Evaluate Claires Situation and Actions to Improve her Business - Case Study Example

Q. Evaluate Claire’s situation and what should she do to improve her business: Ans. Introduction to the case Claire, who is married and has website designing skills was inspired by the idea of establishing a locally oriented online business which would provide the marrying couples with all kinds of information about the essentials of wedding arrangement, and access to the local service providers, so that the marrying couples are facilitated in their wedding planning and preparation. People like Claire’s idea because such a website is really required which provides information about vendors and wedding services providers in a particular area because the existing websites provide too general information to help the marrying couples. Problems It has been over eighteen months since the launch of the website, but Claire has not managed to get more than just four sponsors, two of which are her family friends, and one of these two intends not to register again since the business has not managed to generate sufficient revenues since its establishment. Claire is not sure whether she should renew the contract of her website because the business has so far been a failure and the renewal of contract would charge her substantial money, but if she adopts some different advertising and promotional strategies, she might only need to give her business 10 hrs a week to make it successful enough to generate a revenue worth $30,000 a year. Vendors are not willing to sign up since the cost of registration with her website is very large. Target market and segmentation The target market of Claire’s business primarily constitutes the marrying couples who are searching for a local guide to help them plan the wedding. For a vast majority of couples who are planning to get married for the first time in life, planning the wedding can be extremely tedious and time-consuming task and yet the results can turn out to be disastrous. Activities including in the plan of a wedding include but are not limited to deciding the location of wedding, meeting with the dress designers, florists, and photographers, and sending the wedding invitation cards. Providing the marrying couples with a platform where they can access everything at one and the same time and that too with the comfort of sitting in their room is the fundamental theme of Claire’s business. Media communications Social media is also an advertising medium whose importance cannot be overemphasized. Many renowned companies around the world have placed confidence in the power of the social media to boost their businesses, one of them being the Ford Motor Company. “Fords global sales and marketing vice president, Jim Farley, said the auto maker is deepening its use of social media, particularly on Facebook, to improve its image among potential buyers” (Raice, Ramsey, and Schechner, 2012). Messaging Selection of the appropriate advertising medium is very important to enhance the business. “While marketers have been busy uploading commercials to YouTube, the once-buzzed-about medium has spent the past two years building its audience and enhancing advertising capability. Now, podcasts are finally poised to grab a larger slice of the multibillion-dollar online advertising pie” (Holahan, 2007). One of the most fundamental and effective ways of advertising is word of mouth, which will never get outdated. The traditional and digital marketing create brand awareness, but lack in their resonance with the target audiences since the audiences are aware of the fakeness of reviews. Although the success of word-of-mouth has no particular formula, yet it usually starts with developing a culture in which the customers feel valued business partners (O’Connor, 2012). Recommendations The fundamental obstacle in the success of Claire’s business is that it needs planning, while Claire does not want to invest her time and effort into her business’s planning. In order to market the website in such a way that it becomes a popular website, Claire needs to try to proactively reach the customers instead of expecting them to discover the website on their own. This can be achieved by advertising the website on different kinds of mediums that include but are not limited to newspaper, TV, radio, and Internet, though since the case study suggests that an article from the press release gained attention of the customers, press is a suitable medium to advertise the website. Claire should get the website listed in the search engines as Google and Yahoo. Traffic to the website can be increased by creating links through exchange of banners with the strategic partner websites or by word of mouth. Claire should provide the customers with membership with certain benefits of acquiring it to make causal browsers her returning customers. She may introduce packages offering the customers with a certain type of membership access to certain vendors, with the access becoming maximal to the maximum paying customers. Q. Which IMC tools she can use to improve her business? Ans. There is a whole range of integrated marketing communication (IMC) tools that Claire can use to improve her online business. She should see her website as her communication hub for the business. Claire should provide the audience with links to all of her online activities on her website in addition to displaying information about her services. This will not only let the audience know her better, but also have a variety of options to view from and know the owner of the website more as a person. This is important because trust and confidence of the audience play a fundamental role in depicting an entrepreneur’s image in the public eye. A potential problem with Claire’s business is that people are looking forward to one another to sign up in order to register with the company, which provides evidence of a sense of insecurity and doubt. To change this condition for the better, Claire should provide links to her videos, social media profiles, as well as any charity organizations she supports. This will provide the customers to use her website as a launching point where they can develop link with the company. Further, Claire should add a section for customer complaints, comments, and reviews on her website. Q. Which advertising medium you think would be the best approach for Claire’s if she creates an ad and why? (Radio, TV, newspaper, magazines, social media, print, events or sponsorship, online medium, etc.). Ans. If Claire makes an ad, the advertising media which would gain maximal public attention would be print and newspaper. Newspapers are commonly seen as a source of news and opportunities. People look forward to reading newspapers to find ads of jobs, and vacant homes etc. The case study already provides proof of the effectiveness of print as the advertising medium. Q. What is Claire’s strategy? What should she do? If she were to move forward, what strategy would you recommend? Does her financial goal seem realistic? Why? Ans. Claire’s strategy is to make money by owning a local online business through which she provides the prospective marrying couples with a platform where they can access the information and guidance to plan their wedding all at the same place. Claire should use word-of-mouth, social media, and press to advertise her website, lower the rates of registration for the sponsors and members, and preferably find partners for her business. One way to achieve this is by paying the website www.weddingchannel.com to add a link to her website on theirs, since weddingchannel.com is already a reputable website. In addition, Claire may seek guidance from such websites as entrepreneur.com. “Entrepreneur.com is also an excellent resource to learn more about the structure of a business plan” (Wilkolaski, 2005, p. 72). Claire’s financial goal of earning up to $30,000 a year seems realistic if the website manages to gain attention of the vendors as well as the customers. There are so many sources to make money from such a website including sale of advertising space, sale of web pages (Anderson, 2012) and membership of prospective couples while the only cost she has to bear is the cost of renewal of the website’s contract. References: Anderson, D. (2012). How To Make Money Online Creating A Local Wedding Services Guide And Website. Retrieved from http://dukeo.com/how-to-make-money-online-creating-a-local-wedding-services-guide-and-website/. Holahan, C. (2007). The Next Big Ad Medium: PodcastsBusinessweek - Business News, Stock Market & Financial Advice. Business Week. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-02-14/the-next-big-ad-medium-podcastsbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice. O’Connor, S. P. (2012). Word of Mouth Is the Best Ad. Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2011/12/word_of_mouth_is_the_best_ad.html. Raice, S., Ramsey, M., and Schechner, S. (2012, June 20). Facebook Gains Two Big Advertisers Support. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303703004577476611850117678.html?mod=WSJ_Advertising_MIDDLETopNews. Wilkolaski, S. (2005). How to start a wedding planning business. Garnet Press. Read More