Marketing Essay For YAPS Inc.

You are required to develop a marketing plan for a client organization.

About company

Nonprofit organizations are one that aims to serve society with a purpose, involve a number of services. This sector makes significant contribution in Australian economy with revenue worth $105 million with 4 percent annual growth rate. (Shulman, 2012). Charity and nonprofit organizations have bright future with supporting government regulations, long term grants and societal support. This paper discusses marketing strategy of on such organization, named YAPS.  It provide present marketing analysis of the company, its target customer, present strategies used and plan a new marketing strategy for future business growth.

The Young Animal Protection Society Inc. (YAPS) is an Australia based nonprofit animal welfare organization that serve and provide refuge to unwanted dogs and cats. It serves in and around Crain. Organization was founded in the year 1985 at Smithfield and expanded slowly. Animals are brought to YAPS from streets by Animal control department or any individual or public. It aims to provide necessary care and homing to these animals. It has boarding services, managed by ten employees and a caretaker. Beside this, wide number of volunteers works for its growth and expansion (yaps.org.au/, 2017). Three key services offered include dogs and cats boarding, adoption and fostering.

YAPS provide refuge to abandoned and unwanted dogs and cats and also allow them to be adopted by people at adoption fees of $300 for dogs 6 months and over and from $395 for puppies up to 6 months of age.  It offers boarding of Kennel for cats and dogs at $24.00 per day if 2 dogs in 1 kennel $42.00 per day and 1 Cat Standard Run $21.00per day, one Cat Large Room $25.00 and 2 Cats sharing 1 Room from 34.00. There are three fostering programs for homeless dogs and cats, pregnant dogs and cats and puppies and kitten below 6 month of age.

YAPS is widely present on Facebook and Instagram. It has 13,647 followers on Facebook. Present reviews on the organizations show that they provide excellent services, happy and satisfied customer feedback is present all over social media. YAPS rating is 4.8 out of 5, which is very good. They regularly provide update on dogs and cats found, their requirements, business association.  There is continuous customer engagement and updating regarding what is being done by organization and how it is being done. This little achievement strategy helps in keeping customer in association with the brand.

YAPS also promote its offline advertising through online media, it uses Facebook and Instagram platform in inform customers and volunteers about different programs and offers. For instance, recently it launched its Christmas donation camp that involves dropping donation for food; it is being promoted through Facebook. There is use of emotional appeal in YAPS campaign; it tries to communicate how animal feels without a family, their need for being associated with love and care. There is use of colorful pictures that attract attention and emotional message then help in establishing strong customer connection.

Current marketing strategy

In Facebook posts there are pictures of dogs and cats there clear descriptions regarding arrival and physical wellbeing, where they found them, their nature and appeal for new home and adoption. It also reinforces positive behavior by promoting its volunteers and business associates. For example, there are photos of donors, organizations with thank you notes on social media.

They have a strong presence on Instagram as well with 11800 posts, it include information sharing on different programs at yaps, promote dogs and also shares volunteering experiences, which help in motivating others to volunteer as well. Facebook provide more detailed information on pets in comparison to Instagram post. To attract volunteers and corporate tie-ups it is also present on LinkedIn, tough the present is not so strong and there is lack of regular updates also.

YAPS website also provides detailed information regarding organization and its activities.  It is one place that includes detailed information on all pets available for adoption, process. They also post dog of the month. A complete process of dog and cat adoption is only mentioned on website. However, website looks dull, there is use of subtle color, and Facebook and Instagram are more attractive and eye catching.  Apart from this, YAPS also focus on offline marketing using volunteering services, corporate tie ups and word of mouth. There are different programs such as Christmas donation, ugly sweater party to create awareness. Currently there is less use of paper, radio or television media for promotion.

To plan a marketing strategy for a brand, it is crucial to find the target segment, to form a homogenous group from various heterogeneous segments that will be catered by the brand. It facilitate in establishing clarity of customer, their expectations, need and ways to reach them (Dibi & Simkin, 1996). Geographically YAPS concentrate on area in and around Crain and nearby districts. Demographically dog and cat lovers are young people aged between 18 to 40 years of age. It is highly preferred by baby boomers, double income no kids and empty nest group of people.  It includes both girls and boys, economically stable, as services are expensive and one who seeks for pet adoption must have funds to do so.

Physiographic and behavioral segmentation help in understanding the way they think, their attitude and emotions; these are qualitative parameters.  Pet adopters or volunteers are the one who consider pets as their family and consider nothing less than what they want for themselves.  It is also noticed that pet owners generally value tradition, family and safety, aim to provide a nurturing environment .There is emotional bond with pet (Chen, Hung, & Peng, 2012). Young population is generally dog lovers as they seek companionship, friendship, love and social relationship. Behaviorally this customer groups shows bond with animal as the way one associate with human being (Boya, Dotson, & Hyatt, 2012), some even shows as strong attachment as one have with best friend or spouse. These are people with income, they work for long hours, many stay alone but seek for friendship and true social relationship, they are the one who commute longer, per care is in their must do list. Despite of being super busy, these people seek and lobe the emotional benefit for having a pet (Erickson, 2017).

Target market analysis

Therefore, target market for YAPS includes people who have animal or the one who care about them, who are between ages 20 to 45 years of age, but with ageing population and increasing empty nest, it is recommended that company should include older people in their target segment. Behaviorally, these are the one who follow tradition, value family relationships and seek social true relations.

 YAPS is working since long but there are other well established animal protection companies in this region. Two key competitors of YAPS include RSPCA Cairns and ALQ. Both are non-profit, animal protecting organization aimed towards rescue and re-home animals.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Queensland (RSPCA) was established in the year 1824, it is the state oldest animal protection charity organization. It provides services to prosecute animal cruelty, help displaced domestic pets. It helps almost 56000 animals every year, spends around $51 million annually. RSPCA is expanded in various services including saving animal, re-homing, adoption, caring, animal training, lost pets etc.

Animal Liberation Queensland (ALQ) is Queensland based independent animal rights protecting organization, established in the year 1979. It serves community towards animal abuse, exploitation, increasing awareness regarding animal rights.

Below is the comparative analysis of both RSPCA and ALQ marketing strategies. Both the organizations are widely present on social media such as Facebook, Instagram and have website to communicate with customers. RSPCA has adopted wide range of advertising tool my making its presence felt on YouTube, twitter, LinkedIn and p interest also.

Both the organization has a comprehensive website. RSPCA website include detailed information about organization, their history, mission, services offered,  five freedom, board, annual report, career, media kit,  there is complete information on animal care services and their statistics.  It also includes detailed information on donation, business partnership, fundraising etc.  Its website is green in color, eye catching and very informative as one can easily collect detailed information.

In comparison to RSPCA, AQL website is less information, however it also include detailed information about organization, service provided, detailed factsheet on animal and different type of campaigns being organized by the brand.

Basic information that is being share on social media by both the organizations includes recent services rendered, different campaigns that are being organized, more of information sharing platform. Facebook includes information on events, puppy or animal raids, adoption request or information on pets available.  On Instagram, posts include information on volunteers sharing their experience, dog adoption news and also post to create awareness regarding pet exploitation issues. There is large use of pictures and less content.  There are number of YouTube videos on creating awareness regarding animals, actions taken. There are ten thousand subscribers on YouTube for RSPCA (youtube.com, 2018).  Social media engagement require continuous up gradation and change of content to keep customer interest, otherwise it is very challenging to keep customer involved with social media pages (Armano, 2009).

Competitor analysis

Various tools that help in evaluating social media marketing impact on customer include website popularity and media impact (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Weather an advertisement being able to keep customer engaged or not.  On you tube, RSPCA is doing far more better than ALQ; RSPCA has 9651 subscriber (youtube.com, 2018) whereas ALQ has only 98 subscriber (/www.youtube.com, 2018); RSPCA has also uploaded number of videos under different category such as animal welfare, work, programs etc.

According to Appendix 1 RCPCA have high number followers on Facebook and Instagram that ALQ. Its customer engagement is more; there are large number of liking and conversations initiated by customers on RSPCA page than ALQ.

As discussed in Appendix 2, in terms of social mention, both the organizations are working at par; RSPCA is discussed 47 times, whereas ALQ is discussed 46 times on social media. RSPCA customer sentiment is higher than ALQ.  According to website analysis report discussed in Appendix 3, RSPCA website is performing far better than ALQ in terms of customer involvement, information sharing and access.

Above analysis shows among two competitors, RSPCA is performing stronger in the market with better customer engagement, higher awareness and media presence than ALQ.

There are various environmental forces such as political, social, economic, environmental and technology that impact business decisions and outcome. However, in case of YAPS technology is primary external element that is impacting its customer reach and sustainable growth.

New technological development will help not for profit sector in providing more effective and trust worthy services to their customers. Social worker aims to keep need of others above everything, technological integration help in improving service quality (As'ad & Alhadid, 2014).  Social media is external cloud solution that helps in improving external communication with customers and other stakeholders (Jensen, 2014).

Australia is a technically developed market with 69 percent of population being active on media. According to appendix 4, Australian population is actively involved in social media usage, population aged between 12 to 24 years of age response 95 percent, 25 to 54 year responses 89 percent and population above that age responses 57 percent. According to market analysis report on Australian market, 8 among every 10 individual are on social media. This survey was taken with 800 consumer and 1100 business, according to result there is tremendous rise in use of social media, Instagram is 46 percent, snap chat is 40 percent and twitter is 32 percent (Sensis, 2017). 79 percent of participants from population aged between 18 to 29 states that social media is the first thing they check in the morning. This shows tremendous power of technology to attract customer attention, awareness and engagement. Behavioral analysis shows people generally see videos on Facebook and then share it. Among all social media, Facebook is most popular, followed by Instagram, snap chat and twitter.

Social media analysis

Technology can serve various purposes for YAPS, it includes service awareness, delivery, and product information sharing, fundraising, and event sponsorship, outreaching and engaging shareholders. However, major challenges that cause hindrance in marketing through social media include lack of resources, information spillage; sometimes funders have lack of expertise and technology usage (Boles, 2012).

Key objective of this marketing plan to increase total membership at YAPS, to increase funds and sponsorship, increase  corporate partnership, to create awareness regarding sponsorship, volunteering options and plan new marketing strategies to achieve the same.  Below is SMART objective with set time limit.

Strategies to enhance customer engagement in YAPS and creating brand awareness are discussed below.

There is need to launch new and innovate campaign on Facebook to increase customer engagement. For example, campaign to give discounts on dog adoption, or campaign to increase dog meals. There is need to build social good, through social media campaigns by doing something unique. It is also important to provide links and make it easy for customers to buy directly through Facebook. Hashtags are another popularly used tool; it helps in easy reach to customers. YAPS can launch a campaign named pet hub, in which all pet owners from YAPS can share best pictures with their pets using a particular hashtags such as #YAPSlove. It must include information regarding pets, provide little training information and also add tabs like discover or purchase. Link this with website of organization, content needs to be moderated by community manager. This campaign will help in reaching new customers. Facebook paid advertisement can help in attracting new likes and create brand awareness, it is recommended to opt for this service for 3 month.

Instagram is the new in social media, it is short and picture oriented with immense use of hashtags in every posts. However, it is crucial to keep different contents at different social media channel to keep customer engage.  It is advised to keep animalistic content, building compelling advertisements for users (Grace, 2018). There is no point positing ten photos a day, rather it is crucial to be consistent and post daily, it is advised to post regularly and lot of pictures. It is advised to invest in sponsored marketing. Campaign can be launched in which people can post pictures with their pet, hash tagging YAPS. Influencer marketing can be adopted (digitalvisitor.com, 2015).

YouTube’s videos needs to be made, small videos can be made by YAPS volunteer, workers and pet loves. Videos related to dogs and cats care, lovely moments spent with pet, any raid or mission on pets, pets care can be uploaded on YouTube to enhance customer engagement. It should become an attractive platform for dog and cat lovers. Videos need to be informative with detailed description to attract customer attention. Interviews of people involved in dog rescue operation and adoptions, with genuine reviews must be uploaded.

YAPS website is informative but it needs to ask attractive, on home page links to all social media pages must be given so that it is easy for customers to connect, further all post on website also shows a link to easily share on Facebook. Use of SEO and content optimization will help in improving its position in Google search and reach more target segment. It can also launch popup to get contact and email ids so that regular updates on pets and information can be shared.

This strategy is suitable for attracting sponsorship and corporate tie up. Volunteers should be encouraged to visit corporate in personal and explain pet care as social responsibility initiative to get sponsorships. Direct marketing aims at promoting specific needs directly to target segment, this method facilitate in enhancing customer understanding and engagement (Bowersox, 2004).

3 month expense budget (Detailed analysis in appendix 5)

After implementation it is crucial to keep regular check on strategic process, it facilitate in understanding success and impact of implemented strategies. Various channels of promotion are being used; therefore separate evaluation on impact of each media is required. It will also facilitate in making future marketing decisions (Czinkota & Kotabe, 2001).  Impact of direct marketing will be evaluating by calculating funds and sponsors brought through direct selling, before and after sales comparison will be conducted to check actual gain.

To check the impact of social media promotions, weekly evaluation on likes, posts and comments will be conducted. Numbers will be compared with set objectives and past records. For example, if there are 20 likes on every post on Facebook, it shows target accomplished, whereas less resemble failure to achieve goals. Similarly, targets for all social media channels will be compared. Impact of SEO on website will be done by conducting website analysis, number of visitors, time spent on page, consumer sentiments etc. all weekly results will be complied and a meeting will be held at end of three months to conclude final result of campaigns and strategies implemented.

Conclusion 

Not for profit organizations have strong impact on both society and economy. YAPS is working towards providing shelter to dogs and cats. There is increasing use of social media; it is the primary marketing tool to connect with consumers.  Analysis shows social media is key factor for pet marketing and awareness. Tools such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube helps in create awareness, information sharing, attract funds, if used appropriately.

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