Report (e marketing)

About the Company: SMART is the leading Australian company specializing in technological and human expertise support for web conferencing, including seminars, workshops, and remote office connection. SMART Ltd Pty is headquartered in Sydney, with satellite offices in Melbourne and Perth. The headquarter is located in Aurora Place, one of the most prestigious office buildings, with spectacular views of the Sydney Harbor & Bridge, and the Opera House. Environmental Analysis: SWOT Strengths: Established in 2000, the company is one of the pioneers in web conferencing in Australia and is the industry leader with 30% market share in the SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) sector. SMART has a very good reputation in the market for the latest cutting edge technology, human expertise and professional service that includes before and after service. Australia is one of the digitally well connected countries in the world with a very high digital media usage (Internet Marketing; Chaffey et al) Weaknesses: In the past ten years competition has grown tremendously. This is mostly because of low barriers of entry, and the advance and availability of technology. Opportunities: Despite being highly competitive, the web conferencing industry in Australia is still growing. The current heavy users are large multinationals, followed by SMEs The growth in large multinationals have been stagnant. The growth potential in SMEs is still very good as only an estimated 60% of SMEs are heavy users. However, competition is at heaviest in SMEs. The company is based in Sydney, with remote offices in Melbourne and Perth. Australia has a stable government and an advanced legal system. Mostly unaffected by the Global Financial Crisis, the current economic situation is stable, with a good future. As Australia focuses more on export and attracting international investment (Austrade), online conferencing becomes more important as a good, convenient, and economical method to hold meetings and workshops. Additionally, with the Global Financial Crisis that are still affecting the US, EU and many other countries, many companies limit international travels. These are among the most important growth factors in online communications. Threats: Companies such as WebEx, go to meeting, Fuze Meeting, Redback Conferencing mostly focus on one value proposition such as technology or price (webex. com. au; gotomeeting. com. au; fuzemeeting. com; redbackconferencing. com. au), whereas SMART focuses on technology and service, with value added packages designed for the customers’ different needs. Although SMART serves SMEs in various industries, the needs for online conferencing are similar in term of types of equipments and service, but vary in the levels and intensity of technology and service from SMART. The company, however, must stay adaptable to keep ahead of competition. Internal Environment Analysis: SMART has 35 employees in three business units providing complete solutions, including software, hardware, hosting services including training and human expertise, for online meetings, conferences, seminars, workshops, and remote office connection 9 sales & administration 20 technical, including information system and 6 conference managers. The company commissioned an especially designed logo that is used in the offices, website, business cards for all employees, letterhead, brochures, and all communication materials, shirts, and suit jackets. All employees wear a white shirt with the company logo. The sales managers and web managers are issued a company laptop and company black leather work bag. They are required to wear a suit with a logo jacket. The web managers are required to wear a company-issued name tag while on duty. Target Market/Customers: The company website was built to suit the target market. It’s cutting edge but user friendly, easy to navigate, fast, and interactive with demonstrations available online. A web manager from the technical unit is also available Monday through Friday 9: 00-5: 00 to guide potential customers through the demonstration by live chat. The succinct information can be easily and quickly downloaded. The contact details for staff in various business units are clearly and easily accessible. All enquiries and feedback are acknowledge instantly and answered within 24 hours. There’s a moderated forum area, linked to Facebook and Twitter, where people can discuss various aspects of online conferencing such as technology. The website is updated weekly by an assigned staff. The company also has Facebook and Twitter accounts updated daily by an assigned staff for tips on online and offline conference, technology and gadgets, and even tips on working remotely from SOHO (small office home office) away from the head office. Marketing Objectives: Based on the current overall marketing strategy, including internet marketing, the company has set a Five Year Plan with the main objectives to: Increase revenue by 15% Increase market share by 25% to a total of 37. 5% These objectives are specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-related. To achieve the Five Year Plan objectives, the company will take the following actions: Increase market share in current, existing SME customers by 10% This will be achieved by growing the existing customers by up selling and cross selling. This is the objectives of the current and new sales managers’ Key Performance Indicators. Focus growth by winning accounts in the four largest industries in Australia (Ibis World) as listed below according to their percentage share in Australian economy: Manufacturing 10. 75% Mining industry 8. 3% Finance & Insurance 8. 1% Construction 7. 7% This will be the responsibilities of the new national sales managers, and the objectives of their KPIs. The first two specific steps to achieve the objectives: Recruit 1 new national sales manager for existing customers and 5 new national sales managers with excellent network in the industries targeted above. The recruitment will be conducted Australia-wide by well respected human resource agencies. Recruit 3 new technology experts to keep the company as the leading technology expert solution provider. The recruitment will also be conducted Australia-wide by the same agencies above. The overall marketing strategy, including the internet marketing strategy, will then be determined by all the business units directors in collaboration with all the sales managers. The KPIs, together with the Balanced Scorecard, will be formally measured and reviewed once a year. However, there will be an informal review after the first six months to ensure that the objectives will be met. If there are relevant hurdles to achieve any of the objectives, they have to be addressed and solved immediately. Although growing, SMART is still small enough to be quick to adapt to changes that may be necessary to implement to achieve the five Year Plan objectives. These Five Year Plan objectives are aggressive, as the competition is getting very strong. Smaller competitors aggressively pursue new businesses often with cut cost or penetration pricing. To grow, SMART has to put its sense of urgency into concrete actions guided the overall business and marketing strategies. Product and Promotion: The products that the company is offering are: Online Meeting Center: the core product of our web conferencing is to provide online meetings that support digital media, data, video, voice, telephony and large meeting. The Online Meeting Center is our company main profit center which 75-80% profit comes from this center. There are four packages to cater to SME’s in various industries. The requirements for online conferencing are not determined by specific industries, but by individual needs. Platinum Package: This package mainly aims at the richest industry in Australia, such as mining and banking industry. This package provides 100% browser-based video and web conferencing solutions with the highest quality in voice, video and documentation. Also the participants from 25 to 500 people and time unlimited. This package depends on the stability, speed and reliability of the running network which our company provides the best technology served on it. Furthermore, we have a web manager on site that is responsible for solving any problems at any time for our consumers. Lastly, in this package, while you are not in the office our company makes your meeting mobile. Smart phones also can be used in online meeting, including blackberry and iphone. Gold Package: This package provides browser-based video & web conferencing solutions with the higher quality in voice, video and documentation compared with the same level package of other company. Also the participants from 25 to 300 people and time unlimited. This package depends on the high stability, speed and reliability of the running network which our company provides high technology served on it. Furthermore, we have a web manager on site that is responsible for solving any problems for our consumers during working-hours. Silver Package: This package provides browser-based video & web conferencing solutions with the high quality in voice, video and documentation. Also the participants from 5 to 100 people. The meeting time is fixed. This package make sure the high quality voice and smooth screen. Furthermore, we have a web manager on site that is responsible for solving technology problems for our consumers at fixed time. Regular Package: This package provides browser-based video & web conferencing solutions in voice, video and documentation. Also the participants from 5 to 50 people. The meeting time is limited. Online Training Center: SMART Company has a training center, which is also a profit center, providing training for our consumers. Platinum Package: Sharing documents, applications, streaming videos at any time, providing multi-point video. Testing and grading students before, during and after live training. “ Get instant feedback and guidance from consumers’ entire class though innovative quick-response features” (Endace, 2005). Track questions and document responses using threaded Q & A. Consumers also get the highest level of security and performance. Gold Package: Sharing documents, applications, streaming videos at any time, providing multi-point video. Testing and grading students in a fixed time. Get some feedback and guidance from consumers’ entire class though innovative quick-response features. Consumers also get the highest level of security and performance. Sliver Package: Sharing documents, applications, streaming videos in a fixed time. Testing and grading students in a fixed time. Get some feedback and guidance from consumers’ entire class though innovative quick-response features. Consumers also get security. Regular Package: Sharing documents, applications, streaming videos in a fixed time. Testing and grading students in a fixed time. Consumers also get security. Support Center: SMART Company provides a tool which called SMART Administration that help users easily manage our website. Platinum Package: “ To use SMART Administration, Platinum users have the privilege, they can view all information and start a support session with just a click and control permission to access in SMART Administration” (Ford, 2005). Improving customer satisfaction by solving issues as soon as possible. As soon as possible quickly bring another expert into the support session to find solutions more quickly. Gold Package: To use SMART Administration, “ Gold users have the privilege, they can start a support session with just a click and control permission to access in SMART Administration”(Ford, 2005). Improving customer satisfaction by solving issues in a fixed time. As soon as possible quickly bring another expert into the support session to find solutions more quickly. Sliver package: To use SMART Administration, Sliver users have to apply first. Improving customer satisfaction by solving issues in a fixed time. Bring another expert into the support session to find solutions. Regular Package: Improving customer satisfaction by solving issues in a fixed time. Bring another expert into the support session to find solutions. Promotion strategy: Platinum/ Gold users’ strategy: 1. Put our SMART company’s URL on letterhead, business cards and in e-mail signatures wherever potential users likely to see it. 2. When users started their journey into the world of web conferencing, the first thing they did was a global search on Google. com, Yahoo. com, and other search engines to find out what was out there. Therefore, the first thing for our company to do is that corporate with these big search engines which ensure search engine ranking position of our company is in the front. Also building inbound links to our company site. 3. “ Get a free 30-day trial of SMART web conferencing, experiencing the leading web meeting and video conferencing solution for online training, remote support” (WebEx). Sliver/ Regular users’ strategy: 1. Find and enjoy savings with SMART promotional code, coupons, and free coupon codes. Those users can save a great deal of money through the use of SMART discount codes, and free online coupons. 2. Get a free 15-day trial of SMART web conferencing, experiencing the leading web meeting and video conferencing solution for online training, remote support. Place: The products or services being offered by the company are based on the web, whereby the consumers or the users are marked by their high capability to use the Internet. This implies that most of the marketing efforts should target consumers on the web. Other strategies can involve the use of corporate meetings, where company executives meet, to introduce the technology to them (Gay & Esen, 2007, p. 63). The books and literature that are targeting these people can also providing advertising channel to reach them. All types of media should be used to aid in the marketing process. The process of advertising online has various benefits, among them, the need not to be limited to a specific time and space (Gay & Esen, 2007, p. 37). One can advertise from any point of the world, while targeting specific people. In this case, advertisement will involve the use of social media, or even search engine services. Advertisement for the online meeting centre services will be done for different packages together, leaving the consumer to choose once he or she receives the money. Various elementary advertisements and banners will be created and the effective channel to be used is Google search. Once a person searches for words like teleconference, online meeting, business communication, online training, and support centre in Australia, the search engine should be able to display the advert to the person in the most appropriate way possible, since there is an unusually high possibility that this person will be interested in the goods we offer. The ad should provide a link where the consumer will be directed to take further steps or to be provided with additional information (Lee, 2001, p. 17). This process will involve developing the web page that will serve as the landing page from the advertisement. The page should provide all the information that is necessary in order to ensure that there is a high-conversion rate of the customers. Since the advertisement is paid in terms of clicks that the advertisement is clicked, there is a high need to ensure that most of the people who click on the ad are converted into customers, thus saving the company a lot of money and increasing sales (Lee, 2001, p. 31). Advertisement on the social media will also give an opportunity to reach many people since social media like Facebook and Twitter are even drawing corporate clients, who are the main target. Marketing campaign should be aggressively done here, since many companies are likely to have their pages here, which they use to pass information to clients and within the employees. This will provide an appropriate avenue to launch the products to them. Since the services offered by the company are not limited to time and space, the company’s clients can be located anywhere in the globe, hence there is a potential for a majorly sizeable market. The different packages being offered also provide an opportunity for organisations of different sizes and economic abilities to use the services (Gay & Esen, 2007, p. 32). Price There are different packages for each individual service that the company is offering. These are meant to meet the varied needs of consumers, depending on their needs, preferences and their purchasing power. The platinum and gold clients will be expected to pay a higher amount of money as compared to the silver and regular users, based on the fact that the earlier provide more services and is a more reliable service, while the latter has less services and is less reliable in terms of availability of customer support. This is one of the biggest criteria to be used to determine the pricing of the services (Smith & Smith, 2011, p. 14) The pricing strategy adopted should be used to increase the market base and penetrate new grounds in order to build customer trust. There is a wide range of competitors in this field, who already have a substantial market share while others offer free services. To effectively take on the giants who already have market dominance, penetration pricing will be adopted. This will involve setting the prices at quite a low figure in order to draw many clients who are interested in cheap but reliable and quality service. This pricing strategy is the one that can ensure that the services are adopted by a number of companies who will then serve to build brand equity (Kurtzet al. 2009, p. 585). As more and more users use the service, there will be an added advantage of the product being more recognized and being in a position to compete effectively with others that are already in the market. Once established, brand loyalty will serve to market the services that the company is offering, without a need for complex marketing campaigns (Smith & Smith, 2011, p. 8). People: People, staffs, managers and consumers included with consumption of a service are important. SMART provides itself in staff satisfaction and low staff turnover. First of all, it has a Staff Awards Program. Employees with outstanding performance are rewarded with prizes, holidays and public recognition. Secondly, the company has KIP system that is fair for both company and employees. Thirdly, we provide work and lifestyle balance, which is including proper prioritizing between ” work” (career and ambition) on one hand and ” life” (Health, pleasure, leisure, family and spiritual development) on the other.(Colin. G &Richard. M. S., 2003) We do not rigid regulations for the staff. However, we build our corporate culture to be mature, responsible with a sense of ownership. Fourthly, SMART has a very good internship program where we select 50 graduate students from the top five graduate school, but the company only hire 2 people after 6 month training program. Fifthly, all sales managers are required have technical background. SMART also provide the skill upgrade training to employees every two years. Lastly, SMART has generous, above industry average compensation and benefit package. (Davi Ngo, no date ) Understanding how to improve customer satisfaction can make a huge difference to the bottom line. SMART uses Customer Relationship Management, that includes the use of CRM software and human touch. The company also has the following rules: Firstly, integrity, which is treat customers with respect and always provide the best service. Secondly, feedback partnership. SMART build long term relationship with customers by repeating business and referral. ( Laura Evans, 2011 ) References: 1. Colin. G &Richard. M. S. (2003) Strategic Marketing Planning. British Library Cataloguing, UK 2. Davi Ngo, no date. ‘How to improve employee satisfaction?’ retrieved on 13, May 2011 from http://www. humanresources. hrvinet. com/how-to-improve-employee-satisfaction/ 3. Laura Evans, 2011 ’10 Ways to Improve Customer Satisfaction’ retrieved on 15, May 2011 from http://www. life123. com/career-money/freelancing/difficult-clients/customer-satisfaction. shtml 4. Gay, R & Esen, R 2007, Online marketing: a customer-led approach, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Kurtz, D., MacKenzie, H. & Snow, K. 2009. Contemporary Marketing, Cengage Learning, 5. Lee, O 2001, Internet marketing research: theory and practice, Idea Group Inc (IGI), Pennsylvania. 6. Smith, T. J & Smith, T. 2011. Pricing Strategy: Setting Price Levels, Managing Price Discounts, & Establishing Price Structures. Cengage Learning