Memorandum
- The chief executive officer Mr. Dan hoe should call for an urgent meeting to all the staff working under him. In this meeting, they should brainstorm on ways through which they can get back into the market
- The manager should seek immediate help from high-qualified online market professionals who have achieved success in other online businesses.
- The CEO should advise its marketing team to put their ADS on other websites that were not into the online marketing business.
Middle term (one month to three months)
- Carry out an extensive marketing campaign to attract new customers especially the medium sized companies that have not fully adopted the online marketing by giving discounts.
- Carry out research on the preferences of customers and give them an opportunity to recommend the changes that they should make their services better. This will ensure retention of past customers and attract new ones.
- Continuous assessment of the staff and executive by listening to their complaints. This will ensure overall performance improvement and better organizational decision-making and coordination.
Long term (three months to one year)
- Control and feedbackthe management should ask for a monthly balanced scorecard and financial analysis of the company. They should require all employees to give a feedback individually on their area of operationContingency plan
- If the solutions suggested are not to enough to help eBay have a competitive edge against its competitors. Other solutions can be adopted by diversifying into the international market like Middle East, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. They can seek funds from sponsors and investors.
Executive summary
Introduction
The online marketing platform eBay started as an auction house in 1995. Unlike other online companies, it generated only revenues. Whenever a user placed an item for auction eBay deducted some fee and so the more items that were posted, the more profit that eBay made. It mainly focused on selling antique items, overstock and out-of-season items. The method of pricing though remained that of the bidder. In a decade, it had grown to be a multi-billion online company and faced no competition. The company grew and diversified into other sub sites and added other international sites for other countries. However, in 2007 eBay started to show a decline in its sales. After John Dan hoe had taken over from Meg Whitman, he admitted that the eBay was facing challenges and its past success was just history. New methods have to be implemented to save the giant e-commerce from falling to its knees. The methods would include adapting to the new way of pricing items of fixed price selling and diversifying into the changing technology environment where great numbers of people are using mobiles. They should collaborate with mobile producing companies to include their applications in their various models.Recommendation/implementationShort term (immediately to one month)
The current CEO John Dan hoe should find out what the other online marketing companies like Amazon .com are doing in order to make profits even in harsh economic times. He should send employees to benchmark these companies. By finding out their way of carrying out business, he can implement them into the company. By assessing his competitors, he will be able to know how to avoid current and past customer conflicts, learn about new products in the market.Middle term (one month to three months)
In order to attract new customers, the company should carry out effective market research and development. They should listen to the customers ‘feedback; they should also ask their opinion on new products that they should include and on ways that they should improve their company to meet their preferences. Consumer surveys and SWOT analysis are very crucial in this case to identify a market niche.
They should look for innovative ways to brand their items. They should tailor their products in terms of age, gender, level of education and lifestyle. This will attract potential customers. New customers can be given discounts of about three months free online posting .The existing customers should be offered discounts according to the number of items posted.
The employees and executives should be motivated to continue working in the company. They should offer training on new internet technologies, increase their salaries and allowances. There should also be accountability in the firm through forming departments. Open communications from the staff to the management should be encouraged in order to maintain staff and avoid hiring costs.
Long-term (three to one month)
The Company should do a continuous check on the staff and executive. The employees should be included in forming new policies and objectives. Encouragement of management by participation and employees conflicts should be addressed on a timely manner. Acquisition of part-time employees would also give them an edge. The employees should be highly qualified, and competent. The employees not showing any performance should be laid off.
Management should have the interest of the company at heart in making decisions. Before investing into a project, they should look at the cost and benefits.
New third-party relationships in terms of partners, sponsors, and investors is encouraged. eBay should consider raising finances to cater for its marketing activities by offering an IPO (initial public offer).They should also come up with budgets on how they would meet the cost of undertaking a major change of rebranding.Control and feedback
The managers should hold monthly meeting at the departmental and executive level. Each employee should submit a balanced scorecard. The accounting and finance department should provide monthly financial reports. There should be a monthly evaluation of the performance of employees and comparisons on the performance of departments.
Customer's feedback is also important and therefore they should post an online survey on their website. The customers should be able to contact a 24 /7 support in case they have any questions about the products that are being offered.Contingency plan
The Company should set aside finances for any radical changes in the external environment. Changes in government policies and economy can affect them to the extent of closing down. Unresolved legal matters can also be of impact on their profits. Therefore, they should look for avenues of diversifying their risks by acquiring more international platforms, and entering into long-term contracts with their customers. Finally, eBay should consider introducing new products like entertainment and media rather than concentrating on marketing only.
