MKT302 Digital Marketing Strategy
The main purpose of this report is to design the digital marketing strategy used by the Lexus to target the customer. Lexus Motorcar Company is luxury car vehicle and the division of the Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation (Lexus, 2019).
This brand is using the online marketing platform for reaching to a large numbers of customers and also enabling brand to have proper communication with the potential customer directly through social media networking. This study will outline the reason behind the brand has been unsuccessful in their digital marketing strategy.
Moreover, this study will focus on identifying the target customer of the brand as well as determining factors because of which brand is not meeting the target customer needs or wants digitally. This study will redesign the implementation of social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and other platform is LinkedIn into digital marketing strategy for improving the business online marketing activities respectively.
Lexus has been unsuccessful in the digital marketing strategy
The brand was unsuccessful in their digital marketing strategy to some extent because company has been facing many issues related to cyber crime. While studying, it is also found that company is significantly using business and marketing strategy in order to generate high sales and target large numbers of customers but then also company is facing the challenge at the digital platform.
In concern to this, cyber crime reported some cases related to hacking of website of the Lexus as some additional false information has been added related to its luxury car real features (Openview Blog, 2017). This situation has been reported and suspected as one of the strategy of its competitor to destroy the image of the luxury premium brand in the competitive market for attaining the personal goals.
In current reported case, it is found that Lexus luxury car images were deleted from the website of Jalopnik.com and those were changed to the porn images. This case created highly adverse impact on the company image and goodwill in the global market and also raise questioning on the brand advertisement because many customers have wondered that what kind of images company are displaying.
Because of this unsuccessful digital marketing strategy, company faced decrease in the customer trust and especially those customers who have liked the page of the brand on social media platform (Sandberg & Aronsson, 2017). Therefore, this unethical marketing practice leaved negative reviews on the brand image.
For the company, only online advertisement is not sufficient for targeting the customers because there are some customers who are still not accessing the online platform or website of the brand. On the other hand, there are few customers who still depend on the road shows and live persuasion and that is not related to the digital marketing strategy respectively.
Identify the target customer of the brand
The identified target customer the brand wants to appeal is people who love to buy a luxury car or their status or for this self-interest. The target customers are only those who actually afford to buy a luxury car from the luxury brands.
The brand is facing problem in appealing to the upper class people because there are other existing competitors who are targeting same customer segments by offering similar types of products & services to them (Donnelly et al., 2015).
On the other side, the brand was also facing problem in meeting the needs or wants of the target customers digitally because when it comes to potential customer segment, it is difficult for the company to determine exactly what they need to meet their desire from the brand offerings.
The Lexus brand has not succeeded towards meeting the customer requirement because there were some cyber reported cases observed and found which created mess for the company to overcome.
The other factor which affecting brand to succeed is competition in the segment because of that customer preferences and needs are changing frequently. The level of competition increase in the automobile industry is affecting the brand Lexus to understand the customer needs & wants (Batra et al., 2010).
The marketing strategy is also one factor that affected brand in succeeding towards meeting the customer needs or wants.
Implementation of facebook into the digital marketing strategy
The implementation of facebook page is important for the brand in redefining its business image by effective use of digital marketing strategy. The use of facebook advertising for facebook marketing is different from traditional marketing strategy because this implementation will enhance the company image (Liu et al., 2017).
In addition, this social page will include complete detailed information related to the company, picture & videos of the new luxury cars and much more which influences the buying behavior of the potential customers respectively.
(Source: Lexus, 2019)
The above stated image clearly reflects that actually what kind of facebook page would be like in a visual manner. In concern to this, the customer led positioning is one of the theories which would support the company in forge the image of the product in the mind of the customers s well as influence directly on the competitive advantage respectively (Shah, 2018).
This theory would also help in focusing towards using attractive story telling videos for reaching to customers quickly. The recommended strategy for the brand is to link the social media platform with the website directly so that any changes in the websites is notified to the potential customers respectively.
Implementation of Instagram into the digital marketing strategy
For improving the digital marketing strategy, the brand would implement the new Instagram page which would reflect and visualize the true picture of the company and would help in changing the customer perception towards the brand. The Instagram is also best social media platform which is widely used by the customers mainly young youth generation respectively.
The brand can improve the Instagram visualization by promoting the luxury brand with the any celebrity face and asking for their experience with the Lexus (Verma & Verma, 2018). For example, in current Instagram page, it is observed only few post related to pictures which is less effective to attract the customer and make them loyal for the brand.
(Source: Lexus, 2019)
The Push pull theory is an effective digital theory which helps the customer actively seek towards the product or service offering. Moreover, the use of their theory with the implementation of Instagram would be considered as a promotional strategy for effective digital advertising.
Through this Instagram page, the implementation of e-selling would be provided to the customers so that brand can reach to each customer at different locations.
Implementation of LinkedIn into the digital marketing strategy
For the brand, LinkedIn is other social media platform that found suitable for their digital marketing strategy because this could help the brand in recreating its company image. LinkedIn would be implemented in an attractive manner in which company symbol will be used as highlight point which gets recognized by all potential & target customers respectively.
This implementation of new social media platform would also support in focusing towards using a new high tech security system for the overcoming from the cyber crime which affect negatively on the digital advertisement of the brand (Zoellner & Schaefers, 2015). The use of this social media platform helps the brand to develop direct relationship with the potential upper class people who liked the page on the LinkedIn.
From the above study, it can be concluded easily that Lexus Motorcar Company need to design the effective digital marketing strategy for achieving success in targeting the customer and changing perception of customers towards the brand in a positive manner.
The potential customer identified is upper class consumer who prefers to purchase a luxury car. At the same time, the other social media platform selected is LinkedIn where different numbers of professional and upper class people are accessing the same platform.
However, the implementation of three different social media platform by the brand would be effective for the brand in order to overcome from the negative consequences which are faced in last few years.
Batra, R., Lenk, P., & Wedel, M. (2010). Brand extension strategy planning: Empirical estimation of brand–category personality fit and atypicality. Journal of marketing research, 47(2), 335-347.
Donnelly, C., Simmons, G., Armstrong, G., & Fearne, A. (2015). Digital loyalty card ‘big data’and small business marketing: Formal versus informal or complementary?. International Small Business Journal, 33(4), 422-442.
Lexus. (2019). Lexus Motorcar. Retrieved from: https://www.lexus.com/
Liu, Y., Li, K. J., Chen, H., & Balachander, S. (2017). The effects of products’ aesthetic design on demand and marketing-mix effectiveness: The role of segment prototypicality and brand consistency. Journal of Marketing, 81(1), 83-102.
Openview Blog (2017). Retrieved from: https://labs.openviewpartners.com/lexus-brand-strategy/
Sandberg, F., & Aronsson, P. (2017). Irritation vs Relevance: Presenting the Advertisement Scale: A study about the affecting variables on the Millennials’ perception regarding marketing methods online. Retrieved from: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1105852/FULLTEXT01.pdf
Shah, A. (2018). Does Upward Product Line Extension Hurt or Benefit a Firm’s Competitive Advantage? The Case of Honda’s Acura, Nissan’s Infiniti, and Toyota’s Lexus Brands. Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness, 12(1), 28-36.
Verma, S., & Verma, S. (2018). Lexus Brand Strategy | Openview Blog|Lexus Brand Strategy |
Zoellner, F., & Schaefers, T. (2015). Do Price Promotions Help or Hurt Premium-Product Brands?: The Impact of Different Price-Promotion Types On Sales and Brand Perception. Journal of Advertising Research, 55(3), 270-283.
