Digital Marketing Plan for E-commerce Company: LSBF Assignment

This report presents a comprehensive digital marketing plan for a startup e-commerce company specializing in eco-friendly fashion and accessories, utilizing the SOSTAC model for structured analysis. It begins with a situational analysis using Porter's Five Forces to assess the competitive landscape, followed by defining objectives based on the 5Ss of digital marketing (Sell, Serve, Sizzle, Speak, Save). The plan outlines strategies including STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning) analysis and e-CRM implementation. Recommendations focus on tactics and actions related to the 7Ps marketing mix, with an emphasis on product, price, place, promotion, people, and process. The report also details control measures for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the digital marketing initiatives, aiming to build a loyal online community and achieve international expansion with a limited budget. Desklib provides this document and many more for students.

LONDON SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND FINANCE
Digital Marketing Plan for E-commerce
Company
Digital Marketing Communication Assignment
GAMZE YAMAN
21.06.2013

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Executive Summary
Together with the growth of digital media, the intersection of paid, owned and earned media
practices have driven the change in the way business works in recent years. For this reason, this
study critically evaluates effective strategies, tools and approaches for new media for a start-up e-
commerce company focusing on eco- friendly fashion and accessories products. SOSTAC Model is
implemented in order to prepare digital marketing plan for the brand. The first part breaks down into
three main categories; Situational Analysis, Strategies and Objectives with the aim of generally
analyzing the company`s current position and digital marketing communication practices. 5 Forces
framework used to identify e- commerce market`s competitive advantages. 5Ss of digital marketing
implemented to set the business` global goals and KPIs. STP (Segmentation, Targeting and
Positioning) Analysis, identifying web tools providing great opportunities mostly for fashion industry
and e-CRM are used to offer an insight into the second part, where actions, tactics and control are
discussed for further strategies of the brand`s online business. Practices are critically assessed in
terms of 7Ps Marketing Mix supported by new options of e-commerce marketing and suggestions
are given for improvement of these practices.

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Page Index
Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 2
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 4
2. Key Findings .............................................................................................................................................. 5
2.1. Situation Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 5
2.1.1 Five Forces Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 5
2.1.1.1. Buyer Power .................................................................................................................................... 5
2.1.1.2. Supplier Power ................................................................................................................................ 5
2.1.1.3. New Entrants .................................................................................................................................. 6
2.1.1.4. Threat of Substitutes ...................................................................................................................... 6
2.1.1.5. Degree of Rivalry ............................................................................................................................ 6
2.1.2. Brand Perception and Customer Insight .......................................................................................... 6
2.2. Objectives ............................................................................................................................................. 7
2.3. Strategies .............................................................................................................................................. 8
2.3.1. Segmenting, Targeting and Positioning ( STP) .................................................................................... 8
2.3.2. Tools .................................................................................................................................................... 9
2.3.3. Integration ....................................................................................................................................... 10
3. Recommendations .................................................................................................................................. 11
3.1. Tactics and Actions ............................................................................................................................. 11
3.1.1. Product and Psychical Evidence ....................................................................................................... 12
3.1.2. Price ................................................................................................................................................. 14
3.1.3. Place and Promotion ........................................................................................................................ 14
3.1.4. People and Process .......................................................................................................................... 15
3.2. Control ............................................................................................................................................... 15
4. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 16
5. References ............................................................................................................................................ 18
6. Appendices ............................................................................................................................................ 20

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1. Introduction
E-commerce sector has been growing at a rapid rate in recent years. There are eight unique
features of e-commerce technology - ubiquity, global reach, universal standards, rich messages,
interactivity, information density, personalization/ customization and social technology that both
challenge traditional business and explain the growth in the e-commerce market (Laudan and
Traver, 2012).
UK has the second largest e- retailer market behind the US, with the forecast to see double-digit
growth year-on-year between 2012 and 2016 (Key Note, 2013). Besides, E-commerce is also
significantly thriving in Australia and Canada, when it comes to English speaking markets (Allen,
2012).
On the others side, The power of digital communication changes how the advertising works and
the key differences of new from traditional media have been defined with five main elements:
Digitality, Interactivity, Hypertextuality, Dispersal and Virtuality (Singh et all, 2012).
Trevz is a new South African brand specializing on eco fashion and accessories. They are
looking for growth globally by targeting Millennials in English speaking countries. Trevz see
digital as the obvious route to international expansion, and they want to allow people to shop
online from anywhere in the world knowing that a % of profits gives back to charity for
vulnerable children in South Africa and creates a job.
In this case, the study analyses the targeting market of the company and creates a strategy and
plan in order to build and leverage their community of loyal followers online with a limited
budget.

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2. Key Findings
2.1. Situation Analysis
2.1.1. Five Forces Analysis
Porter (2008) claimed that Five Forces Model focusing on five aspects is a useful analysis to all
the business and organizations when overall scanning the industry`s current profitability
structure and determining the industry competition intensity (Porter, 2008). Trevz is a new brand
which wants to enlarge its business globally. That is why, despite of some limitations of the
model such as focusing on only external factors and assuming static market structures, Five
Forces is a powerful framework to show how attractive the industry to the Trevz company in an
international environment. Furthermore, the model applying for online retailing sector is also
valuable for the company to implement long- term digital marketing strategy in order to build and
maintain competitive advantage in the long-run.
2.1.1.1. Buyer Power
In our case, the key buyers will be taken as end-consumers. As shown in the Appendix 1, high
tendency to switch in the sector is one of the important drivers to increase the buyer power.
Although price sensitive shoppers search for the cheapest product, concerns about misuse of
financial and personal data increase their loyalty to trusted retailers. Furthermore, offering wide
product range in different sectors helps to decrease total power because of increased customer
base (Market Line, 2012).
2.1.1.2. Supplier Power
While analyzing e-retailing sector, Information Communication Technology (ICT) systems are
taken as key suppliers. Furthermore, Trevz is a startup company aiming promotes its local
designs to a worldwide audience by giving them an online exposure. Therefore, they will not
only be considered as players but also will be taken as suppliers by selling their products to
other online retailers.
As shown in Appendix 2, high importance of quality/ cost because of need to have reliable ICT
increases the providers` powers.

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On the other hand, together with high player dispensability in the sector, selling products to a
diverse variety retailers boost supplier`s power. However, losing revenues from big player could
considerably affect supplier`s profit.
2.1.1.3. New Entrants
Although competition in the market is increasing day by day, high supplier and distribution
accessibility, low fixed costs and little regulation shows that there are a few entry blocks to the
sector (see Appendix 3). Also, there are not many differentiated products in the in the sector.
Therefore, smaller firms may enter the market with niche products. Moreover, despite current
recession, there is an attractive opportunity to potential new entrants as consumers spend low
at these times.
2.1.1.4. Threat of Substitutes
Online retailing does not provide direct interaction of customer and seller and bargaining does
not exist. That is why, many customers prefer to buy physically compare to online so as to enjoy
the benefits of trying the product, like clothes etc. Also, another disadvantage of e-retailing is the
fact that delivery time can be in days or weeks which one cannot wait for the ordered product.
Nevertheless, low cost switching; cheap alternative and beneficial alternatives increase daily
number of customers buying online (see Appendix 4).
2.1.1.5. Degree of Rivalry
Market is strongly fragmented with several numbers of big brands having powerful online global
presence. Strong position of these players, as well as the low switching costs and low cost of
sales capacity are the main drivers that increase the rivalry, whilst low fixed and storage costs
and dynamic market revenues in recent years decrease rivalry to an extent (see Appendix 5).
2.1.2. Brand Perception and Customer Insight
To create a sustainable business model, Trevz use recycled materials for their products and
they aim to create jobs and give back to charities by selling their products. They, additionally,
target conscious “New Generation” profiled to be between the ages of 16 to 29. They also use

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“Walk with Soul” tagline. Therefore, their brand values can be listed as follows, eco- friendly,
socially responsible, sustainable, locally grown, trendy and innovative.
According to BBMG Conscious Consumer Report, health and safety, honesty, convenience,
relationships and doing good are five main drivers motivating social-minded customers to
purchase. Also, the report claims that these customers prize more deeper and meaningful
relationships and they value transparency, accountability and authenticity (Bemporad and
Baranowski, 2007). Besides, one study suggest that Gen Y consumers are having more positive
attitudes toward fashion brands when social responsibility projects are clearly communicated
(Hyllegard et all, 2011).
2.2. Objectives
The 5Ss of digital marketing is a simple and comprehensive starting point enables marketers to
set their goals by covering several measures (Chaffey, 2010). Therefore, in line with situation
analysis, Trevz`s objectives are identified and in particular goals for the online revenue
contribution are set using 5Ss as below;
Sell: Increase online sales by acquiring more customers.
- Increase Conversation Rate
- Increase Average Order Value
- Decrease shopping Cart Abandonment Rate
Serve: Increase customer satisfaction in order to create repeat purchase intention
- Reduce number of complaints
- Increase the percentage of people responding with a positive comment
- Achieve a high Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- E-mail open and conversion rate
- Achieve a high My Account Usage and My Account CTR
- Increase Social Media Reputation (SMR) Score
Sizzle: Expend their brand presence and eco- friendly brand awareness online among new
generation and increase site stickiness
- Achieve top position in Search Engine Results Page (SERPS)

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- Achieve a high Click through Rate (CTR)
- Increase traffic to social media pages
- Decrease the landing page bounce rate
Speak: Get closer to customers by increasing dialogue and participation
- Increase Social Media Engagement ( SME) Score / “ Talking About this Score ”
- Achieve a high number of feedbacks via Trevz website
- Increase e-mail subscriptions
- Increase the number of total contributors ( and % active contributors) and visits from high
score customers
Save: Save money by using pay for performance digital media channels
- Decrease the cost per acquisition
- Achieving a low cost per referrer visits
2.3. Strategies
2.3.1. Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning (STP)
Different kind of literatures claim that although most of consumers access the internet regularly,
users do not form one homogenous group as they have divergent purposes (Kau et al., 2003;
Mathwick, 2001; PewInternet and American Life Project, 2010) . Also, it has been stated that
behaves of online shoppers differ from traditional channel consumers (Chatterjee, 2010). For
this reason, Trevz need to segregate the customer base into segments by using their site
analytics so as to target each segment with specific online positioning. To achieve effective
positioning there are several segmentation strategies. For example, Trevz should segment their
customers in terms of their interests and preferences, so if customers interested in sunglasses
and watches are price sensitive, they can target this group with the related promotion offers.
Also, site history help Trevz identify their loyal buyers. For instance, by this way, they could
analyse if customers’ purchases are triggered due to a promotion, price reduction or customer
service and segment their repeat customers according to these rewards. Moreover, Trevz also
target their inactive customers, who have not returned since they bought a product from their

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sites long time ago, with the proper set of promotions and campaigns. Another important
strategy for segmenting online customers is analysing their browsing devices and identify where
they come from to their page as it enable them to lead users to relevant pages.
2.3.2. Tools
There are a number of different forms of online marketing such as display ads, video ads,
search engine ads, referrals, e- mail marketing. They provide greater opportunities for
interactivity- two-way communication between advertisers and customers. Nonetheless, Laudan
and Traver( 2012) claim that concerns about its costs versus its benefits and how to adequately
measure its results are main drawbacks of online advertising (Laudan and Traver, 2012).
Therefore, Trevz need to identify key traffic sources in fashion market and they should confirm
that they deliver their campaigns to their niche target consumers with the desired reach and
frequency.
According to E-commerce Fashion Report (2012);
- Search Engines ( paid and organic) account for major percentage of total traffic
- Direct traffic is relatively low when it compares to other online retail industries
- Social media and viral play a much bigger role in this industry than in retail average
- Email marketing still creates more traffic than social media
Many studies suggest that using social media for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
campaigns creates a platform to effectively communicate their activities, increases the positive
responses of the consumers to the brand, and support the active engagement of consumers to
the brand (Jeong, 2012).
Also, affiliate marketing is a great way for start-up fashion brands to develop their brand
advocates and strength their brand awareness (Heathcote, 2013).
Taking into account all of these, Trevz should more focus on search engines, e-mail marketing,
social media and affiliate marketing.

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2.3.3.Integration
Relationship marketing is not only make customers think you are a good supplier, but also make
them value their relationship with you to the extent that they would not normally perceive any
other supplier by way of aligning the enterprise with the expectations of certain customers (
Gordon, 1998). With the advance of technology, relationship marketing also offers new
alternative and opportunities and it today involves much more than promise fulfilment with three
pillars: Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Customer Experience Management (CEM)
and Customer Collaboration Management (CCM) (Strauss and Frost, 2011). Trevz set their
objectives according to 5Ss in which Speak and Serve play vital role. Also, as we mentioned
before, Trevz`s customers are more likely to be attracted by building and maintaining strong
relationship. Therefore, it is important for Trevz to manage customer information, customer
experience and collaboration effectively in order to enhance the value of its relationship..
Glazer (2002) described CRM as ‘information-enabled relationship marketing (Glazer, 2002).
But then eCRM, which have features such as relational databases, data warehousing, data
mining and internet delivery channels, recreate old fashioned relationship and customize and
enhance personal relationship with customers (Chen and Chen, 2004). For this reason, Trevz
should improve its eCRM activities by collecting, storing and analysing data, communicating this
customer- centric strategy across the organization and focusing on maximizing customer value
in long- term. Also, CRM is based on trust and according to Five Forces analysis; concerns
about misuse of personal data are increasing in e-commerce sector. Therefore, Trevz should
make their customers believe that their data will be used responsibly.
Customer Experience Management (CEM) improves the customer experience with the process
of understanding consumer`s perceptions about and interactions with the brand (Schmitt, 2003).
Trevz’s e-commerce website, journey blog and Facebook and twitter social pages are the
interfaces where the company interacts with its customers. Therefore, Trevz should use
content marketing strategy on these interfaces by managing their social responsible value
proposition as the customer`s perceive. Also, they should map actual customer experiences
using web analytics in order to optimize key touch points. Besides, let customers be involved in
Trevz company decision making process and engage them in a collaborative conversation is a
key strategy to support their CRM strategies. Thus, Trevz should run its public and private

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online communities in order to listen to their customers much better than ever before and create
more collaborative experience. Moreover, these three pillars should be controlled by Trevz while
identify their e- marketing mix.
3. Recommendations
There are several various methods to prepare a digital marketing plan. For example, Pickton
and Broderick (2005) introduced RABOSTIC model stand for the eight stages; research and
analysis, audiences, budget, objectives, strategy, tactics, implementation, control (Pickton &
Broderick, 2005). On the other hand, The SOSTAC model is an on-going cycle having six
stages; in which the first three (Situation Analysis, Objectives, Strategy) are mostly general
analysis and the second three (Tactic, Action and Control) approaches to create plan more
specifically ensuring that all relevant factors are considered (Smith and Taylor, 2004). In my
opinion, The SOSTAC planning system is a widespread and simple model covering other
models` steps without excessive and expensive detail. Moreover, Trevz has a limited budget for
promotion for promoting its global organization online. They need to find the optimum spend that
would generate the most profit. SOSTAC Model`s last step (Control) is providing a detailed
performance monitoring and show how business track their progress and know when they
achieve their goals. Therefore, in this part the recommendations are given in this framework.
The half of the model including situation analysis, objectives and strategies has been covered.
In this section, tactic (how Trevz do implement their strategy), action (detailed plan for tactics)
and control stages will be discussed for further promotion of Trevz website.
3.1. Tactics and Actions
Number of scientific papers has been criticized traditional marketing mix paradigm (4Ps) that it
is incompatible with e- marketing, which has some unique characteristics. For example, Bhatt
and Emdad (2001) state that e-commerce marketing provides new options for customised
information that affects traditional product mix, while in terms of place mix, it removes time and
location restrictions. Also, the new marketing has more price transparency and allows marketers
to create more action- oriented, targeted and interactive promotions and compensate the lack of
personalization of traditional concept (Bhatt and Emdad, 2001). On the other side, Mosley-
Matchett (1997) argues that a successful web presence is based on a web site design with

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regard to Marketing Mix of 5W`s stand for Who: Target Audience, What: Content, When: Timing
and Updating, Where: Findability, Why: Unique Selling Proposition content, timing and
updating, findability (Mosley- Matchett, 1997) .Also, Chaffey et all ( 2000) suggests that internet
enable businesses to diverge their traditional marketing mix with six basic elements of effective
site design: capture, content, community, commerce, customer orientation, credibility.
Therefore, it can be said that two of the additional Ps “Psychical Evidence” and “Process” play a
critical role for e-marketing tactics ( Chaffey et all, 2000). Moreover, the 4S model stands for
Scope, Site, Synergy and System has been introduced due to lack of interactivity of the
traditional mix. Site refers to online experiences. System is about technological issues, while
synergy is about integration of the web site with organizational processes and creating networks
of partners who will assist the business activities (Constantinides, 2002). Therefore, it can be
said that the additional Ps; People, Process and Psychical Evidence play a critical role to
implement e- commerce strategies as they are particularly relevant to e-marketing concept.
Thus, the seven element of marketing mix adapted to e- marketing will be take into
consideration while giving recommendations for creating a conceptual basis for designing,
developing and commercialising Trevz`s B2C online projects.
3.1.1. Product and Psychical Evidence
First of all, Trevz need to enrich its core product range (i.e. sunglasses, watches, iPhone case,
t-shirt, shoes) since according to 5 Forces analysis, wide product range decreases buyer power.
For this reason, they should spend more budget on understand their customer needs and
wants. There are several ways they can gather information from their customers. They might
conduct customer survey by asking questions about their products via e- mail and their website.
They should also spend more time to create continuous user-generated content on Facebook
that will facilitate accumulation of knowledge about customers’ behaviours, preferences;
expectations and their reactions to new products. Also, Trevz should more focus on their twitter
page allows acquiring relevant knowledge from customers which they express their
expectations, likes and dislikes about its products. As a result, they should improve their
platforms to gather data from their customers and convert this data to information so as to
develop new more personalized products and improve current ones.