OK SUPER MARKETS SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
These days having the right social media presence is a key aspect in managing a business, and promoting your brand. However, that doesn’t mean that every brand does that successfully. For this social media strategy project, we had to look at a brand’s current online status, and come up with a social media strategy depending on the brand’s needs.
When our team “Clairvoyants” (comprised by Irene Bessi, Athena Droumpouneti, Λίλα Ζ., vasilina maglara, Michalis Samartzis and _stamatis_) was scanning different online presences of different brands to see which one we could change for the better through our strategy, “OK! anytime Markets” was the brand that stood out to us. “OK! Markets” are a chain of mini markets, established in 2004 which offer a wide variety of options, from essentials to tobacco and premium products. At the same time, a series of private labels has been developed. A key feature of the stores is their extended opening hours, as they remain open on a daily basis, even on Sundays, from 8 am to 11 pm.
In terms of the company’s values, it prioritises human resources, on which it constantly relies and invests. In addition, the relationship with its partners and suppliers, which are the foundation for the development of the company, is considered to be of major importance. The basic value of “OK! Markets” is the respect and protection of the environment, in fact taking a series of measures in this direction.
The stores are in many neighbourhoods here in Athens, and as such they have become rather popular. However, when we looked at its social media presence, we could definitely say that it was lacking in many aspects. Its Instagram and Facebook accounts had almost identical feeds, meaning that content was being recycled, whereas YouTube had some TV ads and some videos about certain actions and programs as content. The company also didn’t have a Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn or TikTok.
Other than research of its current online status, we conducted a competitor analysis, by identifying 6 different competitors, “Masoutis”, “My market”, “Bazaar A.E.”, “Market In”, “Lidl” and “A.B. Vasilopoulos”. When looking at their social media, we created a basic idea of each competitors’ online status is. Firstly, “Masoutis” has direct promotion of products and events on Instagram and competitions on its Facebook page, “My Market” has a diverse profile on Instagram with recipes , beauty and everyday tips and many active competitions on its Facebook page, “Bazaar A.E.” is active in most social media using audio-visual material and publications about the company’s promotion, “Market In” uses a variety of social media platforms, uploads in regular intervals and has an aesthetically pleasing Instagram profile, “Lidl” has videos on Instagram with different content (anti-plastic campaigns, information on its electronic application, charitable actions and promotion of new stores) and lastly “A.B. Vasilopoulos” has an interesting profile on Youtube with recipes, short stories about products, as well as an aesthetic Instagram page with image-based storytelling.
Therefore, when developing a social media strategy, we realised that we wanted to improve “OK! Markets” engagement with its current audience, promoting its values as a company as a way to connect better with them, as well as reach a wider audience, and bring more traffic to its site, as well as the physical stores. We developed different strategies for different platforms, in order to better target our different potential audiences.
Firstly, for Instagram, our goal is to connect with our audience and promote brand awareness, by having a more aesthetic feed about the brand and its products, but promoting its CSR aspect as well, better communicating its values with users. We can have Instagram stories such as QNAs (e.g. favourite last minute recipes ?, views on the production process?), or livestreams with producers, their stories, etc. Since people of different ages use Instagram, they use it to see what a brand “supports”, and so they want to see a brand’s values, and if they care about their audience.
Our goal for Facebook was informing our audience both about our products, as well as in general. We want to have more to-the-point feed (e.g. products, links for offer brochures). We could also host competitions, or promote the corporate page of “Ok! Markets”. Since Facebook is used more by an older audience, although they want to know the brand, their primary goal is successful shopping.
For Twitter our goal was better engagement. So, we thought that more relaxed, light-hearted feed would best suit it, along with some memes (e.g. when your crush sends you the new offers for Ok! Markets), opinion threads (favourite late-night snack? first date and they tell you that they only eat mom’s food, what are you doing? favourite memory around food?). Since it is used by a younger audience, it also has acquired a more “informal” character, where usually everyone expresses an opinion. This way we can see what our audience wants, their views, their opinions, and connect better with them.
For TikTok our goal was a bigger audience reach. Since TikTok is affiliated with Gen-Z, they have no reason to be informed about offers or products in detail, so it should have a more entertaining character, which will attract interest to be taken to the company’s Instagram, Facebook page or even their website. So, we thought of content that would follow TikTok trends, memes (POV: you’re a carrot and you see two grandmothers arguing at 8 in the morning about the last chicken breast left). Here we can have a mini-series type “Testing your suggestions for late night snacks”.
For Pinterest, our goal was to bring more traffic to other pages or the company’s website. Here we can have different collections that will have different recipes (e.g. traditional Greek cuisine, recipes in less than 10 minutes, easy for beginners, student friendly etc). In general, most people don’t use Pinterest because they think it’s dead, but by putting the right keywords and links (website etc) in our posts, we can very easily reach a large audience, which we can then easily direct to the company’s website , or on other social platforms, so we can have an easy channel to reach more users and potential customers.
For YouTube we wanted to have more brand awareness. So we thought of a mini series named “πεςτΟΚεγινε” with quick recipes, as well as creating an Internet show named “Near you” where small producers talk about the whole process of production. Since the platform has a more entertaining character, we can take advantage of it through entertainment (the shows), to inform about our brand and its values.
Lastly, for LinkedIn, our goal was once again brand awareness. We could promote the brand’s values, what it supports, its corporate social responsibility (collaborations, programs, etc.). Since LinkedIn is more professional, most people who use it are people who are probably looking for work, and want to judge what type of business environment it has, generally looking for information that informs potential employees about the company, and if they want to work there
All in all, we hope that by using all these different methods, we can help “Ok! Markets” to reach a wider audience and have a strong online presence. We hope that people can have a clearer idea of the brand’s values, which will then bring more traffic to the physical stores, and as such allow the company to grow.
Sources https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bA0VKK-A6PxGnQJtO2DZgOfvGNlTkUEqAQ-F_u0YDvQ/edit, https://www.canva.com,https://www.okmarkets.gr.
Betty Tsakarestou Associate Professor and Head of Advertising and Public Relations Lab, Dpt of Communication Media and Culture, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences.
