Company Digital Platforms - Case Study Example

Company Digital Platforms Company Digital Platforms Marketing is a way of promoting the sale of a product. Marketing process has been defined by many different authors. According to Fatayerji (2004) “it is the procedure by which salespersons look for purchasers, and it is the process by which products and services are being exchanged between the producers and the individual”. Electronic marketing on the other hand has been described as doing advertising using the internet (Ross). It is also said to be social media or email marketing. Electronic marketing is also referred to as digital marketing or online marketing. This digital marketing has been said defined as promoting a brand or product through the electronic media. Therefore Electronic marketing can be put as all processes that aim to promoting the sale of a certain given product and these processes and done using the electronic media such as through the internet. This paper will try to explain how Nestle will be promoted using the online mechanism. Digital marketing has many elements. These include email marketing, search engine optimization, pay per click, social media, blogging, online advertising and affiliated marketing (Klapdor2013). Email marketing as a form of electronic marketing was one of the starting digital marketing forms. Email marketing does involve segmenting your customers and delivering personalized messages to them at the time when it is appropriate. Email marketing has created a sense of personalized relationship between companies using them and their customers(Klapdor2013). One message can be crafted and sent to numerous desired recipients. A one on one conversation can ensue between the company and some of its guests who might have perceived that the products are desired to them and may want them to be delivered to them. The traditional forms of online advertising include the use of video, pop-up, banner, interstitial and flash(Gunelius2011) the traditional marketing rely mostly on push strategies and usually involve direct marketing strategies such as companies pushing messages to their consumers and expecting a certain response from the consumers. Search engine optimization is the next form of electronic marketing. It is basically increasing the visibility of a website in search engines. The visibility can be increased by high ranking a certain keyword. The search engine optimization involves a wide array of skills such as creativity, technical approach and using an analytical approach. Content creation and improving, link-building and blogging are also some of the other techniques used by search engine optimization(Weber, 2009). Another element of electronic marketing is pay per click or paid search. Paid search involves managing the paid advertising in the searching results. For paid search to be successful, it require certain skills such as creativity in crafting the adverts, one needs to be keen in detailed data and be quick responding to data. Social media management is the next element in electronic marketing.The social media marketing involves all marketing activities undertaken using the social web (Gunelius, 2011). Here the brand name is managed using different social networks. These social networks include Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. “The tools of social web include all online publishing tools that enable people to publish any form of user-generated content such as articles, comments, videos, images, audios” (Gunelius, 2011)Social media has recently taken over the world in these times. Millions of people are either using Facebook or Twitter. Most businesses have also realized that for them to be successful, they have to indulge their advertising in the social media. To be successful in this field of social media advertising, one need to possess such skills as being aware of how social media works, be creative and know the needs of their customers at hand. Online advertising is using the websites of other people to advertise your products(Weber, 2009). In this case the owner of the website you are using will charge you a certain amount of money for the services you will gain from his or her website. Negotiation skills are paramount here. One also needs to possess data analyzing skills to be able to evaluate the right type of advertising to post. Furthermore, creativity and designing skills cannot be left out. Affiliated marketing is another element of online marketing. It relates to online advertising because they both post their advertising using other peoples’ website. However, in affiliated marketing, the owner of the website is only paid after the product that was advertised has been sold. The owner of the website will be motivated to promote the sale of the product because the payment will be much higher than in online marketing. Affiliated marketers use many type of media such as e-mail marketing and banner adverting(Klapdor2013). The skills used in online marketing such as negotiation, data analysis and creativity are also used in affiliated marketing. The next big form of online marketing is text marketing(Klapdor2013). In this modern world, with the evolution of smartphones, most people do not need to sit in the cyber cafes and sit behind laptops and desktops but just use their phones. People can easily sent messages about their products using their phones and the social media applications that are easily installed in the phones. Quick reply has been enabled because once the recipient receives the message. The phone will notify him or her. The basic skills here is being keen and creative and be conversant with the trending issues in the world we are living in. The second last element of online marketing is blogging(Klapdor2013). The blogging process involves wring the blog, then strategizing the blog with web design, social media and search engine optimization. The blog should attract much traffic, natural, social and organic traffics. For the blog to be able to attract more and more traffic, it should be perfectly designed and be able to stand out from other blogs through consistency. Bloggers therefore need to be up to date with the recent occurrences and always learn the needs of their customers. Viral marketing is the last form of internet marketing. It is also called content marketing. There are many marketing elements that are combined to form the viral marketing. A message or information will be disseminated through numerous channel blog, YouTube videos and email marketing. Many authors have tried to explain the advantages of online marketing. According to Clarke (2005)one of the main reason for increase us of online marketing is that it enable customers to access information anytime they want 24/7. The world has become a global village through the use of internet interconnections. As Wood relates, once a company has placed its advertisement through the internet, it will always be there for different customers to view it. The product will therefore be available for the customer to examine it whenever they want to. Chitty (2011) supports this argument by saying the accessibility of the product will improve when marketing is done online. The second advantage of online marketing is global scope and reach (Rosenbloom2013) the internet enables interconnectivity of people from different parts of the world, from far and wide thus making the world a global village. The use of online marketing will make many people have information about the goods and services that the company deals with. The number of customers will therefore increase as a result. The number of sales will increase also. Saarinen, Tinnila and Tseng (2005) have the point by saying that internet marketing will increase the sales of goods and services of a certain given company. Another advantage of digital marketing as Rosenbloom(2013) puts it is the lower sales and distribution costs. Advertising and doing other marketing processes is cheap using the internet as compared to other traditional marketing methods(Eklinder-Fricke, Lars-Torsten and Lars). Some of the costs such as the cost of paying salespeople are eliminated. Chitty (2011) has the same sentiments by saying that electronic marketing is cost effective. Furthermore Rosenbloom (2013) adds another advantage that “electronic marketing ensures convenience and rapid marketing processing” Electronic marketing enables the sellers to know which customers want their products and process the transaction as fast as possible. Chitty (2011) says that electronic marketing enables behavioral tracking. Sellers can easily track the preferences of their customers. Internet marketing enable individualization The product on focus in this paper is Nestle. Nestle is one of the biggest food product in the world(Roberts, 2008).Nestlé has four hundred and forty seven factories in different countries. Nestle does its operations in one hundred and ninety four countries. The number of Nestle employees is around three hundred and thirty thousand people. Nestle is also a big shareholder of L’Oreal(holding 29.7% of shares) one of the largest company dealing with cosmetics. It has over 8000 brands being sold in different markets all over the world(Roberts, 2008). Some of the products that Nestle deal with include milkshakes, coffee, bottled water, infant foods, pet food, refrigerated foods and breakfast cereals(Pride, Hughes and Kapoor2012). The capitalization of Nestle market is approximated to be over 200billion U.S dollars or over 210 billion Swiss francs. The 2010 percentage breakdown of profit of the Nestle products include all the beverages having 29%, all drinks have 22%, dairy products had 19%, read cooked dishes had 15%, bottled water constituted 7%, baby foods and other nestle nutrition had 13%, pet products had 12% and chocolate and other candies had 11%. Nestle products are sold in many parts of the world. However, the main markets include America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Nestle has a higher American sales of 44% while Europe being second has 28% and Africa and Asia together are the last with only 28%. The low sales in Africa may be attributed to the poor development in countries of the Africa(Roberts, 2008). In 2013, Nestle made a net profit of CHF 10.02 billion from the sales of goods and products which worth CHF 92.16 billion. Research, development and marketing only took about CHF 1.50 billion of the companies resources. To facilitate the sale of its products Nestles made a lot of joint ventures with different companies from different parts of the world. The coalition between Nestle and L’Oreal gave birth to LaboratoiresInneov. Other major ventures include partnering with The Coca-Cola Company which is worldwide beverage company, with the General Mills which are Cereal Partners from different parts of the world, GrupoModelo partnered with Nestle to form Nestle Modelo. Also Snow Brand Milk Products agreed a half/half partnership with Nestle to form Nestle Snow. Colgate-Palmolive also had a 50/50 agreement with Nestle forming Nestle Colgate-Palmolive and the final partnership Indofood and Nestle to form Nestle Indofood Citarasa. Nestle as a company has to ensure improved success. This can be done through competitive marketing with the use of digital marketing. Digital marketing can facilitate customers to have more information about a product. One of the digital methods that Nestle can use isemail marketing. This method will ensure that Nestle has created a sense of personalized relationship with its customers. A one on one conversation can ensue between the Nestle and some of its customers who might have loved the products.Another digital method that Nestle can put in use in order to increase its sales is be Search engine optimization. In this method, Nestle will try to increase the visibility of its products in a website in search engines. The increase in number of visibility will eventually attract more traffic therefore increasing the awareness about the Nestle products. These products should be creatively presented in order to attract more traffic. Nestle can also use pay-per-click method to improve the sale of its product. Using this method Nestle will have to be fast in responding to the customer needs who might be inquiring in some of their products. In this digital time, Nestle will need to put much emphasis on social media management as the next element in electronic marketing.Nestle will need to use some of the common social networks such as Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to explain its product. The emergent of smartphones has made it even easier for people to browse from any place at any time of the world. Millions of people are either using Facebook or Twitter. Affiliated marketing is another element of online marketing that Nestle can use to promote the sale of its product. Here Nestle can decide to link with the owner of a website that is famous in order to promote the sale of its products and then pay them after the products have been sold. It will improve the sale of the products because the website owners will strive to sell these goods in order to be paid by Nestle. Another big form of online marketing that Nestle can use is text marketing. In this modern world, with the evolution of smartphones, most people do not need to sit in the cyber cafes and sit behind laptops and desktops but just use their phones. Nestle can sent messages about their products to social media applications that are easily installed in the phones of many users. Quick reply has been enabled because once the recipient receives the message. The phone will notify him or her. Nestle can also use blogging to popularize and increase the sale of its products. The blogging process involves wring the blog, then strategizing the blog with web design, social media and search engine optimization. Nestle has to ensure that the blog attracts much traffic. These can be natural, social and organic traffics. For the blog to be able to attract more and more traffic, it should be perfectly designed and be able to stand out from other blogs through consistency. Bloggers therefore need to be up to date with the recent occurrences and always learn the needs of their customers. In conclusion, for Nestle to face the counter the competition it faces from other companies, it has to maximize the use electronic marketing. One of the main electronic marketing methods that they need to focus on is social media marketing. This is because most people in the world are using social media in their daily communications. Nestle should also put good use of blogging. This method does work well especially it will create insights to the customers who will end up using the products. References EKLINDER-FRICK, J. LARS-TORSTEN, E. and LARS H. "Bridging and Bonding Forms of Social Capital in a Regional Strategic Network." Industrial Marketing Management: 994-1003. WOOD, M. Marketing Social Marketing. Journal of Social Marketing: 94-102. MCKAY-NESBITT , J, DEMORANVILLE, C, W. andMCNALLY, D. A Strategy for Advancing Social Marketing: Social Marketing Projects in Introductory Marketing Courses. Journal of Social Marketing: 52-69. ROSS, G. "Critical Social Marketing: Definition, Application and Domain." Journal of Social Marketing: 82-99. WEBER, L. (2009). Marketing to the social web how digital customer communities build your business. Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley & Sons.http://www.books24x7.com/marc.asp?bookid=29776. GUNELIUS, S. (2011). Content marketing for dummies.Hoboken, N.J., Wiley. TAYLOR, B. (2015). Marketing in an audiology practice.http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=977045. SAARINEN, T., TINNILÄ, M., & TSENG, A. (2005). Managing business in a multi-channel world success factors for e-business. Hershey, Pa, Idea Group Pub. http://www.lib.sfu.ca/cgi-bin/validate/books24x7.cgi?bookid=10838. KLAPDOR, S. (2013). Effectiveness of online marketing campaigns an investigation into online multichannel and search engine advertising. Wiesbaden, Springer Gabler. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-01732-3 CHITTY, W. (2011).Integrated marketing communication. South Melbourne, Vic, Cengage Learning CLARKE, I., & FLAHERTY, T. (2005).Advances in electronic marketing. Hershey, PA, Idea Group Pub ROSENBLOOM, B. (2013). Marketing channels: a management view. Australia, South-Western Cengage Learning. FATAYERJI, N. C. (2004). Electronic marketing: advantages and disadvantages. Boca Raton, Fla, Dissertation.com PRIDE, W. M., HUGHES, R. J., & KAPOOR, J. R. (2012). Business. Mason, OH, South-Western Cengage Learning ROBERTS, P. (2008). The end of food. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company. Read More