A n n e B l a c k – O p t i m i z a t i o n o f E - m a r k e t i n g

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Title: Anne Black – Optimization of e-marketing
Project Period: Spring 2012
Participant:
_________________________________
Dennis Hougaard Nielsen
Supervisor: Yariv Taran
In cooperation with: Anne Black
Finished: 23/5-2012
Pages: 43
Number of copies: 2
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Table of contents
PREFACE ......................................................................................................................................................................... 6
1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................................... 7
1.1
C OMPANY PROFILE ................................................................................................................................................................. 7
2. METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................................................................................... 9
3. DEMARCATION ...................................................................................................................................................... 13
4. THEORY ................................................................................................................................................................... 14
4.1
SOSTAC ................................................................................................................................................................................ 15
4.2
S EARCH E NGINE M ARKETING (SEM) & S EARCH E NGINE O PTIMIZATION (SEO) ................................................... 26
4.3
ACT ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 29
4.3.1 Attract ................................................................................................................................................................................... 29
4.3.2 Convert ................................................................................................................................................................................. 30
4.3.3 Transform ........................................................................................................................................................................... 31
5. ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................................................................. 32
5.1
SOSTAC ................................................................................................................................................................................ 32
5.1.1 Situation analysis ............................................................................................................................................................ 32
5.1.2 Objectives............................................................................................................................................................................. 34
5.1.3 Strategy ................................................................................................................................................................................ 36
5.1.4 Tactics ................................................................................................................................................................................... 37
5.1.5 Actions .................................................................................................................................................................................. 38
5.1.6 Control .................................................................................................................................................................................. 38
5.2
S EARCH E NGINE M ARKETING & S EARCH E NGINE O PTIMIZATION ............................................................................. 39
5.3
ACT ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 41
6. CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................................................... 42
7. DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................................................................ 43
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................................................... 44
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This project will look into the online phenomenon of e-marketing. In order to get a realistic view, cooperation with the Danish porcelain company Anne Black was made. A big question in the process was to see whether or not it would be possible to create a more visible company and brand online.
The idea to the subject was reach during a meeting with the company as it was an area where they did not have any experience or any real focus.
Ideally the hope is that this report could work as a handbook for Anne Black if they decide to start focus on e-marketing, because currently they do not have the, resources financially, the employees or the time to do so
I would like to thank my supervisor Yariv Taran, for the great patience he has shown with me. And also thanks to the employees at Anne Black, particularly Jesper Moseholm.
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The company Anne Black was founded in 2004 and is owned by Anne Black and her husband Jesper
Moseholm, who is the financial director and co-owner of the company
Anne Black graduated as a ceramist and designer in 1996 from the Design School in Kolding, but she left the school with the message that she should not expect to be able to make a kiving of just be a ceramist, here in Denmark. She soon found out they were right. However her products were popular, but the production in Denmark was not profitable, so a new idea was needed.
During a business trip to Vietnam Jesper Moseholm was introduced to a business-to-business program by the Danish Ministry of foreign affairs and DANIDA (DANIDA is the name of Denmark's development cooperation, which is an activity area of the Foreign Ministry).
This gave the idea to relocate the production to another country. And via the business-to-business program with the Danish Ministry of foreign affairs and DANIDA, they were able to get financial support from the Danish government to start up a production in Vietnam.
The factory is located in Bat Trang just outside Hanoi, in the northern part of Vietnam. The location of the factory was not accidental, as the city of Bat Trang has a long history of making porcelain. Today the Anne Black factory in Bat Trang employs 70 in total, and has a yearly growth on about 30 – 50 %.
So far Anne Black has received 4 millions DKK from the Danish government. One of the demands in order to receive the financial support was that they had to cooperate with a local company.
Anne Black found one of the existing porcelain factories to cooperate with, and this cooperation has helped the factory grow.
When Anne Black started the production in Vietnam, their production accounted for 10 % of the total production from the factory. Today that number has grown to 40 %. This cooperation started just over
6 years ago, and has been a success for both parties.
Furthermore Anne Black has send former production manager from Royal Copenhagen, Henrik Toft to
Vietnam to help ensure the quality of the products. He has his daily routine on the factory floor, where he uses his experience from more the 20 years of porcelain production in Denmark. The trademark of
Anne Black is handcrafted porcelain, so it important that all products are handmade, and Henrik Toft helps to ensure this.
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Today it is only concept and design development and sales activities that are handled in Denmark, where the head office of the company Anne Black also is located. The headquarter in Denmark has four employees besides Anne Black herself.
The success for the Danish porcelain company is not just limited to their own products. Their factory in Vietnam has just started to produce porcelain for other ceramist in Europe.
Another of the demands from the government is that some of the money is used on Cooperate Social
Responsibility (CSR). This has ensured that today the workers has tables and chairs to work on, this is a improvement from before when they just sat on the floor in all the dust from the porcelain. There are also held courses about HIV and transmittable diseases.
Finally the have signed employment contracts with the workers and they have taken out accident insurances for all of them.
Anne Black belongs to the new gene­ration of Danish ceramic artists whose innovative designs have attracted national and international recognition. This can be seen on the sales of products, which are sold in seven countries currently.
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Information retrieval is important, as most projects require insight into area that is chosen. This insight can be obtained by looking at archives, databases and literature on the area. Previous studies and research reports on the subject should be of special interest, as they can provide the experience from others before. This can help you avoid mistakes made by those before, and thereby avoiding unnecessary work.
Processed empirical data, such as analyses, description and interpretations of data, can be found in the specialist literature. This is called secondary empirical data, which is empirical data not collected by oneself.
If the empirical data found in the specialist literature should be extended or supplemented, a search for the documentary source material should be conducted as this is collected directly from the original source. This would be primary empirical data, which is empirical data collected by oneself. Potential primary empirical data sources could be: articles, databases, documentaries, public and private records, etc. Whether or not it is possible to get access to wanted archives and databases are the only constraint.
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Often there will be a lot of books on the subject, and this can make it difficult to see the wood for the trees. Therefore it is desirable to get a quick overview. There are different ways to get that.
Literature databases can be searched to find relevant information and material. Some of the best to use are the library search databases.
A chain search can also help find information. Using the bibliography in the books to find other books on the subject is a Chain search. The only disadvantage to this method is that it does not help find the most recent literature.
A visit to the library can also be good way to start. Just by looking at the relevant books on the shelves can help to inspire the search.
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Data collection
The data collected, can be divided into two categories based on the method used to obtain it.
Qualitative data is collected using a qualitative method, and quantitative data is collected using a quantitative method.
Hard data, such as answers, facts and figures, which are statistically calculable and countable, are considered quantitative data.
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Quantitative methods are descriptive, as they describe and analyse subjects. This can be used to get an overview of the problem, or to provide insight in the field of study. The strengths of the quantitative methods are generalizability and testability. Testability are high because other people could used the exactly the same questionnaire and end up with the same result. And generalizability is high when the methods build on representative selection of the population. Finally the quantitative studies usually use a larger group of respondents than the qualitative studies, which also helps the increase the generalizability.
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Soft data, such as diaries, field observations, life stories, literature and video are considered qualitative data.
Qualitative methods are explorative, as it is used to investigate and explore subjects. The qualitative methods are also elaborative. The elaborative studies can develop and alter both the assumptions and the theories during the study. So it is actually theory developing. It can be illustrated as below.
Picture 3 - A
This should illustrate how theory makes the framework for the data collection, but the data collected then can help change the focus of the theory and lead to a new framework for new data collection.
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The possibilities for the qualitative method should be seen as the limitations for the quantitative, and vice versa. And for that reason they are complementary, and most times both are used in the research design.
Validity
The validity of a project should indicate whether or not the project relates to the problem and
“reality”.
There are two types of validity; internal and external.
Internal validity helps to create contexts within the project. Meaning that all parts of the project should be relevant in relation to the problem statement.
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Here planning plays an important role. If the planning of the project is neglected the and not done properly, the project could end up going in a wrong direction or then collecting a lot of information that are not useful for the project.
If interviews or other empirical data is collected and used, the internal validity will be high if the interview high, if the interviews can confirm that question addresses the main issue of the problem. If the collected data on the other hand turns out to be insufficient in relation to the conclusion there will not be internal validity.
Finally conclusion should be made. These can sometimes be made on the basis of inadequate data. If this happens, the project will have an internal validity problem. In the end the studies should be able to provide one with the answers to the question stated in the problem statement. The problem statement should be seen as the guiding point of the project.
External validity should help assure that the project also applies to reality. In order to test the
(9)(10) external validity can be compared to the conclusion to the conclusion of similar projects or studies.
Some of the main things with external validity is that the project tells a real story, and if the conclusion can be applied to other situations.
The validity can be check and made plausible by comparing the data used and collected to the problem statement, and seeing if it is relevant and helps solve the problem. Comparing results with other similar studies is another way to make the validity plausible.
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Reliability
When data is collected for a project it is important that it is reliable, if it should be used.
There can be different reasons why the collected data may not be reliable. The findings may not be incoherent with the truth. This can be cause by reluctance towards the study, or the sometimes the respondents could be lying. Sometimes the interviewer can be the reason for the low reliability, if the interviews are conducted in a biased manner.
Reliability means that, the same data should be produced if the data collection is repeated. Here time can play an important role, and the situation may not look the same tomorrow as it did today, because of the ever-changing world we live in. This aspect can therefore affect the reliability of the project and the collected data, specifically if the conclusion should be generalised to apply to a longer time perspective.
In that case the stability of the data should be stated. Data can be stable or labile. So if the data is considered stable a conclusion can be made on them without having to repeat the study.
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Variations between two measurements are not a sure sign of low reliability. The respondent may have changed his or have a changed situation, then the variation is real. Outside circumstances can also be the source for variations in the measurements.
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Biased analysis or imprecise measurement may cause unreliable data. To test used measuring tool, this could be observations, questionnaires, etc. another measuring tool should be used. If both the measuring tools reach the same result thereby reaching a high degree of reliability. However there will also be instrument congruence. This is the case if different measurement tools reach the result. If they reach two different results, the instrument congruence will be low.
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How methodology is used in this project?
In this project the data collection has been conducted by using both searches on literature databases, chain searches and just by looking at the library shelves.
Interviews and observations had not been made. There have only been a few meetings with the company, learning about the history of the company and the lack of e-marketing strategy.
So the project is based on hard data. The assessment of validity and reliability will be made in the conclusion.
Below a picture of the project structure is shown.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Picture 2 - B
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During the meeting with Anne Black it become clear that they wanted to increase the knowledge about the company and the product.
E-marketing was mentioned as a possibility, and it was a area where they did not have any real knowledge and focus, so there would be much room for improvement.
Anne Black would like to increase people’s knowledge about their company and their product. They use the Internet for customer interaction with a web shop from their own homepage. They do not have brick and mortar store, but have retailers buying their product selling them from different stores.
Problem statement
”How can the e-marketing of Anne Black be optimized and help increase their visibility online?”
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In order to analyse and improve the e-marketing at Anne Black, a tool like the SOSTAC planning framework can be used, as it looks at the current situation and where the business are now. It looks at the objectives and where the business wants to be. It analyses the strategy and how to get the business to where it wants to be. The right tactics and tools to help implement the wanted strategy are found.
Then there actions in order to implement the wanted strategy are decided. And finally it helps the business to control and manage the strategy.
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4.1.1 Situation analysis – Where are the company now?
There are different types of interactions between parties in e-marketing. These are:
B2C, which is business to consumer
B2B, which is business to business
C2C, which is consumer to consumer
C2B, which is consumer to business
The different types of interactions are shown in the picture below.
Picture 4.1.2.1 - A
In any business there are the terms of e-commerce, e-marketing and e-business. And the company strategy will be an important factor in how they manage these and how they interrelate.
E-business involves all the business processes in the company’s value chain. There are companies, such as Ariba and Covisint, which are specialised in providing e-business services. E-business gives the capability to manage a business online, and includes e-commerce and e-marketing
E-commerce is primarily the function of selling and transacting online. This could be online shopping, or online banking. This means the transactions where the online shoppers actually shop, and the online buyers actually buy. In some contexts e-commerce is considered to include all the online
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transactions from an online search in a catalogue to responding to an enquiry. But the e-commerce is not the marketing part, or the administrative part of running a business.
E-marketing is perhaps the most important thing in e-business. It helps the company to understand the customers and helping to get closer to them, and maintaining the channel of communication with them. Different channels can be used, there are even some social medias which can be used, such as
Facebook, Foursquare, etc.. The way of thinking that is marketing, does not really change from regular marketing to e-marketing. It is still a way trying to put the customer in focus in all the activities online.
So simply put e-marketing is marketing online, and can be web sites, opt-in email, online ads, interactive TV, interactive mobiles, or interactive kiosks.
There are different way in how e-business, e-marketing and e-commerce can interact, here are three examples.
EC
EM EB
E-marketing (EM) has some overlap with e-commmerce (EC) and e-business.
EB
EM
EC
E-business encompasses e-marketing and e-commerce, but e-marketing involves more processes than e-commerce.
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EM = EC = EB
E-marketing is broadly equivalent to e-commerce and ebusiness.
The following steps in the SOSTAC should help the company figure out exactly how their mix of ebusiness, e-marketing and e-commerce should be.
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4.1.2 Objectives –
Sloppy e-marketing can cause high attrition rate as shown on picture below. And unfortunately there
Are many examples of poor or sloppy e-marketing. The reasons behind this are often the lack of strategy or lousy execution.
However the main reason are unclear objectives, which are not clearly agreed before the company starts to use the many different e-tools.
Picture 4.1.2.1 - A
The main question which should be asked before doing anything, is: why do the company wish to go online? And what are the benefits expected from online activity?
In his book eMarketing eXcellence, Dave Chaffey states that there are five broad objectives or reasons of e-marketing:
 Grow sales (Through wider distribution, promotion and sales)
 Add value (Give customers extra benefits online)
 Get closer to customers (By tracking them, asking them questions, creating dialogue, learning about them)
 Save costs (Of service, promotions, sales transactions and administrations, print and post)
 Extend the brand online. Reinforce brand value in a totally new medium.
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These five objectives are also known as the 5S’s of e-marketing – Sell, Serve, Speak, Save and Sizzle.
Each of these S’s represents a different objective, and helps the company in different ways. It is just up to the company to decide what their reason for going online is, and what should be their objective.
4.1.2.1 Sell
One of the challenges of the Internet is figuring out what is proper and reasonable to sell. There are even stories of people trying to auction off some of their organs. But in theory everything can be sold online.
Many people uses possibility of finding information on a product before deciding to purchase, and even then some people are till reluctant to buy online, so mixed-mode sales is important. The former brick-and-mortar businesses have been replaced by bricks-and-clicks or clicks-and-mortars, which provide the customer with the presence of a real store, along with the possibility of easy access online.
When going online many companies use a low-risk approach to this new opportunity, by selling existing products to existing markets.
This is known as the market penetration strategy as shown in the picture below. The picture shows the Ansoff matrix, which is used to determine strategic priorities. It also shows that there are many different strategies for a company’s sale, both on existing market, new markets, with existing products and new products.
Picture 4.1.2.1 - B
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4.1.2.2 Serve
Another well-known objective of e-marketing is to serve or add value. When designing the company website it should be considered how the website can add value to the customer experience, help the customer or just improve the experience.
On the B2B markets there are some good examples of good added value
A company like GE power systems have created an online feature called “turbine optimizer” where any operator of one a GE turbine can measure the performance of their turbine against similar turbines all over the world. The feature can then tell the operator how to improve the performance of the turbine, and how much money will cost. Finally it can help schedule a service call.
Dell has also created a feature to add value to the customer. When companies buy from them, they integrate their own web help system into the customers Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP).
This allows Dell to update the customers systems simultaneously with they own systems when upon receiving a new order from the customer. The fact that Dell has integrated their own system on the customer’s computers also makes it difficult for the customers to change to another supplier.
Intel again has a different way to add value to the customer experience. They share inventory information with their customers, so they can see if the desired items are available.
Finally a company like FedEx gives their customer a PC with software to track their packages around the world, and it is free of charge. And the PC is not limited to FedEx related things, it can be used for all other kind of things. The only catch for the customer is that the PC has to be returned if they switch to another supplier.
So a presence on the Internet can for the company be used to add value for the customer at the different stages of the buying process, from pre-sale, during sale, or to support after the sale.
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4.1.2.3 Speak
Over the last 100 years or so, the distance between company and customer has been increased by different factors, such as agents, distributors, middlemen, etc. All these factors has made it difficult for the companies to have any connection with the customers and understands their needs and wishes.
E-marketing offers a whole new opportunity to get close to the customers again. A company website can be used to communicate and create dialogue with the customers. The e-marketers can also use the direct connection to the customers to figure out the buying patterns and interest of the customers, online questionnaires, chat rooms or databases can help achieve this.
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For the companies there are various ways of reaching and speaking to the customers. Some of them can even reach the customers when they are not on the company website.
The most common tools available are interactive advertising, online partnerships, online PR, op-in email, Search Engine Marketing (SEM)(which will be presented later) and viral marketing.
Interactive advertising is the use of different online displays, such as banners and skyscrapers to create awareness and encourage people to click-through to the company site.
Online partnerships aim to create arrangements to help promote the company on third party websites. This can help reach potential customers via other sites.
Online PR tries to maximise the visibility of positive publicity and reactions of anything connected to the company on different third party websites, this can be blogs, media websites, or social networks.
Opt-in e-mail is promotional e-mails send to individual that have been requested by the individual receiving them. Opt-in e-mails are targeted and often personalized to the recipients and gives information about promotions or specific topics that users might be interested in learning about. Most opt-in e-mails contain newsletters, product information or special promotional offers.
Search Engine Marketing is the art of using search engines to reach the customers directly. This can be done on the general search engines as Google, Yahoo, and etc. but also on more industry specific search engines.
Viral marketing is online word of mouth. And is any marketing technique that encourages websites and users to pass on a marketing message to other, thereby creating a potentially exponential growth in the visibility and effect of the message. Hotmail is a good example of successful viral marketing.
Hotmail is now own by Microsoft, which promotes their service and own messages in every e-mail their users send.
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4.1.2.4 Save
The objective save will together with sell always catch the attention of company directors as the two together create profit.
Savings can be made in customer service, transactional costs and in print and distribution by using the online media channels. A good customer service system can get customers to help themselves. This will of course save money, and if the system is created to be efficient, simple and speedy it can actually also increase customer satisfaction.
A company FedEx has taken their the service of customers online instead over the phone, and have estimated that they have saved somewhere between
$
2 – $5 when they do it that way. This leads to a million dollar saving every year.
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Dell has also taken their service of customers online, and they saved between $5 - $10 per customer, which again generates a million dollar saving per year.
Other saving can be found in the reduction of print and distribution. The possibility to save annual reports, user manuals, etc. makes this reduction possible. This is due to the reduction of fuel for transport, paper, trees, storage and money and time.
So it can be concluded that e-marketing can help the company can help the save money in many different ways.
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4.1.2.5 Sizzle
The brand is important as it builds trust in the customers mind. And makes the products recognisable, and helps build a relationship between the customer and the supplier.
In some cases the brand can the inly differentiator between products.
A brand is affected by both the reality and the customer’s perception of the product. The affection in reality is the feeling experienced by the customer when using the product, and the perception is the image the customers have of the product.
The perception of the product can be built by advertising, sales promotion, PR, sponsorships websites, and the most effective tool of communication, word of mouth.
The experience the customer get when visiting the website is important, but also the experience afterwards. A bad website will not do anything good for the brand, like slow e-mail responses will damage the brand and non-responses can kill the brand entirely.
But if managed properly there is no doubt that e-marketing can help build and affect the brand in a positive way. It also helps the company getting closer to the customers, selling and saving and the overall value of the company.
The objectives should also consider how the brand can be enhanced by adding value online. This could include interactive facilities, which adds to the online experience. Protection of the brand, through trust, security and confidentiality is also an important objective.
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4.1.3 Strategy – How do the company get where they want to be?
Then a strategy should be made to achieve the objectives chosen from the 5Ss of e-marketing and are influenced by the funds available.
The e-marketing strategy should be thought of as a channel strategy, where digital media and electronic channels support other forms of communication and the distribution channels.
In order to have the desired effect, the use of the strategy requires clear prioritization from the company. The strategy should also identify the target markets and the desired media channels chosen to reach the new customers, and the strategies to welcome new – and develop existing customers.
The key elements a the e-marketing strategy are:
1. It delivers towards the goals found through the 5Ss.
2. Online value proposition (OVP)
3. Prioritization of the audience most appropriate for e-channel adaptation. This should be done because online services will not affect all customer segments equally. So the ones worth targeting should be selected.
4. Specify the selected mix of media channels to reach the wanted audience. So the e-channel strategy will guide the choice of target markets, positioning and propositions, which eventually will lead to the optimum marketing mix and how and which e-tools should used.
The e-strategy will also be affecting the traditional marketing mix (7 Ps of marketing), as the product or service can be extended online. The place for the purchase of the product can and will be expanded, and the transparency of the price online. There will also be used different online promotions, and
people needed to service the web enquiries, automated processes and finally its important to have some sort of physical evidence
The final e-strategy should include such components as:
 Clear objectives
 Target markets, positioning and propositions
 Optimum mix of e-tools
 Evolutionary stage
 Online marketing mix
 Dynamic dialogue
 Integrated database
Strategy is a crucial part of reaching the desired goals.
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4.1.4 Tactics – Which tools can be used to implement the wanted strategy?
The tactics should be considered as the details of the strategy. In order to use the chosen e-tools in the most optimal way, a clear understanding of what each tool can and cannot do is required. The tactics can also include plans on how and where each tool is physically used.
Each tool can be seen as a mini project, which requires planning, careful management and creativity.
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4.1.5 Actions – Which actions are required to implement the wanted strategy?
The action or implementation requires a good understanding of what can go wrong online. This can be everything from virus, hackers, libel from others, etc. All these potential threats to the company create a great need for contingency plans. These plans should help ensure that people know what to do in case of a hacker attack or the servers break down.
These plans can also help, if the strategy tools do not have the desired effect, and something has to be changed.
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4.1.6 Control – How do the company manage the strategy?
But how is it possible to tell if the tools are working? There has to be some type of performances measurement. This measurement should be compared to the targets detailed in the strategy section.
The best marketers have total control of their strategy and tactics. With the total control of the strategy and tactics, nothing is left to chance. This also gives possibility to reduce the risk by checking what works and does not. There by checking if the tactics or even the strategy should be changed.
Another important thing to aim for is constant improvement. This can help to ensure that only the tools giving the best return on investment is used. Some companies tell their marketing managers to present “learnings” alongside the actual performance result. These learnings should help create a culture of continuous improvement.
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“It is not the job of the search engine optimization to make a pig fly. It is the job of the SEO to
genetically reengineer the web site so that it becomes an eagle.” – Bruce Clay, Bruce Clay Inc.
SEM or Search Engine Marketing is the art of using search engines to reach the customers directly.
This can be done on the general search engines as Google, Yahoo, and etc. but also on more industry specific search engines.
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the position and visibility of the company’s website on online search engines. A better position and visibility will lead to more targeted leads and conversions, which will mean that more people will come visit the website, and thereby increasing the number of potential customers.
Where as traditional marketing target a lot of people through TV- and radio commercials, and where maybe only 25 % of the targeted people have interest in the product.
The benefit with the SEO is that it only finds the interested people. So all the people with no interest in the product will be removed from the aim of the marketing. SEO helps the company connect with the customers who are searching for the exact type of product that you are selling. A search engine like
Google will never show a user something, which is not relevant for the search. So in order to rank high in the searches done online is to appear relevant to a specific search.
More than 200 factors is used in the search algorithm by Google and other search engines to decide the ranking of a website.
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The most important part of SEO is to identify the target audience, and the key words they use in their online searches. If the company understand what the customers search for, then they will be able to build the website and marketing campaign around the customers and their inquiries.
And if the website is constructed according to the searches of the customers, then it will be possible for the company, end on page 1 of the search engine result list.
Studies have shown the importance of being listed on page 1 of the search engine result pages (SERP).
It shows that the results on page 1 receive 42.3 % of all click-throughs. Page 2 receives 11.92 % of all click-throughs, which is over a 70 % decrease in click-throughs compared to results on page 1. Page 3 receives 8.44 % of click-throughs, which is almost 30 % less than pages 2, and more 80 % less than page 1.
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Picture 4.2 - A
Further down the list the decline in click-throughs continue. But from page 9 to page 10 there is a little rise in click-throughs.
Picture 4.2 - B
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As shown on the pictures, the advantages of been on page one of the search engine result are enormous.
Picture 4.2 - C
But as shown on the picture above, there is a different way to end on top in the search engine page results. That way is the paid or sponsored results, where you paid to have some different keywords or phrases on the search engine. Google AdWords is used to create paid or sponsored search results.
Pay Per Click (PPC). Pay per click means that the advertiser pays only when and ad clicked
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Attract – To get online traffic to your website by getting attention or standing out. This is the main online marketing tool.
Convert – Turning strangers into customers or consumer.
Transform – Turning past success into new ways of attracting business.
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4.3.1 Attract
To attract traffic to the website, a good BOD is need.
Brand – The identity of the brand should help people remember the product or service provided.
Apple, Nike and Coca Cola are perfect examples of how a strong brand stays in the mind of the customers. All over the world, the Apple logo, the Nike swoosh, and the Coca Cola bottle are known.
That kind of brand knowledge is what every company should strive for.
Outcome – What is the outcome that the company helps the customer achieve?
All the major brands mentioned above helps the customer achieve some sort of belonging to a group, because of what the brands symbolises. Some people cannot drink another type of cola than Coca Cola, because it just do not taste right. The Apple products have become religion for some people, and they do not believe that any other product can do the same as an Apple product. The Nike brand helps
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people feel comfortable while they work out, while looking good. And the young a famous sport stars sponsored by Nike, can also convince some people to buy Nike when they have to buy sports clothes.
Differentiator – What is it that makes the company different from the competitors?
The differentiator should be what makes the product stand out from the crowd, and helps people identify the brand or product. A firm like Apple under the leadership of Steve Jobs were a company that was not afraid to dream big, and do things different from everybody else. That vision and ability to do things differently has helped Apple products reach a place in peoples mind where they stand out, and differentiate from others.
In the sporting world has tried to do the same, but it has been more on slogan and image that they tried to stand out. Their slogan “JUST DO IT”, is still connected to Nike, when people hears it, as with the swoosh, they do not need to see or hear the company name to know it is Nike
(4)
4.3.2 Convert
So after the people are attracted it is time to convert them. If there is a match between the demand of the attracted people, and the supply of the company, a conversion can take place. A conversion is when a stranger turns into a customer.
And even if the do not buy something the first time the can subscribe to a company newsletter, and thereby have contact with the company. An old marketing adage states that a person has to come in to contact with a product seven times before making a buy. So even if people do not buy straight away, they can turn into potential customers, by subscribing to the newsletter. Contact can also be made in other ways. This can be through videos and pictures of the product.
A formula for it would be like this
𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 + 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 = 𝐶𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑟
So time should be seen as a variable. Some people will buy the product after the first encounter. And some will need more time. The fewer returns before converting into a customer the more perfect a match. And some people will never turn into customers.
The best conversion tool available for companies online is their websites, so the website needs to attract people in order to convert them into customers.
(4)
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4.3.3 Transform
After having attracted and converted people into customers, these successes should be used to attract more people. The need for social proof will help reach this goal. Social proof means that people are more likely to do something or buy something because other people also do so, other people like themselves.
The entire social media are built on social proof, so it can be used to transform past successes into new attraction and attention for the company.
There are two important objectives to transforming.
1. The company has to deliver a good service or product. This is important because it is not possible sell a bad experience to others. So if people have bad experience with the product it will not be possible to transform it into an attraction tool. So therefore it is important to deliver good experiences to the customers in order to be able to transform their experiences into attraction, and thereby benefitting from the old customers in the search of new ones.
2. The good experiences you have sold to the customers should be used to attract new customers. Here social media can play a vital part, because on a company’s Facebook customers can write about the good experience they have had, post pictures or videos. And this can attract new people to the company by letting the customers speak and thereby by creating social proof about your product.
(4)
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5.1.1 Situation analysis
Starting with the situation analysis in the SOSTAC.
Anne Black works primarily with B2B, as their products are sold in design-, fashion- and interior decoration stores. But they have a little B2C interaction. For the B2C interaction they have a website, with link to their web shop.
They do not have a clear idea or strategy on how they want to use the internet to marketing or to increase the knowledge about the brand.
Currently the have a company website ( www.anneblack.com
) and also a Facebook page
( www.facebook.com/anneblack.dk
) where the customers can write comments about the products, and ask questions to the company. Upcoming events such as sales of inventory and substandard products are also posted on the Facebook page.
Besides that the do not have any really advertising or marketing. This is due to the reason that they mainly sell to shops and warehouses, which then sells the products on to the end customer.
So the current situation is like this, they have e-commerce, where the customers can buy products online, but both the e-marketing and e-business are next to non-existing, so there is a huge potential for optimization.
EC
E
M
The current situation where Anne Black has some e-commmerce, but not really any e-marketing or e-business. And there is no connection between the functions.
E
B
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EB
EC
EM
This is the setup Anne Black should try to reach.
A situation where all the functions overlap, creating a good interaction between them.
The advantages of reaching a setup like the above, is potential cost savings. You have the e-commerce allowing the customers in the B2C interaction to buy from the company. The e-marketing to attract more customers and create buzz and brand awareness. And finally the e-business could help them setup B2B online sales connection, so that they orders from business customers do not have to be handled over the phone. This will also help free some resources, in a company where they have a high workload.
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5.1.2 Objectives
At the moment Anne Black does not really have any clear idea as where they want the company to be on the e-marketing front. So there is a lot of potential for improvement. So the aim will be to improve the e-marketing for company, without increasing the expenditures for advertising and marketing.
The 5Ss of e-marketing can be used, these are; Sell, Serve, Sizzle, Speak and Save.
The main objective for Anne Black is to create more brand awareness, so only three of the 5S’s will be used
Sizzle
The company’s Facebook page should be a used more actively, and encouraging customer to write about their experience with the products. This can help create build a trustworthy product in the customers mind.
The customers experience with the product already starts when he or she visit the website, and currently the website is not very exiting, and does not help to create excitement around the product.
As with the Facebook page there should be a chance for the customers to have interaction with the company, or be able to sign up for newsletters.
Speak:
The website should be used to create awareness about the product, as the Facebook page helps do.
Interacting with the customers through questions on the website and Facebook page will also help enhance the experience the customers get when buying the product or just thinking about buying.
There are also other tools which should be considered in order to reach and interact with the customers, even when they are not on the company’s website. One of the ways could be search engine marketing (SEM), which will be used later in the analysis along with the search engine optimization
(SEO).
Another possibility could be online PR, which they already do to some extent with the Facebook page where people can share the experience with the company. But it could also be having people mentioning the company in twitter and different blogs. In Denmark there are many interior decoration blogs, which could help reach new customers.
Online partnerships should also be considered as it will allow Anne Black to reach customers even when they are not on the company website. Currently they do not have any online partnership, as shown in the picture below. And as says in the picture because of the lack of outbound and inbound links the website may not rank so high in the search engines rankings. The picture is from an analysis of the current Anne Black Website.
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Picture 5.1.2 - A
Serve
For Anne Black to use the serve objective, they will have to add value to the experience for the customers.
A way to add value in the pre-sale stage could be to make it possible for the customers to upload their own pictures of the home, where the can try to see how the plates and cups will look on the table, how the gripes will look on the closet and drawers in the home, or even pictures of themselves so they can try and see how wearing the jewellery will look before deciding to buy.
In the sale stage of the process value could be add by giving a complementary item along with the items bought. This complementary item should be part of series of jugs and carafes, or a new series of cups or plates.
Having this extra item will lure some customers to buy the things that match, thereby creating returning customers.
This could be enforced with newsletters in the after-sale stage, with news about when product related to the free item is released, creating a desire to complete the set.
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5.1.3 Strategy
Strategy is important, and as Kenichi Ohmae said
“There’s no point rowing harder, if you’re rowing in the wrong direction”.
(5)
As this quote says, hard work is wasted if the strategy is wrong.
So it is really important that the e-marketing strategy of Anne Black focus on what they want to do and achieve online.
And as mentioned previous the main objective is to create more brand awareness and get new potential customers. But how will the online proposition differ from the offline?
For Anne Black their online propositions will differ from the offline propositions, as the offline propositions are for the B2B interactions, and the customers buying Anne Black product from different stores does not have any real connection to the company.
So the online propositions will have to help increase awareness, and lead people to the company website, where they can use the online web shop, and thereby skipping the distributor or middleman.
The strategy will also include the segments, which should be targeted. Anne Black is aware that nearly all their customers are women, so the propositions offered online should be aimed to reach the women.
E-Strategy can be divided into long-term and short-term goals.
The long-term goal of the strategy, will face the challenge of creating connecting between the company website and other points of communication.
The short-term goal will be just be about draw traffic to the website, in order to increase brand awareness.
In order to reach the short-term goal of traffic building, without viral marketing could be one of the solutions. The Facebook page of the company can be used to some sort of viral marketing, where customers can share their experiences with the products and the company. Then the friends of those writing on Anne Blacks wall will see that they do so, and may be want to have a look. This can attract new potential customers.
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5.1.4 Tactics
Tactics should be seen as the details of the strategy. That is why the tactics must only be developed after the strategy is agreed and set. Because you cannot plan a trip, if your have no idea where you want to go.
For Anne Black their website is important as it is one of the only real connections they have to their customers.
Currently the website only tell a little about the company and the founder, shows some of the collections, gives directions to find the nearest store selling their products, and have a link to their web shop. There are no possibilities for the customer to have interaction with the company.
Anne Black needs to understand that a website can and should be used as a medium to creating and managing dialogue with the customers, while still generating sale. The website should also offer the opportunity to subscribe to a newsletter from the company.
This would allow the company to used opt-in e-mail.
Opt-in e-mails let the customers, who are interested, receive information about the company and the products.
The customers will receive information when there are products they might like. And if the setup of the e-mail system is good, opt-in e-mail could be an extremely effective way to market.
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5.1.5 Actions
After all the planning in the strategy and tactic stages, they turn into actions that have to be carried out, and checked for mistakes.
For Anne Black who should create a new website, in order to interact with their customers, there will be a need for risk management.
Brainstorming for all the things that could go wrong should be done. This could be a thing like the links to the web shop not working; the sign-up procedure for opt-in e-mail fails.
Then it is important to how some idea of what impact these failures would have for the company, and have contingency plans if they actually fail.
And by reviewing the implementation valuable lesson can be learn for the next project.
5.1.6 Control
Control systems are need for Anne Black in order to see if their things are working. If there are no control system, to long a period of time can pass by before figuring out that something is wrong.
The control system can also help you see if some of the things being done are successes.
In the control stages the contingency plans are also used if required.
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Picture 5.2 - A
Above are some of the words describing the Anne Black, and could be used as keywords in Search
Engine Marketing.
These words could be used in the indexing process of the search engine when it looks for pages and documents containing particular word or phrases.
An analysis of the current website of Anne Black shows the title only have 50% relevancy to page in the search engine. This could because of the short title; more words could give more relevancy in the search.
Picture 5.2 - B
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Picture 5.2 - C
As showed in the table above, there currently not enough keywords on the page to could place the website in a search result, unless it is a direct search for Anne Black. The advise in the bottom of the picture says that it would be a good idea to create at least 10 keywords, which could help place the website in search.
Another way to get listed in a search is by having links to other sites, and having other sites linking to you. And as the picture below shows, there are currently no links from or to the Anne Black website.
Picture 5.2 - D
So the current website needs to be update with more keywords and maybe some links in order to be able to place in the search engines results pages.
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For Anne Black to attract customers to their website their need to create buzz and brand awareness. In
Seoul in South Korea they have just opened a Anne Black Café, where all the cups and plates used are
Anne Black products, so the customers can see it and use it. This helps create interest for the products, while it helps improving the brand. In the Scandinavian market where the Anne Black products are in demand, but only by the people who knows the company, this could be a possibility to help create interest and curiosity about the company and reach new customers.
In USA Anne Black has also secured a place where people can get to see the products. Their plates will be used to serve on at a Danish inspired restaurant in New York
The presences of a great BOD for Anne Black are lacking on the brand and outcome.
On the brand they are just not known enough to have a great brand to attract customers, and the outcome for the customers
The differentiator for Anne Black while be the fact that when buying the products, the customers will be contributing to a good cause, and knowing that the products are made by workers with good conditions, and not in some sweatshop, where the workers have to overcome unacceptable conditions, and where child labour can occur.
In order to convert new customers social medias should be used much more than they currently are.
Facebook, Twitter and blogs are popular and very effective ways to get in to mind of people. And of these social media channels, it is only Facebook, which is currently used by the company. Of course
Twitter is not as popular in Denmark as Facebook is, but it is still are very powerful media if used correctly.
Some people has made a living out of writing blogs, and just that point shows how big potential this media have to reach potential customers. And just in Denmark there are many blogs writing about interior decoration and design. So they just need to get in touch with some people that are blogging.
And maybe considering using Twitter as the next new marketing tool.
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The need for a new or improved website is the first thing that comes to mind when trying to conclude.
All of the three theories indicated that the current website does not contribute to the experience of the product, and does not contain enough keywords to create a good search result.
So the conclusion is that in order to have a good e-marketing the company will have to spend some money and resources on it. And currently they do not have the employees or the resources to do so.
But if they had, an optimal mix of traffic to Anne Blacks website would look something like the circle diagram on the left in the picture below.
Picture 6 - A
Around 40% - 50% is good. High will just meaning that you will be relying on luck for people to find you. And if it is lower, then SEO should be considered.
A number around 20% of direct traffic, this should be the existing customers and people affected by offline campaigns.
Then 20% - 30% of the traffic should be from be referred from other sites. This could be from
Facebook, Twitter or blogs. So this is free traffic.
Then finally about 10% will be from campaigns. This could be banner ads, social media campaigns, etc.
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The discussion could be made whether or not any of these things would have any effect for the company, as they had made it clear that the do not have the resources to spend on e-marketing currently. And even if they had this is something, which needs to be committed to 100% in order to have the desired effect of the efforts. This is because of the large broad extent of e-marketing, there is so many things and theories about what to do, that it can be a jungle. And as mentioned in the report, it is not just a new toy to try to use, most of the tools requires much planning and resources in order to reach the desired outcome.
With that being said, it is still a very exiting development has taken. The social medias are the new weapons of marketers and the even the customers can help to market their favourite products by interacting with them on Facebook, sharing the content of the company’s Facebook page, introducing your friends to it.
And the new power tool of social media marketing, Twitter allows the customers to promote a favourite product or brand instantly, just with a click on the phone.
One thing that companies just have to remember is that, where marketing earlier where done on the terms of the company, the roles has been switched, and are now being done on the terms of the customers. This is because of all the options, possibilities and alternatives the customer has today.
This is also the reason social media marketing has become such a big thing, because you need to reach the customer where they are.
Finally the validity of the project can be questioned, as the reached conclusion may be okay in theory, but in how would it be in reality. This can be difficult to answer as there is only uses literature, and no collected data, from observations and interviews.
And the only outside data not found in a book, are the website analysis made of the Anne Black website.
With all this talk about social media marketing, how would a marketing plan for Anne Black based entirely on social medias look?
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