E-Marketing: Principles, Strategies, and Challenges for Spark NZ

This assignment discusses the principles, strategies, and challenges of E-Marketing for Spark NZ, a telecommunications company. It covers the historical background, nature and scope of E-Marketing, and opportunities and challenges faced by the company. The assignment also includes an analysis of the internet macro and micro environment, E-Marketing mix strategies, and the relationship between E-Marketing and brand loyalty. Lessons learned from the investigation are also discussed.

E-Marketing
Student Details

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................3
Historical background:...........................................................................................................3
Principle of e-marketing strategies.........................................................................................3
Nature and scope of e-marketing strategies...........................................................................4
Challenges while conducting E-Marketing operations at National and International level...5
Task 2.........................................................................................................................................7
Internet macro environment analysis.....................................................................................7
Internet microenvironment analysis.......................................................................................8
E-Marketing mix strategies in context with traditional marketing........................................9
Task 3.......................................................................................................................................11
Relationship E-Marketing enhances brand loyalty and online reputation management......11
Lessons learned from the above investigation.....................................................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................13

Introduction
E-Marketing is the process of marketing about a service or product using the internet
as a medium. E-Marketing uses latest technologies, various server, and artificial intelligence
for promoting the growth of the business. Selected company for this assignment is "Spark
NZ". Spark New Zealand Limited is a telecommunications company which provides various
services to business houses like fixed line telephones, internet service protocol, ICT, mobile
services, etc. Headquarter of the company is situated in Auckland, New Zealand (SparkNZ,
2019). In this assignment, there will be discussion regarding the principles of e-marketing,
strategies, nature and scope of marketing. Apart from this, available opportunities and
challenges for the company will be discussed.

Task 1
Historical background:
The company started offering cellular network services in 1987 by using AMPS. In
1996, they adopt a creative marketing strategy (SparkNZ, 2019). The company started using
wireless mobile services which created a revolution in the era of mobile phones. By this
marketing strategy, their customer base increased to 0.5 million until the year 1998. Spark
telecommunications was counted as largest company after certifying its valuation on the New
Zealand Stock Exchange (SparkNZ, 2019). In the year 2007, it was ranked as 39th largest
telecommunication company by the OECD. In 2008, the company was separated into three
divisions under local loop unbundling that were telecom wholesale, telecom retail and chorus.
In the year 2014, the company changed its name to "Spark NZ" from "Maori Kora Aotearoa".
In 2015, the management of the company released a cloud-based customer service name as
Morepork on 12th August. Morepork protects the smartphone from home-based security
services, the customer only needs to purchase a monthly subscription for home monitoring.
On 7th December, Spark paid $50million NZD for purchasing South Island-based IT services
from Computer Concepts Ltd (SparkNZ, 2019). Offline marketing model includes television
promotion, pamphlets marketing, loyalty programs, etc. On the other hand, social media
promotion, using search engine optimization tools, newsletter advertising, email marketing,
etc. are counted in online promotion strategy of the customer.
Principle of e-marketing strategies
 Narrow e-market focus strategies:
Under this strategy, the company first tend to focus on a narrow market size whenever
they come up with new creative ideas in order to dominate that market. The company

first start targeting their potential consumer and then release their ideas on higher-
scale (Chaffey, Hemphill & Edmundson, 2015).
 Effective online presence:
In the era of social media, it is essential to make presence over social media. The
company uses various methods for fascinating population and making effective
communication with them (Chmielarz & Zborowski, 2016).
 Search engine optimization:
Under this method, the company always ensure to have their name in the top
placement when anyone searches for the best telecommunication website. They use
tools like Spider-driven. This is the search engine methods run by robots under this it
accesses the internet services by transferring links from web pages to web pages
(Chong & Man, 2017).
 Email campaigns:
Spark company sends email to their customer for providing them regular intimation
about changes in the services, new offers, important updates, etc. By doing this,
customers always get timely notifications. This method is very cheap and requires less
time for sending emails to bulk customers in one go.
Nature and scope of e-marketing strategies
“E-Marketing” for the Spark Telecommunication company can be defined as the way
that help them in accomplishing their promotion and marketing goals using online medium.
In another word, the term "E-Marketing" is the social and managerial process by which the

company create offers and exchange information about services with their customers (Habibi,
Hamilton, Valos & Callaghan, 2015).
Nature of E-Marketing:
 Consumer-oriented approach:
Spark Telecommunication uses consumer approach in which they find out the demand
and type of requirement made by the customers. Management creates only those
offers which satisfy the need of their customers. Apart from this, Spark
Telecommunication adopt pricing strategies which keeps reasonable profit margins
for their suppliers (Pogrelova, Yakhneeva, Agafonova & Prokubovskaya, 2016).
 Marketing research:
Conducting marketing research is the foremost step taken by management. In
marketing research, they analyze the need for their customers, behaviour, pricing
policy, etc. They systematically gather information, record, analyze data and take
effective decisions.
Challenges while conducting E-Marketing operations at National and International
level
 In selecting the target audience:
People of every age group are active on their social media. For promotion and
marketing, no such tool is available through which the company can select their
advertisement viewers for a particular age group. The marketing manager can only
decide where they need to publish their advertisement (Kaur & Singh, 2017).
 Market integration:

Marketing managers of the company uses a lot of promotion tools or multiple
channels such as email campaign, web advertising, etc. Marketing managers many
times face a challenge in the integration of all tools.
 Privacy of customers:
Spark telecommunication allows its customers to register their personal contact details
in order to get exclusive offers. The major challenge they face is in protecting the
information of their clients from hacking. Although the company uses advanced tools
and various protected server but still chances of uncertainty are always present
(Laudon & Traver, 2016).
Opportunities
 Providing personalization experience to the clients:
If data of a customer is linked or saved with the website then whenever they visit on
website it can create a personalized experience for them. For example, more filter
content will be visible to the clients (Mathwes, Bianchi, Perks, Healy &
Wickramasekera, 2016).
 Provide cheap methods of promotion:
E-Marketing provides cheap methods of promotion which succour the marketing
managers in saving their advertisement and promotion cost.
 Global reach:
Website or mobile application can be approached by anyone in the world at any time.
This helps the company in finding a new and emerging market. Spark industry
currently has a huge database and strong market appetite. E-Marketing helps them in
getting attention from the global or international level (Sharif & Butt, 2017).

Task 2
Internet macro environment analysis
Internet macro issues for Spark Telecommunication consists of PESTLE issues over internet
issues.
Political factors:
The government of New Zealand puts the control on the usage and activities
encountering on the internet. Moreover, the internet provides global collaboration for every
industry especially the telecommunication industry that’s why the government of the country
ensures the safety of data and other sensitive information for clients. New Zealand is counted
as world’s most stable democracy. Political parties always ready to provide subsidiaries to
telecommunication sector, innovation sector, automobile industry, etc
Economic factor:
The economic growth of the country drives the growth of telecommunication and
other sectors of the regions. Globalization in New Zealand has encouraged the growth of the
telecommunication sector in enormous ways. Due to the emerging growth of economic
factor, Spark telecommunication developing their growth in international market using the
internet as a medium. Apart from this, when the company wants to approach in the
international market then the exchange rate of particular country can affect the functioning of
the international market (Porral & Stanton, 2017).
Social factors:
Internet is a universal phenomenon and can be reached anywhere. Social factor over
the internet enables the company is connecting with millions of clients which eventually
succour them in increasing their customer base (Taiminen & Karjaluoto, 2015).

Technological factor:
Due to advancement in technology the internet is now using artificial intelligence for
getting work done through science of robotics. The company is experiencing various aspects
of challenges related to the internet technology for handling thousands of threats (West, Ford
& Ibrahim, 2015).
Legal and ethical issues with internet usage:
Due to the legal factor, the company has to take care for the certain types of
behaviours, words, speeches and announcement made on the internet. Government of the
country is concern about the privacy of public thus they made various rules for the
telecommunication sector in which they are advocating the usage of internet and privacy of
their citizens. Legal issues which are concern with internet usage are copyright issues, public
domain, fair use and licensing issues. For example, due to copyright issue no other person can
take or stole content, images, articles, journal and words of another person or website
(Resnick, Cheng, Simpson & Lourenco, 2016).
Environmental factor:
This factor implies that outer environment factor affects the growth of the
telecommunication sector over the internet. It is essential for the company to make a good
reputation over the internet for accomplishing their goals during the period of time. The
company can adopt the sustainable policy for the welfare of environment. Limiting a
utilization of paper and other office consumables helps in the welfare of environment.
(Zhang, Chong, Liu & Man, 2017).
Internet microenvironment analysis
The SWOT analysis will be in this sector:

 Strength:
Cutting-edge fiber-optics technology, high performing cable equipment and providing
excellent customer service always boost the capabilities of the company.
 Weakness:
Lackluster sales, corroded cable lines, etc. are identified as the weakness for the company.
Apart from this, competitive deficiencies are a disadvantage that can impact the customer
base of Spark telecommunications.
 Opportunities:
Latest technology, increasing the customer base, the decreasing rate in the competitions all
are the opportunities that can help the company in the long run. Opportunities can boost the
strength of the company in enormous ways (Chaffey, Hemphill & Edmundson, 2015).
 Threats:
A sluggish economy, increasing competition and strict government regulations are the
identified threats that can limit the company's success. Threats can create future hurdles and
competitors can attract customers (Habibi, Hamilton, Valos & Callaghan, 2015).
E-Marketing mix strategies in context with traditional marketing
In traditional marketing mix it consists of 4p's – Product, place, price and promotion but
because of the emerging impact of the internet now e-marketing mix has transformed to 7p's.
Below are the implications of e-marketing mix and available potential business opportunities:
 Product:
Spark telecommunication offers a variety of products like internet services to business
houses, conferencing, data I/VPN, inbound and outbound voice.

 Price:
They have flexible pricing mechanism, monthly subscription and rental plans, rewards
on usage policies and exclusive offers for the clients (Sheikh, Shahzad & Ishak,
2016).
 Place:
Spark business telecommunication has an extensive and wide presence even in the
remotest areas. They have various distributors and brokers which bring many
opportunities that are required for the growth of the business.
 Promotion:
Promotion and advertisement managers of the company use various promotion
methods through which the company promotes its products and services. Promotion
done by using the internet is a cheap source but an advertisement on the television by
celebrities incurred a huge cost (Skudiene, Auruskeviciene & Sukeviciute, 2015).
 People:
The management of the company depends upon its employees and always encourage
them by rewards and recognitions program. The company is also concern about the
safety and health of their employee because they are an asset for them (Kaur & Singh,
2017).
 Process:
Business houses or clients can avail services very easily. Either they can submit an
online request or they have an option to visit directly to the office. The company also
provides great after service to their clients.
 Physical facilities:

Conference systems, networking hardware and software, digital tv services inbound
and outbound services outlets.
 Potential business opportunities:
Most recent innovation, expanding the client base and the diminishing rate as
comparing with the competitors all are the open doors that can help the
organization over the long run.

Task 3
Relationship E-Marketing enhances brand loyalty and online reputation management
Brand loyalty enhances customer satisfaction because the customer service is the
major concern for the company (Gerrikagoitia, Castander, Rebon & Alzua, 2015). Lots of
competition and highest customer expectations push the company to take effective measures
in enhancing the quality of services. Spark telecommunication needs to provides a great
understanding to their customers for building and retaining their reputation in the market.
Brand loyalty consists of the reputation of the brand, customer satisfaction, commitment,
trust, service quality and perceived values. Spark telecommunication adopts various
framework, methods, measures, findings and research for upgrading their brand value to
enhance the loyal attitude of their customers. The company makes relationship between e-
marketing and branding by featuring customer case studies, by turning customers into brand
advocates and by uploading the testimonials of customers. Brand loyalty and online
reputation management are considered as a vital link and aspiration contributor in the
organization's success, profit and business performance (Laudon & Traver, 2016).
Lessons learned from the above investigation
Various factors have been identified by analyzing the benefits of e-marketing. For
example, e-marketing is resultant in extremely low risk, enables the company to work
through automation, takes support from electronic media, increase the ability to measure,
collect data and provide boundless universal accessibility (Taleghani & Mahdi, 2016). This
helps the company in increasing its market shares. On the other hand, the management of the
company faces a lot of disadvantage in using e-marketing strategies like privacy concerns,
legal concerns, higher transparency, increased competition and emerging threats of
globalization (Sharif & Butt, 2017).

Lesson learnt in this study is that email marketing is the ultimate force multiplier. For
example, if company is generating 1million traffic through offline marketing source then
through the email marketing they can generate more than 2 million of traffic towards.
Another lesson concluded that the company always changes their marketing strategy as per
the time. In old ages, the company focuses more on offline advertising model but now the
management focusing more on online promotion and strategies in order to fascinating lot of
population.

Conclusion
It is concluded that Spark telecommunication is counted as the topmost business-
related communication service provider for their clients. Promotion managers of the company
use a lot of e-marketing strategies for fascinating the interest of the customers. Apart from
this, the difference between traditional marketing mix and e-marketing mix is that traditional
marketing mix consists of only 4p’s while e-marketing mix consists of 7p’s as described in
the study.
Using cutting-edge-cable wires, automation process, mobile application, etc are the
strength of the company which helps the management in saving their cost and enhance the
customer experience. Government of the country is concern about the privacy of their clients.
Thus, they have a various provision which sometimes hinders the performance of the
business.

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