Case study- social commerce creates new customer relationship Study

- social commerce creates new customer relationship - Case Study Example Best Buy maintains a very large following in social media, actually using all of the data gathered from customer sentiment and question/answer opportunities with dedicated response staff as an evaluation tool. Best Buy conducts analytical research using social media data to determine whether its promotions are meeting with success. The article warns, however, that there are difficulties to using social media as a promotional tool, citing Starbucks as an example. This company received many photos chastising Starbucks for its labor practices, rather than delivering photos of advertising posters mandated by the contest. 1. Assess the people, organization, and technology issues for using social media to engage with customers. Pornpitakpan (2003) identifies the importance of using celebrity endorsers for improving a product brand position. Consumers find that a brand is more credible when an attractive and trustworthy celebrity endorses the product. When using social media, the people wit hin the organization become a type of celebrity endorser (such as Steve Jobs at Apple, Inc.), thus the information being provided to customers must be considered credible. Companies such as Best Buy, with their Twelp Force responders, become the face of Best Buy and therefore their behaviors must be controlled, the depth of their competence must be evaluated, and the content being transmitted over the social network must be relevant to consumer needs. From a people perspective, it would add risk by having employees represent the company and a potential cost burden. The company would also have to organize social media activities within the value chain, ensuring supervision, control systems, and those responsible for developing creative Web content. Using social media might require a more decentralized organization. In relation to technology, the brand using this platform for promotion or customer relationship management would need to ensure they have staff trained in gathering analyt ical online data and transforming it into useful information. 2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using social media for advertising, brand building, market research and customer service? There are many advantages for using these sites. Apple, Inc., as one example, often uses social media to gain more presence with customers. Apple has the highest brand loyalty of any technology company, according to JD Power (Info Tech, 2007). Apple has conducted considerable market research about the lifestyles and attitudes of customers and is able to generate content that is relevant to these beliefs and lifestyles. Thus, what social media does for Apple is create real-time relationship development and interactivity with the Apple brand in a way that is not met by competitors. Social media sites also fit under the psychological theory of social learning. When people look toward their peers about product purchasing, they will often emulate these behaviors. Thus, the social media sites provide meaningful peer feedback that in turn changes attitudes about a brand. Best Buy, as illustrated in the case study, is a benchmark of using real-time response units to provide better customer service. Social media serves as a platform for engagement in a way not seen traditionally. Disadvantages can be illustrated by companies like

Taxation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Taxation - Assignment Example These two systems worked independently in the past and the tax authorities maintained separate tax systems for income tax and national insurance contributions. Income tax was taxed annually in a progressive manner on individuals and corporate bodies whereby low income earners were taxed lower than high income earners (UK Government, 2012). The tax rates increased with increase in incomes of individuals. On the other hand, benefits are payments to individuals by the state. They are paid to individuals through the bank, credit union account or building societies. If one does not have any of these accounts, he/she may be paid through Post Office card account. There are various types of benefits in UK. Attendance allowance is a tax-free benefit paid to individuals of over 65 years who are mentally or physically handicapped. Two rates of up to ?71.40 are payable per week. Carer’s allowance is payable weekly in advance or every 4 or 13 weeks. Child benefit is a universal claim by pa rents for their children (BBC News, 2012). They are paid after every four weeks in normal situations and weekly for single parents. Tax credit is also paid weekly or after every four weeks, to families with children, whether the parents work or not. Disability living allowance is is a tax-free benefit payable after every 4 weeks to disabled people who have walking difficulties and who need someone to help them walk. Other types of benefits include crisis loans, council tax benefits, community grant care, child trust fund, etc. 2. Description of the proposed recommendation The proposed recommendation requires the integration of income tax with benefit systems. To achieve this, the UK tax system first needs to merge income tax and National insurance. These are two different ways in which income tax are paid in UK. Maintaining the two types of tax systems may be costly, less transparent and burdensome. Integrating the two systems will therefore bring forth an easier method of paying in come tax in UK. The integration of income tax with National insurance contribution makes it more transparent for the tax system. The progressive taxation in UK includes 20% basic rate, 40% higher rate and 50% additional rate of income tax (Mirrlees et al, 2012). If this income tax is integrated with National Insurance Contribution, the new rates may be 31%, 41% and 51% respectively. This is a more transparent mechanism which enables individuals to pay for their taxes more easily at once rather than maintaining two separate tax accounts. The second step in the integration of benefit and tax systems is the integration of the benefit system. In this case, the benefit and tax credit systems are merged together. This is a messy and complicated mix of overlapping programmes. The programmes which need to be include programmes needed to provide support for low-income families and benefits provided to give non-means-tested support for various contingencies. The former class of programmes inc ludes job-seekers allowance, income support, housing benefit, pension credit, child tax credit and council tax benefit. On the other hand, benefits for non-means-tested support for contingencies include state pension, disability allowance, carer’s allowance, winter fuel payment etc (Mirrlees et al, 2012). Because several families claim these benefits simultaneously, it is necessary to integrate the two systems into one manageable system. The recommended system