Analysis of Digital Marketing Strategies: Xiaomi and Competitors

This assignment analyzes digital marketing strategies, focusing on three key tasks. Task 1 provides an in-depth analysis of Xiaomi's marketing communications, exploring the influences that led to the student's choice of the brand, including the 4Ps (product, price, place, and promotion), strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Task 2 compares the market positioning strategies of Sainsbury's, Tesco, and ASDA, evaluating their approaches to customer value, pricing, and competition. Task 3 examines promotional activities of fashion brands Zara, Burberry, and Marks & Spencer, comparing their promotional strategies, including their use of digital marketing, word-of-mouth, social media, and traditional advertising methods. The report highlights the effectiveness of each brand's approach and provides a comparative analysis of their success.

Running head: Digital marketing
Digital marketing
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author notes

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Table of Contents
TASK 1......................................................................................................................................2
TASK 2......................................................................................................................................4
TASK 3......................................................................................................................................7
Reference..................................................................................................................................10

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TASK 1
Mobile phones have become a necessity in recent days. The emerging technologies
and increasing craze of mobile phones has provided major opportunity for different brands.
There exist thousands of mobile phone brands in the market; yet, the phone brand that has
influenced me more is Xiaomi. Xiaomi is a Beijing based company founded in the year 2010
(Shih, Lin and Luarn 2014). The company has now present all over the world and providing
different type of product for its customers. Having a mission of providing technological
facility to the world in an affordable price, the company has gained many attentions. The
main factor that convinced me for buying a mobile phone of this brand is the popularity of
this brand, specifications provided by its mobile phone and its affordable price and design.
However, I think that the marketing strategies undertaken by this mobile phone brand is
efficient enough for attracting many customers. The marketing strategy of this organization
mainly focuses on the 4P’s: product, price, place and promotion (Gupta and Dhillon 2014).
The brand value and the experience workforce of this company act as the main source of
strength. In addition, the product quality, design, presentation and price along with the latest
software used in it strengthen its reputation in the market. Meanwhile, the enhancement of
existing and new market, emerging technology and intention of customer to have smartphone
having greater functionality with a minimum price is creating opportunity for this company
(Rawal, Awasthi and Upadhayay 2017). The inefficient after sales service provided by this
brand is creating a major weakness for this brand. The brand has expanded its sales all over
the world and sometimes the rule, regulation imposed by the respective country creates major
challenges for it. In addition, the existing market competition and emerging mobile brands
also creates threat for the business and profitability of this brand.

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Representing itself as the best quality phone available in an affordable price is the best
strategy that makes Xiaomi as the most adopted brand of the smartphone industry. The most
recent technologies and software used in its mobile phones is the key factor that drives the
brand to become more successful. Discussing about its price, I think that, Xiaomi is the only
brand that is providing most affordable price for the smartphones. It sells the products at a
price that covers only the cost of the device other than its cost associated with the production.
The low pricing strategy adopted by this brand has helped it in gathering more number of
customers. Xiaomi has created comparatively higher market presence by opening numerous
outlets all over the world. Not only physical outlets, the brand has also created major trend in
the online marketing as well. Currently, it is planning to expand its business in Philippines
and India (Hyun 2017). Instead of opening number of physical stores, the company is now
focusing on selling the product online. Discussing about its promotional activities, the brand
has focused more on the word of mouth and social media promotional strategies. Other that
these, creating digital campaigns and making advertisements, it has successfully created
effective brand awareness among the customers.
The segmentation of this brand is basically demographic segmentation that focuses on
generation, age and income of the customers. In order to enhance the sales, it also focuses on
the target market (mostly on the customers aging from 18-40). The marketing managers of
this company always analysis the strategies of their competitors for building better marketing
strategies. The main competitors of this brand are Samsung, Lenovo, micromax and Oneplus
(Xu 2015). Currently, the organization is focusing on avoiding various advertising strategies
and emphasizing on social media marketing only. Recent age customers are spending major
amount of time in social media; hence, creating customer awareness regarding the products
using social media is the most efficient way of promoting a product. Xiaomi usually does not
disclose its annual marketing costs or budget. In addition to that, the 7ps of marketing of this

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company emphasizes more on the pricing element of the marketing mix majorly rather than
focusing on any other segment (Lu 2017). Similarly, the target customer segment of this
brand mainly represents the price-conscious consumers who focus on owing the latest
smartphones model with advanced capabilities and functions in an affordable cost. The
unique marketing strategies and most valuable technologies used in its products along with
the price and design used by this brand has influenced me for buying a smartphone of this
brand.
TASK 2
Market Positioning can be explained as the ability of an organization to influence the
perception of customers about a particular brand or product in compare to the existing
competitors (Kwak and Kim 2013). The primary objective of conducting efficient market
positioning strategy is to establish a strong brand image and brand identity of the product
provided by a particular organization; thus gathering higher profit and more market presence
of that organization (Neirotti, Raguseo and Paolucci 2016). Before conducting efficient
market positioning strategy organizations need to perform an internal and external
environmental analysis. In addition, following steps are need to be focus on before deciding
an appropriate positioning strategy for the organization
 Determining the uniqueness of the organization by comparing it with the competitors
 Identification of the recent market position
 Market positioning analysis of the competitors
 Development of proper positioning strategy depending on the nature of the business
(Rodríguez-Díaz et al. 2018)

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I think, along with prioritising the other elements of marketing, every organization need to
put equal focus on market positioning for gathering more profit. The super market brands
which positioning strategies are going to be compare here are Sainsbury’s, Tesco and ASDA.
Sainsbury’s is the third largest super market chain in UK, contributing about 15.3% of
share to the UK market. The main product strategy of this organization focuses on producing
organic products that are rich in quality and available in an affordable price. Apart from food
products, other products of this organization are expanded towards clothing, kitchen and
home appliances and many such (Sainsburys.com 2020). It mainly follow the value for
money method; hence, maintain quality of every product to ensure high customer retention.
Instead of adopting price cutting policy, it focuses on competitive pricing policy for gathering
more profit. Using traditional promotional strategies, it promote the products by posting
advertisements on TV, newspapers and billboards.
Third largest retail chain in the world Tesco provides a wide verity of product such as,
groceries, clothes, different type of home appliances, electronics and many others. It also
provides food products, frozen foods, beverages and different gaming products (Tesco.com
2020). Following the cost leadership pricing strategy, it provides lower price products, yet
maintaining their quality. Using best channels and economics of sales, it has created higher
customer values. In addition, using TV ads, hoardings and different charitable events, it
promotes the products and services.
One of the major competitors of both Tesco and Sainsbury’s is ASDA. The British
super market chain has created a noticeable market presence by providing products like
groceries, clothing, other general merchandise and even financial services, the organization
has successfully established its market position (Asda.com 2020). Adopting the low pricing
policy (mainly the price war kind of strategy) the organization has gained higher market

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attention and customer loyalty. Unlike the above tow super market organizations, it has
expanded its promotional activity towards social media marketing. Following the idea of
“simple and fresh” it is providing qualitative product to the customers and expanding its sales
and market presence. Implementing successful marketing strategies, it has overtaken
Sainsbury’s and has become the second largest super market chain in the UK.
Positioning strategy
Sainsbury’s It focuses on targeting to quality centric market and therefore
pricing strategy of it ranges between medium to high end of the
market. It emphasizes on product price positioning strategy for
creating more customer value.
Tesco It focuses on functional positioning. Accordingly, it uses
product quality positioning strategy and hence produces
qualitative product.
ASDA In order to create higher customer value, it uses competitors
positioning strategy and tries to produce better product than the
competitors.
(Table 1: Positioning strategies of different super market brands)
Looking forward to the above positioning strategies of all the three super market
brands of UK, and comparing all these, I think that, the positioning strategy used by Tesco is
comparatively efficient. This positioning strategy is beneficial for the organization in dealing
with the ongoing market risks, solving problems and collecting favourable perception from
the stockholders investors as well as consumers. Helping the organization in delivering
qualitative products, this positioning strategy is providing benefits of gathering more number

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of customers for the organization. The political, technological, socio-economic factors of UK
is also providing favourable condition for Tesco in enhancing its business and profitability.

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TASK 3
Promotional activities plays a greater role in enhancing the business of an
organization. Not only enhancing the market presence, but also it is beneficial in creating and
maintaining strong brand identity of the product (Todorova 2015). Whole concept of
promotional activity falls into five major categories: sales promotion, personal selling, and
advertising, direct marketing and sponsorship or PR activities. However, all the above
categories are branches of the traditional promotional strategies. With the enhancement of
technological era, organizations are now moving forward to digital marketing or social media
marketing or mobile marketing (Felix, Rauschnabel and Hinsch 2017). Below, the
promotional strategies undertaken by three popular fashion brands are compared.
Founded in the year 1975, ZARA is a well-known fashion brand that has gained
higher customer attention. The key products of this brand includes clothing, shoes,
swimwear, perfumes, accessories and different beauty products. It has more than 6500
number of stores over 88 countries in the world (Zara.com 2020). Using unique business and
supply chain models it has gained higher advantages. Believing in sustainable development
the particular brand is committed to reducing the production wastes and recycles its security
tags and hangers. Following the low pricing policy, it provides the latest fashion at a lower
prices. Discussing about the promotional strategies, the leading fashion brand barely spends
any money on doing advertisements and promoting its products. The unique selling
proposition provided by this fashion brand lies in its wide variety of styles, products, short
processing time and affordable cost. Mainly, it believes in word of mouth promotion and
social media marketing rather than spending money on expensive marketing tools. It uses
different social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for reaching out to
its customers (Nour and Almahirah 2014).

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In this series, Burberry is another reputed fashion brand that is operating in more than
50n countries and has 475 plus outlets. Burberry is considered as one of the leading luxury
fashion brands not only in UK but also all over the world (Burberry.com 2020). The core
products of this fashion brand encompasses clothing, beauty and grooming products and
accessories. Adopting the premium pricing policy, this brand provide qualitative and
fashionable products. Pricing on the product are decided by performing a deeper evaluation
of the competitor pricing and market demand. Unlike Zara, Burberry puts focus on
improvising its promotional strategies. The advertisements done by this brand are mainly
chosen to be placed in several high class magazines for addressing some specific target
audience. The particular fashion brand uses different promotions such as, posting
advertisements on TV, online and using billboards in the marketing mix. In addition to that,
making investments in the digital marketing has helped Burberry to communicate the brand’s
key message to its customers. This marketing strategy helps the brand to use internet and
other electronic devices for promoting its products via different digital channels (Kannan
2017).
Having more than 1463 number of stores worldwide, Marks & Spencer is another UK
based fashion brand that has created wider presence in the fashion industry. The top fashion
brand provides a number of products for all the genders. The core products of this fashion
brand encompasses products like footwear, clothing, bags and other accessories. Other than
providing fashionable products, M&S also provides verity of Foods and also have a Wine
section (Marksandspencer.com 2020). Following the competitive pricing policy, it attracts
more number of customers. However, during the seasonal time it also follows dynamic
pricing policy and provides more discount on its products for gathering more number of
customers. Discussing about the promotional strategies of Marks & Spencer, it selects its
marketing and promotional strategies carefully. Aligning its advertisement campaign along

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with the digital marketing strategies, this organization has enhanced its sales to a greater
extent (Ryan 2016). M&S focuses on giving a common message on every communication
mediums. It uses print media, TV ads, as well as mobile marketing and social media
campaign for creating customer awareness. Using its own website, it helps the customers in
finding the desirable product in an efficient manner.
Overviewing different promotional strategies of the above discussed fashion brands, it
can be said that the promotional strategies used by M&S is efficient one. Promoting the
products using both social media marketing and mobile marketing, this fashion brand has
achieved higher market presence and recognition. Meanwhile, it can be recommended that
Zara should put more focus on enhancing its promotional activities. Using digital marketing
and digital campaigns, the market presence of Zara will be more visible and profit of this
organization can also be enhanced.

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