Organization Behavior Internet and E-Marketing in Order

Organization Behavior

Internet and E-Marketing

In order to stay competitive, attract potential customers, and offer the products in a more tactful way, businesses have to incorporate effective e-marketing strategies as a part of their marketing and promotional efforts. Gold Coast Bakeries is a medium scale business corporation based in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It offers a variety of baked items for every type of customers and all food requirements. Gold Coast Bakeries can be regarded as a growing business in the Gold Coast region. But it has to face certain challenges and threats from different environmental forces and strong competitors in the industry. To survive in an uncertain business environment and compete with the industry leaders, Gold Coast Bakeries must incorporate electronic marketing for the promotion of its products.

As a part of its product strategies, it can improve their quality and taste while keeping the prices at their minimum possible level. To promote its products in a more effective and cost-efficient manner, Gold Coast Bakeries can develop more features in its website, add customer services section, and institute a Customer Relationship Management System in its operational units. Through its improved customer services, Gold Coast Bakeries will be able to give more emphasis on the quality of its products and after sale services. It can take feedback from customers on how it can improve its product range and reach the potential segments. The e-marketing strategies will also entail distribution planning where it can invite more potential distributors and supply chain members to join its business network. Moreover, it can advertise its products on social media platform which is the most cost efficient means of promotion of the present times. The e-marketing budget of the company will be fairly distributed in three major e-marketing objectives; to increase the sales volume and market share, improve the supply chain management, and overall brand loyalty. This can be done by implementing all these e-marketing strategies on the basis of the results of situational analysis.

INTRODUCTION

Businesses use internet or electronic marketing to digitalize their marketing or promotional efforts and achieve strategic objectives. E-marketing enables the business organization to target their potential customers in a more effective and tactful way through e-marketing plan, budget, and strategies (Berger & Milkman 2012). This paper presents a complete e-marketing plan for a medium scale business organization in Gold Coast, Australia. It starts with a brief introduction to the company, Gold Coast Bakeries; its product offering, area served, scale of operations, and target customers; and then discusses its internal and external environment and competition intensity under the Situational and SWOT Analysis. In the later sections, the e-marketing strategic planning, marketing objectives and budget, and marketing mix has been discussed in order to set a roadmap for the achievement of overall strategic goals. The final section of the paper gives an evaluation plan which will be helpful in ensuring the effectiveness of the e-marketing strategies.

1. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS: GOLD COAST BAKERIES

A. Internal Environment:

a. Introduction, History, and Product Offerings:

Gold Coast Bakeries -- established in 1956, is a completely family owned business in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The founders of Gold Coast Bakeries were Harvey and Dulcie Marrable who had opened their first bakery with no imagination that they will transform it into a successful business by continuing their tradition of providing the highest quality food products. Gold Coast Bakeries currently offers a wide range of baked food items for all kinds of meals and refreshments. The three top brands of the company are Gold Coast Bread, King Henry, and Golden Hearth which have successfully captured the potential customers in the region. Gold Coast Bakeries have been serving its customers for more than 56 years with a continuous growth in its operations and improvement in the quality of its products (Gold Coast Bakeries 2012).

b. Current Target Markets:

The retail stores of Gold Coast Bakeries remain operative 7 days a week with a variety of fresh food products for all types of customers. The major target markets where Gold Coast Bakeries operates are located from the areas of South-East of Queensland to Northern New South Wales. It also distributes its food products to supermarkets and retail stores in Lismore and north Noosa. With the passage of time, Gold Coast Bakeries have expanded its supply chain network and channels of distribution. At present, it has almost 50 vendor distributors from all over the Queensland which offer their services to Gold Coast Bakeries with full efficiency. Gold Coast Bakeries has also hired a number of driver contractors and sales staff that play an important role in the sales and distribution of its food products without losing their freshness and taste (Gold Coast Bakeries 2012).

B. External Environment:

The business environment in which Gold Coast Bakeries operates has greatly changed since the time it was started by Harvey and Dulcie Marrable. The external environment of Gold Coast Bakeries consists of all those forces which can be present in any type of manufacturing concern. However, these forces have brought some specific impacts on its operations during the last few decades. The major external environmental forces for Gold Coast Bakeries include; political forces and legal forces, economic forces, social and demographical forces, technological forces, and competitive forces. Gold Coast Bakeries has to carefully analyze its external environment in order to keep its operations and profitability safe from any unwanted issues or complexities.

a. Political and Legal Forces:

Gold Coast Bakeries is a medium scale family owned business which has very limited assets and financial resources. Therefore, it has to keep its policies and practices according to the Laws and regulations defined by the local government. Gold Coast Bakeries has to keep in view these Laws and Regulations while formulating any new policies or strategies for its business; including introduction of new products, implementing new marketing plan, hiring of employees, making contractual agreements with new distributors or other supply chain members, etc. As Gold Coast Bakeries operates in the food market, the most crucial thing for the owners is to keep their product operations as per the Health and Safety standards set by the Australian Government for food manufacturing concerns. Moreover, Gold Coast Bakeries has to meet the international quality standards in order to keep up pace with the industry benchmarks.

b. Economic Forces:

For a small or medium scale business, economic forces are the most critical forces from the external environment. Reason being, they directly hit the operational and financial performance of the business. For Gold Coast Bakeries, economic forces constitute all those factors that impact its sales, income, and expenditures in one way or another. The biggest economic force is the prices of raw material. Gold Coast Bakeries purchases high quality raw material to produce the baked food items that are best in taste, heath, and nutrition. Due to inflationary pressures, these materials are getting more and more expensive day by day. Secondly, the increasing costs of operations also impact the profit margins of the company. The utility services, manufacturing plants and machineries, packaging, and distribution expenses are the major operational costs which are affected by the economic forces (Peter & Donnelly 2009).

Economic forces have also impacted the purchasing power of customers in a negative way. When ready-made baked products are getting expensive day by day, customers look for alternative foods; especially for their breakfast and occasional meals. In order to retain its customers, Gold Coast Bakeries has to keep its prices intact for a long period of time. That is, it has to compromise on its profit margins instead of increasing the prices of its products. Gold Coast Bakeries also has to offer good commission packages to its suppliers, distributors, and business development agencies in order to retain them in its value chain.

c. Social and Demographical Forces:

The major social and demographical forces which impact the sales volume and acceptability of Gold Coast Bakeries products are its price, quality, and availability. Gold Coast Bakeries has gained a good reputation in the local market by offering the best quality fresh bakery food items. The top food products of the company, Gold Coast Bread, King Henry, and Golden Hearth have made a large number of brand lovers in South-East Queensland and New South Wales. This high level of acceptability is due to the deliciousness and prime quality of products offered by Gold Coast Bakeries (Gold Coast Bakeries 2012).

Gold Coast Bakeries has designed its product operations and strategies in such a fashion that they greatly contribute in the brand loyalty for its products; fair product pricing, easy availability, maintenance of freshness and health standards, and attractive packaging are named to be few of the factors which are the tools of Gold Coast Bakeries to compete with the social and demographical forces present in its external environment. Gold Coast Bakeries have set a fair price for its products so that it can serve a larger customer market in the Gold Coast and adjacent regions.

d. Technological Forces:

Gold Coast Bakeries has to keep its production units and machineries in the best mechanical conditions in order to ensure an effective and efficient running of business operations. A continuous up-gradation of all manufacturing plants and equipments is essential for producing the best quality meals for the customers. If Gold Coast Bakeries will not give importance to the technological changes in its environment, it will no longer remain competitive in its industry. The continuous up-gradation of plants and machineries bring large expenditures for the company every year. Therefore, it has to keep a big margin from its profits for these expenditures.

e. Competitive Forces:

There are a large number of competitors in Gold Coast and the adjacent regions which are direct competitors to Gold Coast Bakeries. The major competitors for Gold Coast Bakeries include Petro's Bakery, Goldstein's Bakery, Marquis De Pastry, Brumby's Bakeries, Oriental Bakeries, BC's Bakery, Celtic Organic Bakery, Maurita Authentic Italian Bakery, Miami Village Bakery, Montary Keys Bakery, and Beaudesert Fair Bakery. In addition to these established competitors, there are medium and large scale private retail stores and supermarkets that are selling branded bakery products and give an equally stiff competition to Gold Coast Bakeries.

All of these competitors try to snatch the new potential customers as well as the existing customers of other companies in the industry by promoting their high quality products through attractive promotional campaigns and tactful competitive strategies. The biggest competitive tool for the market leaders is their extended distribution channel all over Australia. On the other hand, small and medium scale competitors can only target a limited consumer market with their small distribution networks (Hanafizadeh & Behboudi 2012).

Gold Coast Bakeries distributes its products to all the major supermarkets and private retail outlets in Gold Coast and some other areas in the Queensland. But there are many other larger competitors that place their products on high shelves in the supermarkets and retail stores. It significantly decreases the percentage of customers who daily pick up the Gold Coast Bakeries' products. Therefore, it is essential for Gold Coast Bakeries to strengthen its brand loyalty in the target markets so that regular customers never switch to other competitors. Some new competitors also offer their products at cheaper rates. These competitors fail to snatch the market share due to their lower quality products or lack of acceptability by the customers (Mullins, Walker, & Boyd 2008).

2. SWOT ANLYSIS -- GOLD COAST BAKERIES

SWOT Analysis helps a company to get acquainted with its internal and external environment by analyzing its major strengths and weaknesses, potential opportunities in the market, and possible threats in the business environment (Brassington & Pettitt 2006). The SWOT Analysis for Gold Coast Bakeries is as follows:

a. Strengths:

The biggest strength for Gold Coast Bakeries is its brand loyalty among general consumers in Queensland, Northern New South Wales, Lismore, and North Noosa. For the last 56 years, Gold Coast Bakeries has been serving its customers with highly delicious, healthy, and nutritional food products at very competitive rates. The second major strength of Gold Coast Bakeries is its focus on the changing customer tastes and preferences. To deal with these preferences, Gold Coast Bakeries offers a variety of baked food items to different kinds of customers. A large customer base, highly efficient supply chain and distribution network, and highly motivated sales force are other strengths of Gold Coast Bakeries (Gold Coast Bakeries 2012).

b. Weaknesses:

A big weakness of Gold Coast Bakeries is its scale of business operations. It has been operative for more than five decades, but its customer base and distribution network have not expanded to a large number of locations in the Country. That is, Gold Coast Bakeries has been serving a limited target market where there is a plenty of other competitors too. A second weakness of Gold Coast Bakeries is less expenditures on internet marketing and promotional efforts. The website of the company does not offer online ordering information, shopping cartels, customer facilitation, suggestions, or complaint resolution services, or other internet services for the customers and stakeholders. Another weakness of Gold Coast Bakeries is its less focus on marketing strategies. There are no public relations tools currently in practice at Gold Coast Bakeries. The media and news room also lacks information on the promotional efforts that could attract potential investors or customers for the business (Gold Coast Bakeries 2012).

c. Opportunities:

Despite having limited size operations in the Gold Coast region, Gold Coast Bakeries still has great opportunities to grow in the baked food industry of Australia. Australian customers are food savvy and choose their meals according to their own taste and quality standards. Gold Coast Bakeries can expand its operations to target a larger customer market in the other states and cities of Australia. Firstly, it can increase the production capacity to manufacture the existing product line in a larger quantity. Afterwards, it can expand its distribution network where the distribution agencies and firms will be responsible to deliver the Gold Coast Bakeries' products to new markets and destinations. Gold Coast Bakeries will also have to increase its sales force to work on its retail outlets and increase its sales through marketing and customer relations. These expansions will significantly increase the costs of business, but will eventually lead to a larger scale of operations, greater market share, and a stronger customer base (Blyth 2011).

d. Threats:

The biggest threat for Gold Coast Bakeries is its competitors. It not only faces a strong competition from various local brands, but also competes with some internationally renowned brands. These competitors directly impact the sales of its products. Some of the top-notch competitors are giving large focus on their e-commerce and e-marketing strategies. This thing makes them much more competitive organizations than Gold Coast Bakeries. The second big threat for Gold Coast Bakeries is the increasing costs of raw material, utility services, and commission packages for distributors and business development agencies. The economic changes in the country, technological advancements, political and governmental behavior, rapidly changing customer preferences, and environmental forces are other big threats for Gold Coast Bakeries. Moreover, the health and safety standards are also subject to continuous change in the region which can also pose big challenges for the company if it does not keep its operations in pace with them (Spilker-Attig & Brettel 2010).

3. E-MARKETING STRATEGIC PLANNING

The E-marketing strategic planning has three major components: segmentation and targeting, differentiation, and positioning of products. A business corporation must formulate strategies for all these components individually in order to present their products in an effective and competitive fashion on the electronic platform. The following section discusses the e-marketing strategic planning for Gold Coast Bakeries:

a. Segmentation and Targeting:

Segmentation refers to the categorization of potential customers according to their consumption patterns, preferences, life styles, and behavior towards products and services available in the market. Gold Coast Bakeries can make segmentation of the market according to the requirements and preferences of its customers. For all the existing product lines of Gold Coast Bakeries, the customers can choose to buy on the basis of quality, price, or taste. Some customers are quality conscious; they choose only those products that are manufactured by top international brands. They do not look at the price for these products (Ferrell & Hartline 2011).

Converse to these types of customers, there are price conscious customers who choose the cheapest products from the market without considering the manufacturer brand or product quality. The third types of customers are segmented according to their taste preferences. They only choose those products which best fit their taste and life style. Among all these types, the most potential customers for Gold Coast Bakeries are those who are quality conscious but want these products at a reasonable price. Gold Coast Bakeries can target these customers through its top quality brands and good reputation in the market. It can run electronic marketing campaigns to create awareness among these customers and attract them towards its different-taste food products (Francis 2010).

In addition to the psychographic preferences, segmentation can also be done on the basis of demographical factors and geographic locations. The areas which Gold Coast Bakeries currently serves are the most populated areas of the State. Therefore, it can maximize its sales revenues by attracting more and more customers from these areas. The demand for Gold Coast Bakeries' products can also be increased if it runs promotional campaigns in the nearby regions.

The demographic segmentation can be made according to the life styles, age groups, and spending patterns of the customers in the Gold Coast region. The potential customers for Gold Coast Bakeries fall under all age groups and income levels. However, there is no segmentation on the basis of professional life or status of customers in the society. As a whole, the potential target markets for Gold Coast Bakeries consist of those customers that live in the populated areas, choose quality products, agree to give a reasonable price, and look for easy availability for the products in their local stores (Bearden, Ingram, & LaForge 2007).

b. Differentiation:

Differentiation is a process by which an organization distinguishes its products from those offered by the rest of the competitors in the industry. For e-marketing strategic planning, Gold Coast Bakeries can differentiate its products by increasing brand recognition, efficient customer services, online ordering facility, strong public relations, quick delivery of online orders, effective and efficient complaint resolution process, and offering discount rates to prestigious and regular customers (Lee & Johnson 2005).

For an effective differentiation of its products at the online platform, Gold Coast Bakeries should first improve the layout of its website; add more facilities and services for the potential customers and give detailed information for every type of stakeholders. Moreover, the customers must be treated in a polite and friendly manner so that they appreciate the customer services and also share their good experience with other people in their society (Hinz, Skiera, Barrot, & Becker 2011).

c. Positioning:

Positioning is the process of developing the right image of the company and its products in the most potential segment of the target market. For Gold Coast Bakeries, the most potential segment is the quality conscious people who do not compromise on the quality and health standards. In its e-marketing campaigns, Gold Coast Bakeries can position its products according to the requirements of the customers. It can promote its products by highlighting their major attributes; including ingredients, quality, price, manufacturing processes, and locations of retail outlets (Miletsky 2010).

Secondly, it can convey the message to the customers that these products are manufactured by highly experienced chefs in the most advanced production units. In its e-marketing campaigns, Gold Coast Bakeries can also position its products by comparing them with those offered by the top brands in the market. It can help it in developing a strong public image that Gold Coast Bakeries is a competitive brand which offers its high quality and delicious food products at very reasonable rates (Groucutt, Leadley, & Forsyth 2004).

4. MARKETING OBJECTIVES

On the basis of Situational Analysis, SWOT Analysis, and e-marketing strategic planning, Gold Coast Bakeries can develop the following three major marketing objectives for the next 1-2-year period:

1. Increasing Sales Revenues:

No doubt, the ultimate goal of any marketing effort is to increase the sales volume of the company. The same is also true for e-marketing plan which aims to increase the brand recognition of a company by using the Internet and Information Technology. The first marketing objective of Gold Coast Bakeries is to increase the sales of its products by attracting more potential customers to buy its products. Through e-marketing plan, the company wants to make the new customers try its products and become its brand lovers. Once the objective is achieved, these brand loyal customers will become a permanent source of revenues for the company. This objective has a time frame of one year; that is, the change in the sales revenues can be observed after every 12 months in order to check whether the company has succeeded in accomplishing its first objective or not (Foster, Wilson, Allensworth & Sands 2010).

2. Increase Market Share:

This is a long-term marketing objective of Gold Coast Bakeries. By increasing its market share, Gold Coast Bakeries wants to beat the market leaders that have captured the greatest number of customers, larger consumer markets, and earn more sales revenues than smaller competitors in the industry. At present, Gold Coast Bakeries does not possess a large market share, but it wants to increase it up to a considerable extent in the next 1.5 to 2-year period.

3. Improve the Supply Chain Management:

Supply chain plays an important role in the sustainability and success of a business. For Gold Coast Bakeries, the suppliers provide it the highest quality raw material in the form of ingredients for its products, while distributors deliver its products to the farther locations in the entire Gold Coast as well as major areas of Queensland. In its third e-marketing objective, Gold Coast Bakeries wants to improve its complete supply chain by attracting more supply chain members towards its business. It can attract them through public relations and online marketing and promotional efforts. The existing supply chain members can also bring new investors in the Gold Coast Bakeries' business by making them recognize its brand value and focus towards e-competitiveness (Eley & Tilley 2008).

5. E-MARKETING STRATEGIES

The e-marketing strategies for Gold Coast Bakeries include product, pricing, promotion, distribution, and customer relationship management strategies. These strategies are now discussed in the following section:

a. Product Strategies:

In its online advertisements and other promotional campaigns, Gold Coast Bakeries can present its product in a more effective and astounding way. The best strategy is to include the full details of all the products in the existing product lines on the website as well as in the local retail outlets. It will make it easy for the visitors to choose the products which best match their life preferences and requirements. The second strategy is to give information of the Certificates and Credentials which the company holds from different health and safety regulatory authorities. The company should also keep on introducing new products in its current product ranges. It will make the existing customers taste these new products and boost up the overall sales volume of the company (Jenny & Scammon 2010).

b. Pricing Strategies:

Gold Coast Bakeries offers its products at very reasonable rates to its customers. It is a big strength for the company as many other competitors are selling the same quality products at higher prices. Gold Coast Bakeries can specifically mention the price difference in its electronic marketing campaigns and advertisements. It will attract all the price and quality conscious customers. Moreover, it can offer discounts to the frequent buyers who are regular customers for its products. Another strategy to attract a larger number of customers is to offer attractive discounts on newly introduced products. Finally, the customers should not be charged more for availing online ordering facility or quicker deliveries of their orders (Kotler 2008).

c. Promotional Strategies:

Promotional strategies are the most important component of e-marketing strategies. These are the strategies which actually communicate the company's messages to the most potential target markets. Gold Coast Bakeries should advertise its products on its own website as well as on the social media networks. Both of these methods are considered as the most cost-efficient and effective methods of advertising. It should also include customers' online shopping cartel at its website where the visitors can open their accounts as customers and place their orders for one day, one week, or one month at no extra charges (Schillewaert 2011).