Autumn 2017 EBWO3001 Portfolio: Business Effectiveness in the UK

This portfolio, created for the EBWO3001 course, explores the concept of business effectiveness within the UK market. The student outlines a plan for an online marketing service startup, detailing advantages, disadvantages, and the utility of PESTEL analysis in strategic planning. The document further examines the impact of globalisation on the business, discussing technology usage, including email marketing and SEO. It identifies potential customers, highlights the importance of customer understanding, and proposes strategies for customer attraction. Finally, it delves into the role of ethics in business and provides examples of ethical staff treatment. The portfolio showcases a comprehensive understanding of business principles and their practical application, providing valuable insights for business development and strategy.

Autumn 2017 First-sit Portfolio
Effectiveness in the Business World
(EBWO3001)
Student Name:
Student Number:
Lecturer Name:
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World 1
Assessed Learning Outcomes:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the concept of the organisation and the
environment in which it operates, including determining the competitive
advantage for an organisation.
2. Identify and analyse organisational operations, responsibilities
3. Discuss the needs of the consumer and people who work in a business.
4. Recognise a range of issues related to business and how they interlink.
5.

As a requirement for the completion of this portfolio, you should first decide
on a type of business you have or would potentially like to start up in the
future (e.g. restaurant, shop, service etc.). Your answers to the tasks below
will relate to this business.
Week Contents (350-400 words per task) Page
Learning
outcomes
Week 2-3 a. Briefly describe the nature of business you
have or might like to have in the future.
b. What are the advantages and disadvantages
of owning your own business?
c. In what ways could PESTEL be useful in
planning your start-up business?
3 LO1/4
Week 4-5 a. In what ways can ‘globalisation’ have an
impact on your business? Discuss two
examples.
b. What suitable technology would your
4 LO1/2
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World 2

business use and how would it improve the
operations of the business?
Week 6-7 a. Briefly identify who your ‘customer’ is likely to
be. Why is it important for a business to
understand its customers?
b. Describe TWO ways in which you might
attract more customers to your business.
5 LO1/3
Week 8-9 a. What is the role of ethics in business?
b. With examples from other businesses, describe
how your business can treat its staff ethically.
6 LO3/4
References 7
Total word limit: 1500 words (+/- 10%)
This portfolio is a working document that MUST be completed over the 10-week course.
By the end of the 10-week course, you should have completed 4 tasks. You will also be
required to work on your portfolio during your weekly tutorial sessions.
ASSESSMENT – PORTFOLIO
Week Task 1 Learning
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World 3

Outcomes
Week
2-3
a. Briefly describe the nature of business you
have or might like to have in the future.
b. What are the advantages and disadvantages
of owning your own business?
c. In what ways could PESTEL be useful in
planning your start-up business?
LO1/4
Your answer should go in the box below.
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World 4

Introduction:
Online marketing service or the digital marketing is one of the booming industries in the United
Kingdom. It not only takes a brand to the prospect customers, but also helps the brand to have sustainable
growth. According to the reports of Advertising Association and Warc, UK business organisations
altogether has spent more than €21.4 billion in the digital marketing domain since the year 2015 to 2016
(Srinivasan, Rutz and Pauwels 2016). Whether it is a start-up business or a well-established firm, in the 21st
century, online marketing is a necessary tool for every organisation. In this competitive market scenario,
online marketing helps a brand to have consistent approach towards success and integrates all of its
activities to meet the overall objectives of the brand (Xu, Frankwick and Ramirez 2016).
Nature of business:
Companies in UK are always in search of organisation that can provide Search Engine Optimised
content, so that it can comply with the algorithm of Google (Dhar 2017). It will help the brand to reach new
audience and lead their business to the zenith of success. Though it was expected that online marketing
industry will face recession after post-Brexit, but statistics shows that, expenditure in digital marketing has
grown by 3.9% than the previous year (Alllen, Piecyk and Piotrowska 2017). With respect to the UK
market scenario, thus, it would be a great option to choose online marketing services for a start-up business.
As a start-up business, the new organisation will provide the following services –
 Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
 Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)
 Web designing
 Google analytics
 Email marketing
Advantages and disadvantages of owning a business:
Having an own business can be proved to be extremely rewarding if proper vision and aim can be
chosen depending upon the nature of business (Cassidy 2016). When it comes to having a start-up online
marketing service in the UK, then there lots of scope, which lies within its advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages of the online marketing service business are:
Independence – As an owner of a business, independence level is high because there is no scope
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World 5

of being fired. Besides this, whatever project will be considered for evaluation depends upon the discretion
of the owner.
Financial rewards – Though there is financial risk in a start-up business, but if the proper aim can
be decided and skilled employee can be employed, then it would be easy to success in the near future
(Sadgrove 2016).
Satisfaction – With huge demand of online marketing service, scope of reaching to the zenith of
success in the UK market is considerably high and so does the level of satisfaction too.
Disadvantages of having a start-up business in the online marketing sector are mentioned below:
Financial risk – Financial risk is always associated with a start-up business. When it comes to
online marketing service, then the risk factor is quiet high, considering the satisfaction level of the client
and requirement.
Time commitment – Maintaining deadline is highly important in the online marketing services
(Kaur 2016). Future of an organisation depends upon the quality of work and time commitment, thus owner
has to look after this.
Stress – Being an owner of a start-up business, enumerable number of stress will be there. Starting
from internal auditing to managing the office has to be done by the owner, because hiring experts for these
tasks will not be possible for a start-up business.
Usefulness of PESTEL analysis:
PESTEL is a tool to analyse the external macro-economic factors (Jiang, Cheng and Hawkins
2017). P stands for ‘Political factors’ and an example of this is government policies which acts as an
external factor. E is the ‘Economic factor’, which is controlled by the government using the taxation policy,
interest rate and government expenditure. S denotes the ‘Social factors’ which determines the customer of a
business. T is ‘Technological factor’, which is defined by the R & D of the brand. E is the ‘Environmental
factor’, which is governed by the local authority through the environmental policies. L is the ‘Legal factors’
that affects the functioning of an organisation. The local laws of the place where the business will operate
influence the operation of a business.
Considering the online marketing service, PESTEL is important because it will help the start-up
business to find their targeted audience, customer base and marketing strategy. The star-up business will
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World 6

operate at London in UK, thus the scope of achieving success in business is high (Velásquez, and Meunier
2017). Political and Legal factors of London will help the brand to flourish their business without any
bound. With high literacy rate and high demand of online marketing services, having skilled workers in
London will not be difficult. Moreover, online marketing service will not produce any harmful effluents,
thus it will adhere with the environmental laws of London (Holt et al. 2016).
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World 7

Week Task 2 Learning
Outcomes
Week
4-5
a. In what ways can ‘globalisation’ have an impact
on your business? Discuss two examples.
b. What suitable technology would your business
use and how would it improve the operations of
the business?
LO1/2
Your answer should go in the box below.
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World 8

Effect of globalisation:
Globalisation is a mechanism that enhances the interaction among the different countries to
develop the world economy. One of the main driving forces of globalisation is internet because depending
upon it, start-up businesses can reach to new prospect customers. Online marketing services have now
become evident for every organisation to flourish and reach beyond the regional boundary. Recent reports
suggest that almost more than 45% of brands in UK do not have well-structured online marketing strategy
and less than 24% of organisations in UK are happy with their digital marketing service (Haynes, Bawden
and Robinson 2016). If the global scenario is considered, then it can be seen that revenue from internet
advertising has been increased by 21.8% from 2015 to 2016. Thus, chances of having client from abroad is
no more a difficult task and globalisation will help the internet marketing service to expand in future too.
Technology usage:
There are various tools that can be used in the online marketing service. One of the best
technologies that a start-up business can use is Email marketing. Almost 31% of global media marketing is
done using the email marketing technology (London 2016). Using this simple technology, a start-up
business can help a brand to reach new customers by promoting the services of the client. Moreover, email
marketing helps to focus on the advantage of choosing the brand compared to its rivals. Another
sophisticated technology, which is used in the online marketing services, is SEO. More than 16% of media
marketing is done through the SEO because it helps the webpage of a brand to rank higher according to the
Google’s algorithm (Kim et al. 2017). Thus, it can reach to newer people all around the world and grow its
business easily.
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World 9

Week Task 3 Word
Count
Learning
Outcomes
Week
6-7
a. Briefly identify who your ‘customer’ is likely
to be. Why is it important for a business to
understand its customers?
b. Describe TWO ways in which you might
attract more customers to your business.
5 LO1/3
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World 10

Your answer should go in the box below.
Potential customers:
Online marketing is the essential tool for every organisation to develop its business and move
forward beyond the local boundaries. If a start-up business wants to grow, then it is important to identify its
customer, otherwise under optimisation of need of the customer can lead the business on the verge of
destruction (Strauss 2016). Potential customers of online marketing service are business houses, new start-
ups, institutes who want to grab attention from students and so on.
Importance of understanding customers:
Success of a start-up business lies within its client base and thus it is important to understand the
prospect customers (Li et al. 2017). For instance, an online marketing service provider should not promote
its business to a cobbler or a barber or a grocery shop, because it will not attempt to attract customers from
all over the world. If the start-up online marketing service business fails to identify its potential customers,
then it will not be able to achieve its aim of becoming a leading online marketing service provider.
Ways to attract new customers:
According to statistics, online marketing is used by almost 90% of the business houses to enhance
their business beyond the regional boundary. Moreover, the start-up online marketing service business is
going to starts its operation from London, thus attracting new customers will not be an issue. However, the
said start-up business can use new strategies to attract prospect customers. For instance, the start-up
business can provide limited period discount on their service to grow their customer base. Another option is
to using add-on services, which are not provided by the competitors of the start-up business (He et al.
2016).
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