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Term Project

Student's Name

Department, Institutional Affiliation

Course Code, Name, Number

Submission Date
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Term Project

Introduction

Walmart has gained popularity since it is one of the biggest retail sellers in the local and

international regions. Communication and responses are essential to an organization, especially

when developing a relationship with potential clients. The first part of the essay examines how

Walmart and its competitor, Target differ in their communication and responses toward their

client. After that analysis, various improvements should be examined on Wal-Mart’s website to

improve its efficiency (Chang & Hu, 2020). The essay also examines whether Walmart should

use the Google Ad words advertisement and some unique keywords that should be used in the

search engine. The last part examines the social media marketing planning cycle and breaks

down all of Wal-Mart’s components. The SMM cycle is examined since it will help the company

select an excellent social media strategy for the latter's benefit.

Walmart vs. Competitor Website

Target is one of the biggest competitors of Walmart, and it strives to offer the best retail

services. One thing that Walmart does better regarding communication and messaging is that it

has provided a customer service line (Peran, 2021). That is an excellent idea because the

customers file their complaints through that line and receive immediate responses. Clients find it

hard to communicate with Target; thus, making any significant improvements to the website

becomes pretty hard. For instance, the company has a voice-assisted application developed for

the users to incorporate while searching for a commodity on the website. Using the assisted voice

app is pretty fast while locating the commodities requested by the clients. The application can

help find a commodity, a specific seller, or an exact price. Most customers have been impressed

with that enhancement, and the website has registered huge traffic. Walmart developed the
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client-centered application to ensure that all customers feel included and appreciated by the

company.

However, Target challenged Wal-Mart’s communication and response team through

impromptu replies to the clients. Target has ensured that an official email is presented on the

website where clients can forward their complaints. It remains remarkable since all client

complaints and inquiries have been answered promptly. The primary objective is to eliminate a

customer queue in the response section (Rinkineva, 2018). Quick communication and responses

have played a major role in Target's improvement since the client's opinion is prioritized.

Furthermore, Target ensures that it has revamped and developed different communication

strategies for the clients for excellent communication. It has managed to maintain its position as

one of the largest retail companies selling to local and international clients. Walmart has been

challenged, especially because of its slow responses to customers. It gradually reduced its

reliability to the customer needs; thus, many customers preferred the competitor's services.

How can Walmart improve its website?

Walmart should ensure that the website has been improved to enhance customer service

and quality. The website should be improved by developing one-on-one communication with the

sellers. Sometimes clients might need to engage with the sellers regarding the commodity and its

pricing. Developing a communication platform where they negotiate and agree on the service

terms is one way the company can enhance the website (Smith, 2019). Different clients visit the

website to sample products, and associating with the sellers is essential since it will increase their

certainty on whether to purchase the products. That is an excellent strategy since the sellers

might offer free product demonstrations for further convincing on why it should be bought.
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Therefore, the clients will have more clarity when purchasing the product after interacting with

different sellers for a particular entity.

The website should also be improved by ensuring that it offers fast services to the clients.

Sometimes the website might lag and offer slower services; thus, the clients prefer to engage

with competitive companies whose websites offer fast services (Urshila, 2019). Walmart should

revamp and customize the website to ensure that all lagging has been eliminated and the

consumer will access fast services when window shopping or comparing different seller prices.

Furthermore, the website should include a service rating where each seller is rated depending on

the services offered. Customers highly depend on previews and initial credibility to ensure they

are pushed to purchase a commodity. Therefore, enlisting that improvement to the website will

increase client traffic since it will be easy to distinguish and select the best seller with affordable

prices. Moreover, the website should be improved by introducing discounts to increase customer

returns. Discounted prices increase the number of clients visiting the website and the products

sold.

Google Ad words Strategy

Google Ad words are a specific type of advertising strategy that a company can use to

ensure that it has created awareness regarding its products to the targeted population. It works

when the company has selected specific keywords that, when typed into a search engine, the

products will automatically appear to attract the user's attention (Chang & Hu, 2020). The

company is dedicated to widening its potential customer base and will ensure that it has selected

befitting words for the ad. Walmart should ensure that it has incorporated the strategy to

communicate with potential customers. The primary benefit of using the Google ad word

strategy is that it increases its chances of tapping beyond the intended target audience. Walmart
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is an international company and despite having a specific targeted group, using ad words creates

awareness of its existence to other customer segments, thus expanding the customer base. The

main objective is to ensure that the website's traffic has been increased by customer influx.

The Google ad words developed should reflect the company's objectives and be enticing

enough to attract a customer's attention. The Google ad words should be unique and

differentiated from what other rival companies might use (Peran, 2021). Examples of the

keywords that the company can use to reach its targeted population are 'Alpine Swiss men's

jackets' and 'great value products.' When such ad words are typed into the Google search engine,

they will automatically lead an individual to the Walmart website for an excellent experience.

That is an excellent strategy, especially for new clients, since they will have super easy access to

the website compared to manually searching for the website link. Therefore, the company should

incorporate Google ad words strategies since it is less costly and provides proximity for customer

returns to the company. Furthermore, the company should constantly change the keywords to

ensure that it retains its uniqueness in the business.

SMM Planning Cycle

Walmart Company should incorporate the social media marketing planning cycle to

ensure that it has addressed its targeted market.

Listen

The first step in the SMM planning cycle is listening to the client's comments regarding

Walmart. The company should conduct a marketing analysis to examine the client's response to

the products and the services experienced (Rinkineva, 2018). The responses should also analyze

how the company effectively responds and communicates with the clients on the different social
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media platforms. That is an excellent strategy because it ensures that Walmart has developed an

excellent improvement plan for the anticipated results.

Setting Goals

The main consideration while setting goals and objectives for the company is ensuring

they are realistic and achievable. Wal-Mart’s objective should be ensuring that social media has

improved how messaging and communication will flow. For instance, Walmart should aim at

improving the responses to their clients (Smith, 2019). Another goal the company should set is

increasing the traffic on the different platforms based on consumer satisfaction. Walmart should

also develop a specific application meant for all the client segments. The main objective is to

activate the application for direct communication between the customers and Walmart agents for

better services.

Strategies

Walmart needs to develop aggressive strategies to ensure that messaging and

communication has been improved. The strategies should be dedicated towards improving the

selected goals and objectives (Urshila, 2019). One strategy can be used to examine consumer

tastes and preferences and develop mobile applications that suit their needs. Marketing analysis

is another strategy that should be incorporated to interact with the consumer market closely.

Walmart will have a detailed plan to denote all the positive and negative critics and make the

necessary amendments when implementing the plan.

Target Audience

Walmart strives to address all consumers of all ages, but a specific focus has been placed

on the younger millennial generation. They are the target audience since they are well-updated

regarding social media and are on almost all social media platforms. The target audience has a
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high social media usage and thus is the best selection for the company (Chang & Hu, 2020).

Therefore, focusing on the younger generation means that Walmart will have a loyal audience,

and improving the communication system will attract more clients in that customer segment. The

millennial target audience will help the company focus on expanding its social media usage and

increasing its annual sales.

Tools

The Walmart Company should focus on selecting social media tools that would help

generate more traffic to the company website. High traffic on the website means that the

company has more clients interested in the services offered (Peran, 2021). Apart from traffic

considerations, Walmart should focus on cost-effective tools that will not strain the company's

budget for SMM planning. The tools should guarantee high profits and customer returns per

expected objectives. Furthermore, the tools should be flexible and used in any selected platform.

For instance, the social media tools that can be used are Tiktok and Instagram because they are

the most used by the targeted population.

Implement

The implementation phase is where the company sets the SMM plan in motion after

developing the anticipated goals, selecting the tools, and identifying the targeted audience. For

instance, Walmart should implement strategies using the platform chosen to ensure that the

audience has been engaged (Rinkineva, 2018). The communication and messaging services

should be improved through prompt customer replies. Implementation is bound to be successful

if the initial steps are followed by the latter.

Monitor
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Monitoring expounds on tracking the implemented social media marketing plan to

examine whether it produces the anticipated results. Walmart can conduct social media

marketing by examining the responses in the different social media platforms used for marketing

the company's products (Smith, 2019). For instance, Walmart should analyze the marketing

content uploaded on Instagram and how the targeted population has responded. Through

monitoring, Walmart will examine whether to proceed with the selected social media or a need

for strategic change. The review, comments, and response to the post will influence the end

decision made for the company's advertising mechanism.

Tune

One fact that Walmart needs to understand about the targeted population is that they

experience changes in their tastes and preferences. Therefore, tuning should be a consistent step

that should be done after implementing the plan. Tuning means that the company must

constantly compare with the competitors and identify new opportunities to help it deliver the

anticipated content to the present population (Urshila, 2019). Tuning pushes the company to

improve the social media used to advertise the products constantly. The clients might outgrow

the selected advertisement system thus the company should ensure that new mechanisms are

introduced to captivate their attention and maintain focus on the company.

Conclusion

Walmart might be one of the best local and international sellers on the global marketing

charts. Still, it must constantly improve its association with clients to retain its relevance in the

market. Improvement should be made in how they communicate and respond to the clients

through the website b selecting an excellent social media advertising strategy to ensure that they

offer high-quality services. Walmart understands the high competition experienced by other rival
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companies. Thus, it should focus on ensuring that they have improved customer experience as a

mechanism to retain its position.

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References

Chang, Y., & Hu, J. (2020). Analysis on the mode of multinational retail enterprises entering

Chinese market—Take Walmart, Carrefour and Metro as examples. Modern

Economy, 11(01), 17. https://doi.org/10.4236/me.2020.111003

Peran, M. J. (2021). Is time to reach customer product acceptance influenced by advertising

support?. IROCAMM-International Review Of Communication And Marketing

Mix, 2(4), 55-59. https://doi.org/10.12795/irocamm.2018.i1.02

Rinkineva, T. (2018). Scaling Printed Store Circular Strategies to Facebook-Case: Walmart

Brasil. https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801462672-009

Smith, J. (2019). Big Box Supermarkets (Walmart Supercenters). Increasing Access to Food: A

Comprehensive Report on Food Supply Options, 5. https://doi.org/10.22215/etd/2011-

08872

Urshila, R. (2018). LITERATURE REVIEW ON ADVERTISING STRATEGY FOR

INTERNATIONAL BRANDS. Journal of Management (JOM), 5(6).

https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-9672-2.ch008