Introduction
The current era of entrepreneurship is known as the era of technology and industrialization as both of these things are some of the essentials for the growth of an entity. Organization is a place in which number of departments work together for the achievement of a single and pre-specified goal in particular and among them, the name of Marketing department is one of them (Burrow, 2008, pp. 22-29).
Marketing department is the one which is used to present the products in front of the customers and it is one of the most effective departments from the viewpoint of an organization. There are number of heads that come under the ambit of marketing based literature and among them, the name of promotional mix, advertising and other are some of them (Hisrich, 2000, pp. 19-25). The main perspective of this assignment is to implement the marketing behavior on a given company. The company which has been chosen for the same analysis is ASOS. In the next section, a small description about the company would be described followed by other analytical framework in particular.
ASOS: An Overview
ASOS is the leading and a well reputed name in the world of online fashion and beauty care industry. It is a UK based company that was established in the year 2000. This online retailing business was originated by Nick Robertson and Quentin Griffiths. The company’s targeted group of audience is mainly fallen under age 18-34 years old people in both genders. ASOS is the hub of huge collection of branded fashion clothes and offer a wide range of clothes segment under its banner. The company has reported annual turnover of £753.8m by the ending year of 2013. Moreover, the company’s net profit margin for the year 2012 was also recorded by £29 million. The company has a great influence in online fashion and beauty retailing industry by offering more than 50,000 branded and own labeled items in the segment of women apparels, men’s clothing, footwear, fashion accessories and beauty products. ASOS holds the number of websites that are typically dedicated to different countries such as the UK, Australia, United States, Russia and many others. Moreover, the company has the capacity to ships their products to over 237 countries through their 2 UK based centers. The company claims to have unique 7.9 million active customers all over the world who have shopped at ASOS.com during 12 months.
Marketing Communication Objectives
Objectives are important for an organization and for a specific department as well. Marketing department which is known as an important department for a company has numerous things to cover and under it, the name of marketing communication is one of them. The core objectives of marketing communication are to increase the financial belongings of the company (Ellis and Fitchett et al., 2010, pp. 33-37). Apart from increasing the financial belongings of the company, the core objective of marketing based communication is to effectively communicate about the products of the company in front of the target market. ASOS has a big name in the field of online retailing, but still the company needs to clear their dimensions with effective communication mechanism.
Target Audience
The provision of target audience could be extremely effective and integral for the sake of an organization, and entities have to consider their target markets in order to become economically and strategically active in particular (Blythe and Zimmerman, 2005, pp. 87-94). Likewise other companies, ASOS also has an effective target market to which the company would sell their products to them. ASOS primarily aimed at the people lies in the age group of 18-34 years. However, people higher than this age could also have the products of the company in consideration and could initiate the business accordingly and effectively at the same time.
Promotional Mix
Promotional mix is a significant feature that comes under the sphere of marketing strategy. The term “promotional mix” is mainly a combination of advertising, public relations, door to door marketing, promotional activities and adaptive selling. The set of activities that are encompassed with it are equally important to make the entire promotional mix tool effective and result oriented in total (Davidow, 1986, pp. 112-117). These all sorts of activities enable the personnel to get directly interacted with the targeted customers. The primary goal of the promotional mix’s implementation is to acknowledge, manipulate and keep reminding the consumers regarding line of products and services.
Promotional mix usually comprises on products, pricing, place and promotional based strategies
Products: ASOS currently comprises on the online products and the major products in which the company is currently dealing in fashion and beauty stores. The company has to change their current product strategy from Analyzer to Adopter. The main reason behind the same is that the company is the industry leader; hence they should not analyze the things now.
Pricing: ASOS comprises on the Competitive pricing strategy, which should be change in the current business environment, and the company should move towards Premium pricing strategy, in which higher prices would be demanded from the customers against their products and services (Polonsky and Mintu-Wimsatt, 1995, pp. 45). The main reason behind the same is that the goodwill of the company is extremely powerful and it would certainly affect the company both from financial and strategic viewpoint.
Place: Currently ASOS has only online perception, but the company should now make their company offline as well
Promotion: The promotion mix of ASOS should comprise on both Pull and Push Strategies, in which the company has to use both offline and online promoting strategies to become economically perfect. Paper Media and Internet media, especially Social Media would work like wonders for ASOS and the company should move with the same (Cheverton, 2005, pp. 167-176).
Advertising
Advertising is a paid marketing activity which can also be identified as impersonal presentation. This is another crucial part of the promotional mix tool for publicizing the company’s offering, services and ideas. Advertising is the non-personal communication from an identified sponsor using mass media to persuade of influence over the audience (Russell, 2010, pp. 54-59). The stance of advertising is usually carried out from recognized sponsor through different media outlets that can reflect great influence on the targeted audience. Such instances may comprise with magazines, television, radio etc.
ASOS has now become an industry leader in the beauty and fashion products of the United Kingdom (UK), therefore the advertising strategy of the company should be molded in the same way. The company should come up with mature advertisement in the culture and tradition of the UK should be highlighted and promoted, as this is the only strategy from which the company can enhance their financial belongings and could work effectively to attract higher number of consumers.
Public Relations
This form of promotional activities allows an organization to persuade a target group of customers. The public relation activities greatly help in drawing a reputed picture of the company and its various offerings or policies. The companies issue a press release directed to declare that the company's products or services, channel of distribution, amenities, maneuvers, partner’s profile, annual turnover and profit margin, workforce and the development of newsworthy events (Silk, 2006, pp. 24-32). Publicity is a successful technique that brings into play by professionals in this context. This means that there will be newsworthy information to the public.
Public relation is an important provision from the viewpoint of an organization, and no organization can enhance their financial belongings without having effective relations in terms of public. ASOS has to increase or enhance their core and fiduciary relationship with their customers, suppliers, employees and investors as well, as it is the only way from which the company can bring effectiveness in their business (Pride and Ferrell, 2012, pp. 59-62). By considering these things, ASOS can increase their market share effectively by competing with other organizations as well, operating in the same line of business.
Door to door marketing
Door to door marketing can also be termed as direct marketing that has considerable importance in the execution of promotional marketing model. This form of advertising is mainly applied to hit the exact set of customers and prospects and restrain to target mass audience. Direct marketing can be empirically performed by means of print mail and directly through e-mail channel. The purpose of direct marketing is to amplify the company’s earnings or make out an appropriate track for the sales staff to walk on and meet the target (Brink and Berndt, 2008, pp. 65-72). Direct marketing offers certain opportunities for the companies to keep connected through one-way communication with the audience regarding products, special offers, announcements, customer exploration, and customer’s order verification.
Currently ASOS is operating online, and the medium of offline strategy is missing from the company. In order to initiate the stance of direct marketing, the company has to establish their operations offline as well. Direct marketing is an alternative name of door to door and offline marketing and ASOS is enables to work accordingly on it. With the help of this particular strategy, ASOS can enhance its financial and strategic belongings effectively as it is one of those things which have its own importance.
Promotional Activities
Promotional activities are such form of marketing campaigns where the advertisement, publicity and personal selling are not embraced in it. The crux reason to apply this approach is to elevate the purchasing power and sales and the purpose is to amplify company’s turnover (Brady, 2011, pp. 88-94). This method greatly assists in enlightening the consumers regarding new launched or upcoming products, and helps to perk up the company’s image. These activities can be carried out by giving discount rates, coupons, and sample of product and through other manners.
Promotion lies in almost everything in the company and it is vital for the company to promote their sales accordingly and effectively at the same time. ASOS is one of those companies which promote their products and sales accordingly in front of the consumers and it would be extremely vital for the company to increase the stance of sale based promotions accordingly and effectively at the same time (Peñaloza and Toulouse et al., 2012, pp. 147-155). Sales promotion may increase buy one get one free and can also offer extensive amount of discount to them.
Adaptive/Personal Selling
Personal selling may also refer to adaptive selling is deemed to be expensive and valuable advertising medium. But for this, an individual must pursue a gradual process to get the maximum benefit. Adaptive selling can be adjusted to convey the fact that the way in which the factors like cultural diversity and attitudes may be considered and taken into the approach (Sheehan, 2010, pp. 32-37). They can also suggest numerous questions with the intention to identify special needs of customers, and get valuable responses and adjust the presentation accordingly. The process of adaptive selling is a continuous series of certain practices carried out by the sales staff, take the first purchase of a product or service, and the prospect of actions required to complete the report in order to ensure satisfactory buying (Rugimbana and Nwankwo, 2003, pp. 201-209).
Personal selling means to face to face selling, which is not possible in ASOS environment because the company is an online company, however the company has to initiate personal selling stance by initiating the things in offline mediums in total which would certainly be effective for the company in near future.
Conclusion
The main perspective of this assignment is to implement the marketing behavior on a given company. The company which has been chosen for the same analysis is ASOS. From the entire analysis, it is found that the stance of marketing and advertisement is extremely powerful and important for ASOS and the company is doing a fantastic job as far as competing with other organizations and creating value for their consumers. The new promotional strategies and advertisement strategies would certainly bring effectiveness in the financial structure of the company and the company should initiate the same.
Recommendations
- Offline Place strategy should be adopted by the company
- The company should make a customer relationship management (CRM) department to focus on consumers
- Launching of new services would be effective for the company and ASOS should consider it for its prosper future
Reference List
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