Part (iv): Conclusion
Participating in the Gerber contest called “The Gerber Generation is looking for the Next Star” allowed for a detailed analysis of what companies like Gerber are doing in regards to social media strategies. After analyzing their social media strategy I began to gather information on Gerber’s competitors to evaluate what they are currently doing in regards to integrating social media into their marketing efforts. Did they even have a strategy?
Evaluating how Gerber uses social media mediums and our participation in their contest we can carefully articulate the impact these social media mediums will have on their brand. After careful review it is quite evident Gerber is the market leader using social media to grow and brand their name. For example, after visiting the following websites and searching for the presence of social media strategies of Gerber’s competition Enfamil and Similac carefully analyzing how they compare to Gerber.
Following information and analysis of Enfamil “Mead Johnson Nutrition” and Similac “Abbott Nutrition”:
Enfamil Staged Formulas leads Mead Johnson Nutrition’s family of formulas today. With over a century of innovation behind it, Mead Johnson strives to be the world’s leading provider of science-based pediatric nutrition products. Their goal is “We are dedicated to helping provide infants and children with the best start in life”. Since its beginnings more than 100 years ago, Mead Johnson has grown from the ideas of one man into a global company with more than 70 products in over 50 countries.
It is very clear Enfamil “Mead Johnson Nutrition” has yet to introduce social media into their marketing efforts. By searching Facebook, Twitter and other social media mediums it is evident Enfamil has yet to build out any social media mediums let alone develop a strategy to compete with Gerber.
Similac is now part of Abbott Nutrition.
For more than 100 years, the makers of Similac have been dedicated to giving mom and baby a strong start. And in 2008, Similac strengthened that dedication with their latest innovations.
- Similac® Advance®: Has our unique blend of prebiotics, nucleotides, and carotenoids — nutrients found in breast milk
- Similac® SimplePac™: Our mom-friendly container revolutionized baby formula packaging
Abbott Nutrition history is filled with an impressive list of “firsts” and progress in nutritional products for people of all ages. We are proud of our heritage and invite you to browse the details of Abbott Nutrition history to learn why we are well able to be your nutrition resource.
Analysis from a social media strategist’s perspective:
It is very clear after searching multiple social media mediums that Enfamil “Mead Johnson Nutrition” and Similac part of “Abbott Nutrition” are quite behind in developing not only the architecture for using social mediums, but a clear strategy to compete with Gerber. It is obvious Gerber is gaining tremendous market share from having a clear strategy using multiple social media mediums.
For example please visit the following Facebook pages for your own evaluation:
Developing a sound social media strategy will become more and more important moving forward for any business small, medium and large. As you can see from this Gerber case study there is a lot of opportunity to be creative and capitalize on your competition. What are you doing for your strategy?
Here are a few components to a sound social media strategy:
- Blog – Adding regular non sales related value and content for SEO purposes and increasing credibility
- Integrate your blog into ALL social media mediums
- Brand your business using multiple social media mediums
- Create and develop a custom Facebook page
- Build strong communities of loyal followers across all social media mediums or cornerstones
- Integrate product/service reviews across all mediums and cornerstones
- Offer your prospect/client/patient something to join your community
- Be creative
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Thanks for your informative post and the knowledge presented through this case study. It seems that the significant presence of social media in today’s world demands from companies to be able to approach their marketing strategies through a more multidimensional level as you described (Peripheral knowledge of the subject, active presence in several social platforms, gifts in contests or free knowledge through blogs, connection with customer etc).
I believe that in the very end this is more fair than before. All these platforms and marketing opportunities that exist are a field appropriate (and up to a point cheap) enough to present as many different skills as possible and as many different angles of the company’s personality than before.