Environmental Analysis of Competitive Brand

Taking on the role of E-Marketing Director,  you have to develop a virtual brand marketing communication campaign using social media marketing to launch the e-service brand in the UK.

E-marketing is also known as internet marketing, where the entire effort of marketing is solely based on the internet. Thus, this type of marketing generally uses different online advertisements with the aim to convert the traffic to the website of an advertiser. Now-a-days, internet marketing is the fast growing business that earns more profit because people use internet everyday and at every moment.  The main characteristics of the internet marketing are – longevity, reach, accountability and flexibility (Paliwoda, Andrews and Chen, 2012). The major challenges faced by the e-marketing director are – to provide ROI for the marketing activities, to secure budget, to manage the website, to identify the right technology, to train the team, to hire the most talented personnel (Clow and Baack, 2012). Even to find an executive sponsor is also seemed to be a challenge. The opportunities of the e-marketing director include – it is a cost-effective approach, wider prospect reach, 24*7 marketing can be performed and interactivity can be increased. The ability of the managers to track the results would increase. The purpose of the report is to develop Virtual Brand Marketing Communication Campaign by Using Social Media Marketing with the aim to launch the E-Service Brand G5 in the United Kingdom, whose key competitor is Apple Pay.

The main competitor of the brand G5 is the Apple Pay, therefore the PESTLE analysis of the brand Apple Pay is the important factor for developing the virtual brand marketing communication campaign of G5. The business of the company Apple Inc can be easily evaluated by analyzing the operations of the organization in the UK. The sentiment of the investor regarding the home country of the company Apple plays a major role in running each brand successfully; however the negative sentiment can destroy the company. Therefore Apple Inc launches its every brand based on the demands of the customers. Thus, the environment of the country plays the most important role.

Political: The governance system of the UK is stable as it is a democratic country and it maintains influence over the customs and laws of the former countries of the British Empire.  Recently, the UK holds an enviable and strong position in politics globally. Thus, the Apple Pay plays the major role in the market. The particular brand faces various challenges due to the terrorist attacks caused by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) (Diamantopoulos et al. 2012). As the terrorist attack affect the operations of the Apple Pay negatively. Even the current challenges regarding the political issues increases the tension of the management of the brand as well the company. thus, there is a probability that the brand G5 might get affected due to the political situation of the country.

Economic: The economy of the country UK is highly developed and it has gained its footing after the occurrence of the Second World War. As per the survey of the World Bank, the UK was the seventh best country in the year 2003 that was able to invest in the businesses (Denmark.chsnenu.edu.cn, 2015). Therefore, Apple Pay also receives the benefit or advantage of being a UK-based brand. The particular brand is capable enough to invest for itself and to promote the brand and make it wide popular to worldwide people for more earnings. Therefore, G5 would also be effective economically in the UK.

Key Competitors within the Sector and Nature of Competition

Technology: The particular country is well known for its research and development, and scientific expertise. The rights of intellectual property are generally protected by application of legislation. However, in the recent days, the UK faces a single challenge regarding the technological development and that is the shortage of workforces of R&D. The particular country started to face this challenge since the year 2008, thus experienced and expertise people in the IT sector, technicians and engineers continued to decrease (Lee and Carter, 2012). Thus, the lack in expertise people in the country might lead to a serious threat for the company Apple along with its brand Apple Pay. The brand G5 would also get the opportunity to modify and develop its products and services but it might also face the same issue as Apple Pay that is the lack in R&D workforce.

Socio-cultural:  The living standard of the citizens of the UK is comparable with other countries of First World. Thus, the health care system and education system of the particular country is enriched along with the social goals of the government. The population of the country UK are ageing; however, the working and the young generation from the European market offset the issues of the particular nation. Thus, the brand Apple Pay earns the opportunity to expand its business in the society. The young working people increases the total sales of the company as well as the brand became popular (Du Plessis, Strydom and Jooste, 2012). The socio-cultural of the country would also positively influence the brand G5 to run the business i the UK market.

Environmental: The particular nation possesses many global policies with respect to the environment, sustainable energy source and reduction in emission. However, the rate of air pollution in the UK is relatively higher than other countries. Thus, the European Commission sued against the poor quality of air of the UK (Kotler and Keller, 2012). Therefore, the UK government has established various types of policies. Thus, Apple Inc has to follow all the policies of the country for betterment of the organization.

Legal: The legal system of the particular country is transparent, efficient and organized. Thus, it favours to run any business effectively and efficiently. Thus, the specified competitor of the brand G5 can run the business effectively and efficiently. However, the brand Apple Pay has to face some challenges in terms of balancing personal liberties against the terrorism threat and tax evasion (Ijecm.co.uk, 2015). The transparent legal facilities would also facilitate the brand G5 to expand in the UK market.

Critical Examination of the current strategy of Apple Pay using Ansoff’s Matrix:

 The Ansoff’s For Quadrant Matrix helps in examining the different market positioning strategies and the competitive position of Apple Pay

• Apple Pay has managed to gain 1.7% of the market share within the six weeks of the release (Forbes.com, 2015).
• Apple pay is accountable for 1% of all the digital payments made in US.
• Apple Pay uses NFC chips that are available only on the new phones (Apple, 2015).
• 60% of the Apple Pay consumers use the service multiple times and utilize the mobile payment service around 1.4 times per week approximately (Forbes.com, 2015).
• Apple Pay is engaging in partnership with many banks, retailers (Mc Donald’s, Subway and many others) and apps, that can consequently make the digital payment technology an attractive one-stop-shop for carrying out purchases in the future

• Apple Pay utilizes 8 innovative business strategy for market development that includes improvement of the digital business process, mitigation of the barriers to adoption of the Apple Pay System, leveraging the digitally installed base, infrastructure as well as standards (Evans, 2015). In addition to this, the business strategy also includes leveraging the partners for digital credibility and then innovating digitally then radiate (Chevalier and Mazzalovo, 2012).
• Apple Pay engaged in partnership with three payment networks such as the Master card, Visa as well as American Express that could handle 83% of the credit card payments in the US.
• Apple Pay engaged in partnership with retailers that could address more than 220000 merchant locations in US.
• Apple Pay announced expansion in UK with 250000 retail locations as well as the London Transit System

• Apple Pay also employs the strategy of Apple New Product t Process (ANPP) for the development and designing of the products for gaining market share and for extension of the interface.
• Engineering Program manager (EPM) and global Supply manager oversees the management and the control of the product process referred to as the “EPM Mafia” (Panzarino, 2012).

• Existing competition of Apple Pay includes Google Wallet and Pay Pal among many others
• Apple introduces the one touch system to make payments with the Touch ID
• Apple Pay ensures privacy of the purchases, protects accounts even after losing device
• Apple pay can be used on the I phone, I pad, Apple Watch

 The critical evaluation of the e-marketing mix of Apple Pay essentially refers to the critical assessments of the factors, namely, personalization, privacy, customer service, community, site and security (Dutta, 2014).

Personalization- The addition of the Walgreens balance rewards card can help receive rewards that are connected to the personalized usage of the Apple Pay.

Critical Examination of the current strategy of Apple Pay using Ansoff’s Matrix

Privacy- Apple Pay uses Unique Device Account Number is used for maintenance of privacy in payment process.

Customer Service- Apple Pay ensures simple, secure way of payment and support functions in transactional situations.

Community- Apple pay is accountable for 1% of all the digital payments made in US and forms of the online payment community of the company and the number is escalating. 60% of the Apple Pay consumers use the service multiple times (Forbes.com, 2015).

Site and Security- The devices such as I phone and I pad are the sites and the security of the payment process is maintained by the assignment of the unique identification number as well as fingerprints. Furthermore, the card details are not shared with the payment system (Apple, 2015).

Figure 1: E-Communication Mix of Apple Pay

Characteristics of digital and social media marketing

As rightly indicated by Kapferer (2012), the essential characteristics of digital and social media marketing include the pull and push communication tactics. In Pull digital marketing, the consumers keenly seek marketing content whereas in case of push digital marketing, the marketers send the messages without prior consent of the recipients. Pull digital marketing refers to the email newsletters, search engines as well as text messages whereas push marketing vehicles refer to the opt-in subscription based services. Online advertising is yet another significant form of digital marketing where the consumers can access the digital content of the advertisement through internet-connected devices such as the smart phones, computers and tablets among many others (Kapferer, 2012).

As mentioned by Keller et al. (2012), social media marketing of G5 includes development of a Facebook page, Pinterest, Instagram; you tube video and a blog page. Social media is the recommended e-communication strategy that G5 can adopt for the development of a virtual brand communication strategy. The strategic managers of G5 may consider the communication tactic of displaying advertising in website and blogs and sending email, text messages that are essentially push digital marketing. In addition to this, the strategic managers of the company might possibly consider to adopt the pull technologies that can deliver demographically aligned contents to the consumers through the search engines, text messages, email newsletters, websites and blogs to the consumers seeking information and marketing content. The strategy of micro targeting has the inclination to produce smaller number of audiences that consequently results in innovation and lesser distribution costs (Chevalier and Mazzalovo, 2012). Furthermore, building network or communities through social media sites such as the face book, you tube as part of the pull marketing strategy can also prove to be effective for G5. The marketer can also consider the multi channel communications that takes into account both the push as well as the pull marketing technologies.

Apple focuses on personalization and utilizes the information on the device. The Apple’s proactive agent searches for the content swiftly inside the app and brings it to the forefront. The marketing managers of G5 can also use appropriate customized content designed aptly and convey the same to the targeted audience. Personalization refers to the need for developing customizes as well as personalized products and services after accumulation of requisite information of the identified customer. Apple developed the fingerprint reader into the devices in order to ensure more privacy. Likewise, G5 can also be the finger print strategy for ensuring the privacy and security of the payments of the consumers. The utility of the services thereby needs to be communicated to the consumers through proper channels and processes to the target consumers (Apple, 2015).

Evaluation of the E- Marketing Mix of Apple Pay

The strategic managers of G5 can undertake social media campaign that needs to incorporate cost effective ways of utilizing the social media more effectively. The marketing managers may take into account assimilation of face book and Twitter directly into the app and provide the opportunity to the user to express favor towards the product or services by liking the same. The social media campaign can also include designing a long-term commitment to the fan community in Facebook. User generated and specialized contents can also be used where the users can be motivated to post the art, reviews, videos as well as contents.

 The targeted consumers of the digitized technology of online payment system are generally the users of smart phones, computers, tablets and other devices connected to the internet. The social media is therefore a significant way of communicating with the targeted audience.

Now a day, the young generation belongs to the Generation Y thus, the internet is the main media for network among the people. This process has become easier through the social media usage. The social media networking involves Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Therefore, it can be said that the social media channel can easily publicize the app of the brand G5. Facebook can be considered as the biggest social media, thus it would help in promoting the app of the G5 brand. The advertisements through Facebook  can be displayed through the mobile ads, as this would help in gaining users from dedicated ad campaign. On the other hand, through Twitter, the management of the brand G5 can easily connect with the target customers and the management can easily respond to the queries of the customers. Therefore, it can be said that the social media campaign is the most effective method of communication for increasing the brand value.

References

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