Ugba 106 – Maersk Marketing
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Alina ChaikaProfessor AzharUGBA 10626 September 2017Individual Assignment about Maersk LinesWichmann was able to get the culture and the company onboard “by taking spontaneous and flexible approach” on social media platforms, which has resulted in the authentic communication with customers for B2B firms. Maersk has utilized nontraditional, transparent marketing, in the sense that it became a first-mover advantage company that concentrated on the end users as consumers. Maersk has identified that each platform requires a different campaign; thus, I’m going to analyze Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn by applying 6M’s framework to evaluate what channels the company should specifically focus on.FacebookMost of Maersk’s users on Facebook are fans, and only 15-17% are determined as customers, while about 25,000 of followers were the company’s employees.  The main mission of Facebook marketing is to create users’ engagement “in a very visual and conversational way”. By conveying the message through storytelling about Maersk’s culture, rich history, and competitive advantages such as global reach, reliability, and focus on environment, the company has been able to attract over one million fans to its Facebook page.  The negative story about the whale has demonstrated that Maersk maintains sustainability, while posts about on-time reliability emphasized why the company has been the global leader on the market.  Such reinforcements about the Maersk’s positioning have essentially contributed to the success of high engagement on Facebook. So, in order to measure the effectiveness of the campaign, two different metrics were used: 1) calculation of ROI based on the average dollar value of “like” for B2B company, 2) created formula that included number of likes, shares, and comments.  The second measurement is more appropriate, since it directly aligns with the company’s mission. As a result of this campaign, Maersk increased brand awareness and strengthened its brand image by becoming a social media “megastar” in a retail shipping industry.TwitterBecause most of the Twitter users utilize the channel for the business purposes, the company’s market segment has been mainly customers. Maersk has accomplished its main objective of being present on Twitter by having a “more human” approach that is based not on just sharing the news, but also on posts with different content in order to humanize the brand.  Maersk has wanted to influence the industry through the news sharing, yet probably because it’s hard to measure such a purpose, there is no metrics used to evaluate the influence of the posts on customers. Because the company has shifted their main focus to more corporate social media channels such as LinkedIn and Google+, it overlooked the potential of Twitter.
Google+Google+ is considered as a business channel that is focused on leadership and innovation.  Since experts and shipping professionals has been the main market segment for the platform, the main objective of the presence on Google+ is to “get [unique] ideas and valuable input”.  The firm has also wanted to show its leadership position in the shipping industry through the business news. To demonstrate Maersk’s advantage in innovation, it uses Google+ Hangouts to announce new initiatives during small press briefings. Nevertheless, Maersk has been struggling with how to utilize the platform effectively. While the company found it useful for business discussions and briefings, it is widely underused by the company. LinkedInLinkedIn has been evaluated as a most corporate platform by Maersk, and, thus, the main market segment is customers. The company aims “to get closer to customers” by posting the news and interacting with consumers through created forums and groups. The firm also put an emphasis on sending the message to the audience about the company’s products and services as well as reasons about changes that could affect them.  Even though Maersk has monitored the users’ engagement in groups to gain information about trends and experts’ opinions, Maersk hasn’t used any metrics to measure the effectiveness of the campaign’s mission. Approximately 67 percent of survey’s respondents have stated that Maersk’s social-media efforts bettered their perceptions of the company. Such a success of Maersk’s social media strategy is directly aligned with functional benefit of the social networking of “Talking”. The company has increased the “Share of Voice” and brand awareness by gaining a wide reach across social media channels compared to competitors with a low budget of $100,000. It has also humanized brand through visuals and stories and engaged employees to generate content on Facebook and Twitter. Yet Maersk’s social media strategy isn’t fully integrated with marketing strategy.  The target segment of Maersk’s marketing strategy is clients, who consist of 15% of large customers, 50% of small customers, and 25% of freight forwarders. Also, the company’s differentiation is based on global reach, market leadership, reliability, innovation, and focus on environment. Hence, in order for social media strategy to match with the marketing one, Maersk should concentrate on platforms such as LinkedIn and Google+ because they better represent the company’s USP.