Analysis of Social Media Marketing Campaigns: Uber vs Loreal Paris

This report analyzes the impact of social media marketing campaigns on brand reputation and profitability, using Uber and Loreal Paris as case studies. It examines Uber's diverse online marketing strategies, including word-of-mouth, referral programs, and loyalty programs, and analyzes two specific campaigns: the "wife appreciation day" campaign and the "#GettherewithUber" campaign. The report also explores L'Oreal Paris's social media strategies, including its campaign for the Golden Globe Awards and the "#WorthSaying" campaign. The analysis highlights how both companies leverage social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to engage audiences, promote products, and build brand awareness. The report emphasizes the importance of carefully designed strategies to avoid negative impacts on brand reputation, as demonstrated by Uber's missteps. The conclusion underscores the high potential of social media marketing for companies in various industries, while acknowledging the rapid dissemination of information, both positive and negative, inherent in these platforms.

Running head: ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
This report is based on the analysis of the effects that the social media marketing campaigns
of a company have on the reputation of the brand and its profitability. The role of social
media campaigns in the success of the company is discussed in the report. The two
companies that are taken into consideration are Uber and Loreal Paris. The two companies
are completely from a different background and the products offerings are different as well.
However, both the companies are dependent in their social media campaigns to strengthen
their brand names and thereby increase their profitability. However, the strategies should be
designed carefully so that they do not have any negative effects on the reputation of the
company.

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................3
Findings and analysis of the two companies..................................................................4
Company 1 and the two examples of social media campaigns..................................4
Company 2 and the two examples of social media campaigns..................................6
Conclusion......................................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The analysis in this report is based on the social media strategies formulated by
companies to connect with prospective consumers in the progressive business world. Social
media marketing or digital marketing is the new age way of promoting the services or
products of a particular company. This type of marketing is a cheaper option for the
organizations as compared to traditional ways of marketing. The reach of social media
marketing is also high as compared to the other ways (Ashley and Tuten 2015). The different
social media platforms where the products of a company can be promoted are namely,
Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter. Successful strategies related to social media
marketing is capable of bringing success to the company and increasing its profitability. The
content of the advertisement is created by the brand managers of the organization and are
shared on the social media platforms. The activities that are included in social media
marketing are, posting of images and text updates, or videos and thereby increasing the
engagement of the audiences in the brand (Constantinides 2014).
Findings and analysis of the two companies
Company 1 and the two examples of social media campaigns
The first company that is taken into consideration for this analysis is Uber. Uber is a
company that provides transportation technology on a global scale and the company has its
headquarters in San Francisco. The company operates in around 633 cities all over the world.
Uber operates its transportation as well as apps related to food delivery services. Uber started
its operations in London in the year 2012 and the license of the company expired in the year
2017 (Uber.com 2017). There was a legal battle regarding the renewal of their license to
operate in London in March 2017.

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Uber is an active user of the social media marketing platform. The company has
designed and shared many advertisements on the social media websites like Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram. The online marketing strategy of Uber is innovative and multi-
prolonged in nature. As discussed by Chang, Yu and Lu (2015), the online marketing strategy
of the company involves many steps as discussed further. The process of marketing with the
help of word of mouth is one of the strengths of the company. Uber has grown in the market
with the help of positive word of mouth from the riders (Uber.com 2017). The referral
programs that are offered to the riders is another way by which the company has spread its
wings. The customers get referral codes that they can give to their friends or family so that
they can try their services. This way the customer base of the company increases. Uber has
increased its customer base with the help of the loyalty programs as well.
Uber has various kinds of operations in London, which includes the food delivery
services. In the year 2017, the company had launched an advertisement on its social media
pages. The campaign was addressed towards celebrating the “wife appreciation day”. The
customers were sent an email which read “Dear husbands, a gentle reminder – Today is Wife
Appreciation Day!”. The details of the advertisement read that “Order on UberEats and let
your wife take a day off from the kitchen. Use promo code ‘no cooking day’ ”. This
advertisement campaign was shared on the social media pages of the company. This led to a
huge debate on the social media pages and the management of the company all over the
world protested against this regressive advertising campaign of the company (Dahnil et al.
2014). The chief brand officer of the company acted quickly and pulled back the
advertisement from the social media platforms and thereby apologised on his Twitter page as
well. Around 20 employees of the organization were fired as they spoke against the sexist
attitude and the sexual harassment cases of the company. The stakeholders of the company

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were also not happy with this advertisement. This has given a lot of negative publicity to the
company and also affected its sales in the long run.
Figure 1
Another social media marketing campaign launched by Uber had the tagline
“#GettherewithUber”. This campaign was aimed towards changing the image of the company
as “saviour of a night”. The company wanted to create its image as the most trusted cab
service to be used for the purposes of travelling or commuting to the airport or for shopping
purposes. This advertisement campaign involved real riders and drivers of the company.
Interviews were taken of the riders and the drivers of the company, so that they can inspire
the potential customers of the cab company (Fan and Gordon 2014). This advertisement was
targeted towards the UK operations of Uber. The ad campaign was based on the two main

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aspects of the company. This includes the users of the app, who are called the riders. The
riders of the cab are the main focus of this ad campaign. The other aspect of the company that
is taken into account are the drivers of the cabs and the company can change their lives as
well. Uber has followed the traditional marketing approach in its previous ad campaigns,
which is also called below-the-line advertising. In this case the company has followed the
above-the-line aspect of advertising (Gainsbury et al. 2016). The main target of the company
through its social media marketing venture is to attract the young and tech savvy population
of UK. Uber has been encouraging its riders to share pictures and selfies of their next trip
with Uber and thereby make a connect with the customers. This strategy of Uber has been
successful in attracting the potential customers or the riders towards the company. The
company has also been successful in attracting more and more people to get attached to the
company as drivers and become a part of the company’s success (Scott 2015).
Figure 2

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Company 2 and the two examples of social media campaigns
The second company that is taken into consideration for this analysis is Loreal. Loreal
is a French company which deals with beauty products. The company has its headquarters in
Hauts-de-Seine and the registered office of Loreal is located in Paris. Loreal has become the
world’s greatest cosmetics company and has performed many activities related to the
cosmetics field and it mainly concentrates on hair colour, make-up products, skin care
products, hair care products and perfumes (Hennig-Thurau, Hofacker and Bloching 2013).
The company has been growing rapidly in the field of cosmetics since the time if its
inception. Loreal purchased the cosmetic company The Body Shop in the year 2006. The
main tagline of the company is “Because I’m Worth it”. This tagline was changed in the year
2000 and was made “Because you’re worth it” which was further changed to “Because we’re
worth it”. The company shifted its slogan from “you” to “we” so that it can connect with the
potential customers and gain their trust as well. The company expanded its operations by
bringing kids related products in its products range, for which the slogan was “Because we’re
worth it too” (Loreal-paris.co.uk 2017).
Loreal Paris designed a social media for the Golden Globe Awards in the year 2015.
They launched a promotional campaign in which they aimed at recreating the looks of the red
carpet of the Golden Globe Awards function. The company took the help of social media to
reach its potential consumers and display the looks that were on the red carpet of Golden
Globe Awards by their products. Loreal Paris used a camera with a 360 degree lens to shoot
the looks that were showcased on the red carpet (Laroche, M., Habibi, M.R. and Richard
2013). The look was then recreated by the professionals of the company. These creations
were transformed into posts and GIFs and they were uploaded on the Twitter and Instagram
pages of the company. This was done by the company to showcase their products and show
their practical application as well. This gave the consumers a perfect insight of the products

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of the company and they were able to connect with the company as well. The consumers had
a view of the recent and updated looks of the red carpet which had become the most popular
among the celebrities as well (Malthouse et al. 2013). The company also provided tutorials to
educate the consumers on the ways of accomplishing the looks. This had given the company
a chance to communicate with the consumers and further promote their products as well.
Figure 3

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Another campaign of Loreal Paris was launched in the year 2016 which was titled
“#WorthSaying”. This campaign was also launched in the Golden Globes Awards function
that year. This campaign was aimed towards making women talk about the important issues
according to them. The belief of the company is rooted towards the intrinsic worth and the
individual beauty of each and every woman. The tagline of the company is directly linked to
the campaign that was being raised by the company to make women realise their own worth.
According to, Vinerean et al. (2013), the research related to the brand suggests that a majority
of the number of women agree that the language that is motivating and powerful provides a
much stronger sense of worth to them. This type of language helps the women to achieve
their goals in life. The company aims at fuelling the words of the powerful women so that
many other women are affected and inspired by them. The conversations on the red carpet are
experiencing a cultural shift and this shift was propelled by the company. The celebrity
spokeswomen of the brand included, Frieda Pinto, Julianne Moore and Eva Longoria. They
have also taken part in the campaign by promoting “#WorthSaying” with the help of their
social media channels as well (Zhu and Chen 2015). The aim of this campaign was to
encourage women on the red carpet and even beyond to speak about the important topics of
their lives. This campaign has proven to be effective for the company and has added to the
value of its products and thoughts within the consumers as well.

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Figure 4
Conclusion
The report analysis can be concluded by saying that the prospect of social media
marketing is quite high for ant type of company operating in any industry. The platform that
is provided by the social media websites gives the companies the much needed push to its
sales and trust in the minds of the consumers. However, this has some disadvantages as well.

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The news related to the operations of the company are spread rapidly and reach the
consumers as well. This was the case for Uber, when it had made a mistake by launching a
campaign related to its food delivery services, which was able to hurt the sentiments of the
consumers and the stakeholders as well. On the other hand, in case of Loreal Paris, the
campaigns have proven to much more effective and well-designed as well. This has resulted
in the increase in the profitability of the company and also established a connect with the
consumers. It can therefore be concluded that the social media marketing campaigns need to
be designed carefully as it has the power to destroy the reputation of the brand as well.