Marketing option on the online store by 30 percent within the following six months. Tactic to be used to achieve the objective - Opt-in Email Marketing. The KPI's ...
2016 Edgars: Digital Marketing Strategy and Implementation
Andreas Andjene:
1391414
Yvette Modisaotsile:
1509599
Keamogetswe Modisa:
482265
Karabo Mohasoa:
457781
Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 2 Edgars Suggested Digital Target Audience.............................................................................................. 2 Demographics: .................................................................................................................................... 3 Psychographics:................................................................................................................................... 3 SMART Objectives ................................................................................................................................... 3 What Edgars Can Learn From Mr. Price .................................................................................................. 4 Social Media ........................................................................................................................................ 4 Mobile Marketing ............................................................................................................................... 5 Video Marketing ................................................................................................................................. 5 Data and Web Analytics ..................................................................................................................... 5 Online Advertising................................................................................................................................... 6 Implementation .................................................................................................................................. 6 Email Marketing ...................................................................................................................................... 7 Implementation .................................................................................................................................. 7 Mobile Marketing ................................................................................................................................... 8 Implementation .................................................................................................................................. 8 Social Media Marketing .......................................................................................................................... 9 References ............................................................................................................................................ 12 Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 12
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Brand Analysis Introduction Edgars, a subsidiary of the Edcon group in South Africa, is a leading fast-fashion retailer and one of the country’s oldest and most established clothing retailers. In addition to physical locations, the merchant provides services through www.Edgars.co.za, a South African online store where consumers can shop luxury clothing, footwear, textiles and accessories. Further platforms of engagement that Edgars uses in the online space are summarised in Table 1 below. Digital/Online Platform
Edgars’ Platform URL
Online market
https://www.edgars.co.za/
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/EdgarsFashion
Twitter
https://www.twitter.com/edgarssa
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/edgarsfashion
Table 1: Edgars’ online presence.
Edgars does have an existing online presence. Their web presence includes their website where one can make online purchases, different social media accounts as well as their mobile application. The content shared by Edgars on these platforms, however, does not paint a clear and cohesive image of the retailer and its brand. Communications across digital media are static and not interactive. Edgars’ digital strategy should speak more for the persona of the brand; a retailer that caters to the needs of every family member for generations, and has become part of the family.
Edgars Suggested Digital Target Audience. The chosen digital target audience is the generational cohort known as Generation Y. According to an online article published on www.PrincetonOne.com, these are individuals born between the late 1970’s and the late 1990’s. They are considered the first generation to have always lived in a digital world. From birth they have been surrounded by digital
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products driven by technology developments: cellular phones, the Internet, iPods, video and console gaming and television to mention a few digital media platforms, contributing towards their status as the most digital savvy generation to date. Generation Y is the largest population group when compared to other generations today. Potentially, based on the size of the group and through globalized networks linking individuals together, Generation Y has the capabilities to mobilize mass movements, thus wielding global financial influence. It is for the above mentioned reasons that it would be advisable for Edgars to target Generation Y in the digisphere. Below is a further breakdown of statistics and information pertaining to Generation Y.
Demographics: We recommend that Edgars aim to target specifically young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty nine years old. This recommendation is based on the observation that whilst Edgars has a great number of consumer segments, none of those segments are targeted and/or personalised. This target audience is also referred to as the Millenial generation or Generation Y and consists of teenagers & university students. These teenagers and students who fall into the cohort are financially dependent on their parents whilst the employed graduates in junior level positions are more financially independent and less constrained in making purchase decisions. Generation Y is said to be highly educated and as such, they bring forth advanced degrees and technical skills.
Psychographics: Generation Y is considered highly ambitious, competitive and exhibit high levels of selfesteem. These qualities make them highly motivated, independent and optimistic workers. Furthermore, this cohort has observed higher aptitudes to process information at high-speed, especially visual data, when compared to other generations and, as a result are said to experience constant fatigue and may appear to have shorter-attention span. Lastly, this cohort is largely influenced by their peers, making word-of-mouth communication an important factor in their purchase decisions.
SMART Objectives SMART objectives are those objectives which specific, measurable, attainable, realistic (Stokes, 2013).
1. SMART Objective- Increase the number of people choosing to opt-in to the Email Marketing option on the online store by 30 percent within the following six months. Tactic to be used to achieve the objective - Opt-in Email Marketing The KPI’s to be utilized- 1000 customers choosing to Opt-in to email marketing
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Targets per Tactic - 1000 customers opting-in to email marketing within the first of introducing Email Marketing to the online platform (website), thereafter a growth of 50 customers per month for the next six months. 2. SMART Objective- Improve Customer Engagement by 10% through collaborating with ten Joburg based fashion bloggers/ social influencers in order to create engaging brand content within the next three months. Tactic to be used to achieve the objective- Affiliate Marketing The KPI’s to be utilized- Increased number of click-throughs from the bloggers’ blog to the Edgars online store. Targets per Tactic - 500 click-throughs per month for each fashion blogger for the first month and thereafter a 10 percent increase each month. 3. SMART Objective - Improve social media engagement by increasing the number of Instagram followers by 10 percent each month for six months. Tactic to be used to achieve the objective - Social media (Instagram). The KPI’s to be utilized- tracking the number of followers each month to detect an increase Targets per tactic- 10% increase each month for six months.
Strategic Considerations Mr Price was chosen as a benchmark for comparison to Edgars because they have a similar service offering. Mr Price is a fashion retailer under the Mr Price Group. The MR Price group has a diversified portfolio of casual apparel, sports goods and homeware, and is one of the fastest growing retailers in South Africa.
What Edgars Can Learn From Mr. Price Social Media Mr Price has a very strong and engaging online presence that is well optimised to appeal to its target market. In contrast to MR Price, Edgars is lacking in this regard. Edgars places more emphasis on its traditional communications and has seemingly neglected its online marketing communication messages. Mr Price utilises all its social media platforms, and integrates them to engage with consumers. For example, Mr Price paired up with fashion bloggers in the Braamfontein area to create an Instagram campaign with a call to action that asked consumer to join in the campaign by tagging themselves wearing their favourite items
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from the store. All the images from the campaign were shot by a popular photographer and were put on his personal Instagram accounts as well as the Instagram accounts of these bloggers and then these images were tweeted. A consistent message and call to action rang throughout both platforms. It is this level of engagement and communication integration that Edgars can take note of.
Mobile Marketing Both brands have websites that are compatible for mobile devices; however, in comparison to Mr Price’s online store, the Edgars online store is very static and not as aesthetically appealing. Furthemore, while both stores have mobile apps, the Edgars app is not as functional and it does not offer the option to purchase directly from the app.
Video Marketing According to Stokes and Quirk (2014), unlike text and even images, video offers an extremely rich, engaging and stimulating experience for viewers. Both brands use the marketing platform to promote their brands, but Mr Price does this well. Mr Price is just not putting up content to promote the brand but content that makes the brand lovers feel like they are part of the campaigns become their video are inspiring. Mr Price’s YouTube channel has 2.075 subscribers compared to Edgars with 1.045 subscribers. The content on Mr Price is engaging, has a story line that appeal to their target and involves both a combination of brand influencers and ordinary people. Their videos draw inspiration from fashion street style of ordinary people and stylists, bloggers and models which is fitting of their brand persona. The only thing that is lacking is that their channel is not updated regularly like all their social media platforms but that also has to do with their audiences who are probably not so frequent on YouTube. Data and Web Analytics According to Stokes (2013) the Internet offers more than just an avenue of creativity. By its very nature, it allows you to track each click to your site and through your site (Stokes, 2013). It is therefore important that our campaign include platforms that allow engagement between the brand and its consumers. This will give the brand data to better understand what consumers think, want and why. Every single action taken online is recorded, which means there is an incredible wealth of data available for marketers to help understand consumers. Furthermore, data will be collected anytime once there is an online activity happening and also when the specified keywords are used by anyone. This will happen on a daily basis with the focus on new product releases, events, etc. Google analytics is a great tool for this purpose.
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Tactical Plan Digital marketing tactics have been defined as a specific action or method that contributes to achieving a goal (Stokes, 2013). Digital marketing tactics differ from digital marketing objectives in that tactics are specific tools and approaches that may be employed to aid in meeting goals and objectives. As the goals and objectives of an organisation change and evolve, so should the digital strategy and tactics used by the entity to achieve objectives. Multiple tactics may be employed to deliver a cohesive and integrated digital message to the target consumers. The paramount consideration when it comes to the chosen tactics will depend largely on the intended target market and set objectives.
Online Advertising Online marketing comprises any advertisement found on digital platforms such as websites, search engine results, advertisements placed within emails, adverts found on Social Networks and so on. (Stokes & Quirck, 2014). The main objectives of online advertising are to improve the awareness of the brand among the target audience, as well as to stimulate demand for products while supplying products to satisfy the target audiences’ demands and needs. While members of Generation Y are likely to be familiar with Edgars and its offering, these are the people who are online most of the time. They seek information, communicate, socialize and shop on Internet-based applications. In this light, we can conclude that they spend a considerable amount of time on the Internet. Outcomes associated with Online advertising include a better brand positioning as well as acquisition of new customers.
Implementation Below, the following table summarises the tools carefully selected to engage the members of Generation Y in meaningful ways with the aid of online advertising. Type of Advert Interstitial Banners
Advertising Networks
Facebook Standard and Engagement Ads
Description Banners which appear in between the process of switching pages on a website. Can be customised to non-static and interactive banners. Intermediary between Edgars and a publisher that provides a central advertising solution by offering packages that allow an entity to advertise on a variety of channels. Similar to standard Facebook adverts, with an added interactive element, such as a poll, event or share
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Objective Convey relevant information on suggested products and mailing lists.
Targeted dissemination of information to relevant platforms and channels.
Fostering engagement and building interest and awareness of the brand
option. Tweets and accounts recommended by Twitter. Promoted tweets are usually marked as such. Through use of premium mobile advertising netweorks such as Widespace (www.widespace.com/eu), which offer detailed targeting of recipients as a direct extension of the other forms of advertising.
Twitter Promoted Tweets
Mobile Advertising
through conversation and interaction. Raising of brand awareness by making the said brand stand out on the Timeline, based on previous tweets, preferences and location. Disseminate relevant information to target consumers by way of accessing them through their favourite and most used mobile applications.
Table 2: Online advertising tactic strategy.
The challenges around online advertising are largely caused by a lack of thorough segmenting and proper targeting. Online advertisements are seen as intrusive only to the degree that they do not interest the person viewing them. To this effect, many applications have been developed to block these sometimes pop-up esque ads, and this will undoubtedly affect statistics for the advertiser negatively. Stokes and Quirk (2014) state too, that consumers find banner and the like ads somewhat annoying, and habitually ignore the ads.
Email Marketing Email marketing is a tool used in the cultivating and maintaining of long-lasting relationships with potential and existing customers (Stokes & Quirck, 2014). Email marketing is essentially one of the tools used in the broader concept off Customer Relationship Management (CRM).This method of engagement, when used optimally, has the potential to yield some of the highest Return on Investments (ROI) of any of the digital marketing based tactics. Email marketing is a direct form of marketing that is attractive due to its permission requirement. Consumers opt-in to a messaging list of their preference and will then receive relevant content sent electronically. This allows for a highly targeted mailing list. Outcomes associated with Email advertising include customer retention as well as value creation for the customer.
Implementation The following table summarizes the manner in which it is proposed that Edgars conduct their Email marketing activities by way of expanding on the tools of the trade to be used in this regard. Type of Email Promotional Emails
Description Emails containing up-to-date content that urges users towards an immediate goal.
Newsletters
A periodical letter reporting on relevant news, product
Objective Short summarised emails that have an immediate goal such as: To make a purchase. To download content. To request further information. Geared towards creating and retaining a long-term relationship with consumers.
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Transactional Email
enhancements and news about industry. Focus is on long-term goals. These types of emails are sent in response to customer interactions with Edgars (such as account purchase confirmation, and account balances/payments).
Communication of important and sensitive/confidential information at a button’s touch.
Table 3: Email marketing tactics strategy.
Before the above implementation can occur, a genuine opt-in database must be cultivated, in order to lessen the noise effect that emails may have, as well as protect Edgars from spam complaints and potential legal action. Content of the emails will be tailored to Generation Y: hip, young and happening, with fresh colours and plenty of engaging content. The challenges associated with Email marketing centre around email fatigue. Many entities are starting to use email marketing, some of which are doing so in the wrong manner. That is, without getting the needed permission first. Therefore, emails need to be specific and relevant to customers, and must be fresh, innovative and interactive to keep them engaged. News on upcoming trends and the latest fashion and lifestyle options presented in a visually appeasing format that is fluid across platforms will be the bulk of the content, with other relevant fashion news on designers and fashion on a global scale in the economy also being included.
Mobile Marketing Generation Y is a cohort of the economy that is highly technically engaged and involved, possessing a number of different mobile computing devices such as smart phones and tablets. This fact speaks to the importance of mobile communications as a consideration for marketers in the industry and at large. Effective mobile marketing strategies provide the opportunity to exploit the time spent on mobile devices by consumers. The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) have defined Mobile marketing as a set of practices that allows organisations to put forth communications and engage their intended target audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network (Stokes & Quirk, 2014).
Implementation Below, Table 4 outlines the suggested tactical strategy and tools for Edgars’ mobile marketing.
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Type of Mobile Marketing Short Message Service (SMS)
Description Text-based messaging service across network providers.
Objective Relay important and promotional information to interested recipients.
Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) QR Codes
Customer-initiated alternative to Short Message Texting (SMS)
Convenient way to communicate important and time-sensitive information with immediate responses. Convenient way of carrying sensitive information such as payment details/ accounts information.
A way to compress complex information into an image readable and decodable by supported smartphones.
Table 4: Mobile marketing strategy tactics.
The use of location services allows for further and deeper segmenting and targeting for mobile advertisements. This is because useful information can be shared based on the location of a user, i.e; where the nearest petrol station is, where the closest Edgars location may be found, etc. Combined with location awareness offered by Geo-location services, users receive a targeted experience when searching using mobile devices. It is suggested that Edgars’ mobile app receive a full overhaul which will allow users to request clothing and other items to their nearest store, but the option to have these items delivered to a destination of their choice.
Social Media Marketing Social Media, which is also sometimes referred to as user-generated media, is media created online to be shared (Stokes, 2013). This media may come in the form of text, visuals and or audio. The more interactive the media, the more people will engage and share it. The use of Social Media helps organisations in building an online brand presence, raises awareness, and allows the consumer to be involved in the brand’s story through collaboration and sharing. A variety of Social Media platforms and networks are available. As discussed in the sections above, Facebook ads will be employed in conjunction to engagement ads to ad that extra level of conversation. On Twitter, Promoted Tweets and Promoted accounts will be used to raise awareness and spark engagement. The Twitter account for Edgars will have the functionality of Google Ad-word and Google alerts, set to notify Social Media managers whenever a consumer tweets abut Edgars or any one of their internationally acclaimed brands. Edgars’ Instagram account will receive a total overhaul, customizing content to that of the intended Generation Y, ensuring it looks clean and sleek, yet with interactive elements including the use of Boomerang and other engagement applications. Blogging is a great way for people in the fashion and beauty world to remain up to date with the latest trends and relevant news. Blogs, defined as regularly updated journal entries published on the web
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(Stokes, 2013), may typically feature text, images, and hyperlinks to other related blogs or websites. Blogs are powerful because of their capacity for reach, the staying power of information (posts are hardly ever deleted and can always be referred back to), as well as the trust that consumers tend to associate with blogs. One global hashtag can be employed to improve brand visibility Social media affords marketers the opportunity to catch the consumer in their comfort zone, online, where they engage, interact, socialize and share. Unlike advertisements on traditional media like television and radio, ads on social media are customised and highly targeted, thereby drawing the attention of interested participants. The ability for viral marketing presented by Social Media is another one of its strengths. It allows marketers to exploit the creative power of the public. User-generated content such as memes and .gifs spark conversations and foster engagement. With that said, social media poses the threat of bad publicity spreading and going viral just as fast as the good. Brand attacks are an often occurrence on these platforms, much like those seen in recent months on corporate brands such as Woolworths. Efforts to control conversations on social media are futile. What brands should rather aim to do, is to start and lead conversations in a direction that makes sense for a brand, not just take a passive role in the creation of content and attention.
Conclusion Edgars is a world class fast fashion retailer with a variety of offerings to suit the whole family. From affordable store name brands to high-end make-up and skincare, the store caters to a plethora of different age groups in South Africa. Be that as it may, fast fashion in South Africa is seeing a growing number of participants. This fact implores players in the industry to generate fresh and innovative ways to stay relevant in the face of a growingly unstable economy and competition. The fragmented nature of attention poses a threat to the fashion retailer too. Traditional advertising on traditional forms of media is increasingly being filtered out, and more and more people are spending the bulk of their time online. The Internet provides solutions to these problems faced by retailers such as Edgars. One such store, Mr. Price, is leading the South African online retailer market, giving customers the ability to shop anywhere from mobile and to have their shopping shipped anywhere in the world. Mr. Price has made effective use of the tools that the Internet has made available to
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marketers. Edgars, can take a page out of this budding fast fashion retailer’s book. Having an integrated, fluid online presence aids organisations to build awareness and acquire new customers while effectively taking care of existing ones. This ties in with the stated objectives for Edgars: to effectively teach and engage Generation Y, which is the up and coming age cohort in terms of spending and technological savvy. The tactics outlined in this report were carefully chosen in-line with the specified SMART objectives, and will work together to create one cohesive voice for the brand across a number of platforms.
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References Stokes, R. (2013). eMarketing: The essential guide to marketing in a digital world. 5th Edition. Quirk eMarketing.
Hobart, J.W (2014). Understanding Generation Y: What You Need To Know About Millenials. www.princetonone.com
Appendix Mobile Website:
Mr Price
Edgars
Mobile Applications:
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Edgars Mobile App on itunes
Mr Price Mobile App on Itunes
Mr Price App for Android
Social Media:
Mr Price Instagram
Edgars Instagram
Mr Price Pinterest
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Edgars Pinterest
Mr Price Snapchat
Mr Price Facebook
Edgars Twitter
Mr Price Blog
Mr Price Google Plus
Edgars Facebook
Mr Price YouTube Channel
Mr Price Official Twitter
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Edgars YouTube Channel
Mr Price Help Twitter Handle
