Marketing Management & Digital Communication Report: E-Bay Australia

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of E-Bay Australia's marketing management and digital communication strategies. It begins with an executive summary and a brief background of E-Bay's operations in Australia. The report delves into the research methods used to identify the target market, differentiating between primary and secondary data collection techniques. It then presents a current value analysis, highlighting customer perceptions of E-Bay as a reliable e-commerce platform. A detailed value chain analysis is conducted, examining inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing & sales, and support activities. The report also outlines E-Bay's marketing objectives, communication mix, and digital marketing strategy, including a digital marketing plan and budget. Finally, the report concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations for future marketing efforts.

Running Head: Marketing Management & Digital Communication
E-Bay Australia
Marketing Management & Digital Communication

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Executive Summary
E-Bay is the 9th largest internet company in the world which facilitates transaction between buyers
and sellers on its platform. The company was initially started as a company which used was used to
buy and sell the used products, but with the advancement in the technology and growth in the e-
commerce landscape the company started offering new products to its customers. E-Bay Australia
has a target demographic in the age range of 16-60, and due to wide adoption of internet in
Australia, marketing promotion on the digital platforms is more efficient and effective. Further with
the smartphone penetration targeting to the consumers on the go has become easy and E-Bay is
using the advantages of mobile marketing to promote its products to its audience. High targeted
content is distributed to the consumers and the company relies heavily on the concept of
remarketing on the digital platforms. The value chain analysis shows that E-Bay is perceived as a
reliable platform when one looks to go online for shopping. Internet population in Australia is 80%
which is a good advantage for E-Bay to promote its product.

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Table of Content
Brief Background...................................................................................................................................4
Research Methods.................................................................................................................................5
Primary Data Collection.....................................................................................................................5
Secondary Research Methods...........................................................................................................6
Current Value Analysis...........................................................................................................................7
Value Chain Analysis..........................................................................................................................7
Primary Activities...............................................................................................................................8
Inbound Logistics...........................................................................................................................8
Operations.....................................................................................................................................8
Outbound Logistics........................................................................................................................9
Marketing & Sales..........................................................................................................................9
Service...........................................................................................................................................9
Support Activities..............................................................................................................................9
Firm Infrastructure......................................................................................................................10
HR Management..........................................................................................................................10
Technology Development............................................................................................................10
Procurement................................................................................................................................10
Marketing Promotional Plan................................................................................................................10
Marketing Objectives.......................................................................................................................11
Marketing Communication Mix.......................................................................................................11

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Digital Marketing Strategy for E-Bay................................................................................................12
Digital Marketing Plan & Budget.....................................................................................................13
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................14
References...........................................................................................................................................15

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Brief Background
E-Bay is one of the largest multinational e-commerce companies which were founded in the year
1995 by Pierre Omidyer with its headquarters at San Jose, California. E-bay is world’s ninth largest e-
commerce companies by revenue and is one of the front runners who have changed the online
shopping landscape. E-bay started its operation s in Australia in the year 1999 and since then has
swayed the market by storm. People perceive E-Bay as a reliable company which provides great
quality products at a reasonable price with fast delivery. The company employees more than 12,000
employees and earned a revenue of US $8.97 Billion in the year 2016(eBay, 2017). Another
astonishing part about E-bay is that it started with selling used products but later it forayed in the
market by selling new products. E-Bay works with a marketplace model rather than inventory model
in online selling, this helps the company in saving the costs by holding no inventory and thus it helps
the company to keep a close tab on the suppliers. One of the high points of E-Bay is its sellers, it has
a good qualifying criteria set up for its sellers who are listed on the website (Daim, Brand & Lin,
2013)
The purpose of the report here is to focus on the research methods used to identify the target
market of E-Bay and provide insight on the current value analysis of the company, further, an
analysis of the current marketing strategies adopted by the company will be conducted along the
marketing and promotional plan for E-bay. The report will also help to analyse the brand value of the
company and the perception it has in the minds of its Australian customers.

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Research Methods
Marketing research is the process of collecting and gathering data about the companies in order to
assess the target market, find the underlying customer value about the company, gather relevant
information about the competitors and use the data collected to design the future value proposition
for the company. Marketing research helps in targeting the right set of customers with the right
marketing strategy and deliver them the product and services they desire the most. It basically sets
the tune of the company in consensus with the needs of the consumers (Churchill & Lacobucci,
2006). In order to collect the data, there are primarily two types of methods which can be used:
Primary Data Collection
This can be understood as the process of gathering new information which is highly specific and in
accordance with the objective of the research methodology. The goals which are identified by the
organization are further broken down to fit in the research process to achieve the intended

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outcomes. Surveys, focus groups and questionnaire are a good primary source of collecting the data.
The process of collecting primary data is lengthy, time consuming and costly, but at the same time it
helps in achieving fresh insight about the company product or the services (Belk, 2007)
Questionnaire are an excellent method of collecting primary data, but it is often difficult to design at
the very first go before creating an acceptable questionnaire which would lead to highly specific
results. Questionnaire is both open ended and closed ended; both types of questionnaire have their
relative importance. If the company is looking for specific information, bullet points they go for
closed ended questionnaire and when the company wants detailed view points of the customers and
are interested in detailed information, they go for open ended questionnaire. It can be both mailed
to the sample population or can be collected personally by the sample population (Kuhfeld, 2005)
Interview is another method of primary data collection which is used to develop an understanding of
the underlying reasons and motivation for people’s attitudes, preferences and behaviour. Interviews
have with it an option of either conducting them on one to one basis or in a group, another
advantage of interviewing is that it can be conducted in any environment wherever the candidate is
comfortable; it does away with the environmental bias. The interview can be structured,
unstructured and semi-structured depending upon the objective of the research (Sekaran & Bougie,
2016)
Another contemporary mode of primary data collection which is highly targeted, specific and
information oriented is Focus group interviews. It is the type of interview which is conducted by a
good trained moderator in a highly non –structured but natural manner with a small number of
respondents. It is the moderator who leads the discussion and tries to collect the information
relevant to the objective. The prime purpose of the focus group is to gather insight by listening to a
group of people from having highly target talk about the specific issues of interest (Bryman & Bell,
2015)
All these methods are a collective source of information to provide information about its target
market and how customers perceive E-bay and product offerings. It helps E-Bay to design strategies
in and around its customer base.
Secondary Research Methods
Secondary research methods or data collection method is the one in which the information is
already collected and is available online for the use of the companies. It is an already prepared data
and is available for the access of the companies (Hair & Lukas, 2014). It helps in aiding the current

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research process and saves a lot of time and money for the organization. There are two sources of
secondary data collection; internal database and external database. Internal database can be
achieved from the already existing customer database, sales records and financial information. The
source of external database is trade journals, professional associations, government publications,
commercial data and national and international enterprise. E-Bay used both internal and external
data to understand the target market, their preference, likes and dislikes etc. Online reviews of the
customers on the website are a good source of internal secondary data collection (Hair, 2015)
Collectively both Primary and Secondary source of data collection provides in depth insight to E-Bay
to assess its target market, its value proposition, the attitude, behaviour and perception of the
consumers and the result of its marketing strategies.
Current Value Analysis
E-Bay as one of the largest Multinational e-commerce companies has set itself apart than its
competitors. E-Bay focuses on benefitting the society and facilitates transactions in the marketplace;
it basically provides platforms for the sellers and buyers across the globe. The company was formed
initially to facilitate the sale of used products, but after understanding the pulse of the market they
moved into the conventional mode of selling new products on its website Customers perception of
E-Bay is that of a e-commerce company which is characterized by :
Good quality of Products: E-Bay ensures and maintains a good quality of product by carefully
selecting the suppliers who are listed on its portal. It also has special incentives for sellers who are
being rated exceptionally good by the customers based on the reviews.
Wide range of Products: E-Bay tries to offer depth in its existing product line and keep adding new
sellers on the board with wide range of products.
Excellent service quality: E-Bay believes in having customer centric approach and it treats all the
customers same irrespective of their ticket size. The mission of E-Bay is to create an online
environment of delightful shopping.
Adhering to the SLA in timeline: E-Bay has set up a Service Level Agreement with the sellers listed
on the platform and does its best to adhere to timelines it has promised to its buyers.

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Value Chain Analysis
Value chain analysis can be understood as a strategic tool which helps to identify the business
activities which are important to create value and competitive advantage to the business (Miles,
2015) the diagram below shows the framework of Value chain analysis:
Primary Activities
Inbound Logistics
It refers to the ways in which E-Bay acquires and stores the raw materials used for the business. E-
Bay acquires servers for its data and support, materials for office supplies and other technological
products which help in business operations. E-Bay achieves economies of scale owing to its massive
business operations and it is one of the major sources of its inbound logistic. E-Bay also makes
strategic relationship with its suppliers to tighten its inbound logistics (Mudambi & Puck, 2016)
Operations
E-Bay is an e-commerce company and hence its operations move around technology. The range of e
bay technologies and services are divided in three platforms:
Marketplace: It refers to the online marketplace and it has more than 700 million listing on its portal
at any given time.
Stat Hub: It is a platform which facilitates the buying and selling of tickets to the concerts, games,
theatre shows and so on.
Classifieds: It is a collection of brands which is listed on the portal.

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The complete range of business operations of E-Bay Australia are:
 Registering the sellers on the website
 Bidding by buyers for a product offered
 Successful bid by the buyer
 Buyer paying to the bank via Paypal and other options
 Notification to e-bay by the bank on the buyer purchase.
 Notification to the seller by e-bay on the amount transfer
 Delivery of product from seller to buyer
 Acknowledgement to e-bay by the buyer
 Passing seller account to the bank by e-bay
 Seller getting paid by the bank
Outbound Logistics
Outbound logistics in the case of E-Bay refers to its practise of delivering the products to its
customers. E-Bay does not deal with the retailers and wholesalers due to its business model. The
responsibility lies on the seller to ship the product to the consumers. The company does not have a
logistic team of its own and is hence dependent on the third party vendors. This it has to keep a
close tab on the third party vendor. Recently the company got in partnership with Uber Rush for
efficient shipment of the products.
Marketing & Sales
The marketing and sales expense of E-Bay has reduced significantly in the last few years. In the year
2015 there was a decrease by 7% in the expenses in comparison to the FY 2014. The company had a
solid advantage over its competitors when PayPal was with E-Bay, but after the separation the
company is on its own and relies on the tools of social media for its marketing and sales promotion.
Service
E-Bay has a +1800 number which users can call 24*7 to address their concerns, query or grievances
to the customer care department. The customer care team is well trained to handle and manage the
concerns of the customers and are well versed with the concept of service quality. At the same time,
E-Bay encourages sellers to give great customer services in order to manage a positive reputation for
the company.

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Support Activities
These are the activities which help as support system for the primary activities performed by E-Bay
Firm Infrastructure
E-Bay is an online marketplace connecting buyers and sellers and hence its firm infrastructure
consists of a central customer data warehouse to store all the information. It also uses cloud
technology to store the information on the customers and seller data.
HR Management
E-Bay offers unique benefits to its employees. E-Bay believes in the reasoning that if you keep the
employees happy they will treat the customers happy. By offering various incentives and fringe
benefits to the employees an environment of Harmony is created at the workplace.
Technology Development
E-Bay keeps investing on its cloud platforms and spends lavishly on its servers. A huge amount of
money is spent to keep the servers safe and prevent any digital theft and so on. The business of E-
Bay is technology dependent and hence it spends sizeable revenue towards the tech development of
its infrastructure.
Procurement
E-Bay does not have followed an inventory based model and hence it does not use warehouse to
store inventory. It though keeps a tab on the sellers listed on its platform through an efficient
supplier chain selection to take care of its other procurement needs.
Marketing Promotional Plan
E-Bay is a well-established name in the Australia market and has earned a reputation of a reliable e-
commerce platform since its inception in the year 1995. The company has maintained its position in
the Australian market by providing efficient services to its customers with assured quality. E-Bay
focuses on building communities through its portal, unlike other competitors which are focussed on