Facebook An Effective Marketing Tool (India Industry Trends)

FACEBOOK : An Effective Marketing Tool

Indian Industry trends

Executive Summary

• One in five Internet users in India using Facebook. [India has 10.5 Million 3(source: Facebakers.com) people on Facebook out of a total Internet population of 50 Million (Source: emarketer.com)]

• With changing times & trends, Facebook is no longer limited to just connecting with friends or playing games; businesses are increasingly using it as an interaction platform to engage with their target audience, identify prospects, market their products, provide customer support and handle customer grievances! Tapping on this need, Facebook smartly introduced Facebook fan pages to cater to the specific needs of businesses.

Key Findings

• Most popular Brand: MTV-India [522,112 Fans on 28 July] • Brand with the highest growth in terms of fans: MTV-India [3846 + Daily fan growth] • Most active entity: Delhi Traffic Police [12.8 wall posts by admin each day]* • Most Discussed brand: MTV-India [2085+ Interactions each day] • Brand with least growth: Haldiram’s [0.66 new fans each day]• Identified Inactive brands: Bisleri (Inactive since May 29, 2010), Haldiram’s (Inactive since Oct 15, 2009),

Bharti-Airtel (Inactive since Oct 15, 2009)

Industry Verticals – Daily Interaction Graph

Top 5 Most Popular Brands

Brands With Highest Fan Growth Rate

Most Discussed Brands

Key Findings – Media

Brands No. of fans each day

No. of post (30 days)

Posts per day No. of interactions (last 30 days)

Interactions per day

MTV 3846.8 35.0 1.2 62554.0 2085.1

Channel V 173.0 64.0 2.1 2286.0 76.2

HT 805.3 25.0 0.8 538.0 17.9

Imagine TV 12.8 5.0 0.2 2208.0 73.6

Zee TV 41.0 0.0 0.0 1302.0 43.4

Average 975.8 25.8 0.9 13777.6 459.3

All the companies we analyzed from this vertical were fairly successful in attracting large enough fans. Most of the brands had well maintained, active & responsive fan pages. Various forms of content – photos, videos, polls, events, applications (Little Champs, Zee TV; Axe Ur Ex, Channel V) were used to attract attention of fans and create engagement. Discussions on varied topics involved politics, games, weather, infrastructure, events (CWG) etc. Some fan pages made wall posts on TV shows that were aired on their channels (Zee TV and Imagine TV). Channel V was the only brand to have integrated the Twitter account with its fan page.

Key Findings – Consumer Durables





Videocon 1270.88 26 0.9 2136 71.2

Samsung Corby 6.27 0 0.0 47 1.6

Fast Track 2928.1 25 0.8 13333 444.4

Average 1401.8 17.0 0.6 5172.0 172.4

In this sector Fastrack leads all other brands by a large margin, though Videocon is growing fast, thanks to its enhanced PR initiatives. Interesting applications like the “FT Girl”, “Store locator”, “Bikers”, & “Kickass cards” exist on Fastrack page. All wall posts revolve around their products, offers, brand ambassadors, stores across country etc. The first noticeable element on Videocon’s fan page is the title, it is named as “Home Appliances and Electronics” and no corporate brand name mention has been made (Fig 3.). Videocon has applications – “Abhishek Bachchan contest” and “BUY” (which directs the user to Edigiworld, an e-commerce site owned by Videocon) The wall posts on Videocon fan page with title VFAQ are published frequently that educate users about using their appliance and many other aspects - regarding their usage, safety, precautions etc.

Key Findings - Food Chains





Pizza Hut 35.88 9 0.3 310 10.3

McDonalds India 3.16 8 0.3 62 2.1

Barista Lavazza 17.8 48 1.6 413 13.8

Average 18.9 21.7 0.7 261.7 8.7

Pizza Hut & Barista have maintained their fan page in an active manner, ahead of other brands in this category. Pizza Hut has various interactive applications – “Hot on Dot”, “Hut locator”, “VIP club”, which help community members in knowing new offerings, locating their store, and creating an identity. Barista also has interactive applications – “happy hours” and “breakfast”, which help them in engaging with their community members. The administrator of Pizza Hut fan page handled discussions on varied topics such as FIFA, the new hot on the dot plan by Pizza Hut, to the best getaway zones in the area. We observed typo errors like website name bug in the fan-page (info tab) of a popular brand in this category. On the other hand another brand in this category has adopted a transparent approach by sharing the name of its social media partner on its fan page.

Key Findings – FMCG





Krukure 3.3 2 0.1 30 1.0

Haldiram’s 0.66 0 0.0 1 0.0

Bisleri 2.16 0 0.0 0 0.0

Average 2.0 0.7 0.0 10.3 0.3

The brands selected in this category had almost negligible engagement levels on their fan page. Although product related postings were made on the products, the expected level of success with engagement was fairly low.

Key Findings – Telecom





Uninor 34.1 25.0 0.8 498.0 16.6

Vodafone 35.9 8.0 0.3 227.0 7.6

Idea 454.6 5.0 0.2 3919.0 130.6

Tata Docomo 2265.7 36.0 1.2 6782.0 226.1

Airtel 1.2 0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0

Average 558.3 14.8 0.5 2285.4 76.2

The sector that has the fiercest competition in the Indian market does not quite have the same competition when it comes to Facebook Fan Pages or social media marketing in general. As can be seen from the visuals TATA Docomo is leading the pack with a large margin. It was surprising to know that one of the largest telecom service provider has had the least active fan page and moreover administrator hasn’t posted any message since October, 2009 All brands in this category had their YouTube and Twitter accounts integrated with the fan page, which is generally considered to be a wise strategy. Idea & Tata Docomo are the only two brands to have used photos and videos on their fan pages.

Key Findings – Online Portals





Indya.com 7.6 80.0 2.7 687.0 22.9

Ixigo 228 295 9.8 6009 200.3

Pagalguy 31.6 15 0.5 655 21.8

Cleartrip 2.4 48 1.6 285 9.5

Average 54.1 87.6 2.9 1527.2 50.9

There are two brands in this category that are travel related online services. Both have well maintained fan pages, but when you have a look at the statistics, one brand is far ahead of the other with a growth rate of approximately 148%. It includes a bunch of activities like active wall posts by the administrator and keeping community members busy with puzzles on site-seeing places, animals, buildings, trekking spots etc. In addition, there is a separate tab of “Contests & Promotions” on their fan page. Cleartrip too maintains the strategy of Ixigo by keeping members engaged with puzzles, however we noticed that administrator hardly responded to negative customer experiences, which we think could hamper the brand image of Cleartrip in the minds of community members. Similar to that of Ixigo, they too have a tab of “Offers” on their fan page.

Key Findings – Publishing





Pratham books 3.2 23 0.8 76 2.5

Penguin India 1.55 0 0.0 11 0.4

Average 2.4 11.5 0.4 43.5 1.5

These two publishing houses arrive from opposite varied business models, as Penguin India is a commercial publisher while Pratham Books is a non-profit publishing house. Both the pages are being primarily used to notify the fans about new book launches, events or seminars. The difference between the two is that, a lot of spam is being generated on the Penguin India page by budding writers who are trying to promote themselves and their writings. Most of the posts on Pratham Books page are also related to social causes being carried out and pictures from the same have been shared on a regular basis.

Technology

Facebook An Effective Marketing Tool (India Industry Trends)