E-Marketing Essay For SOSTAC Framework.

SOSTAC Framework

Discuss abot the E Marketing for SOSTAC Framework.

The following assignment is going to be established as a convenient E-marketing plan for the National Indoor Arena of Ireland following the SOSTAC framework. The Indoor Arena of Ireland has some of the most exciting facilities and is currently planning to open two new phase and new centers for badminton, IRFU training and accommodation benefits for on site. Hence, an E-marketing plan is found to be essential.

Currently NIATC is found to be one of the leading sports campuses of Ireland that has three large venues for gymnastics and athletic training center. It has been proposed that the arena will be the first and most dedicated gymnastic training center of the country. Though the campus has strong connection with the domestic business community, national governmental bodies and social media channels, the Arena should acknowledge that the present buying or membership trend has become more internets centric. Presently, near about 65.8% of the entire population of the country are active users of internet (Boyle 2016). Therefore, it is assumable that the aspect of customer trend is hugely influenced by e marketing.

However, current condition of Arena’s external environment, such as political, economic, social, technical and legal factors is essential prior to predict a successful e-marketing strategy.

Political	·         Membership with European union ·         Parliament provides economic freedom ·         The country is enjoying an independent and democratic sovereign ·         An increasing inflation and allowance of wage increase
Economic	·         Economy grew by 26.3% in the year 2015 ·         Score of economic freedom is 78.7% according to 2011 index ·         The country is the largest exporter of various service in the world ·         Only 11.9% unemployment rate ·         Gross Income per head is $41,140 in average (Convery et al. 2013) ·         Flexible monetary policy
Social	·         Population is 4.4 million ·         A multicultural society ·         Young population is recently 55.4% of the entire population ·         High domestic demand ·         Society is facing risks of high debt
Technical	·         Rapid change in technology ·         Each business sector use technical appliances ·         The country is involved in Environmental Technologies Action Plan
Legal	·         Central bank set the interest rate ·         Only people from Britain and Ireland can work legally (Convery et al. 2013) ·         Legal economy policy that concentrates on social partnership ·         New tariff barriers due to its membership with EU ·         Flexible pricing regulation and strong maintenance of Health and Welfare at Work regulation 2007

Table 1: PEST Analysis

(Source: As created by the author)

Strength ·         Nine sports facilities ·         An Aquatic center ·         Strong connection with governmental authorities	Weakness ·         Till now no internet marketing ·         Age old traditional way of marketing
Opportunity ·         To become world’s one of the largest sports campus ·         To have new sports facilities ·         Worldwide success with Aquatic centre	Threat ·         Handful of well-known sports club like UL Sports Arena, Sport Ireland Institute ·         Traditional marketing may reduce the chances to win more membership

 Table 2: SWOT Analysis

(Source: As created by the author) 

Figure 1: Competitor analysis

(Source: As created by the author)

Considering the competitor analysis and the environmental factors, it is to be said that the perfect target market for the Arena would be the young section of the country that is comprised of with 55.4% of the entire population. As the campus only concentrates on sports and the Ireland’s more than the half population is the youngsters, therefore this target market will be convenient. Additionally, the aim of the campus is to run e marketing which will be successful on this target section as most of internet users are supposed to be the young inhabitants. Hence, to aware the target market, a broad online marketing through most of the frequently used online channels will be done.

For the National Indoor Arena of Ireland, two main objectives are –

1. To generate and increase awareness about the phases
2. To develop a convenient database for future

The mentioned objectives could be interpreted in SMART way, which will be as per the following –

SMART aspects	Objectives
Specific	Objective one is specific as it is concrete and well defined as it is specifically emphasizing on generating awareness, which is required for the launch.
Measurable	Only objective one is measurable for now as the second one could not be measured instantly
Attainable/Achievable	Objective two will be achievable only when the first one would be successful. Objective one is attainable if the campus will make use of relevant e-marketing strategy
Relevant	Both of the objectives are relevant as per the current intention of the campus as they concentrate on the mission of campus and on the upcoming launch.
Timely	Objective one will be timely, as the two phases would be launched in the coming year.

Table 3: SMART Objectives

(Source: As created by the author)

Situation Analysis

Considering the situational analysis, an applicable e-strategy would be to use online channels like Facebook, YouTube for generating awareness among the target market. On the other hand, the strategy should include the use of search engine operational tools to get relevant feedbacks to determine whether their strategy is working or not (Constantinides 2014).  

Sequence

With the help of seven ps of online marketing, the following could be determined –

Step 1: Verification of the product, which is the new launch of two new phases and the new accommodation and training centers

Step 2: Set the price for subscription and promote

Step 3: Advertise the place of subscription for membership (Chmielarz and Zborowski 2016)

Step 4: Broadcast about the options like instant reply, telephonic conversation, and face-to-face interaction after subscription

Step 5: The young people of Ireland who need to have excellent facility for sports and physical training

Step 6: Promote the enterprise’s current partnership with governmental authorities and other business companies

Moreover, utilizing the Chaffey’s 5s, it could be said that the selling or increasing membership would be done through digital banners and serve speedy responses and convenient option to visit the page (Boone and Kurtz 2013). Build a separate customer care executive team who will be online for 24x7 for the speaking purpose. A system integration process for back office would be implemented to save money and time (Chaffey et al. 2012).

Integration and plan to attract customer

• Instant flow of information gained from online marketing to the in house employees
• A 24x7 customer support team
• Media mix – popular websites, banners and opt-in mails (Strauss 2016)
• Target market – young people will be attracted mainly through Facebook and YouTube, others through online campaign and banner            

For accomplishing the constructed e-strategy, NIATC requires to have some applicable e-tools, which could be

• Websites – Face book, LinkeDin, YouTube and Google
• Promotional emails– Opt-in-emails (Mohapatra 2013)
• Search engine promotions – Marketing by Pay –per – click like Google AdWords
• Online banners

Tactics	Time and Budget	Risk management	Performance diagnosis	Corrective actions
Websites	Three months, 39000 pound	·         Misinterpretation ·         False or duplicate promotions	·         Number of likes in Facebook ·         Number of visit ·         Number of ratings (Eid. and El-Gohary 2013)	·         Change the website options, which are found having frequent problems ·         New design of information
Promotional emails	Four months, 15-20000 pound	·         Negative feedback ·         Subscriber’s unwillingness	·         Instant replies ·         Telephonic chats ·         Number of subscription	·         Modify the contents sent as Opt-in mails
Search engine promotions	Three months, 40000 pound	·         Junk traffic ·         Huge cost ·         Complicated advertising ·         Inappropriate selection of the marketing firm for PPC (Bryant et al. 2015)	·         Rate of subscription ·         Percentage of clicks ·         Division of the entire cost by total number of clicks	·         Separating placement of the content ads ad search ·         Modifying  “broad match” type keywords
Online banners	Two months, average 15000 pound	·         Customer ignorance ·         Expensive price ·         Optional confusion	·         Ratings ·         Rate of subscription	·         Modify images ·         Reduce number of options

 Table 4: Action plan

(Source: As created by the author) 

After having a brief view about the time and cost at the action plan section, it can be estimated that the overall budget would be 114000 pound for the proposed e marketing. Additionally, there will be a use of Key performance matrix for measuring the outcome of the strategy.

Aspects	Indicators
Sales	Number of subscription and measurement of revenue after the launch of the first phase of the Arena – indicate whether objective one has been achieved or not
Enquiries	Search engine operator, emails, number of instant replies, customer feedback – these will assist to get understanding about the second objective
Subscription	The campus’s personalized list of new membership, number of new followers in Facebook and other website networks – indicator for objective one
Number of visitors	Number of customer feedback will indicate the result regarding objective one

Table 5: KPI (Key Performance Indicator)

(Source: As created by the author) 

Reference

Boone, L.E. and Kurtz, D.L., 2013. Contemporary marketing. Cengage learning.

Boyle, R., 2016. 13. Riding the roller coaster: Ireland’s reform of the public service at a time of fiscal crisis. Public Administration Reforms in Europe: The View from the Top, p.140.

Bryant, P., Elliott, A., Kingery, W. and Ramos, E., 2015. Clover Care: Website and E-Marketing Development.

Chaffey, D., Smith, P.R. and Smith, P.R., 2012. eMarketing eXcellence: Planning and optimizing your digital marketing. Routledge.

Chmielarz, W. and Zborowski, M., 2016, November. Aspects of mobility in e-Marketing from the perspective of a customer. In Computer Science and Information Systems (FedCSIS), 2016 Federated Conference on (pp. 1329-1333). IEEE.

Constantinides, E., 2014. Foundations of social media marketing. Procedia-Social and behavioral sciences, 148, pp.40-57.

Convery, F.J., Dunne, L. and Joyce, D., 2013. Ireland's Carbon Tax and the Fiscal Crisis: Issues in Fiscal Adjustment, Environmental Effectiveness, Competitiveness, Leakage and Equity Implications (No. 59). OECD Publishing.

Eid, R. and El-Gohary, H., 2013. The impact of E-marketing use on small business enterprises' marketing success. The Service Industries Journal, 33(1), pp.31-50.

Mohapatra, S., 2013. E-commerce Strategy. In E-Commerce Strategy (pp. 155-171). Springer US.

Strauss, J., 2016. E-marketing. Routledge.