Question

1. How should Oreo’s success in social engagement be evaluated? What metrics would be most useful? Consider both the usage-specific metrics that a social media provider might supply as well as outcome-based measures. What are the pros and cons of relying on one of these types of measures vs. the other?
2. While growing their social media presence, Oreo continues to advertise in traditional media. Why is it important to ensure that messages are consistent among platforms? What specific tactics could be used to ensure this consistency?
3. Although most of Oreo’s social media efforts are directed towards adults, many Oreo lovers are children. To what degree should Oreo also have a focus on marketing directly to children? What are the risks and ethical considerations of such an approach? Are there approaches to marketing Oreos to children that would stand up to ethical scrutiny? (Hint: Among other issues, consider the trend toward childhood obesity.)

Answer 1

1.

The success of the social media engagement must be evaluated from the point of view of effectiveness and efficiency from both the sides – inputs and outputs. On the input side, the company must try to find what the effectiveness is for the contents i.e. how popular are they for the most relevant customers. On the outcome side, the primary interest should be to understand how the strategy is impacting the overall revenue or profit.

Among the user-specific metrics, the following metrics are relevant for the company to consider:

• Audience growth rate – This will directly show the trend of the growth of the listener for brand-related communications.
• Total followers – This is also another metric which shows the total cumulative number of followers up to date.

Among the outcome-specific metrics, the following metrics are relevant for the company to consider:

• Bounce rate and Click-Thru Rate (CTR) – This will show how often sales are conducted through the contents and brand-related communications that a customer finds in social media.
• Cost per Impression – The cost per impression gives the cost per unit of opportunity generated through social media using various campaigns.

Note that for this company, it is not so relevant that a direct sales lead is generated through social media content. What is more important is how the brand is becoming famous and relevant through the campaigns and contents. So, for this brand, the user-specific metrics seem to be more relevant ad effective because that will show how many users are with the brand.

However, the outcome-based metrics cannot be ignored summarily in that the company should only invest in social media or any type of content if that becomes a source of the loyal customer base. To make such investments effective, we cannot completely ignore the efficiency part of it and for that, the outcome-based metrics remain important.

2.

To build a brand persona over a period of time, it is really important to ‘control’ what the brand talks about in all forms of media including the traditional media. This is the foundation of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) efforts. Note that if a brand communicates several different aspects of life is different media, the audience will soon forget what the brand was all about. This will lead to weak imagery of the brand. The communication is made will vary from media to media in the method of delivery but the core content should remain identical.

Some of the methods to ensure this consistency is as follows:

• Using consistent themes (colors, logos, designs) across all the media. This will help the audience to relate the communication in one media that they have already encountered.
• Selecting the topics and contents that are relevant to the core message of the brand.
• Check how the leadership efforts of the stakeholders throughout the values chain can be related to the brand message and publish them in various media consistently.
• The tone and personality should also be identical in all types of media. For example, if the personality is informal and friendly, the same should be visible in both social and traditional media.

3.

Note that despite the children are the consumers, they are not actually the decision-makers always when it comes to shopping. So, focusing too much on attracting the children as a potential group of customers will, in fact, ruin the brand image. The reason is that the children are often attracted to some of the attributes that are harmful to them. These attributes cause them obesity and other complications in childhood itself which becomes difficult to cure when they grow up. Their parents, knowing that, make conscious decisions to stay away from such alternatives. So, the company, instead of emphasizing on making things lucrative for the children, should focus on attracting the parents.

As mentioned, the risks and ethical consideration lie with the shift of focus for the company is developing such attributes of the products which are harmful to the children. For example, increasing the sweet contents may attract the children to a greater extent abut will increase the chance of child obesity.

The ethical point is that the company will try to build a transactional relationship with a party having an inferiority of knowledge and incapability of making good decisions in the long-term. The company will know what they are selling and what is the adverse effect of that for the children's health but the child will never know or understand while making a choice.