Dip DigM

Study Module no. 5

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Module 5 Using the digital channel to add value to brands

Topic 1 Key digital marketing mix and branding issues

Lesson 1 The traditional marketing mix

Lesson 2 The digital marketing mix

Regardless of your own approach to the mix, it’s important that your plans focus on
customer needs and satisfaction.

Your choice of mix should help to develop relationships:

 Relationship marketing – Means keeping customers happy for life

 Strategic alliances and partnerships – Are all about relationships
 Supply chain management – Is increasingly built on relationships, on sharing data,
systems and budgets
 The trends towards consolidation – Customers are choosing fewer suppliers and
commoditisation (competition producing similar products and competing on price) ill
continue

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Topic 3 'Product' in a digital marketing context

Lesson 1 Product management

Lesson 2 Digital products

To identify the opportunities for enhancing your offering online and adding value, you
should ask:

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 How can I modify the core product for the information environment?
 What information-based aspect of products/services would a customer really value?
 Which of these services can be produced cost-effectively and better than
competition?

Topic 4 'Price' in a digital marketing context

Lesson 2 Pricing methods
Break even analysis:

The price of the product or service needs to be in line with the marketing strategy to ensure
alignment between the impact of marketing decision and price setting.

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Lesson 3 Digital pricing

The argument that electronic markets will move towards perfect competitive pricing has to
be considered in light of the counter argument – that once online customers locate their
preferred suppliers, they become less price sensitive and more loyal by habit.

Lesson 4 Online auctions

The eBay example in the courseware clearly demonstrates how buyers enjoy purchasing in a
situation where prices are highly flexible.

For the digital marketing manager who adopts an ‘auction strategy’ for his or her offering,
there is no need to establish set prices.

Topic 5 'Place' in a digital marketing context

Lesson 1 he internet as a place of purchase
The internet provides a medium through which marketing messages can be communicated.
Moreover, it provides a channel where transactions can take place and, in some situations,
products and services can be distributed.

The internet has distinct advantages over traditional channels in reducing barriers to entry.

Lesson 3 A review of online trading locations

Different places for representation in the virtual marketplace:

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Topic 6 'Promotion' in a digital marketing context

Introduction
The growth in the number of communications media means that an integrated approach is
needed if your message is to be ‘heard’ in an increasingly ‘noisy’ marketplace.

Lesson 2 The digital communications mix

Digital marketing facilitates a different style of communications, with some unique
characteristics:

The internet today is a hugely important marketing communications tool. Consumers and
business users are frequently browsing for information to inform their purchasing decisions.

When using the internet as part of a marketing communication strategy you can send
permission-based emails, regular bulletins containing information about the latest product
features and promotional offers, all of which your prospects and customers have the
opportunity to agree to accept.

This communications mix can be used effectively to build long-term online relationships.

Lesson 3 Integrated digital communications strategies

Chaffey at al (2011) suggest ways in which to integrate online and offline communication
tools into the digital marketing strategy that will drive customers towards a website:

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Promotional planning for ecommerce start-ups is more difficult because of the dual task of:
 Benefits
o Communicating the benefits of using the organisation’s online facilities
 Awareness
o Creating awareness of the website address and online services

Lesson 4 Integrated marketing communications in the mix

The key point is that your marketing mix is a powerful communicator and should be well
defined and supported if your digital marketing communications are to be effective.

Integration can take place at different levels. The higher and more strategic the level of
integration, then the greater the requirement for organisational resources and senior
management commitment.

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Topic 7 Service mix

Introduction
Some of the key issues for improving online service delivery have been summarised by
Rayport et al. (2005). These questions for senior executives and managers were identified to
enable managers to ascertain the optimum combination of technology and human
assistance for service delivery:

1. Substitution
Deploying technology instead of people or vice-versa, e.g.:
 Frequently Asked Questions
 Onsite search engine
 Interactive sales dialogue recommending relevant products based on
 human response
 Avatar offering answers to questions as in the Ikea's 'Ask Anna' feature
 Automated email response or a series of welcome emails that educate
customers about how to use a service
 Using video to demonstrate products online
 Location-based and other push technology allows web-based content to
 be delivered to users automatically, based on their location and other
 personal data
2. Complementarity
Deploying technology in combination with people, e.g.:
 Callback facility where the website is used to set up a subsequent call from a
contact centre
 Online chat facility allowing the user to chat via text while on site
 An employee using a WiFi-enabled handheld device to facilitate easy rental
car returns
 Service delivery through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

3. Displacement
Outsourcing or off-shoring technology or labour, e.g.:
 A fast-food chain centralising drive-through order taking to a remote call
centre
 Online chat or callback systems can be deployed at a lower cost through
outsourcing

When operating online, one of your ‘people considerations’ is to work out whether it is
strategically sound to replace or automate the people part of your service offer. The options
are:

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 Autoresponders – Automatically generate a response to an email or online form.

 Email notification – Automatically generated to update customers on the status of

their order, for example: Order received, item now in stock, order dispatched.

 Callback facility – Customers fill in their phone number on a form and specify a
convenient time to be contacted.

Dialling from a representative in the call centre occurs automatically at the appointed
time. The company pays for the call (which is popular)!

 Frequently asked questions (FAQ) – The art is in compiling and categorising questions
so that customers can easily find the question and a helpful answer.

 Onsite search engines – Help customers find what they’re looking for quickly and are
popular when available.

Some companies have improved conversion to sale greatly by improving the clarity of
the results the search returns. Site maps are a related feature.

 Real-time live chat – A customer support operator in a call centre can type responses
to a website visitor’s questions.

A widely deployed technology is LivePerson (www.liveperson.com).

 Co-browsing – The customer’s screen can be viewed by the call-centre operator in

combination with call-back or chat.

 Virtual assistants – Come in varying degrees of sophistication and usually help to guide
the customer through a maze of choices.

 Social media service – Delivered via social presence or third-party sites like Get
Satisfaction. See this case study from Dell: http://www.slideshare.net/Dell_Inc/i-
strategy-dell-social-media-case-study-the-evolution-of-dell-on-twitter

 Mobile apps – A vast range of mobile app services is available and growing daily, such
as convenient personal banking and ‘intelligent’ products based on your consumption
patterns. For example, Editions by AOL delivers a daily personalised ‘magazine’ based
on recipients’ observed subject preferences.

A key measure of the effectiveness of your inbound contact strategy is the average number
of contacts required to resolve an issue.

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Many questions will not be answered by the first email. You will need to decide whether the
best strategy is to switch the customer to phone or online chat to resolve the issue rather
than bouncing multiple emails between customer and contact centre.

Two-way, real-time media such as voice, online chat and co-browsing, will be more effective
at resolving complex issues quickly.

Topic 8 Branding for digital media

Introduction
This topic explores the specific issues of brand sites. Remember that these principles can be
applied to all types of site and social media presence.

Lesson 1 Key issues for online branding

Negative sentiments about a brand can be expressed on third-party sites and, in particular,
interactive social spaces. This aspect of online branding must be managed.

It is important for customer engagement that brand sites encourage participation or co-
creation of content. For example, brands can encourage users to share and submit their
stories, photos or videos.

Lesson 3 Internet branding

Summarising the elements of online branding, de Chernatony (2001) suggests that successful
online branding requires delivering on three brand aspects:

1. Rational values
2. Emotional values
3. Promised experience (based on rational and emotional values).

Lesson 8 Assessing an online brand's health

There are different ways of connecting the customer to the brand, including symbols,
imagery and personalities.

Typically, offline brand associations are replicated online. Visiting the websites of the top
brands in the 2006 Interbrand survey such as Coca Cola, IBM and Intel produces instant
familiarity based on traditional offline brand associations.

However, for organisations with fewer or less well marshalled resources, there is often a
mismatch between the online and offline representation of the brand.

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