Currently, with technology becoming more and more a part of our everyday lives, the presence of social media is growing. Businesses now use social media as a tool to heavily market themselves to the millennials. However, some are taking a bold marketing approach and are actively taunting on social media. Their victims? Citizens that poke fun at them, or even companies just minding their own business. Now the only question I have about this idea is if it helps market a company better or if it makes them seem childish and unprofessional.

Wendy’s is notorious for adapting this bold approach of mocking others on social media. This American based fast food chain has been known to openly slam its rivals.

Wendy’s slamming McDonalds https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackPeopleTwitter/comments/62rdaj/the_wendys_twitter_account_roasted_mcdonalds/

They do not hold back anything in these social media jabs. The remarkable thing is they maintain consistency by jabbing with personality and comedy. This bold approach separates Wendy’s from other fast food chains. They have gained tons of followers from their comedic, unique social media behaviour. Wendy’s is an example of a company executing this bold marketing strategy to perfection.

However, this strategy does not work for everyone. Not many companies have been successful in adapting the social media marketing strategy to taunt others online. There is a reason why we only hear about Wendy’s flavourful tweets as opposed to other companies. Most social media teams of franchises and companies fail to execute this marketing strategy. Instead of marketing themselves better, they draw the backlash from the public and come across as insensitive and unprofessional. MTV Australia tried to imitate what Wendy’s does on a regular basis and openly ridicule a target.

MTV Australia poking fun at Golden Globes https://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/272286#5

Immediately they garnered negative feedback with many criticizing their offensive tweet.

I believe that this strategy is good for social media marketing provided for a specific demographic. The reason why I believe that Wendy’s social media campaigns are successful is that they target a specific demographic and market to them. In this case, this social media mockery is marketed mainly towards millennials and generation Z. Being apart of the latter myself, I can support that these two generations are more amused by these open insults rather than hurt. As terrible as it sounds, we laugh at someone getting mocked provided it is not too harsh, which is why Wendy’s has adopted this bold marketing approach since it works with their demographic. MTV Australia simply had the wrong demographic which is why it failed. Granted I support Wendy’s marketing campaign; however, I believe that sooner or later using social media mockery as a marketing tool will soon die since slowly people will grow tired of this unique strategy and find it boring.

Word Count: 433 Words

Sources

https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/wendys-mcdonalds-szechuan-sauce-twitter

https://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/272286#5

https://twitter.com/Wendys

On August 2008, the worst enemy of the hotel industry was born, and its name is Airbnb. This is a company that provides short-term residence at vacation homes, suites, cabins. Ever since this company was created it has been rivaling the hotels, giving the hotel companies a real competitor. In the past, travelers just had to consider which hotel to stay in. Today they now consider whether they would like to stay at an Airbnb vacation home or at a traditional hotel room.

            Consumers chose Airbnb mostly because many of the vacation homes are cheaper than most hotel rooms. Also, some people prefer Airbnb to feel the comfort of staying in a house during a vacation or to feel more like a local of the city or town they are residing in.

Noticing that Airbnb is growing a threat to their business, many hotels have launched a counterattack to one-up their new competitor. They are enticing their most loyal customers with star-studded activities like a special basketball training camp with NBA star Dwyane Wade, or a cooking class with a world-class chef.

These exclusive opportunities are what the Marriot and many other companies are using to encourage customers to stay at one of their hotels instead of an Airbnb vacation home. To some extent, I believe that this strategy of using exclusive activities led by famous athletes, chefs, photographers are quite effective. Unless it is contrary to their interests, most customers would be crazy to turn down a rare opportunity like a special 2-day golf course with a hall of fame golfer.

As much as I like this strategy, I notice certain flaws. Perhaps the biggest obstacle is that these fun activities are only for loyal customers. The hotels can make sure that their loyal customers do not choose Airbnb during their next vacation with great loyalty programs. But what are the hotels doing to attract others? If the customer has no sort of history with a hotel, what is to stop him from just staying at an Airbnb vacation home for a lower price and for more of a home-like environment?

Airbnb luxury home (Left) vs 5 star Bellagio Hotel (Right) http://www.businessinsider.com/11-airbnb-luxury-homes-2016-6
https://www.expedia.ca/Las-Vegas-Hotels-Bellagio.h140596.Hotel-Information?rfrr=Redirect.From.www.expedia.com%2FLas-Vegas-Hotels-Bellagio.h140596.Hotel-Information

What I think each hotel should also do is either somehow lower their costs so they can reduce the prices of their rooms and still make a great profit, or do their best to make sure they provide high-quality service to each customer to win them over. It will be challenging to get customers to come stays in a hotel room rather than an Airbnb home, but I think the hotels must come up with a strategy in addition to the one some are using right now if they want to beat their competitor.

Sources

https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/10/13/hotels-offer-one-of-a-kind-experiences-in-attempt-to-one-up-airbnb.html

Word count: 446 words