A Summer Internship Project Report on

A Study on effectiveness of content marketing in brand promotions.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of

Master of Business Administration

Affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University

By
Megha Rungta

Roll No.D1M-14

Under the guidance of

Dr. Tausif Mistry

A study conducted for

Brands that uses content marketing for Brand Promotions

At

INDIRA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS STUDIES

TATHAWADE, PUNE – 411033

2019-2021
Acknowledgement

In the Present world of competition there is a race of exsistence in which those who are having
the will to come forward,succeed.I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have
been possible without the kind support and help of many individuals and organizations. I would
like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them who deserve my deepest gratitude.

The internship opportunity I had with Impresario Promotions was a great chance for learning
and professional development. Therefore, I consider myself as a very lucky individual as I was
provided with an opportunity to be a part of it. I am also grateful for having a chance to meet so
many wonderful people and professionals who led me though this internship period.

Bearing in mind, I am using this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude and special thanks
to my Project Guide Ms. ShaminiGairola of who in spite of being extraordinarily busy with her
duties, took time out to hear, guide and keep me on the correct path and allowing me to carry out
my project at their esteemed organization and extending during the training.

I express my deepest thanks to my Internal Project Guide Prof. TausifMistry,for taking part in
useful decision & giving necessary advices and guidance and arranged all facilities to make this
project easier. I choose this moment to acknowledge his contribution gratefully.

It is my radiant sentiment to place on record my best regards, deepest sense of gratitude toIndira
School of business studies, Pune for their careful and precious guidance which were extremely
valuable for my study both theoretically and practically.

Lastly, I thank almighty, my parents and friends for their constant encouragement without which
this project would not have been possible in these tough times when we are all facing a Global
Pandemic.

Megha Rungta

D1M-14

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Certificate from ISBS

This is to certify that Ms. Megha Rungta student of Indira School of Business
Studies - Pune has successfully completed his project Titled “A Study on
effectiveness of content marketing in brand promotions.” for the period from 1st
May 2020 to 1st July 2020 in partial fulfillment of Master in Business
Administration (MBA) course.

Dr. Renu Bhargava Dr. Tausif Mistry

Director Internal Project Guide,

Indira School of Business Studies, Pune Indira School of Business Studies,Pune

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 Indira School of Business Studies, Pune
Summer Internship Project Certificate

Date: 13-05-2021

To Whomsoever It May Concern

This is to certify that Mr./Ms. Megha Rungta is a bonafide student of this Institute and has

successfully completed his/her project entitled A Study on effectiveness of content marketing

in brand promotions at Impresario Promotions for partial fulfillment of the course Master of

Business Administration (Marketing), affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University from Indira

School of Business Studies, Pune.

Dr. Renu Bhargava Dr. Tausif Mistry

Director, ISBS Internal Guide

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Certificate from the Company

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Executive Summary

Title of the Project and organization where it was undertaken: The title of the project is “A
Study on effectiveness of content marketing in brand promotions.”. The research and aligned
analysis of the said project was undertaken at Impresario Promtions,Delhi.

This Research is done with an intention to understand how content marketing helps different
brands in promoting their products and how Content marketing is used to attract and develop a
specific target audience with the ultimate goal of creating true customer engagement which has
the potential to increase sales through cross-selling or up-selling.

Methodology is the philosophical framework within which the research is conducted or the
foundation upon which the research is based. Research Methodology chapter of a research
describes research methods, approaches and designs in detail highlighting those used throughout
the study, justifying my choice through describing advantages and disadvantages of each
approach and design taking into account their practical applicability to our research.
Methodology is the framework which is associated with a particular set of paradigmatic
assumptions that we will use to conduct our research.

The purpose of descriptive research is, of course, to describe, as well as explain, or validate some
sort of hypothesis or objective when it comes to a specific group of people. Descriptive research
can be either quantitative or qualitative. It can involve collections of quantitative information that
can be tabulated along a continuum in numerical form, such as scores on a test or the number of
times a person chooses to use a-certain feature of a multimedia program, or it can describe
categories of information such as gender or patterns of interaction when using technology in a
group situation. Descriptive research involves gathering data that describe events and then
organizes, tabulates, depicts, and describes the data collection.

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Index / Table of Contents

Sr. Contents Pg. No.

No.

1 Introduction 7

2 Sector Analysis 11

3 Company Analysis 18

4 News Analysis (w.r.t selected sector & 31

company)

5 Review of Literature/ Theoretical 37

Background

6 Objectives 41

7 Research Methodology 46

8 Data Analysis/ Data visualization, 53

Results and Interpretation

9 Conclusions / Learnings from the 57

Project

10 Limitations of the project 60

11 Recommendations 62

12 -Bibliography 64

-Appendices

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List of Figures

Sr. Conte Pg. No.

nts
No.

1 Creative Ideation 18

2 End-to-End process 20

3 Our Clients 21

4 SWOT Analysis 24

5 PESTEL Analysis 25

6 Maybelline Grip Holder 27

7 Garnier men tennis ball 28

8 Colorbar Glitter Sipper 29

9 Testimonials 36

10 Data Analysis 54

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List of Tables

Sr. Contents Pg. No.

No.

1 Impresario in a nutshell 31

2 Descriptive Research 47

3 Survey Studies 48

4 Types of Research 49

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Chapter 1: Introduction

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Introduction

Content marketing has become a leading marketing technique in digital marketing

communication and uses the point of view of consumers to build relationships by creating and
sharing engaging content in social media that enhance their daily lives. Social media is an
engaging area of research that is rapidly evolving. The purpose is to focus on how corporations
should effectively utilize this new media as a marketing channel. The key to any successful
communication strategy is matching the message to the target audience and achieving customer
engagement.

Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as an approach of strategic marketing that
focuses on attracting and obtaining a clearly defined target audience by creating and sharing
valuable, consistent and relevant content, therefore turning this audience into profitable
customers. Social media content marketing plays an important role in communicating effective
content to consumers and therefore making it alluring for consumers to keep connected to the
brands.

In our time, where the shared content on social media is more important than mere presence,
brands and firms should understand the fact that the consumer is an important power and creator
of value with the help of social media, and they should focus on converting their followers into
loyal consumers.

Companies require comprehensive research regarding the target audience for creation of content
that will attract the interest of target markets. One of the most important elements of creating
different and creative content is to know the customers, understand them, and therefore listen to
them on social media as the brand. Listening will be helpful for the brand to understand what is
important for people and approach them with a more correct and healthy tone, as well as making
it easier for different content to emerge.

Primary reasons for following brands on social media may be listed as keeping up with
promotions and discounts, following information on the latest products, taking advantage of
customer services, entertaining content, and the opportunity to provide feedback.

Content Marketing is a revolution not seen before. It is important to create, deploy and
replicate effective content marketing throughout organization. Three categories emerged from
the data namely building content communities, platform-specific content and understanding
channels.
These categories provide sufficient evidence of how brands make use of social media content
communities to connect with the target audience in an unobtrusive manner, in addition to being
present in virtual brand communities.

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The findings make several contributions to the existing literature. Firstly, it provides a clearer
distinction between brand and social media content communities. Secondly, it extends
conceptions about social media communities to include content communities and, thirdly, it
provides sufficient evidence of how content marketing could benefit a brand by naturally
becoming part of social media conversations.

A combination of creative ideation, powerful insights,and remarkable production technologies.

Impresario Promotions is a decade-old innovative and ideation-centricagency,specializing in

promotional marketing.
We manage a global network of partners across multiple categories, with aclear focus on
regulatory compliance and sustainability.

We strongly believe that Freebies are not just promotional gifts, they are the memory of your
brand.
Our Mission Every step that we take, we make sure that they align with our mission to:

- Build brand salience

- Seize Attention with Substance
- Stimulate Customers’ Purchase Instinct

Powered by critical thinking, we design & create campaigns that demand attention.Consumers
are exposed to at least thousand brands every day. But they think and reflect upon only a fraction
of them.
Impresario Promotions is passionate about sharing your brand story, with millions with buyers,
through products and services, for a unique impression that lasts.

Everything we do is about YOU

From procuring trendsetting products to generating exclusiveideas, our aim is to make your
brand stand out.

Our USP lies in our clear focus on:

- Creating Unique Designs
- Living by Strong Commitment
- Delivering Exceptional Quality

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1.1. Definition and purpose of the project

· To investigate content marketing’s role in social media content communities to engage

with the target audience in an innate manner.

· To curate content into strategy to help the company achieve its Promotional goals.

· To turn prospects into buyers with content marketing.

· To study the effects of social media content marketing activities of firms on

consumer behavior.

· To attract and engage customers by integrating social media and content marketing.

· To study content marketing strategy and its impact on customers under the global
market conditions.

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Chapter 2: Sector Analysis

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2.1. Sector Analysis

"Promotions" in any industry is a vital ingredient of marketing plan to retain best customers and
to attract new ones. The retail market faces increasingly stiff competition, and is flooded with
various promotional offers to drive-in traffic. Hence, the consumer today is left with a large
range of promotions to choose from in almost all the product categories.From Promotional
Products to Augmented Reality Filters, we take pride in our creative ideas and powerful
strategies, focused at creating impact and reserving a place in the customers’ conscious.

1. Quantity/Product concession

1) Buy one get one free

2) Innovative cross-sell and up-sell strategies
3) Free samples to test new product
4) Offering promotions on particular day of a week to drive sales
5) Pseudo personalized promotions targeting particular customer segment
(students/promotions linked to age, height, gender, profession)

2. Price discount

1) Some per cent off per item

2) Fixed amount off per item
3) Discount vouchers

3. Ads

1) On-line/e-mail coupon
2) Mobile coupon

4. Shipping promotions

1) Free delivery of product

2) Money off on delivery item by means of a selected ship mode

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These are some of the promotions that may lure customers to purchase a product. In spite of such
attractive offers, there is a high probability that a customer may not avail or take advantage of
every offer that comes their way.

What retailers should know before launching a promotion?

Mere sales are not enough; the effectiveness of a promotion offered should be measured in order
to draw more profit out of the offer given to customers. In order to do so, customer behavior
should be analyzed. Retailers often fail to realize that a consumer can have their own parameters
like age, gender, requirement, income and preference to evaluate a promotion.

Understanding the kind of promotions to be launched plays a key role to category growth.
Referring to the past promotions, retailers should bear few points in mind before launching any
promotion:

1. How frequently should a promotion be launched?

2. Which categories respond the most to which promotions?
3. What product combinations can be promoted together?
4. To promote the entire category or to concentrate on only key products?
5. What sales rise can be estimated at each concession level?
6. How does a retail price change in product affect traffic and overall revenue?
7. What promotional plan to be designed to meet definite sales and volume targets?
8. Do price increase/decrease on some items negatively impact sales of other items?
9. How to drive new traffic to stores?
10. Based on demographics, how to vary promotional strategies across various stores?
11. What are the most effective promotions to reach target customers?

Once a retailer understands the direct-indirect impact of promotions, they can:

1. Increase profit by optimizing coupon usage, offer personalized packs to targeted

customers, decide on concession prices, buy-one-get-one schemes, displays, ads etc
2. Add to revenue by avoiding unnecessary price reductions and discounts
Tailored promotions: Designing sets of offers that are collectively more effective than
individual offer depending on segmentation, analysis of shopping behavior,
demographic information

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The idea is to provide the right customer with the right promotions.

Gifts with purchase

Promotional products are proven to get you noticed. We are experienced in understanding the
brand image, prioritizing marketing needs, and designing customized products, which deliver
maximum ROI on your project spent. We provide end-to-end solutions from ideating, designing,
sourcing, and manufacturing customized GWPs.

Effectiveness of a promotion

Promotion tactics aim to stimulate customer interest in a product. It was a common notion at
some point in history that the nature and degree of promotional activity is driven by market
knowledge with a blend of experience and gut feeling. This was also true. However, since the
competition in market has become increasingly stiff, the promotions launched by a retailer needs
to be unique, innovative and designed to bear fruitful results. Retailers are being confronted with
painful realities regarding the effectiveness of current promotions, as the type of promotions that
have done well for them in past may no longer be as effective. Almost all retailers use offers that
they are unsure will result in a positive ROI (Return On Investment). This has resulted in
degradation of customer confidence.

Promotions are expensive as there are certain hidden costs such as advertising cost and loss of
revenue when discount is offered to customers. Hence, it becomes mandatory to evaluate
promotional performance and execute it well. Moreover, consumer expectation has increased
from day-to-day stuff to lifestyle goods with subject to some promotional offer at some point of
time. Thereby it is very important for a retailer to stand up to customer expectations and offer
them with innovative promotions as purchasing decisions depend on this factor. It thus becomes
essential to use historic information in order to study customer behavior, sales pattern during past
promotion and product performance.

How to do promotional analysis?

Econometric techniques such as forecasting, time series analysis, intervention analysis,
predictive analysis, what if scenarios, marketing mix model and other techniques are used to
analyze data to produce powerful insights and decide on promotion and pricing strategy.

1. Retailers capture detailed data customer-wise which helps in giving insight not only about a
product and their brands purchased but also the socio-demographic nature and buying
pattern of a customer. Various parameters can be judged using such approach.

1) Whether the promotion targets new customers

2) Repurchase history
3) Cannibalization
4) Shift from competitor brand/product

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 5) A loyal customer who would have purchased the product even without the promotion.

In this case the retailer tends to lose margin. Such loyal customers should not be considered in
analysis.

This above information can be clubbed and hence can be compared with sales lift data to track
performance of promotion.

2. Intervention analysis can be another way to analyze historic sales data with respect to
promotions and thus help in framing future promotions. Intervention analysis technique
rests upon historical data and judgment of a practitioner. The end result using intervention
analysis is that practitioners have better understanding of their past promotions and hence
can design near accurate attractive future promotions.

Thus, promotional analysis means not just offering any promotion. For e.g.: shampoo cannot be
promoted with biscuits. Customers who tend to buy biscuits lean to buy other snacks like cake,
cookies etc. To promote slow moving shampoos, a best promotion plan would be to offer them
with conditioner or body wash. In this manner we need to analyze customer behaviour, product
performance and product combination. Based on the promotional analysis, retailers can optimize
the performance of future promotions, restore normalcy in sale, clear stocks, promote items as
per the season and festival, drive profits through improved sales, increase brand awareness as
well as continue to have strong relationship with loyal customers

Product Licensing
From local to global, characters that capture the heart. We completely understand the charm of a
popular characters and hence we know how to fit with them the right product that justifies the
brand influence. We are connected with the right partners to help boost the brand appeal with
characters having local to global presence.

Augmented Reality Filters

Build your buzz around the digital world with your own AR filters, games and effects. We keep
up our speed with the latest industry trends. Augmented Reality being the next big buzz in the
promotions industry, we have the best tech partners to serve not only your physical consumers
but digital too. Bridge the gap between reality and fantasy with your own cool and fun AR
filters.

From innovative ideas to delivering quality, we've got you covered at every
angle.

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Our End-to-End Process Every step in our process involves performing actions at lightening
speed powered by invincible passion.

From ideating concepts that make your brand stand out, to timely delivery of projects, we treat
every step in our process with utmost care.

Figure No. 2.1.1 Steps of Marketing for the Company

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Chapter 3: Company Analysis

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3.1. Company Analysis

Impresario Promotions is an innovative agency, specializing in the Promotional Goods Industry.

Our experience for more than 10 years with the blue-chip brands in India has helped us carve a
niche as one of the most innovative promotion agencies in the country. Our company’s
commitment to time-bound completion of projects, delivering exceptional designs and assured
quality have been the cornerstones to our growth pyramid.

Figure No. 3.1.1 End-to-End Process

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Our Clients:

Figure No. 3.1.2 Our Clients

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SWOT Analysis

SWOT refers to a strategic look at the project or business to identify “Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats.”

As an acronym, SWOT has been around since the 1960s. As a concept, I’m sure it’s older still.

But content marketers may want to revisit their trusty SWOT analyses for content creation.

That’s because the process systematically bridges the gap between what you HAVE created
in the past and what you SHOULD create in the future.

And another bonus, because a SWOT analysis is familiar in business, using it to describe your
data and conclusions can also help you better communicate decisions with other stakeholders.

Content Marketing SWOT Analysis

To find content marketing strengths and weaknesses, you need to evaluate both search traffic and
social engagements.

Traffic stats are easiest to find in Google Analytics.

Drill down under the Behavior and Site Content tabs and use the landing page report.

Then, set the filter to content from your blog, the number of page views, and the channel report
from the Acquisition/All Traffic tab, for the amount of organic traffic.

Keep in mind, when considering competitors (and sometimes your own content), you won’t have
access to these reports.

So in those cases, I suggest using the number of backlinks a post has or Moz’s page authority as
a proxy for traffic.

Backlinks are part of the formula that search engines use to drive traffic. And page authority
(PA) gives a 0-100 scale depicting how well a page is likely to rank in SERPs.

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 Determining Strengths

For strengths, look at your high performing content and ask careful questions to determine what
made it so attractive to your audience.

In doing this, the goal is to develop a portrait of strong content so you can create more of what
your audience prefers.

Here are a few things to consider:

 Content length
 Content format
 Date of publication
 Whether or not you collaborated with others
 Use and placement of images

Determining Weakness

To find the weaknesses, perform a similar analysis of your worst performing content, as well as
any exceptional content from competitors.

(If the content in question makes you cringe, either because you wrote it, or because someone
else thought of it first, consider this a weakness to evaluate).

Make a list of lengths, formats, dates, collaboration, and images for your best and worst content,
and your competitor’s best content.

Once this is done, you’re ready to identify opportunities and threats by comparing the two.

Identifying Opportunities and Threats

To find opportunities and threats, you’ll need to draw inferences from the strength and weakness
analysis you’ve already done.

For example, if the Buffer post analysis from above was created by a competitor, I would label it
as a threat—my audience may read it instead of my content. But if it’s my own content, I will list
it as an opportunity for the year ahead.

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And if I notice that my best performing content all has a research base, and I see that my
competitors best posts are all about Twitter, I will add Twitter research to my list of
opportunities.

Figure No. 3.1.3 SWOT Analysis

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 Figure No. 3.1.4 PESTEL Analysis

PESTLE analysis is a strategic decision-making tool, which gives the detailed insights to the
businessmen about the environment and its surroundings that they are dealing in or are planning
to launch their products or services in.

If the PESTLE analysis defines the factors that influence your business, it definitely also impacts
the consumer’s behaviour.

 Political Analysis: Whether you are dealing in a single country of multiple, you need
to understand the political outlook to produce and sell your products or services.Suppose
you skip this step, you might end up shutting down your product or service permanently.
For instance, if you think about dealing in China and if the Chinese government finds
out that the citizens of China are buying your product, you could end up shutting down
forever.This will happen because you did not do the research and you were not aware
that China is governmentally intrusive country.
 Legal Analysis: Just like political, legal analysis is also equally important. If you
ignore important aspects like the employment laws of that area, the minimum age

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of

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 employment, minimum wage, health and safety regulations, GDPR laws etc, you might
end up in trouble.You need to be thorough with the laws and regulation of any area
before starting any business.The legal analysis can be both internal and external.
External laws pertaining to the laws of the area you are operating in. And internal laws
can be about your internal business policies and laws.

 Social Analysis: The social analysis, scrutinises the social and cultural environment of
the market. With the help of the social analysis, you understand the demographics,
consumer buying patterns and behaviour, cultural trends, population analytics, etc.For
example, the holiday season is the most fruitful in US. People have a tendency to shop
more before the beginning of holidays or during the holiday season. If you as a digital
marketer know which season is going to get you the most sales, would it not be a jackpot
for you?

 Environmental Analysis: Similarly, if we talk about the environmental analysis, as

a digital marker, you also need to focus on the surrounding factors that might directly or
indirectly affect your business.If I take an example of a travelling company, would it not
be beneficial to know in advance about the geographical and environmental conditions of
the area you are planning to deal in. Some of the factors that may be useful for your
digital marketing strategies can be weather conditions, global climatic chances,
geographical location, environmental offsets, etc.

 Technological factors:Advancements in technology could affect how your business

operates and how your clients operate, too. Many businesses in the UK have already
moved to digital ways of working as a result of the lockdown, and are relying more
heavily on e-commerce. Your accountancy firm’s website is now the main point of
contact you’ll have with potential clients. It’s now more important than ever to make sure
your website is functional and appealing, and that you’re spending time on the right
digital marketing activities.

 Economic factors:This can include any economic change that could affect your
business, taking into account current forecasts and how they will affect other businesses
in your sector, as well as buyer behaviour.

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3.2. Some of our notable projects

Maybelline Fit Me Mobile Grip Holder

Promotion Theme: Consumer Promotion targeting the Modern Confident Women

Proposed Product: Fashionable Mobile Grip Holder

The Fit me range by Maybelline targets the confident modern women who feel comfortable in
her skin (Tagline: FIT ME as I am). Going forward with the brand's message, a quirky mobile
grip holder was proposed targeting the new age bold and strong urban woman who is fashionable
and loves to explore. The "fit me grip holder" was a trendy giveaway designed to suit the style of
a modern carefree woman.

Figure No. 3.1.5 Maybelline Fit Me Mobile Grip Holder

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Garnier Men’s Facewash Cricket-Tennis Balls

Promotion Theme: Consumer Promotion Targeting the Cricket Fever

Proposed Product: Tennis Cricket ball

Garnier Men’s Facewash planned to target their audience during the 2019 raging Cricket
Worldcup. Taking advantage of the perfect time we proposed Cricket-Tennis Balls as a freebie to
be offered with the Acno Fight Facewash to hit the sentiments of their target audience.

The final product was packaged in a square box with 1 Acno Fight Facewash with a set of
Cricket-Tennis Balls and hit the market with their catchy slogan Hit the 6 signs of pimple with a
six.

Figure No. 3.1.6 Garnier Tennis Ball

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Colorbar Glitter Sipper

New Product Launch Promotion: Glitter me all themed Consumer Promotion

Proposed Product: Glitter Tumbler

Going with the “Glitter Me All” theme of Colorbar, launched at the beginning of 2019 summer
season, team Impresario designed a double-walled glitter tumbler with moving confetti to match
the glitter fever of the season.

This promotion was a super hit of the season with all the glitter catching the eyes of the
consumer and the other brands.

Figure No. 3.1.7 Colorbar Glitter Sipper

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Our Team
We are a mix of passionate people with strong management, technical and creative skills
who specialize in designing a customized product that maximizes the impact of your
marketing campaign. The Perfect Blend -Our Project Management team in India, Idea
Generation team in Hong Kong and Strong Sourcing network in China enable us with the
resources and skills needed to deliver the best.

Client Relations
We are dedicated to meeting our requirements, particularly concerning quality and time. Our
sincerity of purpose comes across through our flexible attitude towards our clients’ needs since
we hold client relations and satisfaction uppermost in our service-oriented philosophy.

In-houseProductionEngineering
Having acquired a strong presence in the field of promotional goods, Impresario has developed
in house product engineering division to undertake complete Designing, Basic and System
Engineering, Procurement, Project Management.

Quality Control
For each project, we have a fully equipped QC team at site under a senior Quality Control
Inspector. Regular inspections and Quality Audits are carried out at sites for Quality Assurance.

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Table 3.1.1 Impresario In a Nutshell

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Chapter 4: News Analysis (w.r.t selected
sector & company)

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 4.1. News Analysis (w.r.t selected sector & company)

The content marketing market and it is poised to grow by USD 269.24 billion during 2020-2024,
progressing at a CAGR of over 13% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date
analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market
environment.

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast
period. Adobe Inc., Contently Inc., CoSchedule LLC, HubSpot Inc., Influence & Co., Kapost,
NewsCred Inc., Percolate Industries Inc., Scripted Inc., and Sprinklr Inc. are some of the
major market participants.

The increased users of social media will offer immense growth opportunities. To make the most
of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-
growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Increased users of social media have been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Content Marketing Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Content Marketing Market is segmented as below:

 Objective
o Lead Generation
o Brand Awareness
o Thought Leadership
o Others

 Platform
o Blogging
o Videos
o Infographics
o Case Studies
o Others

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 End-user
o Retail
o Automotive
o Financial Services
o Telecom
o Others

Content Marketing Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

 CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

 Detailed information on factors that will assist content marketing market growth during the
next five years

 Estimation of the content marketing market size and its contribution to the parent market

 Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

 The growth of the content marketing market

 Analysis of the market’s competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

 Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of content marketing market
vendors

The Content Marketing market status and outlook of Global and major regions, from angles of
players, countries, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global
market, and splits the Content Marketing market by product type and applications/end industries.

The building brand awareness along with increasing trust and loyalty to be one of the primary
growth factors for the content marketing market. Companies use content marketing as a strong
advertising platform and a source of enhancing public relations.

Content marketing comprises of publishing informative and well-researched content to portray

the business as authoritative and trustworthy. Impressive content also improves brand recall, and
economically improves the brand awareness among consumers.

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Through the medium of blogging and search engines, the reach of new content published
increases exponentially. Blogging is the most commonly used content marketing platform as it
provides easy information and details to the prospective buyers regarding the latest developments
and new deals. Using blogs, content marketers develop a healthy rapport directly with the target
audience, contributing towards the growth of the blogging segment in the content marketing
market.

The global Content Marketing market is valued at xx million USD in 2017 and is expected to
reach xx million USD by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of xx% between 2017 and
2023.

The Asia-Pacific will occupy for more market share in following years, especially in China, also
fast growing India and Southeast Asia regions.
North America, especially The United States, will still play an important role which cannot be
ignored. Any changes from United States might affect the development trend of Content
Marketing.
Europe also play important roles in global market, with market size of xx million USD in 2017
and will be xx million USD in 2023, with a CAGR of xx%.

A latest market research report on Global Digital Content Unit Market. The global report is
prepared in collaboration with the leading industry experts and dedicated research analyst team
to provide an enterprise with in-depth market insights and help them to take crucial business
decisions. This report covers current market trends, opportunities, challenges, and detailed
competitive analysis of the industry players in the market.

The published report explains about the current supply and demand scenario and presents the
future outlook of the market in a detailed manner. DataIntelo has applied a robust market
research methodology to bestow the new entrants and emerging players with 360° wide-view
analysis on the latest advancements and their impacts on the market.

It has congregated massive amount of data on the key segments of the market in an easy to
understand format. The research report has laid out the numbers and figures in a comprehensive
manner with the help of graphical and pictorial representation which embodies more clarity on
the market.

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Figure No. 4.1.1 Testimonials

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Chapter 5: Review of Literature/
Theoretical Background

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Review of Literature/ Theoretical Background

There is no universally accepted definition of content marketing, but according to the Content
Marketing Institute, “content marketing is the marketing and Business Process for creating and
distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and
understood target audience - with the objective of driving profitable customer action” (Content
Marketing Institute, 2015).

Furthermore, the Content Marketing Institute shows many definitions of marketing content,
given by specialists in this field. Thus, the definition given by Michael Brenner, author of B2B
Marketing Insider, Co-Founder of Business 2 Community and Sr. Director of Global Marketing
at SAP is: “content marketing is about delivering the content your audience is seeking in all the
places they are searching for it. It is the effective combination of created, curated and
syndicated content”. According to Sam Decker, CEO of Mass Relevance, “content marketing is
creating or curating non-product content — be it informational, educational, entertaining, etc.
— and publishing it to contact points with customers to get their attention, to focus on the topic
around your solution, and pull them closer to learning more about you”.

In this context, a differentiation must be made between content marketing and copywriting. If
content marketing aims to raise awareness of the brand among the target segment, and
automatically increase its loyalty to the company by information and education, copywriting
mainly focuses on determining the target to act in the desired direction (most often purchasing a
particular product or service). Also, content marketing is different from the product advertising,
which aims the purchase of a product or service. Another content specialist, Barry Graubart says
that:

“Content marketing is an approach by which companies seek to author and/or share contextually
relevant content to create or reinforce their brand messaging. When done effectively, content
marketing is not done in direct support of a sales process, but rather by positioning a company or
individual within a space” (Content Marketing Institute, 2015).

However, content marketing is what a company creates and shares to tell its story. “As
individuals must gain the trust of others to manage them, similarly the companies need to gain
the confidence of their potential clients in their products and services in order to impose
themselves on the market.

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To understand a company and its products, consumers need to know what type of company they
have to do with, as well as what values are associated with it and how its employees come to
meet the customers’ needs”. “Strong brands are based on a story that communicates who is the
company; authenticity is to communicate what you really are”. Therefore, the content marketing
should be based on the company's values.

Content marketing has become a leading marketing technique in digital marketing

communication and uses the point of view of consumers to build relationships by creating and
sharing engaging content in social media that enhance their daily lives. Social media is an
engaging area of research that is rapidly evolving.

The purpose is to focus on how corporations should effectively utilize this new media as a
marketing channel. The key to any successful communication strategy is matching the message
to the target audience and achieving customer engagement.

Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as an approach of strategic marketing that
focuses on attracting and obtaining a clearly defined target audience by creating and sharing
valuable, consistent and relevant content, therefore turning this audience into profitable
customers.

Social media content marketing plays an important role in communicating effective content to
consumers and therefore making it alluring for consumers to keep connected to the brands.

In our time, where the shared content on social media is more important than mere presence,
brands and firms should understand the fact that the consumer is an important power and creator
of value with the help of social media, and they should focus on converting their followers into
loyal consumers.

Companies require comprehensive research regarding the target audience for creation of content
that will attract the interest of target markets. One of the most important elements of creating
different and creative content is to know the customers, understand them, and therefore listen to
them on social media as the brand.

Listening will be helpful for the brand to understand what is important for people and approach
them with a more correct and healthy tone, as well as making it easier for different content to
emerge.

Primary reasons for following brands on social media may be listed as keeping up with
promotions and discounts, following information on the latest products, taking advantage of
customer services, entertaining content, and the opportunity to provide feedback.

Content Marketing is a revolution not seen before. It is important to create, deploy and
replicate effective content marketing throughout organization. Three categories emerged from
the data namely building content communities, platform-specific content and understanding
channels.

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These categories provide sufficient evidence of how brands make use of social media content
communities to connect with the target audience in an unobtrusive manner, in addition to being
present in virtual brand communities.

The findings make several contributions to the existing literature. Firstly, it provides a clearer
distinction between brand and social media content communities. Secondly, it extends
conceptions about social media communities to include content communities and, thirdly, it
provides sufficient evidence of how content marketing could benefit a brand by naturally
becoming part of social media conversations.

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Chapter 6: Objectives

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Objectives

Project Objectives:

· To investigate content marketing’s role in social media content communities to engage with
the target audience in an innate manner.

· To curate content into strategy to help the company achieve its Promotional goals.

· To turn prospects into buyers with content marketing.

· To study the effects of social media content marketing activities of firms on

consumer behavior.

· To attract and engage customers by integrating social media and content marketing.

· To study content marketing strategy and its impact on customers under the global
market conditions.

The strategy of content marketing is adapted to each company, but it must consider the following
elements: objectives of content marketing, analysis of the target, type of used content marketing,
promotion channels, content marketing timetable (frequency), as well as metrics for measuring
the impact of marketing content.

Regarding the objectives of content marketing, the most common are: -

 increasing the brand awareness

 “building a relationship based on trust with the target
 attracting new leads
 solving the problems related to low audience
 creating a need for a specific product
 developing customer loyalty
 testing a product idea / business
 creating an audience”

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The target analysis is necessary in order to know who are the target audience / potential clients
(demography, age, hobbies, topics of interest, preference for certain social networking...).

The type of content marketing used is determined according to the information obtained by the
target analysis.

Also, without considering the quality of the content, which is the most important part of digital
marketing, the choice of the frequency of promotion and of the right social media plays a
significant role in the success of the content marketing campaign. Content marketing - the
fundamental tool of digital marketing .

Content marketing specialists indicate 9 key areas to be considered in creating a content

marketing strategy:

1. Focus on quality first and not on volume.

2. Topics your prospects/customers care about – the topics should be of interest to target.

3. Don’t ignore SEO – content marketing developed and promoted should take into
consideration SEO, by including the keywords.

4. Think about variety - variety of media (pictures, videos, infographics, checklists, audio
content, webinars and even live events), in addition to written content like blog posts, ebooks
and white papers. Also, variety can extend to what kind of content you create.

5. Build a social foundation - content is the fuel that keeps the social media “engine”
humming as people share and re-share content they’ve discovered or that someone else (in
most cases) shared with them.

6. Get your employees to share – it is also important that the company’s employees share
the content marketing.

7. Align content marketing and advertising efforts.

8. Monitor the reactions online by metrics.

9. Engage with people who share and comment.

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In addition to monitoring mentions and shares, engaging with people who responded to the
content can be a very powerful way to spread your reach and to connect with potential prospects
or industry stakeholders.

The metrics used in content marketing should consider: -

 “visits to the company’s site

 page views
 number of newsletter subscribers
 followers on social media
 bounce rate
 time spent on the company’ site”

Also, it must take into consideration 4 types of metrics:

1. Consumption metrics (Google Analytics, Traffic, Open Rates).

2. Sharing metrics (Retweets, Forwards, Likes).

3. Lead metrics (Leads generated).

4. Sales metrics (Deals).

A well-defined strategy of content marketing has the ability to create a privileged relationship
with the targeted audience by building a positive brand image. Thus, content marketers can
attract, engage and retain audiences on a long term.

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Chapter 7: Research Methodology

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Research Methodology

Methodology is the philosophical framework within which the research is conducted or the
foundation upon which the research is based. Research Methodology chapter of a research
describes research methods, approaches and designs in detail highlighting those used throughout
the study, justifying my choice through describing advantages and disadvantages of each
approach and design taking into account their practical applicability to our research.
Methodology is the framework which is associated with a particular set of paradigmatic
assumptions that we will use to conduct our research. A research methodology should meet the
following two criteria:

· Firstly, the methodology should be the most appropriate to achieve objectives of the research.

· Secondly, it should be made possible to replicate the methodology used in other researches
of the same nature.

Types of Research Methodology:

1) Exploratory Research:

Exploratory research is defined as a research used to investigate a problem which is not clearly
defined. It is conducted to have a better understanding of the existing problem, but will not
provide conclusive results.

For such a research, a researcher starts with a general idea and uses this research as a medium to
identify issues, that can be the focus for future research.

An important aspect here is that the researcher should be willing to change his/her direction
subject to the revelation of new data or insight. Such a research is usually carried out when the
problem is at a preliminary stage. It is often referred to as grounded theory approach or
interpretive research as it used to answer questions like what, why and how.

2) Descriptive Research:

Descriptive research focuses on expanding knowledge on current issues through a process of

data collection. Descriptive studies are used to describe the behavior of a sample population.
Descriptive research seeks to describe the characteristics or behavior of an audience.While it’s
not grounded in statistics, and usually leans towards more qualitative methods, it can include
quantifiable data as well.

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The purpose of descriptive research is, of course, to describe, as well as explain, or validate some
sort of hypothesis or objective when it comes to a specific group of people. Descriptive research
can be either quantitative or qualitative.

It can involve collections of quantitative information that can be tabulated along a continuum in
numerical form, such as scores on a test or the number of times a person chooses to use a-certain
feature of a multimedia program, or it can describe categories of information such as gender or
patterns of interaction when using technology in a group situation. Descriptive research involves
gathering data that describe events and then organizes, tabulates, depicts, and describes the data
collection.

Table No. 7.1.1 Descriptive Research

The Survey Studies: They are of following types;

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 The Inter-relationship Studies are of following types;

The Developmental Studies are of the following types;

Table No. 7.1.2 Survey Studies

Research Objectives: In this Study, following points would be studied as Descriptive

Components:

· To investigate content marketing’s role in social media content communities to engage with
the target audience in an innate manner.

· To curate content into strategy to help the company achieve its Promotional goals.

· To turn prospects into buyers with content marketing.

· To study the effects of social media content marketing activities of firms on

consumer behavior.

· To attract and engage customers by integrating social media and content marketing.

· To study content marketing strategy and its impact on customers under the global
market conditions.

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Type of Research Descriptive Research
Data Source Primary and Secondary data
Data Collection Method Survey
Data Collection Tools Questionnaire,Interview
Sampling Universe Brands that uses content marketing for
Promotions.
Sample Size 25

Table 7.1.3 Research type

Area of Study (Sampling Universe)

The research study will be conducted across different Brands that uses content marketing for
brand promotions.

Sampling Technique:

The Sampling method that would be used in this research would be a non-probability sampling
method called convenience sampling. In convenience sampling the research data is obtained
from a group of conveniently available respondents. This kind of sampling technique would be
easy to implement due to the current pandemic situation because of which people are stuck at
home. This type of sampling would be quick, easy and time saving.

Sampling Unit:

In this study, Sampling Unit will be Impresario Promotions, which is the Company I am working
for as an Intern as part of my Summer Internship Program.

Data Collection:

Data collection tools are methodologies employed to gather data from a targetted, select group of
people to assess pre-defined parameters by analyzing the data and gaining rich insights about the
same. Data in this study would be collected via a questionnaire of relevant questions from the
Brands that use Content Marketing for Brand Promotions. Data Collection will also be done by
Interviews of the employees of different Companies. Data collection will begin after the problem
has been defined accurately.

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Primary Data:

Primary data is data that is collected by a researcher from first-hand sources, using methods like
surveys, interviews, or experiments. It is collected with the research project in mind, directly
from primary sources.In this study,Primary data would be collected by circulating a
questionnaire among different brands.

Secondary Data:

Secondary data refers to data that is collected by someone other than the user. Common sources
of secondary data for social science include censuses, information collected by government
departments, organizational records and data that was originally collected for other research
purposes. In this Study the secondary data would be collected from different articles available
Online and other Research Reports.

Data Analysis Procedure:

· Reliability Testing

· Graphical Representation & Root

· Cause Analysis

· Co-relation Analysis

· Factor Analysis

· Ethical Consideration

· Limitations of the research

· Future Scope of the study

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Chapter 8: Data Analysis/ Data
visualization, Results and Interpretation

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Data Analysis/ Data visualization, Results and Interpretation

1. 42% of B2B marketers say they’re effective at content marketing.

2. 60% of marketers create at least one piece of content each day.

3. Year-over-year growth in unique site traffic is 7.8x higher for content

marketing leaders compared to followers (19.7% vs 2.5%).

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4. 57% of marketers reported custom content was their top marketing
priority for 2014.

5. Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and

generates about 3 times as many leads.

6. 93% of B2B marketers use content marketing.

7. 78% of CMOs believe custom content is the future of marketing.

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8. Conversion rates are nearly 6x higher for content marketing adopters
than non-adopters.

9. 39% of marketing budget is spent on content marketing by the most

effective B2B marketers

10. 48% of smaller organizations have a documented content strategy,

compared to only 41% of larger organizations.

Figure No. 8.1.1 Data Analysis Figures

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Chapter 9: Conclusions / Learnings from
the Project

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Conclusion and Learning From the Project

Brands will now accomplish their marketing goals, not mainly through interruptive media, but by
creating and distributing the most valuable information on the planet for that particular niche.
Content marketing has been introduced long time ago, however not many organizations engage
in it back then. Nevertheless, it is becoming the new trend in marketing world lately due to the
shift in consumer behaviors and technological aspects. Customers realize the power of
knowledge and information can lead to better purchasing decisions.

Thus they start to demand for more information. Moreover, they are getting smarter and smarter
so marketers have no choice but to produce accurate and great contents because manipulation of
information does not work in this digital age. A few features need to be taken into consideration
to achieve effective content marketing.

The significance of localization in message raises the success rate of reaching target audience.
Using one single message globally is risky due to the cultural differences and customers’
expectation varies.

Next, it is better to have contents personalized because consumers demand for individualistic.
They wish to feel special and respected as individuals. Customers are more likely to form deeper
relationships with a brand when the message is personalized and contains strong emotions.

On the other hand, it is best if contents are prepared in diversified routines: hire out, partner up
and use voice.

Different ways of conveying message can gain the interest of audience. Cooperation between
marketers and customers in generating information makes the contents fun and trustworthy.
Consumers believe that user-generated contents are far more trustable because they are not paid
to spread positive word of mouth about certain brands.

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Lastly, it is crucial for firms to be ethical and honest with public. Public hates to be deceived and
manipulated. Hence, content marketers must make sure that the contents are real and transparent
to build trust and maintain customer loyalty. Marketing trend is evolving in a way that publishing
is replacing marketing.

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Chapter10. Limitations of the project

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Limitations of the Project

(i) Survey method is costly, time consuming and wasteful in certain cases where the objectives
are limited.

(ii) The survey method is unsuitable if the numbers of persons to be surveyed are very large or
if they spread over a large geographical area.

(iii) In this method personal bias may vitiate the result.

(iv) It lacks the flexibility.

(v) In this method, it is very difficult to verify the accuracy of the data collection.

(vi) Only useful for current problems.

(vii) It does not permit more comprehensive and dynamic study of the society but deals with
the problems of immediate importance only.

(viii) Under this method most of the surveys are conducted on sample basis. If the sample is
not carefully planned, inferences drawn may be inaccurate and misleading.

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Chapter 11.Recommendations

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Recommendations

The report advises every company to start employing content marketing as soon as possible. The
earlier it is done, the better; since the results of content marketing is yielded for the long term.
Educating the audience and community building should be the first and most important goal.
Businesses can still try to direct sales on different distribution channels alongside with the
content. However, it is advised to not expect direct return on investment overnight. Audience and
community development requires a long period of time to reach the right timing for conversion.

It is also advised for businesses to conduct another research on Affiliate marketing to be used as
a potential business model (Sponsored Contents / Sponsored product placement).

Affiliate marketing has been proven successful to work with content marketing, such in the case
of interviewee as her company strikes deals with third-party partners to sponsor for content on
the site. Finally, as mentioned earlier, the report intentionally avoids the discussion of content
marketing tactics in this thesis. It is advised that businesses should look into this topic in another
research, as there is an average of eighteen content marketing tactics being used by marketers
around the world.

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Chapter 12 - Bibliography - Appendices

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Bibliography

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