A Comparative Study of Social Media Marketing and Conventional Marketing – A Case Study

There has been an increase in the number of organisations using social media for marketing purposes, consistent with the popularity of social media for personal and corporate use. Consequently, organisations find it easy and convenient to use social media for marketing purposes. The study was in response to two problems. First, organisations now need to prioritise resources when it comes to marketing, but the returns from social media are unknown. Secondly, the impact of other marketing channels has rarely been evaluated. This study compared the usage of competing marketing channels to determine the one that is worth pursuing for an organisation if prioritisation is to be done. A case study approach was used, focusing on the XYZ Private Limited Company in South Africa. The quantitative research design was adopted as the strategy of inquiry, making use of closed questions in a questionnaire survey. Results indicated that, despite the growing prevalence of social media marketing, with Facebook and LinkedIn dominating the marketing, there was also a strong dependence on conventional marketing channels such as newspapers, magazines and direct mail by XYZ Private Limited. A multipronged approach remains key in marketing to enable reaching out to a diversity of clients but, if resources are limited, social media channels have proven to be cheaper in reaching out to young clients.