Marketing Communications Strategies for Birchbox in the Digital Age

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of marketing strategies applicable to Birchbox, a beauty and grooming brand. It begins by outlining the importance of marketing planning and explores various promotional strategies such as content marketing, inbound and outbound marketing, and geofencing, emphasizing their potential to attract new customers and retain existing ones. The report then delves into customer segmentation, highlighting the use of bloggers and influencers for effective targeting. It also examines communication theories, specifically the Aristotle and Shannon-Weaver models, to understand how messages are conveyed and received. Finally, it discusses the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion) and advertising/PR strategies employed by Birchbox. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, reinforcing the significance of well-defined marketing strategies and communication models for business success. The report references academic journals and online resources to support its arguments.

Marketing
Communications in the
Digital Age
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Marketing Planning................................................................................................................3
Segmentation, Targetting and Positioning.............................................................................4
Communication Theory..........................................................................................................5
Marketing Mix........................................................................................................................6
Advertising/ PR......................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
Marketing in today's age has become much more easier and innovative than it was years
back. The community is growing at a very high pace and everyone has access to smartphones
and a high speed internet (Acar and Puntoni, 2016). Organisations can now advertise and
promote their products easily and reach out to a large base of customers. Organisation chosen for
this report is Birchbox, which is a beauty and grooming brand operating globally. The company
offers a box of personalised make-up, haircare and skincare samples for both males as well as
females monthly and delivers the same to customers' door step. This report explains different
promotional ways which Birch box can use in order to reach out to new customers as well as
retain existing ones.
MAIN BODY
Marketing Planning
Marketing Planning can be defined as the process which involves defining the marketing
aim of an organisation as well as the strategies in which they can be achived. Promotional
strategies include online advertising, personal selling, sponsorships, direct marketing etc.
Organisations use promotional strategies in order to market their products and services in order
to reach out to a large number of customers as well as retain existing ones. Promotional
strategies that are well-formulated can lead an organisation to the path of success, bring in new
customers as well as ensure high productivity as well as profitability for the business. Also, the
brand awareness as well as position of the company in the market can be improved by opting for
innovative strategies of promotion. The different promotional strategies that Birchbox can use
are explained below -
 Content Marketing – This is the most recent trend in marketing and is used by almost
all companies today. This is a kind of marketing that involves creating and sharing
content online on various platforms. Content marketing can help an organisation to save
costs as well as increase its overall sales in the market (What Is Content Marketing?,
2020). Content marketing has reshaped the way in which companies interact with their
customers. It also helps in building relationships with customers by providing them
information about a new launch or any offer. Therefore, Birchbox can implement this
promotional strategy to attract more customers (Bassano and et. al., 2019). It should
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create interesting content by using attractive and catchy images. Since this method does
not involve a lot of time and cot, the company will be able top cut down on unnecessary
costs and utilise the same in some other area.
 In-bound and Out-bound Marketing – Birchbox can use both inbound as well as
outbound to retain its existing customers as well as reach out to a large target audience.
Out-bound marketing helps in pushing messages to a large audience while in-bound
marketing allows the company to attract potential customers. The main goal of out-bound
marketing is to generate leads. This is one of the most effective ways of marketing that is
widely used by companies. On the other hand, in-bound marketing is primarily aimed at
attracting customers to the company's products and services. Thus, Birchbox can use
different ways if in-bound marketing such as social media marketing, SEO etc.
 Geofencing – This is a service that is location-based which is used by businesses in order
to engage their audience by sending relating messages to the smartphones of people
when they enter a pre-determined area or location (Dunlop, Freeman and Jones, 2016).
Birchbox can implement this strategy to promote its products and services among people
when they search for a product in a particular location. It can send messages related to
any discounts or offers. This will be helpful for the company as it will be able to
understand the day to day buying behaviour of customers. This can lead to an increase in
overall sales as a large number of customers will be exposed to the company's branding
activities.
 Smart Insights – It is a learning platform, founded in the year 2000 that helps its
members in planning, managing and optimising their marketing through various planning
templates, learning tools and guides. Birchbox can become a member of this and can
plan, implement as well as manage its marketing activities effectively. This will help it
attracting new customers as well as retain existing ones.
Segmentation, Targetting and Positioning
Customer segmentation in digital and social media marketing – Customer
segmentation can be defined as dividing audience into distinct groups based on various criteria
like demographics, age, gender, level of disposable income etc. Birchbox can segment its
customers by hiring bloggers and influencers who can promote its products. It can do so by
identifying active bloggers and sharing products with them through PR (Mazurek and Tkaczyk,
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2016). Since, different bloggers have their own followers, this will lead to gaining attention and
generating interest among new segment of audience (Segmentation techniques for social media
marketing, 2020). Also, the company should target its customers carefully to make sure that the
products are relevant to the audience.
A proper marketing plan should be developed so that the effectiveness of the various
promotional strategies can be tracked. Thus, incorporating the promotional strategies that are
stated above will help Birchbox in reaching out to new targets as well as retaining existing
customers. This will further lead to an increase in the overall sales and performance in the
market.
Communication Theory
The application of different communication and consumption models in context to
Birchbox are explained below -
Aristotle Model of Communication - This is one of the earliest models of
communication and is a type of linear model. According to this model, the speaker plays an
important role in the process of communication. He first prepares the message or content by
carefully putting in thoughts with the main objective of influencing the listeners or recipients. In
this stage, it is important that the content is attractive and innovative so that it gains attention of
the recipients. Birchbox should create content that has attractive images, words as well as tag
lines and should then be posted on various online platforms, social media being the most
important (Aristotle Model of Communication, 2020). This will attract new customers and they
will gain interest in the company's products. Words should be carefully selected as any kind of
wrong selection of words can lead to disinterest among customers.
While addressing the audience various things should be kept in mind like voice
modulations, eye contact etc. The speaker should focus on providing knowledge relating to the
products of the company during offline promotional activities. Confused looks and blank
expressions can be a complete turn off for the audience (Jiang, Luo and Kulemeka, 2016). Also,
stammering between a conversation can make the audience think that the speaker does not have
adequate knowledge about the products and services of the company. Therefore, Aristotle model
of communication is the most commonly used model in which a speaker send out the
information or message to the audience who in turn respond to it and act correspondingly.
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Shannon and Weaver model – According to this model, the message originates from the
person who has relevant information and is also known as the source of information. The
information then gets transmitted from the brain and then comes out in the form of a signal that
reaches recipient after passing through various barriers (Meier, 2017). Once, the recipient
receives the message or the information, he then passes it on further to others. Birchbox can use
this model to understand how can messages be mixed and misinterpreted in the process of
sending and receiving.
Before consuming a product, customers take into account various factors like price,
packaging, value etc. Birchbox should seek different ways and innovate its products
continuously in order to attract customers. The products that are offered to customers should be
developed while keeping in mind that they are a value add and satisfy the needs and wants of
customers (Rogers, 2016). The products should be packed in attractive packaging so that they
catch the eye of audience. A complete and careful analysis of the consumption process should be
done so that better strategies can be developed in order to retain existing customers for a long
time and also attract new target segments. Also, the target market to whom company wants to
market its products should be constantly engaged by opting various ways so that they don't miss
out any offer or new announcement about the company's products and services. Thus, different
models of communication as well as consumption, if used, can prove to be beneficial for the
company in enhancing its position in the market.
Marketing Mix
Product – Bichbox offers a wide varity of beauty and grooming products to uits
customers like cleansers, moisturisers, make up products etc.
Price – The products are priced at very affordable and pocket friendly rates so that more
number of customers are attracted and motivated to buy the products.
Place – Birchbox deliver its products online through its website both nationally as well as
internationally. This is done in order to increase reach among customers and increase overall
profitability.
Promotion – the company carries out promotional activities through both online as well
as offline channels. Social media is among the most frequently used methods.
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Advertising/ PR
The selected company, Birchbox advertises its products across various offline as well as
digital platforms like social media, television, magazines, event marketing etc. The company also
offers a monthly box of personalised products of haircare, make up and skincare so as to retain
existing customers. In order to attract ne customers, the company can distribute free samples so
that awareness is created in the market.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that an organisation can opt for various
strategies in order to promote its products in the market like content marketing, in-bound
marketing, out-bound marketing, geofencing etc. For the promotional strategies to be effective,
the target market for the products should be chosen carefully. Otherwise, all the promotional
activities as well as the products will not hold any relevance for the customers. Also, there are
various models of communication like Aristotle model, Shannon Weaver model of
communication etc. that can be used by companies to retain their existing customers as well as
attract new ones.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Acar, O. A. and Puntoni, S., 2016. Customer empowerment in the digital age. Journal of
Advertising Research. 56(1). pp.4-8.
Bassano, C. and et. al., 2019. Storytelling about places: Tourism marketing in the digital age.
Cities. 87. pp.10-20.
Dunlop, S., Freeman, B. and Jones, S. C., 2016. Marketing to youth in the digital age: The
promotion of unhealthy products and health promoting behaviours on social media.
Media and Communication. 4(3). pp.35-49.
Jiang, H., Luo, Y. and Kulemeka, O., 2016. Leading in the digital age: A study of how social
media are transforming the work of communication professionals. Telematics and
Informatics. 33(2). pp.493-499.
Mazurek, G. and Tkaczyk, J. eds., 2016. The impact of the digital world on management and
marketing. Poltext.
Meier, L. M., 2017. Popular music as promotion: Music and branding in the digital age. John
Wiley & Sons.
Rogers, D. L., 2016. The digital transformation playbook: Rethink your business for the digital
age. Columbia University Press.
Online
Aristotle Model of Communication. 2020. [Available
through:<https://www.managementstudyguide.com/aristotle-model-of-
communication.htm>.
Segmentation techniques for social media marketing. 2020. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/
ssegmentation-technique-for-social-media-marketing/>.
What Is Content Marketing?. 2020. [Online]. Available
through:<https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/what-is-content-marketing/>.
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