Exploring Pharmacy2U Digital Marketing Strategies

Question

Task: You will submit all three parts as a single document which contains:
1. Digital Marketing Audit (40% weighting)
2. Digital Marketing Strategy(30% weighting)
3. Digital Marketing Plan (30% weighting)
For the digital marketing strategy, students are required to select an organisation of their own choice. The same organisation will be required for all tasks in this assignment.
Students should not choose big organisations such as Nike, Apple etc – as it is very difficult to do an audit on these organisations. The organisations should be small to medium.

1 - Digital Marketing Audit (40% weighting)
You are required to undertake a digital marketing audit for your case study organisation.

• A one-page background to the organisation (this is OUTSIDE the word count) that explains the customers.
• SWOT on the organisation’s current use of social media.
• Evaluation (advantages and disadvantages) of two competitors using social media.
• Identification of two key customer groups and development of personas.
• Customer journey flowchart or graphic.

The digital marketing audit is likely to include a range of digital marketing tools, frameworks and models.

2 - Digital Marketing Strategy (30% weighting)
The digital marketing strategy is the next stage in the plan. It is based on the digital marketing audit.

This will include:

• TOWS matrix and commentary on the analysis.
• TWO digital SMART objectives.
• Recommended digital marketing strategy based on the audit and TOWS.

The digital marketing strategy is likely to include a digital marketing model (e.g. RACE, Forrester's 5Is, Lauterborn’s 4Cs, the Ten C’s of marketing or the 6Cs of customer motivation or acquire, convert, retain) and should be supported by academic underpinning.

3. Digital Marketing Plan (30% weighting)
The plan shows how the strategy will be achieved and is based on the strategy and objectives. The plan needs to be realistic and will reflect the organisation’s size and capabilities. 

This will include:

• Consideration of metrics and resources required, including staffing and a budget.
• An outline tactical plan, created in Excel or other spreadsheet with no more than 40 strategic activities, and inserted into the Word (or other document processing system) report.

Answer

Executive Summary
In any organization, Pharmacy2U digital marketing consists of the utility provided by the internet, cell phones, social media platform; various search engines, and many other specific channels of advertisement through which they can reach for their customers and clients. It can be considered as an entirely updated endeavor requiring an updated method of approach for clients and customers. It involves new methods for understanding customer’s behavior in comparison with the traditional system of marketing. It is a vast field concerning with an appeal to the customers through content marketing, emails, social media platforms, search engines and so on in an attempt to expand the growth and economy of the company.

1. Introduction
Pharmacy2U is one of leading online pharmacy store based in UK and appreciates Pharmacy2U digital marketing. The concept of online pharmacy is pioneered by Pharmacy2U whereas the original idea of online prescription transfers first introduced by Pharmacy2U. In 1999, pharmacist Daniel Lee founded Pharmacy2U whereas it came to public arena in 2000. The headquarter of Pharmacy2U was established in Leeds UK. There are two service areas Pharmacy2U has been managing significantly such as prescription drugs in United Kingdom whereas in global perspective, retail products are sold online in Pharmacy2U platform.

2. Pharmacy2U digital marketing audit
2.1. Background
In UK, Pharmacy2U focuses on NHS repeat prescriptions services which is an NHS authorized online service availed by UK customers. There are 360 active employees currently functional in Pharmacy2U operational process. In 2016, Pharmacy2U merged with ChemistDirect.co.uk to introduce over the counter drugs in UK and global market. Till the end of 2019, Pharmacy2U achieved 350000 EPS patients in their customer base. 621,128 prescription items have been dispatched to UK customers by the end of 2019. Till date, Pharmacy2U added more than 330,000 NHS patients in customer list whereas 5.3 million NHS prescriptions have been distributed in UK (pharmacy2u, 2020).

2.2. Social media tools, frameworks and models
There are various social media tools are in practice such as email marketing, content creation, paid social media and video content etcetera. There are various Pharmacy2U digital marketing frameworks in practice that could be implemented in the current context such as RACE and 4 step digital marketing etcetera. Lauterborn's 4Cs, 6Cs of customer motivation and RACE Planning etcetera are significant Pharmacy2U digital marketing models that could be implemented in the current context (Fahad & Tran, 2019) .

2.3. SWOT analysis of the organization’s current use of social media
The strengths of the company are discussed in the following. Firstly, vast ranges of product are considered to be an important factor in providing services to the customers and clients such as NHS prescription and online services (Ahmed, 2019). Secondly, their centers of distribution are well-connected across the online and social networking platforms. They are used for storage of products such as prescription drugs, over the counter drugs and online products. Thirdly, their marketing campaign includes well connectivity between the customers and the production process. They also provide services of parcels. Fourthly, the company interacts with their customers and clients through social networking sites for gaining knowledge about the feedback, preferences, conviction, liking and other opinions of the clients and customers for developing their manufacturing department. Fifthly, through various formats of store, they have expanded their name of branding (Armstrong, et al., 2018).

The weaknesses of the company in the Pharmacy2U digital marketing field are discussed in the following. Firstly, the company has got a limited presence globally that hinders their business. They have restrictions in entry of their business in many countries (Baltes, 2017). Secondly, legal and regulatory issues such as fines incurred due to personal information sharing,

The opportunities of the company in Pharmacy2U digital marketing are discussed in the following. Firstly, the company has its own capability to expand its growth in other domains or countries helping the brand in achieving more vision (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). Secondly, in modern day scenario, more customers are developing the online structure of marketing thus contributing for the operations of the organization. The online market chain may act as an aid to the company in developing and expanding growth.

The threats of the Pharmacy2U digital marketing scheme in the company are discussed in the following. Firstly, the competition on pricing of products with the other companies or retailers is a great threat for Pharmacy2U. Secondly, the government often changes the market policies which are to be adapted by the company overthrowing existing policies, changing the whole business structure. It acts as a threat to the company (Chowdhury, 2017). Thirdly, a great impact will be faced by the company if there is continuous competition in cutting of price compared to other retailers.

2.4. Merits and demerits of the competitors using social media
Two major competitors of Pharmacy2U are Lloyds pharmacy and Chefaa online pharmacy. The major advantages of marketing strategies used by Lloyds pharmacy and Chefaa using the platform of social media can be discussed as followed:

1. Reach for large target audiences: Millions of people are on the platform of social media and are also influence by the virtual media in every spheres of life(Fahad & Tran, 2019). Hence marketing in social media attracts a huge number of customers.
2. Direct connection with the customers: The customers can be directly connected by the company through social media and their feedback, preferences, likings and disliking can be easily identified in order to develop the production methods.
3. Organic content: An organization can post organic contents for free pushing the company towards an extensive beneficiary state.
4. Access for paid services of advertising: Paid advertisements provide business opportunities for connecting interested leads (Ivanov, 2019). It also provides tailoring of ads to be appeared on people’s newsfeed.
5. Building brands: When there is a connection with interesting leads, the brands to be built by the company are introduced. The organic contents are capable for recognizing brand building within the target audiences in a repeated manner.
6. Driving traffic to the company website: Social media acts a catalyst in driving traffic to the website(Zhu & Gao, 2019). It acts as a huge opportunity for getting to help the audience in order to incorporate them within the business.
7. Evaluating performance and uncovering valuable insights: Through the feedback received from the customers, the company can evaluate and reevaluate its performance as it is capable of revealing the insights of value of the customers.

The disadvantages in this regard can be discussed in the following.

1. Negative feedback and competition: The negative feedbacks from the clients and the customers may be responsible in bringing down the hopes of the company resulting in poor supply chains(Järvinen, 2016).
2. Potential for embarrassment: A viral content leads to embarrassment often. The company must post its contents and advertisements very carefully and responsibly. The content posted must always be researched.
3. Lot of time consumption: The content posting and advertising of a company in the platform of social media consumes a lot of time to be updated all the time about every activity going on there.
4. Waiting for results: Company must give enough time to get the results. To obtain the expected outcomes, it must have patience(Kupec, 2017). After getting the outcomes, it must analyze and evaluate thoroughly in order to deal with their improvement in the business structure.

The advantages of the presence of competitors or other retailers in the online market along with the company are to give rise to a healthy competition. The company must improve themselves in order to take the places of other competitive markets for making maximum profit maximization and expanding growth and development in economy and market structure respectively. On the contrary, there are various disadvantages of the presence of other retailers in the online market. The competitors deviate the customers. The attention paid by the customers gets separated into multi-channel ways. This acts as a threat to the company as the target audiences are deviated by other competitor companies.

2.5. What are the key group of customers in the Pharmacy2U digital marketing? Identify.
The key group of customers can be identified in Pharmacy2U digital marketing through learning the factors of importance to the audiences, speaking the language of the audiences, knowing organic key words and staying top-of-mind with the retargeting of audiences. The listening tools social media can provide with the information on the thinking of customers regarding the company and its products and other interesting topics (Taiminen, 2016). Use of these tools reveals the customer’s value insights (Kusumawati, et al., 2019). The organic keywords include three aspects namely – navigational, transactional and informational keywords which are responsible in recognition of the most suitable target audiences for marketing. In a competitive online marketing structure, it is very difficult to set an appeal for the customers demeaning the other advertising factors introduced by other retailing companies. Therefore, a company must keep in mind the concept of retargeting, in case of a failed target. The customers’ behavior contributes to the growth and expansion of the business. The key group of customers have been identified for the Pharmacy2U such as NHS prescribed patients, OTC flying customers and surgery products buyers. 

2.6. Customer journey flowchart

Diagram1: Customer journey flowchart (created by author)

3. Pharmacy2U digital marketing strategy
3.1. TOWS matrix and commentary on the analysis
A TOWS matrix acts as an opposite element of analysis to the SWOT analysis. It involves the process of analysis of the external environment and the internal environment of the company. The external environment consists of threats and opportunities whereas the internal environment consists of weaknesses and strengths. The techniques are used to think about the organizational strategies implemented, the organizational processes, online marketing campaigns and other ways of advertising, and the skills and experience of the organizations. It is an extreme efficient way to conduct the analysis of market involving the exterior environment (Maheshwari, et al., 2019).

The strengths (S) are strong brand names, benefits achieved from the scales of economy, presence of nearly 360 employees at around UK and global online pharmacy market. The weaknesses (W) are cheap products implying poor quality to the customers, diversified competitors, and more reliance on UK market. The opportunities (O) are expansion of markets, diverse new sectors, introduction of better quality. The threats (T) are competition, global competition, and declining economy.

Combining with the strengths (S) and external opportunities (O), the strategies using threats for maximizing opportunities (SO) are as follows:

Firstly, Pharmacy2U could use capital for reinvesting into market expansion and superior quality distribution system (Mandal & Joshi, 2017). Secondly, it may take support of the employees and number of regions for developing business.

Combining with the weaknesses (W) and external opportunities (O), the strategies minimizing weakness and taking merits of opportunities (WO) are as follows:

Firstly, it can change the consumer orientation through introduction of products holding high quality. Secondly, it can compete through providing a lot of other services. Thirdly, it can take advantage of brand power and enter into other markets.

Combining with the strengths (S) and external threats (T), the strategies using strengths for minimizing threats (ST) are as follows:

Firstly, Pharmacy2U must continue conducting advertisement campaigns to rely on brand names for achieving customers. Secondly, it must attempt for various suppliers for combating nature threats on the contemporary chain of supply. Thirdly, it must be concerned with the cutting of staff and closing of stores for saving revenues.

Combining the weaknesses (W) and external threats (T), the strategies used for minimizing weakness and avoiding threats (WT) are as follows:

Firstly, the company must identify implications of customers with regard to poor quality for combating competition (Manita, et al., 2020). Secondly, it should identify and rectify the damage reduction from economical fall down. Thirdly, it must reach for updated suppliers for creating contingency plans.

3.2. TWO digital SMART objectives
The SMART objectives of the research include Specification of the project topic, Measurement of the analysis, Achievement of the particular program of research, Realization of the understanding as an outcome of the research, and Time-period required for the research.

The Specification of the project topic is concerned with the structure of d Pharmacy2U digital marketing (Opresnik, 2018). It deals with the question on how the Pharmacy2U digital marketing and social media has an impact on the growth and development of the company.

The Measurement of the analysis includes the Pharmacy2U digital marketing audits, digital marketing strategies and the digital marketing plans in order to conclude the impact of Pharmacy2U digital marketing and social media in the company’s development.

SMART objective 1

Diagram 2: (created by author)

SMART objective 2

Diagram 2: (created by author)

3.3. Recommended Pharmacy2U digital marketing strategy based on the audit and TOWS
There are many strategies of Pharmacy2U digital marketing adopted by the company. They include the “Forrester’s 5Is”, “RACE”, “Lauterborn’s 4Cs”, “the Ten Cs of marketing or the 6Cs of customer motivation or acquire, convert, retain”. Among these the Ten Cs of marketing is chosen as the recommended Pharmacy2U digital marketing strategy on the basis of the audits and TOWS. The ten Cs for marketing includes the following ten factors:

Firstly, the Customers are the most essential factor in any internet marketing system and form the base of an organization to run their business. Secondly, the Corporate Culture is very important to seek success in commercialization and development of shared vision and commitments. Thirdly, the Convenience or flexibility in the digital media plays a vital role. Fourthly, Competition with other retailers provides better knowledge about improving and developing the company (Parker, 2016). Fifthly, Communication is the key in an organization as it considers an interactive way between the senders and the receivers. Sixthly, Consistency is needed for ensuring the satisfaction of brand experiences and reflects the company’s position and persona. Seventhly, Creative Content is an essential part as it changes and modifies the system of advertising attracting new customers (Salam, 2016). Eighthly, the Customization of production processes is required according to the feedbacks provided by the customers and clients. Ninthly, Coordination between all the participants and workers in the company is required. And lastly, the Control on the ability of the internet must be maintained and reviewed.

3.4. Pharmacy2U digital marketing model along with academic underpinning
Pharmacy2U current use of social media is responsible for the rise of planning, executing and optimization of marketing and media campaigns in a quick and easy way (Patrutiu-Baltes, 2016). It includes taking the control of the budgets, integration of the third-party data, powerful implementation of reporting and tracking of tools, flexible and tailored dashboards of marketing, and collaborating built tools for teams that are diversified.

The company is partnered with worldwide business schedule for providing products of the customer’s need (Safanta, et al., 2019). Pharmacy2U targets a particular range of customers such as NHS, OTC, in order to carry out Pharmacy2U digital marketing features through interactive way. In the language of Pharmacy2U digital marketing, it can be said that the target audiences or the customers of the company are known as the receivers. The digital marketing channels performed by the company includes website marketing, PPC or “pay-per-click advertisement, content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, affiliate marketing, video marketing, SMS messaging and so on.

4. Pharmacy2U digital marketing plan
4.1. Consideration of metrics and resources involving budget and staffing

The functions of the staff in the company and proper understanding of their general roles in order to seek growth in Pharmacy2U digital marketing is shown in the table below. The wages or salaries of the employees must be calculated on the basis of the budgeting. The function of the marketing departments is to organize tasks to be performed by the whole team in the field of Pharmacy2U digital marketing. The primary person implementing the plan of action is the board members. The function of the office management of the company is to critically establish strategies and plans for achieving goals. The main person carrying out the function is the volunteers and stakeholders. The function of the department for outreaching the social media platforms are to give specific importance to the specific tasks assigned to the. The primary person operating the functioning is the paid consultants. The communication department of the company must provide organizational support and must play an important part in strategy planning and decision-making. The primary person to establish the function is the group of stakeholders and the other staff of the company. Thus, staffing in an appropriate way, adds to the benefits of the company.

Budget

Table 1: budget (created by author)

4.2. An outline tactical plan with strategic activities
An outline of the tactical plan of the company of ASDA incorporating strategic plans is shown below.

Refer Appendix

5. Conclusion
It could be concluded that the above-mentioned Pharmacy2U digital marketing plan enables the company to gain a competitive position in UK and international market. Digital marketing tools, techniques and frameworks have been implemented for the development of suitable and competitive Pharmacy2U digital marketing.

6. References
Ahmed, S., 2019. SWOT analysis of Inpace Management Services Limited.

Armstrong, G. M., Kotler, P., Harker, M. J. & Brennan, R., 2018. Pharmacy2U digital marketing Marketing: an introduction. s.l.:Pearson UK.

Baltes, L. P., 2017. Marketing technology (Martech)–the most important dimension of online marketing. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov. Economic Sciences. Series V, 10(2), pp. 43-48.

Chaffey, D. & Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital marketing. s.l.:Pearson UK.

Chowdhury, M. M., 2017. Building brand equity of Khulna Titans through digital marketing.

Fahad, Z. & Tran, H., 2019. Development of a digital marketing plan by using a combination of digital marketing tools.

Ivanov, S., 2019. ?ompany’s sales simulation based on the use of SWOT analysis and Ishikawa charts. s.l., EDP Sciences, p. 04018.

Järvinen, J., 2016. The use of digital analytics for measuring and optimizing digital marketing performance. Jyväskylä studies in business and economics, Issue 170.

Kupec, V., 2017. Digital possibilities of internal audit. Acta VŠFS-ekonomické studie a analýzy, 11(1), pp. 28-44.

Kusumawati, N. F., Kusumasari, T. F. & Lubis, M., 2019. The Effectiveness of Digital Marketing for Show Up Company: Issues and Challenges. s.l., IEEE, pp. 27-31.

Maheshwari, V., Dobson, P. & Lawrence, A., 2019. DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING. Pharmacy2U digital marketing Contemporary Issues in Marketing: Principles and Practice, p. 221.

Mandal, P. & Joshi, N., 2017. Understanding Digital Marketing Strategy. International Journal of Scientific Research and Management, 5(6), pp. 5428-5431.

Manita, R., Elommal, N., Baudier, P. & Hikkerova, L., 2020. The digital transformation of external audit and its impact on corporate governance. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 150, p. 119751.

Opresnik, M. O., 2018. Effective Social Media Marketing Planning–How to Develop a Digital Marketing Plan. s.l., Springer, pp. 333-341.

Parker, C. J., 2016. An Appraisal Of Fashion M-Commerce Apps By Market Level: A technical report.

Patrutiu-Baltes, L., 2016. Inbound Marketing-the most important digital marketing strategy. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov. Economic Sciences. Series V, 9(2), p. 61.

Safanta, A. et al., 2019. Digital Marketing Strategy for Laboratories Marketplace. s.l., IOP Publishing, p. 012078.

Salam, M. T., 2016. Understanding the Financial Behaviour of Digital Marketers. Available at SSRN 2893502.

Taiminen, H., 2016. One gets what one orders: Utilisation of digital marketing tools. Pharmacy2U digital marketing The Marketing Review, 16(4), pp. 389-404.

Zhu, G. & Gao, X., 2019. Precision retail marketing strategy based on digital marketing model. Science Journal of Business and Management, 7(1), pp. 33-37.

Appendix:
Tactical plan