Decathlon China case report

The use of social media marketing has become a standard way in which organizations advertise their products or services. Social media marketing allows consumers to have immediate access to other consumers reviews or to post a review about a product or service. There is engagement between the company and the consumer (Evans, Dave 2010). Social Media emerged in the late 1980’s when websites such as Prodigy, Compuserve and America Online. Prodigy was first of it’s kind and was known as a ”consumer online service”. Half of the page is devoted to advertising. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Hi5, Bebo and Orkut are all social media platforms that are utilized as platforms today.

One of the key roles of social media from a marketing perspective is the development of a client based platform. It is becoming an increasingly important part of any business’s marketing. Businesses can utilize existing online platforms to build networks of current and potential clients. By being active online allows businesses to connect with their customers in innovative ways to become a trusted source of information and convey the passion they have for their industry.

It is interesting how social media today is influencing the marketing role of many companies and how it’s playing a big role in their success. The more the company advertises on social media, the

Social media has become an influential ground for consumers to share their opinions about a company’s brand and products. In addition, it helps in having a strong brand that produces positive relations and distinguish the brand from competitors, is a critical component for effective marketing. According to Dahlén and Lange (2009) “the quality of the product is not the evident factor when it comes to purchasing a product, the deciding factor depends on how the brand is perceived” (Para. 1). This demonstrates the importance of incorporating social media as a tool to promote brands, allow for interactions, and customer satisfaction by engaging with customers more frequently for feedbacks or reviews. Thus create an opportunity for the company to show its devotion to their customers, and initiate good reputation, which can increase sales. In other words, social media has the ability to upsurge the awareness for businesses as well as the brand.

The usage of social networking sites in today’s society has reached new levels due to the recent advancements in technology that are available to worldwide users. Because of the improvements in technology, it is common for many businesses to make adjustments to its policies and procedures to meet the needs of their customers. This strategic planning allows the companies to reach new audiences, a strategy which further enhances the company’s relationship with its customers.

The company will also use the Facebook and Twitter accounts to promote the new products. As Vietnam experienced a good growth in the number of people using the internet and smartphones, the social media sites become a must for the two new products. Moreover, the Vietnam population is considered young, the social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter even play significant roles in promoting product awareness and building long term customer relationship and

In an article by Lindsay Stein titled Social media offers brands a new way to team with sports, the power of social media is shown when popular brand names use sports platforms to market their product. A company named Ignition helps companies use platforms such as the 2012 Olympics and Fifa World Cup to promote their product. Havas Media, owner of Ignition, acknowledged that these two events are a huge stage that needs to be utilized in their marketing. The biggest tool for companies to use to gain interest is the internet, which is a place for individuals that have common interest to communicate. In relation to sports marketing, sports blogs and forums are places where sports fans gather to express personal opinions. These two outlets give the sports fans a voice, and are perfect areas to market sports products. The topics in these blogs and forums vary, but the one constant is the love for sports. Ads are littered all over forums and blogs, which market all different sports brands. When researchers examine blogs, forums, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube it gives them an idea of expected business outcomes and aid in directing marketing towards certain social groups. Two prime examples that Stein gives pertain to a well-known insurance company, Allstate. Taylor, a sports marketing firm, helped Allstate open a Google+ Hangout. The purpose of this was to connect fans with well-known athletes during the NCAA March Madness. This was the first time in history that a brand hosted a

Fogdog Sports objective is to reinvent the sporting goods industry by reaching customers with a new value proposition of selection and service. Policies and strategies are the world's leading sporting goods marketers. Some basic elements of the growth strategy include; Fogdog establishes and builds brand recognition as the first global brand for marketer sporting goods and in the progress of building customer trust, confidence as well as loyalty. The company believes that through a compelling shopping experience, intrusive advertising and promotional activities, they can continue to build awareness for Fogdog. The company uses a combination of traditional and online marketing strategies to maximize their brand recognition. Fogdog.com is the latest sports store site, with experience that enforces brand promise. The company’s maintain to establish communications through online advertising with major online services and Internet shopping portals to target active online sporting goods shoppers. Fogdog focused on promotes repeat purchases promoting customer loyalty and building relationships with their customers to drive repeat sales. To accomplish this strategy, they strive to provide quality customer service seven

Social media is an effective media of communication between the consumers and companies. The companies are using social media for improving consumer engagement and brand lift. This essay gives a brief overview of social media platforms and how effective they have been. It shows that the whole marketing concept has undergone radical transformation due to the social media interaction. The essay ends in conclusion depicting what marketers need to take care in order to have successful social media campaign.

Social media is capable of connecting a brand with its consumers and discover how they are being perceived, it also has the power to change perceptions and identify the key people within the business network. The unique feature of social media is that it can provide corporations and businesses solutions developed through operating with consumers and stakeholders. Basically, social media serves as a visible connection to one’s corporation and its stakeholders, consumers, suppliers, etc, who each have a defined role within the system to filter and regulate information. As mentioned earlier, the influence of social media is spreading in a proliferative pace that has resulted to an essential transformation in society, technology and business customs.

Clearly social media can have a direct impact on consumer purchasing patterns, and it has increased the amount of online shopping for several companies. Authors Chung and Austria examine in their article Social Media Gratification and Attitude towards Social Media marketing Messages, the effect that this phenomenon has had on online shopping value: “According to the “2010 Social Media Report” from ForeSee results, 69% of online shoppers use social media. Fifty-six percent of shoppers indicate that they visit e-retail websites on a social networking site and that website visiting affects consumer purchase intention” (?). Costumers find it convenient to visit a company’s Website after seeing an ad in any popular social networking site. It requires minimal effort form the customer and it signifies an important portion of sales to a company. However, Social Media has not only had a positive financial impact on a company, but as it rapidly grows it has now

Social media is a survival necessity in today’s business world, though different businesses are likely to use it in different ways. In a business specializing in outdoor recreation, participation in social media is vital. The company should have an active presence in social media forums that are popular amongst its primary target market which is likely to be young, active adults. The top social media tool used among teenagers and young adults is Snapchat, followed closely by Facebook and Instagram (Statista, 2016) so the company should prioritize those.

In recent years, social media has become the best available option for brands to communicate with prospective consumers. In other words, social media is an opportunity for brands to transcend the traditional middleman (Neti, 2011). One of the many positives is that companies can build their own brand communities easily on the social media. There are some obvious benefits of brand communities which are facilitating information sharing, spread the history and the culture of brands, providing help to customers, and positively influencing brand loyalty (Laroche, Habibi and Richard, 2013).

The relation brand-consumer changed aspect. The brands have to watch henceforth what people say of them on these social media and to begin the dialogue with their consumers to make sure to keep a good "e-reputation" and to enter a relational optics with their customers. But they can also benefit from these digital social networks to try to create consumers' community on-line "ambassadors" around them, to federate them and to develop loyalty of them thanks to a communication and specific tools.

Secondly, another challenge is to increase brand awareness and connect Decathlon China with its customers. To begin, we can see that no efforts are done to bring consumers to the Decathlon’s official website. As a result, Decathlon China should use specific online forums about sports, where people usually tell their purchasing experiences, ask questions, etc. and where Decathlon China could use banners to be visible and attractive. Decathlon China could also hire an employee who will be charged to share its “purchasing experiences at Decathlon China”, so as to convince people to have a closer look at Decathlon China when they are looking for sporting goods. In the same time, we can see that the competition is highly using social media to connect with their customers. Accordingly, Decathlon China should create a company fan page on Chinese local social media, and more specifically, Renren and Sina Weibo, as its target audience usually hang out on these social media. The Decathlon fan page should inform potential consumers, bring them to the official website, but also allow consumers to interact, ask questions directly to Decathlon. As a consequence, Decathlon China should also hire few employees to update its fan page frequently and answer very quickly to the questions of potential consumers to show their reactivity.