This past week, I read three social media case studies on Lady Gaga, the Ford Fiesta Movement, and the Greenpeace protests against Nestle` in the palm oil controversy. After reading “Lady Gaga: Born this way?” I was impressed by her utilization of social media to successfully interact with her fans. Her passion for her time-consuming work and building a following on social media took over many aspects of her personal life, prohibiting her from being able to own a home or even have a boyfriend. Growing up, Lady Gaga took full advantage of her privileged upbringing by receiving the best education and seizing opportunities that supported her musical talents. Once she was discovered, she actively built her image as an artist through the Internet and social media. Her success was attributable to connecting and interacting with her fans through websites such as You Tube, Facebook, and Twitter. She was able to build a bond with her fans that has not been matched by any other musician or artist. I was intrigued by her success outside of the music industry that seemed directly related to the social footprint that she built for herself. The case study talks about the “360 deal,” where music companies now share a portion of revenues from all aspects of an artist’s business. While I believe this to be a great business model for the music industry, and Lady Gaga has been tremendously successful in this model, I think it is premature to imply that her reinvigoration of outside brands is on the same level as when Steve Jobs went into Apple. While Lady Gaga has had substantial earnings, she has only been established for a little over three years. I do not know what the future holds for Lady Gaga, but her future success in music and/or business should be possible because of the social media relationships that she has developed with her fans.
The Ford Fiesta Movement case study showed how powerful word-of-mouth marketing can be utilized as a marketing tool. There were a couple of business decisions that helped this movement succeed. Typically, a car owner will be in the market for a new car every 5-10 years on average. I liked that the campaign began in April 2009, while the actual car did not go on sale until the summer of 2010. This provided an advance notice for those were close to updating their automobiles to consider the Ford Fiesta for the following year. Also, I believe the timing could not have been better. In a time of extreme uncertainty in the financial markets and reduced customer-spending, the automobile market was in need of affordable cars with low running costs to meet the appetite of consumers. The viral marketing techniques that Ford used in the Ford Fiesta Movement were bold and turned out to be extremely successful. Ford was able to influence their target market of 14-29 year-olds by using 100 special customers as “seeds.” Ford targeted tech savvy young drivers and incentivized 100 of them with a free European Ford Fiesta for six months in return for these “agents” to report their experiences with the car using social media. The experiences were unedited on websites such as YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, and local blogs. I found this to be a genius of an idea, since typically, the most powerful recommendations come from those who have a positive experience with a product and/or a service. The excitement, uniqueness, and sense of fun that these 100 agents created towards the Ford Fiesta Movement on social networks, enabled Ford to have a wildly successful launch during the most turbulent economic climate in modern times.
The last case study that I read demonstrated how important it is for major corporations to recognize the power of social media and the effects that it can have on a company’s image or brand reputation. This case discussed Greenpeace’s protest of Nestle’s use of palm oil from Sinar Mas, and how the situation quickly unraveled from Nestle’s control when they avoided allegations from Greenpiece that their supplier was destroying rainforests and endangering orangutans. Greenpeace turned to social media channels including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and blog postings to stimulate awareness of the destruction in Indonesia and to press for change. Nestle` may have been able to minimize damage to their brand by properly addressing comments and videos that were posted on YouTube and Facebook by Greenpeace protesters initially. However, Nestle’s lack of urgency and professionalism in responding to online protests, fueled a relentless social media attack from Greenpeace and other visitors. Nestle’s social media disaster stemmed from not having a corporate strategy around the utilization of social media. The success of Greenpeace’s social media protest was a result of the evolution of the Internet and the networking effects that it breeds. Greenpeace was able to communicate ideas online, rapidly and to a mass audience, that enabled a positive change that would not have been possible without the popularity of social media.