EVALUATING A BRAND’S CONTENT

STRATEGY

DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY

Company name – Furniture village

SUBMITTED TO – PROF. SAHIL SUBMITTED BY - AKSHAY BHADAURIA

JASROTIA Roll no. JI/2020-22/0126
1) Follow the instructions and, for each step, make observations in the boxes indicated.

2) At the end of the exercise, there is a short question for you to respond to. Your

response should be no more than 250 words.

3) Please make sure that you save the worksheet once you have completed it.
What is ‘content’?
Finding the definitive definition of ‘content’ or ‘content marketing’ is challenging. Its relative
newness as a named field of marketing means that the usual source - academic literature –
is relatively limited in terms of quantity and scope. Yet across the sector, definitions are rife;
Kingsnorth (2017) noted that in a recent Google search using the term ‘definition of content
marketing’ yielded 692 million results (and rising). Such a high number of raises questions of
consistency and concerns of the robustness of their origins.

In effect, content is everything that you see online (Zimmerman and Ng 2017): the written
word, images, podcasts, radio, live streaming, video, infographics, charts and social media
posts and stories to name but a few. Clearly most of these elements have long been used
within the marketing field so the idea of ‘content’ in itself is not new. What is new is the way
that it is being used. ‘Content Marketing’ is the process of using all of these elements in a
coherent and strategic way to support corporate, marketing and/or communication
objectives.

There are three broad stages to content strategy and the exercise in this masterclass will
guide you through them. They are:

understanding your 'client' and their target

Research persona

understanding what the the client's objectives

Analysis are and what kind of things might engage their
target persona

deciding what kind of content is appropriate

Planning and how it should be scheduled.

We will now take you through a structured analysis of your brand’s content. As you proceed
through the steps, reflect upon what your brand does well and where it might improve.
 Who is the brand? What are their characteristics/resources?
Who is the target market?
Task 1 Who?

What are the brand's objectives?

Why would your target market engage with content? What problems are they
Task 2 Why? trying to solve?

What digital platforms does the brand occupy?

Task 3 What digital platforms does the customer use?
Where?

What kind of content will engage the target market?

Task 4 What?

How frequently does the target audience visit the platorms?

How often should content be produced?
Task 5
When? What are the important times during the year for the brand?
TASK 1: WHO…?

In the first instance, it is important to reflect on the characteristics of the brand owner.
Understanding who they are, the markets they serve and the resources, they have access
to will determine so many aspects of their content strategy. For example, the content
strategy for BMW is likely to be much more complex and better resourced than a small
garden centre that sells plants in east Kent.

Restate the name of your chosen brand below and briefly research the brand owner’s
organisation. Consider its size, the markets it services (local, national, international, global
etc) and (roughly) how well is it resourced? Obviously much of this information is subject
to corporate confidentiality but do your best. You can find such information through a
range of sources – for example the company’s website, Mintel, WARC, Marketline,
broadsheet newspaper reports, reports of advertising budgets etc. Keep it brief, as this
should only be an indicator of where the primary markets are and what kind of resources
might be available.
The Brand: FURNITURE VILLAGE
Information about the organisation: this organization is established in 1989 helping
customers to create beautiful homes. In 1989, two friends decided to start the first
Furniture Village store in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, with a simple philosophy: to offer high-
quality, attractively designed furniture at a reasonable price, accompanied by superb
service.
Our consumers appear to like it, and we've grown to become the UK's largest
independent furniture retailer, with 54 locations around the country.

Before you are able to appraise the content marketing approaches adopted by your
brand, you need to be clear as to exactly who your target market is. This is usually done in
the form of a ‘Persona’. Later in the analysis, this kind of detailed understanding will help
you judge:

 What digital and social media platforms he/she would engage with?
 What are their priorities?
 What kind of information would be of interest?

On the next page, you will find a customer persona template, reflect upon who you
believe would be the ‘persona’ for your chosen brand and fill in as much as you can.
YOUR BRAND’S TARGET PERSONA

Name: Gender: Age: Willingness to adopt Psychographic

technology: Yes, in characteristics:
today’s world
everyone is ready to 1. Opinions
adapt technology
2. Lifestyle
Demographic characteristics: Geographic Behavioural characteristics
sex M 9(100 21(100) 12(92. 2(10 44(97. characteristics: characteristics:
F ) - 31) 0) 78) 3. Values
- 1 1(22.2 1. Region 1. Benefits
(7.69) 2) 4. Interest
2. Country 2. User status
Total 9 21 13 2 45 5. Beliefs
Age <30 1(11. 1(4.76) - - 2 3. City 3. Loyalty
31-40 11) 6(28.5 4 2(10 14
51-60 2(22. 7) (30.77) 0) 20 4. Population 4. Attitude
>60 22) 10(47. 5 - 8
5(55. 62) (38.46) - 5. Climate
55) 4(19.0 3
1(11. 5) (23.08)
11) -
-
total 9 21 13 2 45
Marital Marrie 9(100 15(71. 10(76. - 34
status d ) 43) 92) 2(10 91
Single 4(19.0 3(23.0 0) 1
Divorc 5) 8) 1
ed 1(4.76)
Widow 1(4.76)

total
Educati Primar 1(11. 5(23.8 - - 6
on y 11) 1) 10(76. 1(50 27
Second 7(77. 9(42.8 92) ) 12
 ary 77) 6) 3(23.0 1(50
Tertiar 1(11. 7(33.3 8) )
y 11) 3)

total
Experie 1-5 1(11. 2(9.52) - 1(50 3
nce 6-10 11) 1(4.76) 10(76. ) 13
11-15 1(11. 13(61. 92) 1(50 21
>20 11) 91) 3(23.0 ) 1
1(11. - 8)
11)
1(11.
11)

Digital devices owned/used Preferred Digital Platforms and Preferred brands:

Social media accounts:
1. Instagram
2. Facebook
3. Pinterest
4. LinkedIn
5. YouTube
TASK 2: WHY?

For brands, it is important to have a clear view of what they want their content to achieve.
According to Handley and Chapman (2012) the ‘why’ question is particularly important as it
links directly to marketing and marketing communication objectives.

According to the CMI (2020) there are five main objectives that might drive an organisation to
engage in content marketing:

Reflect upon your brand. What are their motivations for using content marketing? Which
of the objectives stated above might be most important? Might they have other
motivations for engaging with content? What are they?
Their motivation for content marketing is to develop trust among their consumer so that
they can create relation for long run. From the above motivations, engage customers long
term is best suited for furniture village as it helps to build trust by regular communication
with customer base, also helps to build bond with customers and build products and
services of furniture village their first choice.
For a brand to successfully engage a target customer with their content, they must create something that has value for that customer. In
order to do that they must either satisfy a need, address a ‘problem to be solved’ (PTBS), or help with a ‘job to be done’ (JTBD). Reflect
upon your persona and, thinking about your brand, identify the sort of needs they might be trying to satisfy, the problems they are trying to
solve and the jobs to be done. The table below identifies the key areas. You may find that some needs may be more applicable than others
(some won’t apply at all) but, for rigour, it’s always a good idea to review them all. I have used the Liz Earle brand to illustrate examples.

Type of need Example (using Liz Earle brand)
Biogenic: Liz Earle products satisfy the
These relate to the basic requirements of need for cleanliness and healthy
life. They include food, drink, warmth, skin and hair.
hygiene, shelter etc
Psychogenic: For ethical consumers, Liz Earle
These needs relate to personal values, products are not tested on
status and identity. animals and are sustainably
sourced.
Hedonic: Not only are Liz Earle products
This relates to the need for pleasure and pleasurable to use but they
beauty. leave skin feeling soft.
Utilitarian: Problem(s) to be solved: for
This relates the need to complete a task example, how do you find good
or solve a problem. It relates to PTBS and quality, ethical skin products
JTBD. that do not irritate the skin at a
reasonable price?
Job(s) to be done: how do I take
makeup off quickly and easily at
night?
In the case of your target persona…
Furniture village products satisfy the need for Personal
Comfort, durable and hygiene
Furniture village is to offer high quality, beautifully
designed furniture at a great price with exceptional service
And their products are not tested on animals for any reason.
Products of furniture village provides strength and durability
in products but they also help to décor room
Problems – to find out better comfortable products which are
durable and less in price?
How do I feel comfortable and hygienic? And also, price
assurance?
 TASK 3: WHERE?

In the ‘Persona’ in Task 1, you should have identified the social media and digital platforms currently
used by your target consumer. It’s important that brands have this information as, ideally, they want
to be able to engage with their target market seamlessly on the digital platforms that they occupy.
What they want to avoid at all costs is needlessly wasting time and money on producing content and
maintaining platforms that their target audience doesn’t visit.

Before we can evaluate the quality of your chosen brand’s content, the first stage must be to
identify what kind of digital spaces they currently occupy. You can see from the image above
‘content’ can take a multitude of platforms. The key is choosing the right platform for the right
audience.

Search for your brand on the platforms listed below to see whether they have a presence. Note
whether they have a presence (yes or no) and, in the comments box consider whether this is a
platform that your ‘persona’ would frequent and, if so, for what purpose. Space has been left at
the bottom of the form for you to add any additional platforms you think appropriate. This would
be particularly important for international brands or brands outside of the UK.
Platform Yes/No Comments
Own Website YES UI/UX is attractive and user friendly
Facebook YES 68553 followers on Facebook at present and average posting
is 24 hrs
Twitter YES Only 240 followers so they need to be very active and
average posting is 3-4 days
Pinterest YES 6789 followers on Pinterest
Instagram YES 68k followers on Instagram and their average posting is
between 1-2 days
Tik-Tok NO No need to use this type of platforms
 YouTube YES 840
Wikipedia YES -
Reddit NO -

There are websites which detail which platforms and websites that carry the most traffic:
https://www.alexa.com/topsites/
https://medialandscapes.org
Explore these websites to see what the top platforms are. Please note, care is needed here as
some of the websites with high levels of traffic carry inappropriate or explicit content.
In your search, did you find platforms that you believe your brand should have a presence on, but
doesn’t? If so, list them below.
I don’t think that furniture village need to be present on any other platform as they already
present on top platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter, wiki and Pinterest but
they can try to be very active on their present platforms only to increase more traffic.

TASK 4 WHAT (KIND)?

Fundamentally there are four kinds of content (Pain 2020):

Importantly, it is worth noting that the components of this typology are not mutually exclusive. For
example, it is possible for a post to be informative, entertaining and engaging.
 The content on the Liz Earle website (https://uk.lizearle.com) can be found through the ‘Discover’
tab. Is there something similar on your chosen brand’s website or other platforms? How easy is it
to find their content?

Zimmerman and Ng (2017) offered a checklist of things to consider when reviewing a brand’s
content. As you review the content produced by your brand, consider the following and make
notes as you go.
Content Quality Question Your thoughts
Does it have a i.e., does it do something. Content Yes, it has purpose to provide quality products
without a purpose can be bland
purpose? and boring
in cheaper prices with better comfort s compare
to their competitors
Does it provide i.e., does the viewer get something 1. Offer high quality
out of it? Information,
value? 2. beautifully design
entertainment etc.
3. great price
4. exceptional service
Does it answer a This is particularly important for They have feedback system to solve customer
people who are searching for
question? information or trying to solve a
problems 24*7
problem
Is it unique? Content that is different, stands They are providing 20 years structural
out.
guarantee on their products
Is it easy to relate People like stories or blog posts Yes, peoples used to share their experiences of
that reflect their own experience.
to? their products on different handles which help
others to know more insights of the brand
How visual is it? Eye catching content cuts through There visual are attractive and eye catchy helps
clutter and grabs attention.
to create more engagement on their handles
Is there variety in Content must vary over time to Yes, they have variety of contents on variety of
encourage people to return
the content? products and also launches new products which
encourages people to return again and again
Is it entertaining? Content doesn’t have to be funny There content have their own key digital
to be entertaining – it has to hold
the attention. For example, it could
messages defining their goals help to attract
be intriguing (i.e. a teaser) or customers
educational.
Is it inspiring? The best content encourages Yes, it is inspiring as they are guarantying for 20
reaction. If that reaction is positive,
this reflects positively on the
years of structural guarantee which is more
brand. Ideally, you want to inspire valuable than any other competitors
your audience to take action using
your brand.
Is it easy to read Audiences are increasingly time It is easy to use humorous content for poster,
poor so content that can be read
quickly? quickly and easily (i.e., ‘scanned’) is
infographics and videos which is easy to attract
best. and more memorable.
Does it have an The title should capture the There titles capture imagination and make
imagination and make the audience
intriguing title or is want to read more.
audience want to read more and more and also
it ‘clickbait’? Avoid ‘clickbait’ which has a deliver value to the customer
shocking or intriguing title but does
not deliver in value or substance.
Can it be shared Earned media is invaluable. Ideally Earned media is an integral aspect of this
there should be links to other social
easily? platforms.
process because it allows a company to reach
its target audience without having to pay for
advertising.
-
Is it compatible Is it equally as good on mobile Yes, it is compatible with mobile also as their
platforms.? This is particularly
across mobile important when thinking about
UI/UX is very versatile.
platforms? SEO
Is it ‘fresh’ but not Ideally content should be published There average posting on their handles is about
with some regularity. A balance
too fresh? between regular posting and over-
1-2 days which enable fresh contents for their
posting needs to be struck to avoid customers

One of the most common questions asked by marketers when formulating content is ‘how long
should a piece of content be?’. Obviously, the length of content is determined by the platform used
- a Twitter post is going to be shorter than a blog - but there are optimum lengths. Handley (2014)
offers a set of ‘ideal length’ guidelines. Reflect upon content produced by your brand and make
notes on what you find.
Blog posts 1500 words This is the ideal length for SEO algorithms
Email subject lines 50 characters or fewer If a subject line is too long often key content is
lost
Line of text in a 12 words Any longer and readers can lose their place
website and can lose attention
Paragraph 3-4 lines Paragraphs that are too long or too dense are
more likely to lose the attention of the reader
YouTube video 3-3.5 minutes Very few viewers watch a full video. The first
three and a half minutes are the most
powerful so should contain the most valuable
content.
Podcast 22 mins This is the length of the average attention span
Title tag 55 characters This is the ideal length for SEO algorithms
Facebook post 100-140 characters + a Facebook posts with good images/graphics
good image/graphic attached are four times more likely to prompt
response than text only post.
After 140 characters, response rates dive.
Tweet 100-140 characters + a The same criteria apply as for Facebook
good image/graphic although ideally it should be less shorter
tweets are easier to manually retweet (i.e.,
when the target types it in again)
As you review your brand’s content, write notes below on the extent to which it corresponds to
the ‘ideal’.
Brand loyalty starts when a company earns the trust of its consumers. Customers would be loyal to
brands if they find a product they can trust. Companies must make an effort to develop these
consumer relationships. That is just the beginning. After that, they must work to keep and expand
the relationship. As per Furniture village, uses ideal length for brand content such as blog post,
email subject line, line of text in a website, paragraph, YouTube video, title tag, Facebook post,
tweeter.

TASK 5: WHEN?

We have seen in previous tasks that target audiences are likely to engage with content if it satisfies
a need, solves a problem or helps to get a job done. We have also seen the importance of
freshness and relevance in order to keep a brand ‘front of mind’ with its target audience. Timing is
therefore key. Therefore, there are two areas to review here:
1) How up to date is the content?
2) How relevant is the content to the time of year?

According to Pain (2020) whilst the primary goal should be consistency (i.e. posting regularly so
that audiences know when to expect content) there are optimal engagement rates on each of the
platforms.
Facebook 2 posts a day This is 2 posts to the brand’s Facebook page.
Posts to related groups can be added extra.
Twitter 3 times a day Engagement drops off after 3 times
Instagram At least twice a day At least one of them should be a ‘story’.
Blogs Twice a week minimum Consistency is very important for blogs so
timing them is crucial
Review your brand’s content and note down your thoughts on the frequency with which they post.
As there is a tagline of this company is more to love more to save so according to me the most of
the people (all age group) use fb so it will be the best for the frequency post. It will grab more
customer. And also, the blogs because it gives the details about the products and twice a week will
be ok because more than this will give negative impact. This brands content will help the company
to make a position in the market and their sell will increase which increase the revenue of the
company.

For most brands, there are particularly important times of the year that have the potential to
generate sales. For example, confectionary is particularly seasonal
https://www.statista.com/topics/2100/seasonal-candy/#dossierSummary__chapter2 )
confectionary brands might choose to produce content that reflects this.

Alternatively, different times of year generate different ‘problems’ or ‘jobs to be done’ for the
target audience. Questions about how to tame a weed-ridden garden might arise in the spring
season for homeowners or graduates and their families might puzzle over what to wear for
graduation ceremonies in the summer.

This being the case, in addition to their ongoing daily and weekly posting, it is important calendar
of planned events should be formulated well in advance. This will allow brand owners to do the
following well in advance to make sure they hit exactly the right tone.

 Identify appropriate themes (i.e. ‘Ten top tips for a great summer holiday)
 Source appropriate images
 Write the posts
 Shared across multiple platforms

Producing content for these calendric events is also useful as it can be tweeked and then reused
year on year.

Thinking about the target audience for your brand, are there any times of the year that stand out
as particularly important for sales? Are there any times of the year that the brand’s target
audience will have a ‘problem to be solved’ or a ‘job to be done’? Review the year month by
month and note your thoughts.
Target audiences’ ‘problems to be
Month Important sales period for brand?
solved’ or a ‘jobs to be done’?
January February jobs to be done’
February April Problem to be solved
March June Jobs to be done
 April august Problem to be solved
May October Jobs to be done
June November Problem to be solved
July
August
September
October
November
December

YOUR REFLECTIVE TASK: HOW COULD YOUR BRAND IMPROVE ITS CONTENT STRATEGY

Review the notes you have made over the course of your analysis and reflect upon your
appraisal of the brand’s content strategy. In no more than 250 words, summarise what
you believe they do well, what their areas of weakness are and what their priorities for
any improvement in their content strategy should be.
Write your reflection here:

They do well –

1. Customer satisfaction

2. Worldwide presence

3. Excellent products design

4. Quality in cheaper prices

5. Enormous range of products

6. they are highly successful for their go to market strategy

Their weaknesses-

1. Weak position in Asian market

2. Less active on social media platforms

what their priorities for any improvement in their content strategy should be

1. they have to improve the management team of their social media handles so that
the content can reach the audience frequently.

2. target persona in which they can use some marketing strategy to increase
according to the segments
3. Like as you can see in the demographic some females are not interested and also
some teenagers are not aware about the quality of products, they need to do
advertising according to their segment so that in each part their will more
awareness and that will create a good will to the company and also the brand will
stand in the competitors. As we all have different lifestyle according to that people
use to come to the company, if the product will not as per the customer demand,
then how it will be profitable to the company. The company nis doing its
advertisement and giving sell to the costumers but they need go by the Mark
segment and the each individual strategy so that it will add value to their brand.