Eduvest � Journal of Universal Studies Volume 2 Number 10, October, 2022 p- ISSN 2775-3735 - e-ISSN 2775-3727
SOFT SELLING MARKETING COMMUNICATION STRATEGY THROUGH INSTAGRAM SOCIAL MEDIA TO ACHIEVE MILLENNIALS MARKET SHARE
Gatot Wijayanto, Jushermi, Arwinence Pramadewi, Rovanita Rama Fakultas Ekonomi dan Bisnis, Universitas Riau, Indonesia Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
ARTICLE INFO ��ABSTRACT
Received: Revised: Approved:	Using soft sell will cause a more positive affective response than rational appeal or hard sell so that it can increase the level of buying interest, especially share. This study aims to analyze the marketing communication strategy of soft selling through Instagram social media in achieving the millennial market share. The research method used in this study is a qualitative descriptive method. The type of data used in this study is qualitative data, which is categorized into two types, namely primary data and secondary data. Sources of data obtained through library research techniques (library study) which refers to sources available both online and offline such as: scientific journals, books and news sourced from trusted sources. The results of the study conclude that the STP strategy is an effort to achieve the maximum target market. STP (Segments, Targeting, Positioning) strategy to suit the type and purpose of the product to be marketed. The modeling that has been carried out as described in the literature study and the results and discussion has succeeded in showing the relationship between the values of Engagement, New Customer, Company Total Sales, Profit, and Marketshare (market share) as evidenced by structural validation
KEYWORDS	Marketing Communication, Soft Selling, Instagram, Market Share
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INTRODUCTION

Marketing communication can be interpreted as the action of a company to introduce their brand to consumers directly or indirectly. There are two main elements possessed by Marketing Communications, namely communication and marketing. The thing that needs to be understood by a marketer is how much sales or target results from the activities that have been carried out to see the success of a marketing communication strategy (Kusniadji, 2016)

Kotler & Armstrong, 2019 provides a definition of marketing strategy, namely the company's efforts to create a profitable relationship between the company and its consumers to create customer value. In carrying out the marketing communication system, it is necessary to have a strategic plan, effective and efficient sales activities. (Rahman & Panuju, 2017) . Marketing Communication Strategy can be done in various media, one of which is social media. By creating a marketing communication strategy on social media, companies can market their products and reach a wider and more efficient audience. After carrying out a marketing communication strategy on social media, the company will of course analyze and evaluate the strategy carried out, whether the strategy has succeeded in achieving the target and whether the strategy is effective in marketing products to achieve company goals. A successful social media strategy must begin with an understanding of consumer conversations and characteristics. Consumers are more likely to respond to social media strategies when they can interact with and help others. Moran and Gossieaux (Castronovo & Huang, 2012)

Currently, there are many technologies that support communication media, one of which is the development of the Internet. The invention of the internet is a major innovation that finally makes it easy for users as an efficient, effective, and inexpensive communication medium. (Wardaya, 2016) . This situation provides an opportunity for companies to use the internet as a medium to promote their brands on a global scale, regardless of time and place. In addition to the reasons for business development, the use of internet resources from internet users around the world is increasing from year to year. (Mujiyana & Elissa, 2013) . Therefore, after the emergence of marketing through the internet, companies will certainly be more active in marketing their brands by utilizing online media (including social media).

Instagram as a social media with a large enough influence enthusiasts in Indonesia makes it a form of digital marketing. With a total of 170 million active social media users or 61.8% of the total population of social media users, 86.6% use Instagram as a frequently used social media.

Through Instagram, companies can create options to stimulate the target audience by doing marketing. An indirect approach or soft selling can be used because in soft selling the mood and atmosphere are conveyed through beautiful scenes or develop an emotional story.

Soft selling which is a form of selling by using a subtle way that does not directly direct consumers to buy. Reported by (Simplicable in Aliya, 2020) defines soft selling as "a sales technique that is intended not to make consumers feel pressured because of excessive encouragement so that soft selling focuses on subtle persuasion and uses casual language". Indicators of soft selling based on (Okazaki et al., 2010), include: a) Feeling b) Implicit c) Image

Image 1

Soft Selling Indicator

With three categories of content on Instagram that researchers have grouped, namely informative content, emotional content and marketing content, business actors have used soft selling to attract followers to buy. Instagram followers have their own distinctive character, the dominance of which consists of millennials. This dominance is the right market potential for business actors, because the millennial generation has the character of shopping online. The character of IG followers by age can be seen in the graph below:

Using soft sell will cause a more positive affective response than rational appeal or hard sell so that it can increase the level of buying interest, especially share (Batra & Ray, 1986) .

In line with research conducted by research conducted by Yoon Donghwan and Kim Byeong-Yong which the use of soft selling advertising can lead to more positive affective attitudes than hard-sell advertising and this will lead to behavioral intentions, namely visit intentions. As well as research by Yoon Jaeyong, et al explained that the factors that influence customer attitudes to buy are not only based on the characteristics of the product. However, there are other factors that are key, namely messages that are soft sell are considered more positive towards marketing success in controlling market share.

RESEARCH METHODS

The technique applied to bibliometric analysis consists of two categories, namely: (1) performance analysis and (2) science mapping (Donthu et al., 2021) . The performance analysis technique produces the contribution of the research constituents, while the science mapping technique focuses on the relationship between the research constituencies. Several sections of the literature reveal the five stages of bibliometric analysis including: (1) determining search keywords, (2) initiating search results, (3) improving search results, (4) compiling data statistics at the earliest, and (5) conducting data analysis (Fahimnia et al., 2015) and (Setyaningsih et al., 2018) .

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Bibliometric analysis in SERVQUAL Research in various fields using PoP Software and VOSViewer and carried out through five stages according to (Fahimnia et al., 2015) and (Setyaningsih et al., 2018) , The results obtained are:

1) Keyword search results

Document search conducted on August 14, 2022 using PoP Software with the keywords " Soft Selling" and " Marketing Communication". The database used is Google Scholar with the period 2013-2022. The results obtained 525 documents in various forms (articles, reviews, conference papers, conference reviews, book chapters, books, short surveys, notes, and editorials).

2) Search boost results

Documents found in the search for the keywords " Soft Selling" and " Marketing Communications". then grouped by inclusive category. As a result, there are 399 English and 126 non- English documents published in the 2013-2022 range. Furthermore, there are 156 documents published by scopus indexed publishers and 369 documents not indexed by scopus. Furthermore, from 156 Scopus indexed documents, 100 journals were obtained that discussed SERVQUAL in various fields in the 2012-2022 period. The final result there are 100 Documents that meet the requirements for further analysis. The document selection stage is shown in Table 1.

Table 1

Document Selection Stage

Search Stage	Number of Documents	Number of Documents Remaining (n = 525 )
Documents not in English	126	399
Scopus not indexed documents	156	369
Unpublished period 2012-2022	100	425

3) The earliest data statistics results

The appropriate documents used for this research were downloaded from the Goggle Scholar database using two different formats, namely Research Information System (RIS) and Comma Separated Values (CSV). The RIS and CSV formats are composed by some salient information from each document, especially abstracts, keywords, bibliometric information and bibliographic information (Hudha et al., 2020) .

4) Data Analysis Results

The data analysis carried out consisted of two stages of analysis, namely Performance Analysis and Science Mapping (Donthu et al., 2021) .

Performance Analysis

a) Metrics related to publications and citations

The results of the document selection process have produced 525 suitable documents regardless of the inclusion criteria. Furthermore, using PoP software, the display of metrics related to publications and citations can be seen in Table 2.

Table 2

Publications and Citation Metrics

i Description	Results
i Publication i years	2013 - 2022
i Citation i years	2013 - 2022
i Total i publication	234
i Total i citation	5766
Authors	257
i h-Index	23
i g-Index	36

The data in Table 2 shows that in the period 2013 to 2022, there were 234 published articles that were closely related to SERVQUAL's research in various fields. Furthermore, there are a total of 5766 citations. A total of 257 Authors. Other data shows that the h-index is 23 and the g-index is 36, which means that the h-Index is smaller than the g-Index. This is in line with the opinion (Donthu et al., 2020) which states that the h-index is always lower than the g-Index.

1) Digital Marketing

Research on SERVQUAL in the digital marketing sector is presented in table 3 below:

Table 3

Digital Marketing Literature

No	Writer	citation	SERVQUAL Dimensions	Method	Novelty (Based on Problem/Method)	Publisher
1	Aurelia Lintangsari Kurniawati (Kurniawati, nd)	18	Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy	quantitative research with survey methods and questionnaires as research instruments.	utilizing digital marketing as a medium for disseminating information and promotions by utilizing soft selling messages on the Instagram page	Commercial
2	Dinna Khoirn Nisa (Nisa, 2021)	20	Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy	quantitative research Interview, direct observation, and literature study	Formulation of soft-selling content on Instagram through the stages of strategy formulation, execution process, results, and evaluation	Gadjah Mada University
3	Rian Natalis Louhenapessy	20	Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy	Research methods qualitative with a case study approach	Digital marketing strategy on Instagram social media through STP analysis (segmentation, targeting and positioning)	17 August 1945 University Surabaya
4	April Wijayanti (Wijayanti, 2019)	31	Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy	qualitative with descriptive nature which describes a situation.	The unit of analysis more focus on affiliate marketing	(IAIN) Workerto
5	Alifa Syafna, Anastasia Maria Sri Redjeki (Shafna & Fortune, 2021)	23	Tangibles, Reliability, Responsivene ss, Assurance, and Empathy	Research method Qualitative approach through SWOT analysis	Social marketing analysis using social media using the method SOSTAC (Situation Analysis, Objective, Tactic, Action, Control) and IMC (Integrated Marketing Communication) strategy	Journal of Service
6	Nursatyo (Nursatyo & Rosliani, 2018)	15	Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy	Descriptive qualitative research method. Data collected by interview	search engine optimization both SEM and SEO, as well as the establishment of a platform for the community	president.ac.id
7	Irfan Nurdin Salman & Indra Novianto Adibayu Pamungkas (Rachmadewi et al., 2021)	36	Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy	Qualitative research with qualitative descriptive research and post-positivism paradigm.	Delivering to the right target audience with attractive marketing messages Selling Idea derived from Brand Soul	PROLISTS
8	Kurniawati (Kurniawati, nd)	18	Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy	Quantitative research using survey methods and questionnaires as research instruments	Stimulate followers with education both through campaigns and sales content.	Commercial
9	Melinda, Sanusi, Risa Dwi Ayuni (Rahman & Panuju, 2017)	27	Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy	Qualitative descriptive research. Data collected by interview	Maximizing the Instagram ads feature in its marketing strategy

The data in table 3 shows that there are nine SERVQUAL research articles in the digital marketing sector that fall into the H-Index category, where the articles written (Syafna & Fortune, 2021) are articles that have the highest citations, namely 36 citations. Based on the dimensions, the entire study applied 5 dimensions of SERVQUAL as a measurement scale. The results of the study shown in table 3 reveal that the dimensions of Reliability and Empathy are the dimensions that have the greatest influence on digital marketing mastery. Marketers must make a unique positioning compared to other products so that consumers always remember the product they want to market. In achieving the target market, business actors must choose a strategy. Implementing the STP strategy as an effort to reach the maximum target market. STP (Segments, Targeting, Positioning) strategy to suit the type and purpose of the product to be marketed.

2) Market share

Research on SERVQUAL in the Market Share sector is presented in the following table:

Table 4

Market Share Literature

No	Writer	citation	SERVQUAL Dimensions	Method	Novelty (Based on Problem/Method)	Publisher
1	Erma Suryani (Suryani et al., 2022)	32	Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy	Qualitative research This research technique utilizes the System Dynamics method	The formulation of the strategy to increase market share has been successfully displayed through the dynamic system CLD model	Sewagati
2	Aisyah Ghina Athaya Illahi (Illahi et al., 2022)	17	Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy	Qualitative method with field study approach	Efforts to expand market share using the Google My Business application	JPPM
3	Udung Noor Rosyadi (Rosyad, 2011)	27	Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy	Qualitative method with field study approach	Efforts to expand market share through marketing communication strategies	pulpit
4	Ulil Hartono, et al (Hartono et al., 2022)	16	Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy	Qualitative method with a field study approach (field research)	Optimization of basic marketing applications such as e-mail and static websites to increase market share for MSMEs	Abd Insani Journal
5	Diharpi Herli Setyowati (Setyowati et al., 2019)	15	Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy	Quantitative method with data analysis using Linear Regression Analysis multiple	ROA, ROE, BOPO and Inflation to Market Share	Iqtisaduna
6	Sandy Kosasi (Kosasi, 2014)		Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy	Qualitative method with case study approach	E-Commerce system architecture design with front-end and back-end page features.	Researchgate

The data in table 4 shows that there are six SERVQUAL research articles in the market share sector that fall into the H-Index category, where the articles written (Suryani et al., 2022) are articles that have the highest citations, namely 32 citations. Based on the dimensions, the entire study applied 5 dimensions of SERVQUAL as a measurement scale. The results of the study shown in table 4 reveal that the Responsiveness and Assurance dimensions are the dimensions that have the greatest influence on market share domination. Increased market share can be increased with Engagement support. Increased engagement can be supported by maximizing activity on Instagram. Maximizing activity on Instagram can be done by increasing the number of posts, holding Contests (quiz, give away, tagging friends, and so on), or maximizing the use of Instagram features (reels, stories, posts, IG TV, filters, and Instagram shop). This work has succeeded in showing the proposed modeling of increasing market share through the use of Instagram features.

����������� The modeling that has been carried out as described in the literature study and the results and discussion has succeeded in showing the relationship between the values of Engagement, New Customer, Company Total Sales, Profit, and Marketshare (market share) as evidenced by structural validation.

Effect of Marketing Communication on Market Share Expansion

The influence of marketing communication on the expansion of market share is analyzed by path analysis:

The results of data processing using LISREL 8.5 software for the marketing communication variable measurement model (KP) will be shown in the following table:

Table 5

Marketing Communication Variable Measurement Model

Equality	t Value (min 1.96)
X5=0.79*KP	17.26
X6=0.76*KP	17.61
X7=0.75*KP	16.86
X8=0.64*KP	15.82
X =0.57*KP	14.22

X4: Advertising

X5: Sales promotion,

X6: Public Relations and Publicity,

X7: Personal Selling,

X8: Direct marketing,

KP= Marketing communication

T table = 1.96.

Based on Table 5, it can be explained that the coefficient value is 0.79 and the statistical test value t-value is 17.26 showing significant results (H0 is rejected for hypothesis testing the influence between marketing communication and advertising is obtained tcount = 17.26> ttable, then Ho is rejected, it means that there is an effect of marketing communication with advertising, the coefficient value of 0.76 and the statistical test value of t-value of 17.61 shows significant results (H0 is rejected to test the hypothesis of the influence between marketing communication and sales promotion obtained t count = 17.61> ttable, then Ho is rejected), meaning that there is an influence of marketing communication with sales promotion.

The coefficient value is 0.75 and the test value is

statistical t-value 16.86 showed significant results (H0 was rejected to test the hypothesis of the influence between marketing communication with public relations and publicity obtained tcount = 16.86> ttable, then Ho was rejected), meaning that there is an influence of marketing communication with public relations and publicity.

The coefficient value is 0.64 and the statistical test value t-value 15.82 shows significant results (H0 is rejected. personal selling.

The coefficient value is 0.57 and the statistical test value t-value 14.22 shows significant results (H0 is rejected for the hypothesis test of the influence between marketing communication and direct marketing obtained tcount = 14.22> t table, then Ho is rejected, meaning that there is an influence of marketing communication with direct marketing.

Image 1

Complete Path Diagram (Standardized)

CONCLUSION

The STP strategy is an effort to reach the maximum target market. STP (Segments, Targeting, Positioning) strategy to suit the type and purpose of the product to be marketed. The modeling that has been carried out as described in the literature study and the results and discussion has succeeded in showing the relationship between the values of Engagement, New Customer, Company Total Sales, Profit, and Marketshare (market share) as evidenced by structural validation.

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