Digital Marketing: Overview, Consumer Trends, and Multi-Channel Strategy

This document provides an overview of the digital marketing landscape, including a comparison between online and offline marketing. It also analyzes key consumer trends and insights that are fueling the development of digital marketing. The document further examines the development of e-commerce and digital marketing platforms and channels in comparison to physical channels. It critically appraises the usage of suitable digital tools, both software and hardware. Finally, it develops a marketing plan and strategy for building multi-channel capabilities.

Digital marketing

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Presenting an overview of digital marketing landscape as well as comparison among
online to that of offline marketing...............................................................................................1
P2. Determining together with analysing key consumer trends together with insights which are
fuelling development of digital marketing..................................................................................2
M1. Evaluating opportunities addition to challenges facing digital marketing landscape..........3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P3. Assessing key digital tools along with hardware which are available for marketers in
contrast to bricks and mortar or other physical channels............................................................3
P4. Examining development of E-commerce together with digital marketing platforms and
channels in comparison to physical channels..............................................................................4
M2. Critically appraising usage of suitable digital tools, both software and hardware...............5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P5. Developing marketing plan as well as strategy for building multi-channel capabilities.......6
P6. Explanation of evolvement of omni channel marketing........................................................8
M3. Application of tools and techniques for planning as well as end to end omni channel
marketing campaign.....................................................................................................................9
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
P7. Determining and evaluating measurement techniques addition to performance metrics in
digital marketing..........................................................................................................................9
P8. Presenting set of actions for performance improvement in digital marketing....................10
M4. Critically evaluating implication of key digital measurement techniques addition to
performance metrics in digital marketing..................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
In modern era, digital marketing is seen as major element concerned with all successful
organisations in market. Digital marketing is essential component of marketing which uses
internet together with online related technologies for the purpose of promoting offerings of an
establishment. For digital marketing, Debenhams chosen organisation. Its headquarters are
located in London, UK (Debenhams. 2020). The company operates departmental stores in the
locality and emphasis on digital as well as mobile to attain growth as it warns profits.
The report demonstrates about digital marketing landscape, key tools and channels used
by the company. Further, evolution of omni channel marketing is explained with development of
digital marketing plan. At last, it evaluates various methods related to monitoring and measuring
of digital marketing effectively.
TASK 1
P1. Presenting an overview of digital marketing landscape as well as comparison among online
to that of offline marketing
Overview of digital marketing landscape:
Digital marketing is an umbrella term that comprises use of Internet so to reach wide
consumers. It is broad area that engrosses attracting target audience by email, social media,
content marketing and search platforms. At same time, digital marketing landscape is
aggregative term for social networks, videos, websites and mobile devises that assist organisation
to sell products in limited duration (Bhuiya, 2019). The digital marketing is often refereed to
digital landscape which is an electronic location where consumers spend time in engaging with
context addition to purchasing products. In case with Debenhams, digital marketing is used for
reaching to wider audience and generating awareness among them for the products that the
company offers. Digital marketing benefits the retailer by reaching targetted audience in
measurable together with cost effective ways. It permits digital marketing consultant to find new
markets so to enhance trade on other locations with minimum investments.
Comparison of online with offline marketing concepts
Basis Online marketing concept Offline marketing concept
Meaning It refers to promoting and selling It is said to process of promoting,
1

commodities or goods by using
online channels including ads, e-mail
and social media (Khadar. A. 2016).
distributing and selling organisational
commodities by using offline channels,
for example, telemarketing, word of
mouth, print ads, etc
Cost Online marketing of Debenhams
comprises optimising websites
together with posting information
about products in form of ads on
social media platforms which is less
costly to the company.
In context to offline marketing, use of the
concept in Debenhams maintains stocks,
data of records, engagement of
employees and many more activities that
is more costly in nature.
Exposure Online marketing concepts adopted
by Debenhams is not finite as it is a
limitless aspect that have maximum
exposure with audiences.
In contrary, offline marketing concepts
of Debenhams are not known to far
living people as it is restricted or
surrounded to promoting products in
specific area that entails less exposure.
P2. Determining together with analysing key consumer trends together with insights which are
fuelling development of digital marketing
In digital world, customers can readily access organisational website anytime and
anywhere by using smartphones, mobiles or other new technological devices including Google
glass and many more. Consumer trends are new attitudes, expectations and behaviour related to
consumers. It is important for organisation such as Debenhams to have deeper understanding
about customers, their preferences and needs. Consumer insights are important element as it
ensures organisational marketing attracts ideal leads as well as messaging aligns with
requirements of information defined target audiences (Del Sindaco, 2017). In case with
Debenhams, it is significant for managers to understand development of effective digital
marketing activity as by doing this, ability to reach an international marketplace increases and it
saves money of company. The customer trends addition to insights which are contributing in
fuelling digital marketing development of Debenhams are determined below:
2

Rise of online consumer power: There are various click tools which assist transforming
customer experience along with provide customer insights in the manner that leads to improving
purchase journey of consumers. In digital world, consumers’ power are rising as consumers are
using different digital tools to make opinion in rational manner ( (Albee, 2018)). It is determined
by managers of Debenhams that rise of internet and mobile commerce have removed time and
geographic which are key trends and insights providing more powers to consumers to make
purchase decisions without visiting stores that leads to fuelling digital marketing of the entity.
Mobile optimisation: In present era, customers are highly optimised for using
smartphones to perform activities including comparing prices, reviewing product, making final
purchase and payments in retail industry. Currently, major number of people are tech savvy
consumers who uses online websites comfortably. For digital marketing consultant of
Debenhams, it is necessary to provide updated and friendly information on consumer’s mobile.
At present, maximum customers prefers to receive complete and accurate details related to
products of company through digital or online modes which successfully fuels progress of digital
marketing.
M1. Evaluating opportunities addition to challenges facing digital marketing landscape
Digital marketing landscape have numerous opportunities and also faces certain challenges
in retail industry. When retail business including Debenhams install digital landscape then it
enjoys opportunities of increasing experience of customers for the brand, easy reach to wide
residing audience and perpetually displays advertisements which positive contributes in
expansion of business in untapped market. However, from the views of Han (2016), it is
evaluated that challenges faced by company after using digital landscape are competitive
environment, increasing above the noise, complexities in tracking multitude of various devices
that customer uses and development of micro moments that negatively impacts of the business
success.
TASK 2
P3. Assessing key digital tools along with hardware which are available for marketers in contrast
to bricks and mortar or other physical channels
Digital platforms refers to online businesses which expedite commercial interactions
among two or more different groups for trade purposes. Digital marketing communication plays
3

crucial role of understanding customers and accordingly devising products, setting prices,
promoting them with different channels, making them available at all nearby places, processing
activities and encouraging people to market them amongst others (Hemann and Burbary, 2013).
In Debenhams, digital marketing consultant uses digital platforms including social media
platform, media share platform, service oriented platform, etc for finding customers, influencing
them for purchase, monetise underutilised assets and decreases transactions cost that leads to
generating more revenue. Earlier, managers of Debenhams were using Bricks and mortar channel
or other physical channels that are direct selling, dual distribution or selling through middlemen.
However, with requirements of making the business digital, certain tools and hardware available
with digital marketers of Debenhams are as assessed:
Content curation tools: With changes in external business environment, organisational
marketers requires to fill their content calendars for keeping with competition along with
reaching as maximum audiences possibly. It is not always possible that marketing team of
Debenhams have time to put something unique for all the post they create. For this reason,
curation tools are available with marketers to fill the gaps as well as keep customers satisfied that
other physical tools fails to do.
Search engine optimisation: As compared to bricks and mortar tool, SEO is effective
and popular digital marketing tool and hardware that is needed by most of marketers for major
purposes. At same time, with wide number of tools available along with various moving
elements of search engine presence of Debenhams, finding right fit for products and services
becomes easier.
P4. Examining development of E-commerce together with digital marketing platforms and
channels in comparison to physical channels
Evolution of E-Commerce is attributes as combination of improvements along with
technological innovation. Over couple of decades, E-Commerce have slowly crept into daily
lives of business (Guevarra, 2018) E-Commerce plays crucial role. It is all about redefining
commercial practices across the world. Before development on E-Commerce or digital marketing
platforms, dominant type of commerce was Brick and Mortar or other physical channels. Earlier,
consumers were unaware about concept of digital. In previous era, marketers were only using
physical channels including direct sales, reverse channels and dual distribution in order to satisfy
local or limited targeted consumer segment. These physical channels were costly in nature and
4

also do not help in satisfying larger segment of population. Use of such physical channels helped
marketers to analyse needs of specific group and meeting their demands to convert them into
potentials.
With passage of time, technology have improved and developed to large level. In this
context, marketers of Debenhams have analysed that digital marketing platforms and E-
Commerce helps in providing all required information and products online without any personal
contact. Moreover, by using E-Commerce, the company can expand in overseas market, satisfy
larger customer base and generate more profits (Herttua, 2016). With this, administrators have
decided to design and implement an E-Commerce solution and use numerous digital marketing
platform to improve experiences of customers in international market.
E-Commerce as well as digital marketing platform has been in scene for nearby three
decades. Its continued enhance is changing timing, technology, nature etc of B2B and B2C
commerce influencing product availability, transportation patterns, pricing strategy, inventory
holding and consumer behaviour as compared with physical channels. Debenhams uses B2B and
B2C electronic commerce to sale products and make leads in global supply networks. The E-
Commerce revolution have boosted categories of products which have left behind various
physical channels with passage of time.
M2. Critically appraising usage of suitable digital tools, both software and hardware
Digital tools are classified as hardware and software which makes workings or practices
easier to complete. Marketing consultant of Debenhams uses both tools that are hardware and
software in form of search engine optimisation and content curation. As per Kotane, Znotina and
Hushko (2019), it is critically appraised that use of search engine optimisation benefits in
targeting quality traffic, no need to pay for ads, getting more clicks and helping public relations.
However, use of SEO impacts earlier work, creates adverse competition and involves higher long
term costs.
It is appraised from statements of Matura (2018) that use of content curation tools
benefits in establishing more credibility, supports lead generation and improves knowledge base.
In contrary, use of the tool do not control messaging and promotes business of Debenhams
indirectly.
5

TASK 3
P5. Developing marketing plan as well as strategy for building multi-channel capabilities
Digital marketing plan can be described to a document which shares details for entire
planning of organisational digital marketing campaigns together with actions. Similarly,
strategies are developed for attaining objectives at digital level and building multi-channel
competences for a company (Iskandar and Firdaus, 2018). In aspect of Debenhams, digital
marketing consultant have developed a marketing plan with strategy to construct multichannel
capabilities. The map is as follows:
Particulars Description
Overview of
company
Debenhams is an overseas retailer that operates its departmental store in
UK and other nations with franchise stores. It was established in 1778 as
individual store and has now developed to more than 178 locations
across the globe.
Initiatives Marketing consultant of Debenhams have organised various campaigns
as well as events for improving presence by offline and online
mechanisms. Moreover, the company has developed its own website on
Internet to enhance interactions with target audience and improve their
awareness for its offerings and pricing. To gain wider recognition,
marketing team have planned for organising digital marketing campaign
to develop omni channel campaign (Lavin, 2016). For this, various
contributions are executed and use of social media and knowledge based
platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest, etc is increased for developing
multichannel strategy,
Objectives From the developed digital marketing plan, managers of Debenhams
have objective of:
 Increasing customer group by 36% till end of 2022.
 Improve sales capacity by 30% till start of 2023.
Situational analysis By applying framework of SWOT analysis, pertaining situations are
analysed by managers of Debenhams:
Strengths:
 For Debenhams, digital
Weaknesses:
 Digital marketing
6

marketing program is
effective to gain
attention of target
audience together with
making innovations
which meets demand.
 It will build popular
image of entity in retain
sector.
activity depends on
technology which
requires huge funding
and investments.
 Maintaining costs of
digital marketing
program becomes
critical for Debenhams
because of constantly
evolving environment.
Opportunities:
 Digital marketing
campaign provide
opportunity of building
presence in untapped
market with online
mechanisms.
 Digital marketing will
open doors for
Debenhams to make
sustainable position
through digital platforms.
Threats:
 Changing laws for
safety and standards is
threats for digital
marketing campaign of
Debenhams.
 Intense competition on
digital channels restricts
scope of expanding of
company in overseas
market
Marketing strategies Herein, various categories of marketing strategies are set by digital
marketing head of Debenhams. The main is STP strategy which includes
following for Omni channel campaign of Debenhams:
Segmentation: The entire population is segmented by marketing team
of Debenhams for the digital campaign according of demographic basis
and formed groups in accordance to education, lifestyle and income.
Targeting: Target group for digital marketing campaign of Debenhams
belongs to high and medium income class, age group of 20 years to 55
years.
7

Positioning: By using content marketing, relationship marketing and
social media platforms, managers of Debenhams will promote the
campaign.
Budget Estimated budget in context to Omni Channel Campaign of Debenhams
is below:
Particulars Amount (In £)
Salaries to personnel 1200
Promotional expenses 2000
Social media platforms 1500
Other expenses 1300
Total 6000
Control For monitoring and controlling the digital marketing plan, suitable tools
and approaches including KPI, analytics platforms, measurable metrics,
etc will be used effectively (Nyagadza, 2020).
P6. Explanation of evolvement of omni channel marketing
Omni channel marketing is a multichannel approach of sales which delivers an integrated
shopping experience to customers. It was first defined in world of marketing in the year 2000
(Louie, 2015). The concept was developed to define shopping experience which spreads afar
multi-channel retailing. Further, in early 2014, the concept became must for retailers and other
brands. It was argued that onmi channel retailers were central element shaping future of E-
commerce along with brick and mortar stores. In past couple of years, use of onmi channel
marketing have increased to great extent. In context to Debenhams, the managers started using
the concepts as it gained recognition.
Omni Channel Marketing in Debenhams is used for ensuring consistency of consumer
experience in all aspects. Its each channel operates together for creating a unified content or
message for the brand. It seamlessly integrates multiple channels of communication so to
communicate with all the potentials and prospects. Omni channel marketing addresses entire
aspects through which modern buyers makes decision to purchase as well as provides consistent
experiences to targets from initiation to finish.
8

M3. Application of tools and techniques for planning as well as end to end omni channel
marketing campaign
Within Debenhams, various tools and techniques are applied for planning and end to end
omni channel or marketing campaign. One of the technique is SWOT Analysis that helps in
analysing pertaining circumstances to determine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
cioncerd with digital planning campaign or strategy. The other tool applied is STP analysis that
determines segmenting entire market into groups, target effective one and positioning the
campaign among the target audience (Rashmi and Shetty, 2019).
TASK 4
P7. Determining and evaluating measurement techniques addition to performance metrics in
digital marketing
There are ample number of techniques and tools that are used by digital marketers of
Debenhams for monitoring and measuring digital marketing in effective aspect. Some are as
determined and evaluated:
Measurement techniques: In order to measure digital campaigns to promote the products,
digital marketing team of Debenhams uses measurement techniques of KPIs and analytics
platforms. In relevance to KPIs, benefits gained by the company includes tracking success
constantly, setting directions for the campaign and engaging customers adequately. However,
limitations of KIPs are complexity in quantifying engagement and measuring analysis is
expensive. At same time, other measurement technique is analytics platforms. Some of them are
Logi Analytics, Google Adwords, etc that are utilised by the company. These are simplified,
integrated, accurate and scalable. In contrary, the technique is time consuming as it takes huge
time to consider the ways brand compares to peers.
Performance metrics: It is said to figures along with data representatives of business’
actions, potentials and overall quantity (Sathia, 2020). For performance metrics, technique
adopted by digital marketing advisor of Debenhams is Online measures. Referral traffic,
Pageviews, Bounce rate and pay per click are some of online measures used in Debenhams to
measure success of digital marketing campaign.
9

P8. Presenting set of actions for performance improvement in digital marketing
At the time when improvements are planned by digital marketing team for digital
marketing activities, various actions are set. For Debenhams, set of actions that could assist in
improving performance in digital marketing activities or campaigns are as presented:
Population measures: By measuring attitudes, behaviours and choices of target
population for implemented digital marketing campaign, organisations digital marketing head
improves insights at the areas where they are lacking and the areas that requires development.
For digital marketing campaign of Debenhams, population measures helps in making decision
for improving blogs and contents as per choices of audiences that will result in great
improvements in performances of all activities related to digital marketing campaign.
Exploring current trends: It is necessary for marketers to analyse or explore pertaining
trends and forecasting potential trends that will helps in making changes in present digital
marketing activities (Selman, 2017). Through executing activities according to emerging trends
and changes, managers of Debenhams will gain success in improvising performances within
digital marketing campaign properly.
M4. Critically evaluating implication of key digital measurement techniques addition to
performance metrics in digital marketing
By applying key performance metrics and digital measurement techniques, digital marketing
head will gain successful outcome sin improving digital marketing activities. With the help of
KPI, performance measures and analytics platforms, it will become easy to track the results and
analyse what customer think as well perceive about the campaign. At same time, these
techniques ignores certain factors that can create complexity in improvements within digital
marketing (Albee, 2018).
CONCLUSION
As per information, it have been concluded that digital marketing engrosses all efforts
and practices of marketing which adopts electronic devices to gain competitive success. The
marketers have myriad tools to assist simplify ever complicated activities through search engine
optimisation. Consumer trends which are fuelling development of digital marketing are rise of
online consumer power and mobile optimisation. Set of actions that can improve performance of
digital marketing are population measures and exploring current trends.
10

11

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Albee, A., 2018. Digital relevance: developing marketing content and strategies that drive
results. Springer.
Bhuiya, M. D., 2019. An Evaluation of Business Development & Digital Marketing Activities of
Mistri Mama.
Chaffey, D. and Smith, P. R., 2017. Digital marketing excellence: planning, optimizing and
integrating online marketing. Taylor & Francis.
Del Sindaco, V., 2017. Piano di digital marketing per Radio Fiume Ticino SA: rimanere
competitivi in un contesto in continua mutazione (Doctoral dissertation, Scuola Universitaria
Professionale della Svizzera Italiana).
Han, G. S., 2016. Funeral capitalism: Commodification and digital marketing of funeral services
in contemporary Korea. Korean Studies, pp.58-77.
Hemann, C. and Burbary, K., 2013. Digital Marketing Analytics: Making Sense of Consumer
Data in a Digital World. Que Publishing.
Herttua, T., 2016. Growth hacking: Defining a digital marketing buzzword.
Kotane, I., Znotina, D. and Hushko, S., 2019. Assessment of trends in the application of digital
marketing. Scientific Journal of Polonia University. 33(2). pp.28-35.
Matura, P., 2018. Digital Marketing Mix Strategies in the Tourism Industry in Zimbabwe: A
Masvingo Tourism Destination Perspective. International Journal of Engineering and
Management Research (IJEMR). 8(6). pp.211-219.
Iskandar, M. S. and Firdaus, I. N., 2018, August. Marketing Strategy of Tourism Package
through Design of Web-based Information System on One of Tours and Travel in Bandung.
In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 407, No. 1, p. 012048).
Lavin, A., 2016. Integrating & Innovating: the MS-Digital Innovation in Marketing Degree.
Nyagadza, B., 2020. Search engine marketing and social media marketing predictive
trends. Journal of Digital Media & Policy.
Rashmi, M. S. and Shetty, J. G., 2019. A Study on Impact of Digital Marketing at Atman
Technologies, Bengaluru.
Sathia, E. S., 2020. Aktivitas digital marketing Osteria Gia pada Ismaya Group dalam upaya
meningkatkan brand awareness (Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Pelita Harapan).
Selman, H., 2017. Marketing digital. Ibukku.
Online:
Debenhams. 2020. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.debenhams.com/>
Guevarra. L. M. 2018. E-Commerce: The Past, Present and Future. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.spiralytics.com/blog/past-present-future-ecommerce/>
Khadar. A. 2016. Difference between Online and Offline Marketing. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/difference-between-online-offline-marketing-abdul-
khadar>
Louie. S., 2015. Brief history of Omnichannle Marketing. [Online]. Available through: <
https://nectarom.com/2015/01/05/brief-history-omnichannel-marketing/>
12