Digital Audit PDF

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Digital Audit...

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Digital Audit

NEWSTEAD BREWING CO.

Alexander Dang | n10530762 QUT | AMB330 Digital Portfolio Wordcount: 1671 | Tutor: Kaitlyn Giles

1.0 Introduction Founded in 2013, Newstead Brewing Co. is one of very few breweries that can say they are 100% family owned and independent (Newstead Brewing, 2021). The fairly young company have always strived to invent innovation through craft beer whilst keeping to and respecting the traditions of craft brewing. The company drives this innovation through their unorthodox methods of experimenting with barrels and by releasing their 250ml cans as well as utilising science to experiment with the taste of beer. With an online presence across a webpage and social media platforms Newstead Brewing Co. have multiple channels of marketing presence, however, they are currently trying to device a new marketing strategy to increase their customer numbers year round, mainly through the use of digital presence.

2.0 Digital Audit Client: Newstead Brewing Co. Criterion

Analysis

Digital strategy

Newstead Brewing Co.’s digital strategy is to display themselves as a new-age craft beer company that pride themselves on their independence, focus on quality control and innovative ventures within the craft beer industry. The company has a webpage, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook page that it uses to promote its brand information and products. Social media can act as a huge benefit to brands and companies such as creating traffic and exposure, as well as encouraging customer interaction and therefore a further level of trust and relationship between the brand and its customers (Alalwan, A.A., Rana, N.P., Dwivedi, Y.K. and Algharabat, R., 2017). The alternative types of posts allows Newstead to engage with customers with various interests and strengthen their reputation as a trusted and informative company who genuinely cares about its consumers. Unfortunately, Newstead’s goal of drawing more sales to the online bases and increasing their customer traffic to both of their brewpubs is lacking execution which is evident through the minimal personable marketing on their digital channels. The success of a social media strategy depends on many factors however, regularly posting, customer friendly posts, and easy to follow information all play a major role (Alalwan, A.A., Rana, N.P., Dwivedi, Y.K. and Algharabat, R., 2017). As a result of this lack of relationship

Rating (1-10) 5

Consistent brand messages

Digital and social media tools used

building material, consumers may begin to lose interest with the brand and its products. 5 Newstead Brewing Co.’s brand message appears to be fairly consistent with what they are trying to convey however this message is poorly executed across the companies digital platforms. The brand strives off its individuality priding itself off its 100% independency and family owned status, which is conveyed on the Instagram and LinkedIn platforms. This however is not displayed on other platforms which means that this selling point is less supported. Brand consistency across social platforms is extremely important in providing every customer at every touchpoint with a unified voice that clearly coveys the brand identity and core beliefs (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick , 2012). By enforcing this core value across all digital platforms in a unified presence will allow for more customer acknowledgment and brand awareness. Newstead’s social media and digital platforms are as follows: Webpage: https://newsteadbrewing.com.au/beers/

Instagram: 21K Followers, 1,570 Posts https://www.instagram.com/newsteadbrewingco/?hl=en

Facebook: 24,460 Followers, 23,588K Likes https://www.facebook.com/NewsteadBrewingCo

Twitter: 1,559 Followers https://twitter.com/newsteadbrewing?lang=en LinkedIn: 614 Followers https://www.linkedin.com/company/newstead-brewingco/?originalSubdomain=au

YouTube: 42 Subscribers https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfwwFSRhE24sd68XqRVAA

Tik Tok: 52 Followers, 111 Likes As seen above, Newstead Brewing Co. are currently utilising 7 digital platforms in order to spread brand awareness, sell products and create customer relationships. Facebook proved to be the most effective in platform in presenting these goals with a total of 24,460 followers followed secondly by Instagram with 21,000 followers. The companies Instagram presented a noticeable 1,570 posts showing the companies dedication to promoting content.

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The company fell short however as their other 4 social media platforms held considerably lower performance numbers (Twitter :1,559 followers, LinkedIn: 614 followers, Tik Tok: 52 followers), suggesting a neglection by the companies media and marketing teams in these digital spaces. The main contributing factors were a lack of consistency in brand content and presentation as well as an obvious lack in content provided. The companies Facebook and Instagram accounts appear to have a scheduled posting system, turning over 1 to 2 posts each day whilst the last posts from the twitter account were published a month ago and the brands LinkedIn having only 1 post a year ago (LinkedIn, 2021). This puts the company at a disadvantage when customers seek consistent information and possible brand opportunities through LinkedIn therefor hindering the brands awareness. Publishing tools such as Hootsuite allows companies to schedule posts and simultaneously provides analytics as to the prime time for publishing posts (Hootsuite, 2021). Examples of Newstead Brewing Co. have a common post trend of content posting craft beer related content that is aesthetically shared pleasing as well as informative, as well as similarly styled posts of the brewpubs food, coffee and community. The key examples of published content are as follows: -

Edited and professional shots of branded craft bear on tap, in cans and being served in brewpubs - The actual brewing processes the company specialise in - Shots of the general community and environment in the brewpubs including food, the customer atmosphere and bar situations Examples:

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Whilst this content is visually appealing and may catch the attention of the consumers, the captions and post information attached to these aesthetic pictures is heavily lacking in attracting the brands target audience of 25-55 years of age.

Newstead Brewing Co. consistently connects with their Strategic user audience, liking all comments on posts, and answering any engagement questions that potential consumers have about the products or business. In regard to direct messaging; Facebook shows displays a ‘very responsive’ status as well as a note of responding to every review on Facebook. Despite these factors which are performed well, there is a lack of user engagement across all social media platforms, which suggests that the content is either not inviting enough or that there is a lack of information on the brands commonly searched for queries. This suggests that most of the user engagement may have occurred offline, a factor that the client is aiming to change through future marketing mix’s.

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With today’s society being highly media and digitally focussed, having a scheduled and planned posting system will benefit Newstead Brewing Co immensely allowing them to achieve their major objectives of increasing direct sales to consumers online and encouraging visitation to both brewpub venues. With a score of 30/50, it is clear that the client must greatly improve its digital presence in order to achieve its key marketing objectives and to also be effective against competitors.

3.0 Customer Persona Persona’s picture

Personality -

Passionate, Goal Oriented, Enthusiastic, Particular/knowledgeable about beer

Goals Name: Tom Gender: Male Age: 29 Job: Social Media marketing Income: $48,000 (Pay Scale, 2021) Geographic info: Kangaroo Point and Surrounding Suburbs, Brisbane (SSA Gov, 2019) Communication channels

Three reasons to engage with the brand

Three reasons to not engage with the brand Pain points

Consumer insights

Interests -

Playing classical music watching sports going out on weekends with mates

Needs

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Climb up the command chain in his field in the company he works for

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Start going to the gym

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Discover a new craft beer to enjoy on the regular

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His own time to relax, partake in his hobbies and interests and to be able to enjoy a cold beer with the occasional pub feed on weekends

- Facebook - Instagram - Phone/ Text - Email (IBIS World, 2019) - 100% independently and family owned - Australian brand - New and wide range of quality and innovative craft beers - Located locally and easily accessible -

May not be aware of the companies existence New brand, may be more comfortable with trusted and more reputable beers - Products shipping time - Being able to enjoy a cold beer and pub feed with Covid19 - The reliability of the delivery time and quality - Acutally being aware of the company I am in need of finding a quality but new style beer that I can enjoy week to week in different scenarios. With Covid-19 I’ve been unable to partake in the usual activities I love as well as being able to catch up with mates on the regular. I am still searching for a local and purely Brisbane owned beer that is enjoyable and that quenches my search.

Through analysis of the client information and the target audience can be stated as anyone living in a 20km radium of Newstead Brewing’s venues and aged between 25-44 and who are shown to be established within their given careers who are also able to get out and socialise on weekends. The various considerations that go into a consumer purchase

intention are: 1. the taste of the beer 2. Price of the beer 3. Style of beer 4. The brewery that makes the beer.

4.0 Product and Competitor Overview As well as manufacturing a range of craft beers, Newstead Brewing have also created a unique and 100% Australian owned product that resonates with Brisbane consumers of any taste. The breweries fundamental range consists of nine beers, the light lager, tropical sour, QLD lager, session IPA, India pale ale, pale ale, double IPA, coastal ale and the Droughtie. The client is competing in an extensive, saturated and competitive market of other alcohol companies (Out Reach, 2016). These direct competitors consist of Jimmy Brings, Bentspoke, Stone & Wood, Your Mates, Black Hops, Balter, Ballistic, Bridge Road, Young Henrys, 4 as well as any other craft beer distributors and breweries (Newstead Brewing Co., 2021). Therefore, the market competition is extremely high which can prove to be difficult when selling products and aiming to not only reach, but appeal to the targeted consumer. With appropriate target strategies and a fine tuned marketing mix, these goals can be achieved.

5.0 Recommendations 5.1 Personable Media Introduction In terms of social media, the main focus is to stay relevant, appeal to a specific audience as well as creating a genuine relationship with consumers (Henderson, 2020). In order to create this genuine and lasting relationships a company or brand must aim to be appealing but more importantly personable with its customers and future audience. To elaborate, 82% of consumers seek personal recommendation from friends, family or associates when considering a purchase with a further 67% of consumers being more willing to purchase based on content shared by these relatives through social media (Ibis World, 2019). If the client can alter its posts to be slightly more personable and relative to the greater Brisbane community, then it is more likely to see growth in existing customer relationships as well as future relationships to be built with new customers.

5.2 Digital Marketing through Influencers Social media has seen a fast growing trend over recent years which has given selected people the title of ‘micro celebrity’. This is the influencer trend, which has given rise to a $7.65 return to every $1 spent on influencers demonstrating huge profit margins for such little content provided (S Khamis, L Ang, R Welling, 2017). To effectively utilise and ‘influencer’ the client must chose a person or entity that already represents the brands values and goals, must be personable and consumer friendly as well as being easily reachable by consumers (De Veirman, M., Cauberghe, V. and Hudders, L., 2017). An influencer type that reaches the clients audiences as well as being well received are influencers such as locally but well know musicians or popular entertainers of some sort who ideally have upwards of 1 million followers. These types of influencers will be well received by males and females ranging from 19-30 but can still be accepted by the older demographic (ABS, 2021). By utilising influencers, the client can boost its presence on most social media platforms and will be able to boost their presence and activity on both twitter and tik tok. This strategy also fits well with the clients customer persona brief as well as appealing to the target demographic.

5.3 Digital Continuity Finally, the client has struggled in the area of engagement across social media platforms. High consumer engagement will create brand trust for consumers. Newstead Brewing Co. could improve in this area by focusing on the unity of their digital presence across social media platforms. By implementing more scheduled and visually similar posting, the client can create a more consistent social media presence. This consistency can positively effect a customer’s decision to purchase a product as inconsistencies can have a poor reflection on the quality control of a brands digital presence. By using a post scheduling tool and implementing the use of tagging and hashtags whilst maintaining the same visual layout across all platforms, Newstead Brewing can achieve a well-received digital continuity.

6.0 References Alalwan, A.A., Rana, N.P., Dwivedi, Y.K. and Algharabat, R., 2017. Social media in marketing: A review and analysis of the existing literature. Telematics and Informatics, 34(7), pp.1177-1190. Chaffey , D., & Ellis-Chadwick , F. (2012). Digital Marketing Strategy: Implementation and Practice (5th Ed.). Essex, England: Pearsons Education Limited. Co., N. (2021). There's More To The Story - Newstead Brewing Co.. Newsteadbrewing.com.au. Retrieved 1 April 2021, from https://newsteadbrewing.com.au/beers/. De Veirman, M., Cauberghe, V. and Hudders, L., 2017. Marketing through Instagram influencers: the impact of number of followers and product divergence on brand attitude. International journal of advertising, 36(5), pp.798-828. Gender Indicators, Australia, 2020. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Retrieved 1 April 2021, from https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-andcommunities/gender-indicators-australia/latest-release. Hootsuite. (2021). Social Marketing Solutions . Retrieved from Hootsuite: https://www.hootsuite.com/ IBIS World. (2019). Market Research Reports & Analysis . Retrieved from IBIS World: m https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry-trends/specialised-marketresearch-reports Khamis, S., Ang, L. and Welling, R., 2017. Self-branding,‘micro-celebrity’and the rise of Social Media Influencers. Celebrity studies, 8(2), pp.191-208. Out Reach. (2016). Craft Beer Sales: How to Gain a Competitive Advantage Selling Your Brand in a Saturated Craft Beer Market. Retrieved from Out Reach : SSA Gov . (2019). Top 10 baby names of 2019 . Retrieved from Social Secuirty : https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/...