Developing and Implementation of E-Marketing Strategies in Renault Motor Company Limited UK - Research Proposal Example

Developing and implementation of E-Marketing strategies in a company: A case study of Renault Motor Company Limited UK. Purpose of research: Marketing has been exercised for a long period of time since the commencement of trade in the world .it has been in existence in different forms and has advanced over time with the technological change and has seen the use of e-marketing in most companies which has had positive results in the recent years[ CITATION Kot08 \l 2057 ]. E-marketing combines the creative and technical internet aspects of development, design and sales together with advertising. The customer is engaged at different stages of the marketing process through the employment of search engine optimization and marketing, banner Ads on specific websites among other strategies[ CITATION Bus11 \l 2057 ]. This study aims to implement e-marketing in Renault motor company with an aim to maintain customer base and expand the number of consumers of the company’s product. The study will analyse the marketing situation in the company. The study will identify the marketing opportunities in the company, and finally provide an implementation plan for the E-marketing strategies in the company. Research objectives: The research study shall be guided by the following research objectives; i) Identifying marketing opportunities in the company. ii) Identifying the benefits of e- marketing to the company. iii) Developing e-marketing strategies and implementation plan for the company. Research setting Renault is a motor company based in the United States but with branches in the United Kingdom. Its major market is the United Kingdom; the company produces different car models for different consumer base. Their products range from the personal cars, Vans trucks and more recently electric cars. The company has a wide range of services to their clients including information on car maintenance, product choice and suitability and provision of vehicle servicing for the Renault clients. The company faces completion form other major motor companies in the market including Ford Motor Company, Peugeot among others. This has prompted the company to be more creative and aggressive in the market in attempt to maintain the competitive advantage. Renault motor company’s performance in the market is not promising when compared to other competitors in the UK yet their main market is in the European countries. This is according to Keynote (2010). On the other hand Mintel (2010) contradicts this statement and argues that the company is performing well in the market with increasing sales yearly, it has a market share of 4.7% with over 95,000 cars sold in the UK. This study will therefore provide an insight of how the marketing strategies currently used, have affected the company’s performance and how this could be solved or improved by use of E-marketing strategies. Literature review Marketing constitutes several subsets; according to[ CITATION Kot08 \l 2057 ] marketing is made up of four aspects termed the 4 p’s, price, place, promotion, and product. The four aspects comprise processes, people, and physical evidence. E-marketing is a marketing paradigm that entails promotion of products and services by utilising the internet and World Wide Web[ CITATION kal02 \l 2057 ]. It is a broader scope of marketing which involves digital technologies among them, websites, social networking and mobile devices, these aides to reach a broader customer base. E-marketing not only takes place through the internet but also through wireless media and through use of emails. This online marketing is possible by use of management information systems for customer relationship management[ CITATION kal02 \l 2057 ]. There has been a great debate in the last decade regarding the role played by internet and its contribution to marketing. At the beginning marketers used the internet only for communication before they later realised that the internet provided a greater opportunity as marketing tool thus the idea of e-marketing evolved[ CITATION Byr10 \l 2057 ]. [ CITATION Dav06 \l 2057 ] defines E-marketing as “the use of digital technologies that creates online channels such as e-mails, databases, wireless and digital TV, to contribute to marketing activities that are aimed at increasing the customer base , profitably earning company returns on investment and ensuring customer satisfaction. This is enhanced by improving customer knowledge in terms of their behaviour, loyalty and priorities. Then deploying an integrated and targeted communications and online and internet services that match their individual needs and demands. The use of websites and the marketing of the website in the internet is the basis of E-marketing according to [ CITATION Rob00 \l 2057 ]. The author emphasises that a business or company should have a business website and URL. The website can then be marketed using the various media such as radios, televisions, e-mails, and even the internet. This according to the author is e-marketing. This explanation shows that internet is not the only form or medium of E- marketing. Owing to the definition above e-marketing can be seen as a marketing strategy where electronic tools such as internet, mobile phones and interactive TV are utilised to achieve business objectives. This creates confusion between the e-marketing and online or internet marketing, the difference between them lies in the limitation in the use of internet. Online marketing is limited only to the use of internet technology to achieve company or business marketing objectives[ CITATION Byr10 \p 40 \l 2057 ]. E- Marketing involves getting closer to the customers, studying them and even profiling them in an attempt to satisfy their needs and demands. This is done by using all the internet tools and technologies. According to Smith and Chaffey (2006) in his book (E-marketing excellence: The heart of business : e-marketing is broader than e-commerce due to the fact that it’s not only involved in the transactions and relationship between the company and the stakeholders but entails all the processes related to marketing concepts. Good marketing is defined by a dynamic dialogue between the buyer and the seller[ CITATION Pet00 \l 1033 ]. This is easily facilitated by e-marketing which builds on a designed database of customer and proponents; it then creates a continuous and smooth communication between the customer and suppliers and between the customers themselves[ CITATION Chr00 \l 2057 ]. The dynamic communication means a two way flow of data and information, the continuous dialogue and discussions between the customer and the supplier is fostered by electronic communication. It should be noted that the electronic communication in e-commerce is also used in the management of the internal marketing process and better understand the customers and marketing research and analysis[ CITATION Dan11 \p 34 \l 2057 ] The success of a business or company lies in marketing and in the contemporary society, e-marketing[ CITATION Phi91 \l 1033 ]. A successful E-marketing strategy looks beyond the creation of a website interface and focuses more on the integrated approach to marketing. This success can be realised through the development of a set of factors that are pertinent to the success of the company. These include innovation, productivity, finance, quality and human resource management[ CITATION Rob00 \p 45 \l 2057 ]. Most businesses and organisation need to implement and run the e-marketing in promotion of their products and services[ CITATION Phi08 \l 1033 ]. In view of this most business and companies are forced to run both click and brick operations and activities. The implementation of these strategies is faced with challenges of organising, integrating, implementing and finally measuring such strategies[ CITATION Byr10 \l 2057 ]. Despite the different views of the different authors about the concept of e-marketing, there is a consensus as to the importance and the benefits that this marketing strategies have on the company or business[ CITATION Joe04 \l 1033 ]. Electronic marketing give businesses of different sizes an opportunity to access the mass market and marketing methods at a relatively affordable costs. Unlike other traditional marketing strategies such as Television, print media and it allows them to personalise the marketing activities. Firstly the use of websites allows the users to attain a global reach with little expense and costs[ CITATION Str01 \l 1033 ]. Marketing when properly planned and effectively targeted can reach the right customers at the right time and at a much cheaper cost than the traditional modes of marketing. E-marketing has traceable and measurable results through the use of web analytic tools and other online metric tools. This enables the company to make judgements on the effectiveness of their marketing strategies. One can also obtain detailed information on customer feedback and response to the advertising strategies[ CITATION Chr00 \p 64 \l 2057 ]. E-commerce also enables personalization: one can create profiles of the frequent clients and customers that visit the company website and customize ads for them[ CITATION Pau00 \l 1033 ]. This creates a more effective way of meeting customer needs and demand[ CITATION Dav06 \l 2057 ]. Conceptual framework This is the managerial process of developing and ensuring a consistent and sound fit in the company’s objectives, resources and skills and the organisations marketing changing objectives (Kotler, 2003, p.89). It can also be defined as long-term plans that are based entirely on the overall business objectives the plans spread for a period of between 5 to 10 years or more. Source: http://davechaffey.com/Internet-Marketing/C4-Strategy/Internet-strategy-process Chaffey stratifies the E-marketing process into three activities namely: defining the online opportunity, selecting the strategic approach, and delivering results online. Dann and Dann also emphasized the analysis of the potential market is important before any marketing is done. A SWOT analysis of the Market should be carried out before developing any e-marketing strategy or plan in the organisation. External factors have an impact on the process of e-marketing. Factors such as technological and legal issues can help to improve and drive a successful e-business plan. Chaffey and smith acknowledge the fact that the strategies for implementing the E-marketing depend on the business type and size. The activities carried out in the business will determine the e-marketing strategy to be used. One of the commonly used models for the E-marketing includes the Michael potters value chain model. According to Dann and Dann the organisation and company have three choices that can be used in effectively engaging in E-marketing. i) Product differentiation: this creating a brand that is identifiable with the customer. The products and services are differentiated on specific basis valued by the customer. ii) Cost leadership: this means becoming the leader within the industry. iii) Niche Marketing: This means finding a specialist niche in the market and focusing on this segment with the hope of dominating it. Effective use of the internet as part of the overall marketing strategy and within specific campaigns can assist in development of strategies focused on any one of these position.” (Dann & Dann, 2004, p154) PROPOSED RESEARCH DESIGN Research philosophy This research data and information in this study shall be acquired without interfering with the operations and activities in the area of study. The research study will be carried out through positivism. This research philosophy states that data and information can be collected and described form an objective point of view. Predictions can be made on the basis of the previously observed and explained realities and their inter-relationships. "Positivism has a long and rich historical tradition. It is so embedded in our society that knowledge claims not grounded in positivist thought are simply dismissed as a scientific and therefore invalid". The data to be acquired is basically the customer consumption trends and the marketing information from the company. These data and information shall be acquired from the internet users, the management and the marketing team in the company. Research design. The research design is a case study which is an in depth study of the marketing situation in Renault Motor company. The research design method will narrow down the broad field of marketing to the concept of E-marketing and how it can be implemented[ CITATION Sau09 \l 2057 ]. The rationale for choosing the design is its flexibility. The results will not only answer research questions but also provide additional information regarding the research topic. Research approach. The research approach shall be deductive or top down-down approach. A lot has been discussed about the implementation e-marketing in an organisation. This study shall make an observation and finally provide a conclusion[ CITATION Sau09 \l 2057 ]. The research shall be carried out through several research methodologies. As proposed by Bruce Lawrence there are general purposes for carrying out a research these are exploratory, explanatory and descriptive research. Exploratory research aims to acquire the primary knowledge and understanding of the inherent problem. The descriptive research is useful when the problem is known and the researcher has no objective of finding the relationship between the causes and the symptoms of the problem. On the hand explanatory research is used when researcher wishes to identify and find the causes of a particular problem or phenomena[ CITATION Sau09 \p 60 \l 2057 ]. According to [ CITATION Sau09 \l 2057 ] there are broadly two ways of carrying out research in the field of business and social sciences; the qualitative and the quantitative method. The qualitative research is mainly attributed with less numbers and calculations but more of words, observations, visual meaningful characterization, interpretations, stories and expressive descriptions. The quantitative research method is used in determining the quantity of particular phenomena by use of values or numbers. This is done by looking at a few variables and generally looking at the large number of entities[ CITATION Sau09 \l 2057 ]. Analytical techniques. This research study will utilize quantitative research methods. Quantitative research method is used in the acquisition of quantitative data mainly through the use of interviews and questionnaire. The internet users and online marketers are provided with a questionnaire to fill. Interviews are scheduled between the management this will include both face to face and telephonic interviews between the interviewee and the interviewer. These methods are used to gather the primary quantitative data. The interviews also playa role as a source of qualitative data[ CITATION Bru05 \p 40 \l 2057 ]. Sampling strategy: In the sampling and selection of potential people to interview, it is more dependent on the willingness and the availability of the respondents to be interviewed. Stratified sampling will be used to determine the people to be interviewed and those who will feel the questionnaires. The company management, personnel and internet users are divided into strata. In each stratum a simple random sample or systematic sample is selected. The segmentation is based on the demography and impact on the study, for instance; marketers, internet users, consumers and company management personnel[ CITATION Sau09 \l 2057 ]. Data collection: The data can be collected through the use of questionnaires, interviews and personal observations. Since the research is more of descriptive the personal interviews will provide the most essential and vital information from the company personnel, the internet users and the consumers. It is an effective way since one can observe and read the way questions are being answered and one can read the body language[ CITATION Bru05 \l 2057 ]. The second way of data collection is the use of questionnaire. The questionnaire is structured and made up of mostly close ended questions. This method of data collection is used to gather quantitative data and information such as the demographic data of internet users and product consumers. a) Primary data collection Primary data can be collected directly for specific purposes. The main techniques for collection of the primary research data for this study include: Questionnaires: This is an important tool for gathering quantitative primary research data. It is the best method when doing collection of primary data. This method requires careful thinking, consultation and strategising. It is a simple way of getting answers to strategize questions from the respondents[ CITATION Sau09 \l 2057 ] .it is less expensive to administer and use than other forms such as face to face interviews especially when responses are needed from a large number of respondents. Questionnaires guarantees confidentiality of the respondents, this is important for accurate information and data from the employees in the company. The other advantage is that the interviewer may not influence the response from the respondent. Two sets of questionnaires will be used for two sets of groups. The first group is the common internet users and consumers of the company products. This group have no technical knowledge and are the majority of respondents. The other group is the company personnel; this group of respondents have the technical knowledge and understanding of the operation s of internet and e-marketing. The second questionnaire is prepared for the technical team including the company managers and the marketing team, in the company. In this questionnaire, marketing terms and technical terms are used. All the questionnaires will be emailed to respondents because of large number of questionnaire needed to be distributed. Email is the most fast, cheap and practical way of gathering response from large number of people. Face to face interviews: This is an interview where the interviewer comes face to face with the interviewee and asks some questions to gain both quantitative and qualitative information. There is a two way communication between the two people. In this method of data collection the interviewer can make personal observation during the interview[ CITATION Bru05 \l 2057 ]. Though more costly face to face interviews is one of the best ways of obtaining detailed information from the respondent. However it may be difficult to obtain permission from the management to carry out the interview in the company. There is also resistance from the respondents to invite people to their homes and place of work. Telephonic interviews telephonic interviews are the increasing trend of conducting interviews. It is much cheaper and a faster way of collecting data and information. b) Secondary Data collection: Secondary data is data, which already has been collected by someone else for another purpose. Statistics and reports issued by governments, trade associations and author’s views about the topic so on, are some sources of secondary data. The annual report and the enterprise’s homepage are other sources of secondary data[ CITATION Sau09 \l 2057 ]. The primary advantage of secondary data is that obtaining secondary data is almost always less expensive than acquiring primary data. In addition, secondary data can usually be obtained rapidly[ CITATION Bru05 \l 2057 ]. In this research a lot of data has been collected from different books and scholarly journals and articles, and company policies. Validity. Credibility, and credibility and transparency: Content validity is used to check for validity of data collected through the use of questionnaires. This method is a subjective measure of how appropriate the responses are to the relevance of the questions asked in the questionnaire[ CITATION Sau09 \l 2057 ]. It is not a scientific measure of survey instrument accuracy, but it provides a good foundation on which to build a methodologically exact assessment of survey instruments validity. Ethical consideration. The research will involve interviews and use of questionnaires. The interviews will be carried out with the consent of the interviewee and the management of the company as well as the internet users. The questionnaires will be filled by different respondents at their discretion without coercing or financial inducements whatsoever. Where confidential information may be needed which include sales, and marketing strategies, permission shall be obtained from the management for security clearance. Any information from the company shall be treated with the confidentiality it deserves and will be used only for the study purpose in this research. Limitation of this research. The research design proposed for the research proposal is quantitative research. The major limitation that is unavoidable in this research is the lack of use of probability sampling. In order to use the probability sampling, it would require the acquisition of the complete list of internet users in car marketing industry, however the list cannot be obtained therefore the probability sampling cannot be used in this study[ CITATION Sau09 \l 2057 ]. It is a limitation since a section of the internet users will be sampled for interview and filling of questionnaires. This will require generalisation of the population to be studied. Timeline Activity Start date Date for completion Date completed Select research topic 30/5/12 30/5/12 30/5/12 Select readers 1/6/12 1/6/12 2/6/12 Obtain literature 1/6/12 1/6/12 2/6/12 Complete literature review 2/6/12 2/6/12 3/6/12 Develop research objectives and setting 3/6/12 3/6/12 3/6/12 Complete draft proposal 4/6/12 5/6/12 5/6/12 Develop research methods 4/6/12 5/6/12 5/6/12 Revise proposal 6/6/12 6/6/12 6/6/12 Submit proposal 7/6/12 7/6/12 7/6/12 Proposal approved 8/6/12 8/6/12 Collect data( schedule interviews and circulate questionnaires) 11/6/12 1/7/12 Analyse data 3/7/12 3/8/12 Complete first report draft 6/8/12 20/8/12 Submit revised draft report 22/8/12 22/8/12 Submit final report 27/8/12 27/8/12 References CITATION Kot08 \l 2057 : , (Kotler et al. 2008), CITATION Bus11 \l 2057 : , (Unsupported source type (InternetSite) for source Bus11.), CITATION Kot08 \l 2057 : , (Kotler et al. 2008), CITATION kal02 \l 2057 : , (kalyanam & McIntyre 2002), CITATION Byr10 \l 2057 : , (Byren 2010), CITATION Dav06 \l 2057 : , (Dave & Smith 2006), CITATION Rob00 \l 2057 : , (Robert 2000), CITATION Byr10 \p 40 \l 2057 : , (Byren 2010, p. 40), CITATION Pet00 \l 1033 : , (Cheverton 2000), CITATION Chr00 \l 2057 : , (Christiansen 2000), CITATION Dan11 \p 34 \l 2057 : , (Dann & Dann 2011, p. 34), CITATION Phi91 \l 1033 : , (Kotler & Armstrong 1991), CITATION Rob00 \p 45 \l 2057 : , (Robert 2000, p. 45), CITATION Phi08 \l 1033 : , (Kotler & Lee 2008), CITATION Joe04 \l 1033 : , (Reedy & Schullo 2004), CITATION Str01 \l 1033 : , (Strong & Adam 2001), CITATION Chr00 \p 64 \l 2057 : , (Christiansen 2000, p. 64), CITATION Pau00 \l 1033 : , (May 2000), CITATION Dav06 \l 2057 : , (Dave & Smith 2006), CITATION Sau09 \l 2057 : , (Saunders & Lewis 2009), CITATION Sau09 \p 60 \l 2057 : , (Saunders & Lewis 2009, p. 60), CITATION Sau09 \l 2057 : , (Saunders & Lewis 2009), CITATION Bru05 \p 40 \l 2057 : , (Bruce 2005, p. 40), CITATION Bru05 \l 2057 : , (Bruce 2005), Read More