Category: Web Technology

As mentioned in the literature review, it is necessary that every business organization that engages in e-marketing ensures that it has developed a strong customer loyalty. This can be achieved through an unmatched design quality of their website, quality of the service offered on line and the efforts put by the company to ensure trustworthiness.

In this respect, this paper will analyze the e-marketing services of HSBC bank and determine whether it is well developed or there are some aspects that need to be developed. The services, website and trustworthiness of the HSBC website will be used as the basis of judgment.

Website design can be a source of customer loyalty if it contains characteristics like easy navigation, how attractive in appearance the website is and the overall layout. While content is the main theme of any website, other aspects like graphics and multimedia should be given an upper hand because they make the website appealing and attractive. It also makes it easy to use.

This should work hand in hand with relevant content to ensure customer loyalty (Zhou, Lu & Wang 2009: 328). Considering this argument, it is true to argue that HSBC has tried to a large extend to employ the use of multi media. In most of the stories and articles in their website, HSBC has incorporated the use of photographs to enhance meaning.

The articles in this website are financial articles that would be the most relevant to investors who need services of HSBC. For instance, there are news on climate change and the efforts of HSBC to participate in climate control. On the other hand, they have also written on the news of their program of education betterment. All these articles are characterized by photos and multi media related to them.

Other than news articles, the website also contains every necessary information for an investor who is also their potential customer. For instance, it contains their history which would be used to assist the customer to understand how long the bank has been in service and hence ascertain how much he should trust them. The long service will show that the bank has pertinent experience to handle any financial problem.

Navigation is another factor that leads to a cemented customer loyalty (Wa 2003). The website should be designed in a way that allows the reader to easily move from one page to the other. He should also be able to see where he is headed, where he is and where he has come from.

This factor has been well incorporation in HSBC website. Starting from home page, all other pages and sections of the website are clearly specified. For instance, the website is divided into several sections including about HSBC, the newsroom, investor relations, sustainability, careers, private banking, internet banking et cetera.

While at a given point, the region on the task bar is highlighted in red. This means that one is able to identify where his location is. He can easily move to other locations because they are clearly visible on the task bar.

Personal information and security are necessary in the formation of customer loyalty in an e-commerce venture. Every customer is very concerned about the way his information will be used. As argued by Oliver (1999), it is necessary that any website has privacy and security options that allow the customer realize that his privacy is not at risk. He also has to feel that his financial information is concealed.

This is very important when it comes to HSBC. Being a bank, the information necessary for efficient services might be very sensitive. For HSBC to ensure that its customers are safe and secure, they have developed a slot for internet banking. This part provides options for security of the client on the website.

Before logging onto ones account, there are several privacy and security protocol that has to be followed. The client is required to provide a user ID which is necessary for security purposes. By developing this, HSBC was determined to ensure that the clients would feel safe and ready to invest their money into the bank.

Color is an important aspect of a website (Cyr, Head & Larios 2009). Good coloring can play the role of attracting customers and retaining their attention. In this respect, HSBC has ensured that this factor is strongly considered. Throughout the website, red color has been used extensively.

Apart from being the main color of the bank, the color red is sharp and can easily attract the reader of the website. Graphics, words and photos in this website contain a dominant red color (HSBC 2011). The consistence of red is therefore a deliberate effort to ensure that the readers are attracted and retained on the website. It is also a form of retaining customer loyalty.

Offered services also play towards ensuring that customer loyalty is confirmed. Quality services ensure that a buyer of the services or goods has the intention to buy again from that organization (Wa 2003). Quality services in terms of security, privacy and website accessibility are fundamental to customer loyalty. In the HSBC website, the quality of services is undoubtedly of quality. Every service offered is clearly outlined.

The services are not only easily accessible but also attractive. When one decides to use a given service, the website offers friendly services that offer privacy and security. Quality services also involve the determination of the type of clients who require the services and hence developing special pages for the different requirements. In HSBC, there is a clear distinction for the different clients.

For instance, there is a page for personal customers, business customers and corporate and institutional customers. Under these pages, there are further divisions for further diversity. The website has put into consideration the differences in requirements for people in the US, UK and China. Each of these groups has its special page.

Finally, transactional and informational trust is what leads to customer loyalty. As argued by Corritore, Kracher & Wiedenbeck (2003), trust and trustworthiness are different terms. Trust emanates from the buyer while trustworthiness from the seller. Therefore, a good website must ensure that it instills trust in the client as a result of its trustworthiness.

As mentioned earlier, every aspect of transaction and information that a client at HSBC offers is well backed by security and privacy options (HSBC 2011). Through these, a client is able to realize that HSBC is not just another scam on the internet. In addition, the client will realize that his information would not get to a third party hence placing his finances into likelihood of being stolen.

As a result, HSBC has ensured that every aspect of its website conforms to the expectations of an appropriate website. This includes the use of good web design, easy accessibility, use of graphics and multimedia, employment of proper information and availability of security and privacy options.

As a recommendation, HSBC should try to further improve their website through inclusion of other graphics. Other than pictures and photographs, decorative words should be further included. In addition, they could further improve their website through addition of investment news.

Most of the potential clients are investors making investment news one of the best catching strategy. By doing this, they will increase the traffic to their website and also customer loyalty.

List of References

Corritore,D., Kracher, M. & Wiedenbeck, H., 2003. On-line trust: Concepts, evolving themes, a model. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. 58(6), pp. 435-441.

Cyr, D., Head, M., Larios, H., Pan, B., 2009. Exploring Human Images in Website Design Across Cultures: A Multi-Method Approach, Invited Research Presentation, Simon Fraser University, MIS Group Research Series, Vancouver.

HSBC., 2011. The Worlds Local Bank. Web.

Oliver, R.L., 1999. Whence consumer loyalty? Journal of Marketing, 63 (Special Issue), Pp. 34.

Wa, C.T., 2003. An Integrated Online Customer Loyalty Model. Web.

Zhou, T., Lu, Y. & Wang, B., 2009. The Relative Importance of Website Design Quality and Service Quality in Determining Consumers Online Repurchase Behavior. IS Management 23, pp. 327~337.

Executive Summary

This paper aims at revealing the website design concepts undertaken by the Nyali Beach Hotel. The study analyses the 4 Ps of marketing, and attempts to critique whether they have been used appropriately in this particular website.

Therefore, the paper provides a critical analysis of the Nyali Beach Hotels website by exploring the main purpose of the website, the business model used in the website, the main target customers for the website, and the consumer behaviour in relation to the websites model.

More so, the paper analyses the role of the website in creating a good relationship with its customers. The analysis helps in identifying the strengths and the weaknesses of the Nyali Beach Hotels website, hence strengthening the website through providing recommendations for improvement.

Introduction

Web marketing is an interactive form of marketing, as it provides instant responses that makes it a unique form of marketing. Web marketing uses both technical and creative aspects of the internet marketing, including the 4Ps of marketing.

Web marketers have in the recent past analysed that a business cannot carry out effective web marketing without taking into account a good coverage of the products offered, the prices of the products offered, the placement of the products, and the promotion of the products offered.

This paper aims at providing a critique of web marketing of Nyali Beach Hotel. The hotel is a famous tourist destination due to its proximity to the Indian Ocean.

Discussion

Purpose of the Site and Its Business Model

Nyali Beach Hotel is a tourist hotel that makes money out of selling guest rooms as well as other goods and services including food and drinks, water sports, tennis, volleyball along the beach, darts, and snookers, among other services. The business is a B2C targeting tourists from developing and developed countries of the world, including the domestic tourists.

The hotel is also a B2B since the website contains links for booking hotel rooms in other international hotels (Nyali Beach Hotel n.d.). The hotel aims at selling its products to its target customer segment by portraying that it understands the needs of diverse customers, as it provides a variety of products that serve diverse customers, who have different economic capacities.

The hotel uses the website in carrying out bookings and payments for the bookings, while the services are enjoyed under the bricks and motors of the business. The 4 Ps of marketing create an avenue that helps the hotel in coming up with successful results.

The first P of marketing, which is the product, defines the Nyali Beach Hotel as a hotel that offers both goods and services to its guests. In doing so, the hotel considers a number of factors including presentation of the products, the safety of the product, and the quality of the products.

In a bid to sell these products to its customers, the hotel defines its target customers, defines ways in which the customers are able to acquire the product, and defines the reasons for choosing the hotels products by successfully showing up the details of the products, including the rooms that are on sale to the customers (Nyali Beach Hotel n.d.).

Thus, the website defines the functional and visual feel and look of the website, as the visual look encompasses the website layout, design features, colors, font choices, photographs, interesting graphics, outstanding photos for the beds, and a number of restaurants along the beautiful scenarios of the Indian Ocean.

The graphics suggest that the website targets all people from all lifestyles, who are on a holiday, honeymoons, and even on business trips.

The second P of marketing, which is place, is a crucial factor to consider when marketing since it defines the method by which the products being sold by the entrepreneur get in touch with the target customers (Alrawi et al. 2008). A good placement of the products entails an easy access to the companys products through an effective search engine.

Effectiveness can be achieved through creating an opportunity for accessing multiple directories for the website. This can be facilitated by coming up with an appropriate domain name that has a common term in the search engine.

The domain name should also be memorable to the customers, and the website should not contain passwords or being connected to other complex software to open the website. The placement of the product should also entail how easy the customer is able to navigate through the website, select the most suitable product and purchase it.

The Nyali Beach Hotel makes sure that it falls on the major search engine by the virtue of its domain name. This implies that a customer can easily access the hotel while searching the beach hotels that are along the Indian Ocean. More so, the hotel enhances the degree of its placement by using affiliate marketing, whereby the affiliates facilitate an easy search of the hotels website.

Although the website does not have a search button, there are conspicuous links within the webpage page, which take the user of the website to another page, and this makes navigation quite easy while viewing the details of the product as well as making the bookings. In addition to this, the website has links that are well placed, and this enhances easy navigate of the registration form that gives way to making a booking.

The third P of marketing, which is promotion, entails the approach a website takes in creating attention to the potential buyers of a companys products (Alrawi et al. 2008). Promotion can take a form of advertising through buying space on popular sites such as Google and the Yahoo.

Discounts can also play a critical role in promoting products on a website. Promotion, however, should target on the specific customers instead of the public.

More so, promotion becomes more effective when a company associates itself with social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and blogs (Alrawi et al. 2008). This is crucial because it helps in knowing how the business is performing in terms of quality, as it encourages both positive as well as negative feedbacks.

This gives an organization the opportunity of receiving free information from customers feedback, thus eliminating the use of expensive surveys and the use of experimentations for assessing the business products. Association with social media can be effectively achieved through opening an account that contains the products of an organization, as it allows the business to participate in the discussion.

More so, blogs help in creating an opportunity for serving dissatisfied customers from the initial stages of their problem, thus improving the image of the business (Singh et al. 2008).

The Nyali Beach Hotel website has not successfully addressed promotion since it does not have a sign-up page for customers with personal emails that help them to order the needed services. In addition to this, the Nyali Beach Hotels website has not fully associated itself with the social media websites including the Facebook, Twitter, and blogs; hence, little has been done on promotion.

The website thus falls short of promotion since it does not address discounts or any other aspect relative to business promotion (Nyali Beach Hotel n.d.).

The fourth P of marketing, which is price, displays the amount that should be charged to the customers after deducting all the discounts and allowances. The price is normally arrived at after taking due consideration of the production cost, competitors pricing, and the condition of the market, among other factors (Alrawi et al. 2008).

Pricing should directly reflect the quality of products and services offered by a particular business. Indicating the price of the products on a website helps a company to define its target market, thus eliminating the unwanted customers segment.

With this respect, pricing attracts more clicks and consequently more enquiries from potential customers. Even though displaying prices makes the competitors see the pricing of products, providing high quality products for the customers helps the company to adopt premium pricing.

The pricing of the products at the Nyali Beach Hotel website is not displayed though it is relevant in web marketing because the website is meant for making bookings as well as accepting payments through the VISA cards, Master Cards, and other recognized credit cards (Nyali Beach Hotel n.d.).

The prices should indicate whether there is a difference in pricing between the low season and high season of the market for every product offered. The prices should also differentiate between the product sales per person, per couple, or per group reservation. However, lack of pricing for the Nyali Beach Hotels website could be attributed to a difference in prices between the online and the offline market.

Target Market for the Website and the Consumer Behavior

Before coming up with a recommendation for improving the Nyali Beach website, it is vital to carry out an assessment of the consumer behavior of the hotel. The assessment of the consumer behavior will identify the importance of improving the hotels website in a bid to increase the hotels booking.

This emanates from the fact that hotel websites are nowadays used as vehicles for serious revenue generation. A hotel website that reflects professionalism through design, easy navigation, and visual attributes helps the consumer to respond positively towards making bookings.

By using a case study method, data will be collected based on the importance of the role of Nyali Beach Hotel website in relation to providing feedback to questions relative to the hotels website.

Therefore, the target customers, who include adults aged between 24 and 40 years, are the main source of data because they will provide insight on the website operation and the various challenges that they encounter while making bookings through the Nyali Beach Hotels website.

The report will help the customers to voice their opinion as they are provided with the opportunity to evaluate the information in the website, thus attracting customer loyalty.

The evaluation of consumer behavior is of paramount importance since online booking is a contentious issue that is characterized by the gradually evolving ideas. Ip et al. (2011) assert that sales of products such as books, computer software, and music through a website is undemanding since it necessitates less inspection of the products; hence, the description provided helps in attracting customers without putting much effort.

The Nyali Beach hotel website, on the other hand, necessitates much effort since it attracts groups of people who have different objectives, including exploration of information without necessarily having to make a booking.

These findings emanates from statistics of the interview conducted on the hotel website with an aim of finding the consumer perception on the website search engine, retrieval of information contained in the website, evaluation on how the information is perceived, and the factors that facilitate or inhibit the booking process.

The professionalism of Nyali Beach Hotels website is thus put into question because it tends to turn off the act of booking as demonstrated by a number of factors. One of the factors that put the customers off is the fact that the hotel is not designed to handle hyper-interactivity.

In the recent past, consumers have changed the way they interact with websites following the introduction of hyperactive websites including Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google, among others.

Due to the fact that the Nyali Beach Hotels website cannot handle hyper-interactivity, the consumer perceive the website as just a static brochure that is just accessible online; hence, the website attracts only a few consumers since it falls short of many customers expectations.

In order to make sure that the consumers get attracted to the Nyali Beach Hotel website, the web designers should make sure that it appears on the first page of the Google search.

However, it is recommended that the website can gain favor when it appears as the second or the third website from the top because, according to the consumer behavior, customers tend to ignore the first website and concentrate on the second, third, or the forth website site on the search engine(Pan et al. 2010).

More so, the case study carried out concerning the Nyali Beach Hotel customers shows that majority of customers do not intend to keep the information of the website for a long term basis, but instead focus on the information that would lead them to booking at that particular moment.

Hence, the time taken before a customer commits him/herself to booking a room at the Nyali Beach Hotel is of utmost importance since customers avoid wasting time on the internet. Therefore, the hotel should be able to display the features and prices of the product on sale in order to facilitate an effective booking process (Law & Cheung 2005).

The case study also indicates that many customers consider the FQA link on the Nyali Beach Hotels website as an ineffective link since it contains information that is not straight to the point. This creates a negative response to the booking process.

Building and Maintaining Relationships with the Customers

Many hotel bookers who intend to use website in making their bookings concur that the value of a website can be greatly increased through visual appeal. This appeal is normally judged within the first seconds of looking at a website. This creates the first impression of the website, and this generates an inspiration of making a booking (Mullet 2003).

Even though the Nyali Beach Hotels website needs some improvement on areas related to information management, responsiveness, and interactivity, among other factors, the website has is able to build and maintain its customers through a number of ways including websites credibility, persuasion, personalization, and usability.

In the websites credibility point of view, the Nyali Beach Hotel builds and maintains a relationship with customers by demonstrating trust, holding hotel information that is trustworthy, establishing a hotel booking office that aims at keeping the customers promises. More so, the organization helps the customers to get to the direction of the hotel in an appealing way that uses a map.

This helps in stirring up the customers imagination of the hotel, hence facilitating the booking process (Tsai et al. 2009). The Nyali beach hotels helps its customers in planning their trips by providing ways and means of contacting the booking office through the organizations email, provision of customer services, and creating an opening for bookings that have special offers.

This helps in creating persuasion and personalization of the website users (Loda et al. 2009).

In the website usability point of view, the organization tends to create a first impression to the customer by making sure that the content of the website blend well with the images in the website, as most customers prefer looking at the current visual pictures before the product description. More so, the visual pictures should go hand in hand with varied and vital information that is should be kept up to date.

The information on the Nyali Beach website has been made easy to comprehend, easy to navigate, and the customer can easily locate additional information related to the hotel booking. In a bid to improve the usability of the website, the hotel deters from focusing on aggressive banners as a way of attracting potential customers since many customers have termed aggressive banners as distracting.

Recommendation for Improvement of the Website

A number of customer interface tools including a websites context, commerce, community, and content characterize interactive marketing. These tools help in defining the reliability, competence, responsiveness, access, courtesy, security, and the credibility of a website (Yang & Fang 2004).

A hotels website should use both technical and creative aspects of the internet including effective advertising, attractive design, and superior development in order to facilitate convenient bookings.

In the context sphere, the Nyali Beach Hotels website creates a good customer interface because the website can be accessed quickly and easily, the product categories are clear, the product names are clear, and the site offers a good search. Mill and Law (2004: 240) affirm that a website creates a good customer interface if the site can be accessed quickly and provides room for customers comments.

Therefore, I would recommend that the customers using the website should be given a chance to air their views, opinions, and comments concerning the products portrayed on the website since this would facilitate effectiveness of the website, thus acting as a customer service center.

In the commerce aspect, the Nyali Beach Hotel website contains registration, which allows the site to store users information and preferences, credit-card approval, and order tracking.

I would recommend that the Nyali Beach website to clearly display the prices of variety of products provided and the modes of payment including a suitable interface for the recommended credit cards in order to facilitate advance payment for the bookings. This is also important to the hotel because it helps in saving the money used in the travel agency departments (Kumar 2010: 131).

In the community aspect, a convenient website should provide room for communication between users through emails or interactive chats, including a sign-up page for customers where they can signup for emails or SMS (Hanson & Kalyanam 2007: 57).

Even though the Nyali beach Hotels website has an organizations email address that can be used as a customer service centre, it should also include a fan page on the popular social websites such as the Facebook and Twitter, where users can give their comments and get feedbacks of their comments, thus improving interactivity.

In the content sphere, a website defines all digital subject matter that includes video, text, audio, and graphics to convey the message of the site (Hanson & Kalyanam 2007: 103).

Although the context of the Nyali Beach Hotel implies that it targets customers of all ages from developing as well as the developed countries, I would recommend that the website should incorporate the graphics by showing its target market using photos of young and old aged customers from diverse parts of the world. This plays a critical role in enhancing the first impression of the website.

Conclusion

The critique of the Nyali Beach Hotels website put forward in this paper clearly proves that web marketing needs to be designed in such a way that it upholds the 4 Ps of marketing. It is clear that the impact of the 4 Ps cuts across every section of web marketing.

The Nyali Beach Hotels website has presented content that contribute to a well-structured piece of work, but fails to show a good interactivity with the users.

This website, however, would be most appropriate for anyone who wants to have a quick understanding of the products offered by the hotel, without necessarily making a booking since it takes substantial amount of time, and this is contrary to consumer behavior in the use of websites as a booking tool.

List Of References

Alrawi, K., Ekbia, H., & Jaber, K. (2008) A New Marketing Strategy for E-Commerce. Global Business Review, 9, 273-286.

Hanson, W., & Kalyanam, K. (2007) Internet marketing and e-commerce. South, Thousand Oaks, Western College Publishing.

Ip, C., Leung, R., & Law, R. (2011) Progress and Development of Information and Communication Technologies in Hospitality. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality management, 23 (4).

Kumar (2010) Mktg Of Hospitality & Tourism Serv. Uttar Pradesh, Tata McGraw-Hill Education.

Law, R., & Cheung, C. (2005) Weighing of Hotel Website Dimensions and Attributes. Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism, 11, 350-359.

Loda, M., Teichmann, K., & Zins, A. (2009) Destination websites persuasiveness. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, 3 (1), 70-80.

Pan, B., Xiang, Z., Law, R., & Fesenmaier, D. (2010) The Dynamics of Search Engine

Marketing for Tourist Destinations. Journal of Travel Research. Web.

Mills, J., & Law, R. (2004) Handbook of consumer behavior, tourism, and the internet. Binghamton, NY, Haworth Hospitality Press.

Mullet, K. (2003) The Essence of Effective Rich Internet Applications. Macromedia White Paper. Web.

Nyali Beach Hotel. (n.d.). Nyali Beach Hotel Mombasa Kenya. Web.

Singh, T., Veron-Jackson, L., & Cullianne, J. (2008) Blogging: A new play in your marketing game plan. Business Horizons, 51(4), 281-292.

Tsai, H., Song, H., & Wong, K. (2009) Tourism and Hotel Competitiveness Research. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 26, 5-6.

Yang, Z., & Fang, X. (2004) Online service quality dimensions and their relationships with satisfaction: A content analysis of customer reviews of securities brokerage services. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 15 (3), 302-326.

Executive Summary

Flexi Cool Gifts runs a small business of selling gifts and presents in different cities of Australia. The management of Flexi Cool Gifts is considering the option of a website which might help in increasing revenue and improve the marketing and advertising of the products offered.

Accordingly, the following study has focused on how Flexi Cool Gifts can utilize a website in promoting its business. The proposed plan discusses how the website will be structured and what information and other features will be available on it. Apart from this, the benefits and costs associated with this plan have also been mentioned.

Introduction

The owners of the Flexi Cool Gifts are considering the development of a website to enhance their business. Miss Wong, business development manager, has been asked to lead this project.

Miss Wong has contacted Deakin Innovative Solutions Pty Ltd for a proposed business solution. Following personnel from Deakin Innovative Solutions Pty Ltd took part in carrying out this study:

• Marketing Manager (considered the marketing strategy).
• Finance Manager (considered the costs and benefits).
• Web Developer (considered the structure and design of the proposed website).
• IT Manager (consider other relevant IT issues).

Company Profile

Flexi Cool Gifts is a small chain of gift shops selling a large variety of gifts and presents through 12 shops located in Melbourne, Geelong, Hobart, and Mt Gambier. The business is owned by Mr. David Peterson (VIC), Kenny Wong (SA), and Ms Sandra Demetrious

(Tasmania). The owners of the business have realized that their business needs a website in order to earn the benefits associated with e-commerce. Accordingly, the management is looking for the development of a website which will help in the marketing and advertisement of the gifts and presents offered by Flexi Cool Gifts.

Moreover, the management also desires to generate more revenue through on-line transactions and improve relationships with their customers through on-line communication.

Proposed Business Solution

In order to achieve the objectives stated above, the development of an effective and customer friendly website is the ultimate solution.

With the development of a website, Flexi Cool will be able to target its existing and prospective customers more conveniently and efficiently in terms of costs. It is expected that the website will be accessed by 1.5 million users of internet in Australia.

This projection will enable Flexi Cool to promote its products along with additional services through its website.

Implementation

The implementation of the plan will consist of the development of the proposed website, which will focus on its structure, content and other features.

Structure

A website without a proper structure is nothing more than a collection of documents. A properly structured website facilitates the visitors and allows them to roam around easily and understand what the website offers (webdesign, 2011). The structure of the website will consist of homepage, main sections and subsections.

XHTML and CSS

XHTML (eXtensible HyperText Markup Language) will be used in developing the website because a website written in this language can be executed in any browser through computers, mobile phones and other devices (w3schools, 2011). Apart from this, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) will be used in designing the websites fonts, colors, and other styles (w3, 2011).

Content

After the identification of the structure, content will be placed in the subsections. The layout of the homepage will be divided in three major parts. The centre of the homepage will be the main content column and additional columns will be given on the right and left of the main content column.

The main content column will contain information related to the enterprise and its operations will be available. Main sections will carry links to contents available in the subsections which will inform the visitor of the website about the products and services offered. Moreover, the subsections will also direct the visitors in using the on-line facilities provided (rocketface, 2011).

Shopping Cart

An ideally placed shopping cart will enable the users of the website to order gifts and presents online while sitting at home. This facility will give Flexi Cool a significant advantage over its competitors who lack on-line transaction processing.

Products Details

As discussed earlier, there will be two columns placed on either side of the main content column. In the left column of the homepage all products offered will be placed tactically to make sure that the visitor is well informed of the products available.

The gifts and presents mentioned in this section will carry a hyperlink. Upon clicking any gift item, a new window will open which will carry details of the item selected including its price and shipment charges. A separate space will be reserved in the same column for displaying any special or discount offers (Web Style Guide, 2011).

Advertisement

The upper portion of the right column will be reserved for advertisements including banner ads and others. It is expected that within one year of its launching, the website will be able to attract new clients for placing their advertisements. This will increase the sources of revenue generation.

Special Features

On-line order placement and payment

The customers will be provided with the facility of online order placement. Once a customer has selected a particular gift, he/she will be required to fill out a form.

The form will contain personal information of the customer like, name, address, contact number, email address, place of delivery, etc. this information provided by the customer will also be used to maintain relationship and letting him/her know about the new discount offers and products.

After filling up the form, the customer will be required to make on-line payment through their credit cards or debit cards, cash payment upon delivery or payment through third parties like PayPal.

On-line Tracking and Tracing

The website will also allow customers to trace and track their orders all over Australia. This technology is expected to bring attraction to the services provided by Flexi Cool. The customers will only be required to insert their order numbers, date of placing order and destination to find out the current position of their orders.

Benefits, Costs And Limitations

Benefits

It has been estimated that with the development of website, an increase of 20% in annual sales will be recorded in the first year. This rate is expected to grow steadily at 8% to 10% a year. Apart from the sale of gifts, the website itself will present new sources of revenue through third parties advertisements.

Other benefits include:

• The website will enable the business to expand through increased projection on the internet.
• It will be more convenient for the customers to go through the products offered on-line.
• Customers will be able to give their feedback easily about the services and products.

Costs

On the other hand, the cost of the website will be $25,000 with an integrated e-commerce system. This amount includes the charges related to domain and hosting. Moreover, a monthly payment of $1200 will be required for website maintenance and updating activities.

Limitations

Along with benefits associated with the e-business, there are some limitations also which are discussed below:

• Technological limitations: lack of proper or high speed internet facility is often regarded as a barrier to e-business success.
• Products cannot be inspected: one of the greatest limitations of e-business is that the customers cannot feel what the product is. They are unable to touch, smell, taste or feel the product.

Recommendations

In order to expand the customer base and improve advertising and promotion of Flexi Cool Gifts, it is recommended that a website shall be developed with a professional structure and design offering the visitors up to date information related to the gifts and presents available at Flexi Cool.

Considering the nature of business, it is also suitable for Flexi Cool Gifts to offer on-line order placement service together with a smart tracking system, which will help in building credibility.

References

Rocketface, 2011. WebSite Structure. Web.

W3, 2011. Learning CSS. Web.

W3schools, 2011. XHTML-Why? Web.

Web Style Guide, 2011. Page Structure and Site Design. Web.

Webdesign, 2011. Web Site Structure. Web.

List of tasks

A site on the Internet is an essential part of business nowadays. Having a website for ones business is crucial for efficient promotion and business development. However, building a new website can be a time-consuming task. Being aware of all the steps that should be executed is necessary. Also, the creation of the site is not a quick process. Even if the site is ready soon, it does not mean that it will immediately bring positive results. Here is the list of tasks and steps that should be followed in the process of website building:

• Define the principal purpose of the site. Business websites are created to provide detailed information about a particular company (Theriault par. 4). Also, a business website may be used for conducting online sales. In the following paper, the business website for the pizzeria (restaurant or any other similar business) will be planned. Thus, the primary purpose of the website is to attract clients. The site should contain information about pizzeria, menu, and other available facilities. Business owner may hire a specialist to evaluate the target audience and plan the project;
• Choose the domain name and host. Domain name is a URL that will be known to customers. It should be catchy and related to the type of business. It is advisable to make sure that the domain name is not very long (no more than eight characters) (Fallon par. 7). Checking the availability of domain names at Go Daddy is necessary. The price for domain depends on the ending. Such ending as.com is always more expensive than nontraditional endings. A host makes the site visible on the Internet. External hosts are used for businesses (Web Hosting par. 1);
• Web design. The site should reflect the style of business. There are free templates, but a successful business requires something unique;
• Building pages and content. Services of the UX designer are useful for sitemap creation and choosing the most appropriate approach to the website building. Content creation can be a time-consuming task depending on the number of pages and word count. Also, one has to choose a web content management software;
• Good programming is essential for the website;
• Search Engine Optimization and social media marketing aim at enhancing the popularity of the website.

Costs and time

Prices can vary depending on the provider of services. One can find cheaper web design at Freelancer, for instance. Search Engine Optimization can be much more expensive. Besides, advanced SEO and social media marketing may require more than three months of activity. Also, there is a possibility to buy the domain name and host in one package. Content creation includes basic five pages  Homepage, About Us, Menu, Prices, and Feedbacks. The total price may be cheaper if one chooses a free content management software such as WordPress or Joomla. The most important thing is to be patient and realize that results cannot be immediate.

Works Cited

Contentful Pricing. n.d. Web. 2015.

Fallon, Nicole. Building a Business Website: a Small Business Guide. 2015. Web.

Theriault, Michel. Key Steps to Building Your First Small Business Website. 2013. Web.

Web Hosting. n.d. Web. 2015.

The proposed review aims at studying the current market situation, establishing the opportunities and the behavioural patterns of the target group, and preparing for an effective online marketing strategy for Zankyous Dutch website. To achieve this purpose, thirteen scholarly articles from peer-reviewed journals have been analyzed. All sources are related to digital marketing and branding with social media. The literature review shall assist in further defining the focus of the research and setting up a relevant hypothesis.

The reviewed research papers focus on branding, its interrelation with social media marketing and communities, and the creation of value and trust with the help of efficient marketing strategies. However, each article has a specific subject of studying the phenomenon of branding, and the authors choose different methods of investigation.

Online Marketing and Online Branding

Erdem, Keller, Kuksov, and Pieters (2016) remark that the emerging social media present a challenge to the ways of conceptualization and management of brands. Thus, the authors dedicate their article to understanding branding in a digitally qualified environment. Erdem et al. (2016) provide research on the articles dedicated to the most current branding issues. They divide the contributions of the modern studies of branding into such types: online client surveys and client preferences, cooperation between brand and social media, active presence in brand society, social media in critical situations, authorized cause marketing and its reverse activities, and value creation in branding (Erdem et al., 2016). Davis, Piven, and Breazeale (2014) agree with Erdem et al.s (2016) opinion about social media being a challenge to conceptualization.

Moreover, Davis et al. (2014) propose a Five Sources Model which explains the basic drivers of satisfying online branding demands. The model incorporates the following components: social, emotional, relational, functional, and self-oriented (David et al., 2014). On the contrary to Erdem et al. (2016), Gao and Feng (2016) argue that the process of online branding can be enhanced via social media. These authors investigate the impact of various social media on branding strategies. As a result of the analysis, Gao and Feng (2016) identify five implications of social media gratifications: self-expression, search for information, social communication, entertainment, and impression management.

MacInnis and Folkes (2016) and Sprott and Liu (2016) focus on psychological approaches to branding and its humanizing. MacInnis and Folkes (2016) differentiate three areas of humanizing brands: anthropomorphism, a self-focused aspect, and a relationship-focused aspect. Sprott and Liu (2016) emphasize the significance of studying branding as it is the symbol of a company within the customers perception.

Online Decision Making

An investigation by Habibi, Laroche, and Richard (2016) is focused on the impact of online strategies on brand communities. The authors test a model of consumer behaviour which demonstrates how peoples online decisions are connected with the brand community markers and features, and how brand loyalty and quality are dependent on these issues (Habibi et al., 2016). Habibi et al. (2016) emphasize the growing influence of online communication on marketing strategies. The authors remark that the novelties in technology encourage changes in online consumer behaviour which have to be closely followed and analyzed to bring profit to the product producing organizations.

Roscoe, Grebitus, OBrian, Johnson, and Kula (2016) investigate the impact of integrated web search on the customers shopping choices. The authors performed an experiment which involved three stages: initial decision, Internet search, and post-search decision. As a result of the experiment, Roscoe et al. (2016) concluded that peoples decisions about their buying choices were greatly dependent on online information search. Kannan and Li (2016) support Roscoe et al.s (2016) opinion on the importance of the online search for the customers decision making. The authors argue that digital technologies have the power to alter the environment and impact peoples choices. Kannan and Li (2016) conclude that access to online technologies can change consumer behaviour. Additionally, Kannan and Li (2016) investigate the influence of online technologies on such important aspects as consumer value, consumer equity, and company value.

Social Media Strategies

Several of the reviewed articles are focused on social media marketing and its strategies. Felix, Rauschnabel, and Hinsch (2017) consider social media marketing an essential constituent of current business strategies. The authors suggest a strategic framework which includes four elements of social media marketing: scope, culture, structure, and governance. Each of these dimensions has two extremities. However, Felix et al. (2017) remark that every company strives to choose a medium position in each constituent part. The research of Hamilton, Kaltcheva, and Rohm (2016) also studies social media, but these authors focus on the impact of social media on three kinds of customer value. Hamilton et al. (2016) define these types as customer lifetime, influence, and knowledge value. The authors delineate three social media strategies which can raise customer satisfaction: immersion-only, satisfaction-only, and the combination of the two strategies (Hamilton et al., 2016).

Habibi et al. (2014) emphasize the interconnection between social media and brand communities. The authors define social media as a perfect environment for establishing brand communities. Habibi et al. (2014) design a model which shows the influence of such communities on brand trust. The relationships between consumers and brands, consumers and products, and consumers and companies were proven to impact brand trust beneficially. The authors conclude that brand communities based on social media are significant factors which enhance the understanding of the markets processes and outcomes (Habibi et al., 2014).

The investigations by Fu, Wu, and Cho (2017) and Nisar and Whitehead (2016) are focused on the issue of reaching customer trust and loyalty via social media strategies. Fu et al. (2017) examine Facebook users activity and notice that Facebook should not be treated merely as a social media website. The authors focus on the psychological reasons for the users willingness to share their information. Also, Fu et al. (2017) study how customers social determination impacts the outcomes of the motives. With the help of quantitative and qualitative methods, the authors conclude that Facebook users motive for information sharing is impacted by personal interest and communal determinant. Fu et al. (2017) note that knowledge about these incentives can be rather advantageous for brand marketers.

The connection between user loyalty, social media, and brands is the subject of investigation of Nisar and Whitehead (2016). The authors emphasize that loyalty can be gained via social media in different ways, and customers follow the brands pages for a variety of reasons. Nisar and Whitehead (2016) demonstrate that customer loyalty has a beneficial impact on customer satisfaction as well as on brands.

Conclusion

The literature review has outlined the most widely investigated topics in the area of branding and social media. The scholars pay attention to online marketing and branding (Erdem et al., 2016; Davis et al., 2016; Gao & Feng, 2016; MacInnis & Folkes, 2016; Sprott & Liu, 2016), they study the importance of online decision making (Habibi et al., 2016; Kanna & Li, 2016; Roscoe et al., 2016), and examine the significance of social media strategies (Habibi et al., 2014; Hamilton et al., 2016; Felix et al., 2017; Fu et al., 2017; Nisar & Whitehead, 2016). The main outcomes of the articles are concerned with the interconnection between social media strategies, customer decision making, and marketing techniquesonline communications influences customers choices, which leads to forming brand communities. The communities, in their turn, have the power to explain marketing techniques. The performed literature review enables to understand the core trends in current research studies dedicated to online marketing, branding, and social media.

References

Davis R., Piven, I., & Breazeale, N. (2014). Conceptualizing the brand in social media community: The five sources model. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 21(4), 468-481.

Erdem, T., Keller, K. L., Kuksov, D., & Pieters, R. (2016). Understanding branding in a digitally empowered world. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 33(1), 3-10.

Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P. A., & Hinsch, C. (2017). Elements of strategic social media marketing: A holistic framework. Journal of Business Research, 70, 118-126.

Fu, P.-W., Wu, C. C., & Cho, Y.-J. (2017). What makes users share content on Facebook? Compatibility among psychological incentive, social capital focus, and content type. Computers in Human Behavior, 67, 23-32.

Gao, Q., & Feng, C. (2016). Branding with social media: User gratifications, usage patterns, and brand message content strategies. Computers in Human Behavior, 63, 868-890.

Habibi, M. R., Laroche, M., & Richard, M.-O. (2014). The roles of brand community and community engagement in building brand trust on social media. Computers in Human Behavior, 37, 152-161.

Habibi, M. R., Laroche, M., & Richard, M.-O. (2016). Testing an extended model of consumer behavior in the context of social media-based brand communities. Computers in Human Behavior, 62, 292-302.

Hamilton, M., Kaltcheva, V. D., & Rohm, A. J. (2016). Social media and value creation: The role of interaction satisfaction and interaction immersion. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 36, 121-133.

Kannan, P.K., & Li, H. A. (2016). Digital marketing: A framework, review and research agenda. International Journal of Research in Marketing. Web.

MacInnis, D. J., & Folkes, V. S. (2016). Humanizing brands: when brands seem to be like me, part of me, and in a relationship with me. Journal of Consumer Psychology. Web.

Nisar, T. M., & Whitehead, C. (2016). Brand interactions and social media: Enhancing user loyalty through social networking sites. Computers in Human Behavior, 62, 743-753.

Roscoe, R. D., Grebitus, C., OBrian, J., Johnson, A. C., & Kula, I. (2016). Online information search and decision making: Effects of web search stance. Computers in Human Behavior, 56,103-118.

Sprott, D. E., & Liu, R. L. (2016). Research trends on branding in consumer psychology. Current Opinions on Psychology, 10, 124-128.

Introduction

The online platforms offer a series of communication tools that are ideal for marketing products or services to create a healthy and sustainable social market dimension. Marketing products or services via a website requires strategic planning and an effective execution process to ensure that the targeted clients are reached and the intentions of the general program realized. Moreover, it ensures that the expectations and reality in product presentation on a digital platform are at par with the market desires. This section of the business plan dwells on competitor analysis, market analysis, and marketing plan for the www.designerapparel.com website.

Competitor Analysis

Top Competitors and Relative Market Share

The main competitors for the www.designerapparel.com website are renowned online fashion stores such as Mod Deals, Necessary Clothing, and Charlotte Russe. These businesses have penetrated the online fashion market and are currently top retailers of different fashion brands. Charlotte Russe is the market leader and currently controls 10% of the online fashion retail market. This is followed by the Necessary Clothing at 7% of the local market share. The Mod Deals has a market share of 5%. The three companies have been in operation for more than a decade and have well-developed focused markets (Schmidt).

For instance, the Mod Deals concentrates on the female fashion clothes that are traded online. On the other hand, Charlotte Russe stocks high-end fashion for male and female customers. Lastly, the Necessary Clothing stocks affordable, fashionable apparel. Due to their well-developed market networks, the three online businesses have continued to expand over the years (see table 1).

Table 1. Competitor analysis and market share.

Competitors Markets and Strategies

The Charlotte Russe serves the high-end customer segment within the local market. This business has capitalized on celebrity endorsement to market its products. Moreover, the business has created multiple products through engaging top fashion designers, whose products are hosted by Charlotte Russe. In addition, the company has had a series of successful promotional strategies such as discounts, redeemable reward points for loyal customers, and active advertisements on social media. As a result, Charlotte Russe is the current market leader (Schmidt).

Necessary Clothing has concentrated on affordable pricing as the main market penetration strategy in retailing different fashion brands on its online platform. This means that the business has wide market coverage since its appeal to low and middle-income customers. Specifically, the business has also capitalized on mega sales to promote its diverse products. During these mega sale campaigns, the company offers as high as a 50% discount on assorted apparel. As a result, the company has carved a unique market niche consisting of loyal customers within the local market (Schmidt).

The Mod Deals serves the female market segment consisting of middle and high-income customers. The business has capitalized on selling diverse female fashion apparel on its online platform. Mod Deals business strategy involves contracting female fashion designers to produce different clothing from which it earns a discount for every online sale. Due to long collaborative partnerships with different fashion designers, the business has been able to offer competitive pricing through its tailored discounts for a specified product bundle (Elder and Krishna 995). The company is also very active on social media and fashion multimedia through sponsoring different fashion shows and events (Schmidt).

Barriers to Market Entry and How to Overcome Them

The main barriers to market entry are product differentiation, capital requirements, switching costs, and limited economies of scale. Since the online fashion sector is dynamic and multifaceted, it will be difficult for the proposed website to gain from economies of scale since the current players have built absolute volumes of trade. This means that when the proposed website enters big, it might face the risk of strong reaction from the incumbent brands (Bolman and Deal 39). In order to minimize this barrier, www.designerapparel.com will enter the market through a focused product diversification strategy to guarantee portfolio balance.

Another barrier is the aspect of product differentiation. The current incumbent brands have developed strong customer loyalty networks in addition to strong brand recognition. This means that the proposed business will have to invest heavily to capture a share of the market. In order to address this barrier, the proposed website will be market as a premium brand besides strategic product positioning through prolonged advertisement. The last barrier is the capital requirement (Elder and Krishna 996). The fashion industry requires substantial capital to start and operate, especially on the online platform. In order to overcome this challenge, the proposed www.designerapparel.com will have to source adequate funding.

Market Analysis

Target Market

Since the proposed www.designerapparel.com website will be launched as a premium online store for top fashion designs, the target market will consist of middle and high-income customer segments. This means that the business will target customers willing to spend between $500 and $10,000 per shopping session. The target market is well spread across the US and beyond and currently consists of 20% of the households (Schmidt).

Unique Characteristics of Targeted Market

Demographics

The ideal customer for the proposed business is a male or a female person from the age of five years and above. The ideal customer should fall within the socio-economic status of B+, and above, that is, middle to high-income brackets. The ideal customer is not discriminated against on the ground of education level as long as he or she can afford the fashion products (Cavusgil et al. 35). The business targets customers of all religious, social, and political affiliations.

Psychographics

The ideal customer should be a lover of high-end fashion, dynamic, up-to-date, inspiring, and a trendsetter (Schmidt). Since www.designerapparel.com will retail high-end fashion apparel from respectable fashion designers, the ideal customer will have to comfort to these basic standards. This will ensure that the proposed business has a focused market.

Geography

Since the entire business is based on an online platform, the location of a customer will not matter. However, the business will concentrate on the US market within the first year of operations. This means that potential customers are spread across the US and beyond.

Size of the Potential Market

The proposed www.designerapparel.com website is an online fashion retail shop that can be accessed from any region in the US. This means that the potential market is not limited by physical boundaries or regional demarcations. Therefore, the business will have the advantage of covering the entire US market and other neighboring regions.

Dynamics Surrounding Customer Needs

The fashion business segment is very dynamic and characterized by the presence of many competitors and perfect substitute products (Schmidt). This means that the tastes and preferences of customers are constantly changing according to the latest trends. For instance, the fashion apparel that used to attract these customers a year ago has changed. Therefore, the proposed business will have to conform to these changes to ensure that customers demand for high-quality, fashionable, and trendy clothes are met.

Seasonality of the Sale

Since the demand for clothes is constant, the sales are not seasonal. However, the fashion sector experiences booming business during the festive season. Specifically, the highest sales are recorded in the holiday months, such as December and during summer (Schmidt).

Demand and Other Products or Services

The demand for fashionable clothes is tied to other products such as accessories and shoes (Schmidt). This means that the proposed business should consider diversification to cover these accessories in the future. Alternatively, the business could partner with other companies retailing accessories to create a one-stop-shop.

Advertising and Promotional Campaigns

The advertising and promotional campaigns for www.designerapparel.com will involve different activities, objectives, and strategies. Since the entire business will be based on an online platform, the promotional and advertising campaigns will be modeled to appeal to the social media community.

Media Used

The proposed advertisement and promotion campaigns will be done through online and offline channels. The primary online channels include social media pages such as Facebook and Twitter. The offline media will be a print and audiovisual medium. The print media will include local daily newspapers to reach customers who have access to print media, especially the middle-aged customers (Bolman and Deal 29).

The audiovisual media will include television, radio, and digital billboard advertisements. The adverts will be packaged to reach different customer segments at the same time. For instance, television advertisements will be done at prime time to optimize its coverage for middle-aged clients (Elder and Krishna 995). The radio advertisements will be done at least five times in the popular local stations to reach as many potential customers as possible. The radio adverts will be made simple through the use of a catchy phrase to optimize their impact on youthful customers (Cavusgil et al. 33). For example, the advert message will be;

Buying designer clothes has never been easier, from the comfort of your house. Just click on www.designerapparel.com, and you are sorted. Try us and experience the wonderful discounts. Just refer a friend, and you automatically qualify for 20% for everything you buy from the site for up to three weeks. Lastly, the digital billboards will be placed on strategic roads and streets to ensure that the advert messages reach youthful and middle-aged customers. For instance, the business will consider placing a digital advert on the main city highway and next to public parks to reach as many potential clients as possible. The strategy for using offline and online media platforms is aimed at targeting all customer segments, irrespective of the age of online literacy level.

Media Costs and Frequency of Usage

The proposed costs for media were estimated for different advertisement and promotional activities. The estimations were based on current market rates and frequency of usage (see table 2). The advertisement and promotional strategies were run for a period of six months.

Table 2. Media cost and frequency.

Plans for Generating Publicity

Since social media, especially Twitter, Facebook, Linkerdin, and Google have gained popularity over the years, the plans for generating publicity will be angled on online platform pages. The rationale for picking social media is because of its dominance in the communication environment, especially for an online-based business. Specifically, in relation to the www.designerapparel.com website, Facebook, Twitter, and Google will be ideal tools for building community following and branding through building on location, interest, and need to meet the desires of the targeted customers.

Through tweets and likes, the business will be in a position to expand its market coverage since the website will appeal to many clients within a relatively short time. For instance, social media platforms will be used to build healthy and friendly partnerships with the targeted clients to improve the probability of product acceptance. The success of this publicity platform will be deeply entrenched in the principles of quality, affordability, and reliability as reputation builders. Therefore, the use of Twitter, Facebook, and Google will ensure that the websites visibility is increased within the targeted market region and beyond (Kotler and Keller 45). Specifically, the plans for generating publicity through social media will be carried out through online advertising and online sales.

Reflectively, a well-designed online marketing strategy for the website will facilitate the success of the adverts. In order to increase the aspects of professionalism and creditability, the publicity plan will integrate bomb internet channels to reach customers in a tailored manner. The customization process will involve the inclusion of unique features and processes that flawlessly ensure a lifetime association between the clients and the business. For example, the website could incorporate accuracy in passing information about the clothing items available on the website (Griffin and Moorhead 67). Reflectively, the creation of quality content in publicity promotion is essential in internet marketing since the business platform operates on trust.

Before rolling out a publicity plan, it is necessary to establish the online behavior of the targeted clients in order to select the appropriate promotion channel. In the ideal, effective channel selection has the potential of reducing the negative impacts of a sudden change in customer preference. In the case of the www.designerapparel.com website, product branding will be angled on a functional idea that can appeal to the desires of the potential clients.

For example, integration of an involuntary, flexible, and quantifiable measure for customer perception will make the publicity successful (see figure 2). Thus, the publicity plan will involve using advertisement campaigns that appeal to different market segments and are focused on peculiar customer behavior for each segment. For instance, the website will have a link reference promotion to appeal to individual customers.

Under this proposal, the client with the highest referral links will stand to gain a 20% discount on all items purchased from the website for the next three weeks. The same publicity stunt will be integrated on other social media pages. This strategy has the potential of creating a long-term customer loyalty base. Moreover, it will improve the websites visibility within the targeted market and beyond.

Customer relationship management is a significant publicity strategy, especially for the online-based www.designerapparel.com website. In the business environment, effective customer care has the potential of improving product visibility from a series of positive feedbacks. Therefore, the business will review the current push and pull factors that would influence the visibility of the website.

This is necessary for the creation of a strong and self-sustaining mind map that can appeal to the desires and expectations of potential clients. Thus, the proposed publicity plan under customer relationship management will involve the use of semiotics in the website ads to alert the customers of the relevance of different designer clothes. In application, semiotics can discover hidden implications and evolving cultural codes, hence is important in predicting market trends (Goodman 35). Therefore, through the use of attractive language, warm colors, and design, the semiotic publicity strategy will be effective. This means that the publicity strategy will be created to align the ideals as expected by clients. In this case, the ideals are already in existence in the form of online comments and different compliments by current and prospective clients.

Web Presence

The web presence will be improved through a tailored search engine optimization for the www.designerapparel.com website. Specifically, since the entire business is based on the online platform, the optimizer will be integrated through a selective process of installing plugin algorithms that has extra features such as thumbnail, page navigation, and customized self-service button. Specifically, the proposed approach will have a multi-tab pager to serve different desires of the online customers at any given time. For instance, the website will have an ordering menu, payment menu, brochures, reviews, and discount package guides.

Implementation of the search engine optimizer will involve constant revision of the algorithms to ensure that any search result related to the website remains at the top. For instance, technical revision of the website content could guarantee that information provided is relevant to the needs of each customer segment. In addition, the business will hire bloggers to constantly blog about the website as part of competitive advantage building (Kotler and Keller 23). Therefore, the www.designerapparel.com website could borrow a leaf from the successes of other online platforms such as eBay and Amazon, which have perfected SEO.

The web presence will also be improved by making adjustments on the basis of customer feedback in terms of the www.designerapparel.com websites usability. For instance, some of the adjustments could include making changes to the main menu to ensure that customers can view a myriad of products just by a single click. The clicks could further be simplified to direct a client to a specific product without having to go through different categories.

Upon selection of a specific design and type of cloth, a client, the websites plugin will be able to automatically display the price range, manufacturers guideline, and current promotional discounts. In addition, it will display the availability and sizes in the store. A tailored cookie will then be transferred to the primary and secondary visitors of the website hence expanding the transfer of information about the website (Subramanyam 78).

When properly applied, SEO optimization will ensure that the website goes viral within a few months. Lastly, proper branding of the website through the use of warm colors, bold design, tailored algorithms, and catchy words will make the business capture the awareness of targeted clients in need of different designer clothing apparel. However, the SEO will be carried out after two months to reduce the cost of optimizing and promoting the visibility of the website.

Budget for Marketing Plan

The budget for the marketing plan involved all costs related to the promotional and advertisement strategies (see table 3).

The market budget suggests that the business will be able to meet its promotion and advertisement costs comfortably over the period of twelve months. The highest marketing cost is recorded in the first three months, after which the costs decline drastically. The estimations for the marketing budget were based on the current market trends.

Conclusion

From the marketing plan analysis, it is apparent that the objectives of the www.designerapparel.com websites promotional strategies are achievable. Since the proposed business is entirely based on the online platform, the advertisement and promotional strategies were tailored to reach different customer segments. The proposed advertisement platforms included online and offline media such as print, television, radio, and social media. The suggested publicity plans revolve around the use of social media to cue the behavior of targeted customers in addition to improving the website visibility. Specifically, the search engine optimization and use of different social media pages were recommended to ensure that the marketing plan covers a wide market.

Works Cited

Bolman, Lee, and Terrence Deal. Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership. 3rd ed., John Wiley & Sons, 2013.

Cavusgil, Tamer et al. A Framework of International Business: The New Realities. 4th ed., Prentice Hall, 2016.

Elder, Ryan, and Aradhna Krishna. The Visual Depiction Effect in Advertising: Facilitating Embodied Mental Simulation Through Product Orientation. Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 38, no. 6, 2013, pp. 988-1003.

Goodman, Gail. Engagement Marketing: How Small Business Wins in a Socially Connected World. John Wiley & Sons, 2014.

Griffin, Ricky, and Gully Moorhead. Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations. 10th ed., South-Western Cengage Learning, 2012.

Kotler, Philip, and Kevin Keller. Marketing Management. 15th ed., Pearson Prentice Hall, 2016.

Schmidt, Sarah. 5 Top Apparel Industry Trends in 2017. Market Research Blog. 2017. Web.

Executive Summary

This report has been commissioned by Jeremy Dawes, the owner, and manager of Newcastle Infotech, a relatively small firm specializing in Web-design and software development. This paper analyzes the internal and external environment of the company to identify the factors preventing this business from achieving a more solid position in the market. The recommendations are mostly connected with such aspects as human resource management, the structure of the company, and marketing policies.

The list of key suggestions

1. To hire full-time employees working regularly
2. Departmentalize the company
3. Set more stress on advertising and branding
4. Adopt flexible pricing policies

For more detailed information, please, refer to the enclosed document.

Business Report

Introduction

This report aims to discuss the situation that has recently emerged in a small web design company Newcastle Infotech. The main task is to propose methods to boost the firms growth and profitability. This investigation will rely on the study of the internal and external environment of this enterprise, in particular, its services, marketing strategies, relations with the customers, communication process, and so forth. This will enable us to map out the action plan which can help to strengthen the positions of Newcastle Infortech in the market. During the course of this investigation, we are going to employ SWOT analysis in order to outline the key directions for improvement.

Analysis of the internal and external environment

Problem Statement

Newcastle Infotech was founded by Jeremy Dawes and his associates in the late nineties, at the moment when such a sphere as E-business was relatively new. Currently, this firm provides a wide range of services, namely, Web and graphic design, optimization of search engines, computer repair, and installation of the new software (Dawes et al, 2008). For a considerable period of time, this enterprise has flourished due to the diversity of its activities, good interactions with clients, and the creative approach taken by the management. However, in recent years its profitability has declined. We can single out several reasons for this: 1) the electronic market has become oversaturated with firms, specializing in Web design and related areas (Chaffey, 2007). Consequently, the competition has intensified. The key issue is that the rivals of Newcastle Infotech are more focused; they major in some concrete branches of Web design or hardware and spend considerable amounts of money on R&D (Research and Development). Hence they can ensure the customers satisfaction. 2) The difficulties, faced by Newcastle Infotech also take their origins in poor advertising strategies. The firm is practically unfamiliar to the target audience and many people in Australia as well as in other countries do not know about its existence. 3) The third factor which prevents the company from reaching its full potential is human resources. At present, Newcastle Infotech has a relatively large staff but the employees (programmers, designers, and engineers) work mostly on a casual basis depending on how busy they are (Dawes et al 2008). This drawback gives rise to several controversies: first, they cannot fulfill long-term projects that require constant commitment and full-time employment. Furthermore, due to this instability, the firm cannot always meet deadlines set by their clients.

SWOT Analysis

We need to employ such research methods as SWOT analysis to determine the strengths and weaknesses of this enterprise as well as outside factors which can be either beneficial or harmful for Newcastle Infotech.

Strengths:

1. Variety of services. As it has been noted earlier, they develop and maintain websites; install intranet software, create databases, customize already existing solutions. Additionally, they perform repair jobs, restore data, diagnose hardware, and so forth. This diversity may help them to become popular in Melbourne and all over Australia (Dawes et al, 2008).
2. Experience in this field. Newcastle Infotech began to operate in the late nineties since that time the person has had a good opportunity to acquire new knowledge and skills.

Weaknesses:

1. Inadequate advertising strategies and lack of publicity. Currently, the news about this firm is spread only through customers who can recommend it to other people. Certainly, their feedbacks and testimonials are very important, but they are insufficient at this stage (Kaynak et al, 1996).
2. Personnel. Some participants cooperate with the firm to carry out only short-term projects. Newcastle Infotech does not have a working schedule and this is by far the biggest drawback. 3) Organizational structure. This firm is not divided into separate departments as it should be especially given the fact that the range of their activities is very diverse (Chaffey, 2007, p 238).

Opportunities:

1. Increasing demand for Web products:
2. Location. The company is located in Melbourne, one of the biggest financial and industrial centers in Australia. Therefore, a great number of clients may be willing to collaborate with them. Threats: intense competition. Since the late nineties, the E-business market has become saturated with companies that provide similar services.

Proposal:

Judging from these facts, we can argue that the main obstacle on the path to continuous improvement is human resource problems.

1. First, Newcastle Infotech should be fully staffed with people who are ready to work constantly for this firm. This may enable them to achieve a higher level of stability. This will also establish good workplace communication in this enterprise because at present some programmers or designers work only online. Sometimes, this causes delays and poor interactions among colleagues. The experience of several leading companies indicates that the effective flow of information is a powerful stimulus for success (Locker & Kaczmarek, 2007.p 9).
2. Secondly, the management should bring changes in the structure of their business: it should be departmentalized or split into several sections, for example:
   • Web design and graphic animation;
   • The development of software solutions and databases;
   • Hosting;
   • Repair of computers and installation of new operating system;
   • Quality assurance department. This division is based on the activities of Newcastle Infotech and its key objectives. This restructuring is necessary because now working procedures are organized haphazardly.
3. The third direction is the marketing approach taken by the management. This brand is hardly known to the general public, only clients testimonials give publicity to them (Dawes, 2008). Thus, they need to conduct an advertising campaign, which would emphasize the range and quality of their products and services (Meyers & Gerstman, 2001). Afterward, the management will have to pursue flexible pricing policies, giving discounts to returned customers or even offering certain bonuses for them.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The success of E-business is shaped by the following factors: diversity and quality of products and services, organization of the firm, and marketing strategies. The recommendations, advanced in this report involve such steps as hiring full-time employees, being able and willing to work on a regular basis: splitting Newcastle Infotech into several departments, each specializing in one particular area, and adopting new marketing strategies which would include advertising campaign and pricing.

Reference List

Chaffey D (2007). E-business and e-commerce management: strategy, implementation and practice (third edition). Harlow. Pearson Education.

Child. J (1998). Organization: a guide to problems and practice. London. SAGE.

Dawes. J et al (2008). Newcastle Infotech. Web.

Dwyer. (2009). Communication in Business: Strategy and skills (4th ed.): Prentice Hall.

Dubofsky. D. Miller. T. W (2003). Derivatives: Valuation and Risk Management. New York. Oxford University Press.

Kaynak. E. Kucukemiroglu. O. Kara. A (1996). Creating effective advertising strategies in developing markets. International Journal of Commerce and Management. Vol 3-4, pp 105-133.

Locker. K. Kaczmarek (2007). S. Business communication: building critical skills. New York. McGraw Hill Professional.

Meyers. H. Gerstman. R (2001). Branding at the Digital Age. New York Palgrave

Thierauf. R. Hoctor. J (2003). Smart Business Systems for the Optimized Organization. Westport. Praeger.

Shaw. M (2007). E-business management: integration of Web technologies with business models. Springer.

Assume you are interested in buying a digital camera. Go to www.curcuitcity.com and www.bestbuy.com and comparison shopping on these two sites for a digital camera

Curcuitcity.Com: Helpful features

The website curcuitcity.com is very attractive and has an excellent design. It easily attracts any viewers attention and promotes the urge to explore more. Curcuitcity.com webpage is designed with colorful pictures of various items that are being advertised. The login process is also very easy. The web page is full of items being advertised. Each item is presented together with its specific price so that it is easy for the visitors to compare them and chose the most appropriate. Moreover, all the pictures posted on the website are also of high quality. This makes it easy for any potential buyer to carefully examine the desired item to be purchased.

The website also displays varieties of consumer commodities that are available in stock. Most of these items are electronic devices. They include computers, mobile phones, security cameras, and printers. The information on the final selling price for each item is also displayed. The discount for each item is indicated. For example, the market price for dell Inspiron 17R 17.3 dropped from $799.99 to $699.99. This information helps the customer when calculating the total amount of money saved after buying the item.

One of the helpful features of the site is the possibility to see customers reviews on each item being presented on the webpage. Those present all advantages and disadvantages of the items from the personal perspectives of users and also help new visitors with making the right decisions. Curcuitcity.com website also offers varieties of business deals and partnerships to customers. Such deals offer good discounts to customers. Depending on the deal, a discount may even shoot up to 70% on various items purchased. Moreover, curcuitcity.coms marketing website also caters to potential international customers. This is evident through their advertisements where they offer free shipping services for international customers. Furthermore, the minimal amount of shopping required to get free shipping service is only $100. This would easily attract any international customer viewing the website.

Difficulties encountered

Despite numerous positive attributes mentioned, the curcuitcity.com website has failed in displaying some of the consumer commodities. This is evident because the website only advertises only one type of camera. There is only one security camera presented on the webpage. Therefore, customers who wish to purchase a different brand of digital camera find the site irrelevant. Notable to mention is that this site does not offer any additional information on the items they market. This makes it very difficult for customers to know about the technical characteristics of the items. As far as the digital camera is concerned, it is impossible to tell the brand, megapixel, and other detailed features of the camera being advertised. Besides, the website does not offer a variety of digital cameras based on color and technical characteristics.

Bestbuy.com: helpful features

Bestbuy.com is one more marketing website. The webpage portrays a friendly welcoming design once the customer logs in. Furthermore, the customers are first welcomed with a broad smile from online attendants. Once the customer logins, one can choose any language from the list available, which is a very attractive website feature for international customers. This shows how the site recognizes all international customers regardless of an individuals ethnic background. Additionally, the site also displays detailed information for all international customers regarding the possibilities of online shopping. There is also a free shipping service offered to international customers who can also pay for the item they purchase via international credit cards. This makes it easy for any international customer to buy and pay for the items without traveling.

Difficulties encountered

Bestbuy.com webpage has a plain and unattractive online web design. This can easily discourage any potential customer from logging in to the website for the first time. The login procedure for bestbuy.com is also complicated, and any impatient customer would easily log off the website. They also have a detailed login process that further demands an email address and password.

Conclusion: the best marketing website

After carefully examining the two marketing websites, bearing in mind that the item to be procured is a digital camera, I prefer shopping from bestbuy.com, because bestbuy.com offers a broader choice of digital cameras. This is contrary to the circuitcity.com site, which presents only one security camera. Besides, I also find bestbuy.com as a friendlier and better-organized website. This is evident since this website advertises more varieties of cameras at different prices. The digital cameras advertised are also arranged depending on their varying features. They also provide detailed information on each camera, for example, the make, brand, megapixel, and the designated use of the camera.

Most importantly, all discounts offered on each digital camera are also posted. I would prefer to purchase a black Sony cyber shot DSC-HX200V camera from bestbuy.com according to technical specifications it has 18.2 megapixels. It is of high quality and with advanced features. Due to the discount offered, it is also possible to save up to $60 in addition to free shipping services. In summary, bestbuy.com is the most customer-friendly marketing website for all.

Validation and Verification Plan

The management team introduces validation and verification through developing internal reviews of management and technical reports (Fisher, 2007). The internal analysis of the management staff will involve work verification of such members as a project manager, technician, designer, programmer, associate programmer, risk managers, and website managers.

The external reviews will be carried out once the documents and reports have been approved by the project leader. All the verification procedures will be preceded by the support managers. The roles that the team members should take involve the initiator, secretary, author of the reviewed document, the advisor, and reviewers. The initiator will be responsible for making appointments with all the members of the validation procedures (Fisher, 2007). The main responsibility for the success and accuracy of the verification reviews is imposed on moderators or advisors who take control of all testing procedures (Fisher, 2007). While reviewing the external and internal reviews, the project managers should constantly cooperate with other team members involved in developing the project.

Quality Assurance

The main purpose of the quality assurance process lies in presenting frameworks that can allow the project managers to introduce efficient risk management that can prevent possible pitfalls in introducing a new information system. Electronic databases could contribute to information exchange about customers to define the demand rates and identify possible problems (Bagad, 2009). Web designers, therefore, should pay closer attention to the functionality of the website of the Kings Jewelry, as well as provide possible corrections to improve the quality and expand the customers access to the companys information. At the same time, quality managers should be concerned with confidential information. The role of quality assurance procedures consists of preventing illegal invasions.

Quality control is closely associated with the way information is delivered on the website. This is of particular concern to the estimation of information about pricing policy, purchasing, and personnel (Bagad, 2009). The website should also provide sufficient information about the products, including images, detailed descriptions, and advertising to persuade the customers that the companys products are of exceptional quality. The quality assurance department should also be concerned with the attitude of employees toward the quality of the proposed products. Therefore, it is highly necessary to involve sales assistants in the quality verification process.

Review and Audits

The external and internal reviews will allow the project manager to evaluate compliance with the established specifications, standards, requirements, instructions, and procedures. Physical audits are aimed at checking the records out to define whether the project is successful or not. Functional audits can be performed before the software support is released (Mitra, 2012). A support management plan can allow the managers to check whether the procedures are properly followed.

The audit should be attended to and monitored by quality assurance and project managers to assure that the reports are carried out with high accuracy. The results of the reviews should be reported in a written form both to the quality assurance and to the project manager (Mitra, 2012). The audit reports should comprise the data, the participants, items to be checked, conclusions, and recommendations. The managers ability to understand and retrieve knowledge from electronic databases will influence the quality of the decision-making process (Mitra, 2012). Information classified is applied for improving the qualities and eliminating the uncertainty in executing a support plan.

References

Bagad, V. S. (2009). Management Information Systems. US: Technical Publications.

Fisher, M. S. (2007). Software Verification and Validation: An Engineering and Scientific Approach. US: Springer.

Mitra, A. (2012). Fundamental of Quality Control and Improvement. US: John Wiley & Sons.

Belonging to the national and state professional accounting organizations, respectively, sites of both the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FICPA) offer information about the profession. One of the readily apparent features of the AICPA site that can be of use to an aspiring accountant is the Career Guidance section. It offers a wealth of information on job peculiarities, educational programs, work-life balance, and other important aspects (AICPA, 2021). It also covers different career paths for becoming a certified public accountant (CPA), from a high-schooler interested in accounting to a student preparing for graduation (AICPA, 2021). FICPAs site does not offer this type of guidance in the readily available way, but its Knowledge Hub tab provides current information on the developments important of accounting in Floridian context (FICPA, 2021). While trying to describe every bit of knowledge available on both sides within a single post would be unfeasible, it is safe to say that both sites can serve as a reliable source of information.

References

AICPA (2021). Career guidance. American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Web.

FICPA (2021). Knowledge Hub. Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Web.