MSc International Business: Brand Communication and Reputation Report

This report critically examines brand communication and reputation management, focusing on the case of Gumtree, a British online classified advertisement website. The report explores Gumtree's marketing campaigns, including the use of Facebook, YouTube, and other social media platforms, to target specific audiences and enhance brand awareness. It analyzes the stages of the campaign, from defining objectives to execution and fulfillment, while also discussing the importance of creativity and budget allocation. The report highlights the impact of communication technologies and the role of social media in building customer relationships and managing brand reputation. Furthermore, it examines the challenges of maintaining a positive brand image in the face of negative publicity and the strategies employed by Gumtree to address these issues, including the use of IT solutions to monitor and filter online content. The report also discusses the leadership and teamwork aspects of the project, including the use of Belbin team roles and agile leadership to facilitate collaboration and achieve project goals. The author reflects on the experience, identifies areas for improvement, and suggests incorporating additional expertise to enhance future marketing campaigns.

Brand Communication and
Reputation Management
Subject:
Assignment 1
Student Name: Bussa Rahul
Student Id : 1722167
Block: Brand communication and Reputation management
Course: Msc in International Bussiness

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Assessment 1...................................................................................................................................1
Assessment 2...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Today, in competitive world, brands are required to maintain and manage their business
reputation. This would help in gaining trust and support as well as prestige of national and
international stakeholders. It would lead to create difference over rivals and win competitive
advantage from them as well (Uzunoğlu and Kip, 2014). The report is going to make a critical
discussion on assessment of websites created by companies for business communication and
brand reputation. For this purpose, Gumtree is taken, which is a British online classified
advertisement website. This company of UK is considered as one of the largest classified
websites for local community. Here, the main aim of using different communication strategies
for brand management with targeted audience is discussed in reflective manner.
Assessment 1
Since every single organisation is looking forward to grab attention of targeted
consumers in great numbers. It has become vital for business firms to develop campaigns related
to marketing or promoting their products or services in their targeted areas. In present case
where Gumtree is looking forward to develop a campaign which is focusing on different targeted
areas and these are Facebook page, YouTube video and other content for social media
(Instagram, twitter, Linked in and many more). On the other hand, CAN model is also been used
over here which directly describes chaotic reality of organisational decision making It is also
required to focus on different stages which are linked with the campaign so that it can be
executed right on time (Veloutsou, 2015). There are four phases which has been covered by this
campaign which was made for Gumtree as mentioned below:-
First Phase (Defining overall marketing campaign) - since gumtree is looking forward to
improve its sales, a campaign has been made for grabbing attention of targeted customers in
ample numbers.
Second Phase ( defining of Creative target) - looking at the scenario of modern world, it
can easily be understood that youngsters and adults with the age in between 30 to 65 Looks for
buying products and services online. Therefore, online campaign will help gumtree in grabbing
attention of customers in huge numbers.
Third phase (Establishment of campaign and settlement of budget) -Just after gathering
the information and analysing the choices and leaves of target consumers, execution takes place.
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Hair colour campaign is developed considering all the requirements of customers with the said
budget which will directly help out Gumtree is enriching to an all new level where they might
gain competitive advantages in near future.
Fourth stage (Plan for fulfilment) – every single campaign is developed with an aim or
goal, it is required for developer to keep its focus on the last stage where fulfilment takes place.
If it is talked about Gumtree, organisation has made the campaign for retaining customer base for
a longer period of time (Hur, Kim and Woo, 2014). Thus, fulfillment of this goal of enhancing
customer base to an extent will only be successful if the execution, budget and implementation of
campaign takes place appropriately.
Campaign will keep its focus on bringing in creativity among these 3 areas, because
targeted audience over here which has been taken by country that is young and adult with the age
in between 35 to 65. Approach of the campaign which has been developed for the country will
directly target dose audiences which are available on social media and on YouTube channels.
This is done because modern people basically still available or spend time more online rather
than spending time away from it.
Facebook page: a campaign with low budget but will attract huge number of targeted
customers because the audience which has been chosen by the Gumtree stays online regularly.
Apart from this, this approach is also cost efficient and saves time of both company and of
customers at the same time.
YouTube video: an attractive advertisement of the campaign which is related to
company’s offerings could easily grab attention of ample number of YouTube users. In the same
way, development has kept its focus on creating an attractive and fluent YouTube video
considering all the ethics main directly aid Gumtree in grabbing attention of both targeted
audience and public at the same time.
Other social media: just like Facebook, public stays online on different social media tools
like Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and so on. Including these social tools can be helpful for
gumtree to focus on people that are not using Facebook or uses YouTube. This will help
Organisation in changing public into its targeted audience (Beukeboom, Kerkhof and de Vries,
2015).
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Assessment 2
With the development of communication technologies and advancement in internet
applications, brands gain advantage to reach their target customers more easier. By usage of
mass media, now brands and audience can make two-way communication and develop a strong
relationship as well (Schivinski and Dabrowski, 2015). This would provide opportunity to both
corporations and people in high manner. Organisations can advantage to enhance their sales
performance and customers to fulfil desires. In context with brand reputation management, it
can be defined as process to maintain prestige of business which facilitates in completing the
need of stakeholders and shareholders. In other worlds, reputation refers to totality of judgements
that made by individuals about trustworthiness, abilities and judgements of organisations. It
generally affects by lack of communication which is aimed at targeted audience. Owners of
Gumtree hold this concept while developing communication with targeted audience. They
understand that positive perception of audience towards corporations can only be developed by
meeting their expectation in limited period of time. For this purpose, to make interaction with
potential customers, its managers have used three main communication channels- You Tube,
Facebook and other social media platforms. These applications of internet are considered as sales
promoting tool of marketing campaigns. It would help in advertising products or services of a
company at marketplace in a wide marketplace. Apart from this, marketing model like CAN, it is
used to describe chaotic reality of organisational decision making (Heding, Knudtzen and Bjerre,
2015). This model covers various stages which help in executing the planned activities of
marketing campaigns more appropriately.
In this regard, to run business campaign, managers of Gumtree have made a team of
seven members who are acknowledged with IT field. Among these people as a leader I have
played a main role in developing this team. All group-members are highly experienced and
knowledgeable persons also (Fearn-Banks, 2016). Therefore, to assign roles and responsibilities
to each as per abilities, manager of team has used Belbin team development theory. This would
help in identifying expert level of each and assigning responsibilities accordingly. Manager of
our team has made a discussion with us in regular manner about which communication campaign
are beneficial for communicating with targeted audience. It has believed that having a product
available to targeted audience at an amazing price does absolutely nothing for business, if they
don’t have sufficient information about it. Due to this, it is essential for organisations to promote
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business and connect with target audiences. By using effective communicating tools, a corporate
can give information to people about using Facebook, You Tube, Mobile Telephone App, radio
script, print advertisement and other social media platforms. I have give suggestion that
Facebook helps in creating pages about business information. Through this linkage, targeted
audience, can get information about company’s new offers and more. Since, Gumtree mainly
targeted to youngsters who are needed help for getting employment, accommodations and
meeting new people. Therefore, Facebook Page will help users in getting information about how
Gumtree help them in meeting their desires. This would help in enhancing sales performance and
grabbing more attention of potential customers.
While one of the team-members give responses towards You Tube as it is considered as
digital media which helps in promoting business on world-wide. Since, in marketing
environment, promotion is involved integrated marketing communication (IMC) which helps in
bringing a variety of different communication tools. This would lead to convey a common
message as well as create a desired impact on perception and behaviour of potential customers
also (Urde, 2016). In this regard, You Tube helps in promoting business of company in world
wide manner. Therefore, it helps Gumtree in reaching its potential customers much easily.
Similarly, rest of team members have suggested to use other media also Linked Inn, Twitter and
more. It will help in making relationship with targeted audience for longer period of time. In this
regard, my team has chosen to work on three main campaign for marketing communication- You
Tube, Facebook Page and other social media applications (LinkedIn and Twitter). For this
purpose, we have divided roles and responsibilities equally on the basis of degree of integration
and degree of creativity. Here, for enhancing attractiveness on social pages and grab attention of
targeted audience, we have specially concern on creativity. For this purpose, Gumtree has given
recruitment to highly expert candidates who are better experienced in developing creativity in
social media pages.
I have analyzed that marketing communication tools help in spreading information related to
products, services as well activities of the corporations. It provides benefits in enhancing sales
performance and promoting business of a company at digital platform. But these kind of
marketing tools also affect reputation and prestige of brand. It spreads rumors, negative
comments of viewers and more, which can damage corporate reputation (Elliott and et. al.,
2015). It has also been analyzed that companies must be cautious when promoting business by
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using social media applications. The comments and perceptions put by customers on social
media, can go way beyond geographical limitations. It can reach targeted audience from any
corner of the world. Thus, any negative publicity can adversely affect brand reputation. I have
also evaluated by working on this project that to gain competitive advancement, rivals and
former workers can also post negative comments. Thus, to overcome from this situation and
protect corporate reputation, IT department of Gumtree has majorly concern on developing
software. This device will help in identifying and deleting those comments which impact on
business prestige before reaching to targeted customers.
Apart from this, to run business campaign successfully, as a leader, it is foremost duty of
mine is to gain support of all team members for the same (Rokka, Karlsson and Tienari, 2014).
In this regard, manager and I have used to include participation of all in every kind of decision
making activity. We have used the concept of Belbin team roles to shape and action-oriented
development. Along with this, by using agile leadership theory, I have brought collaboration in
entire team-members. This would help in influencing group to give best efforts towards
accomplishment of goals and objectives. Furthermore, through team efforts, we have got success
in developing effective strategies for overcoming issues related to marketing communication
campaign. In this regard, we have helped members of IT department of Gumtree in developing
device.
After working on this project, I have got chance to enhance my IT skills and leadership
abilities. This would help me to increase my level of knowledge in marketing communication in
higher manner. I have got success in developing team and gain support of each in
accomplishment of project. Furthermore, as we have done a lot of mistakes in completing the
project, therefore, if I have got chance to make changes then it will help in obtaining higher
outcomes. It includes including some more members of other field like marketing, HR, R&D
who give support in planning marketing campaigns more effectively. They can give more
suggestion about how to overcome from marketing communication issues. Along with this,
knowledge and capabilities of such members, will help in identifying sources from where
Gumtree can enhance its sales performance. If I would got chance again to work on such type of
projects again, then I will take it as a challenge and will provide definitely better outcomes. For
this purpose, I will make effective budget plan, bring adequate amount of resources etc. in order
to carry out proper research before execution of a project.
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CONCLUSION
It has concluded from this report in order to gain competitive advantage, it is necessary for a
company to maintain its brand reputation at marketplace. For this purpose, they are required to
concern on marketing tools, which are used for promotional campaigns. These tools like social
media, You Tube, T.V. advertising, help in creating awareness among people about services
offered by company. It would give advantage to organisations in reaching their targeted audience
more easily. As today, with development of technology, risks associated with it are also
increased. Therefore, before choosing any marketing communication tool, corporations must
require to make effective strategies (Elliott and et. al., 2015) (Heding, Knudtzen and Bjerre,
2015) (Beukeboom, Kerkhof and de Vries, 2015) (Uzunoğlu and Kip, 2014) (Veloutsou, 2015)
(Hur, Kim and Woo, 2014) (Schivinski and Dabrowski, 2015) (Fearn-Banks, 2016) (Urde, 2016)
(Rokka, Karlsson and Tienari, 2014). This would help in reducing occurrence of risks which may
adversely affect brand image of a company.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Heding, T., Knudtzen, C. F. and Bjerre, M., 2015. Brand management: Research, theory and
practice. Routledge.
Elliott, R.H. and et. al., 2015. Strategic brand management. Oxford University Press, USA.
Rokka, J., Karlsson, K. and Tienari, J., 2014. Balancing acts: Managing employees and
reputation in social media. Journal of Marketing Management. 30(7-8). pp.802-827.
Fearn-Banks, K., 2016. Crisis communications: A casebook approach. Routledge.
Schivinski, B. and Dabrowski, D., 2015. The impact of brand communication on brand equity
through Facebook. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing. 9(1). pp.31-53.
Hur, W. M., Kim, H. and Woo, J., 2014. How CSR leads to corporate brand equity: Mediating
mechanisms of corporate brand credibility and reputation. Journal of Business Ethics.
125(1). pp.75-86.
Veloutsou, C., 2015. Brand evaluation, satisfaction and trust as predictors of brand loyalty: the
mediator-moderator effect of brand relationships. Journal of Consumer Marketing. 32(6).
pp.405-421.
Urde, M., 2016. The brand core and its management over time. Journal of product & brand
management. 25(1). pp.26-42.
Uzunoğlu, E. and Kip, S. M., 2014. Brand communication through digital influencers:
Leveraging blogger engagement. International Journal of Information Management. 34(5).
pp.592-602.
Beukeboom, C.J., Kerkhof, P. and de Vries, M., 2015. Does a virtual like cause actual liking?
How following a brand's Facebook updates enhances brand evaluations and purchase
intention. Journal of Interactive Marketing. 32. pp.26-36.
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