For my case study, I wanted to examine
Best Buy. I chose this company because it continues to transition to avoid simply being a tech showroom. I was interested in the way it uses both old and new media, but also how their strategy and media uses have changed over the years. When they were the tech shopping king, they had entertaining TV commercials, billboards, radio ads, and other types of old media. Each type focused on the convenience, low prices, and products available from their brand. Since their stores are large and have high fixed costs, they need customers to just come in. Originally, Best Buy had a Wal-Mart style framework to beat out any local tech store completion due of their volume of products and customers. Now, they can't compete with the volume of Amazon warehouses and the absence of sales people seen in all online models. An Amazon warehouse can store a lot more products than Best Buy, so shopping online gives the consumer more options. The only advantages Best Buy has is the showroom aspect of getting to use products and any exclusive products. In terms of the “4 P’s” of marketing, Best Buy used to focus on their products and prices, but now they specialize in their place and promotions. The only aspect of product they have left is that the consumer can use it in the store. Since their prices are not competitive with online sellers, they cannot use price to market their products.
Recently,
Samsung and Best Buy have worked together to make
Best Buy exclusive products, but Samsung eventually ends up selling those products online. Since Best Buy still has store costs, their online prices often cannot compete with Amazon. Today, they promote their brand using other brand's products like Samsung. They still have many types of old media, but they focus on new aspects of the brand. Instead of low prices, they focus on having the product in your possession immediately. They also value customer support and the exclusivity of certain products.
In their recent
Super Bowl ad, they had Ozzy Osbourne humorously not understanding 3G or 4G (View Below). Then Justin Bieber arrives and finishes the ad joking about a 6G phone. Its demographics were either young pop star fans, or older generations that don't understand electronics well. These same demographics might also not understand that the product they are looking for is on Amazon for 20% less. However, Best Buy brands itself now as a customer friendly electronics store where sales specialists can help fit your needs. If you are an unknowledgeable electronics consumer, Best Buy is probably a good place to shop.
On Twitter Best Buy promotes exclusive products, customer support, and affiliations with other events or promotions. Nascar is one of their biggest campaigns with the
Best Buy 17 car. Since the
Nascar demographic tracks the U.S. population closely. Marketing using new and old media strategies with Nascar makes a lot of sense. It is also why a lot of other big box stores have Nascar branded race cars as well. For being a electronics retail company, I would have expected Best Buy to be represented on most of the major social networks. However they only promoted Facebook and Twitter on their website. I find that seeing the same brands advertisements on different sites or channels to be more persuasive than if it is just on one billboard. On the other hand, their
6.7 million Facebook likes and almost
half a million Twitter followers puts them in a popularly followed group that might just want to appeal to those on the top two social sites. The repletion of messages often causes changes in consumer behavior. I think using Nascar and other Pop entertainers to market the brand is a good start for Best Buy, but they need to completely change their brand before those followers find out about Amazon.
