A Comparative Study of Social Media Platforms Used by the Well-Being Sector

Abstract

A marketing mix is an essential tool for the management of a business. It helps a company to position its product, target its customers, continuously attract new customers, and retain them. This way, the business remains sustainable. The choice of the right medium over which to effect the marketing mix is even more essential, especially for companies that are starting. Modern companies rely on the power of social media to realize success with their marketing mix. In the wellbeing sector, leading companies are harnessing the power of social media platforms to successfully engage with their customers. The preferred social media platforms for business-customer engagements include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. This paper aimed to determine how Holland and Barret and Health Food UK's use of various social media platforms compares. It is hypothesized that, given the socializing aspect of Facebook, the huge number of users, and a variety of product positioning tools, it is the most preferred social media platform in the wellbeing sector. Using the marketing mix theory, social media use for the two companies was tracked and compared against the strengths of the social media platforms. Using secondary data and a correlation research design, an exploratory approach was employed to determine the most effective platform for the companies. LinkedIn was identified as the most effective social media platform for wellbeing companies. However, to make it more effective, it is recommended that the socializing power of social media is relied on, especially for the product position element of the marketing mix.

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Keywords: Social Media, LinkedIn, Marketing Mix, Wellbeing

Introduction

Small businesses generally have shorter lifespans than big businesses. Such establishments, therefore, need better strategies to position their products and services in a manner that improves and sustains higher sales volumes and secures their growth and sustainability. At the center of their operations are the customers. Modern businesses are continuously seeking ways to communicate better with their customers on platforms and in formats which work best for the customers. The wellbeing sector is no exception. Like all other sectors, small businesses in the wellbeing industry are traditionally disadvantaged regarding their capacity to position their products and services to the right market segments. This limitation makes them risky ventures and reduces their sustainability potential.

Social media offers the surest platform that guarantees product visibility and effective product positioning for small companies in the wellbeing sector. Presently, about 82 percent of the UK adult population have internet access (Vriens and van Ingen, 2017). Of these, about 54 percent have a consistent social media presence. Social media use among adults aged 65 and above has increased by more than 50 percent in the past half a decade. These demographics are likely to be found on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. There is equally a significant use of YouTube. It is evident from these figures that small companies can effectively employ social media for their product positioning and customer value proposition and secure their sustainability.

The conversational nature of social networks differentiates them from legacy communication media and makes them more effective in ensuring product positioning and market targeting success. Unlike traditional media that is deficient in interactivity, social media provides the multi-stage, interactive and social elements. It has been determined that the majority of individuals prefer to consume communication messages in digital formats. Additionally, there is also the increased preference for such messages to be relayed over regular day-to-day platforms, especially the social media platforms. Social media platforms offer companies a cost-effective way to target markets both demographically and geographically (Hollis, Morriss, Martin, Amani, Cotton, Denis, and Lewis, 2015). They also present companies as sociable and eliminate communication barriers by enabling transparency. The wellbeing sector depends on the constant interaction between customers and the company, and among customers, hence it will find social media platforms useful for years to come.

In embracing social media platforms to address their product positioning challenges, small companies in the wellbeing industries will be following in the footsteps of the major players in the industry. All such companies require is to study the strategies used by leading players in the sector. Presently, leading UK wellbeing companies such as Holland and Barret and Health Food UK are using social media platforms to position their value propositions to their customers effectively.

This paper aims to determine how the use of various social media platforms compares among leading companies in the wellbeing industry. It also aims to determine the effectiveness of social media platforms in ensuring that companies have higher sales volumes. Its primary objective is to study how two leading wellbeing companies in the UK market, Holland and Health Food UK, employ social media as marketing platforms, and which of the social media platforms is the most effective for these companies. This study hypothesizes that these two major players in the sector are extensively employing Facebook to increase their product promotion and customer targeting.

Literature Review

There is an expansive body of both qualitative and quantitative research that has studied the relationship between social media and sales. Some of these studies focus on finding the most effective social media platforms in raising product visibility and audience targeting. According to Smailhodzic, Hooijsma, Boonstra, and Langley (2016, p.7), the most preferred social network platform for promoting health and wellbeing services is Facebook. In their findings, this platform offers a convenient avenue to quickly disseminate the same information that exists on the company website. They determined that Facebook also provides companies with the opportunity to accurately target the service consumer as opposed to older digital platforms such as websites. Boyd and Ellison (2007) note that, unlike websites and other digital platforms, Facebook is designed to regularly surface information to the customer. Traditional company websites do not have this feature. There are numerous success factors which push wellbeing companies to deploy Facebook marketing.

Smailhodzic, Hooijsma, Boonstra, and Langley (2016) observe that Facebook provides businesses with the capacity to share plain text updates to several customers cheaply and instantly. Such textual information also includes survey questions which are essential for customer feedback. They also note that health and well-being companies prefer this platform because it allows businesses to share links to their main websites. Additionally, the platform is dependent on the sharing of graphics information which also helps companies to share communication in a manner that is appealing and convincing. Besides images, the platform also allows businesses to share marketing content in video form. The message formats relayed by Facebook are appealing to users.

Good business marketing requires a company to address the 7 Ps. According to Roman and Zgiep (2013), besides the product relevance, the medium over which the product is placed must ensure visibility and availability to the customer. They note that product promotion tools must target the right audiences. Facebook provides the right tools for companies, including wellbeing companies, to position their products and services to the right customers. For a good Facebook page, the company begins by choosing the right category. Choosing the right category will ensure that the company has a targeted display of the product to specific consumers. Besides Facebook pages, there are also Facebook groups which provide an environment for people to share information regarding their experiences with products and services (Naslund, Aschbrenner, Marsch, and Bartels, 2016). Groups are essential in bringing together customers to share their experiences with things such as weight management, addiction cessation, and physical fitness routine experiences.

Facebook also allows for paid advertising. Besides having a page and expecting users to join the page, paid advertising ensures that the page is visible to the customer. These advertising have page-like features which prompt users to join the company Facebook page. There are also boosted and sponsored content which widens the reach of a company's content and targets appropriate groups respectively. The proper use of images to communicate ensures that the company has proper use of the page.

The second social media platform which is essential for achieving the 7 Ps of marketing is Instagram. Instagram is useful for wellbeing companies due to its design and way of relaying information. Wellbeing companies are increasingly finding this platform to be useful in communicating their products and services to the consumer. This is a photo-sharing platform, so, little text messages are employed. According to Smailhodzic, Hooijsma, Boonstra, and Langley (2016), wellbeing products enhance physical appearance, and their advantages can best be communicated graphically. Instagram is most useful for such companies when targeting young consumers. It is essential in addressing barriers to communication as it enables companies to convey an intimate view of wellbeing and health services.

Besides being appropriate for targeting young people, Instagram is also vital in ensuring strong engagement with the customer. However, it is noteworthy that due the privacy concerns around sharing of images of people, the most appropriate Instagram account for a wellbeing company is a private one. Webber, Reidy, Ansari, Stevens, and Morris (2015) conclude that this implies Instagram accounts are more useful for retention than for acquiring new followers. Success on Instagram means that the wellbeing company must have a robust digital marketing team to generate enough visual content consistently. Additionally, photo contests help to engage the users and to share customer satisfaction. Wellbeing companies can take this approach to allow users to compare their successes such as weight loss and addiction quitting.

The third social media platform which finds prominent use within the corporate world is Twitter. It is a capable platform for addressing the people component of the marketing mix. As Webber, Reidy, Ansari, Stevens, and Morris (2015) note, Twitter helps companies to sha...