University Marketing Report: Merlo Coffee's Social Media Presence

This report analyzes Merlo Coffee's social media presence, focusing on its official website and Facebook page. It examines the leverage of the website through its user interface and shopping options, as well as the Facebook page's role in customer engagement and communication. The report details customer feedback mechanisms and conducts a SWOT analysis to evaluate the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in social media marketing. Recommendations are provided to improve user interactivity on the website and enhance content quality on Facebook to boost customer engagement and brand awareness. The report references various academic sources to support its findings and recommendations, offering a comprehensive overview of Merlo Coffee's social media strategy.

MARKETING OF MERLO COFFEE
THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA
PRESENCE
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

Introduction
In the age of rapid globalization, social media presence of
business organizations have emerged to be an essential
marketing tool that helps the organization to increase the
engagement of their targeted customers as well as their
awareness (Constantinides, 2014).
Social Media Presence
The company uses the marketing strategy of
positive social media presence through various
social media platforms as well as their official
website (Twitter.com, 2020).
Overview of the Company
Merlo Coffee was established more than 27 years
ago with the mission of providing the customers
with freshly roasted coffee, served with passion
(Merlo.com.au, 2020). The company maintains the
sourcing of the highest quality of coffee beans from
the world. The company also makes use of highly
trained and skilled employees who are capable of
satisfying the needs and requirements of the
customers efficiently.

Facebook
1
Instagram
2
Twitter
3
Official Website
4
Types of Social Presence Used
Following are the social media networks used by Merlo Coffee for its marketing purposes:

Chosen Social Media Channels for Communication
Official Website
The personal website of the brand with very appropriate
user interface and enabling easy navigation of the
consumers. The desired objective from the use of this
platform is the provision of adequate amount of
information regarding the various kinds of products offered
to the customers and also provide them with online
shopping options (Merlo.com.au, 2020).
Facebook
Merlo Coffee’s official Facebook page where the brand
constantly communicates with the consumers and engages
in varied social media promotions and campaigns. The
objective of using this channel is to increase the presence
and awareness of the brand globally, as well as facilitate
customer engagement (Macarthy, 2018).
Image: CC0

Image: CC0
Official Website Leverage:
• The leverage for the official website is
provided through an easy user interface.
• Awareness of the customers regarding
the brand and its products and services
are provided in a systematic manner.
• Easy navigation allows the customers to
view the various products available for
buying with specific information on
them.
Followers:
The official Facebook page of the
company has over 13,000 followers
and a rating of 4.4 stars out of 5.
Facebook Leverage:
•The Facebook page of the company
provides the customers with
important updates regarding the
launch of new products.
•Information about campaigns
hosted by the company are also
provided through the Facebook
page.
•Customer engagement is enabled
through the options of commenting
on the posts or directly messaging
the company through the option
provided on the page (Sultan, Wong
& Sigala, 2018).
Shopping and Feedback:
• The primary purpose of the official
website is to provide vast shopping
options, with the availability of 34
types of coffee (Merlo.com.au, 2020).
•The customers may also provide
feedback about the products and
website through customer service
channel provided on the website itself.

Customer Feedback on Facebook Page
Feedback from the customers is received
through the following sources:
Comments section on the posts
Recommendation section
Direct Messages
Customer Feedback through Official Website
Feedback from the customers is received
through the following sources (Merlo.com.au,
2020):
Telephonic contact
E-mail contact
Provision of address for mailing

SWOT Analysis of Social Media Use
In order to identify the effectiveness of the use of social media by the company Merlo Coffee a SWOT analysis can be
conducted to evaluate the various strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that the company may be faced with.
Strengths:
•Easy user interface in the website
•High local and global reach
•Facilitation of customer engagement
through feedbacks and
recommendations (Felton, 2018)
Weaknesses:
•Dependence on internet connectivity
•Need to update attractive material
frequently to maintain active customer
engagement
•Lack of efficient customer services
through website
Opportunities:
•Product diversification to satisfy
changing customer needs as observed
through feedbacks
•Increasing customer interactivity on
website
•Option for online subscriptions for
discounts or seasonal offers
Threats:
•Lack of innovation and uniqueness on
website
•Negative publicity through criticisms on
comments
•Presence of large number of
competitors on social media platforms

Video: ‘Watch Mercury Spin on its Axis’, by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 23 Feb 2013, Licensed under Creative Commons, CC BY 2.0, accessed on 13 Jul 2016,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/8497927473
Recommendations
The following recommendations can be provided to Merlo Coffee in order to improve the effectiveness of their presence
on social networks, thereby leveraging an improvement in their marketing strategies:
Improving user interactivity on official website:
The company may choose to improve interactivity of the customers on the official website by allowing portals to directly
communicate with customer services to gather additional information on the products, clear doubts or lodge complaints.
This will help in increasing the amount of customer engagement on the platform and enhance their satisfaction on the
brand (Ashley & Tuten, 2015).
Improving content on Facebook page:
The company may also improve the quality of content posted on the official Facebook page so as to attract the attention of
larger number of customers. Improved content may include short videos of customer reviews from stores, short
advertisement or GIF images, higher quality of product pictures and larger number of store images. Such improved content
will increase customer engagement as well as the awareness about products and services offered (Felix, Rauschnabel &
Hinsch, 2017).

REFERENCES
Ashley, C., & Tuten, T. (2015). Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory study of
branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1), 15-27.
Constantinides, E. (2014). Foundations of social media marketing. Procedia-Social and behavioral
sciences, 148, 40-57.
Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P. A., & Hinsch, C. (2017). Elements of strategic social media marketing: A
holistic framework. Journal of Business Research, 70, 118-126.
Felton, E. (2018). Filtered: Coffee, the Café and the 21st-Century City. Routledge.
Macarthy, A. (2018). 500 Social Media Marketing Tips: Essential Advice, Hints and Strategy for
Business Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and More!.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Merlo.com.au. (2020). About. Retrieved 10 April 2020, from https://www.merlo.com.au/pages/about
Merlo.com.au. (2020). Coffee. Retrieved 10 April 2020, from
https://www.merlo.com.au/collections/coffee
Merlo.com.au. (2020). Contact us. Retrieved 10 April 2020, from
https://www.merlo.com.au/pages/contact-us
Sultan, P., Wong, H. Y., & Sigala, M. (2018). Segmenting the Australian organic food consumer
market. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics.
Twitter.com. (2020). Merlo Coffee (@merlocoffee) on Twitter. Retrieved 10 April 2020, from
https://twitter.com/merlocoffee?lang=en