FOR
Digital
Marketing
Plan Proposal Ref:
HC4BN20-01
Prof. Ben Guttman • MKT 4557 (QMA) • Fall 2020
Cindy Huang • Evonne Zhang • Janet Wu • Jiani Zhou • Melanie Ramos • Momina Din • Nadav
Ben-Shitrit
Introduction
Barnes & Noble is the most significant American bookseller, with over 600 retail stores
in all 50 US states. Its mission is "to operate the best omni-channel specialty retail business in
America..."
The company had mainly established itself as the biggest brick-and-mortar bookstore,
dominated the market using large physical retail outlets, and offering a whole shopping
experience alongside cafe serving. After traditional stores across the US are forced to shut
their doors, it seems that cross-channel content strategy can no longer exist.
Hue Collective is a digital branding agency based in New York, founded by a group of
creative individuals from different backgrounds and diverse cultures. Our core values rely on
creativity, growth, and innovation. We provide social media marketing, web design and offer
tech tools for quick and efficient business growth. We are passionate about making new
brands come to life but also reviving those who maybe fell behind.
Especially during this challenging time, Hue Collective is committed to providing the
right tools to maintain market stability and grow within it. Let us recognize your needs and
tell
your new story in the best way possible to fit the current market formation. We can
improve your customer experience and drive better relationships with your audience, even if
you can't physically meet them any soon.
Barnes & Noble Brand
Brand Essence: Reading with Joy
Arena: Books
Positioning: For those who value book reading and are living a leisure and relaxation
lifestyle, Barnes & Noble is America’s largest specialty retail bookstore that offers content,
digital media, and educational products. Barnes & Noble provides a selection of books,
newspapers, and magazines in a comfortable and welcoming space.
Problems
Due to the current outbreak of COVID-19, the retail industry is significantly impacted
as businesses must follow social distancing guidelines and do any means to discourage human
contact. Many businesses are forced to shut down temporarily and adapt to the digital
platform in order for their business to retain. Retail businesses struggle in drawing customers
and have
to adapt to appeal to new customer demand. This is no exception to Barnes &
Noble.
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Despite being America’s largest chain of retail bookstores, Barnes & Noble struggles in
both retaining old customers and attracting new customers due to the repercussions of the
global pandemic.
Barnes & Noble can resolve this issue by drawing in both old and new customers
digitally and capitalizing on macro-level trends in the book market.
Solutions
Membership Strategy
Membership Tiers
Barnes & Noble’s current membership program costs $25/year and gives members
access
to a variety of exclusive in-store and offline offers. Through the paid program,
members receive free shipping on all orders, early access to sales, a special birthday offer,
40% off hardcover bestsellers in store, 10% off in-store purchases including magazines and
Barnes & Noble Café items, and 10% off NOOK devices and accessories.
We plan to transform the current program and design a membership program that
consists of two levels, one free level and one premium level, each consisting of unique
benefits.
By implementing a second level to the membership and introducing new perks,
Barnes & Noble will be able to reach and attract a larger audience. All customers will be able
to enjoy the benefits of the free membership after signing up in store or online. This first
level will include free standard shipping, a 20% off any item birthday offer, 5% off in-store
purchases, first access to new releases, and exclusive in-store and online offers.
The premium level of membership will be priced the same as the current price of
membership, $25 per year. Customers who choose this paid level of membership will enjoy
similar benefits to the current paid membership program, plus a few extras. Premium level
benefits include: free express shipping, cheaper expedited shipping (starting at $5), a 30% off
any item birthday offer, 10% off in-store purchases, first access to new releases and sales,
exclusive in-store and online offers, 10% off NOOK devices and accessories, 40% off hardcover
bestsellers in-store, 10% off new textbooks with student ID, early registration for in-store and
virtual events, and free coffee at the B&N Cafe on a certain day of the week.
The premium level of membership provides better shipping benefits in order to
compete with Amazon Prime’s two-day shipping. Premium members get bigger discounts for
birthdays and in-store purchases as well as the current membership’s discounts on NOOK
devices and accessories and hardcover bestsellers. The discount on textbooks for student
members will incentivize students to join the paid membership, as textbooks are quite
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expensive but necessary. Premium members will also get early registration for events such as
meet and greets, book signings, and other events, both in-person or virtual. The last benefit
is free coffee at B&N Cafe on a certain day of the week. We can work with you to figure out
which day is the least busy for your stores and set that day as the day to get free coffee to
encourage customers to come into the store to make a purchase. All of these benefits will
incentivize customers to join the premium membership, but we will also be able to increase
loyalty among customers who do not want or cannot pay for a membership.
Digital Marketing Strategy
Social Media
To reach the target market of Barnes & Noble, we will use social media to capture
millennials' hearts and Gen Z. We will collaborate with influencers to promote the Barnes &
Noble brand and service. We will reach out to Marie McWilliams, Barbiibooks, and Ali
Bookstagram on Instagram to generate content that benefits Barnes & Noble. For instance,
influencers can share their favorite books and link them to Barnes & Noble. In return, for
those influencers, we will give them access to our premium membership. This will also give
consumers an inside view of the premium membership and its rewards. Additionally, on all
social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, and LinkedIn,
we will create the hashtag "Book of the Month." All influencers and consumers can use the
hashtag to post about their favorite book for each month and create brand awareness.
We recommend influencer marketing for Barnes & Noble as it will help to generate
high ROI and decrease customer acquisition costs. Influencer marketing has rapidly grown
since 2017, and brands have been using influencers to increase brand awareness and audience
engagement. Micro-influencers are more relatable and interact with their audiences, which
helps brands build trust compared to traditional marketing. Influencer marketing has the
power to generate leads and drive conversions based on our previous clients. We've
successfully reached the right influencers with the brands' target market. As micro influencers
tend to have lower price tags, the customer acquisition costs will be lowered as well.
Additionally, we want influencers who millennials and gen z follow, even if their content is
not related to Barnes & Noble. Collaborating with influencers whose content is
book-related has a reach of users who love books already. We will use influencers like Charli
D'amelio, Addison Rae, Loren Gray, Millie Bobby Brown, and Brent Rivera to target new
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consumers. All of them have a massive presence on different social media platforms and
reach a larger audience. Every month, we will send them a box with Barnes & Noble's highest
reviewed books with some other goodies for them to promote. We will be targeting a new
audience through these influencers.
As micro-influencers build trust, mega-influencers are known to have massive reach.
Compared to its competitor Amazon, Barnes & Noble lacks awareness amongst Millenials and
gen z. By collaborating with mega-influencers to promote Barnes & Noble, we can expect
significant exposure and a high impact on the younger generations.
Web
It is crucial to create a digital community for the customers of Barnes & Noble. We will
create a Barnes & Noble Book Club blog page, which will be similar to Reddit. Our team will
introduce a topic, question, quote, or review of a book, allowing users to have discussions
about books and share their opinions. Users will also have the opportunity to generate new
conversations about which books to read, reviews for a book, or anything they like to converse
about books. The blog will be a platform suitable for the post COVID world and allow Barnes &
Noble customers to continue expressing their love for books with others. Users can follow
others on this platform who share similar book interests and have direct conversations with
them. Each book will have its page for users to share their opinions.
Conclusion
This strategy works to gain what has been lost due to the ongoing pandemic. Having a
two-tier membership program allows Barnes & Noble to reach not just their loyal users but
new ones from different incomes and motivate them to interact with and purchase from your
business. Our strategy also targets a younger demographic that up until now has not been
reached. Using significant public figures on social media, we achieve this new demographic
who heavily relies on these influencers to guide them. Lastly, having a significant online
presence is vital, especially during current times. Our blogs will increase the online presence
you already have while adding additional online space for interaction now that it can’t be
done in person. Social media influencers, the membership program, and the blog platform
will put Barnes & Noble back in the most prominent bookstore position both online and in
stores.
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