MKTG611 Marketing Management

Write about the artical“The role of social media data in operations and production management”

The chosen article “The role of social media data in operations and production management” is an interesting article that explains the significant benefits an organization can derive, by harnessing social media data, to understand the consumer needs and expectations and improve the production process. There is no gain stating that production management is defined as a strategic method of designing products as well as organizational lifecycle function within a company so as to plan, forecast and produce goods in compliance with consumer demands. While social media tools have usually been used by the managers of the organizations to develop brand recognition, and enhance consumer loyalty, this article emphasizes the important role social media data plays in helping an organization understand what the consumer wants. Often by analysing the social media metrics, such as the number of ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ on a specific post, as well as extracting and quantifying the qualitative data obtained though social media surveys, an organization can easily predict consumer trends, or product design that the consumer expects (Chan et al., 2017). This will help them in improving product design and improvising the same, as enormous amount of data is contained in the posts and comments shared by the social media users and the companies should use these data as valuable resources to understand, predict and forecast consumer demands. Production should be highly relevant in the particular product or service industry, and yet at times, companies fail to comprehend the consumer expectations or identify their needs. In such satiations, the social media can be of great use.

This article is of particular use to the Operations and Product Managers, as this article will help to enlighten them about the ways the social media posts, comments and feedbacks can be interpreted and analysed to understand consumer needs and demands, and improve product design and service offers. Usually, social media sites have been used by the managers to improve customer-organization relationship, and yet this article will help them understand the extended scope of social media market research for improving customer satisfaction. The importance of the article lies in the fact that it can help the managers understand ways of converting social media data to useful information or knowledge that will help to formulate their business strategy. 

References

Chan, H. K., Lacka, E., Yee, R. W., & Lim, M. K. (2017). The role of social media data in operations and production management. International Journal of Production Research, 55(17), 5027-5036.