Elsevier

Business Horizons

Volume 52, Issue 4, July–August 2009, Pages 357-365
Business Horizons

Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2009.03.002Get rights and content

Abstract

The emergence of Internet-based social media has made it possible for one person to communicate with hundreds or even thousands of other people about products and the companies that provide them. Thus, the impact of consumer-to-consumer communications has been greatly magnified in the marketplace. This article argues that social media is a hybrid element of the promotion mix because in a traditional sense it enables companies to talk to their customers, while in a nontraditional sense it enables customers to talk directly to one another. The content, timing, and frequency of the social media-based conversations occurring between consumers are outside managers’ direct control. This stands in contrast to the traditional integrated marketing communications paradigm whereby a high degree of control is present. Therefore, managers must learn to shape consumer discussions in a manner that is consistent with the organization's mission and performance goals. Methods by which this can be accomplished are delineated herein. They include providing consumers with networking platforms, and using blogs, social media tools, and promotional tools to engage customers.

Section snippets

Social media, the promotion mix, and integrated marketing communications

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is the guiding principle organizations follow to communicate with their target markets. Integrated marketing communications attempts to coordinate and control the various elements of the promotional mix—advertising, personal selling, public relations, publicity, direct marketing, and sales promotion—to produce a unified customer-focused message and, therefore, achieve various organizational objectives (Boone & Kurtz, 2007, p. 488).

However, the tools and

Social media's hybrid role in the promotion mix

It has long been acknowledged in marketing management circles that successful IMC strategies clearly reflect the values articulated in an organization's mission statement and contribute to the fulfillment of the organization's performance goals. To accomplish these objectives, the elements of the promotion mix are carefully coordinated so the information transmitted to the marketplace through these elements consistently communicates a unified message that broadly reflects the organization's

Paradigms: Traditional vs. new communications

In the traditional communications paradigm, the elements of the promotional mix are coordinated to develop an IMC strategy, and the content, frequency, timing, and medium of communications are dictated by the organization in collaboration with its paid agents (advertising agencies, marketing research firms, and public relations consultants). The flow of information outside the boundaries of the paradigm has generally been confined to face-to-face, word-of-mouth communications among individual

Shaping the discussions

As indicated earlier, social media has amplified the power of consumer-to-consumer conversations in the marketplace by enabling one person to communicate with literally hundreds or thousands of other consumers quickly and with relatively little effort. Managers cannot directly control these conversations. However, they can use the methods delineated below to influence and shape these discussions in a manner that is consistent with the organization's mission and performance goals. These methods

From one-way traffic to multiple avenues

IMC has traditionally been considered to be largely one-way in nature. In the old paradigm, the organization and its agents developed the message and transmitted it to potential consumers, who may or may not have been willing participants in the communication process. The control over the dissemination of information was in the hands of the marketing organization. The traditional elements of the promotion mix—advertising, personal selling, public relations and publicity, direct marketing, and

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