Marketing in Digital Age: House of Fraser Strategy Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of House of Fraser's marketing strategy in the digital age. It begins with an executive summary and an overview of the company, followed by a SWOT analysis identifying its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report delves into segmentation, targeting, and the development of a consumer persona. It outlines the brand positioning and addresses the challenges House of Fraser faces, particularly in establishing a strong online presence. The core of the report presents brand positioning and communication objectives, including smart communication objectives. A comprehensive digital campaign is proposed, detailing channels, platforms, messaging, and target audiences. The report assesses the potential impact of the campaign on brand position and aligns it with integrated marketing communication principles. The report's conclusion summarizes the key findings and recommendations for House of Fraser to enhance its digital presence and brand awareness in the UK market.

Running head: MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE
Marketing in Digital age March 19
2019

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 1
Executive Summary
The report is aimed at improving the brand positioning of House of Fraser
Company on the online platform, therefore it is comprised of detailed
brand positioning and communication objective of the company. The
paper has highlighted in detail the present market position of House of
Fraser in the United Kingdom market by identifying different challenges it
is dealing with. The company is failing in establishing its online presence
in the market, therefore, in order to overcome this challenge paper has
presented the brand positioning and brand communication objectives for
House of Fraser for the coming next 12 months. Besides this, the paper
has presented the digital campaign for the company which is comprised of
different channels, platforms, target audience, and advertisement
message that will be used to increase online presence and brand
awareness among customers in the UK market.

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 2
Table of Contents
Executive Summary....................................................................................1
Introduction.................................................................................................3
Overview of House of Fraser....................................................................3
SWOT Analysis.........................................................................................3
The strength of House of Fraser............................................................3
Weaknesses of House of Fraser............................................................3
Opportunities for House of Fraser.........................................................4
Threats..................................................................................................4
Segmentation Strategy............................................................................4
Targeting..................................................................................................5
Consumer Persona................................................................................5
Brand Positioning.....................................................................................6
Challenges for House of Fraser.............................................................7
Brand Positioning Objective.....................................................................7
Brand Communication Objective..............................................................9
Smart Communication Objective........................................................10
Digital Campaign....................................................................................10
Channels.............................................................................................11
Platform..............................................................................................12
Message..............................................................................................12
Audiences...........................................................................................12
Potential Impact on Brand Position........................................................13
Alignment of Digital Campaign with Integrated Marketing
Communication......................................................................................13
Conclusion.................................................................................................14
Reference..................................................................................................15

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 3
Introduction
The report is aimed towards identifying the current challenges House of
Fraser is dealing with in the United Kingdom and the way it can overcome
these challenges. The report will define the brand positioning and digital
marketing campaign that could lead to successfully connecting with the
target segment in the United Kingdom market.
Overview of House of Fraser
House of Fraser is a group of departmental stores with around 55 stores
all over Ireland and the UK. The group was introduced in the market in
1849 as Arthur and Fraser. The business developed progressively during
the 20th century (Retail Week, 2019). But, after the phase of the Second
World War, the company got involved in numerous numbers of
acquisitions which supported it in transforming into a national chain. From
1936, the business is expanding its operations with the support of
different acquisitions such as Scottish Drapery Corporation in the year
1952, and Barkers of Kensington in 1957. It was registered in the Stock
Exchange of London in the year 1948 (House of Fraser, 2019).
SWOT Analysis
The strength of House of Fraser
The strong brand image of House of Fraser in the UK market allows it to
cover the maximum of the clothing market share and attain a competitive
advantage by offering trendy products in comparison to competitors
(Robles, 2019).

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 4
Weaknesses of House of Fraser
One of the weaknesses is that in the United Kingdom's store it places its
shoes and bags on a different floor which directly affects its productivity.
Besides this, it has low online presence in the United Kingdom market.
Opportunities for House of Fraser
 The United Kingdom market is offering huge competition to House of
Fraser, in order to deal with this, the company can move towards
more digital platform by adopting M-Commerce.
 House of Fraser can also expand operations through lower cost
stores
Threats
 Threats for House of Fraser from counterfeit products being sold
through sites like eBay
 Increasing rivalry from low-cost competitors (Rigby, 2014)
Segmentation Strategy
Segmentation is the practice adopted by the business to divide the
market into different parts that could be defined, accessed, and have
growth potential (Wedel and Kamakura, 2012). Strategies adopted by
House of Fraser to segment its market are:
Demographic Segmentation – It is one of the simplest forms of
segmentation generally used by most of the businesses. House of Fraser
has adopted this segmentation strategy based on variables – age, income,
and gender.

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 5
Behavioural Segmentation – Under behavioural segmentation market
is divided based on the usage, decision making, and behaviour (Blythe,
2013). House of Fraser offers high brand products to the customers,
therefore it targets customers those are brand conscious and are willing
to pay high prices.
Psychographic Segmentation – Psychographic segmentation is the
strategy adopted by the business to segment the market based on their
lifestyle, opinions, and interest. House of Fraser offers its products to the
upper-class segment. However, it also has lower class customers in its
customer base who purchase products from the stores.
Targeting
The target market is the customer group to which business desires to
vend its services and products. Target marketing is the strategy
comprised of breaking the complete market in diverse sections and
forming approaches of marketing according to the preferences of all the
sections to increase company’s market share (Morritt and Weinstein,
2012). The House of Fraser majorly targets the age group of 25-44, in
which it offers its products to all the three genders i.e. kids, women, and
men. HOF claims that its products are mostly offered to the upper-class
segment; though it can be observed that company range its prices on few
of its offerings which can occasionally be considered as lower quality for
high-class buyers.
Consumer Persona

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 6
Consumer Persona
How Customer
Finds Us?
A friend
referred about
HOF
Visited the
website in the
What
Customer
wants to
know?
New Offers
Discounts
What he doesn't
want?
Defects or flaws in
the purchased
products
Why does he buy
from HOF?
Quality and
expertise
Who is He?
He is the CEO of a
Marketing company

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 7
Brand Positioning
Positioning is the place acquired by a brand in the eyes of the consumers
and the way it is distinguished from the competitor’s products. To place
the brand, businesses focus on the distinguishing features of their
products or put efforts to make an appropriate image (Maiwald, 2013).
House of Fraser is positioning in the market as a high brand with high
prices, therefore customers who are less conscious about brand do not
like to prefer this store. Mostly these types of customers prefer to go for
low price supermarkets like Asda (Kupelian, 2018). HOF has very less
number of adult buyers which is one of the negative images of the brand
in the eyes of the customer because the company has twice a number of
stores in the United Kingdom in comparison to its competitor John Lewis.
The advertisement of the House of Fraser is mostly aimed towards an
upper-class segment of the market. Therefore, it is included in the
premium slots on the magazines and television. Even the advertisement
for the company is very elegant, sophisticated, and subtle.
Challenges for House of Fraser
New and advanced technology has had a disrupting effect on the High
Street, with digital vendors like Amazon offering a severe shock to the
out-dated bricks and mortar operators. But HOF was very slow in covering
the extent of development and change, failing in responding quickly on its

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 8
own internet offers (Plummer, 2018). The company has cancelled all the
online orders and refunded money to thousands of its consumers, due to a
dispute between the company and its warehouse operators who are
responsible for the deliveries. This decision was taken by the company
due to a number of complaints from the side of shoppers who did not get
the deliveries of their products (Butler, 2018). This reflects that the
company has a weaker online presence and ineffective process
management.
Brand Positioning Objective
Brand positioning is the reason behind why target customer purchases the
products or brand vended by the business and not by the competitor. The
positioning of the product confirms that the brand activity possesses a
common aim, and offer benefits to the customers (Grams, 2011). The
objective of the company is always to be in the eyes of the customer by
offering the best services in comparison to the rivals present in the
market.
The brand positioning objective of House of Fraser is to be positioned as a
leading departmental store brand in the United Kingdom by offering best
and quality services to customers through all the possible platforms like
stores, online, website, e-commerce, social media platforms, and other e-
commerce websites used for shopping. This positioning objective will
majorly focus on overcoming the challenge for HOF to be successfully
placed on the online platforms. The ways that will be followed by House of
Fraser to improve its online presence:

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 9
Ways to Improve
Online Presence
Benefits Time Duration
Mobile Friendly
Website
Today, more web
searches are being
performed through
mobile devices in
comparison to a
desktop or laptop.
2 Months
Incorporating a Blog Content is considered
as a king, which in
today era is majorly
received through
blogging
2 Months
Search Engine
Optimization
SEO is an important
part of all the online
strategy of marketing.
The aim of SEO is to
increase the level of
traffic on the business
website that is majorly
attained by standing
higher on the online
search results (SEO for
Growth, 2019).
3 Months
Investing in the It helps in enhancing 4 Months

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 10
campaigns of online
advertisement
the online business
presence by generating
leads and cost-
effective techniques to
increase traffic.
Becoming an active
user of social media
Social media can result
in a highly operative
technique to enhance
the visibility of the
business and target
new customers. The
advantages of social
networking only can be
attained by those
businesses who not
only interact with the
platform but also with
other participants like
followers
12 Months (Business
will actively get
involved on social
media)
Listing on key
directory sites
There are different
directories for definite
industries
1 Month

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 11
Brand Communication Objective
Brand communication is one of the essential tools of brand management
through which the business enlighten, enrich, inform, teach, persuade,
and remind the stakeholder's knowledge regarding brand, values,
fundamentals, and benefits of the services and products (Jin and Cedrola,
2017).
The brand communication objective of House of Fraser in the next 12
months is to create awareness regarding its improving online presence,
projecting an image, stimulating the desire, impacting knowledge,
improving sales, and shaping the attitudes.
The brand communication objective is also to influence the company's
stakeholders. The stakeholders comprise investors, sponsors, customers,
and employees because they are linked with the brand at the highest
level and it is considered to be the major responsibility of the
management to have an interactive communication regularly regarding
what is happening in the business and significant issues.
Smart Communication Objective
Increasing Awareness
Increasing the awareness of the brand is not just the general objective of
brand communication but it is the very first activity for every business
(Moraes, 2019). The House of Fraser will first increase the awareness
regarding its comeback on the online platform. For this, the company will
make use of print advertisement and constant repetition of the brand