Digital Marketing Techniques - Essay Example

Digital Marketing Abstract Evolution has always been a part and parcel of marketing. Marketing that what we know it today has witnessed a number of changes from the past. A number of different platforms and approaches are available today which was not available to the marketer in the past. But the most noteworthy and momentous development of the last decade was the incorporation of internet linked media into marketing. And this is what we call it today as the digital form of marketing. Digital marketing includes websites, social networking platforms, e-mails and many other forms. It also helps a company to increase the brand image and brand value in a cost effective way by making its presence felt to the billions of audiences. The report has been principally focused to depict the advantages of digital marketing. In the context of the online mobile application selling company Mobgets the report will highlight their activeness towards the digital marketing techniques as well as the benefits they are seeking by making the use of digital platforms. The report will also highlight the present market situation of the company. Apart from this the report will also try to illustrate a suitable communication strategy by which the company can satisfy its needs through the use of digital media. Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 Introduction 5 Market Analysis 6 Market Research 6 Competitors Comparison 8 Target Segmentation 9 Management Issues of Mobgets 11 Communication Strategy and Rational 11 Brand Awareness 13 Driving web traffic 13 Conversion 14 Budget Breakdown and timeline 14 Conclusion 16 References 17 Bibliography 22 Appendix 1 25 Appendix 2 26 Appendix 3 27 Appendix 4 28 Introduction Digital marketing can be defined as the process of marketing by which the product is placed on the digital platform and making it available for the millions of users. In other words digital marketing way of promoting products and services via online distribution channels to attain the customers cost effective and timely manner (Mobilestorm, n.d.). It is also known as internet marketing (Miller, 2012, what is digital marketing). The world of digital media is revolutionizing at an inconceivable velocity. It is transforming the way we intermingle and communicate with each other (Jones & Ryan, 2012, p.viii). People are accepting the digital technology in order to communicate in ways and are flawlessly integrating it in their daily lives. In digital marketing companies promote their brands by making the use of social media, Television. Internet, radio, search engines and other forms as well. In the context of smart phones they are also mobile phones but built on a mobile computing platform (Artilib, 2011). Smart phones are characterized by advanced ability of computing and strong internet connectivity (Psypost, n.d.). Companies hugely make use of the digital marketing in order to sell the applications of a smart phone. A mobile application is a soft-ware which is used by the operators for different applicative functions (Reif, Wang & Nieto, 2009, p.194). Mobile applications generally help the users by linking them to internet services. The most eminent applications are internet browsers, media players, antivirus, business applications and different other gaming applications (Avi-ews, 2012). The applications are either preinstalled or needs to be purchased online (Webprofessionals, 2011). Some of the typical mobile operating systems which support third party applications are symbian, android, iOS, windows mobile etc (Acm, n.d). Market Analysis Market analysis can be defined as the activity of recording and examining the information (Cambridge, n.d.). In order to do a market analysis of the company SWOT will be used as the tool to showcase the present market situation of the company as it offers many benefits (Hartline & Ferrell, 2012, p.122). Market Research Marketing Research is a procedural design, collection, evaluation and presenting the data and findings into a meaningful information (Dutka, Breen & Blankenship, 1998, p.7). Therefore, after conducting the market research following are the findings about mobgets. SWOT analysis can be used to appraise the position of a company in the market, process of sales and distribution, business ideas etc (Pehlchen, 2007, p.28). It is considered as the essential element which matches the company’s capabilities and resources to the environment where it operates along with its competitors (Richter & Pahl, 2009, p.1). Strength The applications which are provided by mobgets support almost all major operating systems. The brand is also e-commerce ready and PCI compliance. It provides all type of application starting from entertainment application, games application to educational applications (Mobgets, n.d.). The interface of the company’s website is also very simple and straightforward. Huge collection of downloadable application. Mobgets provides a lot of free application for the users. The applications are available for download anytime and from anywhere i.e. it has 24 hours availability. Weakness Needs to depend mainly on the gaming applications for generating revenues. The success ratio for other applications is quite less. Low budget is always a weakness. Application supported mobile phones are a bit costly. Opportunity Since the company accepts all the major online payment options, it holds the opportunity to cater to a colossal base of customers. There are increases in the number of developments of the mobile applications. With the developments of i-pad, i-mac, and i-phones the mobile computing is simply getting boosted and companies indulged in industry of selling the supported applications can get hugely benefitted. Threat There is an intense competition among the players of the industry. Competitors such as Getjar, Appia, Android market, Windows market place, Blackberry application world gives a stiff competition to mobgets. One of the biggest threats is that the company lags in the business application segment. There is a huge scarcity of business applications which could even hamper the revenue of the company as well. Competitors Comparison The prominent competitors of the company include Getjar, Appia, Android market, Windows market place, Blackberry application world and Nokia OVI store. The descriptions about the competitors are given below:- GetJar – This website provides free applications and they earn money by charging the developers who endorse the applications on their web portal (Getjar, n.d.). Android Market – This is an open market where users can download the application without paying anything. It is also an example of non-exclusive market (Android, n.d.). Windows Market Place– Presently windows 7 phones only allow the applications which are from the Windows Market Place only but the earlier version was allowed for downloading. This can be cited as an example of an exclusive model (Windows phone, n.d.). Another example of exclusive model can be OVI store by Nokia (Nokia, n.d.). Among the total applications available for the users there are about 2/3rd of the application are paid though the remaining 1/3rd is free for installation and utilization. Target Segmentation Market segmentation is about taking the entire heterogeneous market for a particular product and then isolating it into several sub markets (Bose, 2004, p.513). Generally market segmentation is done on the basis of Geography, Demography, Psychograph and Behaviour (Business teacher, n.d.). While on the other hand market targeting is the process which just comes after the segmentation process i.e. after identifying the segment opportunities (Stevens, Shalowitz & Kotler, 2008, p.231). The company has not yet targeted any niche segment as they feel it will it will restrict them to a limited section only. In this case the company can segment the market on the basis of demographics. And among the demographics age and sex can be the two factors of segmentation. For the segmentation on the basis of age the company can divide its market for the age group of 15-25 – the applications can be games, web browsers and other media playing applications. In other words the company can cater to this segment by offering entertainment applications. 25-55 – This segment is generally working, therefore they will be looking for applications based on either business or an office suite. So this segment needs to be catered by offering business applications. Above 55 – The above 55 age will be least interested about the mobile applications but they will feel some interest if they are offered with some religious applications or applications such as e-newspapers, e-books etc. In the context of the company’s newly developed plan of having a contest, they can also target new developers; existing developers and folks from social networking sites. In case adding social networking site face-book can be used as it offers all the necessary tools to run a competition. The new developers and existing developers will be mainly targeted as they will be uploading their works in the company website and sharing this into the face-book page. Apart from them downloader’s will also be targeted as they are the once who will be providing feedbacks about the applications through their comments and like button in face-book. Another reason is that downloader’s do not follow big brand names such as Apple store, android market or a Nokia OVI store they are only concerned about the availability of their desired application. Management Issues of Mobgets Some of the management issues are as follows:- There are communication gaps within the organisation. The company is facing problem in managing time, i.e. there are problems in time management. The company tries to manage its every project in the same way but that needs to be changed. Communication Strategy and Rational The campaign through which all the requirements of the company such as raising of awareness, to drive the traffic and to boost the conversation can be satisfied is illustrated below:- In this context the company can go for a contest which will hugely boost the company’s brand awareness as well as the brand image. So, there will be contest open to all, who’s having the expertise in developing new applications. In the beginning stage participants need to register at the company’s website with their proper demographics and other relevant information. The registered participants are then will be given a time frame when they can upload their created application in the company’s website. The application needs to be uploaded according to the category. There will be three different categories namely entertainment, business and rituals. It can be also noted that there are no limits of application that a participant can upload. After the participants upload their works in the company’s website users or downloader’s will be invited to download the works. While doing so the users will be asked to leave a comment on the software and also they will be requested to give marks to the software on a scale of 1-10. This step is necessary for the downloader’s for getting the licence key of unlocking the software for lifetime use. The contest will run for 2 months and based on the number of downloads positions will be chosen. There exist one more criteria for the number of download as only those download will be taken into account which will have its marks 6 or above. This directive has been undertaken to get the actual review of the application as there will be persons who will be downloading the applications, but will not like it after the use. The marks system has been undertaken for that reason. Finally the winner will be awarded with £ 5,000 and a free holiday trip. The participants can promote their works by sharing about it in face-book. They can generate huge number of valid downloads from there and will also help them to obtain more downloader’s. In order to promote the contest the company can do the following:- Provide the link of the contest page to different social networking sites. The company can make use of broadcasting media as well as print media to promote the contest. There can be a separate mobgets face-book page where the company can update about the happenings and can also post images and videos. As facebook offers such features (facebook, n.d.). The company can stress more on the prizes to be given. They can create an advertisement which will show the life after winning the contest. A viral advertisement can also be used. Brand Awareness Brand awareness is the process to aware customers about the business and its products (Chabot & Gustafson, 2007). Brand awareness can also be increased with the help of brand symbols (Acrwebsite, n.d.). With this initiative the company will be able to generate huge brand awareness among the mass population. As social networking sites have a base of colossal population. Driving web traffic There are many ways of driving traffic like optimisation of search engine, marketing of articles and others options (Moracero, n.d.). Therefore a website is regarded as one of the vital aspects for a company (Idahofallsseo, n.d.). Some of the platforms are YouTube, facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn (Cnsmaryland, 2012). This initiative will also help the company to generate huge web traffics towards their website. There will be a large number of people from face-book who will be opting for download and from their word of mouth there will be more users from different segments. In other words the traffic may geometrically increase with the course of time. Conversion This will ensure direct interactivity with developers as well as the downloader’s. The company with this approach can have effective communication with the intended audience. Budget Breakdown and timeline A budget can be defined as a plan for spending money in a proper way (Profwork, n.d.). The total annual budget allotted by the company is £ 20,000 to carry out all the activities related to publicity. Therefore a sound budget needs to be developed in order to carry out the required operations within the total allotment. The project needs to be completed within 2 months and therefore accordingly a project schedule has been created by segmenting the activities in weeks. In this process Gannt chart has been used as it is one of the best ways of project scheduling (Chandoo, 2009). In this context the promotional phase will be divided covered within the first 2 weeks and then from the third weak the contest will be beginning and simultaneously participants will also start to upload their works from the fourth week. The next the time frames will be allotted for downloading and customer feedbacks and finally in the last week the winner will be announced. Conclusion The report was about to have a market analysis of mobtech and also to assess the competitor’s standings. The report was also about the segmentation of the target group in the context of the newly incorporated competition. Apart from the aforementioned issues the report has also tried highlighted the way by which the issues of the company can be satisfied. Therefore after performing the research work it can be clearly stated that in undertaking the completion the company will immensely boost its brand image as well as the brand identity. Therefore it is highly recommended that the company must make use of social networking sites in order to drive the traffic towards them and also make use of viral advertisements to grab customer attentions. References Acm. (No Date). Digital Library. [Online]. Available at: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1941060. [Accessed on 17 May 2012]. Acrwebsite. (No Date). Enhancing Brand Awareness through Brand symbols. [Online]. Available at: http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/display.asp?id=8328. [Accessed on 17 May 2012]. Android. (No Date). Android. [Online]. Available at: http://www.android.com/. [Accessed on 17 May 2012]. Artilib. (2011). Types of Smart Phones. [Online]. Available at: http://artilib.org/20126809-types-of-smartphones.html. [Accessed on 17 May 2012]. Avi-ews. (2012). Mobile App Development . [Online]. Available at: http://www.avi-ews.org/tag/mobile-applications. [Accessed on 17 May 2012]. Banner-advertisement. (No Date). Mobile Market Share. [Online]. 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Budgeting: A Comparative Theory of Budgetary Processes. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. Zimmerman, J. (2011). Web Marketing For Dummies. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Appendix 1 The breakdown of the budget is illustrated below according to the priority of expanses. Particulars Amount( £ ) Allotted annual Budget 20,000 Budget Priority Particulars Expanses A Prize money 5000 B Holiday trip 2000 Promotional Expanses C a. Broadcasting 4000 D b. Print 2000 E c. Online publicity 2000 F d.miscellaneous 1000 Total 16000 Appendix 2 Now to represent the timeline Gantt chart has been used to show the break-up of the total time-frame of 8 weeks. Description Weeks WK1 WK2 WK3 WK4 WK5 WK6 WK7 WK8 Contest promotion                 Beginning of the contest                 Participants allowed to upload applications                 Downloading phase begins                 Assessment and Declaration of winner                 Figure 1 (Source: Bmob, n.d.). Appendix 3 Figure 2 (Source: Cellstrat, 2009). Figure 3 (Source: Iec, 2006) Appendix 4 Figure 4 (Source: Banner-advertisement, n.d.). Read More