Impact of Digital Marketing on Moy Park: Benefits, Strategies, and Objectives

Company Background

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).

Client Requirements

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.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

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:

1. To look for the growth prospective of the firm
2. To check the change in consumer behavior
3. To evaluate the digital marketing strategies used by the company
4. To formulate comprehensive digital marketing strategy for Moy Park

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.

Advantages, Benefits and Disadvantages of Digital Marketing

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.

Current Digital Marketing Strategies

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.

Business Opportunities

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.

Effective Digital Marketing Strategies for Moy Park

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:

• Sales down: The primary problem that is faced by Moy Park is dwindling sales volume. Foodmanufature (2022) stated that the company has an operating loss of more than £ 8 million as the food-to-go sales of the company was negatively affected in 2020. The sales of the company also reduced by 7.7 % to the tune of £ 1.5 billion in 2020 in comparison to last year (Foodmanufacture, 2022). While the company is gradually moving towards plant-based food production process and investing £ 17.6 million for it, the sales of the company reduced by 3.9 % compared to the previous year to £ 904.8 million. Thus, the reducing sales of the company is a cause of concern for the company as it is the primary source of revenue for the company. It also means that the capability of the company to spend on marketing campaigns would also be seriously hampered which would further affect the retention of the customers as well as the continuance of the marketing campaigns. Santos et al., (2022) stated that the customer engagement is intricately related with the sales volume for a business organization while it is also related to the effectiveness of the digital marketing campaigns that are utilized by the business organizations. Therefore, it can be stated that the marketing campaigns that are being implemented by Moy Park is not effective as the sales volume of the company is gradually reducing. Therefore, it is necessary for the company to increase the frequency, span, content-driven digital marketing campaigns that would expose the products and services of the company to more customers and have positive impacts on improving the sales revenue of the company as a result.
• Lack of exposure: Stokes and Wilson (2010) stated that it is necessary for any business organization to achieve comprehensive levels of this closure to their products and services as well as generate brand awareness that positively relates to the consumer perceptions. According to Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick (2019), one of the primary determinants for the success of a digital marketing campaign is grabbing the attention of the customers amongst the competitors and continue to do so for a considerably longer period of time to generate loyal customer base. However, the marketing strategies that are implemented by the company are not effective to generate sufficient exposure as is indicated by limited digital footprints on the websites of the company as well as mobile applications. While the social media platforms have been marginally successful in generating positive consumer attitudes, it has not been sufficient to make up for the lack of exposure due to the implementation and utilization of other channels and platforms. Peter and Dalla Vecchia (2021) stated that there are several channels and platforms that can be leveraged by business organization and it is compulsory for the marketers of the company to understand the needs and preferences of their customers and design the marketing campaigns accordingly. However, the websites and mobile applications that are offered by the business organization is primarily utilized for shopping only. The social media handles and digital platforms are unable to generate interest and engagement among the customer basis which is affecting their sales as well as generation of leads for the company. This indicates the failure or at least ineffectiveness of the digital marketing campaigns of Moy Park which is responsible for disengaged customers unwilling to associate themselves with the brand or buy their products.
• Inability to change: One of the inherent pitfalls of the digital marketing strategy is to continuously change and adapt to the trends of the industry as well as heed the inclinations and preferences of the customers. According to Indumathi (2018), it is necessary for the marketing campaigns to be continuously updated and evaluated against the industry standards as well as utilize new tools and resources that are in continuous improvement for leveraging the benefits. The marketing landscape is also continuously changing with the landscape of the business operational functional capability is and it is necessary for the business organization to change along with it. However, Moy Park has not been able to adapt to the changes. The company is still utilizing traditional methods of marketing and advertisement to generate customer confidence and disseminate information among its target audiences. However, there has been swift changes in the customer perceptions about the marketing effectiveness as access ability to network capabilities and Internet enabled marketing campaigns that are more personalized and individual in its approach. This strategy has not been sufficiently utilized by the business organization or integrated within the organization in framework in order to update itself with the trends of the marketing industry. For example, the Google search algorithm is continuously updated several times a week which needs to be integrated by the marketers into the digital marketing campaigns in order to ensure suitability and effectiveness of their marketing plans as well as enhance customer reception of the messages that are communicated through these marketing campaigns. This inability to change by Moy Park has rendered the digital marketing campaigns of the company to be ineffective and unable to produce the desired results which is also reflected in the decreasing sales of the company. The brand awareness and customer engagement are not generated in the process which is not beneficial or advantages for the business organization and the objectives of the digital marketing campaigns are not achieved in the process.
• Lack of Clear Strategy, Insufficient ROI: The digital marketing strategy should have a clear objective and strategy that is defined on the basis of informed decision making and customer data. According to Verhoef and Bijmolt (2019), defining the strategies and objectives of the marketing campaigns enables actionable measures to be undertaken by the marketers as well as allow the employees of the business organization to focus their efforts towards achievement of a single goal. It has significant positive impact on probabilities of achieving success as well as increased effectiveness for the marketing campaigns as well. Due to the lack of focus and ill-defined marketing strategy, the marketing professionals of the company are unable to pinpoint the problems and issues that are faced by the business organization and implement mitigation strategies that will effectively eliminate such risks. The cohesiveness of the marketing plan has also enabled justified utilization of the time and resources of the business organization that can be allocated and utilized for greater outcomes. The inherent problem arises due to conflict of understanding due to the lack of clear strategy and the efficacy of the marketing campaigns are wasted in the process. Thaichon, Phau and Weaven (2020) also stated that the allocation of financial and other resources for specific tasks and functional requirements of implementing a marketing strategy requires considerable experience, data and information about the customers. The inherent lack of clear strategy it does not allow the marketers to sufficiently gauge the impact and effectiveness of the marketing campaigns and negatively affects the return of investments. Thus, lack of a clear and focused strategy around with insufficient ROI leads to redundancies and problems being faced by the marketing campaigns of the business organization which significantly reduces the effectiveness to generate customer engagement and satisfaction through the digital marketing campaigns.
• Misalignment with buyer personas: Each and every customer is different. With the introduction of the digital tools, artificial intelligence, machine learning and other tools, the focus of their marketing strategies by a business organization has shifted from masses to individualistic approaches of advertising and marketing (Hu and Tracogna, 2020). Different business organizations are continuously collecting information and data about the different customer behaviors and attitudes in order to build customer personas that can be sufficiently leveraged in order find the perfect fit of the content, platform and digital marketing strategies that are executed. While determining the customer personas is somewhat easy, integrating such diverse customer demographics into the marketing strategy is a considerable challenge. Moy Park has not sufficiently utilized data driven decision making process or analytical tools in order to identify buyer personas that fit perfectly with the objective business organization. Hence, alignment of the marketing strategies of the company with the personas of the different customers that has rendered the marketing campaigns ineffective. The key to the success of the digital marketing campaigns is to figure out the nature and attitude of the audiences and align the content of the marketing campaigns accordingly to achieve the best results. Moy Park although have all the contextual and relevant tools such as social media handles, digital marketing campaigns, websites, financial capability and others, the company is not able to integrate such insights with the customer requirement and align the buyer persona for a perfect fit which is causing issues for the implementation, execution and ensuring outcomes for the digital marketing campaigns.

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:

• No brand name on products:The company, Moy Park, has little to no branding on their products. According to Pinto et al., (2019), the name of the brand and logo is synonymous with the image of the brand as well and requires careful evaluation of the placement, font and other details to elicit positive reactions from the customers. It means that proper positioning and placement of the brand signage leads to positive association of the brand with the product by the customers and becomes synonymous. However, Moy Park seldom puts their brand name on the products which will be beneficial for generating customer awareness and developing brand image. The digital marketing platforms also do not utilize sufficient content development which will be effective for generating customer engagement and attracting attention. The absence of brand names or logos the products and services of the company means that the products and services of the competitors the company will overshadow the products and services of Moy Park. On the other hand, Dumitriu et al., (2019) stated that the customers of any industry associate themselves with the brand name and therefore the name and logo of the company is an essential component for branding and marketing as well. Moy Park through their digital media channels disseminates information about the offers, discounts and other incentivized campaigns of marketing. However, due to the absence of the branding on the products, the customers are unable to link the brand with the products and therefore is losing on customer engagement, loyalty and satisfaction.
• Benchmarking Moy Park and competitors:Moy Park needs to continuously evaluate and assess the digital marketing strategies that are implemented by the competitors in order to understand the gaps in their own marketing strategies as well as gain critical insights from their success as well. According to Gubela et al., (2019), benchmarking offers a distinctive advantage of comparative analysis and evaluation of the effectiveness of the implemented business strategies that informs the management about the effectiveness of the implemented methods. The consideration of the business strategies and marketing campaigns that are implemented buy computers in the company can be received or created through content driven communication strategies being implemented by the business organization in order to influence and impact the customer choosing behaviors. It is also necessary to note that simply disseminating information and data to the customers through the digital marketing communications channel will not suffice as it requires a reinforcement of the beliefs minions of the customers in order to provide viable results. Thus, lack of benchmarking in Moy Park is a significant challenge that is faced by the business organization as measuring and gauging the effectiveness of the digital marketing strategies are not possible.
• Branding strategy:Moy Park lacks a clear branding strategy. It is necessary for a brand to identify itself with a clearly defined scope for the brand as well as enable customer to easily identify and associate with the brand as well (Sundaram, Sharma and Shakya, 2020). Moy Park has become popular as the chicken brand which is not an accurate description of the vision of the company. Therefore, a lack of clear branding strategy is needed to be integrated within the marketing strategy as it offers focused and directional approach of marketing to be implemented within the digital marketing campaigns. It is also critical for the development of a brand image and generate brand awareness that customers recognize very easily.

The primary objectives that the newly developed digital marketing plan intends to achieve are as follows:

• Increase brand awareness and exposure of Moy Park to local, national and international standards
• Increase digital footprints of customers on the website, mobile application, social media and digital media platforms by 15 % within a year
• Integrate analytics and customer data and information for building effective marketing plans for the company
• Integrate mission, vision and values of the company in the digital marketing campaigns to engage customers and ensure alignment of the campaigns with customer personas
• Increase sales revenue of Moy Park by 10 % within a year by using digital marketing tools and campaigns

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.

Chapter 3: Methodology

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:

• Cost per lead (CPL): The CPL is the total cost that is expended by a business organization to acquire new prospective customers (Bondarenko et al., 2019). CPL when complemented with the cost per conversion can help get an idea about the profitability of the marketing activities. A higher cost per lead means less effective marketing activities are being conducted by the business and fundamental changes are required to be implemented as well. It can also be compared to the total number of monthly leads that are generated by the marketing campaigns to justify the financial resources that are spent by Moy Park for the digital marketing campaigns.
• Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL): It is necessary for the marketing campaign to assess the qualified leads as generating traffic to the websites and applications of the company by the prospective audience is not sufficient exhibition of successful implementation of the digital marketing plans (Sandesh, 2019). The MQL are those leads that are forwarded by the marketing team to the sales team. It reflects on the volume of quality needs that are generated by the marketing campaigns by measuring the MQL. Hence, a greater number of MQL means increased effectiveness of the digital marketing campaigns have that has been implemented by Moy Park.
• Retention Rate: The total number of customers that keep using the products and services of the business organization repeatedly over a period of time is defined as the retention rate (Sabbeh, 2018). The retention rate for business organization also reflects upon the extent of engagement of the customers with the marketing campaigns. It can be calculated as a percentage to gain valuable insights about the customer inclinations and provide impeccable user experience for continuous engagement.
• Website Visits: Simply, the total number of digital visitors on the digital platforms of the company needs to be measured in order to make sure that the marketing campaigns are working as expected. The use tools such as Google analytics can inherently help Moy Park to measure the number of visitors on a monthly, weekly or daily basis. It can also help in optimization of SEO and SEM as well as implement other strategies such as speed advertising for increasing the number of digital visitors to the website.

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:

• Social media marketing: The social media has become a common place for the interaction of the customers with various brands (Li, Larimo and Leonidou, 2021) and it is necessary to be leveraged by the company in order to ensure communication and engagement on a daily basis. Moy Park should create social media handles on various social media channels and regularly publish content on these platforms in order to entice and attract potential customers. In addition to it, the social media can also be an effective channel for direct communication with the customers where the opinions and concerns of the customers are also voiced and immediately addressed by the business organization. Therefore, social media marketing has the advantage of integrating higher reach and penetration for the customer demographics as well as being cost effective. However, it should also be mentioned in this regard that the company also needs to be regular and responsive to the comments and views that has been provided by the customers on various social media platforms.
• Advergaming: It is a particularly newer forms of marketing in which the games form the basis of advertising products and services that are offered by the business organizations. It is responsible for the creation of brand awareness as well as generates customer engagement in an organic way. Moy Park may develop free and online games that are compatible with different types of devices and the content of the game is suited for the placement of the products and services that are offered by the company. For example, cooking games may be created by the company that consists of wide range of products and services from the business organization that will educate and inform the customers about the product range as well as continuously generating engagement and brand awareness in the process.
• Outdoor advertisements: The outdoor advertising strategies can be effectively utilized by the company through strategy placements and frequency of distribution to ensure maximum reach. The traditional methods of marketing such as TV advertisements, newspaper ads and others can be complemented by the digital marketing strategies for maximum benefits. The social media and digital media platforms also allow publishing of video bites that can be successfully integrated by the business organization in order to utilize the outdoor advertisements in the digital environment as well.
• Influencer marketing: The surge of the social media platforms has produced influencer marketing as a prominent discourse of marketing activities. The company may partner with different social media influencers that are relevant to the business organizations such as celebrity chefs, cooking shows and others in order to influence the decision-making process of the customers. According to Vrontis et al., (2021), the millennial generation of today are highly impacted and influenced by social media influencers. Therefore, Moy Park can also use social media influencers that promotes the products and services of the brand in order to generate brand awareness and customer engagement.

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:

• SEM and SEO: The search engine marketing and search engine optimization determines the hierarchical order of the website of the company within the search results of a search engine. SEO is responsible for directing organic traffic to the website while the SEM ensures traffic redirection through online marketing and advertisements. Moy Park needs to partner with other relevant businesses such as cookware brands, chefs and others and integrate SEO and SEM for optimization of the search engine results.
• Content Marketing: The content marketing is the type of marketing activity in which design and features of the content which is integrated in the digital marketing campaigns needs to be aligned with the customer personas. It is necessary for the content that is developed by the business organization to fit with the customer demographics and their attitudes to produce the best results. Moy Park should hire a Content Developer to ensure that the content that is being developed by the business organization are relevant to the business objectives of the company.
• Mobile Experience: In addition to the websites and social media channels, a large section of the customers also uses handheld devices such as mobile phones, tablets and others. Therefore, Moy Park should also customize have the digital marketing campaigns or unique mobile experiences for their customers as well. According to Asana (2022), the mobile devices are responsible for generating up to 70% of the internet traffic. Hence, the designing and implementation of the digital marketing communications plans also requires to integrate the mobile experiences for the end users and provide a seamless shopping experience.
• Analytics: The collection, analysis and sorting of the customer data and information from various access points is critical to the success of the digital marketing campaign. The integration of analytics is also suggested for Moy Park as it will help the company to measure and gauge previous metrics of performance as well as enabling the company to gain critical insights which can form the basis of improving the operational and functional capabilities of the business organization for generating customer satisfaction and engagement.

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:

• Situation: The current situation of the company indicates lack of clear marketing strategy and focus as well as in capability to leverage the existing digital media platforms for the benefits to the organization. The current digital marketing campaigns are not producing the desired benefits of customer engagement, sales increase or customer retention which is worrying for the management of the company.
• Objectives: The primary objective of digital marketing strategy is to improve customer engagement drive traffic to the various marketing channels of the business organization. The company intends to increase digital footprint of the customers on the various marketing channels by 15 % within a year while it also aims to increase its sales volume by 10 % in the same period of time.
• Strategy: Moy Park would implement both paid and unpaid media channels to drive traffic for their marketing channels. It would combine the social media and other digital media platforms as a fundamental strategy of digital marketing so that a larger audience is catered to as well as continuous engagement over a long period of time is also ensured. The strategy of the business organization is to implement analytical tools to gauge the performance of the marketing campaigns and make alterations and modifications to increase the effectiveness and efficacy of the strategies as well.
• Tactics: The tactics that would be adopted by the business organization is to implement marketing mix that consider all of the most important elements that are associated with the development and implementation of digital marketing strategies. The allocation of individual roles and responsibilities to the professionals of the business organization as well as measuring the KPI’s will ensure sufficient oversight and control is maintained by the business organization for effective outcomes. It would also partner with social media influencers for promotion, branding and generating customer awareness of the brand.
• Actions: The plan of Moy Park is to hire an experienced marketing consultant or an institution of repute to aid the company in the development, execution and implementation of the marketing plan. The in-house employees would also be trained in the marketing strategies for cost effectiveness. Monthly measurement of the KPIs, progress reports and other documents would also help the company as an action to ensure excellent execution of the planned activities.
• Control: The KPIs would be monitored and evaluated against the industry standards for critical insights of control. Tools such as Google Analytics would ensure proper measurement of the controls for Moy Park as well.

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:

• Description:The preparation of the project considering the case study of Moy Park has been challenging and enlightening as well. It was difficult to integrate the learning subclass into the preparation of the digital marketing strategies for the company it involves duration of various factors and elements that influences effectiveness. I consulted various credible websites and secondary sources in order to collect the relevant data and prepare the report.
• Feelings:I feel that this journey of preparing this report has been educating and in light new for me. As a management student, it is necessary for me to gain critical practical experiences which has been done through the application of the case study as well as utilization of the learned theories and concepts of class into practically shipping solutions for different business organizations. While I feel that the time that was allocated for the conduction of this research was very limited, I also believe that it has also prepared me for the uncertainties and pressures that I will be facing as a management professional in my future professional endeavors. I have sufficiently developed my research skills as well as collating information from various sources to present a conclusive and comprehensive solution for Moy Park.
• Evaluation:The evaluation of the experiences and feelings that I have collected over the course of this assignment has led me to believe that I have considerably developed have as a marketing professional. While I also agree that there are several other areas of improvement which I would work on in the future, this assignment has been particularly fruitful for the development of research skills which is a prerequisite of the marketing profession. The informed decision-making process as well as the use of different frameworks for presenting solutions is concretely ingrained in me.
• Conclusions:It is concluded from these experiences that the practical experiences of a marketer are invaluable for the preparation and development of digital marketing plans for any business organization. The identified areas of improvement such as communication gaps, analytical skills and others also needs to be reinforced through the development of a personal development plan.
• Action:The primary action that would be taken is to formulate a personal development plan that would list all the weaknesses and improvement areas that I have identified against a set deadline and also integrate the method through which it would be achieved in the near future.

Research Design

References

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