Digital Marketing Plan and Recommendations for Michelle's Costumes

This report, prepared as a digital marketing consultant's guide, addresses the owner of Michelle's Fancy Dress Costume outlet in Newcastle. It outlines the importance of digital marketing for brand development and provides strategic recommendations. The report begins with an introduction to the business, contextualizing it within the competitive market and highlighting the need for a strong brand identity. It then explores the theoretical framework of brand development and underscores the significance of digital marketing strategies in achieving business objectives. The core of the report involves a detailed analysis of the business and market environment, competition, and the firm's objectives, followed by a discussion of the methodology used, including the application of network theory to understand consumer behavior. The analysis section emphasizes the value creation through digital marketing, the benefits of online marketing, and a discussion of the importance of search engine marketing and social media marketing. The report concludes with an evaluation of different digital marketing tools and provides recommendations for Michelle to effectively manage and enhance its brand image using digital marketing strategies, specifically focusing on search engine optimization (SEO) and social media platforms to drive traffic, build brand awareness, and increase customer engagement.

Digital Marketing

Disclaimer
I certify that this report is based on my own work based on personal research and study with
regard to the real-life example. I have acknowledged all the sources and material used for the
preparation of this report. This assignment is free from plagiarism as I have not copied in parts or
whole report from the work of other students. I have followed all the instructions provided by my
unit coordinator.
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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Background: Michelle’s Fancy dress costume outlet in Newcastle.............................................................4
Business and market environment...............................................................................................................5
Competition.................................................................................................................................................5
Objectives of the firm..................................................................................................................................5
Problem.......................................................................................................................................................7
Methodology...............................................................................................................................................7
Analysis.......................................................................................................................................................8
Evaluation.................................................................................................................................................10
Recommendations.....................................................................................................................................12
Summary...................................................................................................................................................13
References.................................................................................................................................................15
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Introduction
The brand is a name, sign, symbol or any element that differentiate the company from its
competitors. Michelle fancy dress costumes also need to develop its brand identity to
differentiate its products from those of competitors. The brand development is the process with
the help of which it will be analyzed that how the customers perceived the brand of Michelle
products. This report outlines the importance of digital marketing in the field of building the
brand identity of the products or services offered by the outlet of Michelle. The main objective of
writing this letter is to provide the recommendations to Michelle in context to develop and
manage the brand image of its business using digital marketing strategies. This report also aims
to provide theoretical prospects as well to understand the importance of brand management while
establishing a new business in the market(Isoraitė, 2016). The purpose of this report is to provide
some suggestions to the Michelle business as a digital marketing consultant and this will include:
 Introduction of the business that established by Michelle
 The theoretical framework of brand development
 Importance of using Digital marketing strategies
 Recommendations for Michelle in relation to managing its brand image by making use of
digital marketing strategies
This report addresses to the owner of the Michelle fancy dress costume shop which explains the
important elements of digital marketing to meet the online objectives of the company.
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Background: Michelle’s Fancy dress costume outlet in Newcastle
From the case study, it was clear that Michelle has a great experience in the field of theatre and
movie industries for over 20 years. After working in the movie and theatre industry, she came up
with an idea to start her business of fancy costumes on rent and selling of the accessories. The
funds to establish a fancy dress costume shop has been arranged from its family and savings.
The shop is located in metro centre in Newcastle. The outlet named as “Michelle’s Fancy Dress
costumes” is offering a wide range of the costumes on rent in relation to the popular themes such
as Movie and TV characters, sports, superheroes, villains, Music and sports. From the case study
analysis, it is found that Michelle needs to develop and manage the brand image of its business
by adopting digital media marketing strategies(Elisa & Gordini, 2014). The company can easily
cater to the different markets where consumers can hire fancy dress costumes for different
purposes such as fancy dress shows, parties and events. Digital marketing is found to be the most
effective and cost-effective way of marketing and developing the brand image of the products
offered by Michelle fancy dress costumes.
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Business and market environment
There is a greater demand for the costumes during the Halloween season and it is found that
many consumers have a need for the fancy dresses throughout the year such as the movie and
theatre companies. It is analyzed that most of the consumers have need to shop for fancy dress
costumes at least once a year. The target for the Michelle business is the bulk of business
organizations such as theatre groups, schools, musicians, sports and Movie production houses.
The growth potential for a costume rental business is very high, as it will continue to rise because
of the existence of high demands. Michelle’s business outlet has also the potential to grow on
national as well as international levels(Iajoraita, 2017).
Competition
The competition is the most important factor that must be considered while establishing a
business in any market. From the analysis, it is found that the competition in the field of fancy
dress costumes business is high. There are many competitors of Michelle that exist in North East
of England. Michelle’s fancy dress costume business may have to face the huge competition
from various companies such as Smiffy, magic box, Fun Shack and UK party stores.
Objectives of the firm
The objective of the Michelle fancy dress costume outlet is to target the large business
organizations and build a strong brand image of the firm. Michelle’s main focus is on holding the
attractive market share by tapping the bulk of business organization and through its unique
customer services. Brand development is the only objective for any new business. This objective
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of the firm can only be achieved by adopting the online as well as offline marketing strategies.
Internet marketing is the most effective tool, which would be used to develop a strong brand
identity and loyalty in the market. If Michelle would work on its digital marketing planning, then
there is a possibility that the company can achieve its objectives and great success in the coming
time period(Corley, et al., 2013).
Branding will give a unique identity to Michelle’s business so that the products can be easily
identified among the different available products.
There are four elements of the brand development that represented in the picture including brand
identity, brand image, brand position, brand equity. All of these are important for Michelle to
achieve great success in the future(Išoraitė, 2017).
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Problem
The problem that identified in context to the Michelle is that she has no experience of using the
internet for marketing purposes. This is the reason that Michelle took a decision of not selling the
products online. The lack of knowledge and experience of Michelle is basically the main
problem due to which reason there is a need to pay attention to the digital marketing strategies
for the success of business in the future.
Methodology
According to the network theory, it is important to build relationships of all types and it is a great
tool, which can be used to understand the importance of developing the networks and its
influence on the behaviour of the people. Many researchers also found that it is impossible to
analyze and predict the success of business products without understanding the influence of these
products on the behaviour of the people and their decisions. Therefore, digital marketing concept
can be considered as a useful tool in this regard because they will allow the business
organizations to actively understand the consumer’s behaviours. However, in context to Michelle
fancy dress costumes outlet, they also have the power to understand and listen to their consumers
actively and allow marketers to leverage the power of users to spread the messages throughout
the networks(Yuvaraj & Indumathi, 2018). Therefore, the Network theory studies the
relationships between the people and the products offered by the companies. This theory has
been applied to understand to importance of digital marketing in building the relationships with
customers and developing the strong brand image of the products.
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Analysis
It is a fact that the Internet is a global network that connects different individuals and entities. On
the basis of this logic, it can be said that digital marketing has both international as well as direct
marketing features. Being a digital marketing consultant for Michelle, it is analyzed that the
internet is an easy way to target the audience. Michelle outlet of fancy dress costumes can create
more value and personalized relationships with the consumers, which would result in increasing
the customer base, their involvement and satisfaction levels. As per the analysis, digital
marketing is considered as the best way for value creation and value exchange for Michelle. The
digital marketing would provide an opportunity for Michelle to develop relations with the
consumers on the social networking sites that will lead to the mutual exchange of the value(Jones
& Beneke, 2016). There are five main dimensions for Michelle fancy dress outlet business to
create value for its products. These five dimensions are:
 Michelle needs to bring some tangible benefits to the consumers
 Strong value-added brands need to be developed and maintained by Michelle’s outlet
 There is a need to adopt new marketing techniques for achieving the overall objective of
the firm
 The marketing return on investment must be ensured
 Michelle requires to carry out the socially responsible marketing which means that they
must take into consideration the ethical practices
Some of the benefits of digital marketing are also analyzed in context of the newly established
business of Michelle. First of all, digital marketing will help in improving the brand image of
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the company by developing strong networks with consumers. Secondly, it is observed that online
marketing always generate new customers’ leads to business. Michelle can gain the benefit of
increasing its customer base by generating more traffic to its online website or online shopping
events. The third benefit of using digital marketing is that the company can easily focus on the
appropriate audience through the process of segmentation. Moving ahead, communication can
also be improved through the digital marketing platforms as Michelle can communicate with its
existing as well as prospective customers. The basic function of digital marketing is to improve
the services and products offered by the organizations and it will lead to increase the sales
through online selling of the products to customers(Vukasovic, 2013).
Furthermore, the problem that identified in context to Michelle is the lack of experience of using
internet for marketing purposes. This is the reason that Michelle took a decision of not selling the
products online. The lack of knowledge and experience of Michelle is basically the main
problem. However, some of the important components of digital marketing which would be most
suitable to meet the online objectives have been analyzed. Internet marketing tools are divided
into different groups on the basis of its scope:
1. Search marketing: This tool of digital marketing involves the SEO (Search engine
optimization) which means to drive the traffic to the website of Michelle by optimizing
the search engines using some search keywords. This tool will provide organic results to
Michelle.
2. Social networking and community-based marketing: Michelle also has the option to
create awareness among people by using this marketing tool, according to which
company can make use of the social networks, blogs and websites for having better
communication with its consumers. Michelle, here, can make use of Word of Mouth
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(WOM) marketing to provide the information to its customers regarding the company and
its product packages(Rancati & Gordini, 2014).
3. External Marketing: This involves the marketing of the products other than the search
engine such as the promotion of products through e-mail marketing, content marketing
and newsletters.
From all of these above internet marketing tools, the best suitable element for Michelle’s fancy
dress costumes business is Search engine marketing. This tool would use to create a quick
awareness of online shopping among the users about the products offered by Michelle. PPC (pay
per click) is reliable in generating traffic to the company website by using different keywords.
The drawback of this tool was that it is a paid and takes longer time for brand development. In
addition, social networking marketing is useful in terms of time and cost-effective. The company
can make use of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and
Instagram(Odhiambo, 2012).
Evaluation
There are many ways with the help of which an organization can build its brand name such as
making use of social media, build a website, boosting up SEO. By doing this, organizations can
spread their messages instantly and they can drive more and more traffic to the website and
social media platforms. Branding is all about social engagement, customer services and
connection with the people and earning the trust of the customers. From the analysis of the
company, it is found that social networking sites are the most useful elements of digital
marketing. The benefits of digital marketing in context to Michelle Business have also been
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discussed in the analysis part. Except the benefits, some of the issues in relation to the content
presentation have also evaluated. Some of the key issue can be the relevance of the content,
completeness, visual presentation of content and language used to present the content. The first
challenge in digital marketing is in understanding the audiences of the business(Jokinen, 2016).
To handle this challenge, it is recommended to conduct the online survey among the customers
to collect the data for the analysis and evaluation purposes. The next challenge that evaluated
digital marketing plans is to create valuable content for websites and social networking posts or
blogs. Content is the most important element in the digital marketing as it is essential for
organizations to clearly describe the message, convey the accurate information about the
products of the company and also delivering value to the readers. To overcome this challenge,
the recommendation is to hire some expert and professional person who can create content for
the business. The overall goal of digital marketing is to generate leads for the website and also
earn the trust of the consumers. Generating leads for business is a very time-consuming activity
and many businesses are struggling to generate leads by developing content for the campaigns. It
is also recommended that Michelle can overcome this challenge by investing in a marketing
automation program to capture the leads quickly. The lack of knowledge and experience of
using digital marketing tools is also challenging for small businesses. Michelle also faced the
similar problem and it is suggested to hire the digital marketing consultant and also seek for
advice from the IT professionals to gain the knowledge and should try to apply the digital
marketing to gain the experience as well as competitive advantages. The digital marketing
would provide an opportunity for Michelle to develop relations with the consumers on the social
networking sites that will lead to the mutual exchange of the value(Ahmed, et al., 2015).
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