Introduction to Marketing
Tactics could be regarded as a more defined and elaborated version of company’s strategy which aims to explain how the organization would work to achieve its desired goals and objectives. In simpler words, tactics are the strategies in detail (Anderson, 1982). In this section, the tools that would be used to promote the iTunes in the market are explained and integrated within the strategies.
E-marketing
E-marketing is an emerging trend in the world of business due to which the organization must focus and utilize the emerging trend to its benefit. Since the use of website is at its peak, the organization should focus firstly on its website (Grabner-Krautera, & Kaluscha, 2003). In this modern era, websites are the single most effective source to engage with the customers in the market due to its multifunctional features. To achieve the objectives set in the earlier stages, it would be the best for the organization to take maximum advantage from its website as communication from such website is quite easy as compared to other strategies. With the help of website, the organization would have an advantage to communicate with different target audience at the same time this would positively affect the customers and the potential customers to take notice of iTunes and other benefits associated with iTunes.
Social media would be the focus of e-marketing. As social media has changed the way organization communicates with its target audience, the company would focus highly on the use of social media. Social media is an unpredictable and uncontrollable force that helps the organization to set benchmark in the industry as well as the market. Facebook and Twitter could be of significant help to promote the products and services offered by iTunes. The number of users on both the social media websites is increasing on daily basis which would provide the organization with an opportunity to effectively communicate with the target audience. In addition, such social media websites would allow the organization to create awareness regarding the products and services offered by the company by constantly updating information regarding the services and products offered by iTunes. This would help to attract and influence the customers as well as the potential customers to take advantage of the information to satisfy their unfulfilled needs and wants (O´Connor, Balasubramanyan, Routledge, and Smith, 2010). Furthermore, by the use of such website the organization would have better reach in terms of target audience.
On the other hand, blogging would be another tactic in e-marketing. The concept of blogging is quite surprising as the concept of blogging is quite old but is at its peak in the 21st century (Budde et al., 2011). Nowadays, blogging is the heart of strategies due to which this tactic would also be used by the iTunes. It has been indicated that the target audience that are satisfied with the services provided by the company blogs which would provide significant opportunities to influence the customers to blog in favor of the organization. The aim of the company is to ensure awareness regarding the products and services offered by the organization along with the changing the perception of customers towards the company which could be achieved with the help of blogging. Since blogs are written and published by the customers, it provide other potential customers with insights regarding organization and its offered products which eventually helps the potential customers to change their attitude and behavior towards the particular company. The same phenomena and philosophy would be used which would result positively for the company. This blogging would act as a promotional tool that would help the organization change all the associated negative perception regarding the company along with the products and services offered by the organization.
Similarly, video sharing websites like YouTube and Daily motion would also significantly help the organization to promote the organization in the mind of the customers (Hazlett, 2010). It has been indicated that almost 72 hours of video are uploaded on YouTube every single minute which provide the organization with perfect opportunity for the company to attract and retain potential customers as well as the loyal old customers in the market. Video is always considered big, always has been and always will be due to which YouTube is the second largest search engine online due to which, such video sharing websites can play an influential role in the organization’s success (Nelson, 2009).
On the other hand, search engine optimization could also play an essential role in creating awareness regarding the company and its associated products. By using search engine optimization the organization would have higher reach to the target market as well as the customers. Google and other search engines could promote the brand to significant level which will eventually help the organization to accomplish its desired needs and objectives. In addition, e-mail marketing would also be used. The frequent use of e-mail marketing would help the organization to provide the customers with information regarding the upcoming events along with other information regarding the discounts on products for limited time. E-mail marketing is a promotional tool that has remained one of the top used tactics to engage with the customers in a cut-throat competitive market. The use of e-mail marketing would not only help the organization to provide the customers information but would also help to build trust and good relation with the customers.
Events
Events would be another communication tool that will be used by iTunes. The target audience of the company would be the youth along with young adult, events would play an essential and influential role in gaining the audience’s attention. In addition, the events would also help in promoting the products and services offered by the organization.
Since the target audience would be the youth and young adult, the events would be organized in high customer traffic malls and supermarkets. Events would range from simple news conferences and seminars as well as exhibitions with one particular aim that is to gain people’s attention. In addition, to further enhance the organization’s ability to gain attention, stunts would also be used (Gosnay, and Richardson, 2008). All these could effectively gain media’s coverage which would eventually help the organization to make its way to the top of the consumer’s mind. Furthermore, events could significantly help the organization to achieve the desired image and credibility that the organization would like to be associated with. Meanwhile, the organization would also be provided with several opportunities to enhance its relationship with the suppliers as well as the customers in the market.
An event with the particular purpose to gain customer’s attention and to increase the awareness level of customer towards the products and services offered by the organization is likely to draw lots of attention from the customers and the media that are directly or indirectly involved (Kotler Armstrong, Wong, and Saunders, 2008). The event would include discussions between the leaders and the users of the products regarding the product’s role in their daily lives. In addition, the users would also be provided with an opportunity to provide the organization with feedback which would be accurately analyzed and taken into consideration during the production and promotion of the newly introduced product in the market. The designers would also be given a chance to speak up about how the product could change the lifestyle of the customers and how would the product benefit the customers in the future.
The message that is going to be conveyed to the customers with the use of events would be that the products and services are beneficial to the customers. Since the events would be organized at high customer traffic malls and areas, the events would gradually gain the customer’s attention (Kotler, 2003). The events would also include humor and entertainment to boost the energy of the potential customers along with the old and loyal customers in the market.
Such tool to enhance the awareness level of the products offered by the company would be provided with sufficient budget which would eventually help the organization to accomplish its desired objectives through events. The organization would be advised to conduct and organize events with the help of event management agency. This would help the organization to effectively and efficiently attract the customers with the help of professionals in the market.
Word-of-Mouth or Public Relationship Management
The last but not the least tool that would be used by the organization to accomplish its desired goals and objectives would include relationship management. Relationship management had played a crucial role in earlier years and had provided several organizations with added value to their business.
Relationship building and managing it at this stage would be quite crucial for the success of the organization as if the customers are not managed properly, they might shift to other competitors in the market which would eventually lead to decline in market share as well as loss of profits. In order to effectively develop and manage relationship with the customers, blogs would be used. Social media is at its peak in the 21st century which would provide the organization with sufficient opportunities to communicate with the customers and to answer their queries effectively. Blogs are mostly written by influenced customers and have the power to influence others as well by providing them with relevant and sufficient knowledge about the product. In addition, the bloggers provide the customers with their personal experience with the product offered by the company (Budde et al., 2011). Constantly providing the customers with the best quality products and services could motivate the customers to write positively about the organization and its products which could eventually influence the customers to become part of the company by using the products offered by the organization (Budde, Wansink, and McNamara, 2011).
With the help of blogs and tweets on social media website i.e. Twitter, the organization would be able to communicate directly with the customers. This would help the organization to discuss the vision of the organization with the customers on one-on-one basis. This would significantly help the organization to gain customer’s attention and in no time, the organization would be able to gain the customer’s trust and loyalty as well (Boyd, & Ellison, 2007).
On the other hand, celebrity endorsement would be another tool to effectively engage with the customers. Top female models along with male models would be endorsed to promote the brand as well as the characteristics associated with the brand. Youth and young adult are somehow inspired by celebrities due to which, celebrity endorsement would play effectively role in the attraction of the customers. To create awareness regarding the brand would be the objective of this particular relationship management and with celebrities promoting the brand in the market would get the job done effectively.
The message that would be conveyed to the customers through all the tools would be consistent. This would help the organization to effectively gain customer’s attention along with the creation of awareness regarding the unique and sparkling products and services offered by the company.
Action
This chapter would cover the action of the communication tools mentioned in the earlier stages. The action stage reveals the details of the tactics that are mentioned earlier and helps to explain how the communication tools would be implemented to get the better results i.e. achievement of desired objectives.
Public Relations (Relationship Management)
iTunes would contact the celebrities along with the customers in the market on regular basis to ensure that the celebrities and customers have clear understanding of the current situation of the company and the products that would be launched in the near future. In addition, the bloggers would also be updated regarding the current situation of the company. This would ensure that accurate information would be published and tweeted on social media websites.
Public relations would be used to build and maintain relations with the shareholders of the organization. The first step would be to directly approach the potential customers along with the old customers in the market with the help of events. Events would help the organization and customers to socialize and to learn more about one another (Kotler, and Keller, 2009). In addition, the support from parent’s company would also be an added advantage to iTunes. Due to the strong position of Apple Inc. in the market, the organization would be able to establish trust and loyalty with the customers. iTunes website could also be regarded as good relation vehicle from where the customers could download information along with presentations and other documents to learn more about the company and its products.
E-Marketing
Website is a crucial information tool for communication and marketing (Fill, 2009), so iTunes would have to develop clear and convincing message that would appeal to the customers on all level. The website should contain all the information regarding the company along with the products offered by the company but this would not be quite enough to attract and keep the customers on the website. One solution to attract and keep the customers visiting the company’s website would be to create an interactive blogs where the organization could discuss about the products that are going to be launched in the near future. This would create the hype due to which the customers would stay visiting the website to gain information and specification of the new product. The blogs are usually the most effective tool and providing the customers with an opportunity to read the blogs would significantly help the organization. On the other hand, the organization’s presence on social media website as well as on content sharing website would significantly help the organization to create awareness regarding the products and services in the market.
Moreover, the organization’s e-marketing tools should also include position papers, press releases and calendars of upcoming events.
Events
The launch of an event could help the organization achieve variety of goals. For instance, the goals and objectives that need to be fulfilled with the help of event include;
There are varieties of events and organizing an event requires a lot of hard work and dedication. For that reason, external event management agency would be required to help the organization to organize an event in malls and other high customer traffic areas. Different event management agencies would be contacted to develop a proposal for the event and the company proposing the best and most suitable concept would be taken into consideration for the event. The concept of the event is to create awareness regarding the brand due to which the event would give the customers with high priority.
Action Plan
Different marketing tactics and tools would be used to promote the company. A chart has been presented below in which usage of these tools have been presented that the company aims to use:
Control
Control is quite necessary as it indicates that how the actions would be monitored, measured and controlled in order to reduce the chances of failures (Day, 1990). To enhance the ratio of success, the organization should be aware of the action that needs to be taken which would help to follow the process right from the beginning (Haberberg, and Rieple, 2008). As each communication tool has its own set of control, it would become necessary for the organization to monitor the progress of the action on regular basis. This would help the organization to achieve its goals and objectives i.e. to bridge the gap between the organization and the customers by properly applying the strategies along with the communication tools which is critical for the success of the company (Haberberg, and Rieple, 2008).
However, there are certain aspects that need to be taken under consideration before initiating the plan. As the target audience is diverse in terms of culture and at interpersonal level due to which, the organization would have to pay major attention on factors such as language, tone, formality and so on. Moreover, the customers have diverse culture so the communication tools should be adjusted to effectively communicate with the target audience.
List of References
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Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 210-230
Budde, P., Baker, L., Bibolini, L., Evans, P., Hulme-Jones, L., Kwon, P., Lancaster, H., Lange, P., Tine, L., McNamara, S., and Wansink, K. (2011). World Digital Economy: mass adoption of e-commerce and m-commerce channels. Australia: Pual Budde Communication Pty Ltd.
Budde, P., Wansink, K, and McNamara, S. (2011). Australia: E-commerce, marketing and advertising. Australia: Pual Budde Communication Pty Ltd.
Day, G.S. (1990). Market-Driven Strategy: Processes for Creating Value. New York, NY: The Free Press.
Fill, C. (2009). Marketing Communications: Interactivity, Communities and Content (5th Ed.) London: FT Prentice Hall
Gosnay, R. and Richardson, N. (2008). Develop Your Marketing Skills. London: Kogan Page
Grabner-Krautera, S., &Kaluscha, E. (2003). Empirical research in on-line trust: a review and critical assessment. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, vol. 58, no. 6, 783–812.
Haberberg, A., and Rieple, A. (2008). Strategic Management: Theory and application. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hazlett, K. (2010). ‘Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business.’ Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 293 - 295
Kotler P., Armstrong, G.,Wong, V. and Saunders, J. (2008). Principles of Marketing (5th European Ed.) London: FT Prentice Hall
Kotler, P. (2003). Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice Hall.
Kotler, P., and Keller, K. (2009). A Framework for Marketing Management. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Nelson, S. (2009). 6 Social Media/Networking Tools for Businesses. Social Media Sonar, Available from http://socialmediasonar.com/6-social-media-networking-tools-for-businesses [Accessed 6 May 2013]
O´Connor, B., Balasubramanyan, R., Routledge, R. and Smith, A. (2010). From Tweets to Polls: Linking Text Sentiment to Public Opinion Time Series, to appear in: Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, Washington, DC, May, 2010, Available from http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~nasmith/papers/oconnor+balasubramanyan+routledge+smith.icwsm10.pdf [Accessed 6 May 2013]
