Impact of Social Media as Marketing Tool on Building Customer Relationship (GC02048)

Table of Contents

Introduction.

Proposed expected result

Significance of the study and contributions.

References.

Introduction

The present business situation demands that the business firms have needed to emerge with various marketing tools for covering the market and customers. According to Bendror (2014), Social media is one of the best tools for marketing because it contains all the internet users as potential customers. Bernoff (2010) stated that The news both positive and negative is spread very fast in the case of social media. For this reason, social media can affect a brand in both negative and positive ways. Therefore, social media becomes a good marketing platform because business firms can use it without cost and share business information to attract a large number of customers. This paper has also identified the impact of social media as a marketing tool on customers’ relationships.

This paper is prepared on the basis of a company that is Greggs plc. Greggs plc is a bakery chain in the UK. The products include bakes, sausage rolls and sandwiches and sweet items (Greggs plc, 2020). The recent year’s data of Greggs plc demonstrated that this firm has faced difficulties to create customers relationships. For this reason, this company has applied social media as a tool of marketing for generating customers’ attraction and relationships. At present, this firm tries to develop proper marketing policy and strategies to manage social media marketing as well as customers relationship.  This paper reveals the negative and positive influences of social media on relationship marketing as well as customers’ relationship.  In this paper, the suggestions are to be recommended to manage social media marketing as well as customers’ relationship.

The aim is to analyze the impact of social media for managing relationship marketing as well as customers relationships. The objectives are a) To access the effects of social media in the marketing functions of Greggs plc b) To presents the distinction between social media marketing & traditional method of marketing; c) To presents the importance of social media marketing for managing customers’ relationship for Greggs plc and d) To recommend the way of managing the social media marketing as well as customers’ relationship.

Proposed expected result

CRM stands for Customer relationship management. Brogan (2015) mentioned that CRM has great appeal in the present business days. The definition of CRM can be presented that CRM acts for creating relationships with customers and retaining them as loyal by providing better products, services and feedback. According to Bruns (2014), CRM performs the survey to identify the demands of the customers, recommends to the production department to produce desirable goods and deliver the goods to customers at the right time and the right place with the great service facility. These activities help the business firm to attract customers with rapid growth. Business press (2018) stated that CRM functions can be performed by using social media platforms because it contains all the internet users as potential customers. The news both positive and negative is spread very fast in the case of social media. For this reason, social media can affect a brand in both negative and positive ways. Gillin (2017) stated that the negative feelings of the customers in social media influence the business and brand negatively which is very harmful. Gillin (2017) also stated that the positive feelings of the customers in social media influence the business and brand positively which is very good for the organization. In the case of the hotel industry, social media plays a vital role to manage the customers’ relationship because the hotel industry provides direct food services to the customers.

The degree of customers’ relationship of hotel firm depends on the hotel environment, foods quality, services quality, staffs attitude, delivery time and reasonable prices. In this case, the hotel firms including Greggs Plc have used social media and open a page to cover the potential consumers in social media. Kasbo (2015) recommended that the hotel industry can share information about foods and other services on the platform of social media to attract potential consumers in social media. In addition, if the quality of the food industry is good, the consumers also share the positive review on the platform of social media that inspire or convince the other users of social media. Watt, (2011) mentioned that social media is a costless platform for presenting the advertisement of the foods of the hotel industry to a huge number of prospective consumers. In addition, the hotel industry including Greggs plc can be used social media as a time marketing system because it is based on a 24/7 system. The consumers can order their foods on the page of Hotel Company and Hotel Company can easily deliver the foods on time. Edwards, S. (2014) mentioned that social media also eliminates the waste of time for both consumers and business firms.

The hotel industry including Greggs plc has several platforms of social media that can be used as a marketing tool such as Facebook, YouTube, Google and Twitter. Buzzeo (2016) stated that The users of Facebook are numerous as well as the users of YouTube, Google and Twitter are also huge numbers. For this reason, the hotel industry including Greggs plc has developed marketing and advertising strategy on Facebook, Google and Twitter. Edwards, S. (2014) stated that it helps to attract most of the consumers through a simple effort. The video contents for the foods are also prepared to share video on YouTube. Social media marketing has increased the number of customers of the hotel industry with profitability and brand image. According to Greggs Plc (2020), the brand image, amount of sales and profitability all are increased after using social media marketing. In addition, social media marketing has also increased the trust of the consumers in the services of the Greggs Plc and customers share their positive experience in the social media that increase the brand image of Greggs Plc,

Significance of the study and contributions

According to Kasbo (2015), this business world is the internet-based world. Most parts of people are engaged with internet platforms especially in social media. The impact of social media can’t be ignored because every part of our life is now engaged with it. The popular platforms of social media are Facebook, YouTube, Google and Twitter (Buzzeo, 2016). All have a great impact on the attitude of the people. Social media has also a significant role in the business field also. In the case of the hotel and food industry, the key elements that affect the brand image including hotel environment, foods quality, services quality, staffs attitude, delivery time and reasonable prices (Koesler, 2016). In addition, at present the, social platform has created opportunities for the food industry to cover a large area of the market with a very simple and costless effort.  For this reason, every business organization including the food industry has to consider social media marketing for maintaining customers’ relationships.

The hotel firm was first launched its services in the last century and become more popular day by day. Greggs plc is a successful hotel industry in the UK. Greggs has started its food services within a very short range but now it has operated food services in several cities in the UK (Greggs plc, 2020). The food quality of this company is very good that review by the consumers. This paper is revealed the necessity of social media marketing to create relationships with customers.

In this paper, the Surveys and Statistical Analysis are presented to summarize the subject matter of the research.

The survey questionnaire includes 19 questions and collected the answer from 100 consumers of Greggs in London. From this primary data, it is found that Greggs has a strong brand image in the market. Most of the students like this food industry because of its environment, foods quality, services quality, staffs attitude, delivery time and reasonable prices. The housewife and other consumers are also revealed that the taste of foods of Greggs is very good and the retired people said that the Greggs are produced quality foods for the older people that are very attractive and good for health. The respondents also reveal that Greggs Plc has used social media marketing that retains them as loyal consumers.

The research methodology for this research also includes that this research is based on primary and secondary data and maintained all the ethical issues with validity as well as reliability (Blaikie, 2015). In addition, the quantitative data is presented by applying MS Excel sheets such as tables, line graphs, bars or pie charts and the qualitative data is evaluated by coding systems (Saunders, 2014).

The outcomes of social media impacts are varied because of the mental and response variations of the respondents. Edwards (2014) recommended that Greggs has to consider all replies very carefully to mitigate the variations before making a decision on social media marketing.  In addition, Greggs should take an eye on the quality of performance of the staff to serve the consumers. In addition, Greggs should produce quality foods for all-ages people including children, young and old people.   The delivery time is very important. Therefore, Greggs should produce foods in time and deliver the foods to consumers on time. The pricing system is also needed to be reasonable and fair for the consumers. Greggs should give concentrate on the health of the consumers and maintain the quality of foods that are fruitful for the health of consumers.

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