Executive Summary
All I Know Is has been successful in entering into the extreme sportswear industry. Not only does it organize and host extreme sports, but it also manufactures and sells the sportswear used by the players and fanatics. Using social media marketing has helped the firm create publicity. However, it needs to apply QR Code to achieve successful sales in its online stores. This technology will help it trace the customers behaviour when they are online, making it easy to determine their buying behaviour. It will also help in directing the online customers to its online stores.
Introduction
Marketing trends and strategies have experienced massive transformations over the years due to changes that have been taking place in the field of technology. According to Cimpu (2013), technology has redefined the marketing strategies from an inward-out approach where customers had to accept what companies presented to the in the market, to a new system where companies have to deliver what their customers desire. Marketing has changed drastically as firms find themselves in a competitive environment where the market is never guaranteed because they are exposed to very many choices. Technology has reduced the world into a small global village where a firm can operate in any market in the world.
This is the kind of environment that All I Know Is Company finds itself. It is not enough that it has developed a unique market that is not dominated by major players such as Adidas, Nike, and Puma. It must be able to discover the most appropriate marketing trends that will be able to give it leverage in the market. It must find a way of communicating with its target markets with the aim of convincing them to buy this brand.
As Roedy and Fisher (2011) note, customers are always reluctant to accept new brands, especially in an industry that has major brands that have been universally accepted. All I Know Is Company is new and many customers may easily ignore its promotional messages. This means that the strategy chosen should be unique enough to help this firm overcome this barrier. The researcher considered Quick Response Code, popularly known as QR Code as the most appropriate tool to promote the online marketing of this new firm. This method will be supplemented by other popular methods such as social media marketing.
Background of All I Know Is
All I Know Is was founded in 2005 by a group of extreme sport athletes in the Middle East. The group was interested in developing an organization that would help in organizing and hosting extreme sports in the Middle East region. They were also interested in promoting the culture of extreme sports in this region by developing a community of extreme sport athletes or fanatics. This time of sports has not been common in this region, and this federation realized that it was necessary to promote sports for the sake of the fanatics and athletes in this region. It is known to build skate parks and organize skating or BMX competitions and sponsors some athletes. The figure below shows a group of extreme sport athletes who are members of All I Know Is.
After some time, the federation realized that they were struggling to obtain the extreme sporting equipments because most of the local stores did not stock them. The federation ventured into this business, besides organizing and hosting the events. It started the production of the extreme sporting equipments such as skateboards, shoes, t-shirts, caps, among others. The figure below shows some of the products sold by this federation.
This was a big success because the market was not fully covered in this region. As stated in its mission statement, this firm seeks to be the official extreme sports federation in the Middle East, responsible for organizing and hosting all the extreme sports in the region. In its mission statement, it is clear that the federation is determined to promote the culture and community of extreme sporting in this region.
Current Marketing Strategies
When All I Know Is ventured into the business of production of sportswear, it realized that it needed to develop a marketing strategy that would help it reach the target market. It also needed to market the sports itself in this region as most of the people considered it a thing of the West. It was difficult to identify an appropriate strategy that would help this firm achieve its objectives. The marketing unit had to come up with a strategy that would help it reach out to the youths who were their main target market. It was determined that the most appropriate method would be to use the social media marketing to reach out to the targeted group.
Facebook has over one billion followers. In this region, most of the youths have Facebook accounts. This made the Facebook marketing the first marketing strategy that this firm used. Through this, it was able to reach a large number of youths from various countries in the Middle East. Tweeter and YouTube marketing was also used occasionally to widen the market cover. The firm started by promoting its brand. The figure below shows how this federation uses Facebook to promote its brand in the market.
As their brand became stronger in the region, the firm started marketing its products aggressively in this region. Van has been spreading its market coverage and the Middle East was one of the most desirable markets that it had considered. This meant that All I Know Is federation had to find a strategy that would make it succeed in the face of this new competition. The following diagram shows some of the products that this firm promotes in the market.
Although social media marketing helped in promoting the brand and creating awareness in the region, it did not have a direct impact on the sales of the products as the management had expected. This means that there was a need to introduce a new method that would help yield the desired results. QR Code has been considered the most appropriate strategy for this developing firm.
Understanding Quick Response Code
Quick Response Code was developed by Denso Wave in 1994 to help the Japanese car manufacturers track the car parts during their production process. It is a two dimensional code that is designed to be read by an electronic scanner. Many have considered it an advancement of the Universal Product Code which was a one-dimensional bar code with a lesser capacity to carry information. The figure below shows one of the latest versions of this application.
It was important for these companies to monitor every process of the car manufacturing in order to ensure that it was successful and within the world standards. After some time, marketers realized that it had the capacity to help in tracking the behaviour of the customers when they are online. Its use spread very quickly from Asia to Europe and North America. One of the most important features that marketers found to be desirable in this application was that it could easily lead customers to a firm’s website without having to key-in the name of the firm (Weir, 2010).
This meant that it is one of the best applications for new firms that are not known by the customers. The fact that customers can track the behaviour of the customers when they are online is an indication that, it can be used to determine if they are planning to make a purchase. Currently, it is one of the popular marketing applications in the United States and Europe.
How All I Know Is Will Apply the Strategy
According to Weir (2010), marketing is taking a new approach where only the best can survive the competition. This means that firms must be alert and be able to identify some of the emerging trends in the market and determine their appropriateness as soon as they are introduced. If they are suitable, they should be put into application in order to benefit from some of their superior features.
The marketing management unit of All I Know Is should consider using this application to attract customers to its online stores. It is true that social media as helped in promoting this brand. However, what is required at this stage is huge sales in order to make this firm profitable. This application will be vital for this firm in many ways. The marketing team of the firm should use it to determine the consumer behaviour when they are online.
This application will help them determine if the customers are planning to make a purchase of any of the products in their stores. This firm can also use the application to direct the online customers to its online stores where they can purchase the products of this firm. Most of the customers who will be attracted to the website using this strategy will be potential buyers who had shown some intention of making purchases of the products in the online stores.
Benefits of the Strategy
This strategy has a number of benefits that make it an appropriate application for this firm in the market that is becoming very competitive. One of the most important benefits that this strategy has is that, it will help the firm to monitor the consumer behaviour when they are online. This way, the marketing unit can determine some of the products which are popular in the market. The products that customers spend a lot of time analyzing while they are online are definitely preferable to them.
Such products should be strategically located in the website of the firm to make them very conspicuous whenever customers visit the online stores. This will help in identifying some of the cash-cow and star products that this firm should promote in the market. The application will also enable this firm to attract customers to its website without necessarily sending them unsolicited e-mails. It is also important to note that this strategy will have direct impacts on the sales volume, which would lead to high profits for the firm.
According to Waters (2012), sometimes the best way of determining the benefits of a new strategy can be through analysing other firms that have used it. Coca Cola is one of the top brands in the market. The firm’s brand was voted the best in 2009, and it has remained very strong even when the United States was suffering from the 2008 economic recession. It is one of the firms that have been using QR Code to promote their brand and to attract more customers to their products.
Victoria’s Secret is another big brand in the lingerie industry. This industry has become very competitive, and this firm has been struggling to maintain its lead in the market. It recently introduced this strategy in the market as a way of attracting customers to its online stores. According to some of the recent publications about this firm, it has massively expanded its market share in the United States and is expected to expand to other markets.
The popularity of the brand has also improved. This means that its decision to use QR Code application in its marketing strategies has paid off, and this only confirms how beneficial the strategy is to it. In Japan, the large motor manufacturers have actively used this technology to promote their brands in the world market, and improve their sales. Toyota Motors is one of the best known brands in the motor industry today. This success is partly attributed to the fact that they were the first companies to make use of this technology.
Challenges of Using this Strategy
According to Roebuck (2011), some of the new marketing applications are very affective, but they also come with a number of challenges that a firm must be ready to face when using them. One of the challenges is the need to find the right workforce that will be responsible for managing the applications. QR Code is a relatively new application in the market. For this firm to use it properly, it will need the employees with knowledge in its application in marketing.
Getting such an employee in the Middle East can be very challenging. In case such employees are found, the cost of maintaining them within the firm can be very high because other firms will be interested in hiring them. Another challenge of using the application will be the cost of maintaining the system. It can cost this small firm a lot to implement this new technology in terms of the cost of purchasing and maintaining the right software.
Supplementing the Strategy with Other Popular Strategies
According to Stratten (2014), when introducing a new marketing strategy, it is important to ensure that the other alternatives that were being used previously are not ignored. This is important to ensure that the firm does not get adversely affected in case the new strategy fails to yield the desired outcome. As stated previously, All I Know Is has been using social media marketing to promote its brand and products. It has been very active in Facebook marketing as a way of attracting the youths.
Tweeter and YouTube have also been very vital to this firm. It is important that these strategies are not ignored by this firm. They should be used alongside the new strategy of the firm. E-mail marketing is another online marketing strategy that should not be ignored if this firm expects to achieve success in its marketing campaigns. It should hire experts in this field. Finally, it is necessary for the firm to consider using the mass media in the specific countries where it is operating. The strategy will expand the market coverage for this firm. Although they can be expensive, television commercials can be very helpful as a supplementary marketing strategy for this firm.
The Expected Outcome
It is expected that this strategy will help this firm achieve the desired success in the market. Currently, the leading competitor in this industry is Vans. When this application is applied properly, the expected outcome is that All I Know Is will become the leading company in this industry. It will be able to attract potential buyers to its website that will result into increased sales. As Chandukala (2008) observes, this strategy is unique because it enables marketers to monitor the behaviour of the customers in the market. The scholar also says that firms in the current market are forced to embrace an outward-in approach to marketing.
This means that their products should be designed to be in line with the expectations of the customers. Sometimes conducting research to get the needs of the customers in the market can be a tedious and expensive task. In most of the cases, customers do not even understand their own tastes and preferences, which mean that the information they provide is irrelevant. Studying them when they are making their purchases is the best way of determining their needs.
This means that this firm is expected to understand the customer behaviour and needs. This way, it will be easy for it to develop the products which meet these needs. It is important to note that most of the products offered by All I Know Is meet very stiff competition from the products of some of the established brands in the world. Adidas, Nike, and Puma also manufacture and sell sportswear, and their brand is well established in this industry. It is expected that through using this strategy, this firm will be able to entrench this brands and the products in the market to market some of these market leaders.
Conclusion
All I Know Is has developed an ambitious project of producing extreme sportswear in the Middle East market. Its brand is hardly known in this market that is dominated by Vans. However, the recent efforts made by this firm have helped it promote its brand image in the market. Social media marketing has proven to be an appropriate marketing approach that has enabled it’s become a known brand. However, this firm now needs to make sales of its products in order to achieve competitiveness in the market. Using QR Code is the most preferable technique that it can use to achieve the sales volume that it desires.
This application will help it monitor its customers’ behaviour when they are online. This will enable it design its products to be in line with what the customers need. The application will also help the firm to direct the customers to its online stores, the fact that will increase the sales of this firm’s products. This will make the firm more successful.
References
Chandukala, S. R. (2008). Choice models in marketing: Economic assumptions, challenges and trends. Hanover, Mass: Now Publishers, Inc.
Cimpu, O. (2013). R&D for Smart TV. New York: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing.
Roebuck, K. (2011). QR code: High-impact strategies: what you need to know: definitions, adoptions, impact, benefits, maturity, vendors. New York: Cengage.
Roedy, B. & Fisher, D. (2011). What makes business rock: Building the world’s largest global networks. Hoboken: Wiley.
Stratten, S. (2014). QR codes kill kittens: How to alienate customers, dishearten employees, and drive your business into the ground. London: McMillan.
Waters, J. (2012). QR codes for dummies: Portable edition. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Weir, M. (2010). QR codes & mobile marketing for the small business owner: How to quantify your existing customer base and market to them directly using email and SMS texting. New York: M. Weir.