Chapter 10 E-commerce: Digital Markets, Digital Goods
INTERACTIVE SESSION MANAGEMENT
“Socializing” with Customers
More than 3 billion people worldwide use social
media, making it an obvious platform for companies
seeking to engage consumers, amplify product mes-
sages, discover trends and influencers, build brand
awareness, and take action on customer requests
and recommendations. More than 80 million busi-
nesses have Facebook brand pages, enabling users
to interact with the brand through blogs, comment
pages, contests, and offerings on the brand page.
The “like” button gives users a chance to share with
their social network their feelings about content they
are viewing and websites they are visiting. With like
buttons on many millions of websites, Facebook can
track user behavior on other sites and then sell this
information to marketers. Facebook also sells display
ads to firms that appear on users’ home pages and
most other pages in the Facebook interface such as
photos and apps. Twitter features such as “promoted
tweets” and “promoted trends” enable advertisers to
have their tweets displayed more prominently when
Twitter users search for certain keywords.
Mack Trucks, a leading U.S. truck manufacturer,
used a social marketing campaign to attract custom-
ers, drivers, and dealers when it launched its new
Anthem model. Mack had traditionally used print
ads in trucking publications, brochures, and industry
trade shows as its primary marketing channels when
rolling out a new product. However, these channels
did not enable Mack to tailor and deliver different
messages for different customers. For example, a
manager of a large fleet might be most interested
in fuel efficiency, while an owner-operator might
be more attracted to design style. Mack’s marketing
team continued to use traditional channels for broad
awareness and relied on social marketing to focus on
segmentation and metrics.
Starting in July 2017 Mack launched a series of
biweekly YouTube videos to build excitement for
the Anthem model, followed by a live stream of
the Anthem unveiling on YouTube and Facebook in
September of that year. Mack netted 7,000 email ad-
dresses from the teaser campaign, with 3,700 people
viewing the live stream of the launch event. These
are considered significant numbers for a product
costing over U.S. $100,000. Mack’s marketing team
also launched a comprehensive social media cam-
paign directing the company’s 174,000 Facebook
399
followers, 24,000 Twitter followers, 15,000 LinkedIn
followers, 15,000 YouTube subscribers, and other so-
cial communities to photos, videos, text summaries,
and other content describing every aspect of the new
Anthem line. These activities were credited with at-
tracting more than 40,000 new social followers to the
Mack brand.
Mack uses Oracle Eloqua Marketing Cloud Service
and Oracle Social Cloud to link social activity to
175,000 profiles in its Oracle Eloqua database of cus-
tomers and prospects. The digital marketing team
thus knows if a person in the database clicked on a
Facebook post to view an Anthem-related video or
looked for other information on the company’s web-
site. Compelling personalized content helps engage
prospects and move them further along the sales pro-
cess until they ask to talk to a Mack dealer. At that
point, the prospect is considered a qualified lead.
Oracle Social Cloud alerts team members when the
Mack Anthem is mentioned on various social sites,
and they can respond where appropriate.
Mack also enlisted celebrity influencers for the
Anthem campaign. Country music artist Steve
Moakler recorded a road song called Born Ready for
the Anthem launch and dedicated it to drivers. More
than 55,000 people viewed Moakler’s performance
on YouTube. The marketing team also produced
a YouTube video with the Oakland Raiders’ Khalil
Mack called What Makes a Mack, and it attracted over
75,000 viewers. Mack is developing a broad-based
influence program identifying customers and driv-
ers who will be among the first to view new products
and serve as active advocates on social media.
More than 9,300 people opted into some aspect
of the Mack Anthem campaign, generating about
1,700 qualified leads. The Anthem landing page
has attracted over 146,000 visitors, who can watch
the Moakler video and obtain information on every
aspect of the new truck line. Mack’s senior manage-
ment is very pleased with the results and the detail
and precision of digital marketing information. Vice
President of Marketing John Walsh can see what hap-
pens with every dollar Mack spends.
An estimated 90 percent of customers are influ-
enced by online reviews, and nearly half of U.S.
social media users actively seek customer service
through social media. As a result, marketing is now
400 Part Three Key System Applications for the Digital Age

placing much more emphasis on customer satisfac-
tion and service. Social media monitoring helps mar-
keters and business owners understand more about
buyers’ likes, dislikes, and complaints concerning
products, additional products or product modifica-
tions customers want, and how people are talking
about a brand (positive or negative sentiment).
Prompted by customer social media comments
about meats other than roast beef, fast-food sandwich
restaurant chain Arby’s launched a “Meat Mountain”
campaign poster showing various meats other than
roast beef. Arby’s customers mistakenly thought the
poster displayed a new sandwich and, through social
media, indicated they were anxious to try it. Arby’s
then responded with a new $10 Meat Mountain
sandwich.
Social media campaigns can be tricky to orches-
trate, and the results are not always predictable.
When social followers of Donald Trump called for
boycotting Nordstrom for dropping Ivanka Trump’s
clothing line from its stores, Nordstrom’s stock price
rose, and the company outperformed many of its
retail industry rivals in the months that followed.
Nordstrom customers remained loyal to the brand.
Previous Trump tweets calling out other brands such
as Lockheed Martin had hurt stock share prices. In
September 2016, San Antonio–based Miracle Mattress
provoked angry social media backlash when it posted
a Facebook video advertising a “Twin Towers Sale.”
The video encouraged customers to “remember 9/11”
and “get any size mattress for a twin price.” Miracle
Mattress removed the video from its Facebook time-
line, and owner Mike Bonanno posted an apology
letter.
Sources: Rob Preston, “Open Road,” Profit Magazine, Spring 2018;
Melody Hahm, “26-Year-Old Launches Instagram-Fueled Fast
Fashion Brand,” Yahoo Finance, July 25, 2018; Craig Smith, “844
Amazing Facebook Statistics (July 2018) by the Numbers,” Dmr,
July 30, 2018; www.Macktrucks.com, accessed July 29, 2018; Janet
Morrissey, “Brands Heed Social Media. They’re Advised Not to
Forget Word of Mouth,” New York Times, November 26, 2017; Farhad
Manjoo “How Battling Brands Online Has Gained Urgency, and
Impact,” New York Times, June 21, 2017; and Lindsay Friedman,
“The 12 Worst Social-Media Fails of 2016,” www.entrepreneur.com,
September 22, 2016.

CASE STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Assess the management, organization, and tech-
nology issues for using social media technology to
engage with customers.
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages
of using social media for advertising, brand
building, market research, and customer
service?
3. Give an example of a business decision in this
case study that was facilitated by using social
media to interact with customers.
4. Should all companies use social media technology
for customer service and marketing? Why or why
not? What kinds of companies are best suited to
use these platforms?

10-4 How has e-commerce affected

business-to-business transactions?
Trade between business firms (business-to-business commerce, or B2B) repre-
sents a huge marketplace. The total amount of B2B trade in the United States in
2019 is estimated to be about $13.5 trillion, with B2B e-commerce (online B2B)
contributing about $6.2 trillion of that amount (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2018;
authors’ estimates). By 2020, B2B e-commerce is expected to grow to about
$6.9 trillion in the United States.
The process of conducting trade among business firms is complex and re-
quires considerable human intervention; therefore, it consumes significant re-
sources. Some firms estimate that each corporate purchase order for support
products costs them, on average, at least $100 in administrative overhead, in-
cluding processing paper, approving purchase decisions, using the telephone
and fax machines to search for products and arrange for purchases, arranging