Country Road's Social Media Marketing: A Strategic Analysis Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Country Road's social media marketing strategy. It begins with an introduction to social media marketing and an overview of Country Road, including its product lines, revenue, and employee numbers. The report then delves into a situational analysis, including a SWOT analysis of the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Following this, the report outlines goal setting, strategy determination, target market identification, and the selection of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The report then details the marketing strategy, including segmentation, targeting, and positioning, along with campaign themes and content development strategies, including giveaways. The report concludes with an overview of integrated marketing communication strategies and a reference list. The report provides a deep dive into how Country Road utilizes social media to enhance brand image, increase customer satisfaction, and drive sales through both retail and online platforms.

Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Social Media Marketing
Student’s name:
Name of the university:
Author’s note:

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 1
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Social Media Marketing..................................................................................................................2
Situational analysis..........................................................................................................................4
Goal setting......................................................................................................................................5
Strategy determination.....................................................................................................................6
Target Market..................................................................................................................................7
Social Media platform.....................................................................................................................8
Marketing strategy.........................................................................................................................10
Content development.....................................................................................................................12
Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy............................................................................14
Reference List................................................................................................................................16

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 2
Introduction
Organisations create social media marketing objectives to reach large numbers of
customers and social media marketing is cost-effective. As stated by Tuten and Solomon (2017),
social media marketing should not be taken as flipping a switching; however, social media
planning should be looked at like the cooking the favourite dish. In this
Country Road is clothing retailer and it is located in Australia, New Zealand. Woolworth
Holding is the parent organisation of Country Road and headquarters it at Melbourne. Country
Road sells the products like clothing footwear, homewares, accessories and furniture. Revenue of
the organisation touched at $238 million and numbers of employees at Country Road at present
are 10,000 (Countryroad.com 2018). Country Road does the customer loyalty programme and it
enables the customers to have special offers. The competitive advantage of Country Road is the
product line and they do not compete with a large number of upscale designers.
Social Media Marketing
Metric Sentiment Reach Company
Posts
Feedback Average Response
Time
Facebook
Page
Positive 56%,
Neutral 30%
and negative
14%
387,326 likes They don't post
on a daily basis
10 comments
and more than
500 likes on
average
No certain limit

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Twitter
Page
Positive 60%,
neutral 30%
and negative
10%
22.6 K followers
They don’t post
daily
Just 4
Comments and
2 likes
No certain limit
Instagram Positive 70%,
neutral 23%
and negative
7%
525 k followers Three times a
day
300 likes Response time just
3 hours
Table 1: Current Condition of Social Media Marketing
(Source: Self-developed)
Country Road uses the social media marketing and it has its official pages on Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest. On Facebook, it has more than 387,326 likes and on
Twitter, it has more than 22k followers.
Situational analysis
SWOT analysis
Strengths
 Country Road is the iconic brand in
Weaknesses
 Incompetency to acclimatise to altering

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 4
Australia and it has both retail stores
and large department stores as Myer
 Country Road has a link to the social
responsibility to expand the value as it
supports children and cancer
(Countryroad.com 2018)
 The product lines are long
 It has online presence
the needs and preferences of the
customers
 It fails to examine the competitors
internationally
 It intensifies the competitors to the
market
Opportunities
 International expansion to augment
brand recognition
 Launch new brand (Trenery) to target
the different segmentation for 40 hours
Threats
 Dissimilar geographical climate,
lifestyle and demographic factors
 Economic fluctuations force that the
customers need to transfer to the
cheaper brands
 Rapidly developing on the internet has
triggered the customers to make
comparison and prices
Table 2: SWOT analysis of Country Road
(Source: Self-developed)
S-O strategy: Outsource some design to growing market to keep with new trends and expand
online business in key markets

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W-O Strategy: Open in new stores in emerging economy and open new distribution centres in
emerging economy
S-T Strategy: Outsource logistics to have more control over the production process and deliver
the product line at retail stores
W-T Strategy: Pursue strong marketing campaign on Facebook and Twitter
Goal setting
The purpose of investing the social media campaign is to reach the large customer base
and increase the traffic on website so that the customers can purchase the products through
online. The aim of the social media campaign is to drive the sale of the organisation through the
retail and online platform. The goal is also associated with the organisation's enhancement of the
brand image.
Social media provides the opportunities to attend the content and social media page
engages the interaction with content. Influence metric means the ability to change opinion or
behaviour (Ashley and Tuten 2015). The social media interaction can effect on target audience of
the social media campaign. Advocacy is the suggest action to another user. Country Road needs
mainly engagement of the users where the customers can interact with content.
Goals are:
 To build the brand image of the organisation
 To increase the customer satisfaction
 To get the idea to produce new product ideas
 To generate leads through social media pages

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Strategy determination
In order to attend the goals of Country Road, the organisation needs to take the following
strategies.
Listening: Country Road organisation uses mainly Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and
YouTube. These social media pages can be used as the listening media where the customers can
ask the questions and queries and the PR team needs to solve the queries of the customers.
Listening to the issues of the customers will eventually engage the customers more with the
brand.
Interacting: Customers can use social media platform to interact with the organisation.
The customers can share their feedback and concern about the brand. Country Road shares the
images of the clothes and accessories; this process helps to strengthen the brand awareness,
recognition and perception of the brand. Country Road can contact with LinkedIn to improve the
suppliers' information.
Engaging: The PR team can engage the customers to talk about the brand (Scott 2015).
Additionally, engaged customers drive word-of-mouth publicity that would help the brand to get
more customers.
Influencing: The PR team of the organisation helps the brand to market the product
through content. Content marketing through Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest can influence the
customers to get new products. Social media now makes the platform as social e-commerce
where Country Road can make community this community will automatically promote the
products of the brand.

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Connecting: Country Road can start with new social media location as they can start
with a new group on social media where the brand can connect similar minded people.
Target Market
Target audience of Country Road will be based on demographics and behaviours. Demographic
market segment is based on the age, gender, occupation and socio-economic group. The target
market for Country Road is the upper social class as this target market can afford the products
sold by Country Road. Behavioural segmentation can also be the target of the organisation as this
is based on rate of usage, benefits sought, loyalty status and readiness to purchase (Godey et al.
2016). Country Road has set of steady customers who are young and rate of usage of the
products are more for them.
Millennials who
belong to the upper
class
Creators Publish web page,
they upload video,
They write articles
and they upload music
Upper-class middle
aged women and
celebrities
Conversationalists They update their
status and they post
update on Twitter and
they post images on
Instagram
Young generation Critics They post rating and
reviews
They comment on

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someone’s images
Contribute to online
forums
Contribute to edit on
the article also
Young female group Collectors Check the Facebook
feed
Vote for their website
Table 3: Forrester Research’s Social Techno graphics Profile
(Source: Self-developed)
Social Media platform
Facebook:
Facebook is the widest use social networking site in the world and almost more than a
billion users become active on Facebook (Hudson et al. 2015). Facebook helps to reach wider
customers across the globe and Facebook helps to use multiple marketing platforms, such as
Groups, Pages and Ads. Facebook will help Country Road to increase the customer base and it
assists to target the specific market. In addition, Facebook gives the chance to have budget-
friendly advertisement. Through Facebook, Country Road will target mainly to the young
generation. In Forrester Research's Social Technology Profile, young generation falls into the
category of Critics.
Twitter:

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Twitter marketing will provide an increase in customer satisfaction with better customer
service. Twitter can break the distance between distanced corporate images and here the
organisation can communicate more effectively. Twitter will help Country Road to generate
more traffic on the website and it will increase the customer base of the organisation. Twitter
helps to follow the trends in the industry and watch the competitors closely. Country Road can
generate more leads through Twitter. Twitter marketing will target mainly aged women and
celebrities as they are conversationalists.
Instagram:
In Instagram, mainly images and content drive more engaged traffic and it is more
attractive than other visual social content from Pinterest and YouTube. Instagram helps to
engage the customers and it helps the organisation to get the repeat purchases. Instagram
marketing will attract the female customers as they are characterised as collectors. Country Road
will use Instagram as the visual medium and the brand is strong on Instagram. Their fashion
clothes look good on Instagram.
These three social media will help the organisation to share the content as content
management system and social graph will be used. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will be used
as creating a presence and manage the reality, immediacy and intimacy of the context. In
addition, relationship can be maintained through social media with the customers through
managing structural and flow properties in network relationship. Social media use as reputation
by the organisation to monitor the passion, strength and sentiment.
Marketing strategy
Segmentation:

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Country Road will segment the market into two big market groups; the first one is demographic
segment and the second one is behavioural segment. Demographic segment is about age, gender
and social income group of the customers whereas, behavioural segmentation is about the
customers’ benefit sought usage rate and preferences.
Target:
Between these two groups, Country Road will target demographic segment; in this segment,
Country Road will target the young generation who belong to upper middle class. Upper middle-
class people will be able to purchase the products.
The secondary target of the organisation is the middle-aged women who intend to make
purchase from Country Road. The middle-aged women should be educated and belong from rich
class.
Positioning:
Positioning statement of Country Road is the authentic branded products. It offers clothes
for the men, women and children. The passion of the brand is created everything that is needed
for the modern life. It has been on the market for 40 years and the people believe this brand.
Campaign’s theme:
The theme of social media campaign for Country Road can be ‘giveway'. Social media
giveaways help the organisation to increase engagement and it helps to get more followers and
likes. Giveaway means given as free; therefore, the engaged customers will get free merchandise
from Country Road, this strategy will engage the customers to gather potential lead.
Facebook Giveways

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Country Road will announce the contest 2 weeks before the contest will start on
Facebook. Each day, a post will be shared about the contest. Each Saturday, an easy puzzle will
be posted at 4 pm on Facebook post. The users need to answer on comment section on Facebook
and they have to tag two of their friends on this post. This way, entries can provide a buzz on
Facebook and maximum people get to know about social media pages of Country Road. Some of
the puzzles will be related to Country Road’s products. Some of the lucky persons will get the
giveways.
Instagram Giveaways
On Instagram, Country Road can start the campaign to wear Country Road brand dress
and share the image giving #countryroad. This campaign will help the organisation to create
much sensation on Instagram. The people need to share the image on Instagram page of Country
Road. Highest likes image on each week will get cool giveways.
Twitter Giveways
Twitter is a great venue to run a social media campaign. Here, Country Road will ask the
question about Country Road history. People need to retweet this along with the need to post the
right answer. In this way, users will always check the latest entries from Country Road twitter
handle. They can use hashtag campaign like #countryroadhistory.
Content development
The customers talk about the brand on social media pages and the PR team can answer in
the comments and they can answer back if some users inbox on social media pages. It helps the
customers to shape the opinion and the customers get influenced from the other customers to

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 12
purchase the products. Customers are the contributor and they are not the promoter of the
products or services (Kumar et al. 2016). Country Road can get up close and personal content
with content marketing. Country Road knows the target audiences are mainly youth; therefore,
they can start with colourful and youth-specific content. Country Road can sponsor some movies
so that they can use the movie title as content. In addition, Country Road can start the blog and
they can post the link to the blog on the Facebook or Twitter pages. The content of the blogs will
be related to the fashion.
The guidelines for content marketing are:
 Purpose-driven content marketing
 More consumer-value driven marketing
 Engaging content
 Micro- content
 Create at the moment
 Use the blurring content in a smart way
 No religious and biased content
On Facebook, contents must be unique, small and engaging. It can increase quality sales
and it adds more value to the organisation. On Twitter, Country Road needs to share the content
on 140 characters and it can better the pulse on the industry. Instagram needs quality images and
videos; these contents can accelerate the growth of the business.

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Figure: Facebook Content example

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Figure 2: Instagram content example
Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy
Country Road has the communication and advertising using Radio, television and transit.
This organisation has marketing campaign using online advertisements like PPC and SEO. It has
been using place media like ads in shopping malls, universities also. This new planning will
show only social media marketing.
Item Marketing Calculations Cost
Facebook Facebook advertising
(for three months)
$2,000 for three
months (June-
August)
$6,000
Twitter Twitter maintenance $2,500 for three $7,500

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and advertisement (For
three months)
months (June-
August)
Instagram Instagram advertisement
and campaign (for three
months)
$1,000 for three
months (June-
August)
$3,000
Table 4: Integrated social media marketing strategy
(Source: Self-developed)

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Reference List
Ashley, C. and Tuten, T., 2015. Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory
study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1),
pp.15-27.
Country Road. 2018. Country Road Fashion. Available at: https://www.countryroad.com/
[Accessed on 27th Apr 2018]
Godey, B., Manthiou, A., Pederzoli, D., Rokka, J., Aiello, G., Donvito, R. and Singh, R., 2016.
Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and consumer
behaviour. Journal of business research, 69(12), pp.5833-5841.
Hudson, S., Roth, M.S., Madden, T.J. and Hudson, R., 2015. The effects of social media on
emotions, brand relationship quality, and word of mouth: An empirical study of music festival
attendees. Tourism Management, 47, pp.68-76.
Kumar, A., Bezawada, R., Rishika, R., Janakiraman, R. and Kannan, P.K., 2016. From social to
sale: The effects of firm-generated content in social media on customer behaviour. Journal of
Marketing, 80(1), pp.7-25.
Scott, D.M., 2015. The new rules of marketing and PR: How to use social media, online video,
mobile applications, blogs, news releases, and viral marketing to reach buyers directly. John
Wiley & Sons.
Stelzner, M., 2014. 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. Social media examiner, pp.1-
52.