Introduction
ASOS is one of the leading firms in the fashion industry in the United Kingdom. Due to high competition and fashion industry market dynamism, the ASOS management has modified some of the firm’s products to make them reflect the market needs. Research shows that firms have to change their products when the market trends dictate new market needs. By so doing firms can remain in business and make decent profits.
Because ASOS is an online fashion firm, it needs to have a well designed online marketing platform on which the new products would be promoted (Hoffman & Novak 2000; Gurau 2008). The online marketing campaign would increase the sales of the firm. This report discusses the objectives, situational analysis and the key issues of the firm.
It examines the targeted audience, segmentation, and position of ASOS. The report gives detailed information about the various digital platforms to be used for marketing online. It also gives an analysis of the RACE model, framework for developing an E-customer relationship management, applications of the social media theory, and theoretical frameworks for developing an online marketing mix. In summary, the report gives recommendations and conclusion based on the online marketing plan.
Situational analysis
The success of the re-launch of the modified products will greatly depend on a proper understanding of the internal and external factors that would impact the marketing campaign of ASOS (Kim 2005; Dyson 2004). The SWOT analysis could be useful to understand the internal factors within ASOS.
The strength of the firm lies in its long experience in the local market. With this in mind, the management could easily decipher and act on market dynamics that could impact the firm’s performance. The firm has an excellent platform of online marketing tools that has been using for many years.
Therefore, the re-launching campaign would not be a new thing for the firm. It would be quite difficult if the firm would be doing online marketing for the first time. The main weakness of the firm is that it has always been slow to adopt online applications for online marketing (Kurttila, Pesonen, Kangas & Kajanus 2000).
It has been shown that firms that adopt and implement new technological tools fast are able to realize an increase in profits within a short period of time (Hill & Westbrook 1997). Many people in the United Kingdom consider searching the internet for products. This presents a great opportunity to the online firm because it could capitalise to give potential customers the best presentations of its fashion products. The management should devise the best ways to deal with threats facing the firm.
The external analysis could be analysed using PESTEL and Porter’s Five Forces (Porter 2008). The PESTEL analysis could be used to understand the external environment of the firm. It has been shown that the political situation in the United Kingdom has been stable for many years.
Therefore, the firm would not expect to be impacted negatively by the political environment. After recovery from the most recent world financial recession, the economy of the United Kingdom has been stable. The social environment in the United Kingdom is quite complex due to the existence of many social backgrounds. Different social orientations could imply that the targeted market has different segments.
The firm would have to identify the different social backgrounds of the potential customers and develop online platforms that would capture them. The technological environment in the United Kingdom has been very dynamic due to rapid advancements in information technology tools and applications. The firm would be required to adopt the new online applications for marketing so that it would remain relevant in the market. The firm would ensure that its activities do not affect the environment (Bose 2008).
The Porter’s Five Forces Theory could also be used to handle issues in the external environment. The firm needs to manage the threat of competitors by selecting a market segment to offer superior products. This would enable the digital firm to gain competitive advantage over its competitors (Siaw & Yu 2004). The power of consumers would be managed by ensuring the provision of high quality products for customers to purchase.
The power of suppliers would be managed by forming strategic alliances with the main suppliers in the market. This would ensure that ASOS gains the support of the main suppliers in the United Kingdom fashion industry. The threat of substitute would be managed by introducing new high quality products that would counter the substitutes. ASOS firm would manage the threat of new market entrants by expanding to other regional markets, and this would ensure that its market share increases (Pines 2006).
The marketing mix elements
The online firm must adopt marketing mix elements relevant to the fashion industry in the United Kingdom. The product designs should reflect the changing market needs. It is clear that the firm decided to modify some of its products because market needs were identified to be changing.
The new products should be based on the quality, the purchasing power of customers, and pricing approaches adopted by rivals in the market (Yoo, Donthu & Lee 2000). The website pages should be easy to navigate, and enhance communication with the firm. Product images should be clear, and their prices displayed for customers to visualise (Grönroos 1997; Kalyanam & McIntyre 2002).
Social media strategy
The adoption of the right social media advertising platforms would correlate with the success rate of the online new product marketing campaign (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010; Dutta 2010; Wilson, Guinan, Parise & Weinberg 2011; Li & Stoller 2007). Facebook marketing would be highly recommended because of the size of its followers, and the frequency with which they visit the site.
Tweeter and YouTube should be used as supportive platforms when re-launching this new product. ASOS should create its Facebook page and request many Facebook users to be friends. The firm should update its Facebook page frequently to engage with customers online.
E-customer relationship management
The online marketing firm would develop an online platform to enable customers to interact with the customer relationship team in the firm (Ngai, Xiu & Chau 2009; Chen & Popovich 2003; Rowley 2002). Such a platform could allow customers to post questions related to the products, and the support team would respond questions because customers would give their email addresses or phone numbers. The platform would also involve a customer having a live chat with the support group. This would be fast communication and it would imply that customer queries are addressed promptly (Rowley 2002).
Target audience, segmentation and positioning of ASOS
Market segmentation has been identified as the best way of deciphering the market in order to offer it the right quality of products. The management should start by segmenting the market based on income, age, race, and other relevant demographical factors. The management should understand the needs of each market segment, and compare the needs with what it is capable of producing.
Digital objectives of ASOS
The firm would have the following digital objectives:
- To take a period of 3 months to achieve the projected results.
- Ninety percent (90%) of the targeted population should be received by the social media by the time the campaign comes to an end.
- To inform consumers the availability of the products, and the best way they can access the products.
- To use the digital marketing campaign to reach the target audience within the United Kingdom with the desired message.
- To appropriately design and implement the campaign program so that it may positive impact on the customer purchasing behaviours.
The digital platforms to be used
Mobile ads
The firm team will compose specific messages and send to specific customers via mobile phones. This would require the marketing team to have mobile phone numbers of potential customers for the modified products. The mobile ads will be regulated to ensure that they are not considered junk messages by customers (Ngai 2003; Scharl, Dickinger & Murphy 2005).
Affiliate marketing
The firm will use affiliate marketing by hiring individuals and companies to market the modified products at a commission. This would be an appropriate way of marketing because the affiliated individuals and companies would aim to sell more products so that they would get more commissions (Libai, Biyalogorsky & Gerstner 2003).
Digital sales promotion
ASOS firm would use digital platforms to increase customer product demand through sales promotion. Sales promotions would be aimed to increase customer knowledge over a limited time. Customers would be attracted to buy the new products and get freebies, coupons and/or prizes in the process.
This would increase the sales of the modified products because customers would be determined to get the items associated with buying the products (Mangold & Faulds 2009). The use of digital tools to conduct sales promotion would be appropriate because the process of reaching customers would be fast as compared to the conventional ways of sales promotion.
Social media
The ASOS marketing team will use social media platforms to reach millions of potential customers in and outside the United Kingdom. Facebook will be the main social media to be used in the modified products marketing campaign. The marketing team will create and manage Facebook page for posting images of the new products and interacting with potential customers. Twitter will also be used to target potential customers who would not be on Facebook. The firm would also keep pace with other emerging social media platforms so that it would attract customers (De Choudhury et al 2010; Chiu, Lin & Tang, 2005; Wang, Lee & Wang 1998).
Mobile apps
Mobile apps are programs for portable digital gadgets like mobile phones, computers and gaming consoles. ASOS firm will use mobile apps to enable customers to transact business after they purchase products online. Mobile apps will be used by customers to compare prices of ASOS products and their substitutes. They would also be used by personnel of ASOS to access customer information for specific actions regarding purchases (Danaher & Mullarkey 2003).
Online advertising
ASOS will use internet advertising to send product information to customers. Online would involve the use of emails to market, search engine advertising, and the use of displays like web banners to reach customers (Mangold & Faulds 2009). Banners containing product information would be placed on several websites which attract huge traffic. The effectiveness of online advertisement would be increased by placing ads on sites that have huge traffic (McCoy et al 2007; Barnes & Scornavacca, 2004).
The RACE Model
RACE model would be used during the planning process and implementation of the plan in order to achieve the desired results. The digital channels discussed above would be geared towards reaching potential customers for the modified products. All the digital channels involve high speeds of transmitting information intended to reach customers. Therefore, the first component, reaching, in the RACE Model would be accomplished.
The second component of the RACE Model is acting. The digital channels would be designed with a view to accomplishing the digital objectives. All the digital channels would be aimed at increasing product awareness among potential customers and increasing sales. Therefore, the channels would go a long way in accomplishing the digital objectives. The third channel of the RACE Model involves the use of digital channels to convert the existing customers and being loyal to the modified products.
The digital channels would enlighten the existing customers about the modifications done on the new products, and this would attract them to start purchasing the new products. Online sales promotion would attract the existing customers because they would be attracted to purchase the modified products so that they would get the prizes and/or coupons associated with the new products.
By being active in the internet all the time, the firm would make the customers loyal to the products due to constant interactions with the support and marketing teams (Xia 2009; Tsang, Ho & Liang 2004; Büchner & Mulvenna 1998).
The fourth component of the RACE Model involves the use of digital tools to engage customers. The digital channels proposed above would engage the customers to a big extent. For example, the mobile ads and apps would ensure that customers are engaged and encouraged to purchase the new modified products (Porter & Donthu 2006; Fırat & Dholakia 2006).
Budgeting for the Campaign
The management should take the most appropriate budgeting strategy that would enable it achieve the desired success. The budget assigned to this new product should account for about 20% of the profits generated from products being replaced. 80% of this budget should go to promotional campaigns, while the other 20% should cater for other related activities.
Evaluation of the Campaign
The management should have a clear mechanism of measuring the effectiveness of the digital marketing campaign. The marketing manager would select a group of employees who have adequate knowledge and experience in social media marketing. Using some of the modern online tools, they would determine the response of the market towards the promotional campaigns taken
Conclusion and Recommendation
The marketing team should understand the most appropriate platforms that would yield maximum results for this firm. Digital apps, mobile ads and online advertising would offer good platforms that can be used to achieve the desired results.
Social media marketing using Facebook, Tweeter, and YouTube would help achieve good results in this re-launch campaign. It would be recommended that the management team should employ a marketing team that understands social media marketing and the dynamics that characterise it in order to achieve the desired results.
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