Cisco Systems:

Launching the ASR 1000 Series Router Using

Social Media Marketing
Section B - Group 4

Akanksha Lawhale
Anjaly T A
Anusha Pratti
Anshu Kandpal
M Aishwarya Krishna
Sindhu Bharathi A
 Give a brief overview of the case

● CISCO – Founded in 1984, & net income of $8.1 bn in 2008

● Cisco is associated with delivering networking solutions for the Internet, collaboration, video, and
productivity improvements that Internet-based technologies provided to individuals, companies and
countries
● They’ve identified that almost all corporates are planning to increase their bandwidth requirements,
as per the 2007 survey, and want to cater to those, with ASR 1000
● The company has decided to focus exclusively on digital marketing and social media to attract the
attention of their target market
● Plan to start Cisco ASR 1000 Series “virtually, visually and virally”
2
 Was the ASR 1000 launch campaign a success? How would you
measure the success of the launch campaign?

● The success of the campaign can be measured by the greater reach and attention that the
campaign was able to garner
● Also, with significant cost savings relative to traditional campaign, they’re able to reach more
customers than the traditional mass marketing media could achieve
● Cisco’s campaign was able to reach 100 countries through digital means, which could’ve been
impossible in a short time otherwise.
● They’re able to achieve rich customer interaction from various countries i.e, they achieved the
two way interactive dialogue with their prospects
● It could also be measured with 2000 views on youtube, 1300 hits on google, 35000 views on
video widget and 40000 participants in the game.
3
 How does Cisco assess the return on marketing investment from
social media campaigns

● As the sales data wasn’t given in the case, one could assess the return on marketing investments from social
media campaigns, by evaluating the reach of the campaign and the extra reach this campaign was able to
provide

● For ex, if they’ve spent Rs X for traditional campaign, they would have gained a reach of y customers. Now
with social media marketing, they’re able to reach Z customers(Z>Y). This excess reach is the return of their
new campaign

● It could also be measured in terms of reach to cost ratio (Very high from social media campaigns)

● Cisco assessed the ASR 1000 Series launch to be a very successful campaign, based on its reach, richness of
customer interactions, and the significant cost savings relative to a traditional campaign using mass media

4
 Can other B2B companies use social media for product marketing
like Cisco did?

● Social Media for Product Marketing is a widely used marketing technique for B2C segment, but wasn’t considered
for B2B

● The nature of the product or service plays an indispensable role in deciding the communication/marketing
channel. It worked for Cisco, because the product is inherently linked to the channel it has adopted i.e, a router
facilitates and optimises the use of Internet

● Cisco has to reach IT professionals and other tech-savvy audience for the sale of the product. As the channel is in
reach of their target customers, it was a success

● It might not work for a product completely unrelated to Internet, or if users are not familiar with the Internet
channel

● Ex: A heavy manufacturing industry equipment buyers might not spend much time on social media and so the
social media for product marketing may not work
5
 How does Cisco link the value proposition of the product and the
company to the social media campaigns

● Social media have become one of the most important trends in media
evolution, booming media was used as a promising way to engage consumers
more deeply with brands and products
● Cisco decided to explore digital tools and game marketing to reach the target
customer – the technical community/IT professionals
● The ASR series routers are network solution provider & service provider &
the campaign focus on:
○ Two-way interactive dialogue
○ launch events to building sustained relationships with customers
○ Building websites to building communities
○ More customer centric approach
○ Being everywhere on the web
6
Thankyou