The Use of Social Media in Promotion

This report explores the use of social media in promotion and its impact on business activities. It includes a case study on Tesco and discusses marketing strategies and challenges faced by the organization. The report also provides insights into the importance of social media in promotion and the role it plays in reaching potential customers. Subject: Marketing, Course Code: MKT101, Course Name: Introduction to Marketing, College/University: Not mentioned

Project

Table of Contents
Topic: The use of social media in promotion .................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
Aims: ..........................................................................................................................................3
To analyse the use of social media at the time of promotion of products and services of a brand.
Case study on Tesco. .......................................................................................................................3
Objectives: ..................................................................................................................................3
Strategies to achieve above objectives: ......................................................................................4
Time scale: .................................................................................................................................4
Literature review: .......................................................................................................................7
Marketing strategies ...................................................................................................................8
Impact analysis of social media use in promotion ...................................................................10
Constraints ................................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

Topic: The use of social media in promotion
INTRODUCTION
Marketing is referred as the activities that are undertaken by the organisation in order to
promote buying and selling of respective products and services. In marketing various activities
are included such as advertising, selling as well as delivering products to customers and other
business as well. In social media marketing various platforms of social media is being utilise in
order to connect respective brand with audiences in order to spread awareness of organisational
products and services to increase sale as well as drive various website traffic. In order to promote
products social media channels like Facebook, Instagram and you tube plays important role to
reach potential customers. On this channels organisation publish attractive content on social
media profiles, analyse audiences responses and run social media advertisements. In this report
social media in promotion is being covered. In current competitive environment social media is
very important factor that is used by every organisation to reach wide area of market and attract
potential customers. In this report the chosen organisation is Tesco which is an multinational
groceries merchandise of British. The organisation in founded in 1919 by jack Cohen,
headquarter in Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom. 7,005 shops are operated by the
organisation across the world. Organisation publish various social media campaigns in order to
create affective brand value in customers mind. In this report various aims, objectives, marketing
strategies as well as impacts of social media on business activities in being covered in this
project report.
TASK
Aims:
To analyse the use of social media at the time of promotion of products and services of a brand.
Case study on Tesco.
Objectives:
 To examined social media strategies used by Tesco to promote its products.
 To determined the Importance of social media at the time of promotion.
 To analyse the challenged faced by Tesco at the time of promotion on social media.

Strategies to achieve above objectives:
Social media is used by the organisation to create awareness of organisation's product
and services in specific market place as well as among potential customers. Tesco formulates
various social media strategies in order to promote its products and services. It create effective
and attractive content by using various images, videos and GIFs to attract customers and enhance
organisational sales and image. Respective organisation create profile on various social media
channels to cover wide area of customers who are active on these social media platforms like
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, you tube and snap chat (Andrews and Shimp, , 2017). In current
competitive environment, it becomes important to analyse all social media channels and used
effective one that enhances the customer base and help organisation to achieve all determined
goals and objectives in efficient manner. There are various challenges are faced by the
organisation to promote its products and services on social media. Tesco conduct proper market
research n order to gain all necessary information about customers needs, demand and
preferences then chose effective strategies to fulfil all demands in order to take various
competitive advantages in marked. In this report secondary research method such as books,
journals and library sources are being used.
Time scale:
Gantt chart is an efficient tool of project management that displays all project activities
against to time scale. On the lest side of chart various activities and on the top suitable time is
being mentioned. All activities are represented in the bar form, lengths and position of bar
represents the starting, ending as well as duration of activities. In this research five months to
accomplished (Cho, Furey and Mohr, 2017). First month is introductory, all aims and objectives
are decided, on the second month literature review, research methodology as well as data
analysation is being evaluated. In the last month of research project recommendation and
conclusion is being completed.

Literature review:
According the view point of Djafarova and Trofimenko,( 2019) social media marketing is
referred as the powerful tool for every type of business to reach potential customers. Social
media marketing involves various forms of internet marketing which is used by creating as well
as sharing effective content through social media platforms to attain various marketing goals and
objectives. It includes various activities such as posting images, videos, text and updated content
in order to engage number of customers with organisation. Tesco use various social media
platforms to meet different marketing goals and objectives in efficient manner and reach
potential customers as well as persuade them to purchase organisational products and services.
These platforms facilitate respective organisation to raising brand awareness among customers,
enhance interaction and communication with audience, increase website traffic as well as build
high conversion rates. Tesco use various social media marketing strategies in order to attract
potential customers through different social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, You tube
and snap chat. Respective organisation use chatbots on social media that is digital tool to
communicate with customers and resolve their problems with out any interruption of third party.
Organisation create effective as well as attractive content that includes various images, audio and
videos also add some live stories in their advertisement in order to connect with audiences
sentiments. Apart from that Tesco create its profiles on various social media channels and also
various cross-run campaigns are run by respective organisation in order to attract mass audience
and persuade them to purchase organisational products and services.
According to the view point of Evans, Bratton and McKee, (2021)social media plays an
important role in promotion activities of any organisation in order to increase brand awareness

among targeted potential customers, humanize the brand and help the respective organisation to
stay on top in mind set of customers. Effective social media help organisation to enhance
organisational sales and know about needs, demands and preferences of customers in order to
produce products and services according to their requirement and promote these products on
such platforms to attract potential customers. It is an cost effective strategy that enhance
profitability ratio of respective organisation and enhance customers engagement. If organisation
more engaged with their perspective customers than it is able to get more information about them
as well as influence them to purchase organisational products and services. Effective social
media use in promotional activities help the organisation to enhance customers loyalty and
satisfaction level with organisation. Hence, social media is very important in promotion of
organizational products and services.
According to view point of Gage-Bouchard, (2017) social media crates various
challenges that are faced by the Tesco in process of promoting organisation product, services and
process on social media platforms. Tesco face difficulties in various modern social media
marketing strategies that guide organisation to accomplished all marketing goals and objectives
within shortest period of time, it is very hard to create authentic connection with perspective
customers as well as creating high quality visuals is the biggest challenge for organisation
because it required more investment. So, use of social media in promotion is some times creates
various problems to the organisation to handling then in effective as well as efficient manner.
Apart from that Tesco faced various other problems such as properly defined social media
marketing goals fro their marketing campaigns because these goals should be aligned with the
organisational goals and objectives. In order to deal with this challenge, organisation should
established goals on the bases of SMART that must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic
as well as time bound. Identification of right social media platform is also the biggest challenge
for respective organisation, understanding targeted audiences or perspective customers, declining
of customers reach and engagement level and increasing cost are some of challenges that affect
the social media strategies to the organisation in promotions (Hanaysha, 2017). All these
challenges impacts on organisational profitability as well as productivity level.
Marketing strategies
Marketing strategies is referred as the overall plan of business to ensure reachability to
perspective customers and turning then in to potential customers who purchase the product and

services. Marketing strategies contains various factors of company such as value proposition,
relative data on targeted customers demographics, key brand messaging as well as other
elements that enhance sale as well as brand value of organisation effectively. In marketing
strategies Tesco cover all 4Ps of marketing mix that are product, price, place and promotion. In
current environment Tesco's main objective of formulating marketing strategy to gain trust of
stakeholder to its brand. Effective marketing strategies facilitates respective organisation to take
various competitive advantages in the respective market place (Haro-de-Rosario, 2018). It use
the printed media, sales promotion, public relation and events in order to communicate messages
to the potential customers.
Advertising: Tesco use advertising marketing strategies through using printed and media
advertising in order to communicate message to current as well as potential customers.
Respective organisation published various advertisement on relative social media channels to
attract customers as well as persuade them to purchase products and services.
Sales promotions: Different type of sales promotions plays important role in the
marketing strategy of tesco. In includes the club cards and free gifts in its promotions that
attracts customers to purchase products and services. Effective marketing strategies provide
various sustainable competitive advantages to the organisation then its competitors. Some of
marketing strategies are discussed below:
Porter's generic strategy for competitive advantages: This model is related to determine
the competitive positioning or business in competitive environment (Holmgren and Coyne,
2017). This model provide the strategies that facilitate respective organisation to take various
sustainable competitive advantages. Strategies are discussed below:
Cost leadership: In this strategy, organisation want to become the low cost producer in
relative industry. Low cost of production help organisation to take competitive advantages in
market place then its competitors by providing low cost products and services to customers.
Differentiation: In this strategy, Tesco provide the quite differentiated product to its
customers than its competitors that valued by customers. It help organization to create effective
positioning in market place.
Focus strategy: In focus strategy, organisation follow on both aspects such as low cost
advantages and differentiation to take various sustainable competitive advantages (Zhang,
2017).

Market segmentation: Market segmentation is the process to dividing the whole market
into smaller sub markets according to their demographic and other similarities. Tesco segmented
its whole market place and target the specific one to provide its product and services in
effectiveness. By providing quality service respective organisation build differentiated image or
positioning in customer's mind in order to take various competitive advantages.
Impact analysis of social media use in promotion
The use of social media in promotional activities is very important that affect the business
activities as well as enhance its connection with perspective customers. Various social media
platforms such as Instagram and Facebook become the essential part of individuals that draws
various impacts on their lives in positive as well as negative manner (Islam, Mäntymäki and
Benbasat, 2019). It affects business, employees as well as society. All these impacts of social
media on the different classes are discussed bellow:
Impact on business: Social media use in promotional activities impacts business to find
most potential audiences and communicate with them effectively. Tesco conduct various
campaign and live events in order to find and target groups. Social media facilitate business to
meet its targeted audiences virtually and change the way of communication with respective
audiences. Some impacts on business of promotions are discussed below:
Social media creates new dimension to customer services: In current competitive
environment businesses use various social media channels as a main source to interact the brand
with perspective audiences in order to get their instant attention. Business can promote its
products and services through various social media channels and engage with customers
efficiently. It is very important aspect for business that facilitates it to make direct connection
with customers and know all information about them that is used in strategy formulation in order
to get various sustainable competitive advantages.
Social media promotions is an economical tool: Various businesses are using social
media marketing because it impacts business in positive manner and facilitate it to enhance
desirable profitability level (Kargaran, Pour and Moeini, 2017). Social media techniques use
specific social media networks as well as applications in order to spread brand awareness among
perspective group of audiences. There are various campaigns are conducted business to generate
more views and publicity for respective business. By publishing a message on social media

handle, business can ensure its reachability to the hundreds or thousands of people on virtually
mode without having more cost. Hence, social media promotions are cost effective for business.
Social media help business to collect customer's first hand feedbacks: Social media
help the business to collect first hand feedbacks of customers through enhancing brand image,
customer relation and reputation of business. Each and every comment, like and suggestions
ensure the development of respective business (Kim and Park, 2017). All the feedbacks of
audiences are evaluated by the business that enhance the customer's morale as well as
engagement rate. On effective social media promotions business get positive response of
customers that enhance business growth rate as well.
Social media promotions improves user engagement rate: There are number of
customers follow the accounts of businesses on social media. Social media promotions engage
potential customers with organisation as well as facilitates organisation to enhance its
reachability. Social media presence facilitates business to get various benefits of customer's
engagement their satisfaction that ensures the success of business. Social media engagement
creates positive reputation of business on the other hand, negatives comment of audiences also
affect the mind set of other customers also that affect the brand value of business.
Impacts on employees: Social media impacts on life of employees in various manner in
positive as well as in negative manner. Social media promotions facilitates employees to get
connected with other people across the world any time that enhance their knowledge about
current market trends and customers needs demands and preferences as well as create
communication with customer's to satisfy their demands effectively. Social media promotions
give break to employees from their work and refresh their mind in order to get back to work wit
more energy. On the other hand some adverse impacts of social media on employees like
employees becomes addictive, harm their privacy as well as affect their general well being. All
these impacts must be evaluated and reacts them accordingly.
Impacts on society: Social media promotions have influential society in both positive as
well as negative. In give a chance to people to stay in touch with their favourite brands and other
people. They will know information about the products and services of respective brand their
new products and innovations (Kumar and Nanda, 2019). In the current environment every one
is active on the different social media channels and follow various pages that contain wide
information. Social media existence enhance the risk of fake sites that provides unrelated or false

information to the society. On social media various fake news are published for personnel
purpose that harms society. At the time of election many fake news as well as stories are
circulated that negatively impacts all level of society (Kumar, Choi and Greene, 2017). On the
other social media promotions, events and campaigns provide necessary information to the
society for the enhancement. Various government plans and policies also published on the social
media handles to aware general society to prevent from any harmful impacts of fake sites or
news.
Constraints
In order to publish effective promotions on social media some of constraints must be
followed by the Tesco to ensure these promotions effectiveness with organisation, society as well
as environment. These constraints are discussed below:
Arranging of finance: For promoting the products and services through promotion on
various social media platforms required high finance. Tesco arrange finance from banks,
crowdfunding and venture capital. All these sources fulfil financial needs of organisation by
charging interest rates. Finance is most important resource that conduct all functions in smooth
manner and facilitate organisation to get all determined goals and objectives efficiently.
Finding a location: In order to find appropriate location for publishing promotion or
targeting the specific group of customers Tesco conduct a proper research to know about needs,
demands and preferences of respective customers. After knowing potential target market,
organisation conduct social media campaigns and promotions to attract as well as persuade them
to purchase goods and services.
Government approval: In order to promote some specific advertisement on social media
channels, it is necessary to get government approval on prior bases. Government reviewed the
current as well as past positioning of respected organisation and all aspects of promotion then
take decision in favoured or unfavoured accordingly (Loureiro, Serra and Guerreiro, 2019).
Government approval is very important for publishing the advertisement. Like in the smoking or
wine it is compulsory to write that these product harm customers health that instructed by the
government.
Resistance from local people: Some of promotions and advertisements are resisted by
the local people of society that are related to harmful products like wine or something else. All
those products that harm the people is being resisted. People of society do not support

advertisement affect the business and its brand image also (Spohr, 2017). If local people is
opposed to the advertisement the organisation should think about that and change its marketing
strategy.
CONCLUSION
As per above report, it can be concluded that social media plays important role in
promotional activities. In current competitive environment, every organisation published
advertisement and promotions in order to promote organisational products and services through
various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and You tube. These
social media channels help organization to target the specific area of market and persuade them
to purchase organisation products. Organisation establishes various aims and objectives as well
as various strategies to achieve these objectives in smooth manner. Various social media
marketing strategies are formulated in order to cover wide market place and perspective
customers. Organisation has to adopt appropriate marketing strategy according to organisation
that help to attain objectives. Social media impacts business, employees, society as well as
environment in positive as well as negative manner. All impacts are properly evaluated on the
other hand there are various constraints such as sources of finance, location of finding,
government approval and local business as well as people resistance that must be consider by the
organisation to promoting their products in market.

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