Author: Arend Pryor | Created: 09/14/2021
Details: Sharing content created as part of pursuing my MBA degree
Assignment Details:
Market Data
Consider a segment of the fast-food industry, such as pizza (Domino’s, Papa Johns), burgers (McDonald's, Wendys), or fried chicken, and so on. To ground your thinking, list the names of 5 companies from the segment you choose. Respond to the following:
What type of market data can these companies collect?
How might this data be used in a marketing plan?
Brand Equity
Consider a product with which you are familiar. Analyze its brand equity in the following areas:
Brand awareness
Brand loyalty
Perceived quality
Brand associations
Brand assets
Ethical and Legal Considerations in Social Media Marketing
Find a current news article in which ethical or legal concerns have been raised regarding social media marketing.
Describe and analyze the issue and the impact it may have on current and future marketing strategies. Consider the following questions:
What impact might the issue have on children who use social media?
How does social media meet legal requirements for data sharing?
How does social media police ethical and legal issues?
Seth Godin once said, “It’s easier to love a brand when the brand loves you back” (Kidadl Team, 2021). This is a great quote and hits the nail on the head with regard to brand equity and many of the areas that contribute such as brand awareness, loyalty, perceived quality, brand associations and assets. As an example of these, we will talk about Apple computer and the equity built by the company for the iPhone. Before that however, the discussion will focus on the fast food industry and ways in which some of the top burger places of today collect data from consumers and how this data is utilized from a marketing perspective. Lastly we will dive into the world of sports betting via online gambling and talk about ethical and legal concerns with regard to social media marketing. This will also include brief discussions on the impacts of marketing strategies on children, how companies like Facebook adhere to legal requirements and go about policing ethical and legal concerns within their platforms.
The hamburger segment of the fast-food industry is one that many of us are familiar with, in that, we know of and consume their products. From a marketing perspective, companies look for ways of consuming data from consumers in order to create campaigns that target their habits and increase sales. Let’s take a look at some examples of the types of market data collected by burger makers such as McDonalds, Burger King, Jack in the Box, In-and-Out Burger, and Five Guys.
McDonalds for instance has moved much of the ordering process to their mobile application and to self-serve kiosks within the restaurant. This move has allowed the company to collect demographic data from customers including their email address, phone number, and location. Even more importantly, the company is able to collect information on customer preferences and patterns such as the specific items ordered, time of day they are purchased, and the frequency in which they occur (Southon, 2019). Not surprisingly, the other burger places also have their own mobile apps which also do the same. These companies also make use of their websites that allow customers to sign up for have loyalty programs. All of this serves to collect data for their marketing purposes.
Once these companies have collected your data, you might ask yourself, what’s next? Well, for those who download the mobile app and use it for ordering, push notifications will start coming your way and after a while, will be based on the timing and content of your prior purchases. This is a common method of marketing that attempts to entice consumers to repeat their prior habits. Additionally, providing your email address will more than likely result in these companies sending you ads as part of targeted marketing campaigns that could fit your demographic, past purchase habits, or just advertisements with good old fashioned coupons that encourage repeat visits (Filloon, 2018).
While some see these marketing attempts as a mild annoyance, campaigns like these continue to be utilized due to their effectiveness, the data collected, and the revenues generated. Based on the profits companies are seeing, many are all-in on the idea. As an example of how serious they are about it, in 2019, McDonald’s acquired a start-up known as “Dynamic Yield” for $300 million, a company that specialized in machine learning used to power online purchase recommendations. This is what led to digital screens in the drive-thru that now flash advertisements on the screen based on the size of the vehicle detected and the number of people in the car (Southon, 2019). That should really blow your mind.
Companies that have brand equity will have consumers who are willing to pay a premium for their products based on their reputation (Marshall & Johnston, 2018). When I think of brand equity in this respect, one of the companies that immediately comes to mind is Apple computer. Customers line up year-after-year to be amazed at the company’s latest product offerings and pay what feels like insanely inflated prices for the latest and greatest phones and laptops. To analyze this a bit further, let’s look a bit deeper at some of the factors that contribute to Apple’s brand equity with regard to the iPhone.
Brand awareness is a great place to start as this defines the awareness that consumers have for your product or company (Marshall & Johnston, 2018). In cities around the country, you would be hard pressed to find a group of people within a densely populated city that did not include at least one person who was familiar with the Apple brand or the iPhone. The brand loyalty that Apple has with its customers is a relationship that can be seen in their commitment to purchase the latest iPhones each year, or in how quickly their release events sell out annually just to get a peek at what’s being released next (Wikipedia contributors, 2021).
For those who love the iPhone, one of the reasons for these affections are largely due to the company’s commitment to the quality behind it as well as simplistic yet elegant design. The company prides itself on managing decisions for their hardware and software, both of which are done in-house, giving the company increased control and seamless functionality (Aliz, 2021). This creates consumers who come to expect a high level of quality from the organization. All of the areas and examples listed thus far contribute to brand association. This is where consumers establish a bond with a brand by way of emotional, psychological and even performance connections to products, which makes sense when you think about the loyalty most have with their phone, especially those who love their iPhone.
Lastly, let’s wrap things up with the topic of brand assets, which includes patents and or trademarks of the iPhone. Specifically, those that give the company a competitive advantage (Marshall & Johnston, 2018). Two areas of the product that come to mind are the iTunes store and the FaceTime video calling application. The store includes an unmatched level of music, games, and mobile apps available to end users, while the FaceTime application has been a big selling point since its inception. This feature is so popular, Apple has just announced it will offer the ability for Android users to utilize FaceTime as part of the iOS 15 rollout during the autumn of 2021 (VOA Learning English, 2021).
Changing gears, the area of sports gambling is one where ethical and legal issues are a frequent occurrence due to the nature of this business, the money being made, and considering that states are beginning to pass laws to allow for its existence. This is a very lucrative industry with states like Illinois pulling in $42.2 million in gross revenue for 2020 making it the fourth largest operator in the US (Ad Age, 2021). With so many casinos being forced to close during the height of the COVID pandemic, many online sports betting websites were in the perfect position to launch marketing campaigns aimed at those stuck at home and looking to scratch that gambling itch.
The issues however, are the methods used by many of these companies to advertise their services to the masses, which bring up ethical and legal concerns from the Federal Trade Commission. Issues such as exaggerating the number people raking in huge amounts of winnings as well as enticing them with ideas for spending their winnings such as on fast cars or swimming pools. In light of this, the government has issued warnings to these companies to change their advertising practices or they will step in and do so themselves (Edelstein, 2021).
With social media accessible to so many users, including those of a very young age, there is also a danger of subjecting them to these advertisements, which could send the wrong message. With children spending an estimated 16,000 hours viewing advertisements per year, some of the fears include teaching weak impulse control, increased eating habit that lead to obesity, and a list of other issues (Watson, 2014). As it relates to data being shared, social media sites must ensure they are marketing to their allowed groups, following regulations for collecting data, and informing users of the steps being taken to protect their data (Newberry, 2021).
Laws that dictate some of the requirements for these areas include CAN-SPAM and the US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). CAN-SPAM lays out rules for the sending of digital marketing communications and dictates what steps must be followed when users opt out (Federal Trade Commission, 2021a). The second of which, COPPA, allows parents to specify what data companies can collect from their children and dictates the rules that need to be followed by these organizations (Federal Trade Commission, 2021a).
In order to police ethical and legal issues within their platform, companies like Facebook who also control Instagram, What’s App, and Facebook Messenger, prompt users to ask if they agree with sharing or allowing the company to access their data, photos, location and more. These preferences are then saved as part of the user’s privacy settings and associated with their account, which are used while navigating and sharing within these applications (Facebook, 2021). The company also offers links to state related policies for users to view if interested, such as the link Facebook includes on their data policy page to the California Consumer Privacy Act.
Not quite so long ago, companies like McDonald’s were more concerned with the efficiency of their operations rather than the data associated with the behaviors of their consumers. All of that changed as more and more data became available, making this information very valuable after the realization that it can help generate revenue. This is what led many of these organizations to focus on data collection via mobile applications, in-store purchases, and the purchase behaviors of their customers. For Apple computer, it was innovation rather than data collection that led to the brand equity achieved by the organization with the invention and obsession with the iPhone. The attention and care put into the design, combined with the high level of quality seen in this product has led to an awareness and loyalty from their customers that other companies can only dream of reaching. This is also true of the brand associations and assets of the iPhone, which have increased and resulted in a competitive advantage over time. Lastly we looked at the world of online gambling with regard to marketing in order to explore some of the ethical and legal concerns being faced by companies in this industry such as a need for self-imposed oversight when it comes to how their services are advertised. We also talked about how this can impact the younger generation and have a negative impact on them. We then jumped to discussing Facebook and some of their other social media platforms such as Instagram and What’s App as part of analyzing how they meet requirements for sharing data and how they go about policing ethical and legal issues.
References
Ad Age. (2021, January 14). The U.S. sports betting race is on—and many marketers
want a piece of the action. https://adage.com/article/marketing-news-strategy/us-
Aliz, D. (2021, June 7). What makes Apple products such high quality? Upscale Living
Edelstein, J. (2021, April 19). Sports betting and gambling advertising bans in
America? Not bloody likely. SportsHandle. https://sportshandle.com/gambling-
Facebook. (2021). Facebook - data policy.
Federal Trade Commission. (2021a). CAN-SPAM Act: A compliance guide for business.
Federal Trade Commission. (2021b). Children’s privacy.
Filloon, W. (2018, October 10). Why restaurants are obsessively collecting customer
Kidadl Team. (2021). 101 Seth Godin quotes on tribes, marketing and leadership.
Marshall, G., & Johnston, M. (2018). Marketing Management (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill
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Newberry, C. (2021, May 25). Social media compliance: Everything you need to know
to stay compliant. Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.
Southon, M. (2019). How McDonald’s is building a data-driven retail experience. Kin
VOA Learning English. (2021, June 10). Apple’s FaceTime is coming to Android and
Watson, B. (2014, July 1). The tricky business of advertising to children. The Guardian.
Wikipedia contributors. (2021, August 3). List of Apple Inc. media events. Wikipedia.
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