Clarks Digital Marketing - Essay Example

Clarks Digital Marketing al Affiliation) Clarks Digital Marketing Company background Clarks is an international shoe designer, manufacturer and retailer from the United Kingdom. Founded in 1825, the company has become international. It has over 1000 stores as well as franchises globally. It also sells by third-party distribution. The international expansion has been made possible through the use of technology such as digital marketing where the company sells its products through online virtual stores. In recent years, the company has opened more stores outside Europe and in countries such as India and China through partnering with local footwear retailers. In the past Clarks has overcome challenges such as volatile market conditions, lack of financial flexibility as well as questionable planning and today, through extensive employment of digital marketing, Clarks is one of the largest private companies in the united kingdom and with massive global presence (Jones, 2012 p, 192-193). According to Tran (2012), Clarks’ products have a good reputation for high quality and are available in the latest fashions. The products have a good reputation for high quality and are available in the latest fashions. In the changing footwear industry, Clarks always comes with refreshing brands. The launch of online business has been a success for the company in building its international brand. Clarks has three main distinctive products that include the Desert Boot, Wallabee and desert Trek. The main feature for Clarks shoes is that they have unique comfort. Clarks designs and manufactures shoes that are uniquely styled, comfortable and of premium quality. Its concept of comfort in footwear dates back to 1960 when the company designed the Moccasin-inspired Wallabee. It was the most comfortable shoe in the world. Today, the Wallabees and the iconic desert Boots still sell at the company stores. Today, Clarks shoes that classified into different categories. They include Clarks walking shoes, Clarks’ casual shoes as well as Clarks business casual shoes. There are many other unstructured collections of shoes for men, women, boys and girls. The company’s product line includes boots, slippers, sandals, casual and sport shoes as well as bags (Jones, 2012 p, 192-193). Digital marketing strategy had been a drive towards the realization of massive digital presence for the company. It all begun in 2010 after the appointment of the current CEO, Melissa Potter, who drove the re-organization of the company’s business operations. Most importantly he launched online business for the company, and it has made Clarks a global brand. Digital presence has enabled the company to offer its products to customers in over 50 different countries through selling its products online. Apart from being a maker, Clarks is also a retailer has over 500 shoe stores in the United Kingdom. Digital marketing involves opening of online stores that operate under the company’s banner. Digital Presence Initially, the company’s main business was the United Kingdom shoe market, and the company had challenges in boosting sales through its new website. The challenge was solved through the development of a comfortable, durable, e-commerce system that met all the business target markets. Through customer focus, the company launched its website and started a campaign for customers to voice their concerns. To understand the concerns of online customers, the marketing team started a campaign of stringent web testing so that attracted customers could give their view on their web experience and for the upgrading of the web version. Through Multivariate testing of the website, Clarks developed an online shopping experience that helped customers enjoy their shopping, check products, prices, make payments and the order delivery. Improved website details such as design, language and email sign up have helped the company’s customers to have a unique experience in conduct online shopping (Malaga, 2007 p. 68-82). The brand marketing team ensured that there were over 36 website tests to gather customer insights on website details. It improves online customer experiences as the company was able to incorporate website details that med customer tastes and behaviors. Clark has improved its website page and incorporated relevant search result. The company website has better performing page, and online users can also sign up for email alerts. It promotes new offers for the business. Customers can select items for purchase online and add them to their basket if they are not able to immediately buy them. There are buttons have been very effective for Clarks in terms of sales as customers can review product purchases through open baskets that increase their propensity to buy. Conversion rate has also increased through the website digital platform and, therefore, it has been a success for the company financially. Clarks has also used the website to its benefits through reducing delivery charges leading to increased conversion rates. In 2012, Clarks revenues from the online stores have increased by 60 percent due to website traffic as customers from different countries enjoy making online purchases. In the same period, Clarks was placed among the top ten in online retail, in the United Kingdom and had identified digital through online stores as a major force for the success of the business. Clarks online sales are continuing to grow year after another. Across Asia pacific, there are many sites that have Clarks’ shoes that are present for sale. To reduce limiting its online business for the company’s new season shoes, the company has partnered with third-part distributors to offer such products in their online sites. It is cheaper to run online sales in Asia than in the United Kingdom. For the local retail prices, the company offers substantial discounts to online shopping malls in order to encourage more digital marketing. Customer shopping for the company products is most dominant through online shopping malls. Clark has embraced e-commerce through the establishment of a strong online presence. However, there is still room to exploit the opportunities that come in the ever changing digital environment (Sultan, & Rohm, 2004 p 6-19). China is one of Clarks makes with huge potential as there are over 500 million consumers, however, most of them do not buy Clarks shoes at full price. Currently, there not many consumers with the financial ability to purchase high priced Clarks products. Clarks uses an internet sales platform called Taobao in china, and it accounts for over 80 percent of the company’s retail business. They connect to Tmall, through a search engine to provide online customers with lower priced Clarks shoes. In china, the nearest t market competitors earn £50 000 in monthly sales due to their presence on Tmall as well as other stand alone site. Clarks offers online discounts for Chinese customers, and this has increased traffic as customers search for purchases of Clarks products online. Overall, through digital marketing, Clarks has been able to satisfy their customers through putting them first and responding to customer demands through their website. Therefore, the strategy of multivariate testing for their website design was a significant success as it improved online conversion and metric across the site. Competitors The first major competitor is Sperry Top Siders. This company produces casual shoe of unique leather and mechanical aspects which offer flexibility, comfort and traction. Even though their shoe designs are for boating use, the company’s shoes are popular, fashionable and worn on daily basis. They have products for children and adults, and target men and women of the 18 to 50. Sperry has own retail stores in United States and independently distributes products through retail stores. Sperry product line also included to boots, sandals, bags and dressy nautical footwear. Sperry’s promotional activity involves the use of print material and sponsoring of nautical related events (Sperry Top-Sider, 2012). Aldo is another competitor to Clarks. The companys headquarters is in Montreal, but they have independent retail stores globally. The company plans to expand fashion trends through directly targeting customers on the streets at political events (Aldo Shoes, 2012). Men and women of age 18 to 35 are targeted. Aldo has a collection of shoes similar to the Desert Boot by Clarks. They have casual sandals, dressy men’s shoes as well as women’s high heels. The Marketing strategies include traditional print material and strong online presence (Aldo Shoes, 2012). The final competitors are TOMS Shoes. They have a promotion that offers shoes to need children, called One for One campaign (TOMS, 2012). The company has the ‘classics, shoe, made of that which canvas for simple walking. The company manufactures in Argentina, China and Ethiopia. They donate shoes to surrounding communities. Their Marketing strategy involves word-of-mouth marketing and the good will to donate to the needy since it is one purchase one donation. They also host events to promote the need for shoes. They have an active online presence is very active, with many customers on Twitter and Facebook. Online media builds a strong community through online conversations with customers. For The company uses the digital media platform to display new products as well as promoting upcoming events. Customer insight Customer insight as well as testing of digital marketing strategy has improved Clarks conversion to 4.2 percent and led to more news letter sign ups. With the improvement in technology, it is easy to conduct effective brand marketing through gaining robust customer insights. It helps in understanding customers’ journey to making online purchases. Before the launching of the first online store in 2008, the company’s revenues were from the high streets in UK. However digital marketing has led to more revenue from countries such as China, India, North America and eastern and western Europe. Customer insights are invaluable as they offer business data that guides Clarks in product development and advertising campaigns. Customer insights have also helped the company inn distribution as well as development of new store designs, picking of perfect store locations and planning Public Relations campaigns. Customer insights have taken Clarks brand to high places across the globe. It is a source of creative challenge and continuous evolution (Varadarajan, & Yadav, 2002 p. 296-312). Through the establishment of an Insights team, Clarks has been able to meet the needs of global consumer research, discovering their motivators, what they like in Clarks shoes, and the influence of other factors such as fashion, price, and quality on customer decisions. Customer insights are also important in developing global marketing strategies and material of communications materials. Clarks captures the ideas of the customers and makes the imagination of what they expect in core brands. Customer insights are vital in the development of marketing strategies that work in different sales environments and improving online branding (Goffin et al., 2010 p 22). Search engine and pay per click On Internet marketing, search engine optimization involve editing website content, its HTML for more relevance to exact keywords, as well as removal of and barriers to indexing activities by search engines. A better strategy is to build high quality websites that engage and persuade visitors for high site conversion rate. On the other hand, other Internet marketing strategies such as paid advertising by Pay per Click are more effective. Pay per click directs traffic to the company website and advertisers have to pay the owner of the website for clicking the ad. The search engines have key words for target market to advertise products. Clarks can use Pay per click in its internet marketing strategy for people that are surfing to view adverts that offer purchase opportunities (Malaga, 2007 p. 68-82).. Search Engines used by Clarks in China are not that different from the ones used in the United Kingdom. However, there are different techniques used to acquire customer traffic. They included on Baidu were customers can buy a page of search results for Clarks brand for quarterly charges. The TaoBao/Tmall site integration is one of the largest used search engines in e-commerce. It has less internal search as well as quick navigation through the use of links to purchase content/graphics (Sen, 2005 p.9-25). In China there is huge market potential for Clarks shoes as 80 percent of the population have access to the internet. With the increased preference to online purchases, Clarks has spearheaded the adoption of e-commerce to increase its online revenues through online sales of mid-premium shoes. Therefore, online stores are critical in China. Long tail The long tail describes niche marketing through the internet. It involves shifting from a small number of mainstream products, as well as markets to a huge number of niches along the tail. Through use of the internet, distribution and production cost fall making it not necessary to lumps company products into one container. During the period of reduced constraints, in physical space and reduction in distribution bottlenecks, there has been an increase in demand for narrow-target goods. The market for products that are not physically available in stores is increasing. It has led to increased potential for small business goods that do not sell through traditional retailing and such small aggregate markets rival existing large markets. For Clarks, the hits are the shoes that have dominated the international market and the niches that the new small business that have the new potential for growth in the future (Anderson, 2008 p, 267). Traditionally, stores stock the hits to maximize on shelf space. However, through internet marketing, a business such as Clarks could store virtually everything. Niches product is the many i.e. the Long Tail, compared to the hits that are favored. Long tail can be achieved through online marketing; however, Clarks offers the consumers an infinite choice of their niche products. Evidence shows that consumers like to shop the niches since these products satisfy close interest, and most consumers usually have a narrow interest that has not been satisfied to stocking of hits (Keillor, 2007 p, 142). Clarks should grab the idea of Long Tail where the offer unlimited shelf space through online marketing. It could help the consumers to access information and products that are not in the physical store shelves. The Long Tail concept improves the benefits of a company’s digital presence. The online marketing increases customer is choices. However must companies provide a way of helping the online purchasers to find the product they need. Crucial ingredients of the company’s online sites include filters as well as recommender systems to assist customers find the niche products they are seeking (Anderson, 2008 p, 267). Clarks should employ the Long Tail concept in the digital marketing strategy since it has several benefits. Firstly, Clarks could minimize the cost of distribution hence minimizing consumption costs that include wideband internet connections. Long Tail connects consumers and taps online purchasing habits and matching them with the products of their interest. E-marketing tools/ Current marketing campaigns Clarks is currently conducting marketing campaigns through print advertisements as well as online magazines. The company places its product Advertisements in magazines that include GQ or through online at AskMen.com. They have also produced television commercials, while targeting the market for childrens shoes and using the theme, and celebrate the shoes 60th anniversary. During the commemoration, six unique styles were introduced, three men’s styles along with six women’s styles. Thereafter, the company has used traditional advertising methods (Clarks Originals, 2012). Recommendations The main long-tail marketing strategies of Clark included new media marketing, buzz marketing, viral marketing, pay per click, search engine optimization and demand-side platforms. There are several e-marketing tools that have already been used by Clarks (Tuckwell, 2011 p 47). The first e-marketing tool that I recommend for Clarks is buzz marketing. This marketing strategy involves using the word of mouth for the transmission of business information through online or even in the real-world environment. Clarks should use celebrities such as Nicki Minaj, Rihana and Taylor Swift to build buzz marketing and attract customers on the internet. These women celebrities can be used by the company to increase female market for The Collection of Women. Utilization of music talent from pop, country to R&B is an effective buzz marketing strategy for representing and targeting multiple female tastes. Therefore, Clarks should add buzz marketing to their current media prints in order to attract the female population that is young, educated as well as sophisticated and living a fashion-forward lifestyle (Ferrell, 2014 p, 133). The second e-marketing strategy that I recommend for Clark is new media marketing. The company should build and maintained social networks as well as online and virtual communities. Through social networking, the internet will assist in cost-effectively reaching of low- frequency and low-intensity customers. The common social media platforms to use by Clarks include podcasts, blogs as well as RSS feeds. The business should promote a shoe design campaign on the internet through facebook, twitter as well as the company’s proprietary website (Ferrell, 2014 p, 133). And for the proprietary website, Clarks should market the websites on search engines that include Google and Yahoo. Clarks also needs to focus on long-tail keywords with less competition for quick access on the site. It could allow customers to connect with Clarks Originals through drafting of mock-up creations. Overall, more emphasis should be on online presence and the female market. The two recommended strategies can succeed in the target market through focusing on the female demographic. Buzz marketing is through celebrities match with different creative groups among the females. In the proprietary website, online contest can assist in a one on one connection with customers. It is also important to maintain an editor’s blog in order to send strong messages to the business. Advertising heavily through celebrity endorsers create limited edition products that are exclusive to the company. Online design contest is part of consumer insight, and it improves products features to match customer styles and tastes. These strategies are important as they create buzz for loyal customers. Legal Aspect of Digital Marketing Tools One major issue of online marketing is publishing the Terms of Service on the company website. It puts customers on notice as to certain limitations as well as the conditions they are consenting by using the company website. Terms of service govern relationships between the business and user who interact with the website. Terms of Service are unique to a specific company (Albarran, 2013 p. 122). The website is the intellectual property of the company. The company has to retain Intellectual Property ownership through protecting processes, templates and systems by employees. Employees go into a contractual agreement with the company at the onset of their term of hire so that they protect company work products from competitors. References Albarran, A. B. (2013). Management of electronic and digital media. Australia, Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Tuckwell, K. J. (2011).Integrated Marketing Communications(3rd ed.).Toronto:  Pearson  Canada. Anderson, C. (2008). The long tail: why the future of business is selling less of more. New York: Hyperion. Keillor, B. D. (2007). Marketing in the 21st century. Westport, Conn: Praeger. Ferrell, O. C. (2014). Marketing. Mason: South Western Cengage Learning. Sultan, F., & Rohm, A. J. (2004). The evolving role of the internet in marketing strategy: an exploratory study. Journal of interactive Marketing, 18 (2), 6-19. Varadarajan, P. R., & Yadav, M. S. (2002). Marketing strategy and the internet: an organizing framework. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 30 (4), 296-312. Sen, R. (2005). Optimal search engine marketing strategy. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 10 1), 9-25. Malaga, R. A. (2007). The value of search engine optimization: An action research project at a new e-commerce site. Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations (JECO), 5(3), 68-82. Goffin, K., Lemke, F., & Koners, U. (2010). Identifying hidden needs creating breakthrough products. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Jones, T. (2012) Innovating the edge; Routledge.  Retrieved  on 2nd May 2014  from   www.clarks.co.uk Aldo  Shoes.  (2012,  03  28).  About  Aldo.  Retrieved  on 2nd May 2014  from   http://www.aldoshoes.com/ca-­‐eng/culture Clarks  Originals.  (2012,  03  25).  Our  Story.   Retrieved  on 2nd May 2014  from   from    http://clarksoriginals.com/our-­‐story/ Haymarket.  (2001,  09  30).  Profile‐Clarks.   Retrieved  on 2nd May 2014  from   http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/67621/ Sperry  Top-­‐Sider.  (2012,  03  29).  Boat  Shoes.   Retrieved  on 2nd May 2014  from   http://www.sperrytopsider.com/store/SiteController/sperry/subcategor?catId=cat90046DM&subCatId=cat100066DM&trail=1002:cat100066DM&segment=&subCatTabId= TOMS.  (2012,  03  28).  TOMS  Company  Overview.   Retrieved  on 2nd May 2014  from http://www.toms.ca/corporate-­‐info/ Read More