Category: Web Technology

Dolce & Gabbana is an eminent 1985-founded Italian fashion house. Dolce & Gabbana has employed multiple methods of marketing promotion; among them is the companys official website. The present work provides a detailed analysis of the website and its contribution to the companys promotion strategy.

The website provides a viewer with sufficient information related to the current products and their use, fashion collections, upcoming products, the activity of the company, and so on. The website has the following structure. It is divided into five main sections: Dolce & Gabbana, Dolce & Gabbana Online Store, Dolce & Gabbana Beauty, Dolce & Gabbana Corporate, and Dolce & Gabbana World.

The first section embraces the subsections with fashion clothes for men, store locator, women, and children, eyewear, watches, and jewelry. The second section presents the items of the online store sorted according to their type and the gender of a buyer, as well as customer care pages. The third section includes the pages about perfumes, makeup, and skincare. The fourth section is devoted to the company information. Finally, the fifth section contains all other information. While such division is reasonable, the names of the sections are unclear and may confuse a viewer (Dolce & Gabbana Official Site and On Line Store). The site map can be seen on Picture 1.

The front page announces both new collections and the product categories such as skincare. The main menu allows access to various subsections. The subscribe and site map buttons are present. However, the search is missing, and the announcement follow us on is not supplemented by links on any social webs. The only available languages are English and Italian, even though Dolce & Gabbana has stores in countries that speak other languages (Saudi Arabia, China) (Dolce & Gabbana Official Site and On Line Store). These omissions are serious flaws of the promotion strategy.

As for the fashion clothes, the website is currently presenting the winter and summer 2016 collections for men, women, and children. According to the website, the primary source of inspiration for the collections was family, which, as Dolce & Gabbana believes, is the main thing in everyones lives. The site also presents all the posters, videos, and press releases from the advertising campaigns and fashion shows for each collection. Clothes collections are supplemented by accessories.

The site contains a photo of each item. The images can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+. All the same applies to the eyewear and watches subsections (Dolce & Gabbana Official Site and On Line Store). It is worth mentioning that the company works with models, both female and male, of diverse racial backgrounds. The abundance of information, links to social webs, and diversity among models make a positive contribution to the marketing promotion.

The online store allows to order the items from the current winter 2016 collection. The items are included into specific categories such as suits and sneakers. Once a user selects an item, the site automatically determines the country and creates a shopping bag. The pre-order mode is available (Dolce & Gabbana Official Site and On Line Store). The whole system is convenient for a user.

The beauty section allows a user to order skincare products and perfumes. It also contains a detailed FAQ, which provides answers not only for the questions related to the companys productions but also for general inquiries regarding skincare and perfumes. The strongest point of this section is a skincare test. It allows each customer to enter the details about their skin type and preferences and receive a recommendation for using a particular Dolce & Gabbana skincare set (Picture 4). The entire section is successful in the terms of marketing promotion.

The corporate section presents information related to corporate history, mission and vision, the companys international awards, the locations of its offices, brand identity, Dolce & Gabbana Club, and job offers (Dolce & Gabbana Official Site and On Line Store). Most of the subsections are unavailable unless a user is registered, which presents a certain inconvenience, for instance, for job seekers.

The website also contains a link to the company-owned magazine Swide. Swide is not devoted to the companys products and services. Instead, it provides a wide outlook on fashion news, art, sports, travel, etc. The magazine serves to promote Dolce & Gabbana without making a viewer feel annoyed with advertisement (Swide Magazine).

In general, the needs and beliefs of a customer are addressed properly on the website. The shipping conditions and prices are explained clearly, and a buyer does not need to request additional information. Detailed FAQs and a clear site map help to make sure that a customer does not get lost on the website. The site has a gift ideas subsection where various products are offered as possible presents for a customers family and friends, which is a good idea to attract the audience. The accent on family is also working well. Despite the flaws such as the lack of a search button, only two available languages, and the unclear names of the website sections, the website is a strong part of the companys marketing promotion strategy.

Works Cited

Dolce & Gabbana Official Site and On Line Store. Dolce & Gabbana, n.d. Web.

Swide Magazine. Dolce & Gabbana, n.d. Web.

Introduction

Usability is one of the primary aspects that should be utilized to evaluate any interface. Seffah and Metzker (2004) claim that this feature is instrumental in enabling users to perform tasks efficiently. Usability is a complex concept consisting of several elements including simplicity, user-centeredness, navigability, consistency, and learnability among others. The adherence to the principles of effective usability can make a website a successful product or a failed platform for sharing information. Numerous online platforms for delivering messages exist, but some of them are more effective than others. One of the illustrations of an exemplary interface is the TED website. TED is a nonprofit organization aimed at spreading ideas& in communities around the world (Our organization, n.d., para. 1). The website contains TED speakers talks on a variety of topics, as well as the data concerning the nonprofit, ways to participate, and other relevant information.

The website was chosen due to its popularity and proper usability. This resource is often used for training and education, which makes it one of the most reviewed and cited websites. Its websites usability also contributes to the wide popularity of TED talks although certain faults can still be traced and should be eliminated. This paper includes a UX/UI analysis that consists of the discussion of the central principles of usability and the way they are applied to the TED website. The description of strengths and weaknesses, as well as recommendations on possible improvements, are provided.

Defining Usability

Although the term has been utilized for several decades, researchers and practitioners have failed to come up with a specific definition. Seffah and Metzker (2004) emphasize that usability is often associated with users satisfaction, learnability, and performance. At the same time, no proper software quality attribute has been provided by either the researchers and the standardization organizations or the software development industry (Seffah & Metzker, 2004, p. 72). This paper is concerned with the user experience, so the focus is on attributes relevant to this area.

It is possible to define usability as the ability of a software product to be understood, learned, used, and attractive to the user, when used under specified conditions (Seffah & Metzker, 2004, p. 72). This definition includes the major attributes of a successful interface including the completing of certain tasks, the existence of certain limits and boundaries. Visual aspects, as well as the products learnability, are also mentioned. Software developers tend to address these elements and principles when creating new products or improving the existing ones. Functionality is the key attribute as all software products serve to complete a set of tasks. For instance, when developing software for clinical settings, the software is characterized by such features as the visual representation, controlled terminology presence, and the provision of recommendations facilitating decision making among others (Horsky et al., 2012). These attributes and characteristics depend on the functions to be addressed.

Evaluation Criteria

The conceptualization of the term usability is essential for the evaluation of UX/UI of various digital products. The analysis of the website under consideration will be based on the concepts articulated by Adikari, McDonald, and Collings (2006) and the features described by Seffah and Metzker (2004). Adikari et al. (2006) note that usability is comprised of such critical components as memorability, efficiency, error tolerance, functional correctness, flexibility, learnability, and satisfaction. The authors add that these categories are interrelated and some of them overlap. Therefore, the first three characteristics can be combined and associated with functionality and simplicity. Memorability and learnability are interrelated as these concepts imply users ability to use the product more efficiently each time. Flexibility and satisfaction are linked to the concept of user-centeredness analyzed by Seffah and Metzker (2004). The present analysis will include the focus on such aspects as simplicity and functionality, user-centeredness, and learnability.

Major Principles and Their Application

Simplicity and Navigability

Simplicity is a manifestation of the user-centered design as people seek simple solutions and answers. As mentioned above, users expect to perform certain tasks when visiting any web page. Irrespective of the educational background or having extensive skills, people still dislike being distracted from their goals (Marcus, 2015). They do not like being distracted from performing the planned tasks, so they value simplicity, which is an important principle to follow when developing a web page or application.

As far as the website under analysis is concerned, it is possible to note that the developers employed the user-centered approach and followed the principle of simplicity. The major purpose of the website is to share stories that are presented in the form of videos. The central goal of a user, hence, is to watch certain video pieces. The home page of the website is aimed at people who do not search for a particular item but visit them to look for ideas and stories. This web page does not present excessive details on all available videos. The first thing the user can see is a set of three videos that are regarded as the most relevant. Scrolling down will provide the user with more items on a variety of topics. Importantly, the videos are grouped under specific categories, and the titles of each set of videos are provided in bright red letters in bold. Hence, using the home page can suffice to locate the necessary piece. It is possible to conclude that the TED website adheres to the functionality principle.

It is quite simple to navigate the website and search for specific videos and data. In the top right corner, such categories as Watch, Discover, Attend, Participate, About, Login, and Search are placed. It is possible to find videos on specific topics or watch recommended pieces. The information concerning the history of the project and the latest news and announcements are easily accessible. However, an important option is missing as it is quite difficult to find a talk by a specific speaker. The principle of user-centeredness is not followed in this case. Although many people may be interested in talks on certain topics, many users may need to find a talk by a particular speaker. This gap can be regarded as a flaw that has to be addressed.

The website follows major navigation conventions that include the availability of custom search, various categories, website map, and other elements. Ease of navigation is one of the premises of proper learnability. The website includes quite a limited number of categories that will not make users confused. The web pages characterized by the provision of a considerable amount of data include some outlines given on the right of the page. It is also important to note that it is easy to return to the home page by clicking on TED presented in bright red bold letters at the top of every web page. At the same time, the option to return to the top is not available, which can hurt user satisfaction.

The simplicity of the website is apparent as visitors can start watching videos at once, which is their primary expectation and goal. The home page does not have any distractions such as advertisements, elements other than videos, bright patterns of the background. This kind of minimal design has become common for modern UI development, and it has proved to be favorably accepted by users (Joo, 2017). Joo (2017) also notes that rich colors are now a characteristic feature of successful products. The TED websites design is consistent with this trend as a rich color mix is used as a background and bright red bold letters TED draw the users attention. The background can perform multiple tasks as it serves as the necessary contrast to the primary information (videos) and alludes to the setting of the conferences themselves. The background seems to display the blurred stage with the famous red letters. Users have an opportunity to concentrate on the items they need without being distracted by colors, patterns, news, advertisements, and other elements. The interface is clear and easy to use, so users experiences are likely to be pleasant.

User-Centeredness

One of the primary or rather guiding principles to consider when creating an application or a website is user-centeredness. Developers should remember that their products serve a goal or a set of goals, so it is essential to make sure that the users peculiarities and needs will be addressed (Satzinger, Jackson, & Burd, 2015). This is the primary aspect to analyze when evaluating a website as users pay most attention to this area. Satzinger et al. (2015) claim that people find all the elements (databases, hardware, and scripts) of a product irrelevant and develop their attitude towards the website based on its interface. An effective website will be designed in a way to foresee the users actions and desires and appropriately address them.

The overall design is also important for user satisfaction. Ji, Yun, Lee, Kim, and Lim (2017) emphasize that peoples cognitive and behavioral peculiarities should be analyzed when developing the interface. For instance, consistency can make users feel comfortable when using a product or be cautious and fixed on some areas. The web pages of the website under analysis follow the principles mentioned above although some minor inconsistencies are present, they can hardly be avoided. Many web pages are devoted to events, opinions, and announcements, which makes it hard to insert only video icons instead of pure text. Such web pages as Participate and Attend stand out against the rest. For instance, the web pages that dwell upon events and participation are characterized by the prevalence of text rather than visuals and video products (Organize a local TEDx event, n.d.). The information that can guide the user is present on the right, but the visual presentation of the web page is rather different, and, hence, it seems more complicated than the rest. The consistency of the digital product is disrupted, which may have an impact on the users satisfaction.

Learnability

Learnability has several definitions, but the major idea behind this principle is the users ability to understand how to perform tasks and reach objectives with a short period (Grossman, Fitzmaurice, & Attar, 2009). The faster users learn how to achieve the goals they set, the more satisfied with the product they will be. In simple terms, people like to use products they are accustomed to and have the necessary skills to benefit from this usage. Each time they find a more effective way to complete tasks. If a digital product is too confusing or changing all the time, people are likely to abandon it.

TEDs learnability is quite high as it can be easy to understand how the product can be utilized most effectively. As mentioned above, navigation is similar to traditional frameworks used in other digital products. The principle of consistency is also prevailing although some disruptions are present. The web pages have similar layouts and designs, so the ability to use one of them translates into the development of skills needed to use the entire website. This feature is specifically pronounced when watching videos as every item has several functions that can be used. Once the user employs all the features related to a video, they receive the experience necessary for achieving one of the major goals, that is to search and watch videos.

Recommendations

Although the usability of the digital product in question is quite exemplary, several gaps can still be addressed.

1. It is necessary to add an option to search videos by speakers. In the vast majority of cases, these are ordinary people from all over the world, so the list of names can be quite unnecessary. However, it can be beneficial to add a list (with the links to the corresponding videos) of speakers professions, backgrounds, and spheres of interest. Many users may need to find the talks of a certain kind of people rather than videos related to a particular topic.
2. Some web pages associated with written information rather than videos should be presented more consistently. It can be effective to provide names of categories and a visual to illustrate the focus rather than include a detailed description of the contents.
3. Web pages tend to include a considerable amount of information including a list of videos. The user can scroll down to look through the available data, but there should be an option to return to the top of the web page. Simple arrows or buttons can facilitate users learning and enhance their satisfaction.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the TED website can be regarded as an illustration of an effective interface characterized by a high level of usability. The digital product under analysis aims at creating a platform for sharing messages that take the form of video talks. The websites usability was evaluated with the help of such features as simplicity, navigability, user-centeredness, and learnability. The website interface ensures that users will perform their tasks within an appropriate amount of time. User satisfaction is quite high as the product is designed in terms of peoples needs, it is simple to navigate it and learn how to use it more effectively. At the same time, the website can be improved as developers can add a search option, enhance all the web pages consistency, and introduce a button to go to the web pages top. Irrespective of these flaws, the websites interface provides insights into the most important aspects to consider when developing digital products.

References

Adikari, S., McDonald, C., & Collings, P. (2006). A design science approach to an HCI research project. In Proceedings of the 20Th Conference of the Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group (CHISIG) of Australia on Computer-Human Interaction: Design: Activities, Artefacts and Environments (pp. 429-432). Sydney, Australia: OZCHI.

Grossman, T., Fitzmaurice, G., & Attar, R. (2009). A survey of software learnability: Metrics, methodologies and guidelines. In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 649-658). Boston, MA: ACM.

Horsky, J., Schiff, G. D., Johnston, D., Mercincavage, L., Bell, D., & Middleton, B. (2012). Interface design principles for usable decision support: A targeted review of best practices for clinical prescribing interventions. Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 45(6), 1202-1216.

Ji, H., Yun, Y., Lee, S., Kim, K., & Lim, H. (2017). An adaptable UI/UX considering users cognitive and behavior information in distributed environment. Cluster Computing, 21(1), 1045-1058.

Joo, H. (2017). A study on understanding of UI and UX, and understanding of design according to user interface change. International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, 12(20), 9931-9935.

Marcus, A. (2015). HCI and user-experience design: Fast-forward to the past, present, and future. Berkeley, CA: Springer.

Organize a local TEDx event. (n.d.). Web.

Our organization. (n.d.). Web.

Satzinger, J. W., Jackson, R. B., & Burd, S. D. (2015). Systems analysis and design in a changing world (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Seffah, A., & Metzker, E. (2004). The obstacles and myths of usability and software engineering. Communications of the ACM, 47(12), 71-76.

Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency website has loaded rather quickly. It asked for permission to load additions and this might be a problem if a strong anti-virus is installed on the users computer. As it is a government website, it is organized and structured in a clear and easy to use way.

The front page is very appealing to the viewer and the graphics are of high quality. The selections on the left side make the content of the website accessible in an efficient way. The search bar is a useful tool that is also available. A minor shortback is that there is no advanced search and so, a person who has entered the website cannot specify what details they prefer to find. The website seems useful for those who want to start their business.

The page that describes the process has several links to better explain the starting points and all the needed information. The interconnection between business and the fact that this is a government site creates a reliable link between the private business owner and the government officials and administration (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, 2012).

Canadian Youth Business Foundation website contains many more graphics that could possibly lower the loading speed but that is not the case. Everything works perfectly and the design is very engaging. The several topics presented are accompanied by graphics and this is a positive side because a person knows what to expect from the different links.

There are no breaks within the page and thus, it is easy to navigate and use. On the right hand side there is a count of people that were supported and a number of jobs that were created. This feature is a very good idea because it gives the website visitor a conceptual representation of the strengths that the service offers. A page titled Mentoring provides an opportunity to receive help in almost any aspect.

his is a very beneficial tool because often, young entrepreneurs are not sure where to begin and how to conduct themselves in a business world. As there is much competition, the website could be instrumental in pointing to the right direction and explaining most preferred route (Canadian Youth Business Foundation, 2013).

Business News & Strategy For Entrepreneurs has the most graphics compared to other websites. The pictures are of high quality and the organization of the front page is very effectively presented. The video on the right side of the page has loaded quickly and without any problems.

The specific connection to the use of applications is made and this is an important benefit because people expect to be using their personal devices to conduct and research businesses. The separation into current news and special reports, as well as tips section, provide all the necessary and interesting information needed for a person who is not familiar with the entrepreneurial activities. The information itself is adequately organized and is helpful in explaining the specifics of the trade.

The technique of presenting statistics and other business related specifics in a graphical way, make it easy to understand. By clicking on a button labeled Load More Stories the viewer gets another handful of information and business related facts and so, the amount of information is extensive and of high quality. It is obvious that the designers know what kind of information people need and how to present it in an effective way (Business News & Strategy For Entrepreneurs, 2013).

References

Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.acoa-apeca.gc.ca/eng/ImLookingFor/BusinessTools/Pages/Home.aspx

Business News & Strategy For Entrepreneurs. (2013). Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/

Canadian Youth Business Foundation. (2013). Web.

Bead Bar e-business model

Bead Bar selects Business-to-Consumer model for the web site. This model shall allow Bead Bar customers to buy products from Bead Bar online storefront and also allow customers to become intermediaries by opening franchise studios with a web site linked to the Bead Bar web site. Bead Bar web site shall have a provision to allow new franchise register their private information and apply for franchise by selecting the products they would want to sell in the studio. The bricks and clicks model of the franchise web site shall allow the customers to find a Bead Bar studio in the local area and then find the list of products available in the studio on the web site before visiting the studio.

The customer may get information about the product stock and price on the franchise web site. The franchise shall have access to the web site to update the stock information through secure login on a SSL connection. Bead Bar shall accept orders from customers and franchise through the online purchase orders. The purchase order shall have a provision to specify the type of customer as direct sale or franchise in order to apply the applicable discounts and delivery policies.

An e-commerce web site shall help Bead Bar increase its sales in many ways such as:

• Global reach ability increases number of franchise and customers, opening new studios at distant places shall enable customers to touch and feel the product before purchase.
• Always open shop, e-commerce web site provides consumers convenience of shopping any time 24 hrs, 365 days.
• A value chain is created by disintermediation process, if earlier Beads Bar was selling its products through studios or individual & wholesale dealers, now it can sell its products directly to customers through on-line e-commerce web site.
• The Instant Messaging eliminates irritability and delay in customer request processing vis-a-vis e-mail or telephone conversation.
• Bead Bar may also add the feature to enable customer to order customized product by selecting desired product characteristics.

Technology used to build e-commerce web site

The e-commerce web site shall have the following components:

Products

All products that are sold by the Bead Bar shall be displayed on the e-commerce web site. A standard product template shall be used to display the information such as product features, picture, cost and stock availability. The HTML, WML and XML markup languages shall be used to display the web content. The e-commerce web site shall use MySQL database to record the product, customer and sale information. Scripting language ColdFusion shall be used to integrate the product database with the web site since it has a better performance as compared to PHP (.Net Comparison Chart, 2004).

Processes

The Electronic Data Interchange processes that shall be included in the e-commerce web site are:

• Instant Messaging to provide online customer support.
• Shopping Cart to allow customers to create their account and select products to buy.
• In order to support franchise registration Bead Bar shall have an online form for registration of the franchise.

Electronic Funds Transfer processes implemented on Bead Bar are:

• Records for all sales shall be maintained in the database for compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
• Calculation of tax, delivery charges and audits are other important processes that shall be implemented.
• Checkout mechanism with electronic payment through third party merchant service PayPal (Heng, 2007).

Delivery

Proper packaging to ensure that product is not damaged during transaction, insurance and on-time delivery of product is crucial for the success of the on-line business.

Web site traffic generation

The web site traffic is generated by advertising about the Bead Bar products in the Usenet news groups such as rec.craft.beads, rec.craft.jewelry and misc.business.small. Beads bar shall invest in online advertising such as Google Ad words and sponsored advertisements. By including a link to the franchise studio web site on the Bead Bar web site, the probability of new customers in remote locations is increased. Bead Bar shall also provide banners for affiliates to link to Bead Bar web site.

Affiliates who create revenue for Bead Bar by directing customers from their web site to Bead Bar web site shall receive a certain share of the revenue earned through the directed customer purchase. Banner advertisements of products sold shall also be displayed on the Bead Bar web site and franchise web site. Important discounts and festival offers shall also be displayed from time-to-time. Viral marketing shall be implemented by including a Recommend this product button in every product web page. Also the Bead Bar products shall be advertised by talking about the products in various news groups.

Electronic Payment Capability

In order to simplify security measures, Bead Bar shall use third party merchant services for accepting electronic payment. Bead Bar has decided to use PayPal service for financial transaction, PayPal allows users to register credit card and provides a secure transaction. PayPal is a popular and trusted financial transaction service. At a later stage Bead Bar may get a merchant account and have a provision to register credit card information and use digital card or smart card on their own web site with VeriSign 128-bit SSL Certificate.

Encryption

Encryption is used to conceal the information exchanged between the user web browser and the web hosting server (Feature: Apache and Secure Transactions, 1997). Secure communication is required for information transferred in online customer registration forms, purchase orders, payments, e-mail and Instant Messages exchanged. In order to establish trust with the customer a VeriSign digital certificate shall be obtained for secure IM on SSL connection. The messages sent and received on IM shall be encrypted with the key provided by VeriSign (Hord, n.d.).

References

.Net Comparison Chart (.Net vs. Coldfusion, PHP, JAVA). (2004). PromoteWare. Web.

Farstad, Bard. (2005). Build an eCommerce Website with eZ publish. sitepoint. Web.

Feature: Apache and Secure Transactions. (1997). Apacheweek. Web.

Heng, Christopher. (2007). Accepting Credit Cards on Your Website. Thesitewizaed.com. Web.

Hord, Jennifer. (n.d.). How Electronic Payments Work? Howstuffworks. Web.

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.