Digital Marketing Group - Report Example

Digital Marketing Group Report Executive Summary The fundamental transformation in marketing industries has forced businesses and consumers to shift their attention towards digital marketing. The Dell Company has benefited from formulation of digital marketing. Digital marketing can be considered as one of the important marketing element that helps an organization to create significant brand awareness among the target customers. The traditional marketing strategies such as direct mail, print advertisements and roadside billboards have suffered. Primarily, the report provided brief discussion about business type of Dell Company. The importance of electronic commerce towards gaining competitive advantage is theoretically presented in the paper. The multinational corporation like Dell is learning to utilize social media tactics in their business strategy. Dell Company has adopted and implemented digital marketing strategy to attain organizational efficiencies. It is one of the largest multinational organizations that have expertise in making and distributing personal computers, laptops, note books and tablets. The wide use of email and social media marketing has profited organization to gain competitive advantage. It is believed that development in technology can be essential modification and catalyst on a way consumers consume advertising messages and use media. The Dell Company is based on massive e-marketing utilization, community engagement, innovation, convenience, customer centric collaboration and creativity. The related models like social media development, relationship marketing, service dominant logic and product lifecycle are beneficial to understand the importance of digital marketing. Every interconnected model is executed with respect to Dell Company. The success of Dell Company towards implementation of direct online marketing is effectively presented. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Introduction 4 Company Background 5 Market Environment 6 Literature Review 7 Social media development 8 Service dominant logic 8 Relationship marketing 9 Discussion 9 The product life cycle 9 Marketing mix or 4P’s 10 Evaluation of Organization’s Success 11 Conclusion 12 Recommendations for Future Development 13 References 14 Appendix 16 Introduction The electronic marketplace is an online market where companies can effectively engage in transaction, can disseminate information and work together. An electronic marketplace develops streamlined trading networks and permits businesses to attain new buyers and suppliers. It is believed that digital marketing plays a pivotal role towards business development process. The major focus of the report is to detail how Dell Company has effectively created competitive advantage. This report has analysed digital marketing activities that have been practiced by Dell Company. Dell Incorporated has evolved their traditional marketing tactic towards customer centricity. The implementation of digital engagement and listening initiatives has benefited Dell Incorporated to build high engagements with customers. Service dominant logic and social media development is implemented in the report to understand the purpose and nature of the organizations. Since the beginning, the electronic marketplace was viewed to be as one that helped in the purchasing functions. The application of customer relationship management strategy by Dell Company can enable to highlight on customer satisfaction. Moreover, the application of digital marketing has helped chosen organization to reach potential customers. Product life cycle and marketing mix strategic tools has been adopted and implemented in this study in order to determine the effectiveness of the adopted digital marketing strategy. The prime focus of the report is to emphasize on importance of digital marketing on Dell Company. Finally, this report will also provide some recommendations based on the evaluated and analysed issues. Company Background In 1981, the commencement of the IBM PC has motivated PC manufactures to carry their process of corporate sales over indirect sales channels. Over the period of time, it is vital for organization to focus on delivering quality and quick systems and solution to the customer. The Dell Company is primarily based on direct sales model. The PC manufacturer focuses on direct sales to the corporate consumers or customers. The company focused on new business model i.e. direct sales model to focus on speed of minimum inventory and execution. This benefitted Dell Company to bypass the dealer channel. The products are directly sold to the customers or consumers through electronic commerce and digital marketing. Furthermore, the direct model of the company was categorized by direct customer relationships, low-cost distribution and high velocity Just-In-Time manufacturing. The execution of direct model has benefited the company to reduce their channel costs. The company is viewed to be as global product leader for manufacturing of computer systems. E-business model of Dell Company is focused on social networking, direct distribution and e-commerce (Kelber, 2006, p.18). In case of e-commerce strategy, the company focuses on selling its services and products on their personal Dell websites. This websites provides opportunity for customers to perform online transactions. The physical goods are sold by online retailer via internet. In terms of size, the Dell Company is considered as number 1 shipper of personal computer monitors worldwide. According to Fortune magazine, the company is regarded as 6th largest in Texas. Moreover, in Texas, the company is just behind AT & T as second largest non-oil company. Until the year 214, the company was listed in the Fortune 500 list at number 51 position (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson, 2008, p.81). This resembles the dominance of the company to become one of the largest technological corporations. The second quarter results of fiscal year 2014 have seen 0% change from fiscal year 2014. The revenue generated from second quarter of fiscal-year 2014 is 14.5 billion dollars. The Enterprise solutions, software and services revenue of the company was recorded as 5.8 billion dollars. There was 9% increase on total share of revenue growth from the year 2013 (Appendix). The non-GAAP was announced in the annual report was 0.25 dollar per share and GAAP earning was 0.12 dollar per share. The chief financial officer of Dell Company stated that in a state of high level of competitiveness and challenging environment, the company remained focused to customers and strategy (Ignatiuk, 2009, p.12). Additionally, the company is encouraged by continuation of growth in Enterprise software, services and solutions businesses and increased customer interest towards e-commerce. Market Environment The social and political environment is being effectively focused by electronic market place in a relationship. Some of the social aspects are viewed as important part of any alliance or relationship. These social factors can be considered as significant strategic objective for development of electronic marketplace. In widest perspective, an electronic market place is viewed as an inter-organizational information system. The division of electronic market place in the literature is concerned with trading mechanism used, market focus, governance structure, products traded and social environment (Wind, 2002, p.38). The social dimensions can have a major impact towards the adaptation of electronic market place. The company selected for the report is Dell Incorporated. It is a privately owned global information technology company based in United States, Texas. The Dell Incorporated supports, sells, develops and repairs computer and associated services and products to the consumers. The company sells servers, network switches, HDTV, printers, cameras, data storage devices, computers, MP3 players, computer peripherals and other computer related products. The Dell Company is well renowned for its direct-sales model, innovation in electronic commerce and supply chain management. The company has recently made significant progress towards acquisitions in network and storage systems (Bird, 2007, p.12). The aim of the company is to expand their business portfolio by delivering quality products and services to the customers. The company have played critical role towards the continuation of providing high quality solutions and transformation in computing department. Literature Review Electronic commerce is regarded as trading in services or products with the help of computer networks. E-commerce draws on certain technologies like electronic funds transfer, electronic data interchange, automated data collection system, inventory management systems, mobile commerce, online transaction processing and internet promotion (Chaffey, 2012, p.28). Some strategies implemented by electronic businesses are use of demographic data with the help of social data, participation in online marketplaces, marketing to established and prospective customers with the help of fax and e-mail and online websites for shopping (Ryan, 2014, p.21). The digital marketing can help to communicate message to customers via online. According to Michael Porter, the competitive advantage is described as benefit over competitors by cost and differentiation. The digital marketing can benefit electronic commerce by execution of effective program and strategy that is based on customer retention, customer acquisition and brand awareness. Social media development The business world has been reshaped by the introduction of the internet. The digital marketing enables businesses to use electronic media to execute competitive projects and design innovative marketing strategies. Social media and digital marketing helping companies to reach towards people that matter and increase their revenue. Furthermore, this allows business to win their target audiences (Verbeke, 2013, p.42). The social media development can be effective by execution of active reputation management and social listening. Service dominant logic Service dominant logic is defined as a mindset to understand the nature and purpose of society, markets and organizations (Norton, 2001, p.12). The initial plan of Service dominant logic is that society, markets and organizations are primarily concerned with the application of competences and exchange of service (Harrison, 2013, p.9). According to Philip Kotler, customers buy offerings which create value and render services. Service dominant logic states that customer using intangible and tangible offering can enhance the value. The execution of digital marketing has benefited business opportunity to enable consumers to utilize experience rewards, offerings and value on products. According to Service dominant logic, skills and knowledge are important premises for competitive gain. The digital marketing can benefit company to receive value by customer interaction (Chandan, 2007, p.81). Relationship marketing The relationship marketing is a form of marketing which is also known as customer relationship management strategy emphasizes on customer satisfaction and retention. The relationship marketing continues to grow like mobile and internet platforms (Rao, 2014, p.48). Moreover, it continued to move forward and progress as technology unlocks extra social communication and cooperative channels (Luo, 2009, p.34). The digital marketing benefits towards the formation of relationships with customers from ongoing set of interaction via internet. The vehicle for customer relationships is pertinent content and quality. Accessible and easy interaction can be effectively provided by digital marketing. Discussion The product life cycle model and 4Ps have been done with respect to Dell Company. The product life cycle The product life cycle is the process of determining the phases of a product from launch to termination. The four stages of PLC model are introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Introduction stage- This stage of PLC is viewed as most expensive stage for a company. The cost of consumer testing, research and development, digital marketing and other marketing strategies are high. This means that sales are low and size of the market is small. In this phase, digital marketing benefits Dell Company to gain visibility, hiring a team and finding correct ecommerce systems and platform for the business (Ryan, 2011, p.78). Growth stage- This stage is primarily characterized by strong growth in profits and sales. This stage makes possible for company to invest more money on digital marketing. New clients can be generated with the help of social media channels. The digital marketing strategy through ecommerce can benefit Dell Company to encourage engagement. Maturity stage- At this stage of PLC, the aim of the manufacturer is to gain prominence in the market and enhance their market portfolio. This stage is viewed to be as most competitive stage for business to invest wisely on digital marketing (Hemann, 2013, p.10). The digital marketing provides opportunity to business to spend huge money on social media sites, Google Ad words and SEO. This can help Dell company to build their trust and credibility. Decline stage- This stage is the ultimate stage where market for a product becomes saturated and leads to shrink. The digital marketing aims to promote and advertise about their product. The Dell Company should focus on re-introduction of smart notebooks in order to maintain its competitive advantage. Marketing mix or 4P’s Price, promotion, place and product are four components of 4P’s that is used by marketers as a business tool. These four components are heavily dependent upon digital marketing. Product- The Dell Company has constantly introduced new generation laptops, PCs and other applications based on the demand of the customers. High product quality has helped the organization to gain effective customer awareness. Price - In the year 2012, the total electronic commerce sale was up to 5.2 percentages. In the era of digital environment, sales are moving online and consumers are finding reviews before considering buying the products of Dell due to its adopted cost-leadership strategy. Moreover, digital marketing is cost effective and helped Dell Company to reach existing and potential customers. (Rowman, 2002, p.32) The attainment of close relationship with prospective and current customers can help to increase sales and lead towards the development of new product. Promotion- The interacting with customers can help in the creation of new product. Some of the digital marketing strategies for promotion are social media, email marketing, web sponsorships, search marketing and content marketing, etc. Place/Distribution- The distribution of product requires place to be successful. Online sites like Amazon, EBay, etc. provide opportunity for Dell Company to sell products via websites. These examples and model can effectively present the importance of digital marketing. Evaluation of Organization’s Success In the year 1993, the introduction of the World Wide Web has provided opportunity for Dell Company to expand their company portfolio. The company initiated to focus on taking aggressive online order. Furthermore, many subsidiaries have been opened by Dell Company in Asia and Europe. The prime electronic commerce activity of the Dell Company is direct online marketing. The company tried to focus on certain segment of groups to sell their products and services. The following groups include health care organizations, educational organization, small businesses ranges maximum limit to 200 employees, large businesses ranges over 200 employees and individuals for their personal home offices. The company included Direct2Dell and other seven other additional blogs to continue their focus on outreach efforts and effective marketing. The creation of one main corporate blog is one of the strategies implemented by the company through digital marketing. In the year 2011, Forrester Consulting has been commissioned by Dell Company to articulate and evaluate how efficiently the company can engage and listen to their queries of the customers via online. The social approach of the company through digital marketing has benefited to engage, learn and listen to the customers. Social media is one of the prime tools that credited the company to extend their brand awareness. The application of digital marketing on their business strategy has enables to create competitive advantage over other competitors. The execution of effective e-marketing strategies or digital marketing strategies has benefited the company to maintain profitable growth, market leadership and reach to customers in new and current marketplace. The history and customer information of Dell Company are stored in data warehouse. The Dell Direct Model is implemented by the company to deliver effective and best possible experience to online and offline customers. Some major tools deployed by Dell through digital marketing are internet advertising such as sponsorships, keyword search and banner advertising, online loyalty programs, customer service via social media sites, blog site, e-mails, permission marketing and links to technology magazines. The competitive environment and forces has been influenced by execution of digital marketing and internet marketing strategy by Dell (Sheehan, 2010, p.19). Digital marketing can be through internet channels such as e-mail, social media, blogs, etc. and non-internet channels such as SMS, Radio, TV, etc. The Social Media Listening Command Centre has been established by Del Company. The prime purpose of the command centre is to track Dell-related topics over 20,000.The prime objectives of Dell Company for digital marketing are distribution of information, building community, providing business support, facilitating marketing activities and achieving sales. Conclusion The application of digital marketing is becoming pivotal part of business operation in future. It is transforming the way of communication with customers and providing opportunity to company to share their brands, products and knowledge in every single corner of the world. The lifecycle of digital marketing must be holistic and simple. The formulation of effective digital marketing strategy can benefit Dell Company to ensure that efforts put are primarily focused on the fundamentals of digital marketing. The prime focus of Dell Company is to build the enterprise side with IT solution, storage devices, IT services and servers. The digital marketing strategies can be implemented effectively by performing marketing research, engaging with audiences, taking advantage of the technology, wise use of social media and email marketing. One of the most efficient ways to reach target customer is email marketing. The company wants to establish positive image about the brand and encourage customers to provide time in the discussion. The customers are provided with convenient business support online option. This enables customers to download required drivers from the support section. Recommendations for Future Development The Dell Company must focus on making most of their tools available and design content to engage and draw the attention of target market. The company should focus on helping consumers to know about the importance of technology. The achievement of the company would showcase enterprise customers and young professionals to achieve business success and realize their dreams. There is a lack of social media presence from Dell Company. The wise use of social media is one of the strategies of effective implementation of digital marketing. When any customer use service or products from the company, then it is vital for management to encourage customers to share positive appraisals and experience on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. It is vital for the company to make most out of the especial celebrations and holiday seasons (Carter, 2011, p.18). This execution of digital marketing strategies can benefit the company to gain competitive advantage. References Bird, D., 2007. Digital Marketing. London: Routledge. Carter, B., 2011. Digital Marketing for Dummies. New Jersey: Pearson. Chaffey, D., 2012. Digital Marketing Strategy. London: Sage. Chandan, S. J., 2007. Management concepts and strategies. London: Routledge. Harrison, J., 2013. Foundations in strategic management. London: Sage. Hemann, C., 2013. Digital marketing Activities. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Hitt, M., Ireland, D., and Hoskisson, R., 2008. Strategic Management. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Ignatiuk, A., 2009. Analysis of Dell’s Business Strategy. New York: Springer. Kelber, S., 2006. The Dell Company. New York: Springer. Luo, Y., 2009. Entry and co-operative strategies in international business. New York: Springer. Norton, P. D., 2001. The strategy-focused organisation. London: Kogan Page. Rao, N., 2014. Digital Marketing handbook. London: Kogan Page. Rowan, W., 2002. Digital Marketing. London: Routledge. Ryan, D., 2011. The Best Digital Marketing campaign. New York: McGraw-Hill. Ryan, D., 2014. Understanding Digital Marketing. London: Routledge. Sheehan, B., 2010. Basic marketing. London: Cambridge University Press. Verbeke, A., 2013. International business strategy. New Jersey: Pearson. Wind, J., 2002. Digital Marketing. New York: Springer. Appendix Read More