Staples Digital Advertising Project for Staples Business

¶ … Staples

Digital Advertising Project for Staples

Business entails realizing the needs and expectations of the customer and exploring that opportunity to make profits. Staples is a company whose starter saw the needs of customers in offices and other places of work, and capitalized on their need for office furniture and stationery alongside other requirements. The company is clipping along into the first position ranking as the office products, furniture, computer and other requirements supplier of choice. The company, Staples Inc. is a multinational operating business, with stores across the globe, and operating from busy schedules. The line of operation we operates has competition, and to stay ahead Staples Inc. applies various strategies, alongside capitalizing its strengths and opportunities; thus, maintaining the first position in operation (Lamiman 2). At the company, we note the need for strong and effective marketing campaign and advertisement; hence, striving to invest in new marketing strategies.

The business and marketing objectives

Staples opened in 1986 and grew into a merchandising storehouse for office products, rising from level to higher level until it became the largest office products company across the globe. At Staples Inc., we enjoy vast market coverage, serving over 27 countries, and having over 2000 stores (Staples, Inc. 1). We operate about 85% of the stores within North America, with other stores in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. In addition to the stores, the company also operates online and with a catalog and directory, through which we operate the sales over the internet. The company is still expanding and growing in Europe, Asia and South America. Growing in the competitive world of business, we recognize the relation existing between success and the ability to deliver a positive impact on the customers, associates and planet at large. Therefore, this belief helps the company remain an employer and neighbor of choice, differentiating our brands and growing profitably and responsibly.

The business holds four pillars that demonstrate our commitment to the corporate responsibility and support growth. These are ethics, in which the business strives to model integrity in all we engage and adhering to the code of ethics and government practices. We seek to work with suppliers who share our values and follow due processes. Second pillar is the community, in which we reach and support communities from which our customers and associates live and work (Lamiman 2). We do so through creating direct and indirect employments, participating in community initiatives through financial contributions and local organizations promoting community development. The third pillar of Staples Inc. entails the environment, in which we generate business and environmental benefits. These benefits apply to us, the customers and community through leading in sustainable business practices. The business focuses on providing sustainable products, services, and operating in an environmentally efficient manner. The last pillar contributing in the business success is diversity. The world is dynamic, and being an international business; at Staples Inc., we counter people from varied ethnicities, religions, political and economic opinions among other diversities. Therefore, we pride in embracing diversity in all forms, promoting the culture of inclusion in the workforce, and sourcing products from diverse minority groups alongside others businesses.

The objectives of Staples Inc. derive from the vision the company holds, which states, 'every product that your business requires to be successful' (Lamiman 4). The objectives of our business include, providing quality products that will make the office work easy and comfortable. We also aims to provide quality products at reasonable prices that meet the needs of the customers. As a company, we also aim to become a leading global business enterprise, operating thousands of stores across the world. Additionally, the company aims to work in an environment where we give back to the society by ensuring sustainable business practices that conserve the environment. We practice this objective through implementing recycling, and reusing as leading procedures of conserving the environment.

SWOT analysis and competitors of Staples

Staples Inc. operates in the lifestyle and retail sector, supplying office furniture and products. In our area of operations, we enjoy several factors while others challenge our success. The key competitors of Staples include Wal-Mart, Office Max and Circuit City Stores (Staples, Inc. 2). These companies operate within America and are extending boundaries and featuring in the international markets where Staples is venturing. Thus, competition is stiff for Staples. Nonetheless, Staples Inc. continues to excel.

Strengths

The company enjoys the following strengths; first, we have a commanding presence in over 27 countries, in which we operate over 2000 stores. Secondly, we sell all office products, technology and business services provisions, machines, and furniture, both in stores and online. Thus, we are exploring all markets extensively. Additionally, Staples engages in business with enterprises in multiple European countries exclusively, giving us advantage. Moreover, we have over 1,000,000 employees worldwide (Staples, Inc. 4). This is a massive workforce. Lastly, the company also enjoys creative advertising and branding advantage, enhancing our brand visibility.

Weaknesses

However, Staples Inc. faces the following factors that constitute the weaknesses. First, the company does not have penetration into the emerging economies. Thus, we are missing a remarkably viable market. Secondly, the company faces strong competition meaning that the market share is less. Thus, the companies operating as global leaders challenge the company success.

Opportunities

Nonetheless, we still have the opportunity to explore the opportunities available. These include the emerging economies across the globe. There is a broad unexplored market in developing countries (Staples, Inc. 5). The exploration of recycling as recycled content gives an edge over the competitors in a society. Lastly, there is an opportunity to improve on customer relationship, as better relations with the customer will give us more market share.

Threats

The company faces a challenge in exploring the opportunities available and other operations from the following threats. First, expansion plans may dilute the focus on efficiency and competency for the company. Secondly, there is intense competition; thus, a slight misadventure may cost the company high loss. Lastly, we face threats from the changing government policies and regulations on the FDIs, which are limiting the operations of the company. Additionally, such changes affect the business operations significantly.

The advertising objectives and Strategy for staples

The office supply chain store operates with a slogan that drives the advertising campaign of the company. The slogan which states, 'that was easy' demonstrates the confidence we have in the strategy of the company (Staples, Inc. 2). Additionally, in observing the promotion in advertising and marketing, the company observes various objectives and strategies. These include aims to lead the leading global enterprises; thus, we focus on all channels for advertising. In determining the advertising strategy, the company recognizes that we offer services to office going people and offices. The target group for the business is the influencer and people from the office of the department of purchase. The positioning of the business entails providing electronics and furniture alongside other office supplies at considerable prices.

The marketing strategies, thus, entail promotion campaigns, which have the objective of making the procedure of buying all office requirements easy for everyone. For instance, we initialized the 'that was easy' campaign emphasized on the ease of purchasing office supplies from Staples stores. Second strategy that we employ at Staples in marketing is subsidizing pricing of the supplies. We recognize the essence of offering quality supply services at low prices. This strategy has the objective of giving Staples Inc. advantage over the competitors and making us the leading choice of store for the office setting needs. Another strategy that we employ is the use of product differentiation. In this strategy, Staples presents the products, in variety and different make and quality, among other factors of differentiation. The objective of this strategy is to meet the diverse market needs, giving the shoppers a one-stop store for all their shopping needs. Another strategy the company employs is offering promotion programs, in which we offer reward programs and promotional prices. This has the objective of enticing the customer base to buy the services offered by Staples Inc. And gain loyalty from the customers. In addition, we utilize varied marketing and advertising platforms, include manual and electronic media in communicating our services to the market. The objective of this strategy is to capitalize on the broad market share, as using varied channels of advertising covers wide target market.

Goals of the digital media campaign

Staples launched a reinvention strategy in 2012, in which the overall objective was to serve the needs of the customers better and accelerate our growth. Thus, we focus on the growth platforms and reshaping the business, cultivating funding for the future and achieving the vision of the business in this proposed digital media campaign for Staples (Staples Launches New Staples.Com for Easy Online Shopping 2). Through this campaign strategy, we lay emphasis on the use of media and electronic platforms to propel the advertising campaigns. The objectives of applying the digital media campaign platform I am proposing entail the following. The goals of this campaign are to get the product closer to the customer. Thus, the key goals of applying the digital campaign include, growing sales. The online market is broad and capitalizing on sales from online purchases, which is the emerging trend in business, will foster the company in growing the sales. Secondly, the digital campaign facilitates speaking. Staples will get close to the customer through establishing dialogue with them. Digital channels are excellent communication channels; thus, providing easy and cheaper means of reaching the customer.

The third objective is to serve. Staples Inc. is in service industry; thus, the websites and social platforms facilitate channels for customers to get answers to their questions. Therefore, we aim to serve people by engaging digital campaigns towards their products. Fourth objective of engaging the digital campaign is to save by cutting on costs. Digital campaigns facilitate fast, easy and relatively affordable channels of advertising and marketing. Therefore, we will cut on the costs by engaging digital media advertising campaign. The last objective of this campaign is to sizzle. Sizzle in the business entails creating and enhancing the brand online. Therefore, the campaign will help to establish the brand on the online platforms; hence, achieving maximum profit from all markets we venture through the brand level of the company.

The digital media to promote the service

The digital marketing entails use of electronic devices, such as computers, tablets, phones, digital billboards and game console in engaging the target consumer and other enterprises. It promotes the brand, products and services using either platform that is digital. Staples Inc. applies public relations and marketing via the website of the company only. However, with the digital campaign we aim to implement the following media to promote the service. The fist is the use of video. Video streaming is a booming activity over media today. The video advert runs 15 to 30 seconds before the actual video starts streaming (Burtenshaw, Caroline and Nik 21). This will reach many people as people browse videos online using their computers, phones, tablets and even recorded videos. The advertising video is also applicable in game console, where before the game begins the advert runs as the game is loading. Procedure of advertising digitally will reach millions of target customer base across the globe. The second procedure we will employ in using digital media campaign is texting. Today, short message services are a preferred communication method. Thus, broadcasting such messages via the networks of communication devices such as tablets and phones will reach the target group easily. This is a viable strategy.

Another way of employing digital marketing campaign is with social media, such as tweeter, facebook and histogram alongside others. These applications allow people to share images and links among other information (Macnamara 34). Thus, employing the digital platforms that people access through their electronic communication devices is part of the campaign to foster Staples Inc. We will re-invent social media accounts for the company on facebook, histogram and tweeter through which; we will get the message of the company to the people, who will like and share our products to others, thus reaching more target group. Another section we will employ is email blast, which entails broadcasting emails over the various email offering sites for people to receive emails advertising our products. We will also employ customer review sites, as customer reviews on a product or a store will communicate easily and readily to the target people who visit those sites. Lastly, the other procedure we aim to incorporate in the campaign is print and digital billboards. The print billboards do not have good ground today; however, digital billboard entail presenting the digital version of the billboard and posting it on the websites frequently visited by people. This will provide extensive campaign coverage. These platforms of digital media constitute the digital campaign program that we will implement for Staples Inc.