Details:

"E-marketing strategy is the design of marketing strategy that capitalises on the organisation's electronic or information technology capabilities to reach specified objectives". E-marketing strategy is where technology strategy and marketing strategy come together to build customer value and corporate sustainability.

Your task for this assessment is to put some of the training from this course into action. Your marketing firm has been chosen to develop an e-marketing plan for a small to medium sized enterprise. Select a firm in the tourism sector in your local area that you can observe. Choose from either: a small, local tour company; or a small motel; or a tourist activity such as a zoo, gardens or theme park. Following the e-marketing planning process outlined in chapter 3 of the textbook, develop a ‘bare-bones' e-marketing plan for this company.

There are seven steps outlined in the e-marketing planning process however, for this assignment I don't expect an implementation plan to be included. Therefore, your ‘bare-bones' e-marketing plan will consist of the following as a minimum:

1. Situation analysis:

• Briefly review the firm's internal environment (what type of firm is it, what do they do, what products/services do they provide and where are they located), external environment (what are the key external factors that impact on the firm and its business) and competitors (who are the major local competitors and how do they compete with your business).

• Develop a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) for your firm.

2. E-marketing strategic planning:

• Segmentation and target market - what are the key characteristics of your target market (Demographics, psychographics, geographic location and behaviour)?

• Differentiation - how will your firm be different to other competitors in the local area? What is your competitive advantage?

• Positioning strategies - how will you position your firm in relation to your competitors?

3. Objectives:

• Develop at least 3 e-marketing objectives based on your situation analysis and strategic planning strategies to be accomplished within 12 months to 2 years.

4. E-marketing strategies:

• Based on your objectives, develop the basic offer including:
• Product strategies
• Pricing strategies
• Distribution strategies
• Communication strategies, and
• Relationship management strategies

5. Budget:

• Assume that there is potentially a budget of $6,000 per annum. Forecast the potential costs of implementing your key objectives (i.e. if one of your key objectives is to develop a corporate website, choose a web host company and investigate how much website hosting might cost per annum for example).

6. Evaluation plan:

• Develop measurement activities for each strategy to evaluate the overall success of your objectives and strategies. How will you ensure your strategies for product, pricing, distribution, communication and relationship management will achieve your intended e-marketing objectives?

NB: There are many texts available that discuss how to write a marketing plan. I suggest that you should be looking to some of these other references to assist you with your plan development. Specifically, we recommend the text Wong, HY, Radel, K, & Ramsaran-Fowdar, R, 2011, Building a marketing plan - a complete guide, Business Expert Press, New York, NY. This text is available in the CQU bookshop and also in electronic copy from the publishers and is specifically written to guide you through the marketing planning process.

Skills:

This assessment is designed to allow you freedom to design your marketing program and put your marketing knowledge into action. Be Creative! Think of all the various ways marketers can communicate with target markets. Examine other websites to understand how they use their social network websites and consider the effectiveness of these other websites.