A Marketing Plan for Walmart - Report Example

A Marketing Plan Table of Contents 7 Steps Digital Marketing Plan 3 Situation Analysis of Digital Marketing Plan 3 External Analysis and Consideration of digital marketing plan 4 Porter’s Five Forces 6 Internal Environmental Analysis considering the digital marketing plan (SWOT) 8 Target stakeholders 10 Marketing Objective 12 Marketing mix to meet the objectives 13 Strategic Justification 13 Operational Process Justification 13 Technological Justification 14 Development of Action Plan 14 Development of Budget Plan 15 Development of Evaluation Plan 15 Recommendations 15 References 17 7 Steps Digital Marketing Plan Digital marketing practices can be considered as the marketing practices that generally support the organizations to use several electronic devices, such as smart phones, computers, tablets, social-media networking sites. The use of these devices in the digital marketing practices generally helps an organization to engage with its external and internal stakeholders. It is true that several organizations generally use the combination of both traditional and digital marketing practices in order to gain potential competitive advantages over competitors. This specific report will propose a digital marketing plan of an organization, which has not considered digital marketing approach in the business operation practices. Wal-Mart has been considered for this marketing plan. Situation Analysis of Digital Marketing Plan Wal-Mart can be considered as one of the largest multinational retail chain stores based in the United States of America. The organization is following the traditional marketing plan, in which they are adopting and implementing old-school marketing approach. The management of Wal-Mart is trying to develop digital marketing plan due to several reasons. First of all, it will help to cover the marketing plan and strategy within limited time period and cost. In addition to this, it will help the management of the organization to connect the organization effectively with the stakeholders. The organization has strong business presence in several countries. The introduction of digital marketing plan will help the organization to capitalize on several potential business operation opportunities. Fowling is the proposed digital marketing plan. The situation analysis includes external and internal environment analysis. This analysis will determine how the proposed digital marketing plan will be implemented. External Analysis and Consideration of digital marketing plan UK is politically stable country. The government of UK is trying to support the online retail organizations due to several reasons. First of all, this specific industry is generating sustainable and effective employment opportunities. Secondly, the social demand of online purchasing and consumption activities is increasing significantly in UK. Due to these reasons, the government and all the political bodies are supporting the business growth of e-commerce and online business industries. Looking into these aspects, it can be stated that the political environment in UK is favourable for Walmart for its digital business operation practices. Recent financial crisis and global economic recession affected the economic environment of UK. High unemployment rate, low disposable income of people, low purchasing power and reduced GDP growth rate are some major consequences of this economic slowdown. People are trying to save more and consume less due to the affected purchasing power and low disposable income. However, it is true that the e-commerce and online retail industry has maintained a sustainable growth rate as the organizations within the industry can offer quality products and services at low price range. It will support the affected economic environment of UK (Chevalier, 2012, p.15). Looking into these aspects, it can be stated that the economic environment is slightly unfavourable for Walmart for its digital business operation activities. The social demand of online consumption activities from e-commerce and online retail organizations have significantly increased in UK. It is true that people want to buy consumption time and cost in their busy daily life schedule. Therefore, the concept of e-commerce and digital business operation practices actually helping the strategy development and decision-making process of these organizations. It will also help the management of Walmart to reduce its overall business operation time and cost in UK market. Looking into these aspects, it can be stated that the social environment in UK is favourable for Walmart’s digital and online business operation practices. UK is technologically developed country. On the other hand, it is also true that e-commerce and digital business operation model of an organization always needs support of advanced and effective online technological applications. The software and electronics communication technological sector in UK can be considered as one of the growing industries. The e-commerce organizations can use sufficient technological support due to the growth of the technological sector in UK (Chaffey, Ellis-Chadwick, Mayer and Johnston, 2009, p.81). Looking into these aspects, it can be stated that technological environment is highly favourable for Walmart for its digital business operation practices. The government of UK has developed several environmental laws and regulations for the business organizations in order to maintain an effective and sustainable environment. Growing carbon emission and green house gas emission are affecting the ecological balance and sustainability of the general environment. Therefore, the government along with several public agencies are trying to reduce the emission level of carbon by 80 percent within 2050, which can be considered as a challenging task for UK government. Moreover, the government has developed strict policies for the organizations in order to maintain sustainability. This digital, online and e-commerce business model will help Walmart to reduce overall carbon emission level in business process. Therefore, it can be stated that the environmental threat is lower for Walmart in UK market for its online business operation process. Legal environment is slightly difficult as well as challenging for Walmart for its online business operation process. It is true that government and public agencies have developed several legal employment and environmental regulations for the organizations in different industries. Therefore, it is highly important for the organizations within the e-commerce and digital retailing industry to follow these regulations in order to maintain sustainability in overall business operation process. The management of Walmart should follow these legal regulations in business operation process in order to avoid legal issues and challenges that may affect the business output of the organization. Porter’s Five Forces Porter’s Five Force model also can be considered as an effective business operation tool that will help the management of Walmart to determine the impact of external market competitive forces on the business performance of Walmart considering the newly adopted digital business operation model. Buyer’s Power Bargaining power of the consumers is high for Walmart. It is true that there are several types of organizations within the UK online digital market. Moreover, the organizations are providing different types of differentiated and diversified high quality products at competitive price range. In addition to this, aggressive price war between the organizations within the industry has increased the bargaining power of the customers (Hine, 2005, p.52). Therefore, the management of the organization should try to implement unique business level strategy to reduce this threat. Supplier’s Power Bargaining power of the suppliers is low for the management of Walmart. UK market is full of skilled and effective suppliers and the organizations can choose cost and time effective supply chain options. Therefore, it can be stated that the option for high bargaining power of suppliers is limited. Looking into these aspects, it can be stated that the management of Walmart can choose cost effective suppliers to reduce its overall business operation cost and time (Jaffery, 2010, p.24). Substitute’s Threat Threat of substitute for the management of Walmart is moderate due to the growing social demand and market demand for the online purchasing activities. Existing real-time brick and mortal retail stores can be considered as substitutes of this online, digital and e-commerce business model. Now-a-days, people are trying to get online services and buy products through online market (Kozinets, 2010, p.36). These aspects are reducing consumption and shopping efforts of the consumers. It also reduces the consumption time and cost of the consumers. Therefore, growing demand for online consumption activities is reducing the substitute’s threat for Walmart. New Entrant’s Threat Threat of new entrants is quite low for the management of Walmart. It is true that UK online retail and e-commerce industry is highly competitive. Each and every organization has developed its own potential customer base and secured specific market share. Moreover, market entry cost will be huge for new players considering the characteristics of such industry. In addition to this, strong and strict market entry regulation can make it difficult for the new organizations to operate business operation practices smoothly (Parkin, 2009, p.33). Last but not the least; it is also difficult for the new comers to grab the market share of existing corporations. Therefore, it is limited threat for Walmart. Degree of Industry Rivalry Degree of industry rivalry is high for Walmart. UK e-commerce and digital retailing industry is highly competitive as well as saturated due to presence of several multinational as well as regional organizations. Each and every organization is trying to develop and implement unique strategies in business operation process in order to gain potential competitive advantages over the competitors (Delone, 2004, p.12). The management of Walmart should try to adopt and implement unique business level as well as corporate level strategy in their online business operation process in order to maintain a strong market position within UK online retail industry. Internal Environmental Analysis considering the digital marketing plan (SWOT) This part of the marketing plan will analyze the internal factors by using SWOT framework by considering internal strengths, weaknesses and external opportunities, threats. Strengths High brand name and strong global market presence can be considered as the major strength of Walmart. In addition to this, the organization has effectively adopted and implemented cost leadership and differentiation strategy. The consumers can get high quality and differentiated products in economic price (Srinivasan, 2002, p.17). The organization will focus on e-mail and social media marketing in order to gain a potential competitive advantage as it will help the organization to create significant brand awareness among the target customers. In addition to this, these will be considered as both cost and time effective marketing activities. Weaknesses However, the management of the organization is suffering from the workplace diversity issues. Therefore, the organization needs to develop effective training and development programme for the employees. In addition to this, it is also important to use Twitter, Orkut, Facebook and You Tube to promote products and services. In terms of employees, the management of the organization needs to use technological applications, such as Big Data as it will help the employees to control, analyze, evaluate and implement the proposed marketing plan effectively. (Gefen, 2003, p.7). Opportunities There are several opportunities that need to be capitalized on by the management of Walmart. The organization has a strong technology department that takes care of the internal technical application related issues. On the other hand, demand for online and e-commerce shopping and buying activities are increasing among the consumers of UK (Klopping, 2004, p.18). Information communication technology can be considered as the major business opportunity for Wal-Mart. It is true that the management of the organization is seeking for the use of advanced technological applications. USE of ICT in business process will help the organization to ease several marketing and distribution activities. First of all, it will reduce overall supply chain lead time. It will also help to manage the inventory control aspect quite effectively. Last but not the least; it will also help the organization to use improve the communication process between staffs and individuals within an organization. Therefore, it is the right time for the organization to implement digital model in business operation practices. Threats Inadequate economic environment can be considered as the real threat for the organization. Affected purchasing power and low disposable income can hamper the business output of the organization if the organization does not focus on the effective implementation of business level strategies (Daniel, 2002, p.9). Strong industry competition and high saturation level also can be considered as major threat for the organization (Oxley, 2001, p.11). The consideration of digital marketing plan and adoption of cyber culture in the workplace will strengthen the marketing department that will significantly reflect in the marketing activities. Considering the threats, weaknesses, strengths and opportunities of Wal-Mart, it can be stated that the adoption of cyber culture will significantly help the organization. First of all, it is known to all that this specific culture has been brought in the lives of several individuals within the society. Therefore, development of digital marketing plan will help the organization to take the attraction of the people, who are familiar with digital social media, social media networking sites and other platforms of contemporary digital media’ such as SEO, cyberspace, online social media networking sites, online pop-up extensions and games. Target stakeholders Customers and employees are the major target stakeholders. Market segmentation can be considered as a marketing strategy that involves the division of a broad target market into several subsets of business, customers and states. In this case, Walmart can segment its new business process, services and products according to four different segments, such as geographic segment, psychographic segment, demographic segment and behavioural segment. Customers are major external stakeholders that need to be targeted by the organization. In terms of geographic segmentation, the management of the organization should target the people of metropolitan areas as well as small towns as entire UK is growing market place and people across the country are seeking for effective online consumption and customer service facility. In terms of demographic segmentation, the management of Walmart should target both men and women. In terms of age group, the organization should segment its business practices people aged between 18 and 60. In terms of income level, the organization should target people of middle class income group and higher income group. Young college goers, households, office executives and young adults should be major target audiences (Straub, 2000, p.21). In terms of behavioural segmentation the management of Walmart should try to attract the loyal customers who are pleased with the products and services of the organization. It will require a limited marketing effort of the organization to gain loyalty of these existing customers. Last but not the least; the management of Walmart should consider psychographic segmentation for its new business model. It is true that, several consumers in UK think that online consumption can be considered as an effective experience in their lifestyle. According to these consumers, online consumption of luxurious as well as basic goods can reflect their standard and class. On the other hand, several consumers also think that effective online purchasing facility can help them to spend extra bit of leisure time which is good after a long working day or hours. Therefore, it can be stated that the management of Walmart should consider these four segmentations in its newly developed marketing plan. A target market can be considered as a group of several customers towards which a particular business has made a decision to aim its marketing and business operation activities. In terms of gender, both male and female consumers are the potential target customer of Walmart’s new digital and e-commerce business model. The potential target customers of this business model would be aged between 18 and 60 (McKnight, 2001, p.3). In terms of income segment, the management of Walmart should target the people of both higher and middle class income group. People across UK should be the major target customers of Walmart’s online and digital business operation activities. Last but not the least; young college goers, young adults, households, office executives and middle aged people are the major target customers of Walmart, who are familiar with the online and digital marketing activities of the organizations. It can be stated that the business products and services according to the new business model will be positioned as higher quality and lower price segment, which is quite impressive compared to other market competitors (Siau, 2001, p.6). Therefore, it can be stated that customers are the major external stakeholders of the organization. On the other hand, it can be stated that employees are the major internal target stakeholders. It is highly important for the management to put major concentration on both customers and employees to get success. Employees are the major external target stakeholders,. The organization is facing some issues in the employee management aspect. Therefore, the management of the organization needs to focus on effective employee engagement aspect in order to target the external stakeholders. Marketing Objective The major objective of this digital marketing is to meet customer satisfaction level and maintain sustainable workplace environment. Walmart is the largest brick and mortal retail chain in globe. The organization will try to use advanced technological applications to become one of the leading online retailers in global market place within one year of its business operation process. First of all, the organization will hire the services of external agencies, such as ICT in order to develop an effective and attractive webpage. It will be developed within the months of June and the organization will start to promote the products and services from the initial days. After six months, the sales and marketing team will evaluate the growth of the digital marketing activities and will monitor the effectiveness of these activities. The organization should attain a 10 percent growth in the first year. Marketing mix to meet the objectives It is clear that Walmart is trying to go online and adopting e-commerce and digital business model in which service marketing mix should be implemented to determine and identify appropriate business operation activities in order to enhance effective customer service management process. Strategic Justification Effective customer service is valuable for the management of the organization (Nill, 2010, p.5). Most importantly, the organization should try to motivate the employees in supply chain, logistics and distribution department in order to take care of the needs of the customers. In addition to this, advanced navigation process in logistics, use of PDA service in inventory management, use of cloud computing in PR activities, several social media marketing and online or e-mail marketing will help the organization to maintain effective relationship with important stakeholders (Chaffey, 2009, p.27). Operational Process Justification The organization should try to implement flatter decision making model in its operation process. It will help the organization in several ways. First of all, it will enhance strategy development process, it will reduce overall supply chain lead time and it will also help to maintain an effective relationship between the employees and customers. This will help the organization in both ways. It will motivate employees to perform effectively. On the other hand, it will take care of the expectation and satisfaction level of the employees (Trusoy, 2009, p.19). Technological Justification The organization should try to develop an attractive and detailed web page in which the description and price of the products should be mentioned. In addition to this, a frequently asked question section should be installed in order to guide the consumers in an appropriate way. Effective web design and strong differentiation along with logo of the organization will enhance effective physical evidence of the business model. Use of advanced dream weaver software application will help the organization to maintain similar physical evidence throughout the webpage. It will help to attract customers and other important external stakeholders (Hamill, 2007, p.12). Use of advanced information communication technology and current availability of the effective PR software applications will enhance technological justification. Development of Action Plan Activities Time Frame. Website Development. Between April and May. PR and Customer relationship management. From May. Promotion and after sales evaluation. From June. Stakeholder Engagement From May. Development of Budget Plan Activities Budget E-Commerce and Webpage Development 20,000 Dollars. Content Sponsorship !2,000 Dollars. Intermediary Fees 8,000 Dollars. Development of Evaluation Plan Activities Frequency Individuals Expenses Monitoring. Third Month.. HR, Sales and Marketing Departments. Revenue Monitoring. Fourth Month. Sales Department. Customer Satisfaction Monitoring. Monthly. Service and Marketing Department. Promotional Effectiveness and Web Page effectiveness. After six months. Marketing Department and Technology Department. Recommendations Following recommendation plans will help the management of the organization to gain success through this specific e-commerce business model. First of all, it is highly important for the organization to communicate with efficient and effective vendors, who provided high quality technological solutions. It is true that the organization is going online and digital to gain potential competitive advantages. Therefore, implementation of ICT will help the organization to overcome issues and get solutions in several technology related problems in the marketing plan development process. E-mail marketing, e-governance, cyber space, web-page development and follow-up, and PPC marketing aspects to be included in the marketing plan by the organization. Monitoring, reviewing and controlling several mix approaches and activities, such as blogging, viral content campaigns, SEO, video marketing, social media marketing and other digital marketing approaches should be conducted and taken care of. Measurement of result and monthly review of all the activities are highly required as these require immediate attention right after the development of the digital marketing plan. References Chaffey, D., 2009. Internet marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. Journal of Marketing, 7(1), p.27. Chaffey, D., Ellis-Chadwick, F., Mayer, R. and Johnston, K., 2009. Internet Marketing; Strategy, implementation & practice, fourth Edition. Harlow: FT Prentice Hall, Pearson Education. Chevalier, J., 2012. The effect of internet marketing on sales growth rate. Journal of internet marketing, 2(1), p.15. Daniel, E., 2002. Adoption of E-Commerce by business organization, Journal of e-commerce, 1(1), p.9. Delone, W., 2004. Measuring e-commerce success. Journal of Electronic Commerce, 2(1), p.12. Gefen, D., 2003. Trust and TAM in Online Shopping, Journal of Consumer marketing, 24(3), p.7. Hamill, J., 2007. Internet marketing in the internationalisation of UK. Journal of Digital Marketing, 1(1), p.12. Hine, C., 2005. Virtual methods; issues in social research on the internet. Oxford: Berg Publishers. Jeffery, M., 2010. Data Driven Marketing. Hoboken New Jersey: J. Wiley & Sons Inc. Klopping, I., 2004. Consumer E-commerce. Journal of electronic commerce, 27(6), p.18. Kozinets, R., 2010. Netnography, doing ethnographic research online. London: Sage. McKnight, H., 2001. What trust means in e-commerce. Journal of electronic commerce, 4(1), p.3. Nill, A., 2010. The State of Internet marketing. Journal of internet marketing, 28(2), p.5. Oxley, J., 2001. E-Commerce Readiness. Journal of International business studies, 10(1), p.11. Parkin, G., 2009. Digital Marketing; strategies for online success. London: New Holland Publishers Ltd. Siau, K., 2001. Mobile Commerce. International journal of e-business research, 5(4), p.6. Srinivasan, S., 2002. Customer Loyalty in E-Commerce. Journal of Marketing Management, 12(2), p.17. Straub, D., 2000. A Study of E-Commerce Adoption, Journal of electronic commerce, 8(6), p.21. Trusov, M., 2009. Effects of word-of-mouth versus traditional marketing: Findings from an internet social networking site. Journal of internet marketing, 26(2), p.19. Read More