Digital Marketing Techniques For Amorepacific In The Beauty Industry Essay.

Provide a detailed background to your chosen organisation,following the organisation summary guidelines

Opportunities for Amorepacific

It is certain that rapid development of technology changed the business sector by giving people a way out of every challenge in business.  Due to the advancement of technology, digital media gained a huge popularity in the corporate or any business sector (Royle and Laing 2014). Digital marketing trends on social channels, even in stores, are changing the way the beauty industry communicate and attract customers. In order to increase customer engagement, the brand should let their consumers know about the products and services. The customers should also have the opportunity to explore the products that Amorepacific offers. Traditional techniques such as search engine obtain less information from the visual elements than from text, so that the brand needs some skills to ensure that visuals help the firm to find the content.  Thereby, by adopting digital marketing techniques, Amorepacific can obtain the following business opportunities.

Opportunity of increasing brand awareness- Brand awareness is a significant business aspect that firm must need to consider; if brand awareness were high, consumer engagement would increase. Social media in digital marketing remains as the most cost-effective technique utilized to syndicate content as well as maximize the business visibility. Here, by carrying out a social media strategy, Amorepacific would greatly increase the brand recognition, as it will be engaged with a broad customer base.  For example, if Amorepacific generates a video featuring brands products and services in detail and share the video on social media tools like Facebook and YouTube, millions of people will get to know about the brand and its products. When people start interacting with the content, the practice increases the brand awareness and builds the reputation as a developed business.

Opportunity of satisfying or meeting customer needs- Customer satisfaction, which is again related to increased consumer engagement. As put forward by Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick (2016), customers appreciate knowing the fact that when they post comments on pages, they receive a personalized response instead of an automated message. Thereby, through digital media channels, customer service department of Amorepacific can acknowledge each comment, which certain indicates that the brand is attentive towards the visitor’s needs and seek to provide the best experience.

Enhanced brand loyalty- The major goal of Amorepacific is to build a large loyal customer base, which does not interfere with the customer engagement.  So, customer satisfaction as well as brand loyalty goes hand in hand; thereby, it is essential to regularly involve with the customers and start developing a rapport with them (Ryan 2016).  Here, Amorepacific is not just limited to introduce its products and promotional campaigns through digital media. Consumers consider these digital channels as the service channels, where they have the opportunities to interact directly with the businesses.

Challenges for Amorepacific

More ad blockers-  As put forward by Taken Smith (2012), the use of blocking software is rapidly growing and the people who are using those blockers would soon be the minority. This brings a significant challenge for Amorespecific, as after the use of digital techniques, the firm is going to have a hard time in getting consumers to see its ads.

Budget- Even though, the firm might gain benefits using digital marketing techniques, the budget for implementation of the techniques might not provide the desired ROI (Return on Investment).  The competition is increasing than ever for digital advertising and some channels like Google, Facebook are maximizing the price with demand.  Particularly, for competitive niches, Amorespecific has to make large investment in the coming years.

Cluttered market- With the development of internet technology, there are billions of websites are restricted in a number of niches and it could be difficult for Amorespecific to stand amongst the rest. Hence, SEO provide a way to help the brand to go to the top, but the firm must have to find ways to provide unique as well as valuable content.

It is certain that rapid growth in the digital environment supported by technology influence the consumer behavior of the consumers largely. The consumers in the beauty industry are always curious or skeptical about benefits and losses of the beauty products, as a small packet of product item does not provide adequate information and instruction. However, the development of internet provided a new channel for the consumers and brands to interact and it provides customers with more choices, power and influence (Tiag and Veríssimo 2014). Due to the increased use of internet, customers now have increased control of media consumption than even before.

 Particularly, the mobile devices drive the majority of global internet traffic and digital media platforms have now become conversional hubs where the information of the products and experiences are shared and exchanged among the consumers. As put forward by Lamberton and Stephen (2016) 44% US beauty shoppers mentioned that friends, coworkers, acquaintance and families on social media are the major source for influence for cosmetic and skincare products purchases. Amorespecific provides detail of information about the products, services on its websites, social blogs and all owned digital media channels, and as the customers have the access to internet, they could easily access the information within a minute. Moreover, Amorespecific’s leading outlets for online beauty purchases, which enable the consumers rely heavily on the reviews on digital media platforms before buying the items.

Consumer Behavior in the Beauty Industry

 Moreover, the consumers of Amorespecific are more prone to pay attention to the content in the reviews instead of star ratings on the reviews. In addition, it has also been identified that Korean customers are confident mobile shoppers and on a frequent basis, they buy beauty products from Amorespecific on some particular social platforms like “WeChat” and “Weibo”. As put forward by Shen and Bissell (2013) winning the digital media game with the best reviews for an international beauty products remains crucial for Amorespecifc in South Korean market.  Due to the advancement in the digital environment, the consumers in the beauty segment spend from one third to nearly one-half of their money on their cosmetic products. A study conducted by Kim and Ko (2012), the consumers who like personal services go online repeat purchase and in the survey provided in the study reveals that almost 73% of the consumers mentioned that they go online for in-depth information for beauty products on a regular basis compared to book and music lovers. This finding indicates that such consumers are rapidly overcoming the feeling that they want to experience beauty products personally. As put forward by Young (2014), beauty is a widely popular context in the social media, with YouTube and Facebook leading the game. This means the fans of skincare, hair and other beauty products tend to share tips and reviews as well as review products or post the picture of themselves applying the products.

Certainly, being present on YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram among other brands is absolute action that Amorespecific needs to do in today’s competitive environment. However, to keep up in the beauty product industry, it is significant to choose particular channels or tools that provide the brand with increasing traffic. The following are some of the significant digital communication tools that help Amorespecific to reach customers of large platform and increase customer engagement.

Smartphone App: Use of mobile marketing is rapidly increasing due to the easy access to internet and advancement hardware technologies. In order to remain in touch with the consumers for 24X7, Amorespecific could launch a Smartphone app called- “Amorappy” through which, the brand can send information such as new arrival of products, products guidance, inspiring short story for makeovers and beauty ideas.

The Smartphone app could be a suitable digital communication tool because people do not have time to open up laptop at home to go to the website or social media channels to access the information. Moreover, not all customers carry their laptop wherever they go but mobile device will always remain as an exception in this case. In addition, people often remain busy with their work-life, and they do not make any schedule of surfing internet. Thereby, through this Smartphone app, the brand can give reminder to the consumers about offers and deals. Whenever, they unlock screen of their mobile device, notification pops up.

Digital Communication Tools for Amorepacific

Instagram- Instagram is another significant digital communication tool, which rapidly increases customer engagement. Young adults of each nation are widely involved in Instagram sharing photos and videos. Amorespecific could provide the latest updates in the form of videos and photos on Instagram. The number of likes and shares help to learn the number of people in the wide market know about Amorespecific.

Instagram could be an useful digital communication tool for Amorepacific because the brand could easily interact with the consumers. Millions of people regularly visit Instagram to check new updates. If the brand shares the posts about its products and services on a regular basis, the actions will stick in customer’s mind and next time when they will go to purchase a product, Amorespecific comes in their mind. Similarly, the customer engagement increases.

Open Blog- Blog is certainly a significant digital communication tool holds a speedy reach. An open blogs provide information about the products, guidelines, inspiring story of an individual who has been benefitted from using the products (Malthouse et al. 2013). Whenever, the consumers visit the website, they can see new posts- such as photos, videos of some using the products in the blog. This communication tool is effective for Amorespecific, as in such competitive environment, to attract customers; the brand needs to engage the customers with new stories and facts about the products.  Access to such stories and information can be possible through digital media channels.

In order to implement digital media tools into the businesses, the firm needs to make changes in the marketing mix (Holliman and Rowley 2014). The following are some of the elements of marketing mix that should be implemented considering the recommended digital marketing tools.

Products/Service- As digital marketing tools have access to the large platform, Amorespecific needs to display all their products in the digital media channels. In the proposed Smartphone app, all categories of products should be presented.

Price- The implementation of digital marketing techniques requires a big budget, which means the firm cannot use the same or existing pricing strategies for its products.  If the customers in the global environment show the interest pricing strategy should not be similar to domestic market price. The firm could use competitive pricing strategy, where it could maximize the price of the products so that other brands in the sector face the competition.

Promotion- For promoting the products in digital environment, the proposed digital communication tools would play a great role but the firm needs to focus on other social media tools where millions of users are active regularly. For example, a Share of products on Facebook, advertisement on some large video and audio streaming applications may prove to be effective to promote the products and services.

Place- Online selling practice such as e-commerce has been a growing trend in all business industries. Thus, Amorespecific could place its products in online selling channels or directly to some large e-commerce vendors. In addition, the proposed “Amorappy”-Smartphone application remains as an effective distribution channel where the consumers can directly purchase the products.

Elements of Marketing Mix for Amorepacific

People- Existing organisational members, distributors and suppliers are the people who would be coordinating with the new digital marketing techniques.

Physical Evidence-In order to create physical evidence, the firm needs to develop its website in a sophisticated way where the visitors receive all information they require before purchasing the products. In addition, the suggested mobile application app should be designed in an innovative way where the customers can see all information easily.

Increasing exposure- When a brand is using several channels for marketing its products and service, each channel provides separate revenue to the firm.  Moreover, brand popularity in each channel can be measured separately. The firm can measure the particular channel being more responsive to the activities conducted in the channels.

Increase of revenue-As discussed in the previous section, the major advantage of adopting a multi-channel approach is the increase of revenue.  When the ways of reaching consumers are available, the sources of revenue can also be considered with the ways. For example, the marketing activities on Instagram create a different and large customer base, which certainly provides a significant return on investment.

Wider reach- Use of different marketing channels provides wider reach and makes the business potentially visible to new customer segment.  The channels could provide the brand with a series of analytics to create the impact, which should be accurately measured. For example, the firm could target the Asian customers observing the responses recorded on Instagram.

Customer engagement- Multi-channels marketing could enable Amorespecific to engage with an audience on a regular basis. Hence, such communication not only supplements the potential marketing message and creates more insight into the culture of the firm.  For instance, a regular comment on the post of Instagram creates a more personalized face; thereby, this can be invaluable in developing the customer base.

a) Creating an appropriate digital marketing plan including some relevant elements 

In today’s digital environment, the digital-first age customers are rapidly inclined to shop for beauty products knowing the fact that they can easily return purchased products if they do not like the products. Apart from this, the wide variety of choices that are available to the customers largely compensates the number of products that are available while shopping offline. It needs to be kept in mind that the products offered offline can sometimes be faulty than the products purchased online. Nevertheless, the ease at which products are available to the customers plays an instigating factor behind the popularity of online shopping over offline shops.  Following are the elements of a proper digital marketing plan.

Customer segment- The segmentation of the customers is done so that organisations can identify the people that are suitable to purchase their products. This is mainly done to ensure that variety of products can be manufactured that suits the needs of different people across the market (Cascio 2018). Organisations can gain a competitive advantage by segmenting customers based on the demography, geography, psychographic and behavioural perspective. Detailed descriptions include

Demography: Demography refers to the age, gender, occupation and socio-economic group that exist in a society. Companies need to analyse this segment to ensure that the product it manufactures are targeted to a particular segment of the community. This demography provides opportunities for companies to improve the products based on the demand made by the society.

Geography: Geography of a company includes the location of a customer. The area in which a customer is located provides companies with an idea about the type of customers that it is dealing with. This is particularly important, as the companies need to differentiate between the rural as well as the urban locality and the type of products that the people prefer based on the locality.

Psychographic: This describes the personality and life style of the people in the society. It is to be noted that these factors are important, as the social class of the people are important in order to understand the trends in market (Levine et al. 2016). Based on the social class of the people, organisations tend to set their products and the price of each product.

Behavioural: The behavioural segments rate the frequency of usage of a particular product. It is seen that most products are used on a one-time basis and are discarded by the society. The behavioural segmentation analyses such products and based on the response and other marketing segments the success of a product is determined by the organisations.

As digital marketing has wider reach; it focuses on the people both male and female falling under the age category between 15 years to 35 years of all major nations. The objective of customer segmentation is as follows:

• To increase the customer engagement
• To ensure that quality products are made keeping in mind the benefits of the customers
• To maximise the sales and revenue scale

Lead generation- The use of digital media tools such as chosen Instagram and digital marketing tools would help to measure customer responses in terms of products, instruction of use, etc. Most of the times it is seen that customers pose comments about the products that they have purchased (McNeil, Frey and Embrechts 2015). These provide a proper insight to the managers of organisation that help them to identify the flaws or the reasons behind the success of a particular product. The firm needs to measure the growth of sales occurred to due to the use of digital media tools.

Social media- Marketing on social media channels such as Facebook and YouTube would provide the track of users who hit “Like” and visited the websites, which would be compared to the sales recorded. However, this cannot be considered as reliable as most times customers may hit the “Like” button under the influence of other people. This cannot be counted as a success for an organisation. Nevertheless, the feedback received from the social media sites are often useful, as the people tend to brag about the products that have been purchased by comparing qualities of products purchased by other people.

Website optimisation- In the modern day, the proper development of a website is important to the success of an organisation. This is mainly because of the fact that customers visit the company website to identify the things they want to purchase or launch any grievances based on a particular product or service. In the case of Amorespcific, this would help to track the number of visitors on the website, number of customers who bought the products after visiting the website.

Summary of the co-ordination- Amorespecific has to keep a track of its offline activities and digital activities. This is mainly because of the fact that the company need to be specific about the response that it is receiving from online content as well as offline content. For example, leads come from Instagram in digital media and Word of Mouth in conventional offline marketing should be separately tracked. The reason behind the separation is the fact that the responses from both these modes can vary and the analysis of the preferred mode of conducting business can be identified in a proper manner. As an example, it can be stated that if the responses from digital media are high compared to offline media, the digital media should be prioritized here. This can help the company to gain more customers and the strategies of the business can be made based on online selling of products.

The performance of digital marketing activities would be measured based on the market survey, profitability and product demand. These are considered as the basic measurement techniques while analysing the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. In the measurement process, the existing performance of Amorspecific would be compared with the performance achieved after the implementation of the digital media marketing.

Market survey- The firm needs to develop a set of questions, which would be shared with the customers through the proposed digital media channels and some other channels such as Facebook, questions on YouTube. Hence, the customers would be asked about how they get to know about the products, what new element they expect in digital media platform and other relevant questions. This survey would also reveal the changes required in the digital media marketing strategies. However, it needs to be kept in mind that the survey questions cannot be biased and cannot aim at any particular ethnic caste or society. Moreover, the customers need to provide the responses based on their likes and dislikes of the product and there should be no involvement of the organisation in these matters.

Profitability- One of the main aims of private sector includes profit making. To do so different strategies are adopted that can help the organisation earn more profit for its betterment. In the case of Amorespecific, the profitability would be measured based on existing profit acquired by digital media and profit recorded after the implementation of digital marketing strategies.  This can help in analysing the effectiveness of digital marketing on the company.

The objectives of the organisation is to make an increase in the sales and in order to make it happen, the organisation has taken steps in order to make use of the customer involvement. The steps can be analysed based on the profits incurred by the organisation and the resources and capabilities it possess. For example, the wide exposure of its products in the market will be helping the organisation in maximising its sales and the customer involvement through the creation of awareness. The organisation has undertaken the digital marketing campaign in order to make the customers aware of their products. This can be considered as a huge step in the modern world, as digital marketing is the new trend that most people follow. The target segments of customer are based on the market research that is undertaken by the company and thereby the marketing plan is developed on the research that was undertaken by the organisation in the market. The market research consisted of a marketing survey that involved the target customers of the company. The feedback provided by these customers was taken into consideration for forming an effective plan.

The platforms that are being undertaken by the organisation for the proper marketing of the products are based on the social awareness that the company is seeking to make. In the modern world, social awareness is important, as the feedback of the customers from the social media is important for the development of a proper marketing strategy (Bratton and Gold 2017). The most important step that is being undertaken by the organisation is based on the requirements of the organisation to make it products widely available in the international markets. Internationalisation of products provides organisations with a wide scope of developing an international market based on the success it has achieved in the domestic market. This even accounts for an increase in profitability of an organisation provided the choice of international market be properly made. The essential elements of the systems that are undertaken by the organisation have helped in the promotional techniques of the organisation in the market. The company has selected blogs and other social media platforms for the understanding of the different scopes of improvements and the marketing of the organisation in the market. The choice of such a source is strategically impressive, as now-a-days people tend to spend more time on the internet. Pictures of new products are provided along with comparisons with old products (Michalko 2014). The blogs written provide an honest opinion about the products and customers reading the blogs can counter the thoughts and implement own thoughts. Thus, this becomes a two-way experience for most organisations, as the negative as well as positive aspect can be understood. The target market of the organisation has proposed an age limit that prefers the utilization of the cosmetics. Therefore, in order to make the age group aware of the products manufactured by the organisation, digital marketing strategies are undertaken.  The social media involvement of the organisation will be helping in conveying the message to the target market. It has helped in the proper undertaking of the steps for the development of the market situation.

The objectives of the organisation support the implementation of the digital marketing for the better functioning of the organisation in the market. It has helped in making the target market aware of the products that are available in the market. The implementation of the strategies for undertaking the digital marketing is actually cost-effective. It helps in making the target market aware of the steps that are required for the better understanding of the different aspects of promotion. The most important step that is being undertaken by the organisation is based on the criterion of making the products manufactured by the organisation widely available in the market and thereby maximises the sales.

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