Comprehensive Digital Marketing Plan for Google Merchandise Store

This report details a digital marketing plan designed for the Google Merchandise Store. It begins with a thorough situation analysis, examining both the macro and micro environments, including market trends, buyer personas, competitor analysis using Porter's Five Forces, and a SWOT analysis. The report then defines SMART objectives to guide the marketing efforts, followed by the strategic framework, including the Buyer Persona Spring Strategy Template. Tactics are outlined using a Gantt chart and a risk assessment is provided to anticipate and mitigate potential challenges. The plan aims to boost promotions and sales through a customer-centric approach, leveraging digital marketing tools and techniques to enhance the store's online presence and engagement with its target audience. The plan addresses key elements such as political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors impacting the business and provides actionable recommendations to achieve the defined objectives.

DIGITAL MARKETING &
ANALYTICS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. SITUATION ANALYSIS...........................................................................................................1
Macro Environment.....................................................................................................................1
Micro Environment......................................................................................................................3
Market Trends..............................................................................................................................3
Customer (Buyers Persona).........................................................................................................3
Competitor Analysis....................................................................................................................4
Porter Five Forces Model............................................................................................................4
Suppliers......................................................................................................................................6
SWOT Analysis...........................................................................................................................6
2. OBJECTIVES..............................................................................................................................7
SMART Objectives.....................................................................................................................7
3. STRATEGIES.............................................................................................................................7
Buyer Persona Spring Strategy Template....................................................................................8
4. TACTICS...................................................................................................................................10
Gantt Chart.................................................................................................................................10
Risk Assessment........................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
The digital marketing is one of the new ways for company to attain continued success
(Järvinen and et.al., 2012). Present report deals with Google Merchandise Store selling Google,
YouTube and Android branded apparel, bags and office supplies to customers. In the report,
digital marketing plan has been proposed for company which will further boost promotions and
increased sales. Situation analysis including macro and microenvironment are being made.
Along with it, SMART objectives are explained, and strategies and tactics are made. Buyer
Persona Spring Strategy Template has been filled and action plan has been provided.
1. SITUATION ANALYSIS
Macro Environment
Political: Google Merchandise Store has good collection of branded products; therefore, it is
influenced by political situations in countries. This means that instability may arise because of
legislations and laws (Kaul, 2018).
Opportunity: Stable economy like EU and Asia are better opportunity for company to
attain customers’ attention.
Threats: Stable economies like China supports local e-commerce business which will
lead to high competition while expansion for Google merchandise.
Economic: Every business flourish if the economy is positive but retailing industry can also be
profitable with low economic conditions. Google merchandise will grow fast if the economic
conditions are positive in the areas where it performs the business operations (Xu and Song,
2018). Retailing is a way of offering products & services. Customer purchase from retailers in
any economic condition & sometimes the retail business endures even in the most awful
economic conditions. Economic recession is another major macro environment indicator that
influences Google Merchandise.
Opportunity: Disposable income of consumer is increasing which is a huge opportunity
for Google Merchandise. Increase in disposable income means customers will purchase products
of their choices. It will give companies such as Google Merchandise, Amazon, eBay opportunity
for expanding their businesses.
Threat: Profitable retail industry provides opportunities but not only for Google
merchandise. Therefore, it will increase the competition (Kaufman and Horton, 2014).
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Social: Social behaviours, Trends and Factors can influence performance of Google
Merchandise positively as well as negatively. By allowing people to shop online stores such as
Google merchandise made people lazy. Staying at home while eating junk foods etc, have
negatively influenced health of adults & children. The government is facing a high pressure for
taking strict measure to improve lifestyle of every citizen.
Opportunity: Senior citizens who cannot go outside and walk can use Google
Merchandise which is a great opportunity.
Threat: Increasing health issues related to utilisation of internet can be a threat for the
organisation.
Technological: Technology is a backbone of Google Merchandise; it is focusing on technology
in terms of cloud computing to provide customer satisfaction.
Opportunity: There is a new technological development which can be adopted by Google
Merchandise, the company is planning to use a new delivery system to deliver products to
customer via aerial vehicle known as Drones (Yatsenko and Dmytriyeva, 2018).
Threat: The major threat for Google Merchandise is Cybercrime which can cause
concerns related to sensitive data such as debt and credit cards.
Legal: Google Merchandise needs to comply with various regulations & laws. There are various
legal factors such as Discrimination law, anti-trust laws, consumer protection laws that influence
the organisation.
Opportunity: Counterfeit product regulations are very essential and a demand of
customers. This can be an opportunity for Google merchandise to enhance its efforts to reduce
counterfeit sales upon online platform
Threat: Different Consumer privacy acts can be threat for the organisation.
Environmental: There are various environmental laws which need to be compiled with
organisations operations. Green policy, pollution etc. are influencing the activities of Google
Merchandise.
Opportunity: The organisation is looking to make emission free shipment in few years.
Threat: Most buyers ask for fast delivery which increase the carbon footprints or
emissions
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Microenvironment
Market Trends
Online shopping is increasingly becoming popular as the increase in internet users, people
who are not willing to waste their time they just go online, read some reviews and then buy the
products (Rahman and et.al., 2018). Google merchandiser has quickly become one of the most
leading e-commerce shopping stores. People get everything from baby clothes, Bags, goodies
etc. There are many trends for e-commerce nowadays such as Animation, e-commerce websites
are increasingly using animation, motion to draw attention of the customers and engage the
viewers. Other than this, Influencer marketing is another trend in e-commerce. Social media
influencers are getting savvier by developing partnerships that allows brands to connect with
niche audiences (Sunitha and Gnanadhas, 2018). Native and social shopping is a trend which is
also getting popular nowadays. Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media
platforms are highly used by brands to promote their products in organic and creative way.
Customer (Buyers Persona)
The customer segment of Google merchandise includes 4 major groups which are the following–
1. Loyal customers of Google - Peter parker (30), Lives in London. Working in software,
company. Occupation - Manager, He works on software bought from Google and is a loyal
customer of the brand. Want to gift a t-shirt to his friend.
2. Engineer - Jacob Black (32), Lives in London. Occupation -Senior engineer. Wants to gift a
bag to his colleague.
3. Online teacher - Martha Stewart (30), Lives in Mexico. Occupation - Online teacher. Wants
to gift a bag to her student.
4. Game lover - Mark Henry (27), Lives in London. Occupation - Game designer. Wants to
buy a t-shirt for himself.
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Figure 1: Buyer Persona
Other than the above customer personas there are three categories of customer for Google
Merchandise –
1. Undirected information seeker - People in this group are not familiar or aware of online
business, they are just surfing internet and captured via paid promotion or marketing.
2. Directed information seeker - These group customers’ needs to gain detail information about
the product for which they surf the web purposefully. The information about the product
converts them into directed buyers.
3. Directed buyers - Innovative purchasing system, competitive pricing and fast delivery will
convert this group to purchase product online.
Competitor Analysis
Porter Five Forces Model
1. Competitive rivalry within the e-commerce is high. Google merchandise faces intense
competition in both of its payment business and its marketplaces. The organisation is needs
to compete with both offline as well as online players. Customers have a wide variety of
choices to buy product from such as retailers, distributors and much more (Silva, 2019).
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Buyer
Persona
Loyal
customers
of Google
Engineer
Online
teacher
Game
lover

2. Bargaining power of customers - Customers in every type or kind of business. The high
competition within the e-commerce marketplace is allowing customers to bargain at a great
level as organizations need to keep attractive prices to attract maximum customers.
Customers not only demand low prices, but they also demand for a wide range of products
& services. Their bargaining power is too high.
Figure 2: Porter’s Five Force
3. Threat of new entrants - The intensity level of this force is medium. The e- commerce or
online retail business is classified by low barrier to entry. It’s not so difficult for a new
player to enter into this market but it is not at all easy to obtain brand recognition and again
high rankings on search engines (Guan and Kim, 2018).
4. Bargaining power of suppliers - The bargaining power of suppliers is low for Google
merchandise as there are huge numbers of sellers in the market. The organization can switch
to any other supplier is one increases the cost of goods. Therefore, the suppliers are the one
who needs to compromise.
5. Threat of substitute products - The level of threat due to substitute is very low for Google
merchandise as it manufactures its own product. Other players or organisations can develop
5
Porter
Five
Force
Competitive
rivalry -
High
Customer's
Bargaining
Power- High
New Entrant
Threat-
Medium
Supplier
Bargaining -
Low
Substitute
Product-
Low

a similar product, but they cannot copy the brand name and off course the most popular logo
that makes the products unique (Onyusheva and Seenalasataporn, 2018).
Suppliers
The Google merchandise is manufacturing products on its own, so it does not require any
supplier for complete products. However, the organisation purchases raw materials from
manufactures to develop a final product. Google Merchandise suppliers include Cloth producers,
Manufacturers of Raw material such as polythene, packaging material etc.
SWOT Analysis
Swot analysis is a tool use for analysing the internal environment of an organisation, it
helps to identify or examine the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of an organisation
(Phadermrod, Crowder and Wills, 2019). SWOT analysis on Google Merchandise is discussed as
below –
Strengths – The major strength of Google Merchandise is the brand name “Google”, it is the
leading multinational technology specialised in Internet related products & services. Everyone is
aware of the brand name Google. T has high level of customer base and engagement. The
company is very well settled and already has a huge market online.
Weaknesses – Google Merchandise is blessed with many strengths, but it also has several
weaknesses. A major weakness of this online store is that does not offer much choice to the
customers like other players in the market does. Customers nowadays need variety of products to
choose from. Another weakness of this online retail store is it cannot offer products from all the
segments. It has limited products on the website.
Opportunities –The developing technology is a major opportunity for Google merchandise, the
company can use latest technologies or futuristic technology such as delivery via Drones (Miao,
2013). Other than these customers are getting more and more attracted towards online purchasing
which can increase the sales for the company.
Threats - Increasing competition is the major threat for Google Merchandise store, the
increasing number of online stress, social media influencers, direct seller can be dangerous for
the profit of the company.
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2. OBJECTIVES
This section helps the chosen company to reach their existing customers base and
improve the visibility for the customers. Outlining the SMART Goals is mostly dealing with
engagement metrics to attract the right audience at the right time (Bjerke and Renger, 2017).
With Google merchandising, the ecommerce business is receiving the competitive waves and
thus, their digital marketing strategy must be innovative, interesting and appealing in terms of
gaining the customers attention. Regarding this, the Google being the brand has activated the
analytics to track the checkout funnel and assisting in measuring the overall value, worth and
profitability in making the average sales price for the orders. Moreover, the focus is on giving
something which the other existing ecommerce businesses are not offering in order to mark their
presence feel. They must also think of the rise of social influencers and direct selling tactic that
has put pressure to provide more diversified product portfolios.
SMART Objectives
It must focus on improving the digital marketing plans on continuous basis to reach more
people in less time and also investing in using the social media platforms such as Facebook,
Instagram, email marketing and more to boost their positioning among the already established
giants (Tiago and Veríssimo, 2014). The prime aim is to position themselves among the rival
companies and establish a loyal customer base to have a gripping effect on the sales volume
through incorporating suitable marketing strategies. The following are as follows:
 To increase the sales by 20 % more than the previous year
 To use Google Analytics by activating it appropriately and controlling the tracking on the
goals
 To improve the website traffic by creating customer-oriented quality content and hiring
social media followers
3. STRATEGIES
This aspect is crucial to make the defined objectives of any company reachable and
attainable in the specific timeframe for better optimization of resources and time efficiency.
Strategies would be helpful in making the progression smoother and clearer for better outcomes
(Chaffey and Bosomworth, 2012). Google merchandise store shop must design, assess and
develop some strategies to make a strong impression and use few ways to keep people of any
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genre engaged with the available products and smartly helping them to buy it through creating a
user friendly interface and easier navigation (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis, 2014).
Objectives:
 To increase the sales by 20 % more than the previous year
 To use Google Analytics by activating it appropriately and controlling the tracking on the
goals
 To improve the website traffic by creating customer-oriented quality content and hiring
social media followers.
Strategy:
 Use of Native advertising and social media marketing either through social influencers or
social media platforms to boost the positioning
 By assigning a value to the goal on the Google analytics to generate monetary gain.
Herein the goal funnel is to be considered for the ecommerce checkout in order to keep a
check on number of people moving from or between shopping cart and payment page on
each step
 Implementation of content driven opportunities that aid in optimizing the search engines
and enhance the promotional activities
Key Performance Indicator
 Email marketing campaign that help in giving product information and about new content
to the consumers
 Using all the four ways to keep a track on the objectives via using URLs, Time,
Pages/visit and Events
 Using Ad adverts and collaborating with social media influencers to encourage sharing
and add ‘like’ and ‘follow’ boxes (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019).
Buyer Persona Spring Strategy Template
This is that template that reflects upon the company and customer relations and is mainly
adopted by the organization’s management by analysing the channels, designing the content and
evaluating the data to give the buyers’ persona they desired for (Franklin and Jenkins, 2014). By
8

using this, Google can outline the digital marketing plan in more comprehensive and coherent
order and gain the financial benefits effectually.
Figure 3: Buyer Persona
(Source: Chaffey and Bosomworth, 2012)
Persona 1: Michael Clark, a Software Engineer by profession and aged 26 years is from
Edinburgh. He is looking to innovate and is obsessed with Android application. His passion is to
make an Android world to minimise the distance gaps between people and improve connectivity
on human relations.
Motivation: He is looking for customised products to make a platform only for the
Android lovers to discuss about improvisations and other scope of areas. Along with this,
attracted by the products related to Android and loves to collect it.
Brand Perception and Channels: A Social media freak and is on a constant move on
various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and more.
Persona 2: Celery Burst, an immigrant living in Germany aged 33 years who is a freelancer
content writer. Loves to explore new events, launches and other activities on big giants like
Apple, YouTube, Facebook etc. Moreover, an Instagram influencer and is also running a channel
on YouTube.
Motivation: She is an avid writer who keeps experimenting and uses the vouchers, free
trials etc. from the companies to give something authentic to the readers and has also been
following all the prominent personalities to be updated
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Brand Perception and Channels: She is a prolific activist for the digital world and is
being contacted through mediums involving native advertising, social engagement via Twitter,
YouTube and Instagram, on-site content campaign and email marketing.
Persona 3: Mike Tyson aged 38 and is a working professional in Bank of England. He is into
marketing department with good SEO skills and loves to gift personalised items to the known
ones.
Motivation: He is in the bank sector and thus likes to surf several applications to be time
efficient and browse and compare before any purchase
Brand Perception and Channels: Major contributor is the native advertising and the
social engagement that gives the information in proper ways
4. TACTICS
Gantt Chart
This is the representation of listing the tasks to be performed with the specified time
intervals to monitor and evaluate the overall scheduling of completing a project (Ensmenger,
2016).
ACITIVITIES/
TASKS
MONTH
1-2
MONT
H 3-4
MONTH
5-6
MONT
H 6-7
MONTH
7-8
MONTH
9-10
TASK 1:
Reviewing and
collecting data to
understand the
overall marketing
scenarios when
compared with other
existing rival
companies
10