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targeting a makeup line Select a product, line of products, or brand from a comp

ID: 396292 • Letter: T

Question

targeting a makeup line

Select a product, line of products, or brand from a company of your choice and research the company's social media marketing strategies Carefully examine the social media presence for the product. In an analysis (750-1,000 words), identify how the company utilizes social media to promote the product. Address the following in your analysis 1. What is the customer segment for this particular product, line of products, or brand? 2. Which social media outlets does the company use to reach the customer segment? Discuss elements of their campaign 3. Examine the customer segment's response to the company's social media marketing (e.g., through evaluating user-generated content related to the campaign, sales data for particular products, etc.). Based on that response, how effective are the company's social media marketing strategies? 4. Compare the company's social media strategies to one of its major competitors. What does the company do well to distinguish itself and product(s)/brand? 5. Finally, recommend two specific strategies for how the company could more effectively utilize social media to better target its customer segment and increase its competitive advantage in the market Support your ideas and findings with descriptions of specific social media campaign examples and consumer and market research

Explanation / Answer

MAC’s Social Media Strategy

1.       MAC, one of the world’s leading producers of skincare, hair-care, makeup and fragrance products. Their core customer segment are young women who like vibrant colors, high contrasts and have a strong online presence. MAC often collaborates with celebrities and individuals that these group of young women admire and have a high respect for. This young crowd is media and technology savvy, and are capable of finding the biggest of news and making it a viral sensation within minutes.

2.       Social Media Outlets used by MAC –

MAC is the industry leader when it comes to presence on social channels and it uses this social media to communicate its branding goals. Examples of its social media presence –

a.       Facebook – Promotes its latest products and swatches on Facebook. Product information and details about promotional events is shared on their page.

b.      Twitter – Through Twitter, it broadcasts its updates across the web. It specifically follows tweeters who tweet on topics pertaining to the industry, kind of thought-leaders, and has got a sound set of followers of its own.

c.       Instagram – MAC product featured images with celebrities endorsing the same. Extensive use of filters to add a glittery feel or appeal for the overall visualization.

d.      Youtube – Mostly uploads of make- up and campaign videos. Apt place to create video content. MAC also uploads useful and instructive “how to do” videos

3.       The basic metrics which help MAC to evaluate the engagement activity carried out on Social Media would be as follows:

a.       Website Traffic – Display Ads running on various Social media channels drive traffic to the various product or collection pages on the Website.

b.      Conversions – The online traffic either driven to the Website or other e-commerce sites, result in final purchase of the products.

c.       Brand Awareness – Often the presence of many images and updates on Social Media creates a brand awareness and a recall value in the mind of the target customer segment.

If seen by the current trends, the campaigns run by MAC is highly effective and targets the right segment. It has more than 16 million Likes and more than 16 million followers on Facebook. Nearly 2 million followers on Twitter and more than 13 million followers on Instagram. Recently, one image on Instagram had more than 45K engagements.

4.       Sephora, a leading French brand is one of the close competitors of MAC. Sephora too has a pretty strong and similar Social media presence and carries out engagement with its target audience on a regular basis. However, there are some significant differences. Sephora loyalist treat social as their primary source of product information whereas MAC uses it more to promote its brand.

MAC makes good use of thought/opinion leaders to convey information about their products to their customers. The use of celebrities through images endorsing the products strikes a right cord with the young audience.

5.       To better target its customer segment, some activities MAC can carry out is:

a.       Collaborate with major e-commerce retailers, where the traffic is generally high and the young target audience might be tempted to make some impulse purchase.

b.      Wider Mobile presence, the younger crowd is fast moving to mobile devices. Ads and campaigns targeting this mobile audience can have a positive impact on the performance.