The in Thing: E-Marketing Assessment - Essay Example

Executive Summary: “The in Thing”, is an innovative business venture, which found its utility at the advent of globalization. This business venture projected through the internet net is the kind of businesses that have emerged since the internet has stood up to be a global market place. “The in Thing”, is a click and brick business model, which takes customer orders through its website, while using its physical facility to store different brands of toys. The business assumes the role of an intermediary, connecting toy manufacturers and inventors with retailers and household customers. The business is organized as a strategic business unit, one such strategic business unit is serving the households (being a Business to Customer business), while the other strategic business unit is acting as a distributor to other retailers and specialty stores (Business to Business). Both the business units differentiate themselves from their competitors through a very efficient order delivery system. To augment this are feature of the business are services like: informing retailers about the most in demand toy brand, allowing them to make advance order with charging them, not even in the case of cancellation of booking. Both the business units are organized in a way that allows them to be nimble and flexible in this volatile and uncertain marketplace. This marketing plan is being developed to increase the company’s customer base through analyzing the current discrepancies in the e-marketing mix of the company and suggesting the tools based on the assumption that they would be apt for this form of the business. Not only are the suggestions focused on adding new marking tools in the mix but also are aimed at removing redundant and obsolete market channels for the mix. The aim is to utilize every ounce of a marketing channels potential. Utilization in this context depends upon the number of customers the website is able to attract and more importantly retain. Retention is actually the real objective as it would lead to the creation of brand equity and brand loyalty. In this plan the company has been recommended to outsource its in-house website development and maintenance function, and focus on its core competencies. Introduction to the Company: The company for which this marketing plan is being made is “The in Thing”. This business was founded in the year 2007, and is a private enterprise. The company operates in Accrington, Lancashire, United Kingdom with 25 employees. It has a strategic business unit by the name of “I want I want”, this business unit satisfies the needs of end customers (household). Thereby, this company can be classified as a company which operates in the Business to Business and Business to Consumer markets. By doing this the company assumes the role of both distributor and retailer. Following are the markets and customers, which the company serves. This company emerged due to the creation of a new marketplace on the internet. Taking advantage of the opportunity presented to them (owners), created a business model that found a utility in connecting manufactures and inventors of toys with retailers, specialty stores and household consumers (TheInThing). Main Markets: The company is catering the markets of following countries (TheInThing): United Kingdom United States of America South Africa Australia Main Retail Customers: The main retail customers of the company are as follow (TheInThing): Toy master The Entertainer Smyth’s toys Hawkins Bazaar John Lewis Fenwick’s & Selfridges. Hamleys Dominoes Harrods The London Design Museum Martins WH Smiths Sports Direct Water stones Tesco Claires Accessories Online Retail Stores: Play.com Amazon Firebox Business Model: The in Thing is an on stop shop for different brands of toys. Whether it is a retailer or an end customer, both can visit “The in Thing” to purchase their choice of Toys. The company prides itself on quick delivery time, and having a constant supply of different Toy brands. The second pride factor is because of the company’s ability to forecast a toy brand’s demand accurately. Complementary Services for Retail Customers: The company offers following complementary services for retail customers (TheInThing): New Product Updates Early Booking with Charges Personalized customer attention through Customer service staff Movements in the Toy industry. In demand brands Just in time inventory management facility Major Trade shows where the company has appeared: London Olympia Toyfair NEC Autumn Gift Fair NEC Spring Gift Fair Nuremberg Toy Fair CTN World The Toy master Show Strategic Alliances: The company seeks to form strategic alliances with channel partners like (TheInThing): Product manufacturers Inventors Retailers Trade press Community Participation Programs: Children with Leukemia The Meningitis Trust The Toy Trust  All these organizations work for the betterment of children who are either dealing with some sort of disease or are fighting physical or mental deformity. E-Marketing Objectives: When moving to e-marketing from traditional marketing means, a company wants to achieve the following objectives: Inform buyers of company’s offerings. Communicate to buyers the benefits that the company’s offering deliver. Promote this benefit among the target customers for maximum customer response. Enhanced customer response should be converted to definite sales of the offering (product or service). The SMART marketing objectives for the company are: To increase the customer base by 10 percent in the time period of one year To increase the brand awareness by 5 percent To increase web traffic by 10 percent To generate 10 percent additional customer response To increase the customer satisfaction level by 20 percent Marketing Strategy: An integrated marketing strategy should be adopted by the company to maximize each marketing activity’s individual and collective effect. Even though the company is maintaining an in-house IT department, it would be helpful to outsource the job of e-marketing to different social media marketing and e-marketing companies, who specializes in delivering this kind of services. Since the company philosophy wants to keep the company nimble and flexible for handling the shifting tides of globalization, this step would allow it to keep this philosophy alive. Through this the company would be able to focus more closely on its core competitive advantage of demand estimation and quick delivery. Furthermore, the firm should follow the gorilla strategy of creating new competitive advantages. In this first pace world no competitive advantage is ever lasting and firms need to constantly engross itself in tedious labor to come up with new and sustainable competitive advantages. The company should allow the retailers who want to purchase through them to customize their order. By this it is meant that a customer can have a mix of different brands of toys in his single order. Rather, than having to buy a minimum order quantity he can have different set of toys in his order. The company has been very generous in supporting community organization working for the welfare of gifted children as well as deprived children. The company can extend this effort by helping children suffering from diseases like Autism, HIV, cancer and other life threatening diseases. Not only will this effort display company’s feels for its environment but also create a positive image of the company in its industry. To facilitate customers payment transaction the company should have multiple payment mechanisms, not only is it important to have many payment methods, it is also important that the company display it on the front page of their website. Currently “The in thing” is not displaying this kind of information, which can be one of the reasons why the website in not able to retain customers. Target Market: The main target market of the products being displayed on the website is ‘Children’. However, since it plays a role of distributor and a retailer, this means that it has other retail chains as its customers, other than children or families who some times prefer to purchase from a whole seller directly. There are several retail chains which are direct market for the company. Hence, it can be said that the company is operating in the B2B industry. Most of the customers and potential target market consists of business customers. The retail industry of United Kingdom is growing at rapid rate and this in turn provides additional opportunity to the company for promoting and marketing its products. Important Stakeholders: The important stakeholders of the company are as follow: Employees: 25 employees are vital for the company, as they personally feel an integral part of the organization, thus putting all their energies to create a nimble and flexible organization that could compete in a globalized world. Children Welfare Organizations: the company is a generous donor to these organizations, not only does it provide special toys but also charity. Retailers: the company helps to keep the inventory level of these organizations down by forecast demand to perfection and quick delivery service. Toy Brands: they can find a quick forum to display their new brands and find customers quickly. Toy Inventors: they can also find a place where they can display there inventions and find prospective buyers. Position Statement: For Distributor: Having problem with inventory hold cost, retailers, who want to implement a “Just in time inventory management system” to avoid this cost, can take advantage from “The in Things” quick delivery service. Other, than this retailer can know which brand of toys is in demand and place an advance order without any further charges. For end customers: One stop shop for different brands of Toys, delivered to them in such a speed that would astonish them. Internet Value Proposition: Globalization has brought with it changes that have astounding repercussions. The World Wide Web has become a vibrant market place, providing numerous opportunities to both buyers and sellers. For the Sellers, they can be a part of a marketplace that has no entry or exit barriers. These, sellers can tap into an extended customer base and in this way increase profits. Moreover, these sellers can reduce their cost, that is linked with having a physical presence. Online presence allows the sellers to be present in the marketplace when customers are interested in buying and when their needs are forcing them to shop. Online form of doing business keeps a global organization nimble and flexible. This is beneficial because in such an unpredictable and volatile environment, a company needs an immense amount of flexibility to maintain its competitive advantage. Also additional capabilities should be nurtured and developed in order to remain competitive. Through internet a company can implement a pull based strategy, in which the customers confirmed orders will pull the product through the supply chain. This would bring advance revenues for the company and prevent it from incurring inventory holding cost. Thereby, the company can achieve the objective of having competitive margins. Moreover, through an online presence a company can gain vital information about customer responses which can enable it to refine its offerings. The means utilized to market a product on the internet are very apt at reaching the targeted audiences. In this way a company can avoid unnecessary marketing expenditure. Integrating Offline and Online Marketing Activities: The marketing manager of the company should decide the final channels, both orthodox and unorthodox; he should keep in mind the budget that the top management has allotted to marketing activities. He should therefore be very stingy with regards to what marketing channels he would be using and what amount he is willing to spend on a specific channel. His objective should be very clear that he would maximize each channels individual potential and select the one’s which have the highest potential. The marketing manager should follow a 360 degree marketing approach. Using this approach he should address all customer touch points with a single message, which is consistent across the company. Each medium used to communicate the message should have a message which is tailored to fit that medium. However, the basic message about the company should still remain consistent. Through the use of integrated marketing communication the company should try to influence the response the customer would display. In this regard the company can use its customer relationship management system to find out the preference displayed by a customer while exploring the company’s website. The customer history can be used to present him with items on which he displayed most interest on while he visited the website. E-Marketing Mix: Basic Services: Basically “The in Thing” is playing the role of an online intermediary in the Toy Industry. It provides an online marketplace for different brands of Toy makers, who through their website can sell their products to retailers and specialty toy stores. Thereby, the company is bridging the gap between manufacturers and retailers by being an online distributor. Services for Retailer: The company is offering a delivery service which is unrivaled in the industry. Through this retail customers can avoid unnecessary inventory holding cost and also keep abreast of latest customer demand. Services for Household Consumers: Some customers are reluctant to purchase a product from a retail outlet, for such customers “The in Thing” has designed a strategic business unit that will serve these customers. Again the special delivery system of the company will ensure that the customers do not have to wait for their order. Services for Inventors and Toy Makers: Through their well renowned website “The in Thing” provides an opportunity to these two parties to offer their products to a wide customer base. These parties can see their products reaching different geographic areas and satisfying the needs of different customers. Since the company offers the latest toys in its “Current Best Sellers” section, thereby it allows inventors to be as innovative as they can and come up with new and upgraded toy versions. Price: The company should match its prices with the demand for the particular brand. This means that it should follow the conventional supply and demand method to reach a competitive price. To keep itself attractive for customers the company should also use bundle pricing technique, in which it can allow customers to customize its order. The customer in this way can have a mix bag of brand. Not only will it allow the customer to tailor its bag to fit those products that are latest and in demand, but also its purchase cost also. Promotion: The company currently is investing heavily on television advertisement, but there seems no solid logic behind advertising especially to attract corporate retail chain clients. The first suggestion will therefore be the cutting of such unnecessary advertisement expenditure. Secondly, company should redesign its corporate website as it has many functionality issues along with layout issues. Most of the first webpage is empty, and is not in the format that can attract and retain customers. Thirdly, company should integrate social media websites with its primary website. And in addition to newsletters, the company can also have RSS feed, which would transfer to customers any updates made on the website. The company should post its videos on YouTube and build community threads. These treads can be vital for nourishing the image of the company in the eyes of its customers. Online banners can be placed on the websites of those trusts which the company supports. These banners can also be placed on the websites of original manufacturers of toys. Company representatives who come in direct contact with the customers should use this opportunity to promote the company and build solid brand associations. This would latter lead to the development of brand equity and brand loyalty. Place: The company should promote its products in trade shows and community events. Through most of its community oriented activities the company is having good brand equity. The company can utilize this to its advantage by seeking greater community participation in promoting its services and brands. The company can also have small distribution outlets other than maintaining a single distribution facility. This measure will allow customers to have a direct relationship with the company; these outlets can also be used to make returns of defective toys. The company can continue to invent methods that further allow it to reduce delivery time. Relationship Management Strategies: Although the current company method of engaging with its customers is very good. But to understand the needs of customers more deeply, the company should adopt customer relationship management software. Through this software the company can build a customer’s profile and more importantly a customer database. These two items can be used to design an offering for the customer that synchronizes with his expectation and desire. This system can be used to anticipate customers’ needs and thereby have a tailored solution ready for them when they visit the website. Community engagement programs should be conducted by the company to involve prospective audience towards company’s message. Having a friendly, supportive and trustworthy staff to interact with the customers go a long way in explain and reinforcing company’s values to the customers and employees. All efforts should be made to keep employees happy because if employees are not happy than they would not project your company’s interest in their sales pitch to the customers. Thus a satisfied employee will deal in such a way with customers that they would feel satisfied. And as you know a satisfied employee leads to a brand loyalty and makes an addition to brand equity of the company. Implementation and Control: Expertise of a project manager should be sought in this regard. Under him a team of functional experts should be assembled. This team would collectively design the marketing plan and the complementary systems that are required to put policy into action. This team would break the project into short-term, mid-term and long-term objectives. To these objectives they would assign a time period for their accomplishment and the evaluation criteria. At the end of every period they would review the number of objectives achieved and the number of objectives not achieved. For those objectives which were not achieved in this period and those which were not completely achieved, the relevant team members would be assigned to these objectives, this measure would ensure that these objectives reach their proper completion. Assessing the effectiveness of the Project: Since the business is present on an online marketplace, therefore it is important to evaluate the changes arising in this marketplace as a result of this project. The most anticipated change is the enhancement in customer’s brand related knowledge. When this would occur, brand equity of the company will also increase, which in turn would create brand loyalty. Another important evaluation variable would be the “website hit” rate. This figure would tell you how many new audiences the website was able to attract after the project. Customer conversion rate would tell the company how many hits/customers actual went on to buy from the company’s toy portfolio. This is important again with respect to the effectiveness of the website. Another worth looking at figure would be the “customer retention ratio”, which would tell us how many customers came back to the company for repeat purchase. Thus, telling analyst whether the company has been effective in making its customer relationship management system. References and Bibliography Haberberg, A, & Rieple, A (2008). Strategic Management: Theory and application. New York: Oxford University Press. Holsapple, C., & Sena, M. (2005). ‘ERP Plans and Decision Support benefits.’ Decision Support Systems, 38(4), 575-590. Kotler, P, & Armstrong, G. (2010). Principles of Marketing. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Kotler, P. (2009). Marketing Management. Pearson: Prentice-Hall. Parker, R. (2010). Streetwise Relationship Marketing on the Internet: create one on one bonds with prospects and customers and keep them forever. Avon, MA, USA: Adams Media Corp. Rayport, J., & Jaworski, B. (2002). Introduction to E-Commerce. New York: McGraw-Hill. TheInThing. About Us. Available from http://www.theinthing.com/cgi-bin/html_display.cgi?aboutus.htm&IT-133424742711915539216 [Accessed 10 April 2012] Zenker, S & Martin, N. (2011). ‘Measuring success in place marketing and branding,’ Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, vol. 7, pp. 32-41. Read More