Essay: Significance Of Budget Allocation For House Goods Inc." (61 Characters)

Main issues identified with regard to adoption of increased internet marketing resource budget.

Write about the Importance of Significant Budget Allocation for House Goods Inc.

From the onset of the case study involving a meeting of HGI’s marketing budget appropriation board, one of the main goals is to identify ways of increasing sales revenue in the coming year by 5 to 7 percent. As the CEO notes, smart marketing is vital in achieving sales growth as it represent the core objectives of any business which is providing a value proposition and readily availing it the end consumer at the right time of need. Despite Henry the Chief Marketing Officer presentation of facts concerning the shifting trend in marketing media platform and the exponential penetration of internet among consumers, the board remains unconvinced on the benefits of internet market to the company’s objectives. We analyze the issues and evaluate solution action plans that can justify increased appropriation of resources towards internet marketing.

It is clear that HGI does not fully utilize its resources across a wide range of promotional media as it only has a two percent budget on internet marketing. Reservation also arising from some board members include which range of product portfolios would benefit from internet marketing, the lack of measurable and actionable parameters that would be used when running internet campaigns as well as how to realign internet marketing with other forms of marketing such as promotional activities. Additionally, skepticism arises with regard to the reachability of internet marketing to target market especially in areas where internet has not yet penetrated and its overall impact on influencing the customer decision making process. Perhaps one of the most prevalent issue is the boards lack of understanding of internet marketing as a marketing tool and whether it is revolutionary market or evolutionary. In this case, such uncertainties are important consideration when venturing into any marketing mix strategy.

For an organization to attain its set objective of increasing revenue, the type of marketing mix strategies adopted are essential especially in the current of cutthroat market environment that demand competitive edge as well as sustainable strategies. While marketing remains as the most influential tool of developing and maintaining a company’s market share, establishing an effective marketing mix is imperative in delivering the actionable information to the consumer from whom sales revenue is derived (Jain and Singh, 2002). Therefore, an integrated marketing mix involving various marketing channels at a company’s disposal enhance the communication reach as well as the desired result of any marketing campaign: brand awareness, loyalty, customer acquisition and maintenance.

Solutions that can be implemented to address the HGI’s digital divide

Marketing, by characterization has changed in terms of scope. While in the past marketing revolved around the 4 P’s: Product, Pricing, placement and promotion, the current scope has increased to include People management, delivery and operational processes and Physical evidence of value extended to consumer. It has become hard to distinguish the product industry from the service industry as both elements are closely intertwined in delivering customer satisfaction, which is the ultimate derivative of the final consumer (Rafiq and Ahmed, 1995). Therefore, all these aspects need to be aligned during marketing and promotional activities in order to achieve optimum results.

For HGI, like many other companies, resource allocation and Return on Investment activities are at the core of determining value creation from marketing activities. According to Hays et al., (2012), One way of measure the impact and success of social media is the number of feedback to a particular post, likes Hashtags and subscription to the advertisement wall post and also including a geographical track of the location from where the user is interacting. This can help HGI creating community forum that provide qualitative information feedback around a product all the while access innovative ideas for product development.

Advertisement campaigns can take many media forms starting from online banners on other sites in which target market are deemed to visit, content marketing inclusive of links that direct the target consumer to actionable webpages; all of which, can be tracked from their point of origin. Such analytical capabilities become useful tools of tracking the resource usage as well as their effectiveness (Smyth and Lecoeuvre, 2015). Cost-per-click, Cost-per-action and Cost-per-thousand Impressions(CPM) are some of the way to evaluate how a campaign’s resource are used thereby increasing accountability of funds.

Response to Subscription newsletters can also provide qualitative information and also helpful in assessing the category of consumer decision-making process a customer falls on. Mobile text messages, provide access to every mobile phone holder irrespective of their market segment. While it is difficult to quantify its effectiveness, text messaging bringing in a personalization effect that makes a customer feel valued. Additionally, a qualitative research is made possible with real-time response and covering a wider geographical area with ease, thus increasing time value in terms of decision-making process. With all this measurable features included, it is up to the company to derive those measurable features that would best relate marketing resource to return on Investment while the rest serve as anchors to developing innovative value addition to product delivery chain. However, the interplay of the various marketing platform in communicating a message ultimately determines the effectiveness of a marketing campaign strategy.

Increasing Revenue

Currently the market domain is represented by an influx of promotional channels that require understanding of cross channel effects that each channel utilized, has on another. online and traditional promotional activities are dramatically increasing sales as they work together to maximize marketing campaign exposure to their market audience (Dinner, Van Heerde and Neslin., 2014). The unprecedented and exponential growth of internet activity and reliance can therefore not be ignored especially in the advent of social media platforms. Social media. The widespread increase of online purchase channels coupled with a variety of competing marketing outlets offline such as television, print and radio, offer a myriad of opportunities to a HGI’s product portfolio performance. Opportunities range from enhancing Customer Relationship Management, promoting Corporate Social Responsibility, transparency and promotional activities. Yet firms face a complex problem in terms of developing a balanced marketing budget that would maximize on communication with target audience.

Zhang et.al. (2010) notes that the developing performance metrics that consider characteristic nature of each marketing channel and their cross-effect on the diversity of channels implemented. With more consumers relying more on internet, it is essential for HGI to allocate more resource on internet marketing to fully realize the benefits of cross-effect impact of promotional activities which are diverse in nature.

Internet marketing provides a number of avenues that can serve a company by increasing value in its overall product offering. For instance, Social media platforms such as Facebook and twitter, have the capacity to become powerful customer service and awareness tools that deliver information in real time. Secondly internet media also allows for real-time interaction with consumer groups that can be helpful in product research and innovation(Grönroos, 2004). Social media platforms are revolutionary in the aspect that they have merge visual, audio and textual content into one agent that enhances clarity in information distribution as well as value addition of the message being broadcasted. Unlike traditional media and television, information is retrievable and impervious to destruction (Kirti? and Karahan, 2011). HGI’s usage of this channels also allow consumers participate in developing marketing content by sharing their intimate experiences with the company products, that have the capability of going viral and reaching an unprecedented number of people. The dynamic nature of internet platform coupled with the analytical data derived from internet providers and search engines creates that develops actionable intelligence information on customer segments and their behaviors (Kirti? and Karahan, 2011;Dibb, Simkin, Pride and Ferrell, 2005). For HGI, qualitative feedback could also assist in establishing which of their product ranges could be marketed through e-stores and create buzz around new product being launched in the market.

Measurability and accessibility of online marketing

According to Deliotte (2010), digital multi-channels such as mobile messaging, email, web sites, social media along with predictive analytics, create a holistic customer experience that take s on endless product journeys, that lead to long customer lifetime value, profit growth and in turn increase shareholders value(Zhang,Dixit and Friedmann,, 2010). Integrated marketing mix is seen where a specific message is communicated by multiple channel with which are planned with respect to customer behavioral trends to maximize on exposure of the message. The information communication is interlinked across all marketing platform that is ideally meant to lead the interested target market to take action of seeking further information (Broderick and Pickton, 2001). For example, a HGI’s television campaign advert could offer discounts and price coupons and gifts to target consumers who are subscribed to various internet media sites or promote a product on their social media platforms. Upon response to the call to action, customers find links, and additional information to company website, online community forums and checkout trolleys along with information on where to physically but the products. The same content could be also used in printing media as in television and webpage. These  could allow HGI to plan for automated communication at the specific time a target customer accesses the online media.

Conclusion

With the diversity of online marketing platforms coupled with traditional electronic media, the ability to increase market share performance are a likely eventuality. HGI stands to benefit from a balanced resource allocation across all its utilized marketing channels, including the internet. The benefits of adopting internet market spread far beyond the marketing its value proposition as it also creates new avenues of market research and innovation that delivered in real-time and allow a fast-paced decision-making process. The application of social media platform and other online media not only compliment traditional media but also provides actionable inform that could speed up the customer decision-making process from awareness to purchase. Penetration of digital media such as mobile phone can be used to reach far wide market regions including remote and rural areas.

Reference

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