Chapter 1 - Product/Service and Marketing plan Overview

1. An introduction to the Service and key features and benefits offered :

Bags has been an important part of the life for most of the people in today ’s world
and especially for the women. There are wide variety of stylish women bags
available in the market as the stylish handbags has been referred as a fashion
statement by the female users. Furthermore, in those stylish bags a lady carry her
essential personal stuffs with her. Since, both male and female use the bags in their
daily life for various purposes, as a result of which demand for the bags in the market
increased. And, in order to get the advantage from the demand, “Madhuri Bag” was
established by the proprietor Mr Suresh Agrawal. It does both retailing and
wholesaling of the varieties of bags but largely focuses on its retail operations . It
sells different colour, designs, shapes and sizes of Handbag, purse, briefcase,
suitcase, carry-bag, backpacks, side bags, clutches and luggage bags, used by both
male and female.

2. An overview of the company behind the product or service .

Actually seeing the demand of the bag, Mr Agrawal converted his Gift business into
bags business in the year 2010 A.D. The business model of “Madhuri Bag” store is
based upon Brick and Mortal model. It is located at the heart of Biratnagar city i.e.
Main Road, Gudri Block. It sells the goods manufactured in India, China, South
Korea, Italy, Thailand, and from local manufacturers of Nepal. It purchases goods in
bulk quantity from the agents and vendors who source goods from different country.
3. Current Online and Offline Marketing Strategy :

1. Value Proposition:

“Madhuri Bags” creates value to customers by providing quality bags for all
men, women and kids in a very reasonable price. Best quality bags are
imported from abroad to fulfil the trendy needs of both men and women . This
bag store especially does both offline marketing through posters, banners as
well as online marketing through social media i.e. Facebook. One of the best
and important marketing strategy of Madhuri Bags is the “Word of Mouth”.
Mostly customers who go to purchase the bags from this store, are satisfied
with the good quality of bags available and as a result of which they have
been recommending their friends, relatives to purchase from the shop which
is indirectly creating a more new customers for Madhuri Bags. The loyal
customers are also identified who visits the store frequently and furthermore,
certain amount of discounts are provided to them to make them feel special.
Sometimes customers’ survey is also done verbally to know about their
preferences and to take feedback from them. The effective suggestions taken
from customers are implemented by the store owner to make customers
happy as well as for the sustainability of business.

2. Current Business model:

Madhuri bags has the following business models which helps it to compete
in the market:
 Brick and Mortar model: As Madhuri Bags is one of the retail store
which is located in the busiest road of Biratnagar, so the store has brick
and mortar model giving the customers variety of products all at a one
place from a physical store.

 Utility model: Madhuri Bags store follows different payment process. In

this 21st century, people usually don’t carry cash with them because of
various banking technology. So considering this, Madhuri Bags has
 made different payment systems available to its customers i.e. cash,
credit card and online payment.

3. Information Driven Marketing:

Information driven marketing is very crucial for any business as customers
are the assets for them. For both the process of marketing and sales,
knowing customers and their preferences on timely basis is must. However,
Madhuri Bags is lagging behind in keeping proper track of all the regular
customers. During the interview, Mr. Suresh Agrawal told that they take
offline survey of their customers as a feedback of their service. But, it has
not been conducted periodically. Hence, it is difficult to obtain the proper
information regarding the progress of the business.

4. Company Online selling platform :

In this 21st century, digitalization has made the world better place for all of
the buyers and sellers. Madhuri Bags has its own Facebook page which has
been very active in recent days as it uploads the picture of trendy bags now
and then. Yet, the page that they have created has not been able to capture
large number of customers. According to the Proprietor, many customers
communicate through telephone service for ordering and booking bags. So
it can be clearly seen that they are not being able to utilize the service of
online selling platform to the fullest. The main thing that the bag store
should do to make the most of it is to create its own website or also it can be
available in other social media platform such as Instagram

4. Analysis of online marketing communication plan :

Customers play huge role in any kind of business to succeed. So, it is very important
to fulfil the needs and demands of all customers to survive in this competitive
marketplace.
 Internet marketing tools:-
Facebook page: Madhuri Bags uses Facebook as their main online marketing tool.
The store has been communicating with its customers through the reviews and
comments given by customers in Facebook page. As I have mentioned earlier that
the page has not been much active in communicating with customers, but it has been
posting pictures of all types of bags available in store mentioning its quality.
Sometimes various festival offers and discounts are also provided to customers
which is updated through Facebook page.
 Chapter 2 - Online marketing plan analysis and online marketing
tools recommendation

2.1 Proposed Online Marketing strategy

The internet and social media platforms provides large number of benefits in this era
of digitalization for both marketers and customers. It has become a mediator
between customers and business. After our interview with proprietor Mr Suresh
Agrawal, we came to know that they are more involved in offline marketing and less
active in social media platforms. So it was clear that they are not being able to
capture the market share through online marketing which is must for any business in
today’s world. There are plenty of areas where “Madhuri Bags” can target in e-
platforms for their online marketing.

1. Value proposition

Madhuri Bags is mainly focused in providing the best quality bags to the customers
of Biratnagar. So, to be competitive in the market we recommend them to take
advantage of online marketing from social media platform, app store and website.
These days most of the people prefer everything like booking tickets, shopping,
payment transfer, ordering goods to be done just by clicking in their smartphone/
laptops through internet which saves a lot of time in their busy life schedule.

 Online Store: We suggest Madhuri Bags retail store to include online website
for the growth of business so that customers from overall Nepal can order the
bags from the website itself. It will make easier for them to choose from
variety of bags as there will be bags of different category which makes
customer more happy and loyal towards the bag store because of its
convenience.
 Customer Feedback: We also suggest Madhuri Bags to take surveys in order
to get feedback of customers on monthly basis creating online surveys where
customers can explain about how satisfied they feel with the quality of bags
and further suggest which type of bags should be added more in the store.
This online platform will help Madhuri bags to build strong customer
 relationship and attract them more. Moreover online survey automatically
generates the analytical data and charts upon the customer’s preferences.
Online surveys can be taken by asking customer’s email during their purchase
of goods and then mailing the online survey form in their email.

2. Proposed Business Model:

 We recommend them to use their own website for advertisement of bags, and
also to be updated regularly on their Facebook, Instagram page for better two
way communications.
 Providing extra 10% discounts to all the students.
 One mini size bag free while buying big bag-pack in special Nepalese
Festivals like Dashain, Tihar, Teej and other festivals.
 Black Friday Sale.
 Giving discount card to top loyal customers.
 Including membership system or subscription model just same as the Amazon
prime membership informing customers through email about the discount
offer. Dear customers, “You have got 40% discount today on bags so hurry up
and grab your favorite one.”
 Point reward system in online purchase.
 Developing mobile app with push notification service.

3. Information driven marketing strategy:

Madhuri Bags store has not been using any information driven marketing at
present to recall its customers or to reach out to new customers despite of having
large number of customers. We recommend Madhuri Bags to focus more on
information driven marketing with the help of customer database to know more
about customer preferences, queries and feedback by using different sources of
internet such as social media, website, and e-surveys.

4. Company online selling platform:

 We have planned to suggest Madhuri Bags to expand its retail store business
into online business also with the help of social media platform such as
Facebook and Instagram both. In Nepal there are almost 10,520,000
Facebook https://napoleoncat.com/stats/facebook-users-in-nepal/2020/01
users and 1,236,900 Instagram users as per the recent data of 2020. So,
being more updated regularly about the available products in the store will
help the business to grow faster because of maximum usage of these
platform. Not only social media platform but we are also suggesting Madhuri
Bags store the following tools to reach out large mass which are listed below:-

 Website
 Mobile Application
 Email Marketing
 Search Marketing
 Video Marketing

2.2 Online Marketing Communications Plan

Online marketing is seem to be one of the most cost effective marketing strategy
with a little investment gaining larger customer reach. Due increase in uses of
internet, there is high prospect of communicating larger portion of population via
internet. There are few major online advertisement techniques and tools, that
Madhuri Bag store need to be focus upon in order to gain larger market share. They
are listed below:

a) Online Branding: In order to increase the sells, Madhuri Bag needs to do

parallel branding of selling services as well as its variety of products sold
through it. The branding should be conducted based upon the intended
customer audience. What do they read? What do they watch? Where do they
spend their time? All these factors need to be considered while advertising so
that there is good continuous flow of customers in the store as well as a high
demand of a product.
b) Video Marketing: In terms of sharing an information through technology,
customers seems to be more engaged in video materials compared to other
types of communications such as audio and written. Getting a 100% attention
of the people through audio is more difficult compared to than that video as
there is high possibility of customers doing multitasking while listening to the
audio. Additionally, watching a video is preferred more than a written texts.
[ CITATION MIC19 \l 16393 ] So, Madhuri Bags should focus more open
creating video marketing contents in order to promote their business and its
available products.

c) Search Marketing: Search engine marketing is another online communication

tool that can be used by the Madhuri Bag Store to reach its potential
customers instantly. The search engine marketing can be carried either by
Search Engine Optimization or by Paid Search Marketing. Between these two,
paid search marketing is more beneficial for the store. Today large number of
people search their desired type of bag via Google. So, if a customer
searches any type of bag via Google, on the top s/he will see an
advertisement of product published by Madhuri Bag. Madhuri Bags need to
pay for the advertisement on the per click basis.

d) Email Marketing: Email marketing is another best online communication tool

to develop connections with possible and loyal customers. Madhuri Bags can
send an email to the customers on special occasions like customer’s
anniversary/birthdays discount, festive discounts, offers and deals. It can also
send the fashion tips and other relevant information which will enhance the
customer’s way of styling. Email marketing is the most inexpensive marketing
communication tool that allows the businesses to build the customer base.

e) Social Media Marketing Strategy: Social media is most efficient and cost-
effective way to promote. With platforms that support photos, videos, audio
and written content, as it is easier to attract more customers. This way new
customers can be reached promptly. Madhuri bag store are on social media
but not much active in it as much as it required. It needs to be very specific to
the content posted and make prompt reply to the queries of customers.
Furthermore, Madhuri Bag store owner should ask friends and family
 members to share the promotional material with their friends and family, too.
Even organising online competition through social media with rewards can
grow traffic the social accounts of the Madhuri Bags.

Chapter 3: Suggestions on Integrated Marketing Strategies

3.1 . Customer Relationship Development

Customer Relationship Development is all about developing the activities,

ideas, techniques, strategies and processes for any business which will
further help to manage the overall interactions with their present loyal and
potential customers. There is one famous saying repeatedly heard in
business, i.e. “Customer is king” and which is absolutely true because without
customers business is of no value. To sustain in this competitive market any
business must use various communication tools and media as well as CRM
software to build customer relationship which in turn gives the business
customer loyalty and customer retention. Developing customer relationship is
also vital to increase any company’s revenue and profits.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/10/24/why-is-
customer-relationship-management-so-important/#39842857dacd

So there are basically five different stages of customer life cycle towards any
business when they are considering to buy, use, and to remain loyal to a
particular product or service which are shown in the figure below:-
 Figure link: https://medium.com/@vaishakh.nambiar10/what-is-customer-
life-cycle-8757fbda6b75

So, Madhuri Bags Store must focus on all these stages and especially to make their
business long-lasting in the market they must go
through below mentioned strategy related to customer
relationship development and customer retention:

a) Long term rewards program: Long term

loyalty rewards program can actually lure
the customers and helps in keeping them
keen towards business for longer period of
time. Madhuri Bags can apply the idea
such as : “Customer must purchase Rs.
1500 worth of product to reach Gold
status in the mobile app of Madhuri
Bags” which encourages them to start
collecting points for getting reward which
will lead a customer to pay less in future
 purchase. After reaching the gold status customers will earn 1 points for
every 80 rupees they spend.
Figure link: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/rewards-programs-drive-
email-marketing-success

b) Referral programs: Referral programs is the process in which any

business rewards their customers for recommending to use the
product/service to their friends, family or relatives. Any high quality
mobile app with loyalty rewards makes people further share their
experience with friends
and families. Madhuri
Bags can use this
strategy to get more new
customers by
recommending the
current loyal customers
to share it with their
family and friends. This
allows new customers to
install the app in their
phone which in return
that loyal customer who
will bring new ones will get more reward points.
https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/referral-program-examples/

c) Get feedback from customers more often: There is one famous

phrase i.e. “Companies that listen to their
customers grow faster.” Customer feedback
is very crucial in making any business
profitable and sustainable either the
feedback is negative or positive ones. Any
sort of complains will help the business to
improve in the areas the business is lagging behind. Likewise if Madhuri
Bags will get feedback frequently from customers through e-surveys and
 implement those in proper way than customers will feel more involved
and important. Listening to customer feedback will help to build loyalty
and to get retention of customers for Madhuri Bags Store.
https://survicate.com/customer-feedback/why-customer-feedback-is-important/

Figure link: https://www.zingle.com/how-to-get-more-feedback-from-your-

customers-through-text-messaging/

d) Continuous Marketing Engagement: If any business wants happy and

loyal customers than they should make customers more engaged by
doing regular updates and sending notifications to them because loyal
customers are very much profitable than new ones. We suggest
Madhuri Bags to send thank you email as a token of appreciation to
make them feel delighted after each purchase. Similarly notifying
customers about new trendy bags and offering the bags
recommendations based on their previous purchase will make them
engaged and also feel special. These measures will help to keep
customers happy and satisfied towards the store.
https://www.revechat.com/blog/customer-relationship-management-examples/

3.2. Customer Service and Data Supporting

Only developing the customer relationship is not enough for successful

business, what it also requires is proper customer service. There are basically four
types of customer service which includes live answering services through phone call
having quick service, clarity of speech and friendliness response to query. Similarly
second one is Interactive voice response representative, third one is live chat
support and forth one is email customer service.

https://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/4-types-customer-
service-use-01996185

So Madhuri Bags can use these different types of customer service for healthy
relationship between business and customers and also all the customer related data
can be collected by providing these services. Below mentioned are some of the ways
by which services can be provided to customers and supporting data can be kept:
 Zoho CRM is an online CRM software which supports to build customer
database through various online platform like e-mail, social media and so on.
Madhuri Bags can connect Zoho CRM software to manage customer
relationship in an effective manner. It helps to track the information about
customers such as: Customer contact details, preferences on bags, average
spend per visit, track sales of bags on easy-to-read graphs, frequency of visits
of customers. This will help to focus on target customer and integrate
marketing plan. Moreover with the advanced CRM analytics in Zoho, it will
deliver standard reports and dashboards from all the social media and
generates metrics at a single hub by the help of its intuitive drag-and-drop
interface. https://www.zoho.com/crm/advanced-crm-analytics.html

 The varieties available in the product categories of Madhuri Bags Store

should meet customers’ needs and demands as well as its quality should be
superior. For the best customer service assurance, Madhuri Bags can
promise to deliver their products on time with less delivery charge. This will
reinforce the customers of Madhuri Bags to trust them more. Knowing about
the customers from their purchasing pattern, feedback and obtaining the data
will help to provide services to potential customers in a better way.