There has been immense increase in the utilization of digital networks and online activities of various businesses around the world due to globalization and its other advantages. Digital form of marketing is dynamic business process. According to Visser (2021), digital marketing can be defined as the process and promotional activities for brands that connects the potential customers of the brand with the brand itself by leveraging the digital platforms, social media and the internet. Marketing has changed over the years due to many crises like inflation, technology changes and economic recession and such changes has evolved the technique of marketing by gathering timely information of the customers, making strategic decisions and lead to overall development of the company. As stated by Pradhan, Nigam and Ck (2018), the introduction of digital marketing has resulted in the increase in the sales, purchasing, trading of products and services through the internet. Digital marketing is not only about buying and selling of products but it also provides platforms for direct and indirect engagement of the customers with the products, services and brand itself.
This assignment would conduct a secondary data analysis in order to investigate and explore the different processes through which digital marketing can help in improvement of customer engagement as well as growth and development of Moy Park. It would also prepare a digital marketing strategy for the company that can be implemented for the growth and development of the company.
Moy Park, an Irish company, is one of the largest food companies in the United Kingdom, ranked among the top 15 food companies (Moy Park Ltd., 2022). It is a company that specializes in the production and supply of branded as well as only level chicken products two videos leading food service providers and retailers all over the United Kingdom. The company is also well known for manufacturing of free range, higher welfare and organic chicken. Basically, the company is well known for its locally sourced and fresh poultry products. The company also produces vegetarian products such as onion rings, spring rolls as well as desserts such as apple pies and donuts (Moy Park Ltd., 2022). The company has around 800 chicken farmers in its supply chain that produces and supplies about 25% of the chicken current market in Western Europe (Moy Park Ltd., 2022). Moy Park also boasts of more than 35 million chickens in their farms at any given time in its 590 broiler farms (Moy Park Ltd., 2022). The vision of the company is to become the leading and most respected company of the food industry whilst producing sufficient opportunity of improving the future of the team members. The values of the company include determination, availability, simplicity, humility, ownership, sincerity and discipline (Moy Park Ltd., 2022).
Farmersjournal (2021) reports that the company has generated an operating profit of £ 86.3 million in 2020 which is an increase of 15 % from the previous year. However, the revenue of the company has decreased by 8 % to £ 1.4 billion. The net assets of the company have also jumped by 23 % and estimated £ 374 million (Farmersjournal, 2021). The company has also spent about £ 56 million for the infrastructure development across the various activities and projects during the year. The primary focus of the marketing strategies that are utilized by the company is putting their customers and the consumers at the center of the business strategies as well as focus on the creation of safe food based and nutritious products with innovative ideas (Moy Park Ltd., 2022a). The underpinnings of the marketing strategies of the company are conducting comprehensive research and development support to gain retail and consumer insights as well as adhering to the required standards of food production in order to satisfy the needs of the customer base.
The main competitors of Moy Park are OLAM International, Cooks Venture, LDC Group, Great Giant Pineapple and others (Craft, 2022). The food and drink manufacturing industry of the United Kingdom contributes more than £ 28 billion to the economy of the country and is growing at the rate of 2.3 % each year (The Food & Drink Federation, 2022). The total turnover of the industry is also estimated at £ 105 billion that accounts for around 20 % of the total manufacturing of UK (The Food & Drink Federation, 2022). Hence, it is the largest manufacturing sector of the country. There are more than 430000 people employed across the food industry manufacturing while 4.3 million people are associated with the food and drink supply chain that is worth well over £ 120 billion to the economy of the country. On the other hand, the total share of the food and drink exports of Scotland is at 25 % which accounts for £ 5.3 billion (The Food & Drink Federation, 2022). The digital ad spends of the United Kingdom is estimated to grow by 16.8 % in 2021 to the tune of £ 19.23 billion. Due to the pandemic and the shifting trends of inclinations of the customers towards online engagement and services, the importance and value of the digital ad spends and marketing efforts has gained a center stage (Kadekova and Holien?inova, 2018). Thus, it is necessary for Moy Park to form a comprehensive and effective digital marketing strategy to accrue the benefits for the growth and development of the organization.
This study aims to analyze the impact of digital marketing on Moy Park. It also investigates the benefits and advantages of digital marketing strategies as well as the strategies that are currently implemented to create a succinct marketing plan for successful implementation ensuring growth and development of the company in the process.
The primary objectives of this research are as follows:
According to Attia and Eldin (2018), it is necessary for a management professional to consider the requirements of the clients and deliver suitable solutions. For Moy Park, the primary concern of the company is in relation to the development of brand awareness and integrated promotional activity is utilizing the digital tools. While the company has actively engaged in using social media platforms and digital tools of marketing to disseminate information about the products and services that are offered by the company, the expected results and outcomes for the marketing campaigns have not been achieved. Therefore, for the benefit of the company, business consultant would investigate and explore have the different digital marketing strategies that can be implemented by the business organization in order to improve and ensure growth and development by enhancing customer engagement (Greiner, Olson and Poulfelt, 2009). The business consultant would also prepare a comprehensive digital marketing strategy for the company to use to achieve its intended goals.
There are several methods and processes through which digital channels and tools can be used by business organizations in order to understand the inclinations and preferences of the customer service as well as provide efficient products and services that satisfies their needs (Turner et al., 2010). The primary notion of utilizing digital marketing strategies is to digitally connect the customers and the brand through online means. According to Kingsnorth (2019), the success of a digital marketing strategies of a business organization is critical to the alignment and integration of the business objectives for the benefits and overcome the challenges. It helps in building a unique and customer centric brand that ultimately provides the expected dividends. However, the analysis and evaluation of the advantages, strategies, disadvantages, currently employed digital strategies often provides gateway into obtaining critical insights for the business organization itself. It can form the basis of the improvement of the digital marketing plan as well as induce significantly greater customer engagement for the growth and development of the company.
Bala and Verma (2018) opined that the primary benefits the primary benefits and advantages of utilizing digital marketing strategies ranges from global reach, cost effectiveness to efficient and focused targeting. The benefits of the digital marketing strategies are in the global reach that is offered by digital tools. Bouncken and Kraus (2021) stated that there has been significant increase in the number of handheld devices and utilization of digital networks and social media platforms amongst the consumers around the globe. The implementation of digital marketing strategies allows businesses to effectively reach out and disseminate information about the products and services that are offered by the business organization for increasing the potential customer pool as well as communicate and engage on a regular basis (Gardiner, 2012). In addition to the global reach, digital marketing strategy is also having the advantage of local reach through the process of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), pay per click and other methods (Hanlon, 2021). It is also a cost-effective method as the cumbersome traditional methods required engagement of professionals and employees as well as individualized approaches of targeting and segmentation that has been automated by the induction of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms. The lower cost also means that a greater number of companies and businesses such as SMEs can implement the digital marketing strategies and tools for their benefit (Ritz, Wolf and McQuitty, 2019). The digital marketing strategies also has the benefit of integrating multiple strategies within the same platform through the process of SEO and content marketing that disseminates particular information which resonates with the inclinations and preferences of the customers. El Junusi (2020) opined that the scaling of the online activities and presence for the business organization along with the proportionate increase in customer presence in such platforms leads to reduction of the gap of engagement of the consumers.
The basic idea is that the needs and preferences of the consumers varied in accordance with the customer demographics (Minculete and Olar, 2018). Hence, the content and the strategies of the digital marketing should also vary accordingly as well. The utilization of digital marketing strategies helps in integrating multiple content types such as through the methods of blogs, emailers, podcast, social media posts and others that targets each and every type of customer categories. Hence, the benefit is satisfying and catering to the specific demands of the customers. The 4Ps of Marketing Mix also details the value and importance of promotion as a critical determinant for the success of the business organization as well (Pepels, 2021). The need for the promotional activities not only arises from distributing the information of the products and services of the business organization but also the necessity of continuously engaging with the customer base. The advantages of digital marketing strategies are also in the effective and accurate measurement procedures that are automatically implemented. Pandey, Nayal and Rathore (2020) stated that the measurement of the effectiveness of the digital marketing strategies provides critical insights about the customer demographics which in turn the customer demographics which in turn leads to development of content and marketing strategies that enable creation of loyal customers. It is also helpful in leveraging engaging formats in the online strategies would be business that enables conversion of the cool traffic of customers to the digital platforms into loyal customers. The automatic integration of analytics and tools of optimization that are available such as web analytics will help the business organization to measure the result of the digital marketing campaigns that are implemented in real time (Saura, 2021). O’Mahoney (2013) opined that the analysis of the digital marketing campaigns enables the business organization to pinpoint the source of the traffic as well as allows effective control of the sales funnels for the business organization to plan and implement strategies.
The primary focus of the digital marketing strategies that are implemented by Moy Park is to proactively respond to the changing customer shopping and eating habits as well as increased customer reach for a diverse set of customers. Issuu (2022) indicates that Moy Park intends to intends to generate brand awareness as well as visibility of the products and services that are offered by the business organization through a sustainable marketing campaign. The company has also initiated several campaigns such as “Everyday Yay” in order to integrate the products and services of the business organization into the daily lives of their customers. The company also undertakes several other campaigns to contribute to community and corporate social responsibility in order to positively associate the brand with customer perceptions. As stated by Alamsyah, Sofyan and Nabila (2021), the Communication Mix theory explains the various aspects of marketing strategies for business organizations. It consists of five dimensions which are advertising, personal selling, sales promotions, direct marketing and public relations. These dimensions are responsible for the integration of the effective perspectives into the marketing campaigns.
Figure 1: Marketing Communications Mix
(Source: Created by the author)
Moy Park has engaged in continuous engagement of the customer through the advertising of their products and services. As stated by Adeola, Hinson and Evans (2020), the initiation of advertising attracts the attention of the customers towards the products of the brand. Moy Park being a chicken producing food brand, the exposure of the advertising is fairly limited and hence do not produce the expected results. There is an imminent need for restructuring of the advertising campaigns in order to not only attract the attention of the customers but also retain their engagement over a longer period of time. The company is aggressively increasing the range of their products as well as marketing them for covering increased customer demographics.
Figure 2: Advertising of Moy Park
(Source: Donnelly, 2014)
For example, the partnership with FIFA World Cup in 2014 exposed the brand to global audience of more than 715 million people that are watched in over 200 countries (Donnelly, 2014). However, there are serious reservations about the effectiveness and efficacy of the traditional media advertising in the current context of the individualized approaches of marketing. Due to the competitiveness of the market along with the rise in chicken and poultry consumption amongst the consumers, there is also an immediate need to ramp up the digital marketing strategies of the company to match the rising demands as well. According to Deng et al., (2019), the consumers of today are more susceptible towards personalized marketing campaigns. The company has set up websites, social media handles and others in order to directly target the customers. The website of the company details the offers, discounts, promotional activities along with sufficient information about the products and services. However, Gironda and Korgaonkar (2018) states that the conversion of the digital footprints merely represents the number of visitors and do not provide actual information about the number of converted customers for an organization.
It is also necessary for the business brand to ensure that the concerns and problems that are faced by the consumers of Moy Park are addressed through the digital marketing campaigns. According to Evans and Johnson (2020), the issues and concerns of animal cruelty that is associated with the food and meat processing industry use of significant ethical concern. Moy Park also handles such issues with sensitivity through the community programs and community kitchens. Colley and Wasley (2020) stated that there has been 7 % increase in the industrial sized poultry and pig farms in the UK to 1786 from 1669 in 2017. These farms slaughter more than 20 million birds each week with more than 70 % of the industrial farms housing more than a million birds (Colley and Wasley, 2020). While it is a necessary source of protein for the consumers, the rising concern about the ethics of farming poultry is rising in significance. The marketing strategy, specifically the traditional methods, do not have the efficacy to educate and inform the customers about the safety precautions, regulatory standards and other steps that are taken by Moy Park to mitigate such issues. The digital marketing strategy of the company is also unable to disseminate sufficient information about the issues as the limitation of using the platforms majorly for customer engagement and relationship building leaves little space for such activities.
Therefore, although the use of several different platforms is done by Moy Park, it is not producing the desired results. There are gaps that needs to be filled in order to enhance the effectiveness of the digital marketing strategies. Currently, the digital platforms have the primary role of engaging and conversing with the customers of the company as well as dissemination of company information such as press releases, offers, discounts and others which needs to change.
The primary target of any business organization is to ensure customers satisfaction and customer engagement. According to Meire et al., (2019), there are many factors that contribute to customer engagement and its is necessary for a business organization to integrate them in the marketing campaigns for accrual of benefits. The customer engagement is not a linear relationship that can be established by providing optimal products and services only that caters to their needs. As stated by de Oliveira et al., (2020), the customers of today are more inclined towards a responsible and accountable brand. Hence, the dimensions of engagement have changed significantly. The primary tenet of the marketing campaigns or digital marketing campaigns is in relation to the altruistically empower the content to develop a connection (Gardiner, 2012). There are four basic elements and types of customer engagement which are emotional, social, contextual and convenience. According to Van Tonder and Petzer (2018), it is the fundamental obligation of the digital marketing campaigns to ensure fulfillment of the basic elements of customer engagement in order to develop effective relationship and convert potential customers into loyal consumers. The digital marketing campaigns has the ability to appeal to the customers on a personal level and develop emotional connection which is necessary for individualized approach of marketing. According to Tong, Luo and Xu (2020), the personal marketing strategies that are implemented by business organizations are focused on the individualistic customer profiles which is much more effective and efficient. The individual differences and attitudes such as shopping patterns, behaviours and other information is collected by the marketing tools to make an informed decision. It helps in differentiated marketing strategies to be developed and implemented which induces customer engagement. On the other hand, Kumar et al., (2019) indicated that appealing to the emotions of the customers also work proficiently.
The customers are in constant search for a brand that is an extension of their beliefs and cultures as well as considers their opinions and views towards broader social issues. The emotional connect often results in formation of lasting loyalty to the brand. It is also responsible for accountability and responsibility of the brand towards other issues other than the profits. As stated by Hollebeek (2018), the brand awareness that a marketing campaign generates is positively reflected on the credibility and dependability of the brand itself. Therefore, the consumer who are more likely to choose has a positive factor of personal association that can be leveraged for creating engagement. The content of the marketing strategies ensure that it is aligned with the trends of the industry as well as fit with the customer profiles (Wickham and Wilcock, 2020). This produces a mediating effect which is further advanced by the quality of the products and services of the business organizations. Thus, consumer engagement is crucial for the development of effective relationships as well as raising the brand awareness and positive publicity. As stated by He and Negahban (2018), rise in consumer engagement also results in increased sales and revenue for the company. It means that the positive effects of consumer engagement can also substantially increase the growth and development for the business organization. The digital marketing tool serves as the vehicle for the carriage of the information and news about the company and gain exposure through the social media and publishing of relevant content.
Although Moy Park has established itself as a leading brand in the United Kingdom, it faces numerous challenges and problems, especially in terms of the digital marketing strategies. The problems that are faced by the company are as follows:
Thus, these problems and challenges that are faced by Moy Park despite the existence of significant marketing capabilities has resulted in effectiveness of the digital marketing campaigns. The implemented digital marketing campaigns value organization is not suitable for the customer personas as well as sufficient leveraging of the platforms and tools at the disposal of the company has not been sufficiently made to generate comprehensive customer engagement in which is severely affecting the intended outcomes of the marketing campaigns. It is necessary for the business organization to consider alterations and changes to be made within the organizational framework as well as approaches in their marketing campaigns that will provide the required benefits as well as ensure sustainable competitive advantage in the future as well.
Although there exists a distinct digital marketing strategy for Moy Park, its effectiveness, efficacy and impact are highly questionable. According to Katsikeas, Leonidou and Zeriti (2019), the development of a proper digital marketing strategy for a company requires consideration of various factors as well as integration opportunities and mitigation of the risks for increasing its effectiveness. Moy Park is a leading poultry farming in the UK with minimalist and impactful online and digital presence. However, the formation of the strategies for developing a digital marketing strategy also requires careful analysis and evaluation of the challenges, problems and issues that are faced by the brand as well which will provide critical insights about the source of the problems. The mitigation of such challenges will significantly improve the effectiveness of the digital marketing strategy as well as reliable formulation of developing a new digital marketing strategy for the company that can be implemented for better results. The primary issues and problems of marketing that are faced by Moy Park are as follows:
The primary objectives that the newly developed digital marketing plan intends to achieve are as follows:
According to Saura, Palos-Sanchez and Correia (2019), it is necessary to determine the target audience for a marketing plan so that the perfect fit of the business organization with its customers can be found. The target audience for the digital marketing strategy for Moy Park are the millennials who uses technology enabled solutions, housewives, people with busy schedules preventing shopping, meat lovers and others. These customers are the primary audience and their needs are to be fulfilled by the digital marketing campaigns of the company. An idea about the audience also enables careful planning, arrangement and implementation of the digital marketing strategy as well.
The implementation of the digital marketing strategy also requires careful evaluation and assessment of the strategy in order measure the effectiveness of the implemented campaigns. According to Ghahremani-Nahr and Nozari (2021), the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) denotes a value that is measurable which is used by marketers in order to assess the success of the implemented strategy across all marketing channels. The most rudimentary KPIs for this marketing plan are as follows:
There are various tools that can be utilized by Moy Park for the implementation of the digital marketing strategies. According to Vieira et al., (2019), the three most commonly utilized types of digital media platforms are earned media, owned media and paid media. The earned media is the type of marketing strategy which is generally owned by the company through article mentions, reviews, social media shares and others that are organically developed and cannot be enforced by the business organization. The owned media is the type of digital marketing platforms that are managed, maintained and controlled by the business organization which includes blog sites, websites, social media channels and others. The paid media is a purely investment intensive type of marketing in which the company pays third parties to direct digital traffic to the media channels of the company. It includes display ads, pay per clicks, social media influencers and others. Moy Park can use a combination of all of them in order to ensure sufficient customer engagement and developing continuous communication.
In addition to the type of marketing strategies, the specific tools that can be used by Moy Park are as follows:
In addition to the tools and types of digital marketing strategies that can be implemented by Moy Park, the process through which the objectives of the digital marketing strategies can be achieved also needs to be defined. They are included in the digital marketing mix which are as follows:
The six fundamental elements of marketing are included in SOSTAC framework which are situation, objectives, strategy, tactics, action and control (Napoletano, 2021). For the development of the digital marketing strategy for Moy Park, it is as follows:
Along with the development of the digital marketing strategies for Moy Park, it is also necessary for me to reflect upon the experiences and identify you what has been learned from it. The Gibb’s Reflective Cycle would be used for this purpose. According to Adeani, Febriani and Syafryadin (2020), the Gibb’s reflective cycle consists of 5 stages 4 step by step reflection experiences which are description, feelings, evaluation, conclusions and action. They are follows:
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