Digital Marketing Assignment: Case Scenarios based on Online Marketing

Question

Task: Digital Marketing Assignment: Answer 3 questions only.
Part One
You must answer question one
Question One
There is a fundamental change in marketing methods driven by technology and this has been shown in the growth of digital marketing. According to the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) in the UK in 2017 spend on digital advertising accounted for over half of total advertising spend. Some believe that measurability is key to the attractiveness of digital channels.

Discuss this benefit and other features and attributes that have fuelled the growth in the use of digital marketing. Your answer must include examples in business-to-business and consumer markets.

Part Two
Answer any TWO questions from this section
Question Two
You have been appointed as digital marketing consultant to a national ‘green’ energy supplier who offers a range of energy efficiency home improvements such as solar panels, ground source and air source heating systems.

One of your first observations is that head office keeps very little information on any customers. All customer leads they receive, whether via website registration or phone, are forwarded to the local installation franchisees. In trying to develop the targeting strategy you realize that you need to consider your data capture and insight strategies.

Write a report explaining why you need quality customer data and insight in order to plan and implement an effective digital marketing strategy.
Outline the different types of data that should be collected, and the processes, technology and capabilities that the organisation needs in order to generate and apply it.
Your answer should make reference to regulatory and legislative contexts.

Question Three
The purpose of a loyalty programme is not just keeping customers - it is to maximise their value. Thomas and Housden, 2017
Explain what you understand by “loyalty” and discuss some of the different ways in which customer value might be maximised using examples of loyalty programmes with which you are familiar.

Question Four
Montage Theatre Arts (MTA) is a new theatre based in Brockley in SE London. They create local theatre performances for families and have made a quick impact in this market.

They have experienced producers on the team and the shows are reviewed positively and attendances are growing fast. However they are aware that their website is not working as well as it might and whilst they are good at theatre they do not fully understand the role of marketing and especially search engine marketing (SEM) in developing the business.

Rachel Smith in charge of marketing for MTA has appointed you as a consultant to advise the business on how they could use SEM more effectively.

Write a short report advising on the following:
The benefits of search marketing overall.

The advantages and disadvantages of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay per Click (PPC) marketing and how together they can be used within an integrated direct and digital marketing strategy?

Illustrate your answer with examples.
Question Five
It has been suggested that with the rise of web, social media and mobile marketing, creativity has been overtaken by technology as the main driver of customer engagement and return on marketing investment. To what extent is creativity still important in the digital age? Illustrate your answer with reference to recent digital marketing campaigns.

Question Six
A games company wants to launch a new online football game targeted at 18-25 year olds. For the first time they have included women’s team in the game. Previously they have specialised in violent shooter games and the new genre is an attempt to broaden the customer base.

The manufacturer urgently needs to understand its new target audience and the general marketplace, in order to develop a digital launch strategy for the new game.
Write a report outlining how you would gain these customer insights. How might insights from the existing customer base be used to support this task?

Question Seven
You are the newly-appointed UK head of digital marketing for a well-known manufacturer of hair and beauty products. Your brands receive significant offline media support.

The board has asked you to write a social media strategy for your organisation. Your report should include the integration of social media into your current marketing and how emerging mobile technologies will impact on your planning.

The board is also keen to understand how you will measure the effectiveness of your social media activity.

Question Eight
The performance of a website can be measured in a number of ways and using a wide range of analytics tools.

You have been tasked with developing an evaluation framework for a discount designer shoe website that is currently under development.
Your framework should include a detailed outline of the metrics and evaluation criteria you would recommend to the marketing director.

Answer

Digital Marketing AssignmentPart One
Answer 1
Benefit and other features as well as attributes that have fuelled the growth within the use of digital marketing
In the opinion of Kannan (2017, p.31), digital marketing can be regarded as the most powerful technique to market products and services in the modern era. It possesses the potential for transforming the way in which businesses can reach their customers and develop a strong relationship with them. Therefore, the most important benefit that digital marketing offers is easier access to the customers and the target market. For example, Forever Diamond, which is a jewellery organization based in Georgia has been able to reach a greater number of customers and engage the customers within a year. Digital marketing has helped the company to increase the traffic into its stores and promote conversations with customers. Another important attribute of digital marketing is tactics relating to marketing. According to ulHaqet al., (2020, p.14), the digital marketing tactics are much affordable as compared to the traditional marketing tactics and with the application of these tactics, small businesses can also encounter a significant hike in their sales. Therefore, digital marketing is more cost-effective technique to the market product which is highly beneficial for small businesses. For example, the retail giant TESCO utilizes the tactics of digital marketing such as maintenance of communication frequency; the interval of the content uploads, scheduling contents and offers to enhance its marketing performance and sales.

In a recent study, Font and McCabe (2017, p.876) have mentioned that the performance of digital marketing can be measured which makes it more efficient than the traditional ways of marketing. Digital marketing analytics is one of the major attributes that has increased the popularity of digital marketing approaches among organizations all over the world. Digital marketing analytics determines whether marketing activities are actually working or not, and on the basis of the data the marketers can then make changes to their approaches so that the performance of the advertisements can be increased. For example, Airbus, one of the best manufacturers of airplanes, highly depends on the digital marketing aspects for its sales. Digital marketing analytics allows the company to track the number of views to the advertisements and promotions and connect with the businesses that can purchase products from Airbus. In the view of Chester and Montgomery (2017, p.15), digital marketing offers greater benefits to the organization as compared to traditional marketing techniques as digital platforms such as social media are highly accessed by the customers. The increased popularity of the social media platforms has created an opportunity for the B2C as well as B2B businesses to present product and offerings through social media platform and induce their purchase intention. Digital marketing methods enhances reachability among the target group of customers usually, globally, as well as helps in maintaining transparency, thus, influencing the buying behaviour of the customers and swaying it in favour of the company.

Part Two
Answer 3
Concept of loyalty
According to Celik and Güler, (2019, p. 60), customer loyalty is referred to as the measure for the likeness of the customers for repeating the business with a particular brand or rather an organisation. This has been the result related to customer satisfaction along with the positive experiences of the customers and overall value for the services and the goods that are received by the customers through a business. Loyalty is known to encourage the employees along with the customers for being committed in an organisation. Customer loyalty is considered to be the act of choosing one of the services and products of an organisation continuously over its competitors. When a customer is found to be loyal, for an organisation, they cannot be swayed away easily through the availability or rather the price. They might pay extra along with ensuring the similar service quality as well as the product that they use.

Different ways through which customer value can be maximised using examples of loyalty programs
A customer loyalty program is known to be run through an organisation that can offer benefits for some of the frequent customers (Alreddyet al., 2019, p. 2110). An effective program of customer loyalty is found to reward the customers who are known to buy through business on a regular basis while encouraging the customers to return in a frequent manner. The loyalty programs are able to provide the customers with free rewards; merchandise; products of advance release and coupons as well. Maximisation of customer value has been the set of techniques as well as actions that are used for enticing the customers for increasing the amount and frequency for the transactions along with increasing the length of the time for remaining active customers for a business.

There are many organisations, which can achieve the maximisation of the customer value through the combination of certain capabilities. These are mentioned below:

Customer segmentation
This is significant to segment the customers within smaller groups along with addressing the individual customers related to the actual behaviours rather than the hard coding along with making assumptions for whatever makes the customers similar to one another within the averaged data (Bahri-Ammari and Bilgihan, 2019, p. 100).

Creating points system and offering tiered rewards
This kind of customer loyalty scheme is usually followed in different online shopping apps like Nykaa, Grofers and others. In such systems, the customers are given points for each purchase and are allocated rewards as they move up the loyalty ladder, giving them value for their purchase and for their support as well as loyalty towards the company.

Offering brand-exclusive membership programmes
This kind of loyalty programmes are usually housed by eminent hotels like Starwood and Hilton as well as big organizations like Amazon, wherein the members are allowed to enjoy specific perks, depending on the length of their loyalty showcased towards the company. For example, the Amazon Prime subscribers are entitled to free shipping, fast delivery and a number of such other value-added services, for free. In case of Hilton and Starwood hotels, the members (classified into different categories like gold, platinum and premium) are entitled access to different services and benefits, during their stay at the hotel, as a measure of adding value to their experience and amount spent by them.

Offering unique experiences and rewards
Customers tend to deserve a special treatment along with their recognition for brand loyalty. For instance, as stated by Goldman et al., (2019, p. 517), offering exclusive rewards like invitations within a VIP event to make the customers feel an important part for the exclusive community.

Answer 5
To what extent is creativity still important within the digital age in reference to the digital marketing campaign
With the advancement of technology within recent times, it is also able to enhance the creativity of the people. Most individuals are continuously able to search for things along with discovering some new information that is not known by them. This generally allows for being educated along with possessing an outlet to speak their minds and all these ties within the creativity of the people as well as the way it is shown. Organisations in recent days have been known to operate within a global environment and a higher competitive world while making creativity important. Hence, in modern times, businesses are also found to make use of digital marketing through the use of advancement in technology. As opined by Domeganet al., (2019, p. 400), jobs have also become enabled technologically and the digital era helps the businesses and the companies to connect as well as communicate with their customers which eventually helps in building and understanding relationships. The creative thinkers along with the people who tend to put the people in need have been able to share with the expertise. Thus, the use of technology enhances the use of digital marketing which in turn supports creativity. However, there is a difference within the two where creativity comes through observing the world along with interpreting it as well as bringing with some of the new ideas and concepts (Saurabhet al., 2019, p. 936).

The greater availability of the internet and the increasing usage of social media has enabled organizations to connect easily with the customers. However, as the popularity of digital marketing has increased competitor companies that target similar market segments are utilizing social media marketing campaigns. In this context, it is important to the organizations to include creative ideas within the marketing campaigns that are promoted through the digital platforms so that a competitive advantage can be gained. In marketing, creativity includes the development and execution of unique ideas to interact with the brand message to the customers. Creativity is the key to grabbing the attention of the customers within the minimum screen presence allowed for each advertising campaign. Creativity can be incorporated within the products and services as well as in the themes, contents, and aspects of advertisements for attracting customers. In the opinion of Font and McCabe, (2017, p.881) creativity embedded in the brand message allows customers to remember it for a longer time. For making the digital marketing campaigns effective organizations are required to develop personalized messages for the customers from the start of the conversation with them till they are convinced to make the purchase. According to Agarwalet al., (2020, p.17), using creative and data driven-technique marketers can be able to deliver better experiences to the customer that would lead to long-term brand awareness and customer loyalty. Therefore, the organizations are still needed to focus on creativity as it is significant in the digital age for the attraction of the contexts and messages that are delivered to the customers with the help of the digital marketing campaign. ?

References
Agarwal, R., Dugas, M., Gao, G.G. and Kannan, P.K., 2020. Emerging technologies and analytics for a new era of value-centered marketing in healthcare.Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48(1), pp.9-23. Alreddy, S.K., Siriguppi, D. and Menon, M.J., 2019. Moderation Effect of Perceived Benefits of Loyalty Programs on the Link between Store Attributes and Customer Loyalty. Theoretical Economics Letters, 9(6), pp.2110-2125. Bahri-Ammari, N. and Bilgihan, A., 2019. Customer retention to mobile telecommunication service providers: the roles of perceived justice and customer loyalty program.Digital marketing assignment International Journal of Mobile Communications, 17(1), pp.82-107.

Celik, H. and Güler, M., 2019. The Importance of Customer Loyalty With Corporate Governance in the Telecommunication Sector: A Case of the Telecommunication Sector. In Handbook of Research on Global Issues in Financial Communication and Investment Decision Making (pp. 50-73).IGI Global.

Chester, J. and Montgomery, K.C., 2017. The role of digital marketing in political campaigns.Internet Policy Review, 6(4), pp.1-20.
Domegan, C., McHugh, P., McCauley, V. and Davison, K., 2019.Co-creating a Sea Change Social Marketing Campaign for Ocean Literacy in Europe: A Digital Interactive Tool for Environmental Behavior Change.In Social Marketing in Action (pp. 393-409).Springer, Cham.
Font, X. and McCabe, S., 2017. Sustainability and marketing in tourism: Its contexts, paradoxes, approaches, challenges and potential. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 25(7), pp.869-883.
Goldman, O.I., Jacobs, T.W.R., Edmonds, K.A., Smith, K.G., Javangula, P.S. and Still, A.M., Adobe Inc, 2019.Digital Media Environment for Analysis of Audience Segments in a Digital Marketing Campaign. U.S. Patent Application 15/782,517.

Kannan, P.K., 2017. Digital marketing: A framework, review and research agenda. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34(1), pp.22-45.
Saurabh, V., Sharma, R. and Jung, N., VideoMining Corp, 2019. Method and system for measuring effectiveness of a marketing campaign on digital signage. U.S. Patent 10,296,936.
ulHaq, A., Majeed, A., Magoulas, G.D. and Jamal, A., 2020. Transformative Power of Smart Technologies Enabled by Advances in AI: Changing Landscape for Digital Marketing. In Handbook of Research on Innovations in Technology and Marketing for the Connected Consumer (pp. 1-17).IGI Global.