Executive Summary
The Flip-Flop shoe product’s five-year digital marketing plan will target the young digerati and home user customers since they are the majority in the digital marketing platform within the UAE. The three circles diagram, market share, sales, advertisement expenses, and gross margin are summarized below.
Table 1: Gross Margin and Net Contribution
Table 2: Sales
Table 3: Advertisement expenditure
Vision and Mission Statements
Vision
The company’s vision is to be the leading business in the shoe apparel industry within the expansive UAE market.
Mission statement
The marketing environment in the UAE for company has been amenable to the affordable Flatty Shoe product. Besides, the shoe product guarantees unmatched comfort to the UAE clients. The company is interested in growing different brands out of the current shoe product. Besides, the company has plans for rolling out an online store. Product marketing will be rolled out through social media and company website. In the next five year, the company targets to increase product visibility, distributing, and diversification in the UAE market.
Market Research Analysis
The objective of the digital marketing plan is to market the Flip-Flop shoe product in the expansive UAE market.
Macro-environmental analysis
Demographic Environment
Population in the United Arab Emirates is one of the fastest growing in the world. Population increased from 1.0 million in 1980 to 8.4 million in 2010 (Cone, 2011). Projections made by the United Nations show that population will increase further to reach 15.5 million by the year 2050. In terms of sex, female population exceeded male gender in the United Arab Emirates in the year 2010. Therefore, the demand for the Flip-Flop product exists and is sustainable in the UAE market.
Impact statement
This population increase will create demand for Flip-Flop shoe. More female flip-flops will be supplied in the market to match with the demographics.
Economic Environment
The UAE is amongst the leading oil producers in the world. The recent rise in oil price has increased government spending. By combining the increase in government expenditure with a vibrant tourism, transport, and trade, the outcome is a favorable environment to conduct digital marketing (Blythe, 2006). For 12 months to May 2013, inflation rose by an average of 0.7% (Jin, Suh, & Donavan, 2008).
Impact statement
An increase in government expenditure implies that there is more money in circulation and people can afford to buy Flip-Flop shoes. It is expected that exchange rate will remain stable and so the need to introduce the Flip-Flop shoe this early.
Social Environment
Heritage and culture are valued by the targeted market. The United Arab Emirates is a diverse, multi-ethnic, and multicultural society, which makes it a perfect destination for the Flip-Flop shoe (Jin, Suh, & Donavan, 2008). High rates of obesity and diabetes in the UAE mean that demand for flat shoes for exercise purposes is on the rise. Besides, Urdu, Arabic, English, and Hindi languages are spoken in the UAE. This makes it easier to tailor a marketing language.
Impact statement
Considering that Islam is the main religion in the UAE, the Flip-Flop shoe will register a success. The nature of Islamic religion requires Muslims to attend prayers without shoes, which is why the Flip-Flop shoe will fit well in the region.
Technological Environment
Social media such as Twitter and Facebook are currently the most utilized platforms and can be exploited positively to reach more customers in the UAE. This will not only control loses, but also give an accurate record of sales and projections (Dagnino & Rocco, 2009).
Impact statement
Advent of computer scanners at retail checkout counters means that the supply of Flip-Flop product should be accompanied with barcodes. This will ensure strategic product positioning.
Legal environment
As a legal requirement, companies in the UAE are expected by the regulatory authorities to be tax compliant. The taxes are remitted directly to the government of Abu Dhabi. In the UAE laws on commerce, certificate of compliance to taxes are issued to businesses that remit their returns accurately form which taxes are deducted (Cheverton, 2004).
Impact statement
The Flip-Flop product complies with the above laws. This will create an easy environment for its introduction and marketing.
Micro-environmental analysis
Company
It is difficult for any aspiring shoe company to enter into the industry in the UAE market and manage to breakeven easily. Given its unique product, reliable customer base, and a stable market niche, the Flip-Flop Company has the capacity to offer the element of affordability to its customers (Farooq & Jan, 2012).
Impact statement
The company is well positioned to survive in the competitive market through gaining from economies of scale and competitive price tags for the Flip-Flop shoe. Besides the company has a strong customer base in the UAE.
Customers
The customers for the proposed shoe product fall in the youthful and middle-aged segments. These two groups are spread throughout the UAE and have an active social media culture (Harris & Dennis, 2007).
Impact statement
In order to remain relevant, the proposed Flip-Flop shoe product has to establish a unique ways of marketing the shoe product to the two customer segments. This will be achieved through tailored optometry and active internet marketing.
Suppliers
Suppliers in the UAE shoes industry have more power owing to the existence of many companies. As a matter of fact, suppliers may instigate market demand and supply variances. This leaves the suppliers with the power to dictate on proceedings in the industry such as the price tags (Farris, Bendle, Pfeifer, & Rebstein, 2010).
Impact statement
The proposed Flip-Flop shoe product has endeavored to use its deep reservoirs. This is as a strategy for balancing the supply forces in the fragile shoe market of the UAE.
Buyers
The amount of output, in terms of turn over sales, depends on the buyers’ purchasing power. The higher the purchasing power, the better the turnover in total sales realized over a definite period of time (Ira, 2002).
Impact statement
Fortunately, as established earlier, the high purchasing power in the UAE will ensure the success of the Flip-Flop shoe product (McKinney, 2005). The target male and female customers are spread across the UAE.
Public (media)
There are several media channels that are used actively to market products and services in the UAE. However, most of these channels are expensive due to the large fees they charge to market products in the UAE market. Due to the entry of technological advancement, internet has been the most common means of social media communication among the targeted customer segments.
In fact, more than 59% of United Arabs Emirates families have access to the internet and are literate in its use (Al-Jenabi, 2008). Therefore, the Flip-Flop shoe will be marketed online since the targeted customers segments are active users of the internet.
Impact statement
The internet media strategy will perfectly suit the UAE market where the Flip-Flop shoe product will be launched and promoted via social media and company’s website.
Digital marketing Plan for the Flip-Flop Shoe Product
Target Market
Young Digerati: Youthful customers
The five year marketing strategy entails active marketing the Flip-Flop shoe product to the young Saudis since this group has low expenses but with discretionary income and are very much interested in differentiated shoe products.
Through the digital marketing strategy that stresses on proactive connection to fashionable lifestyle, the company will be in a position to penetrate this market without having to alienate its current base of customers (Jin, Suh, & Donavan, 2008). This group is ethnically diverse and consists of 25.19% of the UAE households and they frequent social media.
Prism Segment: Middle-aged customers
This group consists of middle-aged customers who consist of 32.39% of the total UAE households. This group has active online lifestyle and own majority of the smart phones and other electronic gadgets, which can access the internet. This group is ethnically diverse and has high disposable income (McKinney, 2005). Therefore, e-marketing strategies will be effective in reaching this segment.
Objectives for Social Media Marketing
Attract
The main objective of this digital marketing plan is to attract the younger customers’ market through the Flip-Flop shoe’s website and a twitter fun page in order to increase the customer traffic in its stores. The objective aims at packaging the Flip-Flop shoe as a favorite of the younger customers who frequent social media and actually share a common communication culture.
Apparently, this segment forms the largest bracket of those who visit shoe stores. The use of social media to attract this market segment is achievable since the target market frequents social media as a site for interaction and purchase of different shoes products (Stokes, 2011).
Customer retention and loyalty building
Properly modified website and the twitter fun page will reassure the customers on the quality of the Flip-Flop shoe being retailed online and at the Flip-Flop shoe stores. Through massive recruitment of the Flip-Flop shoe funs in the twitter page, the company will not only benefit from an increased traffic of online compliments, but also record high rates of customer loyalty as most customers are influenced by reactions from other clients.
Customer retention strategy is meant to position the company as a market leader in terms of customer satisfaction tracking and response. This will be achieved through optimization of the Flip-Flop shoe website’s search engine and improving on the visibility of its twitter fun page (Roberts, 2005).
Summary of the Marketing Objectives
Appropriate Digital Marketing Strategies
In order to increase credibility and maintain product visibility, the Flip-Flop shoe’s website and the proposed social media channels will encompass processes and features that flawlessly facilitate a healthy lifetime relationship between the Flip-Flop shoe product and its clients in the UAE.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization for the Flip-Flop shoe website can be achieved through installing plugins that possess extra features such as page navigation, thumbnail, and customized page numbers (Stokes, 2011). Specifically, this proposed system in Google will consist of a multi tab page that will serve different areas and services to online customers.
The main categories may be shoe ordering menu, e-newspaper/magazines and brochures related to common brands of the shoe, shopping (duty free) for customized shoe options, and a guide on cost for each type of the Flip-Flop shoe product.
When implementing SEO in the Google search, it is necessary to revise the algorithms constantly for the search result of the Flip-Flop shoe website to remain at the top (Stokes 2011). This can be achieved through revising the content to ensure that all the information in the website pertains directly to the needs of potential clients. Thus, constant blogging of the website and recruiting other independent bloggers to blog about the website will give the Flip-Flop shoe website a competitive advantage in marketing its product in the expansive UAE market.
The SEO may also be tailored to include a unique cookie which is transferable to the users of the Flip-Flop shoe website. The unique cookie for the website will be transferred to all primary and secondary visitors of this site hence broadening the spread information on this website in the UAE (Stokes 2011).
Optimizing the SEO has the potential of making the website go viral within six months since the unique cookie will spread to the primary and secondary users. The risk of using this option may be the high cost of constantly optimizing the SEO and hiring unprofessional bloggers who may compromise the elements of trust in dealing with the potential clients (Liu, Liao, & Peng, 2005). However, the benefits in relation to the Flip-Flop shoe surpass the demerits.
Social media advertising
Social media, especially through Facebook and Twitter have gained popularity among companies and individuals who uses these sites as interaction modules to share experiences and exchange ideas in the UAE. In the e-marketing industry, social media has penetrated the communication environment and currently commands a large following among the users (Stokes 2011). Reflectively, Facebook and Twitter are ideal tools for branding and community following building for the Flip-Flop shoe product in the UAE.
Through ‘likes’ and ‘tweets’, the customer base for the Flip-Flop shoe will expand substantially over a short period of time. The tweeter and Facebook are ideal tools for branding and community following building for the Flip-Flop shoe product in the UAE (McKinney, 2005).
This will allow people to interact and let users to add content to align to different orientations of Flip-Flop shoe product. The Twitter and Facebook fun pages will help the company to reach their customers by skipping or bypassing the traditional gatekeepers, such as written magazine publishers, and placing them online so that customers can get them directly (Stokes, 2011).
Benefits of the digital marketing strategies
The benefits of the digital marketing strategies are similar for SEO and social media marketing. The benefits range from increased product visibility, low costs, and increased customer traffic among other (Winchester, 2006). The benefits are summarized in the table below.
Cost of Implementing the Digital Marketing Strategy
Sales forecast and cost forecast
Cost of digital marketing strategies
Net Promoter Score
The promoters are assumed to be in the 9-10 (25%) score while the passives are assumed to be in the 7-8 (55%) score. The detractors are assumed to be in the 0-6 (20%) score. Thus, the Net Promoter Score will be +5 for the digital marketing plan within the UAE market. Therefore, the satisfaction score is estimated at 80% while the recommendation score is estimated at 70%. In addition, the social conversation score is estimated at 80%.
Market share table
(Source: Self generated)
References
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