Abstract
Reflektive, Inc. is an emerging company that offers a platform where the performance of employees can be measured to promote their development. Many companies are currently coming up with various ways of measuring the performance of their employees as a way of improving the overall productivity of the firm. This company has developed a standard solution that makes it possible for workers to assess the performance of their colleagues and report on the observed strengths and weaknesses.
The goal of this assessment is to foster the continuous improvement of the workforce. As shown in this paper, Reflektive, Inc. faces stiff competition in the market from various firms offering similar products. The only way of developing and maintaining a pool of loyal customers is to embrace different marketing strategies discussed in this paper. The management should also ensure that it maintains a team of talented employees capable of understanding and meeting the needs of its customers.
Introduction
Managing market competition in the current society requires a proper strategy and an understanding of various forces within a given region. According to Ford (2018), the increasingly competitive market in modern society has forced many companies to come up with unique ways of coping. Communication strategies that a firm uses to reach out to its clients, product-positioning strategies, managing crises, and risks in the market, understanding, and effectively responding to emerging trends are critical steps towards managing competition.
Meeting various needs of customers, and operating within the law while at the same time trying to be as unique as possible are the other ways through which firms struggle to achieve a competitive edge in the market. In this paper, the focus is on a smart start-up firm known as Reflektive, Inc., and how it manages various forces in the market.
Brief Description of the Company
Reflektive, Inc. was founded in 2013 and has its headquarters in San Francisco, California. The company offers a platform for employee engagement, analytics, and performance measurement (Weitzl, 2017). It enables employees to get feedback from their colleagues at work and to understand their areas of strength and weaknesses. The solution that the firm offers is also useful to managers who may want to understand the capacity of each employee and the best area that he or she can serve within the company. The founders of this company realized that the concept of performance measurement was gaining popularity all over the world, but there were no proper systems and mechanisms of measuring employees’ output.
Järvinen and Karjaluoto (2015) argue that companies have come to realize that they have to narrow down to the performance of every employee to enhance the overall output within a firm. However, most of the platforms that were in use were not popular because many viewed them as being unfair to workers. Paun (2018) reports that many companies that have embraced the conventional performance measurement tools have faced resistance from employees who claim that these tools are insensitive to the plight of workers. The solution offered by Reflektive, Inc. is widely viewed as friendly to the employees. It allows colleagues to evaluate the performance of an individual proactively, with the view of identifying weaknesses and strengths to enhance one’s overall performance.
Industry Review
The industry within which Reflektive, Inc. operates is becoming competitive. According to Paun (2018), when the concept of employees’ performance measurement first emerged, every company had to come up with ways of determining the output of their workers. However, that has changed as consulting companies continue to develop improved solutions that firms can use to assess the value of every employee.
Numerous firms now offer varying solutions, which are suitable for firms in various contexts. SimCorp, Fiserv, and Imagine Software Inc. are some of the top players in the industry (Weitzl, 2017). It is important to note that although each of these firms offers unique products; their concept is almost the same. They are focused on providing their clients with solutions needed to assess the output of the employees in the workplace.
The industry is promising to be even more competitive as numerous other human resource-consulting firms continue to emerge with similar products in the market. The United States is currently the most attractive market for these companies. The pressure that individual firms (small, medium-sized, and large multinational corporations) have to ensure that every employee registers the best performance is pushing most of them to embrace the new concept of performance measurement and management. Each of these consulting companies often tries to make their products as unique as possible to attract more customers.
They always try to appeal to their clients by offering what is needed the most in the market (Hilken, de Ruyter, Chylinski, Mahr, & Keeling, 2017). Reflektive, Inc. has come up with a concept that is based on peer-review to ensure that workers are given priority in assessing the performance of their colleagues within the workplace.
Product Review and Buyer Analysis
Reflektive, Inc. has become one of the major firms offering solutions used for reviewing the performance of employees. According to Paun (2018), the product that a firm offers to the market must be one that meets specific market needs. The founders of this company were able to identify a need in the market. They noticed that there was a growing need for companies of all sizes to ensure that their workers were delivering the output expected by the top management. As Paun (2018) observes, performance management has taken a new trend because of various factors in the market. In the past, performance measurement was measured at department levels.
Every department would be assigned specific goals to be realized within a specific duration. The head of that department would be held fully responsible and accountable for the outcome achieved by the department. However, that has changed. Although departments still have goals that they have to realize, performance measurement is currently done at the employee-level in most firms. It is the best way of ensuring that everyone is paid for the actual work done.
Reflektive, Inc. saw an opportunity in the market. The firm realized that the tools and concepts used to measure the performance of its employees were not effective. Most of them failed to understand the specific challenges that employees faced in the workplace. As such, it developed a new product, a solution that makes it possible for workers to assess the performance of their colleagues and make relevant reports. The product that this company offers emphasizes the need to eliminate laziness, insubordination, incompetence, lack of concern to the firm and its customers, and other issues that affect the overall performance of the firm.
The founders of this company believed that co-workers are best placed to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their colleagues. When they are provided with the right communication platforms, they can discuss issues that harm the firm to improve the performance and commitment of their employees in the workplace. The platform also makes it easy for the managers to have access to such peer-reviews in case necessary measures may need to be taken. The system is based on the concept of fairness and collective responsibility.
Buyers of the product offered by Reflektive, Inc. are firms of varying sizes keen on assessing the performance of their workers. When this firm started its operations, it targeted small and mid-sized firms within San Francisco, California. These customers liked the concept of peer-reviewed assessment of employees’ performance. As the product gained popularity within the region, large firms realized that the concept used is relevant to their operations.
As Paun (2018) observes, managers and supervisors may not be in the best position to understand the performance of individual employees. Sometimes a firm cannot even rely on customers to assess the performance of workers, especially in cases where the employee does not directly interact with clients. Fellow workers are in the best position to issue a report based on what is observed. The clientele base of Reflektive, Inc. is growing rapidly as it now serves customers in the entire country. It is a confirmation that the company has made relevant steps towards understanding the market needs and its products are now relevant to firms of different sizes. It is expected that if the current trajectory of growth is maintained, the company will expand its operations to the global market.
Promotional Program Situation Analysis
Developing an excellent product that meets customers’ needs in the best way possible is one thing, and making it popular in the market is another. Developing an effective promotional campaign strategy is critical in popularizing a brand and a product. Paun (2018) observes that firms are currently spending millions of dollars to reach out to their customers with promotional messages. The message may inform clients about the existence of a product and places where they are available.
Sometimes the message may be focused primarily on popularizing a brand or a product in the market. Conducting situation analysis makes it possible to understand the current position of a firm in the market and strategies that the management can do to achieve specific goals and objectives.
Competitive Review
Reflektive, Inc. faces stiff competition in the market from numerous companies offering similar or closely related products. One of the prominent competitors in this market is SimCorp. This Danish firm was founded in 1971 as an IT solutions expert (Weitzl, 2017). It has since expanded its operations to North America and various parts of Europe. It has also broadened the scope of its products beyond the IT-related products.
Its human resource management solutions have gained popularity in Europe. It has developed various concepts that can enable managers to review the performance of their employees without necessarily having to be physically present in their workstations. Most of their systems are meant to enable managers to know what employees are doing at every given time, whether they report to work and leave at the specified time, and if their individual goals are met.
One of the main criticisms of its products is that it turns managers and supervisors into spies, capable of monitoring the actions of the employees without being seen. Ford (2018) argues that workers do not like being watched every time they are at work. Others may pretend to be working just to please the supervisor. Generally, the solution it offers remains popular among many managers who feel that they cannot leave their offices but still need to monitor the actions of their workers.
Fiserv, Inc. was founded on July 3, 1984, as a provider of IT-related financial products (Géczy, Izumi, & Hasida, 2014). Headquartered in Brookfield, Wisconsin, the firm has registered impressive growth over the years. Recently, the firm expanded its product lines to include IT products in the field of human resources. Mergers and acquisitions have often characterized the firm’s expansion. Its main target customers are large multinational companies in North America. Some of its products make it a direct competitor of Reflektive, Inc., especially in the field of human resource management. Imagine Software Inc. is another major competitor of this firm. It offers a wide range of solutions related to human resource management.
Segmentation
Segmentation is critical when operating in a highly competitive business environment. According to Voorveld, van Noort, Muntinga, and Bronner (2018), dividing the market into groups based on specific characteristics makes it easy to understand how to develop specific products that meet each group. The management Reflektive Inc. understands the level of competition in the market and the need to segment the market to identify customers whose needs it can meet in the best way possible. Based on the nature of the products that this company offers, segmentation if often done based on the size of the customer. Potential customers are segmented into three different groups. They include small, medium, and large multinational corporations.
The small firms are companies with less than 50 employees. Most of them operate within a given city or state within the country. Most often, they do not have the ambition to explore new markets outside the country within the next two to three years. The medium firms are those that hire over 50 employees but less than one thousand. They may operate within a given state or across the country. Some of them may be having plans to expand to the global or regional markets. The large multinational corporations are firms that hire over 1000 employees and operate in a regional or global market.
The management of this company needs to understand that each segment has unique needs that must be met effectively. Small firms need a simple solution that will ensure that the performance of every worker is measured and the top manager is properly informed in case a proper action may be needed. As Ford (2018) observes, small firms need human resource solutions that can be understood by the top management. In many cases, such firms do not have a human resource manager.
The owner of the firm may double up as the chief executive. Such a person needs a simple system that he or she can understand with ease. The medium-sized firms need advanced systems that reflect the complexity of their management system. The large multinational corporations will need comprehensive systems because of their sophisticated management systems. For Reflektive, Inc. to achieve success in this competitive market, it must be willing and capable of meeting the needs of customers in each of these segments.
Targeting
The next step after segmenting the market is targeting. It involves identifying the most appropriate segment in the market that a firm has the best capacity to meet its needs. In a relatively large market with customers having varying characteristics and needs, it is impossible to satisfy everyone. Trying to please all customers within the market may not only be frustrating but also dangerous to the success of such a firm (Géczy et al., 2014).
As such, it is prudent to identify a small segment with needs that a firm finds reasonable. After identifying the right segment, the firm should develop products that uniquely meet the needs of that segment. The goal of the strategy is to ensure that the needs of the selected market segment are met in the best way possible.
Reflektive, Inc. has always been interested in small and medium-sized firms. Its products are suitable for these firms because it creates a platform for shared responsibility when evaluating the performance of employees. A restaurant manager with forty employees working in respective departments may not have time to supervise the output of every worker regularly. Such a manager must take time to develop strategies that will help in expanding the customer base while at the same time improving the supply chain.
The solution that Reflektive, Inc. offers makes it possible to hand over the role of human resource management to employees. When workers can identify and articulate the strengths and weaknesses of their colleagues, finding a proper solution may be easy without necessarily having the input of the top manager. The colleagues may help a worker to overcome the weaknesses while at the same time using the strength to achieve better performance.
Positioning
Positioning is the last stage after segmenting the market and identifying the right target customers. Ford (2018) defines positioning as a deliberate process of creating an identity or image of a product or a brand in the mind of the customers. It involves creating a perception among customers that define how they view the product based on the message that is passed to them in promotional messages. Positioning a brand or its products require a calculative approach that emphasizes the needs of the targeted clients.
Weitzl (2017) suggests that the most effective positioning strategy is to create a perception that the products meet clients’ needs in the perfect way possible. The choice of words in the promotional campaign and the concepts that come out define the perceptions that customers develop. The message to the targeted customers is that the firm has an unmatched capacity to deliver excellent products.
Reflektive, Inc. mostly targets small and medium-sized companies in the United States. As previously noted, most of the top managers of these firms do not have time to scrutinize the performance of every individual employee daily. They have to develop strategic plans that would help in expanding the scope of their firms’ operation. However, they also understand that the desired goals and objectives can only be realized if workers deliver on their promise. This company should position its solution as an effective and simple to use system that makes easy to assess and improve the performance of workers without taking much time of the manager. The positioning strategy should emphasize three factors.
First, the solution is a proactive way of assessing and improving employees’ performance. It helps in identifying weaknesses and strengths as a way of enhancing the overall performance of workers. Secondly, it should stress the fact that the top management unit may not necessarily be involved in the assessment process. Employees will review the performance of their colleagues and propose ways in which they can improve. Finally, the message should remind the targeted customers of the ease with which the solution can be used. One does not need a team of highly trained and experienced IT experts to use it.
Communications Objectives and Budget Request
The ability of Reflektive, Inc. to promote its brand in the local market significantly depends on the communication strategies that it uses. It is expected that as an emerging company, the budget may be tight. As such, unlike large companies that can afford to use millions of dollars in the advertisement, this company will have to be very specific on how to spend its limited resources. The primary objective is to reach out to the audience with the message about the brand and its products.
The brand should be popular in the country, especially to the targeted customers as discussed above. Ford (2018) advises that when a firm has limited resources, care should be taken to select the most effective communication platform that will reach the widest audience within the desired time at the least cost possible. In this section of the paper, the focus is to discuss how this company can use its limited budget to achieve communication objectives.
How the Monies Will Be Allocated
The management of Reflektive, Inc. has a challenging responsibility of ensuring that promotional messages reach out to the targeted audience using the resources available within the firm. The choice of the platform will depend on the financial capacity and the objective that the firm seeks to realize. Traditional advertising media, the new media, and sales promotions are some of the available strategies that this firm can use to reach out to the target audience. The management should consider the following proposal when planning to reach out to its audience in the market.
Traditional advertising
The traditional advertising platforms are still relevant though not as popular as they were in the past. Many people still watch the news on television and listen to music on their radio. These two platforms were once very powerful means of reaching the audience. Television advertisements are still popular in the United States (Friedman, 2018). It is important to note that they are expensive platforms compared with the new media platforms. The management of this company should avoid these two traditional platforms because of the associated costs. If it is considered very necessary, then there should be a once per month commercial on the popular television channels in the country. The goal is to reach out to the target audience but using the least possible budget.
Newspapers and magazines should not be given serious consideration. However, they can also be used occasionally when it is confirmed that they are very necessary. The management should set aside an annual budget of $ 35,000 to be used in the traditional advertising platforms. There should be a calculated balancing of cost and audience reached when choosing the right traditional platform. For instance, it costs $20,428 to put an eighth of a page advert in the Washington Post. When a firm uses the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the cost goes down to $ 2,961. It is reduced further to $ 347 when one uses the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
However, it should be remembered that Washington Post reaches out to over 550,000 people daily. About 154,000 people read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, while Bozeman Daily Chronicle has a circulation of slightly over 14,000 (Géczy et al., 2014). It will cost this firm $ 665,677 to broadcast a 30-second advertisement on NBC’s Sunday Night Football (Poggi, 2018). Care should be taken to ensure that the firm spends within the set limits while at the same time reaching out to the targeted audience.
Sales promotions
Sales promotion is always one of the common and popular strategies among start-up companies. According to Weitzl (2017), a firm may embrace different strategies when using sales promotion to reach out to its audience. One of the greatest benefits of using sales promotion is that it directly targets a specific group of customers. It means that time will not be wasted with a platform that reaches out to the general public, most of who may not be interested in the message that is being passed. The strategy ensures that the targeted customer is reached to convince them to purchase the products of the firm and to remain loyal at all times. The following are some of the popular sales promotional strategies that Reflektive Company’s management should consider.
One of the sales promotion strategies that this company should consider is discount vouchers. Some of the small and medium-sized firms targeted by the products of Reflektive, Inc. have limited financial resources. As such, they will always consider cheaper options whenever they have to introduce new concepts. The discounted products will attract new clients within the period that the sales promotion will be running.
Ford (2018) says that it is critical to inform customers that the product is on promotion for a limited time so that they can be prepared to pay the full price when the right time comes. The service offered to these customers should be excellent to convince them to remain loyal to the brand even when the period of promotion ends.
After-sale services is another promotional strategy that this company can use to attract customers to its products. In this strategy, the firm will need to help the new client to understand how the new system works (Géczy et al., 2014). It may involve sending some of its representatives to the premises of the client to work with its employees and ensure that they know how to use the system. The employees should understand how to provide positive feedback about their colleagues and areas that need improvements.
On the other hand, managers and supervisors should know how to observe these comments and take appropriate action in case it is necessary. For instance, if the majority of those providing feedback note that a given issue needs to be addressed by the management to improve the overall performance of the employees within the firm, the relevant authorities within the firm will need to take appropriate actions.
The management of this company can also consider organizing roadshows or direct visits to the premises of the target audience. Reflektive, Inc. can send its representatives to the targeted company with a promotional message about its products. The representatives should explain the relevance of these solutions that Reflektive, Inc. offers to the customer. They should be able to convince the client to consider trying the product, especially if they are yet to embrace this new approach to performance measurement. In case the client is already using a similar solution from another firm, then the aim should be to convince them to change their loyalty to this company because of the superiority of the product and its competitive pricing strategy.
New media
New media offers endless opportunities, especially when it comes to promoting a brand in the market. Some of the most popular new media platforms, also known as social media, include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn among others. For this company, it may not be necessary to use all of these platforms to promote its brand in the market because it has a limited budget. Instead, the management should consider using a select few considered most appropriate. The choice should be based on the size of the audience that the firm can reach out to through the platform and the cost.
Facebook is currently the most popular social media platform in the world. With over 2.23 billion active users, it is by far the most effective platform that a firm can use to advertise its products in the market (Géczy et al., 2014). The management of Facebook has also developed unique and affordable products for clients seeking to use its platform to reach out to a wide audience. It has two main methods of charging its clients. There is the Cost per Click (CPC) and Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM). CPM is often more expensive than CPC. However, the firm has designed these products to make them more affordable and capable of passing the intended message.
Twitter is another platform that is growing in popularity. The social networking site has about 400 million users worldwide. One of the most important benefits of Twitter for a company such as Reflektive, Inc. is that it is popular among business executives and politicians. It is more likely that promotional messages shared in this platform will reach the intended audience. YouTube is another popular website, with an average of over 1.8 billion regular users. Like television commercials, Reflektive, Inc. can develop commercials that can be run on YouTube. The platform is particularly popular among youths who visit the site to watch videos and music. The management of Reflektive, Inc. can set aside another annual budget of $ 40,000 to be used in new media advertisements.
Creative Strategy Statement
The primary goal of the advertising strategies that this company will embrace is to convince a pool of customers to be loyal to Reflektive, Inc.’s brand in the market. As such, it is necessary to develop a creative element strategy that defines how the advertising techniques embraced will be appealing to the target audience. Almubarak, Pervan, and Johnson (2018) warn that it can be counter-productive to develop a promotional campaign that the audience consider appalling.
Instead of convincing customers to purchase products of the company, it may be a reminder for these customers to avoid the brand at all costs because of the negative impression created in their minds. It means that such customers may be willing to try a completely new product with an unknown brand instead of using the one they loath. The following creative statement should guide the advertising strategies and messages that will be used by this company in all its promotional campaigns:
To understand the human resource challenges of the target audience and develop a message that explains, in the best words possible, how their problem can be solved by using solutions offered by this firm.
The statement shows that the advertising strategy starts with an understanding of what customers need. Järvinen and Karjaluoto (2015) explain that a firm should not make assumptions when determining customers’ needs. It should conduct market research to understand these challenges in the best way possible. The next step is to develop products that can help overcome these challenges.
When developing the message for the target audience, care should be taken to ensure that what is promised is what the firm will deliver. It means that if the massage promises to solve issues relating to managing employees’ performance, which should be the exact benefit that customers should expect when they purchase the product. Both the message (advertisement) and the product should be appealing.
IMC Mix
Integrated marketing communication mix involves linking all communications and messages to ensure that they work in harmony intending to persuade the audience to consider purchasing products of a given firm and remaining loyal to its brand. As Garnefeld, Eggert, Helm, and Tax (2013) observe, persuading people to embrace a new concept or a product may not be easy. The task is even more complex when it comes to convincing a financially strained firm to consider embracing a given product that would force it to spend more. Achieving that goal not only requires unique skills to convince customers but also the ability to remain consistent.
For instance, when Reflektive, Inc. develops a promotional campaign that explains how its products are effective for small and medium-sized companies in managing the performance of its human resources, the message should be consistent across all the medium used and at all times. When a client sees the same product that was positioned for small and medium-sized firms being promoted for large firms, it creates doubt. It makes them wonder whether the product is effective for their firm. Such doubts may have serious negative consequences. It may make customers believe that the product is for general purposes and cannot meet their specific needs.
Specific Media Objectives/Mix
The integrated marketing communication mix emphasizes the need to pass promotional messages using various platforms but invariably, that does not create any confusion or doubt among the target audience. As such, the management of Reflektive, Inc. should develop specific media objectives that will help achieve the overall goal of creating a pool of loyal customers for the company. The following are the proposed objectives that should guide all the marketing communication strategies that this firm embraces:
- To ensure that promotional messages reach out to as many of the targeted executives as possible within the United States.
- To ensure that the promotional messages passed through different media platforms are consistent at all times.
- To ensure that limited resources available for advertising are used effectively to achieve promotional goals.
- To ensure that there is a proper mix of media platform that includes both the traditional media and the new media to help in widening the geographic reach of the audience.
Measuring IMC Program Effectiveness
The management will need to measure the effectiveness of the integrated marketing communication approach that it embraces. As Paun (2018) states, embracing every strategy takes time and resources. It is prudent to ensure that time and resources that a firm uses on a given strategy helps in achieving the primary goals of the firm. It means that Reflektive, Inc.’s top management unit will need to ascertain that its new strategies will help it achieve market goals. The effectiveness of advertising, public relations, sales promotion, direct marketing, interactive media campaigns, and any other promotional campaigns that this firm uses will be measured based on the direct impact on the firm’s brand and products.
The expectation is that the program embraced will increase sales and brand popularity in the market. Järvinen and Karjaluoto (2015) recommend using each of the programs independently to determine how effective they are. When using sales promotion, other strategies should be suspended. Within the period that the strategy will be in use, the management should determine the possible increase in sales and popularity of a brand. The systematic assessment of each of the integrated promotional mix elements helps in determining approaches that would deliver the best outcome for the firm.
Evaluation of Program
The evaluation process of each of the programs that the firm embraces based on the above proposal should be done at different levels. First, the management should create an independent platform that will allow its employees to rate the new system based on the observed benefits. It is expected that the system will not only improve the performance of the employees but also make them motivated in their workplace.
As such, the evaluation should start with them. They need to be asked if they feel the new program has solved most of the challenges they face in the workplace and if they feel they are better employees. The next step is for the management to evaluate the overall performance of the firm. The improved performance of individual employees should be reflected in the firm’s overall performance. It should be seen that the company is performing better than before the introduction of the new system.
Promotion of New Products on Internet and Social Media
The management of Reflektive, Inc. will need to use the internet and social media to achieve its promotional goals. As mentioned above, the internet currently provides numerous opportunities for firms to advertise their products. The social media has particularly gained massive popularity because of the growing number of users. Investing in social media can have a significant impact on the brand of a firm. It eliminates the geographic boundaries that existed before when using mass media.
It means that if this firm develops a new product and want to promote it to a global audience, it can easily do so using Facebook or YouTube. Köhler, Mantrala, Albers, and Kanuri (2017) note that the advancement that Facebook has shown, especially the fact that users can now translate their messages to hundreds of languages across the world means that the language barrier is also eliminated. The cost of promoting a product on a global scale may be high, but the outcome is equally great.
Marketing and Social Aspects of (anti)Social Media
When using the internet to promote products to the target market, the management of Reflektive, Inc. should be careful of the challenges that exist. Understanding the aspects of (anti)social media may help in eliminating unnecessary risks. As Järvinen and Karjaluoto (2015) put it, social media can be of great benefit or a serious threat to the existence of a firm depending on how it is used. The following factors should be taken into consideration.
Broadcasting
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and various other popular social media platforms can be used to broadcast promotional messages to the target audience. The benefit of these platforms is that they can enable a firm to reach out to a large audience within a short period.
Narrowcasting/Point casting
Narrowcasting or point casting can also be done using social media. Instead of publishing promotional messages to a general audience, a firm can develop a message specifically targeting a given client and send it to their inbox. The same message can also be sent to their e-mail address.
Multi-tasking generation
Social media can be viewed as multitasking platforms where a firm cannot only promote a product but also get instant feedback from the market. It means that if there is an issue that requires immediate attention from the management, and appropriate action can be taken at the right time.
Simultaneous multimedia exposure
A firm may find it necessary to embrace multimedia exposure as a way of reaching out to as many people as possible within the shortest time possible. It may use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and some elements of traditional media at the same time to increase the chances of reaching out to the targeted audience.
Use of celebrities in advertising
Firms are currently using top celebrities in their social media campaigns. Getting endorsements from celebrities such as Christiano Ronaldo, Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, Celine Dion, Angelina Jolie, Rihana, Beyoncé, Tiger Woods, and Justin Beiber can help in promoting a brand in the market. Järvinen and Karjaluoto (2015) warn that a firm should be careful to avoid controversial celebrities because of their image is tainted, that may be directly reflected on the image of the firm in the market.
Models for optimizing media mix
According to Järvinen and Karjaluoto (2015), a firm can currently choose to use traditional advertising platforms or new digital platforms based on what it seeks to gain. Various models have emerged for optimizing media mix as a way of ensuring that the most effective platforms are selected. It is critical to ensure that the model selected is in line with the marketing goals of this company.
Conclusion
Reflektive, Inc. has been keen on meeting the needs of its clients since its establishment in 2013. It seeks to offer its clients a platform through which they can evaluate the performance of their employees based on a positive peer-review process. The solution enables top managers to understand what every worker thinks of the colleagues based on the perceived strengths and weaknesses. Although the firm’s product is unique, competition in the market is getting increasingly stiff. One of the most important ways of managing the competition is to develop effective promotional messages and use the right platforms to reach out to the target audience.
References
Almubarak, A.F., Pervan, S.J., & Johnson, L.W. (2018). A conceptual analysis of brand intimacy on social media platforms. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 26(6), 463-478.
Ford, J.B. (2018). What do we know about sports sponsorships? Journal of Advertising Research, 58(3), 257-258.
Friedman, W. (2018). Online sales are top factor in measuring success of TV ad campaigns: Study. Media Post. Web.
Garnefeld, I., Eggert, A., Helm, S.V., & Tax, S.S. (2013). Growing existing customers’ revenue streams through customer referral programs. Journal of Marketing, 77(1), 17-32.
Géczy, P., Izumi, N., & Hasida, K. (2014). Analytics-based management of information systems. Review of Business and Finance Studies, 5(2), 1-12.
Hilken, T., de Ruyter, K., Chylinski, M., Mahr, D., & Keeling, D.I. (2017). Augmenting the eye of the beholder: Exploring the strategic potential of augmented reality to enhance online service experiences. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45(6), 884–905.
Järvinen, J., & Karjaluoto, H. (2015). The use of Web analytics for digital marketing performance measurement. Industrial Marketing Management, 50(1), 117-127.
Köhler, C., Mantrala, K.M., Albers, S., & Kanuri, V.K. (2017). A meta-analysis of marketing communication carryover effects. Journal of Marketing Research, 54(1), 990-1008.
Paun, D. (2018). Corporate sustainability reporting: An innovative tool for the greater good of all. Business Horizons, 121(1), 70-79.
Poggi, J. (2018). Here is how much it costs to advertise in TV’s biggest shows. AdAge. Web.
Voorveld, A.M., van Noort, G., Muntinga, D.G., & Bronner, F. (2018). Engagement with social media and social media advertising: The differentiating role of platform type. Journal of Advertising, 47(1), 38-54.
Weitzl, W. (2017). Measuring electronic word-of-mouth effectiveness: Developing and applying the E-WOM trust scale. Wiesbaden, Germany: Springer Gabler.