Digital And Online Marketing Strategies Assignment Sample  

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Introduction

It is important for the organizations to focus on marketing strategies to get competitive advantage in the market. But at the same time, the increasing online trends worldwide have increased the need for the companies to integrate online and digital technologies within the marketing strategies. Over the time, social media including Google Plus, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest is widely used by the organizations to communicate with the customers and convey the marketing messages to develop brand awareness. It also allows the organizations to receive both positive and negative feedback from their customers and determine the effectiveness of media platforms (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2012).

Apart from this, the firms have invested in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay per Click (PPC) advertising significantly to promote their brands due to their importance in accessing more customers. In addition, display advertisements are also used by the firms to present the marketing messages through images, posters, videos and audios. The use of these online and digital technologies enables the firms to benefit their marketing efforts. It is also helpful for the brands to market their products and services and provide online customer support through 24/7 services to add value to the customers (Ryan, 2016).

Digital marketing has been an integral part of the marketing strategy of the companies to obtain feedback online through social media sources, websites and blogs regarding their experience with the product or brand. It is becoming popular among the firms to use and have direct contact with the consumers to develop better customer relationship. The use of digital marketing allows the firms to develop word of mouth communications and peer-to-peer dialogue that have a significant impact on customers. It is because customers share their experience with the products and services through these online channels and also influence the buying behavior of other customers (Tiago and Veríssimo, 2014).  It is advantageous for the firms to use online platforms to connect with their customers and create discussions. In relation to this, the presented report conducts comparative study of the digital and online marketing strategies adopted by three leading grocery retailers in the UK namely Tesco, Morrison’s and Asda.

Digital and online marketing strategies used by Tesco, Morrison’s and Asda

Tesco is a significant example of how the grocery retailers should use social media as a marketing strategy for the customer engagement. Its social media guidelines are published online showing the marketing effectiveness of the social media for the company. The number of followers on different social media sites can be presented as below table:

Tesco has over 2.5 million fans on Facebook showing its wide presence on the site that is used to interact with the customers effectively. Company updates 1-2 posts on daily basis that are related to the brand and its products. The major focus of posting on Facebook is not only promotional purpose but also it is aimed to educate and entertain the followers. For instance, it shares recipes and blogs that are related to healthier eating with all of the ingredients available to purchase from the store.  

Through Facebook, Tesco also develop awareness of its products, offers and promotions. This site is also used by the company to share the brand news like it showed the news related to partnership with Diabetes UK and the British Heart Foundation. Tesco also uses the ‘Notes’ section of Facebook to publish the terms and conditions of different competitions that are being operated by the company (Evonomie, 2015). In addition, the company has also launched an app namely ‘Here to Help’ and an app for polls to enhance the customer service and improve the customer experience (Moth, 2013).

Asda uses social media and digital media in its marketing strategies effectively. It focuses on different social media sites to promote its products and communicate about its offers to the customers. The below table presents the number of followers on different social media sites:

Asda uses Facebook to promote its brand as it updates at least one post on daily basis on Facebook page. On weekends, it updates many posts to involve the audience into discussion on relevant topics. Its most of the posts contain an image and interesting content reflecting the brand. Through posts, it promotes new products, shares recipes and inform the followers regarding its social works and the occasional competitions. It updates the posts with ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ to spread the message to more audience.

Morrison’s uses social media effectively to market its products as it is one of the leading grocery retailers of the UK. The following table shows the number of followers of the company on different social media sites:

Morrison’s uses Facebook effectively as marketing tool as compared to other social media sites. On Facebook, it also launches competitions to provide voucher and offers to the customers and attract them and enhance their loyalty.

Apart from this, Tesco also uses Twitter through creation of accounts for each area of its store like Tesco food, Tesco media, Tesco Bank, Tesco Mobile, etc.  With the help of this, the firm is able to design direct messages to target the customers effectively (giraffe, 2018).  It operates Twitter through Tesco account and Tesco offers account as Tesco offers account is used to post all the offers, while Tesco account is used to solve the queries of customers and provide customer service (Evonomie, 2015). On the other hand, Asda updates its posts on Twitter account on frequent basis. There is the character restriction on Twitter as Asda provides external links in every post to spread full message to the audience. It does not use many image posts and hash tags that could be improved (SILVERBEAN, 2018). It is also noticed that Asda does not properly respond to the comments from its followers that reduces the effectiveness of its social media marketing on Twitter. On Twitter, Morrison’s provides information about the new offers and products with pricing that helps to attract more customers especially who are price sensitive. It promotes its cost conscious products on these social media sites and also talks about the charity efforts and customer service to develop better customer relationship (Hobbs, 2016). Morrison’s uses Twitter as a customer service tool to react on the responses of the customers.

Moreover, Pinterest profile of Tesco presents inspiring home ideas, delicious recipes and tips for healthy living. It uses different contents including own website content and content from other websites and Pinterest accounts (Tesco PLC, 2018). Its main focus is on content from other sources rather than self-promotion that is quite effective to promote the brand. It also uses Google+ page to update posts regularly to promote the brand and its products as well as brand news. It also solves issues of customers through posts. Page’s engagement is lower in comparison of Facebook and Twitter (Evonomie, 2015). However, Asda has less number of followers on Pinterest as compared to other competitors showing its ineffectiveness on this site to attract more followers as it needs to make improvements in existing content and images on this site. Google Plus is used by Asda to resolve the issues of the customers and respond their queries effectively to develop better customer relationship. At the same time, Morrison’s uses Pinterest and Google Plus but it has less number of followers on these sites showing its ineffectiveness on these sites (Campaign, 2014). On Google+, it provides information relate to offers, recipes and entertainment products for the family. There is need for the company to focus on marketing strategies on Pinterest and Google Plus to increase the number of followers through good content and images (Truby, 2013).

Tesco also invests in digital marketing as it uses PPC advertising, display advertising and SEO. In PPC advertising, the major focus of Tesco is on the grocery items while in SEO, it focuses on website content including grocery items. The key terms such as grocery items, purchase groceries and online grocery are considered by the company to design the SEO strategy. In addition, it also considers the expiry date of the offers in SEO strategy to induce the purchasing behavior of the customers (Smart Insights, 2017).  Apart from this, display advertisements are done through the advertisement of the brand on HD screens at the entrance of store.  At the same time, Asda largely invests in PPC advertising that makes it top PPC advertiser. Through display advertising, it launches videos to attract more customers. For instance, it launched Christmas campaign to promote its sale to influence the buying behavior of the customers positively. It uses different key words like Big, Amazing and Wide range for promoting sale in PPC advertisements (Pendrous, 2013). In addition, company also induces the customers for purchasing its products as soon as possible by including some words like Buy now, Hurry, etc. It uses influential words while designing SEO strategy that enable to link more customers easily (Parsons, 2013).  On the other hand, Morrison’s focuses on PPC advertising by highlighting the sourcing of the materials from local suppliers and emphasizing its colleagues and how families prepare for festivals to develop emotional connection with consumers. In addition, Morrison’s uses SEO to promote its products as it uses different search engines by considering the pages of Google, Bing and Yahoo (Campaign, 2014). All these pages provide the information related to Morrison’s by putting key words like WM Morrison supermarket plc, WM Morrison, etc. that mainly focuses on product and offers information.

In line with the apps increasing popularity, Tesco has also launched several retail apps that are helpful for the customers to purchase goods and make payment on mobile easily.  Its major focus in developing mobile apps is on the loyalty of customers. It has developed Tesco’s Clubcard programmes to create apps for different markets. Apart from this, it has also developed shopping apps with focus on checking stock availability and specific items locations in Tesco’s physical stores (Magrath and McCormick, 2013). Apart from this, Asda has also launched several apps as its transactional mobile app allows iPhone users to buy groceries online and check price in comparison of the competitors. Asda’s mobile shopping app is the leading UK retail app on both iTunes and Android platforms. Its mobile app accounts for 18% of all grocery home shopping sales and help to make the customers repetitive and loyal. The Asda App has won a ‘2013 Mumsnet Best award’ with a 5-star reviewer rating. Morrisons is the first bricks-and mortar-supermarket that has launched its magazine as an iPad app, with a free app from the App Store and Newsstand (Strömet al., 2014). It provides the print version of the Morrisons Magazine. But, its presence on mobile marketing is very low as compared to Tesco and Asda.

Overall, performance of all these firms on digital marketing platforms can be reviewed based on RACE framework. In terms of reach, Tesco is performing better as compared to Asda and Morrison’s because it has wider access to the customers through search engines, social networks and blogs. In addition, all these grocery companies interact with the customers through website, blog, community and interactive tools to interact with the potential buyers. Companies share the information related to their brands through newsletters, social media and email marketing. However, the website of Morrison’s is old-fashioned and less attractive that causes a lack of effectiveness of its website content (Chaffey and Smith, 2013). Moreover, Conversion of leads into potential buyers is also significant for all these grocery retailers however; Tesco is performing better than Asda and Morrison’s by using more influential e-commerce process and marketing mix. But at the same time, the market share of Tesco is declining each year showing lacking marketing mix areas in converting the leads. In addition, Tesco, Asda and Morrison’s engage the customers effectively by running loyalty schemes and by getting feedback on social media platforms that allow for connecting customers and enhancing their satisfaction level (Scott et al., 2015).  

Recommendations

Based on the above analysis, it can be suggested that both Asda and Morrison’s should focus on their content on social media networks to increase the number of followers and improve the market position. Similarly, Tesco is losing its market share in the industry as it should invest more on the mobile marketing and customer loyalty to retain market position. Customer oriented marketing mix can be effective for all these companies to attract more customers on online platforms and enhance the market position (Leeflang et al., 2014).  In digital and online marketing, the content play a major role in influencing the customers as the focus of these companies should be on influential content to interact with the customers effectively and attract them towards the brand. Morrison’s need to invest more on mobile marketing to develop better position in the market by grabbing the attention of mobile users efficiently.

Conclusion

It can be stated that digital and online marketing plays an important role in developing strong brand image and access more customers to achieve the competitive advantage in the market. From comparative study, it can be determined that Tesco is performing better than Asda and Morrison’s in digital and online marketing perspectives reflecting from the leading positon of Tesco in the industry. However, Asda and Morrison’s are also doing better in these areas by adopting effective tools and techniques that enable them to achieve good position in the market. Morrison’s is at lower position in market share that also reflects from ineffectiveness of its digital and online marketing efforts as compared to Tesco and Asda. Morrison’s needs to enhance the lacking areas to gab better business opportunities and achieve higher market share in the industry.

References

Campaign 2014. Morrisons is lagging in online shopping, but how does it fare in social media? [Online] Available at: https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/morrisons-lagging-online-shopping-does-fare-social-media/1300760 (Accessed: 4July 2018)

Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2012. Digital marketing: strategy, implementation and practice (Vol. 5). Harlow: Pearson.

Chaffey, D. and Smith, P.R., 2013. eMarketing eXcellence: Planning and optimizing your digital marketing. Routledge.

Evonomie 2015. Retailers successfully using social media. [Online] Available at: http://www.evonomie.net/2015/01/28/social-media/retailers-successfully-using-social-media/ (Accessed: 4July 2018)

giraffe 2018. How does TESCO use social media? [Online] Available at: https://giraffesocialmedia.co.uk/how-does-tesco-use-social-media/ (Accessed: 4July 2018)

Hobbs, T. 2016. Morrisons’ marketing boss: ‘Brands using social media to sell are making a mistake’. [Online] Available at: https://www.marketingweek.com/2016/03/14/morrisons-marketing-boss-brands-using-social-media-to-sell-are-making-a-mistake/ (Accessed: 4July 2018)

Leeflang, P.S., Verhoef, P.C., Dahlström, P. and Freundt, T., 2014. Challenges and solutions for marketing in a digital era. European management journal, 32(1), pp.1-12.

Magrath, V. and McCormick, H., 2013. Marketing design elements of mobile fashion retail apps. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 17(1), pp.115-134.

Moth, D. 2013. How Tesco uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+. [Online] Available at: https://econsultancy.com/blog/61946-how-tesco-uses-facebook-twitter-pinterest-and-google (Accessed: 4July 2018)

Parsons, R. 2013. Asda: How to leverage social media. [Online] Available at: https://www.marketingweek.com/2013/05/15/asda-how-to-leverage-social-media/ (Accessed: 4July 2018)

Pendrous, R. 2013. Asda uses social media to engage the consumers. [Online] Available at: https://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2013/11/06/Social-media-is-top-of-Asda-s-agenda(Accessed: 4July 2018)

Ryan, D., 2016. Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation. Kogan Page Publishers.

Scott, T., Scott, P., Stokes, P., Moore, N., Smith, S. and Ward, T., 2015, September. Reconceptualising the consumer journey in the digital age–an exploratory study of the United Kingdom retail sector.

SILVERBEAN 2018. [Online] Available at: https://www.silverbean.com/blog/how-asda-uses-twitter-facebook-and-linkedin/ (Accessed: 4July 2018)

Smart Insights 2017. How Tesco refreshed their marketing strategy to get back on track. [Online] Available at: https://www.smartinsights.com/online-pr/reputation-management-online-pr/tesco-turned-marketing-strategy-around/ (Accessed: 4July 2018)

Ström, R., Vendel, M. and Bredican, J., 2014. Mobile marketing: A literature review on its value for consumers and retailers. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 21(6), pp.1001-1012.

Tesco PLC 2018. [Online] Available at: https://www.tescoplc.com/contacts/social-media/ (Accessed: 4July 2018)

Tiago, M.T.P.M.B. and Veríssimo, J.M.C., 2014. Digital marketing and social media: Why bother?. Business Horizons, 57(6), pp.703-708.

Truby, A. 2013. MORRISONS – USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO TURN A CRISIS INTO OPPORTUNITY. [Online] Available at: http://www.freshminds.net/2013/02/morrisons-%E2%80%93-using-social-media-to-turn-a-crisis-into-opportunity/ (Accessed: 4July 2018)

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