigns (Tiago and Veríssimo, 2014). The right combination of marketing channels can therefore be a source of competitive advantage for Ayam Brand to promote the products globally. The approach would facilitate the brand to emphasize on various components like the foundation, corporate culture, brand focus, customer experience, communication tools, promotional tools and integration tools (Mooney and Slobodian, 2016). This holistic approach towards communicating brand values can motivate the potential customers in the target region to incline towards the offerings of Ayam Brand.

Ayam Brand has recently emphasized on social media marketing to spread brand values to the global customers. As a matter of fact, the brand utilizes popular social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube (Ayam Brand™ | SINGAPORE, 2016). The approach seems to be a positive step towards the global marketing strategy. However, the efficiency of the social media marketing strategy comes under question as the number of ‘likes’ on the Facebook page (5,846) and the number of ‘tweets’ on the Twitter page (323) are considerably low when it comes to the global context (Ayam Brand™ | SINGAPORE, 2016). At the outset, the lack of interactive marketing campaign activities over the digital platform is assumed to be one of the major reasons behind the lack of brand popularity over the platform. One of the most important philosophies of IMC is to maintain long term relationship with the customers, rather than just winning the customers (Tiago and Veríssimo, 2014). Therefore, Ayam Brand needs to work on social media campaigns that could engage the customers for a long time period.

• Information and communication technologies

Information and communication technology (ICT) needs to be focused in order to penetrate the global packaged food market. The so-called fourth industrial revolution is often regarded as the digital revolution, which can be milked out through proper internet applications (Hoffman and Fodor, 2010). According to reports, over 75% of people across the world have access to mobile phone (Ayam Brand™ | SINGAPORE, 2016). Among the global population of over 7.4 billion, over 4 billion people have access to the internet and approximately 1.1 billion people have access to high-speed internet. Therefore, there is plenty of scope for Ayam Brand to capture such large number of customers through proper ICT initiatives. However, the ICT approach should not be restricted to only the social media communication process.

Although Ayam Brand has strong presence in the popular social media platform, but in order to fully utilize the benefits of the internet platform, the brand needs to look for a diverse mode of brand communication process. Customized business interaction has been a recent approach taken by the top brands across the world (Mooney and Slobodian, 2016). For instance, leading e-commerce brands like Amazon, eBay, etc have followed the process of business communication through office mobile applications of the brand. Ayam Brand can also follow a similar strategy to penetrate the global market, specially the subcontinent and the Asia-Pacific region, which have been the most profitable region for the brand over the years (Ayam Brand™ | SINGAPORE, 2016). In addition to the existing social media communication strategies, Ayam Brand can consider mobile application development aiming for better customer query processing and enhanced global reach.

• Advantages for Ayan Brand

Proper integration of IMC and ICT is likely to deliver a competitive advantage to Ayam Brand, Singapore. The choice of appropriate marketing channels could be mobile, internet and SNSs (social networking sites). Although, each of these different marketing channels offer certain merits and demerits, utilizing the core benefits of each of the channels can offer competitive advantage (De Vries, Gensler, and Leeflang, 2012). Therefore, the advantages for using each of these digital channels can be communicated.

Facebook remains the most popular social network among people. Therefore, the channel needs to be the top most priority for Ayam Brand. The major advantage for improving the social medial campaign on Facebook is the availability of large and wider demographics. As stated by Mooney and Slobodian (2016), Facebook has over 1.59 billion monthly active users. If these users can be engaged in interactive promotional campaign activities, the brand could expect a boost in revenue. As of now, Ayam Brand is using the basic features of Facebook like uploading pictures or sharing promotional videos (Ayam Brand™ | SINGAPORE, 2016). However, in order to truly make the campaign powerful, the more advanced features like online poll, concept sharing and blogging can be considered.

Twitter can be used to conduct interactive ‘hashtag’ campaigns. Currently, the official Twitter page is used for information sharing on corporate affairs (Ayam Brand™ | SINGAPORE, 2016). However, the brand can improve the traffic of the site through ‘hashtag’ campaigns. Two leading brands in the grocery segment, Tesco and Walmart both have been quite successful in promoting the product values to the customers through such interactive social media promotions (Michaelidou, Siamagka and Christodoulides, 2011). Ayam Brand can also follow a similar strategy by promoting the canned food products with ‘hashtag’ campaigns. For instance, #somanytuna or #mackerel campaigns can be organized to create greater awareness of popular products like canned tuna or canned mackerel.

The official You Tube channel of Ayam Brand has two different television channels that are Malaysia TV Commercials and the Singapore TV Commercials (Ayam Brand™ | SINGAPORE, 2016). The current You Tube promotion approach is therefore focused only on Malaysian and Singapore market, which is not going to complement the global marketing campaigning. According to Tiago and Veríssimo (2014), successful brands have the ability to react differently as per the changing tastes of the customers. Therefore, Ayam Brand needs to concentrate on different regional channels on You Tube to target different types of customers in the nine different markets.

Perhaps, the most effective strategy for Ayam Brand would be to develop a dedicated mobile application for the brand’s services that can be operated from any mobile platforms and freely accessible from online portals such as Google Play, App Store and Windows Store. The study of Mangold and Faulds (2009) on ICT suggests that brands are considering the development of ecosystem, enabling customers to enjoy a one stop solution. The approach could help in targeting each of those 75% of the global population who has a mobile. The mobile application needs to aim for delivering a one stop solution for the customers, be it the query processing, online purchase and order processing.

• Conclusion

Ayam Brand Singapore needs to concentrate on proper application of IMC and ICT if the brand aims towards a global brand management strategy. The existing social media marketing campaigns seems incomplete and not quite compatible for attracting global customers. It is assumed that the social media platforms offer more interactive features like online poll, blogging and hashtag campaigns. These offerings need to be utilized in order to engage the global customers so that more effective brand management could be feasible. The You Tube channel needs to offer different channels on more regional languages depending on the target market of Ayam Brand. Finally, in order to optimize the global brand management, the development of an official mobile application is suggested to the brand that would be an all-in-one solution. The mobile application can offer a whole new ecosystem of services to the customers that would not only promote the brand values, but also optimize the brand operations.

• Reference List

Ayam Brand™ | SINGAPORE, 2016. Home. [online] Available at: <http://www.ayambrand.com.sg> [Accessed 25 April 2016].

De Vries, L., Gensler, S. and Leeflang, P.S., 2012. Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: An investigation of the effects of social media marketing. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26(2), 83-91.

Hoffman, D.L. and Fodor, M., 2010. Can you measure the ROI of your social media marketing?. MIT Sloan Management Review, 52(1), 41.

Leeflang, P.S., Verhoef, P.C., Dahlström, P. and Freundt, T., 2014. Challenges and solutions for marketing in a digital era. European Management Journal, 32(1), 1-12.

Mangold, W.G. and Faulds, D.J., 2009. Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business horizons, 52(4), 357-365.

Michaelidou, N., Siamagka, N.T. and Christodoulides, G., 2011. Usage, barriers and measurement of social media marketing: An exploratory investigation of small and medium B2B brands. Industrial Marketing Management, 40(7), 1153-1159.

Mooney, M. and Slobodian, S., 2016. Seeing the wood for the trees: Fixing large undefined problems in digital marketing. Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing, 3(4), 294-303.

Tiago, M.T.P.M.B. and Veríssimo, J.M.C., 2014. Digital marketing and social media: Why bother? Business Horizons, 57(6), 703-708.