Digital Marketing Study

---

Level 3 Digital Marketing Bootcamp – Exeter College

Use the following links to jump to your required section

Market Segmentation

Digital Media Technologies

Module 1

The first module consisted of discovering current social media knowledge and discussing various social media platforms and the ages and profiles of their users.

We completed some fun exercises of promoting a ‘Holey Spoon’ – yes a spoon with holes in it; and an Italian Job themed café/restaurant within our groups. These exercises were a fun way to get the brain muscles used to exploring ideas on ways to promote either a difficult product or a new business start up.

Along the way we were taught about the seven ‘P’s of advertising: Credit TrueNorth

The 7Ps of marketing is an expanded marketing mix framework that goes beyond the traditional 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, and Promotion) to encompass three additional elements that are crucial for service-based industries. The 7Ps framework helps businesses develop a comprehensive marketing strategy, especially when they are offering services rather than tangible products. Here’s an explanation of each of the 7Ps:

Product: This is the core offering of your business, whether it’s a physical product or a service. You should define what you are selling, its features, benefits, and how it fulfills customer needs or solves their problems.

Price: Price refers to the cost of the product or service to the customer. Pricing strategies can vary widely, from premium pricing to value-based pricing or penetration pricing. Pricing decisions should take into account production costs, competitor pricing, and customer willingness to pay.

Place: Place, also known as distribution, focuses on how and where customers can access your product or service. It involves selecting the right distribution channels, retail locations, or online platforms to make your offering available to your target audience.

Promotion: Promotion is all about how you communicate the value of your product or service to your target market. This includes advertising, public relations, sales promotions, social media marketing, content marketing, and other promotional activities. The goal is to create awareness, interest, desire, and action (AIDA) among potential customers.

People: People refers to the individuals, employees, or teams involved in delivering the product or service and interacting with customers. This includes your staff’s expertise, customer service skills, and the overall customer experience. Well-trained and motivated personnel can significantly impact customer satisfaction.

Process: Process relates to the procedures, systems, and workflows that a business uses to deliver its product or service. A well-defined and efficient process ensures consistency and quality in service delivery. It also includes elements like order processing, customer support, and problem resolution.

Physical Evidence: Physical evidence refers to the tangible or intangible cues and elements that help customers evaluate the service. In service industries, customers often rely on physical evidence to assess quality and reliability. This can include the appearance of your physical location, packaging, branding, and other tangible or sensory aspects.

The 7Ps framework is particularly relevant for businesses in service industries such as hospitality, healthcare, tourism, and consulting, where the intangible nature of the service makes aspects like people, process, and physical evidence especially important in shaping the customer experience. However, it can also be valuable for product-based businesses looking to enhance their marketing strategy by considering a more comprehensive set of factors beyond the traditional 4Ps.

---

Market Segmentation

Customer profile for Riverford Organic Farm

Case Study

Module 2

In this module we discussed peoples relationships with social media and various platforms, which also included recently emerged platforms, ‘old platforms and platforms which have changed over the years. We also covered marketing lifecycles and relationships.

Digital Media Technologies

Emerging Areas and Emerging Platforms 2023

• Each year there are new developments which change they way we as consumers interact with social media content and how marketers engage with us.
• It is important for digital marketers to pay close attention to emerging trends, social media platforms and various technologies as social media for instance plays a key role in the conversion process.

Source: Statista.com

TikTok Case Study

TikTok is a social media platform that was developed in China. It’s tagline is: ‘leading destination for short-form mobile video’.

I the past two years TikTok has shot up in it’s user base and is starting to rival platforms like Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. Personally I think it’s popularity increased during COVID-19 when people were at home with not much to do but either watch and/or make videos. I know I watched quite a few!

TikTok uses looping video segments to share content. Just like other platforms TikTok uses algorithm’s to build a profile of what it believes it’s users want to see i.e. filter bubble.

TikTok is often used as an influencer platform due to the way users use it – quick videos that consumers can scroll through.

Discord Case Study

Discord is a free chat, text and voice call app that is used for communication in the for of homework projects, family trips, gaming support groups etc. Small groups use it to communicate with each other.

Servers are typically private, however, some are open communities that have an opt in function. This means people have complete control with how they interact with that server.

There is no algorithm deciding what people should see, no news feed and no scrolling option. Conversations are purely driven by shared interests.

Some businesses will use this platform for direct communication with customers.

Twitter becomes ‘X’

Twitter has recently made the change to become ‘X’ or ‘X Corp’ with the aim to: ‘to ensure freedom of speech and as an accelerant for X, the everything app.’

There is now a verification, which is required by consumers to access certain elements. This is accessed by buying a monthly subscription costing $11 a month. Subscribers are then able to read 6000 posts a day, non-subscribers can only read 600 posts a day. Either number may seem like a lot, however, one would be surprised by how many posts they are displayed when scrolling through posts.

New security and privacy rules. For example: ‘you may not publish or post other people’s private information (such as home phone number and address) without their express authorization and permission.’ I wonder if this was not in place before? As well as authenticity rules: ‘you may not impersonate individuals, groups or organizations to mislead, confuse or deceive others, nor use a fake identity in a manner that disrupts the experience of others on X.’ – No celebrity impersonations etc.

The Product Lifecycle

The digital landscape of products is always changing, so when we refer to the lifecycle of a digital product we are referring to the stage of it’s growth, maturity and decline.

The growth and decline of a product is the beginning and end of the product lifecycle for a non-digital product. But for digital products the lifecycle is circular, maintenance and user testing can restore viability and in some cases completely reshape the market in which our product exists in. Companies may need to consider that the end goal for a product – the ‘decline’ – may be required, as it may fit in with a sale or season, a predefined amount of time, that we want the product to exist for.

It makes sense to keep making money from a product and even though we might have a particular timeframe that is most ‘optimal’ we can still update, change and review to add value to existing products.

Introduction Stage

In this stage the product is distributed and made available for sale.

Marketers work hard to create enough demand for the new product in the market.

Customers will need to be encouraged to try the product.

Aim to build market share – a company might try a low penetrating price strategy.

Revenue generation might be very low and mainly covers research and development and that means no profit at this stage.

Growth Stage

The growth stage provides a company with strong growth in terms of sales volume and profit earned.

Companies aim to achieve economies of scale that leads to cost reduction.

This can help the company to invest in in more resources in terms of advertising and promotion of the product.

Promotion can benefit both public awareness and profitability increases.

Mostly prices remain the same and the company approaches new distribution channels to fulfil increasing demand.

Maturity Stage

When the sales of a product or service slows, the maturity stage is reached.

This is the longest stage of the lifecycle.

This can be a challenging time for manufacturers and businesses.

Need to start thinking about how to enhance product features to keep customers happy.

Decline

Last of the lifecycle stage.

The product is getting older and starting to shrink.

One of the reasons may be that the market is saturated due to competitor’s products; with new features and decreased need and want.

One option is rejuvenating the product by adding new features to attract more customers.

If possible, harvest the product and target the loyal customers.

---

The Customer Lifecycle

Stage One: Reach

• Reach is the first stage in the progression of consumers. The aim her is to create awareness and develop interest in your product or brand.
• Marketing material relating to the product or service needs to be relevant to your audience, located where they can find it and catches the attention of your audience.
• Thorough research of brand content, reviews reports and detailed analytics will help you decide what platforms are best to invest in.
• First impressions only exist once.
• Buyer journeys aren’t linear. There are now a vast amount of digital technologies and are choice driven, the behaviour of consumers are now increasingly more complicated and are challenging to understand on the web.

Stage Two: Acquisition

• Understanding your brand, intellectual property, products and your business identity is important. This will then dictate what products and services you offer and what type of individual that you are aiming them to.
• Reaching potential customers with marketing will only go so far, offering meaningful messages, comments, interactions and advertising tailored to your identity, will give your community something to invest in.
• With regards to digital marketing; transparency is the key. Consumers will often gravitate towards, products and companies that hold similar values and views to themselves. Occasionally, you can find someone who doesn’t fit with that description.
• Once the targeted consumer we’ve reached understands the identity behind the product, there is a higher chance they will then stay within the influence sphere of the organisation.

Stage Three: Conversion

• When the potential customers we have reached begin to believe in our brand or product they then buy from us; Conversion has happened.
• Once the initial purchase has happened, it is very important to then build and maintain a relationship. Ensuring, of course, that the initial purchase was a happy and satisfying experience.
• Typically some information is retained from the customer, which then provides a basis for developing the relationship further.
• Continuing to develop the relationship, we can consider what other products/services they might be interested in, thus giving the opportunity for further purchases. Feed back from the first purchase can help with this, customers like to be heard and like their opinion to be valued.
• Conversion is the fine line between pre-purchase and post-purchase stages of the customer lifecycle, quite possibly the most important stage as we are now optimising the customers experience.

Stage Four: Retention

• Once we have sold our initial product, we will want to retain a relationship with the customer and ideally continue to sell other products and services to them.
• Sending relevant and meaningful messages to the consumer related to their initial purchase will aid the retention and interest. Avoid irrelevance.
• Companies use marketing emails and personalised logins as a form of retention and data management.
• If we consider that retention begins with satisfying a customers needs, then continual care and cultivation of the relationship is paramount. We can aim to work on this via feedback or from an associated service.
• The aim is to make the customer ‘feel’ part of the service, that they are more than just a part of the process and that the business values their interest and time and that we want to continue to sell to them.
• This is a big deal! This type of trust is invaluable and makes sense when we consider crowdsourcing and kickstarted projects.

Stage Five: Loyalty

• Once retention is reached, we would then like the customer to be more than a customer. Ideally they would then become a ‘Brand Advocate’, in digital marketing we refer to these customers as influencers.
• Due to their positive experience, influencers or advocates will actively recommend the product or service to their wider community audience as well as friends and family.
• Spreading awareness among social circles and filter bubbles outside your target market is hugely beneficial.
• The customer lifecycle is both nonlinear and circular. The goal is to retain the customer and keep their loyalty. Ideally this then feeds back into the first stage of reach and builds awareness of your brand or product.
• Building your brand or products reputation is easier when it speaks for itself and customers advocating positive experiences in user stories, helping more people to buy. Remember – People shout just as loud when things go wrong, in fact they shout louder!

Relationship Marketing

In the past businesses would take a transactional approach to sales, which is all about increasing individual sales. In a transactional model, acquisition, return and retention isn’t valued. Relationship marketing overlaps the many different strategies and technologies which aim to create a more meaningful connection with customers, creating a positive experience.

Often these strategies are targeted to develop trusting relationships with customers – This is really important with large audiences. Information can be given to the consumer (business) to build and handle this relationship; This information can include but not limited to: the customer profile, buying history, profile patterns and contacts are stored in a sales database. GDPR must be considered at all times. This information is used to manage and develop a long term relationship with the customer and may change over time.

Benefits of Relationship Marketing

Relationship marketing offers numerous benefits for businesses, fostering long-term connections with customers and contributing to sustainable growth. Here are some key advantages:

• Customer Retention: Building strong relationships with customers helps in retaining them over the long term. Loyal customers are more likely to continue purchasing from a business, reducing churn and increasing overall revenue.
• Customer Loyalty: Relationship marketing cultivates a sense of loyalty among customers. When individuals feel a personal connection to a brand, they are more likely to choose that brand over competitors, even if they are presented with similar offerings.
• Increased Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): By focusing on building relationships, businesses can extend the duration of a customer’s relationship with the brand, thus increasing their lifetime value. Loyal customers often spend more and are more likely to recommend the business to others.
• Word-of-Mouth Marketing: Satisfied and loyal customers become brand advocates, promoting the business through positive word-of-mouth. This organic form of marketing can significantly enhance the brand’s reputation and attract new customers. Word-of-mouth is still considered the best form of marketing, keep your customers happy and they will advertise your company for free!
• Cost-Effective Marketing: Acquiring new customers is generally more expensive than retaining existing ones. Relationship marketing emphasizes nurturing existing customer relationships, making it a cost-effective strategy for long-term business success.
• Personalisation: Understanding individual customer needs and preferences enables businesses to personalise their offerings and communication. Personalised experiences enhance customer satisfaction and engagement, contributing to a positive brand perception.
• Feedback and Improvement: Strong relationships foster open communication. Customers who feel connected to a brand are more likely to provide valuable feedback. This information is crucial for businesses to make improvements, enhance products or services, and adapt to changing market demands.
• Competitive Advantage: Building and maintaining meaningful relationships with customers can set a business apart from competitors. In an environment where products and services are often similar, the customer experience and relationship quality become key differentiators.
• Reduced Marketing Costs: As loyal customers contribute significantly to revenue, businesses can allocate marketing resources more efficiently. Focusing efforts on maintaining relationships can reduce the need for extensive promotional campaigns to attract new customers continually.
• Resilience to Economic Downturns: During economic downturns, loyal customers are more likely to stick with a trusted brand. This resilience to market fluctuations can be a significant advantage, providing a more stable revenue stream.

In summary, relationship marketing is a strategic approach that goes beyond transactional interactions. It prioritises building trust, understanding customer needs, and creating a positive overall experience. The benefits extend far beyond immediate sales, contributing to the overall health and longevity of a business.

Limits of Relationship Marketing

While relationship marketing offers numerous benefits, it’s important to recognise its limitations and potential challenges for businesses:

• Resource Intensive: Building and maintaining strong relationships with customers require significant time and resources. Personalised communication, continuous engagement, and addressing individual customer needs can be resource-intensive, particularly for small businesses with limited budgets.
• Not Suitable for All Industries: Relationship marketing may be more challenging in industries where the products or services are commoditised, and customer relationships are transactional in nature. In such cases, customers might prioritise factors like price over personalised relationships.
• Inability to Prevent External Factors: Despite efforts to build relationships, external factors such as changes in the economy, industry trends, or technological disruptions can impact customer loyalty. Businesses may find it challenging to control or mitigate the effects of these external influences.
• Limited Reach: Relationship marketing often focuses on a specific target audience, and businesses may find it challenging to scale personalised interactions to a larger customer base. Mass marketing strategies may still be necessary for reaching broader markets.
• Dependency on Individual Relationships: If key individuals managing customer relationships leave the organisation, there’s a risk of losing the built rapport. Businesses need to ensure continuity in relationship management to avoid disruptions.
• Privacy Concerns: In an era where data privacy is a growing concern, businesses must handle customer data responsibly. Overstepping privacy boundaries in the pursuit of personalised marketing can lead to trust issues and legal complications.
• Resistance to Personalisation: Some customers may be resistant to personalised marketing efforts, viewing them as invasive or a breach of privacy. Striking the right balance between personalisation and respecting boundaries is crucial.
• Long-Term Focus: Relationship marketing is a long-term strategy, and businesses may not see immediate returns. This can be a challenge for organisations that prioritise short-term results or face pressure to meet quarterly financial targets.
• Complex Measurement: It can be challenging to quantify the impact of relationship marketing efforts on key performance indicators. Metrics like customer satisfaction, loyalty, and lifetime value may not provide immediate, easily measurable results.
• Adaptability to Changing Consumer Behavior: Consumer preferences and behaviors can evolve rapidly. Businesses relying solely on established relationship marketing strategies may struggle to adapt to changes in how customers interact with brands and make purchasing decisions.

Understanding these limitations is essential for businesses to develop a balanced marketing strategy. While relationship marketing is powerful, its effectiveness depends on the industry, target audience, and the ability of the business to navigate these challenges successfully.

Research Example – Teign Bean

Teign Bean are a ‘coffee van’ business local to me. They have a number of coffee vans and small premises in locations where you will find walkers and in coastal towns. They provide the public with amazing coffee and some seriously yummy sweet and savoury treats.

Their intro: “Vintage & retro artisan coffee establishments embracing an ethical and sustainable ethos”