Shirts Locker Company-Digital Marketing - Case Study Example

MARKETING SHIRTS LOCKER COMPANY-DIGITAL MARKETING Introduction In the recent past most companies are shifting to the trends of digital marketing. According to Csheing, digital marketing is the promotion of products or brands via one or more forms of electronic media. The digital marketing differs from traditional marketing in that it involves the use of channels and methods that enable an organization to analyze marketing campaigns and understand what is working and what is not typically in real time. Digital marketers monitor things like what is being viewed, how often and for how long, sales conversions, what content works and does not work.Normaly, the internet is the channel that is mostly associated with digital marketing. Others include wireless text messaging, mobile instant messaging, mobile apps, podcasts, electronic billboards, digital television and radio channels. (Csheing, 2010) Ordinarily, digital marketing and its associated channels are important to the existence and the profitability of the company. It is important to know your customers better than anybody else so that you can communicate with them where, when and how they are most receptive to your message. This is done by consolidating views of customer preferences and expectations across all channels – Web, social media, mobile, direct mail and point of sale. Marketers can use this information to create and anticipate consistent, coordinated customer experiences that will move customers along in the buying cycle. The deeper your insight into customer behavior and preferences, the more likely you are to engage them in lucrative interactions thus much sales. (Csheing, 2010) Analysis of the company The Shirt Locker Company has been in the market for four years selling shirts and T-shirts of all genders and all ages. The casual and official wear is of quality and wide range of colors that will meet the customers’ preferences. The company is still a small online with a capability of expanding. The company has many competitors such as Charles Turwhif, Thomas Pink and the American Apparel. The company has a strong brand and it needs more advertisement so as to be on the competitive advantage over the competitors. (Maxwell, 2008) A As it can be seen 50% of the company sales come from new customer’s acquisition and 50% from existing customers. Since the existing customers makes repeated sales it is important to create more awareness of the company. The company ought to create more leads to the customers. The company uses direct mail sending catalogue to 30000 customers their database twice a year and this could be much expensive. The company has no social media in which it can promote its products. There is need to generate leads by creating more social Medias where the products can be advertised so as to increase the sales and increase the profitability of the company in the long run. The company has not used any affiliates nor display advertisement either online or offline. It is evident that 500 per month is too expensive and that the company ought to reduce the costs so as to increase more customers. (Gregory, 2014) The key issues therefore that the company ought to deal with includes the need for social media to do the advertisement, reducing the costs, generating more social platforms apart from the media and mail, engaging the customers through the local events and feedbacks. These issues should be dealt with in fullness to enable the company to get 4500 that will contribute to the sales target. The objective is creating awareness through the generation of product information and engaging the knowledge of customers with the aim of increasing the number of customers which will increase the sales and the profits in the long run. SHIRT LOCKER OBJECTIVES Create awareness Increase profits Generate leads Highlight Events SUB-OBJECTIVES -Reinforce more offline/online advertising-facebook,twitter,news paper, radio, websites -Emphasize on sales -Reduce expenses -Provide product information -Capture more leads(mobile instant messaging, mobile apps,podcast,emails,contacts) -Engage customers through local events and feedback-forums KPI -Branded traffic of the customers -Sales increase -No. of downloads(pictures) -Conversions(e-news letter, delivery) -Customers/visitors loyalty Table 1 The Key performance indicator is vital in monitoring the performance of the objectives of the company. There will be the traffic of customers who will want to purchase the shirts once the awareness has been effectively created. (Kaushik, 2011)Sales increase will reveal increased profits in the company. The loyalty created by the customers and the visitors will show how the company interact with the customers in the local events. The number of downloads of the pictures and the e-newsletters will reveal how the product information has spread through the generated leads. (Christ, 2011) Key strategies Ordinarily, with the current state of the economy, having a well-defined target market is more important than ever. The competition is stiff and companies have to have target markets. Small businesses can effectively compete with large companies by targeting a niche market. Targeting a specific market does not mean that one has to exclude people that do not fit his/her criteria from buying from the company. Rather, target marketing allows a person to focus the marketing and brand message on a specific market that is more likely to buy from the company than other markets. This is a much more affordable, efficient, and effective way to reach potential clients and generate business. (Porta, 2012) The company makes 50% of its sale from the new comers and 50% of the company sales come from the existing customers. The current customers are the men and women who are based in UK.Most of the customers buy from this company because of the quality goods which have affordable price. The T-shirts have been the major cash cow towards the company because of the most sales that it makes as compared to the shirts. There is likelihood that children admire the T-Shirts because of the brand. The company is facing stiff competition from the competitors such as Charles Turwhif, Thomas Pink and the American Apparel who seem to offer the same products. The competitors have targeted the middle and upper class forgetting the low income. The competitors also overlook the children. Since there is a niche that has been created in the market. This company will tailor their products to meet the demands of the low income earners and the children. The company will not only target the urban centers as the competitors do but will ensure that it meets the demands of the people who are not in the urban centre. The company will offers high quality branded and name tagged T-shirts and shirts .This resulting benefit will create the professional company image and company loyalty to the customers. A professional image will attract more customers because they will see the company as professional and trustworthy. So ultimately, the benefit of high quality product will be to gain more customers and make more money. Most children would want their names branded on the T shirts and therefore the company will target mostly upon the children. Therefore the company will consider the demographics such as age, location of the target, gender, income level and ethnic background. The rural areas are usually unreached and therefore the company has to make efforts to reach these areas. The company will also consider the attitude, interests and lifestyles of the target market. The product will be tailored to ensure it meets the life style of the lower, middle and upper class customers. The target group often read newspaper, search online, attend particular events and also they are on facebook.The company plans to meet the customers upon this platforms. (Mathwew, 2009) Ordinarily, attracting customers is critical to the success of this small business. To achieve this goal, the company can either throw together a makeshift marketing plan or hope for the best or it can take time to determine who is most likely to want or need what you have to sell. Identifying your target audience enables the company to: assess just how much demand is out there for its product; modify that product to better meet customers’ specific needs; and design a marketing campaign that “speaks to” the right people, using the tone and language most likely to appeal to them. (Porta, 2012) The audience personas will be identified through creating of a customer profile. The people who are most likely to buy the products share certain characteristics. This is essentially a detailed description of your target demographic that includes: (Polevoi, 2013) Age — The company will not only target 25 to 60 years but also other age brackets.The potential customers will be the not only the male and female but also the children, middle aged and the seniors. This is important, because customers in different age groups will respond differently to how your product is designed and marketed. (Polevoi, 2013) Gender — My Company will meet the needs of all gender, the male and the female Generally speaking, their needs and goals are often strikingly different. This is because if one promotes your business in a way that fails to address these differences, you could end up attracting few people of either gender. (Polevoi, 2013) Income level — The Company will target the all levels of income earners and it will tailor their products to ensure that it meets their demands.Normaly, knowing how much disposable income your customers possess should directly influence your marketing strategies. Low-income families may be drawn to products that help save them money. Customers in higher-income brackets may respond more favorably to marketing that stresses luxury and exclusivity. (Polevoi, 2013) Location — The UK is a big country and the company will consider people of the rural areas also. This will enable the decision on the type of creating awareness that will be used to reach the people effectively. Broadly speaking, the buying habits of urban residents often differ from those of people living in rural areas. Where people reside and the types of communities they live in influence their purchasing preferences. (Porta, 2012) The company will also conduct market research on the changing demands of the customers using Primary research. Evaluate the features of the target audience that will benefit and attract new customers and those that will discourage customers so as to attract more customers. The company will reassess the target audience periodically. Every two months so as do some additional primary research and refine the customer profile accordingly. As the marketplace shifts and evolves, the ideal clientele may change with it so as to be on the competitive advantage. (Polevoi, 2013) In advertising, there are message strategies commonly used so as to send a good impression about the products: unique selling proposition, generic, positioning, brand image or pre-emptive. Normally, understanding the message strategy is vital in creating successful campaign. The company will use these strategies; (Buzz, 2013) Unique Selling Proposition-Normally, this strategy highlights something unique about the product or brand that others do not offer. It is the main selling point. The company will have the brand names of the customers upon request and this will make it to be on the competitive advantage. The delivery is also first for those that have given orders. (Buzz, 2013) Positioning-Ordinarily, positioning identifies the product or brand as the best in comparison to the competition. The company offers goods of high quality at an affordable price. The company will have good customer service and fast deliveries. (Buzz, 2013) Pre-emptive-Normally, this means that you are choosing to be the first to make a claim about your product. The company will have to share the obvious information of the product that other competitors do not share to their customers. This will include the information about the fabric of the clothes. (Buzz, 2013) Online media plan The internet advertising is constantly changing and shifting towards automation and a digital-centric focus for planning. This means that new and innovative online marketing and interactive advertising options like behaviorally and contextually targeted display advertising based on content, video advertising, and mobile marketing are being introduced at a rapid pace. (Anonymous, 2011) The successful online advertising strategy helps to have extensive knowledge of online media buying and planning, placement and ad distribution platforms, available targeting and tools to help you match your creative and message to your audience profile. In addition, it requires a constant awareness and intuitive understanding of your target audiences, their behavior, and how they currently interact with your brand and website. Because of the continual complexities and ever-changing fragmentation of online media, managing a successful online advertising campaign only grows more challenging over time. (Anonymous, 2011).The online media plan can be discussed below: Planning phase The company will do research on the price of the prices of all the media channels that will be used upon a particular niche. The company will then negotiate the prices of the media channels upon the providers with the aim of reducing the costs and maximizing the profits. The planning process will define and group the target audiences, models their online behavior and identifies the full universe of online media properties and placements that can reach them.The online media strategists will then map the different audience traffic groups through conversion paths that result in lead generation, meaningful brand interactions and sales. (Kelly, 2009) Development of an implementation plan The company will have to settle the costs of the channels such as radio and news paper in their respective time s of the advertisement. The email, facebook and the websites will require the acquisition of data that will enable them to be active and this will be paid quarterly in a year. Creative development and messaging The company will track the post online conversion activities of the leads and customers they acquire on their sites. This allows offline customer activity and revenue to be forever sourced back to the originating website or search engine they came from and traced down to the banner or keyword level. (Kelly, 2009) Campaign management. The online media programs will be managed through a proactive optimization platform that will constantly raise the bar on what defines success. Ordinarily, managing the logistics of an online media campaign is complex. There can be literally dozens of different units with several creative versions and phases all going out to a variety of online properties. Tracking, reporting and optimization are essential but add further complexity. The company will therefore use banner serving technology to deploy turnkey online media campaigns and to handle the daily tasks associated with their operation and optimization, allowing clients to focus on their own business. (Kelly, 2009) Campaign and Landing page optimization The online media properties will combine their products and offering more powerful multi-platform packages that create increased branding power and buying efficiencies. The online media buying team will always remains on the lookout for convergence possibilities and can take advantage of opportunities across a media propertys entire spectrum of outreach vehicles including website placements, email, direct mail, print, event sponsorships, broadcast and more. There will be no limits to what the company can plan, buy and deploy. (Kelly, 2009) Google Analytics tracking, reporting and analysis Real-time tracking of click and conversion results from email, paid search, and online media campaigns is essential to online success. It can translate into tremendous savings by minimizing wasteful spending on non-performing impressions and placements and boost ROI by focusing funds on successful placements. The company will use serving and tracking technology to generate easy-to-read reports that can display short, mid and long-term campaign results with minimal set-up. The company will discover viable online marketing channels with a minimum amount of time and waste. (Kelly, 2009) ROI measurement The company will initiate contact with prospective customers in the online space during the most opportune times. Our online media plans reach into life stages, buying and business cycles and behavioral moments that provide immediate results, ROI and marketing intelligence. The systems will monitor the ROI to see if the business is making some progress. The company will use print vehicles which is cost effective. Normally, Newspapers are prominent small-business class because of relatively low ad costs and therefore will be used. Community newspapers can reach a local audience. Many small businesses have access to state or regional publications but magazine vehicles normally reach a very niche audience. (Kokemuller, 2010) The company will also use the broadcast vehicle which includes the radio. This is because it is cost effective compared to the TV. This will enable large coverage to the customers. The digital vehicles that will be used include the mobile communication opportunities and the email so as to reach the customers. The media channels that will be used include the Websites, Email, mobile and social media which include facebook, twitter, email, forum and youtube.This have been explained below with an aim of increasing the product awareness. To create awareness the company will use the following will reinforce more offline and the online advertising. This will be done through the following Newspaper. Since the target group is for all the people including those that reside in the rural areas, the company will use the newspaper to advertise the products twice in a year. This is because this will ensure that the brand of the company is known. The advert in the news paper will be integrated in that it will be similar to that of the e-newspaper. Radio. This will be used to reach all the potential customers to the rural areas. Most of the people in the rural areas are keen listeners of the radio. The advantage of this is that it will reach all classes of people. There will be the integration of the radio with contacts such that the contacts will be provided in the radio. This will be done twice in a month at local radios which are relatively cheaper. Facebook.The Company will advertise its products in the facebook everyday since this platform is less expensive. The website. The company website will enable the customers to visit it at their own convenient time. The website will have quality pictures which represents the real products. The website URL will be easily identified having the domain name of the company. The websites will have downloads and quality videos of the products to make it more effective. The company will also reach the client by creating locals such as forums in the internet where the customers and the company can interact with each other. This will enable the message about the product to be shared and therefore raising the number of the potential buyers. The company should also use mobile instant messaging to enable the customers to get the information on the product. The company will also use the mobile apps to reach the customers. Budget Analysis Media Cost Use News paper 1000 Inform the customer Face book 2000 “ Mail 20000 “ Local events 10,000 “ E news paper 5000 ” Mobile instant messaging 10000 Update the customers Mobile apps 12000 “ Podcast 10000 “ Radio 50000 “ Total 130000 Conclusion As it can, be seen the budget is less than the 180000 and therefore the costs will be saved. It is important to invest more on the media that will create more publicity. It is important to plan for the digital marketing towards a targeted audience. The more the media channels diversity the more accessibility and therefore the more the customer rise. Works Cited Anonymous. (2011). Online Media Planning. Retrieved from http://www.bevelwise.com/marketing-services/online-marketing/online-media-planning/ Buzz, B. (2013, June). Messaging Strategies to Market your Practice. Retrieved 2015, from http://www.bigbuzzinc.com/6-messaging-strategies-to-market-your-practice/ Christ, P. (2011). Principles of marketing Tutorials:Know this .com. Retrieved 2015, from http://www.knowthis.com/principles-of-marketing-tutorials Csheing, Y. (2010). Digital marketing. Retrieved 2015, from http://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/marketing/digital-marketing.html Gregory, J. (2014, May 8). Strategic marketing. Retrieved February, from http://www.marketingteacher.com/sales-promotion/ Kaushik, A. (2011). Digital Marketing and Measurement Model. Retrieved 2015, from http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/digital-marketing-and-measurement-model/ Kelly, Z. (2009). Online Media Planning and Buying. Retrieved 2015, from http://www.ovrdrv.com/services/online-media-planning-buying Kokemuller, N. (2010). Media vehicles. Retrieved 2015, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/media-vehicle-advertising-80161.html Mathwew, P. (2009). Useful Value Proposition . Retrieved 2015, from http://conversionxl.com/value-proposition-examples-how-to-create/ Maxwell, P. (2008). Consumer Behaviour:Marketing mix. Retrieved 2015, from http://www.consumerpsychologist.com/intro_Product.html Polevoi, L. (2013, june 18). How to Identify Your Target Audience. Retrieved February 2, 2015, from http://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/marketing/how-to-identify-your-target-audience/ Porta, M. (2012). How to Define Your Target Market. Retrieved 2015, from http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/06/defining-your-target-market.html Read More