Social Media Marketing Plan for Filippa K Finnish ..., Study notes of Marketing

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Social Media Marketing Plan for Filippa K Finnish Market

Pipsa Koivisto Bachelor’s Thesis Degree Programme in International Sales & Marketing

Abstract

Author(s) Pipsa Koivisto Degree programme International Sales and Marketing Report/thesis title Social Media Marketing Plan for Filippa K Finnish Market Number of pages and appendix pages 30 + 5 The project aimed to create a social media-marketing plan for Swedish clothing brand, Filippa K, for their Finnish market. The plan was based on PR Smith’s SOSTAC® marketing plan. The goal was to make a country specific marketing plan for social media that would improve Filippa K’s engagement with customers in Finland. Firstly, the commissioner was introduced by telling their story, values and goals. Their global social media marketing was presented by interviewing a member of the global marketing team. Filippa K’s Finnish market situation and history was introduced in the beginning by interviewing area manager and global field support. Over view of Finnish social media marketing was cov- ered in the end of first part. Secondly, the SOSTAC marketing plan model was presented. It is divided into six chapters which all inform about the theory and strategy of the plan. Reading articles, books and blog posts, did the theoretical framework. The plan contains situation analysis, objectives, strategy, tactics, actions and control. Key benefits, content plan, marketing checklist and month plan are also included to this social media marketing plan and presented in table format. The strategy focuses on free Facebook and Instagram marketing that the company can make use of in coun- try specific marketing in Finland. Summary of the plan can be found from appendices. Thirdly, the summary and conclusion are presented. Project evaluation, feedback from the commissioner, recommendation and learning of the author are included in this part. Keywords SOSTAC, marketing plan, social media marketing, digital marketing

1. Introduction

People around the world are connecting and communicating through social networks in real- time. They share similar interests, opinions, reviews and conversations within others to the other side of the world (Macy & Thompson, 2011, 2). For companies there is an opportunity to engage and connect with customers and create more intimate customer relationship through social media in real-time (Mersey, Malthouse, & Calder, 2010; Vinerean, Cetina, Dumitrescu & Tichindelean, 2013). Real-time marketing is about engaging consumers by using digital social technology. It is easier for consumers to find out what is happening, where and by whom right now. Compa- nies and organizations are in a place to realize how their businesses should use real-time social media marketing as a part of a conversation with their customers. (Macy & Thompson, 2011 , 13.) Highly likely the target customers of a company are spending quite much time in social media, which is why companies should be there too (Meyerson, 2015, 42). The project that I will be responsible for is about creating a social media-marketing plan for Filippa K’s Finnish market. I will base the plan on PR Smith’s SOSTAC® marketing planning model that has six steps to create the plan. The idea of the topic came up to me while work- ing. I work as a sales person at Filippa K in Finland and recognized that the company does not have social media marketing for individual countries when there could be a potential for it. The project aims to engage more with Finnish customers and make the customer relation- ship more intimate. In order to reach this object I will create a social media-marketing plan for Finnish market. I will evaluate Filippa K’s current social media performance in Finland and the opportunities the company has in Finnish social media market. The plan cannot yet put in use but it gives a structure idea for the future. One key part of connecting in social media is that it is all about being social. This gives brands a chance to slow down with corporation and commercials and show a bit more per- sonality and humanity. Furthermore, consumers’ shares information in social media that is more personal than what they would give out for a market research. Consumers’ shares life- style information, hobbies, likes and dislikes for example in their social media accounts, which could be useful for companies to gather and use for targeting (Moore, 2012, 131). Even if social media allows now days more targeted contacting for companies towards con- sumers it also encourage customers to interact with companies. Brand communities have

become an essential for this type of contacting and they can bring all the brands customers together and increase the brand loyalty. Consumers are interested about the brand itself but they are even more interested to know how brands can afford them in social ties and identi- ties. (Close, 2012,224- 225 .) A social media-marketing plan provides a detailed plan of the goals that the company wants to achieve by using social media, the steps how the goal will be reached, when these steps will happen and by whom. The plan should be as detailed as possible so that it will have more impact on the implementation. (Trousdale, 2017.) The success of a social media- marketing plan can be measured by different metrics. These can be for example traffic on the social media page, conversions from social media and conversations about the company on social media (Fagan, 2014). The commissioner of this project, Filippa K, will be presented in the chapter two together with other stakeholders of the plan such as Finnish social media marketing situation. Third chap- ter shows the action plan for this project. Chapter four will focus on the theoretical framework of SOSTAC® marketing planning model along with the end result of the plan. The result will be discussed in chapter four, which will include conclusion, writing process, developments and my own learning. Interviews that have been done for this thesis and the summary of the marketing plan can be found in the appendix I the end.

who went deeper on their marketing plan. The whole interview can bee read from the appen- dix in the end. The mainly platforms Filippa K uses to market on social media are Instagram and Facebook, but they have accounts also in Twitter and Pinterest. Facebook and Instagram are selected as main marketing tools because major of the customers and followers are active in there. Pinterest and Twitter are used for other than marketing. For example Twitter is used for sus- tainability communications to share information, articles and news about the sustainability world. (Genberg, 2.1.2018.) Posts in Instagram and Facebook are combination of campaign images, looks from the web shop, inspirational images and mix of offers, events and other activities they want to highlight or push. Interaction between the customers and the company happens usually by both sides liking, commenting, sending messages and “tagging” (mentioning other one in a picture, comment or in caption) in pictures and stories in Instagram and Facebook. The elements are different for each platform to engage customers and increase the engagement. The key ele- ment for Filippa K is to keep their audience in mind when creating posts and engaging the audience in conversation. Also giving something of value for the followers and to make an effort to ask questions and creating a conversation between customer and company is a way to increase engagement. (Genberg, 2.1.2018.) (Censored / not available on Theseus) 2.3. Filippa K in Finland Collecting information of Filippa K’s history and situation now days in Finland, I interviewed Finland’s Area Manager and Store Manager Sonja Flowers and Global Field Support and Assistant Store Manager Tiia Moilanen. You can read the whole interview from the appendix in the end. Filippa K started in Finland through agency and in October 2011 they opened their flagship store in the middle of Helsinki. Now days the flagship store is located still in the same facility and there are over 20 wholesalers around Finland. The main cities for the wholesales are Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Turku, Jyväskylä, Tampere and Oulu. The online store of Filippa K works in Finland and increases all the time. Flowers and Moilanen says that most of the pur- chases is made through global online store of Filippa K. The stock is located in Sweden, which makes the deliver time short. Marketing in Finland works together with the global mar-

keting. Filippa K does not have own marketing channels only for a Finnish consumers or own marketing strategy for Finland. (Flowers & Moilanen, 2.1.2018.) The wholesale store in Helsinki sells only women’s collection including clothes, accessories, shoes and the soft sport collection. They do not have men’s wear in the store and they do not have an own store for it. Men’s wear can be found in couple of wholesalers in Finland and from online store. A typical Filippa K customer in Finland is “a 20 to 60 year old women who appreciate quality” as Flowers and Moilanen says in their interview (Flowers & Moilanen, 2.1.2018). The customer genre is similar to the global customer image. 2.4. Customers Filippa K has done a detailed and clear customer image for their company. The description is in their intranet that I had a change to take a look at. They describe the customer as a “ year old”, educated, aware and independent-minded consumer who is curios about the world around them and passionate about what they do. Filippa K sees their customers as a city based consumers who can afford to choose and seamlessly mixes premium and high street brands with luxury items. (Filippa K, 2017 a.) The target customers appreciate quality and authenticity over rushed decisions in products and experiences. They have achieved confidence over time in their own style and taste. They have a calmer approach to fashion than in their youth and they seeks comfort as a way of life without sacrificing style. (Filippa K, 2017 a.) Filippa K’s customers are interested in design and fashion. They care about their own health and well-being and they are ready to invest in food, socializing, art and home. Traveling and learning about cultures are important for them and they value those things. (Filippa K, 2017a.) 2.5. Social media in Finland Social media has changed the role of a consumer globally and in Finland. Consumers are more than just consumers no days; they are involving in production, distribution and market- ing. This makes marketing multifunctional and the bound of the marketing can be hard to define. (Nordenstreng & Nieminen, 2017, 323- 337 .) Marketing becomes more interactive between companies and consumers. Interaction in social media marketing plays a key role when consumers can share their feelings, thoughts and opinions in real time. (Nordenstreng & Nieminen, 2017, 325- 326 .)

3. Project Action Plan

This chapter is about the tasks and timings for this plan. Table 1 below shows each task and deadline for it. There were 16 main missions and due dates for them. The writer stick at the plan quite well and every task were done by the deadline. Table 1: Action Plan ACTION DEADLINE Search information about Filippa K 22.12. Start introduction 22.12. Collect books and articles for the theory part 31.12. Interviews 7 .1. Customer analysis and social media in Finland 7.1. Situation Analysis / SWOT 14.1. Objectives 21.1. Strategy 28.1. Tactics 4.2. Actions 11.2. Control 18.2. Finish the plan 18.2. Write down interviews 25.2. Finish introduction and Filippa K chapter 25.2. Discussion 4.3. Abstract 11.3. Each week had a topic to be focused on. Through each week one topic was fully planned, searched, written and created. This way the writer could keep the focus and the mind set in the report and the tasks. Procedures of the topics were planned so that the base was done first and the plan after it. All the other details and summaries were created in the end.

4. Social Media Marketing Plan

4.1. SOSTAC®

SOSTAC® planning model is originally created in the 1990s by PR Smith and it’s widely used tool for marketing and business planning. It covers six key areas: Situation Analysis, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Action and Control. (Swan, 2017.) I will go through each one in an own chapter including an analysis of the company’s part. The summary of the SOSTAC action plan can be found from the appendix. Figure 1 : SOSTAC and key questions in each stage 4.1.1 Situation Analysis The first step is to make a situation analysis and paint a picture of the organization; who they are, what they do and how they interact and trade online by targeting internal and external factors impacting the business (Swan, 2017). There are few methods to reach this information and first one is to analysis who is your digi- tal customer currently, how do they interact, what platform/s they used, a total customer analysis (Swan, 2017). As mentioned in chapter 2.2, Filippa K’s customers are aware of situ- ations now days, they know how to use social media and the power of it. They interact through social media and they prefer to meet people face-to-face than just text or call. Insta- gram, Facebook and Twitter are their most used social media platforms and as Karolina says Situation Analysis (Where are we now?) Objectives (Where do we want to be?) Strategy (How do we get there?) Tactics (How exactly do we get there?) Action (What is our plan?) Control (Did we get there?)

There are few good opportunities for Filippa K Finland to start own social media page. As written before, the strong loyal customer base is already following them on the global page and there for is a good potential to get quite a lot of followers in Instagram and Facebook. Having an own social media pages is also a great marketing tool where the company can focus on things that are happening in Finnish market, do the posts in Finnish and answer followers questions and wonders in Finnish, so it will become even more personal. Of course that will bring the threats of lacking time and workers. There needs to be a specific plan of who is doing what and when. 4.1.2 Objectives Objectives are all about SMART goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timed. To move forward company should set realistic, precise and achievable goals. (Lea-Greenwood, 2013.) Other guide to use to create both measurable and realistic goals is 5 S’s. It is created by PR Smith refer to Sell, Service, Speak, Save and Sizzle. In the figure 2 you can see the objectives for the 5 S’s. Using these two guidelines together is rec- ommended in order to accomplish the needed goal. Sell Increase sales Service Customer satisfaction Speak Increase engagement and participation Save Decrease marketing expenses Sizzle Wow factor Figure 2: The 5 S’s objectives Sell is the first object and refers to increasing sales. To get revenue and profit this is the most important transaction. (Chaffey, 2010.) Filippa K Finland will most likely increase engage- ment and customer satisfaction by following the instructions of this plan, which will affect pos- itively to the sales. It is hard to give any numbers or percentages of how much the sales will increase, but by crosschecking the sales reports the objective is measurable. Service refers to customer satisfaction. When customers have any questions or feedback to give they usually go to company website or social customer service. It gives support to other four S’s if the customer service is high quality. (Chaffey, 2010.) The objective is to deliver extraordinary customer service in the store and online. This means that in social media an- swering to customers comments and questions is a priority. The answers should be profes- sional as well as friendly. As Karoline told on her interview the key element of good en-

gagement is to engage your followers in conversation. To measure this object the conversa- tions and reviews with customers in the social media needs to be looked at. The third objective is speak which refers to increasing engagement and participation. As I mention before the customer engagement is highly important and social media is a big part of it. Digital channels are way more than just great sales channels, they are perfect commu- nication channels to engage the audience. (Chaffey, 2010.) At the moment all conversation between Filippa K Finland and their customers happens in the store and on global social media pages. By having a country-specific social media page the engagement and participa- tion would be stronger and more targeted which would also affect to sales. Through com- ments, likes and followers on social media the engagement and participation can be meas- ured the easiest. Save is the forth objective and it refers to decrease marketing expenses. Most marketing on social media is free of charges, which this plan will only focus on. Comparing the free social media marketing expenses to traditional media marketing expenses can do the measure- ment. The last objective is sizzle, which refers the wow effect. It is about building the brand online and creates the positive brand experience for your customers. By creating a clear digital presence customers will want to visit the website again and they will tell their friends about it, which will give word-of-mouth marketing for the company. (Chaffey, 2010.) Filippa K Finland should use Finnish when writing posts and answering to comments. This would bring an ex- tra value to communicating on social media. Other sizzle that Filippa K Finland could bring with own social media account would be personalized selling and customer service. By communicating with customers in social media could bring more of a relationship with the sellers and the customers. Especially for the most loyal customers it could be an extra plus to be able to communicate with the store workers by using social media. Asking about item de- tail, garment care guidance or even styling advices can bring a huge value for the Finnish market. 4.1.3 Strategy The third stage of SOSTAC® marketing plan is strategy. This is the plan of how to achieve the objectives that has been set. It will also identify the segments of the market that are going to be targeted with the marketing plan. (Swan, 20 17 .) In managing to do this the target mar- ket and the brand values that the company wants to promote must be define. It is important to involve more than marketing communication media but also other elements of marketing mix since all these points have an impact on marketing strategy. (Bax & Woodhouse, 2013.)

of the clothes and are planning to use more of it in the future. This is a huge value proposi- tion for Filippa K both global and in Finnish market. After segmenting comes market targeting. Each segment has different potential and com- mercial attractiveness that needs to be evaluated. First is criteria size, which means market size. The market must be large enough to authorize segmenting. Second comes difference, which must be measurable between segments. Third one is money where cost of additional marketing and other changes needs to exceed the expected profits. Fourth one is accessible. Company should be able to access each segment and the segment should be able to re- ceive companies marketing message. Last one is to focus on different benefits for different segments. (Hanlon, 2017c.) The last element of STP model is positioning. To be able to do positioning the market over- view needs to be clarified. The goal is to identify the position of the product to target the most valuable customer segment. (Hanlon, 2017c.) The one question that needs to be considered is that why consumers should buy your product rather than competing companies product. Companies unique selling proposition needs to be identified in order to understand how each segment discover their product. By creating a value proposition the company can explain to the consumers why their product solves consumers problems better than competitors’ prod- ucts. (Mind Tools.) Social media content, which this case focuses on, will give more key benefits for the online audience by applying company’s online value proposition. For Filippa K Finland’s customers the key benefits are first-hand information about special offers and sales, new collection, sustainability and garment care. Table 3 below shows each key benefit with an example. Key benefit Example Special offers and sale Information about the up coming sales and offers that are valid. Subscribe to our email list and get a 10% off from your next purchase. (Picture from a new item) New collection New collection comes to the store or new campaign begins. Soft Sport retreat week starts now. Follow the online retreat and come to the store to see our new soft sport collection. Sustainability More information about Filippa K’s sustain- ability. Did you know that our new tunic dress is made out of polyester satin blend, recycled from used PET bottle? Come to our store and hear more. (Picture of the tunic)

Garment care Take care of your clothes and make them last longer. Useful facts and information about garment care. Sweater stone is an eco friendly and gentle alternative to remove pilling from your sweaters. (Picture of the sweater stone) Table 3: Key benefits and examples 4.1.4 Tactics Tactics is the fourth stage of SOSTAC® marketing plan and it covers the certain tools of the digital mix that has been planned to use (Swan, 2018). It will answer to question how exactly do we get there and presents the details of the strategy. Tactics cover a marketing mix, communications mix, online digital mix and what happen and when, which is often expressed with a Gantt chart. (Smith, 2012 .) This chapter will cover the specific tools that Filippa K Finland should use to market them- selves in social media. It will also provide the content that should be produced in their social media, which channels to use for the content and how often to post. The plan will also cover the contact plan of how to stay in contact with customers through social media. Tactics are commonly presented at The Gantt chart, which is frequently used in projects to show task or events on a timeline. It presents the tasks and displays when it is happening and for how long. Now days the Gantt chart is most used for project schedules where it is easy to show additional information about individual tasks and phases of the project. (Gantt.com.) In tactics Gantt chart is usually used to present the tactics and the time period for them. Examples of marketing tactics are SEO (search engine optimization), pay-per click, affiliate marketing and email marketing. The strategy that the company wants to implement will define what tactic to use. (Swan, 2018.) For Filippa K Finland email marketing is working already through global email marketing, but an own social media account could push it for- ward and get more customers to the mailing list. Communication mix is part of the tactics. It includes ten communication tools, which are ad- vertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, public relations, sponsorship, exhibitions, pack- aging, merchandising, selling and sales management. (Smith & Zook, 2011, 18 .) Marketing communication environment is changing constantly affecting to the whole marketing commu- nication mix (Smith & Zook, 2011, 16). 7P’s of the marketing mix provides the key areas to focus on and helps to achieve the object that has been set. It helps to evaluation and determines key issues that affect the marketing

needs to post and when. It is not about filling the followers’ front page but having a regular posting schedule. Content themes needs to stay interesting for the followers to be able to achieve goals. Style guidelines should cover all the ways the brand makes itself unequal and consistent while engagement guidelines covers brands interaction with other accounts on Instagram. It shows when and how to interact with others as well as managing incoming comments on brands own account. (Dawley, 2018.) Image 1 shows how Filippa K’s global Instagram theme looks like and what style Filippa K Finland should keep on their account. Image 1: Filippa K global Instagram page (Instagram 2018) Filippa K Finland should keep the clean simple way in their posts in Instagram and Face- book. Even though Facebook is loosing followers to Instagram, Facebook is still a big social media platform for Filippa K’s customers. On Facebook the company should share articles and interviews that are related to the company and ask questions about them. Sharing imag- es from the collections and campaigns, videos from fashion shows and videos from cam- paigns will bring more visually to the page. Information from the wholesale stores would be shared one or twice a month depending how much there is happening. Time schedule for Facebook would be three posts a week, every other workday in the afternoon. Specific timing might change after time regarding when the followers are the most active. Instagram would be used every workday, five days a week. Timing for the posts would be morning between 8- 9 am. Posts would include images from the campaigns, items from the collections, garment care products, events (including sales) and outfit inspiration. Captures would be slogans, information about garment care, requests to visit both store and online

store and knowledge about campaigns. Hashtags would be used with moderation. Brand name and their key elements such as simplicity and sustainability could be used as a hashtags. Table 4 summaries the content plan for Facebook and Instagram. Table 4: Summary of the content plan Channel Content Capture Days to post Time Instagram • Campaigns

• Collections
• Garment care
• Events
• Outfit inspiration
  • Slogans
  • Information
  • Requests
  • Knowledge 5 days a week 8 - 9am Facebook (^) • Articles from the industry
• Company inter- views
• Campaign im- ages
• Videos
• Wholesale in- formation - Questions - Reminders - Marketing events - Information 3 days a week 12pm 4.1.5 Actions Fifth stage of SOSTAC marketing framework is actions and it answer to question what is the plan. It shows how to bring the plan to life and covers the tactics that needs to be achieved to fulfil the objectives of the marketing plan. (Swan, 2018.) Action plan becomes ‘work instruc- tions’ for different people and it includes a more detailed plan of who is doing what and when (Hanlon, 2017a). Table 5 below shows an outline of what should be considered when includ- ing actions to tactics. Table 5: Tactics vs. actions (Swan, 2018) Tactic Action SEO (^) • Keyword analysis
• On page optimization
• Content
• Link building Pay-per click • Keyword analysis
• Budget
• Landing page
• Product availability Affiliate network • Affiliate program
• Business development Email marketing (^) • Tracking/software