Benefits that are Associated with Online Marketing - Case Study Example

Online marketing strategy in new product development It is axiomatic to squabble that internet marketing has been on the rise amongst companies across the globe. Many customers have also been able to utilize the existing online platform like social media to expand their sales. Despite the continuous appreciation, empirical study in online marketing has still not been exploited. This study will incorporate qualitative and quantitative technique to analyze customer-marketer relationship content data from various social media brand communities and consumer transactions information to put together a distinctive data at the individual customer level. It is worth noting that online marketing impacts the level by which a company grows. Also known as online marketing, digital marketing, web marketing, or e-marketing, internet marketing, it is delineated as the practice of marketing products over the Internet. It is considered to be wide in scope; is not only confided to marketing on internet platforms, but also via wireless media and e-mail. The study will use STATA, software to analyze the data that will be obtained from the study. Introduction Research analysis confirms how online marketing can have a big influence with regards toi the building of company’s image by using the case study of syiyiyi 0.5 0.5 0.5. Internet marketing Internet marketing entails the technical and creative elements of the Internet, such as development, design, development, advertising, and marketing. It is also delineated as the positioning of media along different unique stages of the consumer engagement cycle via search engine optimization (SEO), Web 2.0 strategies ,search engine marketing (SEM), e-mail marketing, banner ads on particular websites. (Kabani, 2013) A number of firms globally have adopted different techniques with regards to e-marketing. With the global competition and enhancement of technology, that has seen the coming into play sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogging sites, among others have changed the way many people conduct marketing. (Bailey, 2011) With the advice of their analysts, most companies across the globe employ different techniques of e-marketing. The concept of interconnectivity and the entire internet community has seen a number of individuals and companies reach a wide market. The main reason for the study will be to analyze trends in the social media trends and how they can influence the trends in branding and online marketing. (Coles, 2015) There are a number of benefits that are associated with online marketing. It has the capacity of reaching a wider market. Besides it is easy for the company to enhance its brand image amongst the players. (Schneider, 2011). Through various advertisements, the company is able to easy respond to the needs of its customers. It is also cost effective and can be sensitive to the local need as of the people. The company is also to promote specific contents to specific areas. The company is also able to create more social sites, and write a number of blogs to enhance the understanding of the products promoted by the company. (Gay, Charlesworth, & Esen, 2006) One of the aims of marketing is to deliver a message to customers with the intention of enhancing sales. Companies should therefore adopt all the possible mechanisms to improve the sales of the company. The marketers should take advantage of the low costs associated with online marketing in order to reach the wide sales coverage. (Miletsky, 2010) Background of the Study Social media is delineated as an online platform that is adopted by the marketers and other users to share their experiences, contents and insights about a particular product or subject besides connecting with other people with the aim of gaining pleasure. One definition of social media adapted by this paper is “Internet-based applications that carry consumer-generated content which encompasses ‘‘media impressions created by consumers, typically informed by relevant experience, and archived or shared online for easy access by other impressionable consumers” (Dawidowicz, 2010) Special media marketing This refers to the application of blogs, various online communities and other social marketing sites such as YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Twoo among others to engage different online communities with the hope of creating an opportunity and sales. It is a practice in which the enthusiasm and attention are easily generate in a service or product through different social outlets. (Edelman, 2010) Research question Do online marketing activities influence the new product development and increase sales? Do age and gender influence on the online marketing activities? How useful is the e-marketing and social media is in building of a brand image What are some of the factors that analyzes and make the effectiveness of social media towards a particular brand. Problem Statement It is no doubt that in the current society where .technology plays an immense role in the lives of people, social media is an important topic of discussion as well as the influence it has on customers either negative or positive attitudes towards brand. A myriad of firms across the globe, were affected by the recent global financial crisis. (Barwise, & Meehan, 2010) Cheong, H., & Morrison, M. (2008) the aim of each firm is the creation of positive brand attitude which will result into positive performance. With stiff competition in various industries, the analysis of the role of social media in building brand image will provide helpful and efficient insights to the company. (Barwise, & Meehan, 2010) an example is the possibility of predicting future sales and their behavior towards competitors and customers. This will help them improve their marketing communications and to ensure the optimization of advertising and also persuading campaigns with tools which require less money to put in place. Literature review Online marketing has two main attributes, growth in penetration and usage (Miletsky, 2010), this influences the assimilation of products and services (Patrick Barwise, 2000). Advertising the paid process in the mass and interactive media to form a persuasive communication to get attention of buyers and connect them with the sponsors (Sandra Moriarty, 2012). For internet the means getting more traffic on the website by the visitors who are consumers by forms of links placements, banner ads, by creating a page on social media or pay-per click and many more (McDonald, & Sharp, 2003). To increase sales on internet, multiple advertising campaign are needed to increase the customer acquisition matrix; hence it may include informing of the customer on special offers on pricing that has duration of time. (Cheong, & Morrison, 2008) In traditional model of marketing, the marketers centered their activities on 4P model (Kotler, 2014), this has drastically changed to reflect the buyers point of view on a new 4C model. Digging deeper on promotions where internet marketing falls into we get there different kinds of communications being used as mentioned earlier. Evaluating some of them, to get a feel on what they entail. (Dholakia, Dholakia, Fritz, & Mundorf, 2002) 1) Email Marketing This tool builds works across the customer acquisition and retention matrix, the marketer communicates directly to segment of customers thus getting the best results (Stokes, 2011). 2) Banners ad Compare to the old traditional marketing of outdoor advertisements, the banner add is place on a website with a video that starts moving on the movement of mouse over it, it evolved from stationary pictures placed earlier. Past studies have been done on the size, page placement, color or even sound all these seems to have an impact on delivering the message. Studies shows that banners with price, gift or free offer tags reduce click through rate where as banners with no these tags have a positive influence on brand image remembrance and click though rate (Kim Eriksen, n.d.). 3) Pay-Per click Based on keyword model, means that the advert will crop up whenever the words are searched, hence it plays a vital role in acquisition and retention of clients. (Kenneth C. Laudon, 2014). 4) Social Media This is raising awareness by creating a brand story and allowing interaction through story involvement by the buyer. They build brand awareness due to shareable and viral kind of attribute they have. Advertiser can get the feedback from open graphs, social analytic systems and crowd sourced nature (Coles, 2015). 5) Affiliate Marketing This method is used to increase traffic in websites with the rewards for the referrers for every new visit, thus through this brand awareness and buyer acquisition is increased too (Paul R Smith, 2011). Research by IPSOS shows 61% of internet users visit sites with information on the products they intent to buy, with 48% of the visitors they have purchased or sort services online (Gottfried, 2012). On average there is 18 billion searches conducted every month in the US (Lella, 2014). Thus there is a huge opportunity for the new product development marketing activities to be done online. Building a brand in marketing is no longer an option to a number of companies across the globe but instead an idea that must be done in an exceptional manner. The recent past has seen a serious advancement in technology, bringing the entire globe under one roof. Marketers have kept with the pace of changing face of competition and have exploited e-marketing which is one of the areas that have not been exploited in the past. The traditional model of business and marketing cannot survive the changed face of business. The creation and adoption of a successful marketing strategy requires the application of social made given that it is one of the easiest ways to reach the customers. According to Edelman, D. C. (2010), a brand identity will facilitate the promotion of loyalty amongst customers and will easily give them a reason to do a return business. The familiarity that the brand creates will facilitate the differentiation of one product to another and therefore increases the value of the brand. It should be noted that the decision of the customer top purchase a product doesn’t depend only on the prices but a myriad of other factors. (Paul, 2011) Branding is currently regarded as the symbols that enable the consumers to differentiate goods and services and easily connect with the producers. Branding enable the customers to associate a particular product or service with a particular company. It is regarded as a design, name, term, or symbol or the combination of the above with the intention of identifying various products of a seller from existing competitors. Branding plays key important roles in the company including; (Carlsson, 2010) It is used to attract new customers It is constant remind the customers about the product that is introduce din the market It plays the role of unemotional tie to the firm. It is therefore unarguable that brand image and attitude plays an important role in the performance of the company. A strong brand, enhance the performance of the company. Social media can be used easily to improve the brand image in the company. (Stokes, 2011) The e-marketing is adopted by the firm to ensure the brands are brought into new dimensions through the provision of a return information and fast deployment which is quite cheaper. It is one of the ways customers can easily join the conversation and engage the management on various issues. (Patrick, 2000) Customers get an opportunity to connect with the producers and in the process by able to understand some of the key operations. The information that is shared with the public must be sensible and consistent. Finally, the company should enhance the use of social media marketing as a way of consistently monitoring the behavior of the customers and to also facilitate interactions with customers. It is easy to analyze and measure the exposure besides showing the demographics of the users and related activities that can be use to improve sales. It also helps in the explanation of the trends that involves the users of the sites who are no longer following it. It catalyzes and stimulates conversation among customers and also with the business and there is the possibility of getting feedbacks. (Kotler, 2014) Conceptual framework Independent variable Dependent variable Methodology We shall use descriptive studies as we shall study the characteristic of the subject population in China, and evaluate the associations in the variables of the data. We shall try to sample as many people as possible to remove any biasness in the data and as many more descriptive studies have been done before we shall compare our results. (Zarrella, 2010) The study will be conducted in China, with target population being families; as the company shall be preparing to launch a new product. We shall use primary source of data, as will carry out online survey to interview our respondents, on a likert scale questions. We shall apply a random survey technique in that the all the respondents on online have equal chances of being sampled thus this will remove any biasness in the data (Waters, 2011). We seek the approvals of the authorities before conducting the survey. We carried out subjective evaluation of the risk/ ratio of the research project and concluded that the hand soap market is still largely untapped and the improved health benefits of it. Prior to the starting of interview, the participant was requested for his/her consent before understating the survey. To avoid the deception, we informed clearly to the respondents the aim of the research, and where the information was held to avoid biasness we debriefed the participant after the survey (John J. Shaughnessy, 2012). Research Design This refers to the procedures of the development of a suitable arrangement to help in the gathering of information and data that is necessary in the study. The design also specifies some of the techniques and processes that will be used in the collection of any information that is required. The framework is mainly prepared and applied and adopted in the performance of the real study after the formulation of research objectives and questions. Methods of Data collection The study will adopt both qualitative and quantitative technique. In the quantitative approach, the research adopts the technique for the collection and the analysis of information in which there is the generation of a numerical data. It will include the conversion of the statistical data into descriptive information. The qualitative approach that will also be used adopts various techniques and the [precedence that facilitates the generation of the non-linear data. The structured questionnaires will be sent to various participants who are willing to participate in the study. The researcher will be in constant support to the respondents to address any issue that is not clear to customers. (Anderson, 2010) Data Analysis The paper will adopt the use of STATA software to analyze the data. The quantitative information will be vital in the software to facilitate the analysis. The company will also analyze the qualitative information that will be obtained form the questionnaires that were sent to the participants. The researcher will adopt the information that is obtained in the literature review to analyze the qualitative information that is collected or obtained from the respondents. The analysis will be done on the basis of the below hypothesis; Ho:: Online marketing activities influence the new product development and increase sales H1: Online marketing activities do not influence the new product development and increase sales Ho:: Gender has an influence on the online marketing activities H1: Gender has no influence on the online marketing activities Ho:: E-marketing and social media are useful in building of a brand image H1: E-marketing and social media are not useful in building of a brand image Ho:: E-marketing and social media are useful in building of a brand image H1: E-marketing and social media are not useful in building of a brand image The correlation between the dependent and independent variables would help in the explanation of degree of association between them. The multiple regression analysis between the variables would be instrumental in understanding the relationship between the variance factors. Through the application of the R-Square and scatter plot, there will be an establishment of the relationship between dependent and independent variable. The study will also adopt the Park test to help in understanding heteroscedasticity. Finally, the paper will also use the analysis of variance (ANOVA) would help in understanding how well the model fits the data. Conclusion and summary The goal of the study is to analyze the impact of e-marketing on building company brands. The above hypothesis was adopted after reading a number of theories and published information from renowned authors. The results of the study will be used to ascertain the data. The structured questionnaire will help ensure that the respondents find it easier in the understanding and analysis of the study. To introduce a new product in the market the company must higher a well-known PR and Advertising firm that deals with online marketing. The company will advertise on social media as banner ads and other famous blog to increase awareness of the product. Further we shall start a reward scheme for affiliate marketing this will increase contact with customers on pear to pear levels but also retain existing customers while rewarding them. These marketing strategies will increase brand awareness and sales and return on marketing investment shall be fast. From the analysis of the literature review, the study is likely to justify the popularity that is currently associated with the social media. A number of studies have proved that most companies often influence the behavior of their customers through their strong market brand and their participation in e-marketing, particularly social media. The company should therefore ensure that proper e-marketing strategies are adopted so as to build a strong demand and to attract new customers. It should be noted that communication is one of the main issues in the company and therefore by constantly participating in various e-marketing platform, the firm will be able to engage with the customers. .As the company develops the brand online, there is increase in communication; thus increasing focus benefits of the product to the buyers and the brand become stronger (Sandra Moriarty, 2012). The combination of all the web marketing tactics will give a better online marketing campaign; the enormous work put in will determine the success level of the campaign. With the current competition, it is unarguable to state that the future of the company is anchored on how it markets its products and its relation with customers. Limitations Given the market trends and the behavior of the customers, it is liley that some respondnets might not send the questionnaires back. The study however intends to send exess number of questioonaires to be handled by the customers. The excess number is expected to cover the ones that are unlikley to respond. (John J. Shaughnessy, 2012). Suggestions Given the growing trend in technology, the paper suggests that an in-depth analysis on the relationship between companies success and the constant involvement in various e-marketing with keen focus on social media. References Anderson, E. 2010., Social media marketing: Game theory and the emergence of collaboration. Heidelberg: Springer. Bailey, M. 2011., Internet marketing: An hour a day. Indianapolis, Ind: Wiley Pub. Barwise, P., & Meehan, S. 2010., The One Thing You Must Get Right When Building a Brand December, Harvard Business Review. Coles, L., 2015. Marketing with Social Media. 1st ed. Milton: John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd. Carlsson, J. 2010., An Assessment of Social Media Business Models and Strategic Implications for Future Implementation. University of Oxford Business School. Cheong, H., & Morrison, M. (2008). Consumers reliance on product information and recommendations found in UGC. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 8(2), 1-29. Dawidowicz, P. (2010). Literature reviews made easy: A quick guide to success. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Pub. Dholakia, . R. R., Dholakia, N., Fritz, W., & Mundorf, N. (2002). Global e-commerce and online marketing: Watching the evolution. Westport, Conn [u.a.: Quorum Books. Edelman, D. C. (2010). Branding in The Digital Age You’re Spending Your Money In All the Wrong Places December, Harvard Business Review. Gay, R., Charlesworth, A., & Esen, R. (2006). Online marketing: A customer-led approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kotler, P., 2014. Principles of Marketing. 15th ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Kabani, S. (2013). The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue. Dallas: BenBella Books, Inc. Paul R Smith, Z. Z., 2011. Marketing communications : integrating offline and online with social media. 5th ed. London: Kogan Page Limited. Patrick Barwise, A. E. a. K. H., 2000. Future Media. MARKETING AND THE INTERNET, 12 December. McDonald, E., & Sharp, B. 2003 Management Perceptions of the Importance of Brand Awareness as an Indication of Advertising Effectiveness, Marketing Bulletin, 14th edition Miletsky, J. I., 2010. Principles of Internet Marketing. 1st ed. Boston: Cengage Learning. Sandra Moriarty, N. M. W. W., 2012. Advertising & IMC Principles & Practice. 9th ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc. Stokes, R., 2011. eMarketing: The essential guide to digital marketing. 4th ed. s.l.: Quirk eMarketing (Pty) Ltd. Trusov, M., Bucklin, R., & Pauwels, K. (2009). Effects of word-of-mouth versus traditional marketing: Findings from an Internet social networking site. Journal of Marketing, 73(5), 90-102. Waters, D., 2011. Quantitative Methods for Business. 5th ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Zarrella, D. (2010). The social media marketing book. Beijing: OReilly. Appendix 1 1) Please indicate your gender. [ ] Male [ ] Female 2) Age_____________ 3) How much time do you spend online? _____________________ 4) Have you / do you participate in affiliate marketing? [ ] Yes [ ] No 5) Have you clicked any advert appearing on website? [ ] Banner Ads [ ] Pop ups [ ] Other 6) Do you click links appearing on a web site or Email in the last 3 months? [ ] Rarely [ ] Occasionally [ ] Often [ ] Always [ ] Never 7) Do you receive and respond to the emails send to you on products sales? [ ] Rarely [ ] Occasionally [ ] Often [ ] Always [ ] Never 8) Has the Ads or Mail influenced on buying the product [ ] Rarely [ ] Occasionally [ ] Often [ ] Always [ ] Never 9) How much time do you spend in social media [ ] Rarely [ ] Occasionally [ ] Often [ ] Always [ ] Never 10) How often do you take decision based on e-advertisements [ ] Rarely [ ] Occasionally [ ] Often [ ] Always [ ] Never 11) Do you believe e-marketing has an impact on company sales 12) Would you advocate and encourage the company to invest in social media marketing Read More