Digital Marketing's Role in UK Clothing Sector Business: A Study

This report investigates the opportunities presented by digital marketing for the UK clothing sector's international business operations, focusing on Rowlinson Knitwear as a case study. It examines various types of digital marketing strategies, including social media marketing, and their potential benefits. The report also identifies challenges faced by businesses when expanding internationally and recommends solutions to overcome these obstacles. A mixed-methods approach, incorporating both primary and secondary data, is employed to analyze the research questions. The findings highlight the importance of digital marketing in achieving business goals, increasing customer reach, and improving efficiency in the competitive global market. The research concludes with recommendations for Rowlinson Knitwear and suggests areas for further investigation.

TO IDENTIFY THE OPPORTUNITIES OF DIGITAL MARKETING IN
FLOURISHING BUSINESS OPERATIONS AND ACTIVITIES OF THE UK
CLOTHING SECTOR AT THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL

ABSTRACT
Purpose: The main purpose of undertaking current investigation is to analysis about the role of
digital marketing in flourishing business operations and activities of UK clothing sector at
international level. Further, this project also includes and comprise of a discussion about the
types of digital marketing and challenges that could be faced while flourishing business
operations and activities along with recommend ways that helps in overcoming the challenges to
have better business operation and activity.
Findings: The importance of Digital Marketing in our world of ever-changing business
environment, cannot be overemphasized. It plays a critical role in the success of an organization.
it helps an organization in achieving its local and international goals through more efficient ways
to reach an organization customer base. Making an organization more efficiency which is a
success factor in today’s business world.
Analysis: This paper explores critical ways in which to identify the opportunities of digital
marketing in flourishing business operations and activities of the UK clothing sector at the
international level and ways in which it can be used or corrected as appropriate according to
Rowlinson Knitwear organizational needs.
Methods: In the present research the researcher has used quantitative research method on the
given topic in an effective manner. The researcher has also used both primary and secondary
method for collecting and analysing information in a more precise and appropriate manner.

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................2
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................5
1.1 Overview of the topic.......................................................................................................5
1.2. Background of the company............................................................................................5
1.3. Research aim, objectives and questions..........................................................................6
1.4. Rationale of the study......................................................................................................6
1.5. Proposed methodology....................................................................................................7
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................................9
2.1. Conceptual framework of digital marketing....................................................................9
2.2. Effective types of digital marketing that Rowlinson Knitwear would be used for
flourishing its business operations and activities at the international level..........................11
2.3. Benefits of using Social media marketing for Rowlinson Knitwear.............................16
2.4. Challenges faced by Rowlinson Knitwear while upgrading its business operations and
activities at the international level........................................................................................20
2.5. Conclusion of literature.................................................................................................23
2.6. Literature table...............................................................................................................24
2.7. Reference table..............................................................................................................25
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................................29
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDING.....................................................................34
4.1. Data presentation and interpretation..............................................................................34
CHAPTER 5- DISCUSSION........................................................................................................46
Theme 1: To examine the effective types of digital marketing along with their importance in
flourishing its business operations and activities.................................................................46
Theme 2: To critically evaluate the challenges that could be faced by Rowlinson Knitwear
while flourishing its business operations and activities.......................................................47
Theme 3: To critically evaluate and recommend ways that would be used by Rowlinson
Knitwear for overcoming challenges linked with flourishing their business operations and
activities................................................................................................................................49

CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION......................................................50
6.1. Conclusion.....................................................................................................................50
6.2. Recommendations.........................................................................................................52
6.3. Father implication of research.......................................................................................55
REFERENCE.................................................................................................................................56
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................61
Questionnaire........................................................................................................................61
Frequency distribution table.................................................................................................63

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Overview of the topic
Digital marketing is the effective ways of promoting brand, product or services to the
customers. In addition, it is the advertising and marketing of a person, business, service or
product using online platforms, digital technologies and electronic devices (Kingsnorth, 2019).
There are certain examples of digital marketing such as social media, search engine optimisation,
pay-per-click, email and many other (Akter and Sultana, 2020). In a simple word, digital
marketing is the effective use of the mobile device, internet and many others. It is also called
online marketing that is the effective promotion of brand or product to connect with potential
clients using the internet and many other types of digital platforms (Bala and Verma, 2018). One
of the effective way that company can use to know the benefit that are being get by using digital
marketing in their operation is using BCG matrix (Chiu and Lin, 2019). Using this they can
analysis the product which is gained more popularity and the product which the people do not
like. There are different benefits of digital marketing for an organisation such as low cost,
increased customer base, easy to measure, brand development, precise targeting, increase
customer loyalty with frequent communications, engage the customer at every buying stage,
target at right audience, generate a consistent lead pipeline, optimise and obtain better conversion
rate and many others The Future of Retail Report: Trends for 2022 (shopify.com). Further, various
recent trend has been seen within retail sector that is making it more effcinet such as e-commerce
is becoming more prominent within the retail industry. Along with this, it has been also seen that
the use of the virtual reality and other automated technology has been also been within retail
industry that is helping the retail managers to effectively enhance the shopping experience as
well as lead improved convenience for customers to have higher sales level.
1.2. Background of the company
Rowlinson Knitwear is a chosen leading supplier of personalised school wear. Company
is specialising in manufacturing and selling of knitwear and school wear. It is a medium size
organisation that have manufacture plan, special and personalised knitwear garments for the
school wear market. It was established in 1935 for manufacturing and supplying high quality
garments to independent retailers of corporate-wear and school wear (Rowlinson Knitwear,
2021). Rowlinson Knitwear was incorporated in 1972 with purpose of improving their market

performance and profitability. It is important for the Rowlinson Knitwear to use digital
marketing because it helps them in attracting larger base of customers within minimum time
period. In the current age marketing campaigns requires focus on both traditional and digital
channels with coordination to create seamless and engaging experience for consumers so that
consumer advocacy for the product can be increased. Businesses in the current time have to
refine the usage of variety of channels in order to ensure that they are able to deliver on their
engaging experience to the consumer and offer them exceptional experience through the usage of
multichannel marketing. Here digital marketing plays an important role because it offers the
company variety of engaging and personalized channels to increase consumer satisfaction.
1.3. Research aim, objectives and questions
Aim: To determine the role of digital marketing in flourishing business operations and activities
of UK clothing sector at international level: A study on Rowlinson Knitwear
Objectives:
 To examine the effective types of digital marketing along with their importance in
flourishing its business operations and activities.
 To critically evaluate the challenges that could be faced by Rowlinson Knitwear while
flourishing its business operations and activities.
 To critically evaluate and recommend ways that would be used by Rowlinson Knitwear
for overcoming challenges linked with flourishing their business operations and activities
Research questions
 What types of digital marketing strategies use by company for flourishing its business
operations and activities at the international level?
 What are the benefits of using Social media marketing as a form of digital marketing for
Rowlinson Knitwear?
 What are the issues and solutions associated with succesfull implementation of social
media marketing at Rowlinson Knitwear?
1.4. Rationale of the study
The rationale behind doing this research is to determine the role of digital marketing in
flourishing business operations and activities of UK clothing sector at international level. This is
a main rationale regarding conducting current research (Alam, Wang and Waheed, 2019). This
research is highly important for Rowlinson Knitwear, researcher and students. For researcher,

this research is helps them in improvement of their data collection, time management etc. skills.
These are main skills that helps them in meeting of its personal and professional growth. For
students, this research assists them by improving their understanding regarding the effective
types of digital marketing that Rowlinson Knitwear would be used for flourishing its business
operations and activities at the international level (Wang, 2020). This research is also essential
for Rowlinson Knitwear by providing information about the ways for flourishing business
operations and activities at the international level.
1.5. Proposed methodology
Methodology is the process of gathering as well as analysing data regarding the topic.
There are different methodologies that will be used for collecting and analysing data regarding
the role of digital marketing in flourishing business operations and activities of UK clothing
sector at international level. Within this research primary and secondary method of data
collection will be used. For primary data collection methods questionnaire will be used so that to
gather reliable and transparent information. For secondary research, there are various sources
such as books, journals, articles etc. will be used for collecting in-depth information regarding
the role of digital marketing in flourishing business operations and activities of UK clothing
sector at international level (Alshaketheep and et. al., 2020).
Structure of the report
There are various chapters that helps an investigator in completing each activity of the
research in systematic manner. The structure of the current research is defined below;
 Introduction: This is a first chapter that helps an investigator in developing research
title, aim and objectives. This chapter will help a researcher in including accurate
information regarding the overview of topic, rationale of the research and many others.
 Literature review: This is another chapter that assist an investigator in collecting
secondary information about the topic (Gani and Faroque, 2021). There are several
sources that helps an instigator in gathering data regarding the role of digital marketing in
flourishing business operations and activities of UK clothing sector at international level.
These sources are books, articles, publication research and many others.
 Methodology: There are various methodologies that will be applied within a current
study. These are quantitative and secondary method of data collection, positivism
philosophy, deductive approach etc.

 Results and analysis: This is another chapter that assist in evaluating gathered
information via a research analytical tool (Hollen, 2018). Within this research,
quantitative will be gathered from questionnaire and for evaluating this, thematic analysis
will be applied.
 Conclusion and recommendations: This is a last chapter that helps in concluding
accurate information about the entire activities in systematic manner. This chapter helps
in attaining research aim and objectives successfully (Rangaswamy and et. al., 2020).

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is the systematic process used by an investigator for gathering secondary
information regarding any topic or study. There are various sources such as publication research,
books, articles, journals, magazines etc. These are effective and useful sources used by a
researcher for collecting in-depth and secondary data about the role of digital marketing in
flourishing business operations and activities of UK clothing sector at international level.
2.1. Conceptual framework of digital marketing
According to Bhandari and Bansal, (2018) digital marketing is associated with providing
right tools to the organisation by which they can engage new customers and increase brand
awareness into the market. In the context of fashion retail industry of UK as the competition is
high which means that customers are having numbers of options to make their buying decision
which requires the usage of digital marketing. On the other hand another definition of digital
marketing in context of the fashion retail industry is that do you still marketing helps fashion
retailers attract larger amount of consumers by reaching to them directly and engaging
personalised interactions with the company. This point of view regarding the marketing
conceptual framework looks at there will of digital marketing in increasing direct sales of
companies and helping them improve consumer engagement and interactions. Comparing this to
the previous definition of digital marketing increasing sales of the brand is more important than
increasing brand awareness as it has direct impact on profitability of the company.
According to the Aye Aye Khin, (2020), Digital marketing is also called online
marketing that used by an organisation for promoting their brand, product or service through the
use of internet. In clothing sector of United Kingdom, it is a form of direct marketing that helps
an organisation in connecting their buyers via interactive technologies, which are websites,
emails, online forum, social networks as well as newsgroups, mobile communication, interactive
television and many others. On the other hand the opposite view regarding the abundance of
various channels industrial marketing is that it can also lead to confusion in terms of cohesive
marketing plan of the company and reduce the seamlessness of company interaction with
consumers. According to this point of view variety of channels introduced by digital marketing
can also lead to confusion in terms of the overall marketing strategy as they can do more and

company interact with each other through multiple channels at different points of time an even at
the same point of time.
Digital marketing is a core part for UK clothing sector because with the use of this, they
can easily promote their products or services to the customers and in market place. This will
further assist them in increasing number of customers as well as accomplishing competitive
advantages in successful manner (Verhoef and Bijmolt, 2019). On the other hand another
opposite point of view about the role of digital marketing in the clothing sector is that it is useful
for both small and large businesses in the industry because of its ability to increase targeted
marketing towards specific individual consumer so that their experience can be enhanced.
Conceptual framework of the digital marketing is shown below;
Figure 1: conceptual framework of digital marketing in context with the UK clothing sector
(Source: Aye Aye Khin, 2020)

From the above mentioned conceptual framework, it has been interpreted that digital
marketing is an effective part of the marketing because it helps an organisation in attracting
larger base of customers within minimum time period. There are certain types of digital
marketing such as social media marketing, email marketing and many others (Aye Aye Khin,
2020). All these types have positive impact on an organisation by flourishing their business
operations and activities. The conceptual framework regarding digital marketing presents its
benefits to the clothing retail organisations. However there are various disadvantages associated
with digital marketing which can also have an impact on retailing organisation. The primary
disadvantage associated with digital marketing is that it is a highly dependant marketing method
on technology and latest technological advancements. This has its limitations because the
marketers of retail organisations have to depend on technological advancements and
effectiveness of the technology available to them in order to improve their marketing campaigns
and ensure that consumers received the best experience from their marketing efforts.
2.2. Effective types of digital marketing that Rowlinson Knitwear would be used for flourishing
its business operations and activities at the international level
According to Husain and et. al., (2020), the fashion industry is lucrative in nature which
means that the scope of the industry is wide if appropriate methods are being followed. There are
various British brands those are having strong presence into the market so that in terms of small
and medium enterprises will have to struggle in terms of developing digital marketing strategies
for their organisation. The opposite statement about the competitive conditions in the fashion
retail industry is that high competition supports innovation and is beneficial to the consumers as
they get the best quality products and standards.
As per the viewpoint of Vieira and et. al., (2022), there are various types of digital
marketing tools which can be used by company for flourishing its business operation and
activities at international level. Through digital marketing tools, company can connect with
maximum number of audience by using different forms of digital communication. It has been
also analysed that the implementation and heavy lines on digital marketing can be disadvantages
for businesses because it relies on technological advancement and technological instruct
structures. This requires heavy investment and financial resources so that technological
infrastructure of the company can be improved to meet requirements of implementing this cell
marketing campaigns.

Digital marketing allows company to find new market and expand their business at
international level. It also enhances the brand awareness and profitability of business. Digital
marketing helps in facilitating social interaction and empowers customer to buy the product
effectively (Febrianti and et. al., 2022). Rowlinson Knitwear can use different types of digital
marketing for flourishing its business operations and activities at international level such as
search engine optimisation, pay per click, social media marketing, content marketing, email
marketing, mobile marketing and affiliate marketing.
According to Nash (2018), retail industry is one of the industries which is greatly
dependent over their customers. It is quite significant for retail business to depend upon adopting
several social media marketing strategies because this increases their reach and makes them to
engage large number of customers. Social media marketing is one of the types of marketing
which is great for retail business in this digital world. Social media also helps in maintaining
transparency from the side of retail brands because they generate accurate content for their
customers. Social media marketing can also be damaging for businesses specifically in the
fashion retail industry which is heavily consumer focused because they invite social media
backlashes if the company engages in politically incorrect or social media misbehaviour. This
can affect the bread image of the company and can also lead to failure of the company in terms
of increasing profitability and attracting consumers. In this way the usage of social media
marketing has both positive and negative impact on businesses specifically in the fashion retail
industry.
The explanation about best digital marketing practices is provided below;
Search Engine Optimisation:
Search engine optimisation is one of the type of digital marketing that can be used by
Rowlinson Knitwear for flourishing its business operation and activities at international market.
Through search engine optimisation customers can avail traffic from free, editorial, organic and
natural search results. On the other hand competitor companies are using search engine
optimization for delivering guarantee effective results in terms of consumer retention and gaining
new consumers so that they gain high profits and growth in the market. That is why it is
important for company to use search engine optimisation for improving the performance of
website in order to increase the visibility for customers at the time they search for business
products and services.