Digital Marketing Communications Plan for Birchbox Shampoo

This report outlines a digital marketing plan for Birchbox's new anti-dandruff shampoo. It begins with an introduction and proceeds to detail the mission, vision, and objectives of the campaign. A thorough situational analysis using PESTEL and SWOT frameworks is presented, evaluating political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors, alongside the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The marketing mix (product, price, promotion, place) and STP (segmentation, targeting, positioning) strategies are defined, followed by a budget plan spanning three years. The report concludes with an evaluation and control section, detailing key performance indicators (KPIs) like website traffic and conversion rates. The report aims to provide a strategic roadmap for the successful promotion and sales of Birchbox's anti-dandruff shampoo, contributing to increased market share and customer base expansion. References to relevant books and journals are also included.

DIGITAL MARKETING
COMMUNICATIONS PLAN

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Mission...................................................................................................................................3
Vision.....................................................................................................................................3
Objective.................................................................................................................................3
Situational analysis.................................................................................................................3
Marketing mix........................................................................................................................6
STP.........................................................................................................................................6
Budget.....................................................................................................................................7
Evaluation and control............................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
The digital marketing plan is basically the document which highlights activities related to
the planning of digital marketing campaigns. The main aim of this report is to develop a digital
marketing plan for promoting new anti-dandruff shampoo of Birchbox and increase its sales.
This report gives an overview of mission, vision, objectives, situational analysis,
marketing mix, STP, budget and evaluation.
MAIN BODY
Mission
Mission of Birchbox is to make each and every individual on this earth beautiful and self-
confident and work towards the interest of stakeholders.
Vision
The vision of Birchbox is to become the most trusted market leader and global source of
the beauty discovery by providing quality beauty products.
Objective
 To increase the sale of anti-dandruff shampoo by 5% in the upcoming 2 months
 To capture the great market share by the end of year 2020.
 To increase the customer base to around 8% towards end of the year 2021.
 To gain competitive advantage in the upcoming 6 months.
Situational analysis
PESTEL analysis
This is basically the framework which is being used by organizations for analyzing the
external factors that impacts its operations and functions.
Political factors
These factors consist of political stability, trade restrictions, tax policies etc
Negative effect- Due to the impact of Brexit, there has been high political instability within
country and this has affected Lakme to high extent. Due to this political instability, there has
been high corruption which has made the operations of country difficult (Chaffey, 2017).
Positive- Brexit has relaxed the restriction on trade across the country and this has helped Lakme
to trade its products and services across the country. It has increased its brand awareness.
Economic factors

These factors encompass exchange rate, unemployment rates, interest rates etc
Negative- Brexit has eventually raised the interest rates in country in various financial
institutions and this has made it difficult for Lakme to take loans for its operations.
Positive- The unemployment rates in UK has increased from around 32.6% to more than 47.8%
from past few years and this has affected company in positive way. It has allowed them to hire
skilled and talented employees (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019).
Social factors
These factors consists of population rate, health consciousness, attitudes etc
Negative- Nowadays, a high number of customers have become highly conscious towards the
beauty products which are made up of organic ingredients and safe for their skin. This has
eventually reduced the sale of inorganic products of Birchbox.
Positive- People have now become highly concern towards their personality and leads luxurious
life. This has affected Birchbox in positive way where people are ready to pay high prices for
beauty products to look beautiful.
Technological factors
These consist of innovation level, automation, online power etc.
Negative- The emergence of various advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics
have affected company in negative way in terms of security and privacy issues.
Positive- The advent of technology and social media have affected Birchbox in positive way and
have enabled them to reach a wide rage of customers through social media, advertising etc
(Negoiţă and et.al.,2018).
Environmental factors
These factors consists of weather, climatic changes, environmental policies etc.
Negative- Nowadays, people are highly concerned towards reducing plastic water and this has
affected company in negative way. This has eventually posed a challenge for Birchbox to offer
plastic free packaging of their various beauty products.
Positive- The increasing protest of people towards deforestation has affected company in
positive way. As Birchbox has contributed to high extent towards reducing deforestation and
sustainability thus this has increased goodwill of company among customers (Kabir, 2017).
Legal factors

These consist of discrimination laws, health and safety laws, patents etc.
Negative- FDA has levied various laws as well as regulations on trading of the beauty products
and services and this has somewhat become difficulty for company to transfer its goods and
services.
Positive- Government in UK has reduced the tax on trading the beauty products and services
across the country. This has affected Birchbox in positive way and have increased their market
capture.
SWOT analysis
Strength
The major strength of Birch box is its great brand image. This company is basically the
first nationally recognized subscription based cosmetic organization and this has helped the
company to enlarge its customer base. Another major strength of this product is that it will
provide one solution to all the problems of the hairs of customers. This product will provide an
intensive care to the hair of customers. Besides this, it will cater all the needs of customers who
are looking for shinier and healthier hair (Visser, Sikkenga and Berry, 2019).
Weakness
The major weakness of this product is in its texture and smell. As people have become
highly oriented towards the beauty products which are beautiful in looking as well as have great
smell. This is mostly the perception of customer that nice smelling and beautiful looking product
will be effective. Thus, the shape of bottle is not highly attractive and its smell is neutral which
might not attract customers. Another weakness of this shampoo is that it has limited and low
market share in comparison to other skincare and cosmetic brands (Juwaheer, Rosun and
Sungkur, 2018).
Opportunities
The major opportunity which is being available to Birchbox is improving the packaging.
Packaging leaves a great impression in the minds of people and thus have a great effect. Thus,
Birchbox have the opportunity to improve the packaging of its new shampoo to give it a fresh
look. Another opportunity available is focusing on dry hair and split ends hairs rather than just
focusing on dandruff hair. This will be a great opportunity fort the company and will increase
their overall market share (Urbaníková, 2019).
Threats

The major threat which might affect the success and business of this shampoo is
increasing competition within market. The major competitors of Birchbox which are Loreal,
Lakme are highly focused towards providing innovative and distinct products thus in this view,
their great presence in market might affect its success. Another important threat which will pose
a challenge for company is threat of the substitute products. Large number of the local brands
might affect the growth of this anti-dandruff shampoo as they will sell the substitute products at
lower price.
Marketing mix
Product
The major product which the company have decided to increase the sale and launch is
anti-dandruff shampoo. This product will be main focus of company.
Price
Birchbox will use premium pricing strategy for its new anti-dandruff shampoo and will
generally have high price for its products (Chaffey, 2017).
Promotion
For promoting the product, company will utilize online platform and will seek the help of
social media, television, websites etc to reach the customers. Besides this, company will also
promote this shampoo through offline channels through events.
Place
This new anti-dandruff shampoo will mainly target people living in the urban areas. The
product will be advertised in highly populated areas like malls, cinema hall etc (Chaffey and
Ellis-Chadwick, 2019).
STP
Segmentation
Segmentation is basically the process of dividing the customers into various groups
according to different variables like age, gender, educational qualification, income etc. In short,
this is the method through which organizations divide target customers into small and distinct
groups. Birchbox will mainly segment its customers for new anti-dandruff shampoo on basis of
their income and gender. This shampoo will mainly target the high income people and females
between the age group 21 to 35 (Negoiţă and et.al.,2018).
Targeting

This is the process through which organizations mainly targets the specific customer
segment. This is strategy in which organizations break large market into small segments for
concentrating upon specific customers. For its new anti-dandruff shampoo, Birchbox will mainly
focus on concentrated targeting and will target the niche market for promoting its shampoo.
Company will target single profitable market segment of high income group.
Positioning
Positioning is primarily process and strategy for establishing image as well as identity of
the products and brand among customers. In short, positioning is place which brand occupies in
minds of customers. Birchbox will use price positioning for its new anti-dandruff shampoo.
Company will offer the shampoo at much high price due to its great quality and will attract high
income class people (Kabir, 2017).
Budget
Budget plan for
marketing mix
strategic
planning
2020 2021 2022
Product
diversification
$ 120 $ 100 $ 80
Maintaining
variety of
products
$ 80 $ 60 $ 50
Warehouse
management
$ 80 $ 90 $ 100
Website
creation
$ 100 $ 150 $ 160
Development of
mobile
application
$ 200 $ 150 $ 100
Designing the
email
$ 100 $ 125 $ 150
Creation of $ 45 $ 60 $ 90

YouTube videos
Blog and
Twitter creation
$ 50 $ 60 $ 80
Social
campaigning
$ 55 $ 70 $ 86
Introducing
electric cars for
distributing the
products
$ 100 $ 120 $ 140
Managing
people
$ 80 $ 100 $ 120
Total marketing
budget
$ 930 $ 1085 $ 1156
Evaluation and control
In order to measure the effectiveness of its product and marketing campaign, it is highly
essential for organizations to evaluate and control the campaign.
KPI
Website traffic
This is the key performance indicator which will be used by Birchbox for evaluating
success of its anti-dandruff shampoo. Website traffic is how much people have visited the site
and searched for information regarding the product. When website traffic is high then this shows
that this product is liked by customers (Visser, Sikkenga and Berry, 2019).
Conversion rate
This is the ratio and number in which customers have been converted into consumers for
the product. When this conversion rate is high then this shows that large number of people have
purchased the product. Birchbox will use this indicator to know the conversion rate and how
many customers have been converted to consumers for anti-dandruff shampoo (Juwaheer, Rosun
and Sungkur, 2018).
CONCLUSION
It has been summarized that through digital marketing plan, an organization is able to
promote its products and take its brand message to wider audience. This plan primarily helps

them to plan the various activities which will be required for advertising product by providing a
depth analysis of their strength, weakness etc.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson UK.
Chaffey, D., 2017. Digital Marketing Planning Template. Viitattu. 21.p.2017.
Juwaheer, T.D., Rosun, S. and Sungkur, R.K., 2018. Digital Marketing.
Kabir, M., 2017. Communication via Digital Marketing.
Negoiţă, O.D and et.al.,2018. Digital Marketing Tools Used by Companies. FAIMA Business &
Management Journal.6(4). pp.66-76.
Urbaníková, G., 2019. Design of Marketing Communication for Beauty Salon.
Visser, M., Sikkenga, B. and Berry, M., 2019. Digital Marketing Fundamentals: From Strategy
to ROI. Routledge.