A Full E-Marketing for The In Thing - Case Study Example

A Full E-Marketing Report (Including a Plan for Future Activities) for “The In Thing” Table of Contents Introduction 3 A Detailed Analysis of the Objective and Strategy of The In Thing 5 A Brief Overview of the Target Audiences and Positioning Strategy of The In Thing 7 Internet Value Proposition for the Target Audiences of The In Thing 9 E-Marketing Mix & Relationship Management Tactics 10 Offline and Online Business Strategies for The In Thing 13 An Implementation Plan for The In Thing 14 Conclusion and Recommendations 17 References 18 Introduction The feature of e-marketing which is also acknowledged as internet marketing or electronic marketing concentrates on the selling of services and/or products through the medium of internet. It is the modern form of business practice that is involved with the marketing of various products, information and conceptions through internet along with other electronic systems. The idea of e-marketing can also be described as the execution of electronic applications and data that requires while marketing of any products in order to satisfy the expected requirements of an individual along with organisational objectives (Gohary, 2010). The functions of e-marketing are mainly carried out through the execution of internet which has raised the efficiency as well as the standard of the e-marketing business activities. The aspect of e-marketing delivers several advantages towards business organisations that perform business actions following this contemporary method of creating awareness amid the customers and thus sell the offered products and/or services (Gilmore & et. al., 2007). The business organisations could buy and sell broad variety of products and services anytime and anywhere with online business transactions. Moreover, the organisations can execute the process of transferring of electronic funds quite faster through e-marketing. Through the execution of e-marketing business activities, the supply chain management of the business organisations become faster, easier and cheaper as well (Harris & Dennis, 2007). In addition, the other important benefit that the business organisations could attain through the application of e-marketing business activities is regarding the processing of orders. The order processing expenditures of the business organisations gets reduced to a considerable extent through the implementation of e-marketing business activities. The other significant benefits of e-marketing for the business organisations include brand awareness, direct response towards the customers, recognising the target markets and tracking the vulnerable business results in an efficient way (Boone & Kurtz, 2011). With reference to the current phenomenon, the worldwide use of internet for smoothly executing e-marketing functions is growing rapidly in the online financial market. It is in this regards that the important qualities of e-marketing business functions possess a significant impact along with immense importance towards the business organisations by a certain level (Boone & Kurtz, 2011). In the paper, a full report based on e-marketing business activities along with a plan for future activities for an organisation i.e. The In Thing will be taken into consideration. Various facets that include the objectives and strategies of the organisation, recognition of its target audiences, detailed assessment of e-marketing mix strategies and certain relationship tactics that can be considered by the organisation will also be discussed. A Detailed Analysis of the Objective and Strategy of The In Thing The future objective of The In Thing is to continuously advance and progress within the online market industry opening new and modernised doorways for the business along with signing new licenses. In this connection, the company has made its marketing objective to offer guarantee towards the worldwide customers regarding next day delivery of products through executing different marketing strategies. Moreover, the company had never entered into a toy line, especially in the food industry before. The major objective of the company lies in the fact to enter into a toy line of the food industry. As a result the company signed Magic Choc in early 2011 in order to acquire a new experience particularly in the food industry. In addition, the vision of the company is to strive to be one of the easiest companies so that its worldwide customers could deal with the company more easily (The In Thing, n.d.). In this connection, The In Thing plans to raise its market share by a significant level to more than 8% at the ending phase of the year 2012 due to the fact that it’s one of the chief competitors i.e. The Lego Group possessed approximately 5.9% increase in the market share at the end of the year 2010 (The Lego Group, 2010). In relation to marketing conception, the objectives of The In Thing should be specific and it must ensure that the expected objectives of the organisation is fulfilled within a stipulated period of time. The business goals of The In Thing should embrace descriptive measures that addresses various expenditures and quality features among others while fulfilling their desired business targets. These particular facets such as costs and quality should be measured efficiently. The expected objectives of the organisation must be attained through effective control along with influence from the working people engaged within the organisation. Furthermore, the expected goals of The In Thing must be relevant with the vision of the organisation which might help the organisation to attain its various business targets successfully. The various desired business objectives of The In Thing should recognise a specific completion date or remain actively time-bound for fulfilling those objectives by a large extent (Richman, 2011). The business strategies of The In Thing are fundamentally based upon the level of its customers relating to B2B and B2C market. In response towards B2B consumer market, the company prints a kind of product brochure three times yearly in correspondence with the Trade Show calendar. With this concern, the company participates in a number of trade shows every year including Toy Fair London, Autumn Fair and Toymaster Show. Moreover, the company serves its B2B customer base by introducing a flyer that is attached with the invoice describing the latest promotion or offer that is available during the period. From the perspective of maintaining the B2C customer base, the company usually updates its business status along with description of products and offers in several websites related to social networking. Its active participation in websites that majorly include Facebook and Twitter ultimately helped and supported The In Thing to maintain its B2C customer base along with attaining competitive advantages (The in Thing, n.d.). Moreover, the company also executed certain information technology functions for raising both the levels of its customer bases. The company also tends to use the e-mail facilities in order to communicate with its worldwide customers that ultimately assist the company to receive any message from the customers as well as to link them directly with the support of their corporate website. Along with the execution of the e-mail, the company also introduced a “News” page for its customers, through which the worldwide customers belonging to both B2B and B2C levels of the business could view any updated information regarding the business indicating a new launch of a product and similar other alterations (The in Thing, n.d.) A Brief Overview of the Target Audiences and Positioning Strategy of The In Thing The target audiences or the customer base of The In Thing comprises of two levels i.e. B2B customer base and B2C customer base. For B2B customer base, the target audiences would be the other wholesalers and distributors along with toy retailers and stores. For B2C customer base, the target audience would be especially the children as well as the kids (The In Thing, n.d.). The aspect of market positioning is defined as a procedure through which the marketers of a particular company attempt to generate a positive identity for its brand or product towards its target customers. The market positioning is generally designed for the target audiences or customers to preserve the competitive advantages of a company (Ries & Trout, 2000). The market positioning strategy of The In Thing is based upon the quality of its broad array of products. The company offers enhanced and superior quality of products that are largely used by its customers i.e. the children and the kids worldwide. The superior quality of the products of The In Thing could be recognised in few of its products such as Magic Choc, Gelli Baff, Hello Kitty and Top Trumps among other quality products. Moreover, the market positioning of the company is also based upon its pricing features. The company offers reasonable charge for its products and for this particular reason the worldwide customers of the company is observed to be increasing considerably (The in Thing, n.d.). In addition, the company offers deliberate services to its worldwide customers from the phase of making a first time visit to the online business websites up to the end stage of the business transaction process. The services that are offered by the company towards its large base of customers include smooth payment options, secured ordering procedure, order tracking and delivery methods (The In Thing, n.d.). Thus, it can be stated that the market positioning strategy of the company lies in the aspects of quality, price and service that ultimately assists the company to preserve its attained and desired competitive advantages over the competitors. The company i.e. The In Thing is continuously forming as well as seeking new partnerships along with strategic alliances with various retailers and product manufacturers. Moreover, the company engages considerable number of stakeholders that result in the execution of forming partnerships and alliances. The company maintains its productivity quite well with the engagement of wide number of its key stakeholders by a considerable level. Internet Value Proposition for the Target Audiences of The In Thing The conception of internet value proposition is generally considered as a part of contemporary marketing strategy that is mainly executed by an online business company to execute transactions with its target customers. In this marketing strategy, the value proposition starts with signifying the value of executing the medium of internet. The value of the internet in relation to marketing lies in establishing and sustaining the customer relationships with the company because with the execution of the medium of internet, the customers can usually collect valuable information regarding the products, company information and business deals (Treese & Stewart, 2003). The statement of value proposition as an element of business marketing strategy is implemented especially for the target audiences or customers by using the products of the company which in turn helps to influence the economic condition of the company to certain extent. Notably, the value propositions are a kind of statement that conveys the target audiences regarding their benefit by conducting business with the company (Barnes, 2009). The internet value proposition of The In Thing consists its in-house experts who are specialised in the field of internet usage for the purpose of marketing. The experts enable the company to display their various products on its leading B2B and B2C websites (The In Thing, n.d.). The company is powerfully backed with various marketing campaigns such as MSN, Google and eBay, through which the company can guarantee its wide range of products to be efficiently dispersed towards the customers. The marketing campaigns executed in this regards tend to generate a substantial percentage of business awareness regarding the company and also help the company to maintain their competitive benefit by a certain extent. Moreover, the internet value proposition of the company lies in the fact that the company designs as well as manages to introduce a significant number of micro sites related to specific products of the company. The micro sites of the company are related with the specific products that the company produces and also acts as a search engine in which the overall details of the specific products along with the details of specific deals or offers are presented (The In Thing, n.d.). Thus, the above discussed internet value propositions of the company usually enhances and raises the interest of the customers in order to buy the products of the company enthusiastically. It is worth mentioning in this context that the internet value propositions of The In Thing also enable the company to sustain with its financial conditions forming an effective customer relationship framework to a certain extent. E-Marketing Mix & Relationship Management Tactics The facet of e-marketing mix is similar to that of marketing mix which consists of the 4Ps, such as promotion, place, product and price. The e-marketing mix that involves the 4Ps plays a crucial part towards the development as well as the advancement of a particular company (Hou & Rego, 2002). In terms of price, the company offers fair as well as reasonable prices for its wide range of products towards the customers. As a result, large numbers of worldwide customers enthusiastically make deal as well as purchase several products from The In Thing (The in Thing, n.d.). From the perspective of place, the company offers a wholesale and distribution doorway to United Kingdom, Europe and other countries as well. From the viewpoint of its broad collection of products, the company delivers attractive as well as superior quality of products that serves greatly towards the children as its target audiences or customers. In terms of promotion, the company participates in different exhibitions, trade show exposures and advertisements especially in the cartoon channels to attract the population of children all around the world (The in Thing, n.d.). Wirth regards to the aspect of promotion, the notion of customer relationship tactics or management is considered as one of the most effective business strategies which intends to decrease the expenditures incurred by the company, especially related to marketing activities raising the profits, recognising the modern opportunities and channels for expansion, enhancing productivity and perceived satisfaction level of the customers (Grant & Anderson, 2002). In terms of relationship management tactics, the company establishes close working relationship with the TV channels that belong to the children such as Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon among others that support the company with huge exposure of its new brands. Moreover, apart from the cartoon channels, the company participates in the exhibitions, trade shows and frequently revise its business products along with latest bulletins in the websites related to social networking that comprises mainly of Facebook and Twitter among others (The in Thing, n.d.). Furthermore, The In Thing mainly emphasises upon the conception of customer relationship management (CRM) due to the fact that the business organisation views this particular aspect of CRM as one of the effective business strategies that might significantly facilitate to raise their sales automation along with attaining maximum competitive position over its competitors. Moreover, The In Thing also firmly believes that by largely focusing upon the facet of CRM, the business organisation can fulfil various expected objectives as well as requirements along with supporting the organisation to preserve a smooth relationship with their worldwide customers. In addition, the noteworthy reasons of executing the particular aspect of CRM are to maximise the overall sales of the organisation, enhancing the annual turnover and also to increase the return on investment (ROI) of the business by a considerable level (The in Thing, n.d.). With regard to product, The In Thing delivers enhanced as well as advanced quality products towards its large base of customer levels which ultimately enables it to raise significant market share along with profitability by a considerable level (The in Thing, n.d.). Offline and Online Business Strategies for The In Thing The business strategies whether executed online or offline, play a crucial part in this competitive world of online financial market. In this context, the online and offline business strategies for The In Thing tends to improve as well as raise the perceived and targeted customer bases by a considerable extent. Both the business strategies, either offline or online, serves for the same ultimate purpose i.e. to raise and to enhance the productivity, revenues and the level of customer bases attained by the company. With this concern, The In Thing can establish smooth trading relationships as a business strategy with numerous online websites in order to access the largest user base over the internet. The company can also greatly emphasise upon its local and international trading regions that would facilitate large number of users to shop conveniently. Furthermore, the company can generate a strong brand reputation by making deliberate efforts into the aspects of marketing and other business marketing linked segments and thus sustain its large number of customer bases. The other business strategy for the company can be in sustaining a great community affinity that would ultimately enhance the direct interaction between the buyers and the sellers by establishing a greater response towards the customers through the execution of its e-marketing activities (Gopalkrishnan & Gupta, n.d.). The company can also emphasise upon continuous improvement in the features and functionality of its working site. The company can provide a reliable as well as straightforward means to organise and manage its business process with greater efficiency and sustainability. Through other business strategies the company can concentrate on the aspects of durability, exactness, substitutability and competitive superiority among others (Gopalkrishnan & Gupta, n.d.). In case of improving on-line promotion, The In Thing can follow certain important tactics. The tactics include submitting the websites of the stores to search engines, forwarding the different useful information to all customers through web and sharing certain images along with videos relating with the products of the stores among others. Whereas, in the case of enhancing offline promotion, the company i.e. The In Thing can execute certain tactics such as organising seminars, trade shows, speeches, direct mail and forming partnerships or joint ventures among others. An Implementation Plan for The In Thing The e-marketing plan for The In Thing would be based upon both the levels that comprise the B2B and B2C bases. The B2B market involves a company which sells its products to another company; whereas, the B2C market engages a company that sells its products to the ultimate consumers directly (Barschel, 2007). The e-marketing plan for the company can comprise certain important common elements such as value proposition, competitive analysis, market segmentation and pricing structure. The company can implement the plan of market segmentation in order to increase its revenues, market share and return on investments made while executing the marketing process. Moreover, the company can implement this e-marketing plan of market segmentation at the time of determining a marketing budget and also while launching a new product or a new business (Lazarus Research Group, 2006). The company can also execute the e-marketing plan of pricing structure that could increase the value of the customers towards the company (Russell, 2009). The other e-marketing plan of internet value proposition can be executed by the company which is quite likely to assist in establishing a strong relationship with the valuable customers and thus retain them. Hence, the internet value proposition of the company can lead the company towards attaining its desired objectives with efficiency (Russell, 2009). Moreover, so as to avoid any kind of disturbances while operating business functions, The In Thing can execute integration control mechanism and evaluation process. The company can adequately execute the evaluation procedure and integration control mechanism through the use of information technology. The company can use the information technologies as evaluation and control mechanism by developing a value-added chain process. The process can bring numerous opportunities for the company such as enhancing the value added function of the company, forming strong link with the customers and generating new business through the products (Bakos & Treacy, 1986). Thus, it can be stated that the company can implement the adequate use of information technologies assisting them to recognize the future opportunities as well as to evaluate and control the mechanisms of its overall business operations. In addition, The In Thing can attain a considerable amount of revenue or benefit only when the different variable costs and fixed costs of the company are lesser than its overall income. When the company possesses the power of returning back it’s both short and long term liabilities, it can be the indication for the company to attain huge revenue or benefit along with incurring the various expenditures that are involved while operating their business functions worldwide. This particular fact signifies that if the company attains more receivables as payments from its customers rather than making excessive payments towards the suppliers or vendors, then there would be the indication for the company’s huge benefit along with the incurring the expenditures (Shaffer & Spierdijk, n.d.). The revenue or the benefits would be attained from both the customer base levels of the company i.e. business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) segments. By emphasising upon the both customer base levels, the company could attain maximum benefit and revenue by a certain level. In this connection, the different costs that would be incurred for the company include the engagement of working personnel who will look after the daily business operations of the company and website development costs among others. Conclusion and Recommendations In order to enhance and to raise large number of customer bases that comprise both B2B and B2C levels, The In Thing should implement an adequate and useful e-marketing plan along with above discussed business strategies of marketing. The different aspects such as e-marketing mix, customer relationship tactics or management, control and evaluation mechanisms through the execution of information technologies and business marketing strategies is included in the e-marketing plan. The successful implementation of the e-marketing plan would ultimately place the company in such a position where the company will be able to attain maximum revenues along with sustaining its productivity. The role and importance of internet in the field of e-marketing has been increasingly progressing and advancing along with imposing significant affect upon the online marketing companies. In this connection, certain business marketing strategies along with an e-marketing plan has been designed for the company in order to execute its future business activities. The In Thing, if follows the above discussed strategies and plans, then it can certainly expect to attain the desired outcomes. References Bakos, Y. & Treacy, M., 1986. Information Technology and Corporate Strategy. Information Technology and Corporate Strategy: A Research Perspective. [Online] Available at: http://archive.nyu.edu/bitstream/2451/27825/2/CeDER-PP-1986-01.pdf [Accessed March 27, 2012]. Barnes, C., 2009. Creating and Delivering Your Value Proposition: Managing Customer Experience for Profit. Kogan Page Publishers. Barschel, H., 2007. B2B Versus B2C Marketing- Major Differences Along the Supply Chain of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). Grin Verlag. Boone, L. E. & Kurtz, D. L., 2011. Contemporary Marketing. Cengage Learning. Gilmore, A. & et. al., 2007. 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