Introduction to MARCA’17
Marca2k17 (MARCA’17) is an official #tag & brand name of e-commerce project which was held in Bahria University Islamabad on 9th-10th May 2017. There were three Mega events organized by the respective Marketing Clusters of Management Sciences. Events include “Open House”, “Ad Bana” and “Alif Idea”. All three events showcased some of the most brilliant projects from Bahria University. All the students availed this opportunity to show their talent & got aware with the creative ideas presented in this Mega Event.
Open House:
Bahria University host Open House 2017, which gave opportunity to final year students from Departments of Engineering, Management and Computer Sciences which displayed their final year projects. Open House showcased some of the most brilliant projects from Bahria University. Renowned companies from the national and multi-national sector visited Open House as a part of university’s ongoing Academics-Industry collaboration.
Ad Bana:
Bahria University host Ad-competition in which various final year projects based on capturing environmental recognition of any problem or cause presented. This was the opportunity for all the people to brainstorm their mindset with latest trends of ad market in Pakistan. Students also gave their feedback to the best ad and promote it themselves.
Sales Gala:
Sales Gala was an event related to the sales management which let all the students generated their own ideas to sell their products. It was a platform to convert trial customer to a loyal customer by providing benefits to the target audience. All the projects were based on great ideas & success which boosted up their brand awareness and image in the consumer mind. Moreover, huge sales made on the spot with the trial customer.
The ceremony was concluded with the Awards presentation for the top 3 projects in each department & an event.
Our E-commerce project is based on managing social campaign that we successfully managed to let people aware with this mega event. We used multiple social tools to promote this mega event. Also, we generated content for the event to increase the engagement of people on our page. The content on our page was not copyrighted and all the information, pictures, video, designing and logos are generated to provide best and unique content from others. Also, we considered Live streaming of all the events on 9th-10th May. Apart from that there were some other theoretical tactics and strategies played an important role for the successful results of our social campaign.
The Social media tools we used are following: –
- Snap Chat
E-marketing
Be closer to customers to understand them better and to maintain a dialogue with them, adding value to products, widening distribution channels and boosting sales through running e-marketing campaigns.
TACTICS & STRATEGIES USED IN MARCA’17
Type of Online Presence
Social Network Community sites: Public interactions between different consumers using social media tools like Facebook.
Right Touching
We used the concept of right touching in our project as we managed the campaign on different social media tools to the following aspects:
- Delivers the Right Message
- With the Right Tone
- At the Right Time
- Using the Right Media/Communications channels
Affiliation
We turn customers into salesperson by inviting them to like/follow & share our official accounts and get affiliated with the event. Affiliation in terms of entry on these events to get yourself exposure.
Online Promotion
A text message that changes behavior immediately.
E-MODELS
Social Media Models
The basic purpose was to engage students as a customers to the MARCA 2017 and aware them about the activities happening around the event .there were total of 4 events that were Ad Bana, sales gala by marketing 7th semester students, open house for the final project of 8th semester students, Alif idea, some of initiative ideas presented by 6th semester students and that were being appreciated by the top faculty of management science Bahria university.
The main sources to engage students through Instagram, snapchat, live face book streaming that will help all the students of universities and those who already liked the MARCA event pages in Facebook and followed it on Instagram were fully being engaged them in online platform too.
On the official page of MARCA2017there were 436 likes, followers on the page were about 443 and rating of the event was counted as 5-star event. On Facebook when the event was streaming live, the number of views was 480.the number of total posts on the page 20 collectively including more than 30 likes on each post.
Besides this another page of MARCA 2017 was also being run by some students in which there were 266 likes has been counted and the number of followers on that page were 268.this page was mostly streaming activities by covering all the ceremonies.
ATTRIBUTION MODEL
Related to e commerce subject, the model fit here is attribution model which is about the visitors who visit your page /profile/site. Some came in the official MARCA page directly through Facebook or some came through Instagram .if a student for example didn’t liked the official page of MARCA 2017 but like other pages of Bahria than he /she might aware of the event through those sites or it could be said that they came from the other channel, this behavior is called as last click wins.
COMMUNICATION MODEL
Communication model also can be fit I this event as the Bahria university other pages acted like the affiliated marketing of the event.
LOYALTY MODEL
The loyalty model also fit in the event. The loyalty model depicts One-to-one relationships with the customer to the web. The loyalty model focused on customer identification,
customer differentiation, customer interaction, customer communication. The students as customers identified what the event is about and which department is running it and what events are being practiced by student, they identify all their required answers in the online updated page of MARCA 2017 event trough Facebook, Instagram and snapchat. the event was differentiated in the page by sales gala, Ad Bana, open house and Alif idea. interested students goes with their interest of event and find information regarding that. Customer interaction was defiantly easy by direct comments below the live streaming and the pictures of the event. ECUSTOMERS
Customer Information Processing Model (CIPM)
The customer here is basically are the students of Bahria university, so customer information processing model also worked. The 5 stages of information process include
- exposure
- attention
- comprehension and perception
- Yielding and acceptance, retention.
The MARCA event on the websites like Facebook pages, Instagram and snapchat gives so much exposure to students who were watching the live event or watching the snaps or likening the vides and photos on the pages of the event. This also grabs the attention of those student who were not present in the university at that time ,the perception was clear to many as it was the initiative of the management sciences students and the event is accepted on social media by passing comments and liking the pages and followed the event on Instagram and snapchat. Those students were not the part of the management sciences like electrical and engineering department gain retention by recalling their past experience when they used to be engaged in their events arranged by their respective departments like the event named as IEEE (C-CODE) by engineering students. The involvement of students is found much interested in the online platform. Some students prefer to browse online and then attend the event while others prefer to test, browse and then attended the traditional event.
It is obvious that students were the e customers of the online pages of MARCA event. they were basically engaged on the both offline and online platforms. They both involved in the offline and online ongoing activities of the event. The interaction of students to students was found mostly offline than online but the influence was much higher in the online platform.
THE ONLINE BUYING PROCESS
when relate to the event is that it gives awareness to the students both through online and offline activities of the event, the decision of student to attend the event when they watched the activities of the event on the social sites, they went for purchase in the sales gala and also support the event by asking FAQ’s in the comments .and finally rewards given to the student who participated in the event was completely steam in the official page of MARCA 2017.
As the name implies, social media involves the building of communities or networks and encouraging participation and engagement.
Social media marketing has to be focused on using these media to help achieve your marketing objectives – both protecting and expanding your brand: ‘Monitoring and facilitating customer– customer interaction, participation and sharing through digital media to encourage positive engagement with a company and its brands leading to commercial value. Interactions may occur on a company site, social networks and other third-party sites
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING RADAR
Social Networks
The core social platforms where people interact through social networks are Facebook for consumer audiences, LinkedIn for business audiences, and Twitter
TRAFFIC BUILDING
Intro to traffic building
Targets
Our goals were clear and provided in the descriptions of social network tools clearly. The specific objectives were mentioned, as to spread awareness of the mega event #MARCA’17 in Bahria University Islamabad. Our main targets were university students and business organizations of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
It shown in Facebook Story;
Techniques
We combined social networking tools with traditional offline communication techniques to promote our event and encourage visitors.
We use word of mouth communication tool with our friends and relatives during event and before starting of it and inform them that we are running a campaign in our university and you can visit us to the following social tools.
Timing
We also focus on timing of running the campaign, start it before 1 week of the event and raise the posts, shares, videos.
E-MARKETING INSIGHTS
There are following insights received from Facebook Page, Twitter and Instagram.
Digital Communication Mix for Traffic Building
SEARCH MARKETING
Most of the visitors visit our page, Instagram and twitter by direct referrals, some use cross channel campaigns like we use affiliate marketing by sharing their saving beats page at our platform and vice versa. And a good number of visitors come by tagging peoples who participate in the event. We also use hashtags to get more traffic at our platforms. Search engine optimization (SEO) is also used well in our campaign. No use of pay per click and use hashtags as key phrase marketing tool.
ONLINE PR
We use campaign buzz for attracting visitors, as use of live videos, attractive and funny video postings, use of colorful banners etc. create a special event of Open House Competition to engage more visitors.
Event insights are given below;
ONLINE PARTNERSHIPS
Connect all the social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook page to get more engagement and post reach. Use of affiliate marketing;
OFFLINE COMMUNICATIONS
Use offline communications by informing this campaign to our friends, relative and student circle of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
INTERACTIVE ADS
Use funny videos with vibrant music and upload attractive banners and motivational posts. We were having a lot of information about MARCA’17, like information about all projects, stalls and events to be presented, more than 300 pictures and about 30 videos event related, but we didn’t put all the information in the social media campaign platforms, we just share the data which was according to trends, human behavior and interactions in online virtual world, by the help of dynamic customer strategy (DCS) approach. e.g. use of FUNNY LASSI BAR VIDEO.
OPT-IN EMAIL
No use of email.
Bibliography