GoPro Creating Brand Loyalty Through YouTube

GoPro’s YouTube channel is one of the top YouTube channels on the web! It really attracts consumers by showing them videos that catch their attention, and get their adrenaline pumping. Gopro has videos that are amazingly eye-catching and exhilarating. The YouTube channel has over 2 million subscribers, and receives millions of likes and shares on their videos daily.  These videos are not only just promoting the camera, but depicting amazing moments you can capture with the Gopro camera. Gopro has thousands of videos and posts daily, and the web page is always updated and active.  I really think YouTube is a great way to really display how a product works, and Gopro does a great job at keeping the YouTube channel user-friendly. There is no company doing better than GoPro on YouTube because GoPro gets thousands of hours of free publicity a week. GoPro lets people submit videos and then will upload some of them.  Involving the fans with the YouTube channel has really built a loyal, engaged audience, and makes the consumers feel truly connected to the brand. Adam Dornbusch, GoPro's Senior Director of Content Distribution, told The News, "We realized there was such an opportunity here. The users were not only using our cameras but were attaching our name (in the titles and descriptions) to incorporate with us.”  He goes on, "Sometimes I'll get a call and someone will say, 'That's a great video you guys did.' We have nothing to do with that. People just want to be associated with our product.” Go Pro also has a “bonus program.”  Any users who get to a million views will receive an incentive of $1000.  This really encourages consumers to get involved, and some of these videos promoting the product even go viral. 

Check out GoPro's YouTube channel in the link below:

GoPro's Youtube Channel 

Targeting Consumers Physiological Needs

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs is levels in which we can reach self-actualization. Consumers use Maslow’s hierarchy to market to consumers’ needs. McDonald’s utilizes Maslow’s hierarchy to promote their products over their social media pages.

All over McDonald’s’ Twitter and Facebook, they promise their coffee will satisfy everyone’s physiological needs by waking people up and improving their morning experience. This is a good strategy because it promises something to consumers, providing them reassurance and security in this product.  McDonald’s gives away free small coffees every fall.  This is a very popular marketing tactic.  It brings people to McDonald’s, and gets them to try the product. McDonald’s knows that this free sample will most likely bring customers back.  They have confidence in their product and consumer satisfaction, after trying the coffee. Down below are some examples of how McDonald’s promotes their coffee on twitter to consumers, and guarantees promises.  These advertisements say if you have a McDonald’s coffee, you will have a good morning. People want to feel energetic and fresh in the morning and wish to have a good start to their day.  McDonald’s wants to market to consumers’ wants.  

Frequency Marketing

Aeroplan is a reward program through Air Canada. Air Canada is using a Twitter account, specifically to market Aeroplan. Air Canada is attracting consumers to their brand through positive reinforcement.  Aeroplan provides customers with points when spending money on gas, groceries, and pharmacies within Canada. Air Canada rewards new customers immediately after joining.  As soon as they purchase the frequent flyer card, they reward the customer with 15,000 miles. This is enough for a short-haul flight. On every dollar spent, you receive one mile. Aeroplan has its very own Twitter and Facebook, aside from Air Canada, and the social media pages are growing. Aeroplan has 38.4K followers; all very active. The Twitter page tweets about how to win more miles that week, and also promotes special trips that loyal customers can take for a certain amount of miles. They post these promotions and, through the Twitter page, customers can open the link and bid on these specials. Aeroplan provides customers with points when spending money on gas, groceries, and pharmacies within Canada. Air Canada rewards new customers immediately after joining.  As soon as they purchase the frequent flyer card, they reward the customer with 15,000 miles.  This is enough for a short-haul flight. On every dollar spent, you receive one mile. Aeroplan has its very own Twitter and Facebook, aside from Air Canada, and the social media pages are growing. Aeroplan has 38.4K followers; all very active. The Twitter page tweets about how to win more miles that week, and also promotes special trips that loyal customers can take for a certain amount of miles. They post these promotions and, through the Twitter page, customers can open the link and bid on these specials. 

Aeroplan really uses their Twitter to implement a technique called frequency marketing, which gives the customers of Air Canada’s points system prizes for the value of their accumulated miles. This system attracts loyal customers, who will spend their money only with Air Canada’s airline to earn points and get rewards. Also, this helps other companies, such as Rexall, Esso, and Home Hardware, because Air Canada will provide customers points for shopping at these places.

The Twitter and Facebook pages are updated frequently, and the promotions keep loyal point members travelling and utilizing their miles.

#NoNestlé

Everyone is familiar with Nestlé, the Swiss multi-national company. It is one of the biggest food companies in the world.  Unfortunately, whoever is in charge of their social media really caused turmoil within the company. In just a matter of minutes, this individual turned Nestlé’s social media into a nightmare. Nestlé’s logo had been changed through consumers, and these consumers were making it their profile picture and posting it on their Facebook, sharing Nestlé’s logo worldwide through social media. Yes, this was not the original logo, but it was something a fan had created for Nestle to show they liked and appreciated the brand. Whoever is in charge of the Facebook page had posted that anyone with this version of the logo would be deleted from their page and all comments with anyone who had the picture, as their profile picture, would also be deleted. People felt extremely violated and that freedom of expression was being taken away from them through Nestlé.  They viewed the company with disrespect, and took this as a threat. Nestlé not only offended many people by this but when fans reached out with how upset they were, Nestlé responded with very disrespectful comments, as you can see below, from examples taken from the Facebook page.

The person who was running the Facebook page was very impolite, sarcastic and hostile to the very people who make the company successful.  A reformed company logo being shared and posted over Facebook should be taken as a compliment because it shows people have time to do gestures for the company and share and promote the company for others to see.

I believe that this was very insulting to customers and was not the right way of dealing with the situation. This is a very poor example of social networking.  After this, #nonestle was trending on Twitter and fans were unliking and unfollowing Nestle very rapidly. 

Every company can learn from this mistake and should only reply with proper and respectful comments to their fans. Even though Nestlé apologized and made it clear they were being unreasonable, people will not forget what happened.  Nestlé lost many loyal customers and fans from this mistake. 

Not only were consumers lost, people were outraged and it evolved into a much bigger problem for Nestlé. Greenpeace supporters an activist group, changed their profile picture to the anti- Nestlé slogan and started posting on the Nestlé page saying things like "I like some Nestlé products so I qualify as a 'fan.' I would like Nestlé to make them even better by removing palm oil. I would like to enjoy my Kit-Kats without feeling responsible for rainforest destruction and orangutan deaths." 

At this point Nestlé’s Facebook page was a disaster and the comments made by supporters were masked. A video by Greenpeace went viral showing how Nestlé is ruining rain forests and destroying many animals’ lives, such as the orangutan. You can watch the video at this link: http://vimeo.com/10236827

From such a small comment, the companies Facebook page spiraled out of control, and started a phenomenon that did not even begin on the topic of ruining the rain forests.  Nestlé has apologized but the company is still recovering and will be for some time. This is a huge lesson to learn for other companies, social media can blow up and create a mess within seconds. This is why we need to watch what we say and post on social media.

Burt's Bees is BuzZzZzing!

One company that has really been catching my eye recently is Burt’s Bees. Burt’s Bees is a company that makes personal care and health products that are natural and environmentally-friendly. Burt’s Bees is thriving on Facebook, with almost 2.5 million likes. When you go onto Burt’s Bees’ Facebook page, you will see many posts because the company is very active with keeping up to consumers. There are videos, photos, and many more items, such as contests/ promo codes and ways to really involve and familiarize consumers with their products. When Burt’s Bees posts on their page, the posts are very short, but, at the same time, extremely informative and eye-catching.  This will really draw consumers because the articles are easy to read and the messages they are trying to send are clear to the reader. 

Burt’s Bees really connects consumers to one another, providing them with a space to talk about their love for the company’s products. Burt’s Bees has many positive comments on every post. Burts Bees keeps things very fresh and never promotes the same product.  The site is continually changing and promotes special themes, such as “Summer Beach Days, Valentine’s Day, Back to School,” etc.  There are “buy now” buttons, which are easily accessible, so consumers can purchase products directly through the Facebook page.

                                                                                                       

Users can take a quiz on the Facebook page, which can tell them which specific product will be useful for their skin type.  This is a great strength that is very interactive.  Burt’s Bees not only markets the products for themselves, but really educates consumers on what product is best for them and why their products are positive for both the world and the environment.

Although one downfall I noticed was that to get access to all this information you need to like the Facebook page. Personally I think this is a great tradeoff because you get awesome information and great deals by choosing one like on your Facebook, but I can see this also being a issue for some users who may only like Burt's Bees to get the deal and then unlike them.

Companies can really learn from Burt’s Bees’ Facebook page because I believe that they truly turn visitors into buyers with all the promotions and discounts on their Facebook page, while still keeping the Facebook page fun and vibrant. They find pictures and videos that entice people to buy their products and the process to do so very simple. This will increase sales. Burt’s Bees is now starting to grow on Twitter.  In the future, it will be interesting to see how Burt’s Bees’ Twitter will compare with their Facebook page.  I think that because their YouTube and Facebook are so popular, their Twitter will prove to be a great success!

Check out Burt's Bee's Facebook page through the link below

https://www.facebook.com/BurtsBeesCAN