Big Skinnys Sponsored Search Strategy - Case Study Example

MS Case Study Number Introduction The average mind thinks wrongly that the answer to business success is found in having a robust pool of business resources or capital. Nevertheless, businesses have become dynamic with the advent of increasing globalism. Some of the drivers of globalism include the advent of the worldwide web, the internet, international trade and the laws of international trade. Specifically, the worldwide web and the internet have revolutionized business management since sales and marketing can consequently be conducted online. Thus, proper business management, strategising and planning can significantly increase an organization’s presence in the market and enable the same organisation to gain competitive edge in the market and curve their own niche in the market, as can be seen in the case with Big Skinny. 1. What Kiril Should Focus On Next According to the information that Hossein (2014) provides, at the moment, what Kiril should focus on is mixing or merging the two approaches to online marketing. The two approaches are: establishing and drawing new consumers to its website through the many search engines; and focusing on engaging existing clients through interactive and social media such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. This is because concentrating only on the website will lock out potential clients who may not be aware of the firm’s existence. It takes people to know Big Skinny’s online presence and web address to visit Big Skinny’s website and these two factors may be limiting when they remain largely unknown to the public. Secondly, there is a very large traffic that characterizes the use of online social services such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. In this regard, it will be very bad for Big Skinny to disregard these outlets in its marketing strategy. According to Thomas (2011), the lowest priority at this point would be how Big Skinny can instantly recover the damages that it incurred when it accidently attracted 400 online clients who had come for free wallets. This is a low priority because the loss, if handled well, can be short-term and also serve as a source of learning and turning point for the company, Big Skinny. An organization seldom ultimately fails because of one mistake. 2. Evaluating Big Skinny’s Sponsored Search Strategy For the most part, sponsored search strategy is very efficient and very effective. This is because in this strategy, Big Skinny effectively makes it easy for people to visit its website. This is especially the case since those who have a need for the products that Big Skinny sells can easily be led to Big Skinny. This happens as easy as typing phrases that describe the desired products such as thin wallet, best wallet, sleek wallets and pure leather wallets, on the side of the client. The import of this is that those who have forgotten Big Skinny’s web address or are not aware of Big Skinny’s existence at all are able to access Big Skinny and interact with all the products and services that Big Skinny is offering. The efficiency and effectiveness of the aforementioned firm’s strategy is underscored by the ease and accuracy with which the key terms or phrases lead to the potential and prospective clients to Big Skinny’s websites. Nevertheless, just as Thomas (2011) observes, there is a drawback in Big Skinny’s sponsored search strategy. This pitfall is the ability of the sponsored search strategy to lead clients into competitors’ hands. This is because by feeding these sponsored phrases can be easily hijacked by Big Skinny’s competitors. Secondly, even in the absence of this hijacking, it is possible that the sponsored phrases may also produce hit lists and suggestions which may lead to other organizations or businesses which are Big Skinny’s rivals. What informs this danger is that for every entry and search that is fed into the search engine, there must be several hit lists that may be suggested by the browser. Again, this is aggravated by the fact that clients always have a penchant for comparing prices and assessing differences in quality, aesthetics, best bargains and terms. Whether There Are Any Search Keywords for Which One Would Encourage Big Skinny to Increase Its Bid or Not Going by the presentations made, it is less likely that there are words or phrases that should be added as keywords to aid or improve Big Skinny’s bids. This is because the words and phrases being used in the sponsored searches are very comprehensive and address almost all goods and services that Big Skinny provides. It is almost impossible to conjure terms that Big Skinny would use to lower its bids since no organization really intends to lower its bids. The keywords that have been presented to help increase bids on Big Skinny’s products cannot be used to lower the bids of the same company since they were intended for the opposite purpose and were therefore in themselves programmed for this purpose. Conversely, in order to lower the bids for Big Skinny products, some keywords will have to be removed and replaced. 3. How Effectively Big Skinny Is Using Social Media to Sell Its Wallets From the foregoing, Big Skinny has been quite successful in selling its wallets. One of the indicators of these successes is the high traffic of potential and prospective clients in Big Skinny’s online social media, particularly Facebook. Big Skinny’s Facebook page is shown as having very high traffic, for on August 24, there are many people who interact with the page and make inquiries on the products Big Skinny is providing the market with. Again, the success story of Big Skinny’s use of social media to market its wallets is underscored by the large traffic of people who invaded Big Skinny’s website to access the 400 free wallets that had been mistakenly put on offer. This event happens despite the fact that the information had been put up for a very short moment. This large traffic of both potential and prospective clients bespeak the fact that Big Skinny’s websites and information is always viewed. The Question-and-Answer forum also underscores further, the fact that people regularly interact with Big Skinny. These questions are expressed and posted by clients before Big Skinny employees read, edit, seek to answer and actually answer and post them online. It is this interaction with Big Skinny’s products that clients are able to think through and make enquires on Big Skinny’s products. Again, the fact that Big Skinny is using several strategies (such as algorithmic search, display ads and sponsored supported searches) to penetrate the virtual market further emphasises the heavy interactivity activity between the client and the Big Skinny. It is through this interaction that Big Skinny staff has been able to acquire clients’ feedback and make positive changes. It is also important to note without client- Big Skinny interaction, there would be no feedback from clients and the numerous strategies (algorithmic search, display ads and sponsored supported searches) to improve the lot of the clients and to make their online window shopping more convenient. The search engines are also being improved to make the realization of the client’s feedback more effective. For instance, Big Skinny has improved the use of its sponsored searches to include both exact-match and broad-match. This has ensured that clients have an optimal interaction with Big Skinny and its products. 4. Whether Big Skinny Should Expand Its Partnerships with Online Distributors It is within the prerogatives of Big Skinny to partner with online distributors, though this may not be really inevitable. The inevitability of partnering with online distributors is underscored by the fact that Big Skinny has considered and can effect all the strategies of online marketing. Particularly, Big Skinny has matured its website and factored search strategies such as display ads, algorithmic search and sponsored search. In this light, Big Skinny can by itself use its many strategies to popularize itself and its products. Again, just as Hossein (2014) posits, Big Skinny has the power to popularize itself through online social media tools such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. Using these tools is not only free but very convenient. All that is needed is for Big Skinny to use its IT department or its marketing strategy to set up its accounts in the online social fora such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. All these facts preclude the need to partner with online distributors. On the converse, it may be necessary for Big Skinny to consider using online distributors through partnership because of an array of reasons. One of the reasons would be the need to ward off competition that characterizes the use of search engines. In this case, when an organization uses search items as is the case with Big Skinny, it is possible that the search engine may give way to serious business rivals as the Internet through the worldwide web provides different suggestions to the search words or keywords. To seal this loophole, it may be necessary to have an organization such as Big Skinny market itself so that it appears in the topmost hit lists during online searches. This may be relatively expensive and demand a lot of input. To counter this drawback, it may be important for the organization such as Big Skinny to enter into partnership with an online distributor to market itself more effectively by featuring prominently in the hit lists generated by the search engines, and thereby warding off competition. Again, the partnership may be necessary especially when Big Skinny does not have employees who can effectively and successfully market and popularize its products online. In this case, it will be important to enter into partnership with an online distributor either in a contractual or permanent manner. In this case, the partnership will help ward off additional marketing expenses as the services are offered at a subsidized rate because of the terms and conditions of the agreement. Conclusion The foregoing clearly illustrates the need for Big Skinny considering the engagement of all online social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. Similarly, Big Skinny should explore the use of its own website as a way of marketing itself and conducting its own businesses. This approach is important as it will accord Big Skinny a wider audience and attention. Incentives such as discounts should be added to the use of these online social networks. Although this may incorporate the use of organisational resources such as finances, yet the place of strategising, planning and coordination as tools for business success is more emphatic. References Hossein, B. (2014). Management Information System: What’s Inside. Cengage Learning. Thomas, L. (2011). Online Marketing. New York: McGraw Hill. Read More