The pros and cons
The main benefits and the reason most people have and will stick with fossil fuelled cars until this problem is fixed is that it’s just a lot quicker to fill a petrol car up than an electric car which is highly important because we are in an era of time where everything must be as time-efficient as possible. ‘A typical electric car (Nissan LEAF 30kWh) takes 4 hours to charge from empty with a 7kW home charging point.’ (EvConnexions, 13/12/19)
Huge Factor
The other huge contributing factor is the price for a petrol car, most young drivers can’t afford a brand new car due to not having saved up enough disposable income to buy an electric car and so due to petrol cars having been around so long you can purchase a fully functional petrol car for as little as £100 2nd hand, this is something that can’t yet be done with an electric car to the same extent. Also, older drivers may be slower to make the transition due to scepticism, distrust and ingrained habits due to the type of car they were brought up using and how the media portrayed these cars.
But everyone can agree that in terms of the pollution a car alone makes, using petrol/ diesel or the process that involves burning a ‘fossil fuels’ (Krosinsky & Cort, pp. 251) that it does indeed produce a lot more emissions than a similar car running on electric would, with an article from the guardian backing this point up stating that in London ‘almost 9,500 people die prematurely each year in the capital due to air pollution, with diesel exhaust a major contributor’ (TheGuardian, 4/1/20).
Irreversible damage
As well as this, gaining all this oil used for our cars means irreversible damage to the environment with oil spills being one of the biggest killers of wildlife. I.e. ‘Just think back to the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The resulting spill covered 68,000 square miles of sea surface and killed approximately 1 million coastal and offshore seabirds, 5,000 marine mammals and 1,000 sea turtles.’ (Wilderness, 29/12/19)
Why change?
So obviously the main factor to why people are changing to electric cars such as Peugeot’s new ‘e-Legend’ (Auto Express, pp. 10) is because of our ‘carbon footprint’ (Morrison, pp. 349) and this can clearly be backed up with the amount of advertisements around the benefits of electric cars. Such as this one based around the Nissan Leaf, implying that not only are you getting a great car but you’re getting a car that doesn’t harm animals hence the polar bears; as the car doesn’t create emissions adding to the melting of the polar ice caps.
This point of changing to electric cars has been further emphasised in advertisements by the likes of the government, with the law being put in place that there is a major reduction in tax for company cars if they are electric in order to reduce emissions. ‘Pure electric vehicle with zero tailpipe emissions, company car drivers will be taxed at 0%, paying no BIK tax at all.’ (Fleetnews, 30/12/19)
Let’s compare
But if we compare this to when diesel became extremely popular, a similar circumstance arose when the government advertised to consumers that the switch to diesel engines would be a lot better because they were better for the environment and very economical, this turned out to be false years later. ’Labour government’s support for diesel cars was a mistake, and warned that diesels are “literally killing people’ (The Guardian, 30/12/19)
Looking at this advertisement campaign from 1954 we can see a very similar theme to now with the eye catching elements of the design being the car and complemented with the words ‘On top of the worlds’, expressing to consumers this is the car you need if you want the best reliability and also economical value.
One of the main electric car ad reasons
One of the main reasons many believe that the electric car is not as positive to the environment as we are lead to believe through adverts and infographics is that to produce all the energy needed for these car batteries we need to still burn fossil fuels.
In 2018 ‘33%’ (Smarter Business, 14/12/19) of the UK ran on renewable energy and that’s with a rather limited amount of people using electric cars. If even over half of the UK would switch to electric cars this % would drop drastically because currently we just don’t have the capacity using renewable energy to support all these batteries etc. This would result in the consumption of more conventional fuels such as coal etc being burnt to support this change to electric cars which could have detrimental effects on the environment such as more frequent acid rain. ‘The burning of fossil fuels such as coal for electricity is particularly blamed for acid rain’ (Morrison, pp. 353)
Another factor to consider
The other major factor is renewable power plants have a much smaller capacity in general than fossil fuelled plants. E.g. a conventional coal plant has a capacity factor of ‘85%’ (Ginley & Cahen, pp. 208) while a wind plant has a capacity factor of only ‘34.4%’ (Ginley & Cahen, pp. 208) which is a very large capacity gap between the two, something that is not advertised within the media when talking about the implications of switching engine. Also, if there was to be a hurricane for example this could cause ‘catastrophic blackouts’ (Krosinsky & Cort, pp. 203) on the grid meaning due to all cars needing electricity we wouldn’t have any transport for emergencies in this circumstance.
The VW car emissions scandal
Due to the case being that most cars are advertised by the producers of the car, can we ever completely trust what they are advertising? As most manufacturers, main goal is to make as big a profit as possible with as smallest total costs as possible.
If we dissect one company in particular whose advertisements were false and inaccurate we can start to understand if these manufacturers will advertise their electric cars in a different way to their previous cars in terms of being more truthful with what we are actually getting or will they keep the same structure as before and just add new content. We saw this untruthful way of advertising back in 2015 when VW caused an emission scandal with their diesel-powered car. Boasting to consumers through various advertisements that the car was very economical in both fuel usage and the number of emissions it produced. This turned out to be false when they were found to have ‘systematically cheated emissions tests in the US and Europe by using ‘cheat devices’ in engine ECU controls, so vehicles could detect when they were in a lab and when they were on a real road, trimming exhaust pollution significantly to score better in tests.’ (Car Magazine, 4/1/20)
More electric car ad examples
However, this is just one circumstance of where car manufactures have been untruthful with their advertisements and so can’t be used as evidence to say all manufactures will be like this in the future when advertising what their electric car can and can’t do. A prime example of an advertisement campaign that was not only extremely beneficial to the company in getting some good publicity but was also based off of honesty and truthfulness, was by Honda for their new car the Honda Accord. The advertisement which was a video to promote the reliability of the car and was ladled as The Cog and ‘remains impressive because it was achieved with very little CGI trickery, with director Antoine Bardou-Jacquet insisting on months of pre-production testing to make this automotive game of Mouse Trap as authentic as possible.’ (Honest John, 3/1/20)
What was so interesting about the advertisement for this car was the structure of it. Instead of doing what most car manufactures do which is just show the end result i.e. the car and its performance by generally just driving it on the road saying this car is “great”, Honda decided to take a more creative and honest approach to their advertisement. They thought, how about we take a more honest approach to this design in order to show how reliable it is by showing almost all the nuts and bolts that go into making this car. Turns out this unique way of advertising was very popular and ended up being regarded as one of the best car adverts ever, because like the car the advert was generally accepted as very reliable in showing what you get with the car. ‘It’s generally accepted that the Honda Accord is one of the most reliable cars available.’ (Best Ride, 2/1/20)
Future electric car ad trends
With the assumption that not all the manufacturers will produce false advertising I could see there being a strong future trend in advertising cars using a similar template to Honda. This would not only thoroughly show to the consumer the similarities of what goes into making an electric car compared to a combustion engine car, helping ease people in who don’t like change. But also, the differences such as no exhaust pipe because no fumes are produced etc which could be a great way of showing some consumers the qualities that an electric car has that they may be unsure of.
Primary electric car ad research
Quantitative research
Quantitative research: a method of research that relies on measuring variables using a numerical system. Analysing these measurements using any of a variety of statistical models, reporting relationships and associations among the studied variables. (ScienceDirect, 17/03/20)
Why would this help?
This method would be extremely helpful for my project due to being very dependable upon the data around social media. As well as in order to show how many consumers a social media post can reach. Also how many engagements it can gain compared to other forms of marketing such as tv adverts. These have a much higher starting price than a social post.
Some examples of this research I would use in my project would be surveys and correlations. Surveys would be particularly helpful because I could have several different marketing strategies and ask the general public questions. Using software such as Survey Monkey, to pick the strategy they thought was most effective.
Social media marketing Survey research
Survey research is the collection of data attained by asking individuals questions either in person, on paper, by phone or online. (techtarget, 15/03/20)
Correlational research
Correlational research is a type of non-experimental research method, in which a researcher measures two variables. Understands and assess the statistical relationship between them with no influence from any extraneous variable.’ (questionpro, 14/03/20)
Qualitative research
‘Qualitative method is used to understand people’s beliefs, experiences, attitudes, behaviour, and interactions. It generates non-numerical data.’ (ncbi, 17/03/20)
What’s the difference?
Unlike quantitative research which is based solely off data with little to no interaction with the consumer. This method is quite the opposite and has a lot more emphasis on people’s opinions through the use of ethnography.
These can be things such as interviews or focus groups. Which, could be equally as useful for discussing where the respondent believes this marketing perception will be heading in the future. As well as if they think it will remain the most effective marketing strategy in terms of reach and cost. Not only could this be done in 1to1’s but also can be conducted in larger numbers.
Such as focus groups, where everyone gets to discuss their opinions of the question.
Ethnography
‘Ethnography is a type of quantitative research. That gathers observations, interviews and documentary data to produce detailed and comprehensive accounts of different social phenomena.’ (tandfonline, 17/03/20)
A focus group interview
‘A focus group interview is a survey method that aims to observe group interaction when members are exposed to an idea or concept.’ (Dibb et al, pp 271)
Which one to use for social media marketing?
If I did decide to go with one of these quantitative techniques I would not only need to think about the questions I would ask in an interview. For example; ‘do you believe social media is the most effective marketing technique?’
But also make sure I had the correct standards in place so that I had the interviewee’s consent on this interview. As well as notifying them if they would like their name confidential or not etc. In terms of what sort of interview, it would be, I believe the best approach would be to go with a Semi structured interview.
This method ‘offers a great deal of flexibility for you as a researcher. You do not have to worry about needing to conduct several rounds of interviews. As your interview protocol will keep you focused on gathering all the information. Which will allow you to answer your research question’ (statistics solutions, 01/05/2020) which is perfect for this topic.
Analysis and Evaluation
After I have gathered all my findings that would be used for this essay. I would begin to separate these different research methods into certain categories in order to have a stronger structure to my essay.
This would be immensely helpful in flourishing the aim of the essay. Because I would be able to see if there was any correlation in the respondents to these questions across the different age and sex demographics. Which once viewed, I would be able to create an accurate graph, spreadsheet or chart explaining the results of this quantitative data. Then present these findings in order to gain a conclusion of what they mean and how they correlate to my findings of ‘how has Social Media marketing impacted Global Branding and Marketing?’
Social media marketing research categorised
From here once all the research has been categorised and placed accordingly. I would express these quantitative results of the project through the use of a presentation. As this information would be heavily visual. And I believe you get a better understanding of figures when you have something to compare it to and can see these figures visually.
Would these help for researching social media marketing?
For my qualitative research that will be conducted through the use of methods such as interviews and focus groups. I do not believe the same form of media to present my findings would perform well. I believe these findings would be better presented through the use of articles.
This would be a more direct approach and allow myself to depict and discuss the following results. Whilst also comparing these findings to what my own thoughts were. Explaining whether these findings surprised me or not. Whilst also explaining how they have now affected my judgment on the topic. And if I would have asked the current questions differently if I already had known this information.
Timeline and Costings
One of the biggest questions to ask yourself when forming an essay of this size is: How long each stage will take and what will the costs account to that are involved? Typically, the qualitative research consumers more of both time and money due to needing to conduct research that involves meeting people. This would be the case in my project as I would need to physically meet with interviewees, if I was to produce interviews and focus groups.
The costing aspect is formed from this because I would need to acquire some sort of venue in which to meet these people and this venue must be a safe and secure institution if I want to gain the best and most authentic results. The other way this could cost me is that I could post an advert out to gain more traction for the interview. People who volunteer to get interviewed could receive some sort of remittance which would add to the overall costings of the project.
Physical Interview to discuss social media marketing
However due to current circumstances perhaps a physical interview is unable to occur. If so, I could form online interviews using different selected software’s that are both free and paid for. An example of this is the currently trending Zoom app. This preserves the core aspect of the physical interview, which is the face to face communication element, which seems to create more genuine responses from the individuals compared to text communication. This overall will account for one of the largest portions of research, considering both qualitative and quantitative.
Quantitative based
For my research that is more quantitative based, physically meeting the respondents isn’t necessary. However, there is the potential for the surveys to be handed out physically to respondents. But you can reach a much larger viewership online using social media such as Facebook or software like SurveyMonkey and can be completed in half the time as physically attempting this.
Also using social media for my survey helps tie it into the over standing question ‘How has Social Media marketing impacted Global Branding and Marketing?’ Due to showing the sheer number of user’s social media has by using it to get the respondents answers.
What to consider
When completing this, one of the underlying issues that will be faced are the age demographics. I must consider the age of the interviewees as some may not feel comfortable with being interviewed and if they are not 18 their identity is legally not aloud to be revealed. The other problem is that their legal guardian may not want them to take part. And if they are not 18 that is not up to them and could result in a lot of time being consumed without results.
