The Marketing and Management in Anisa International Company - Essay Example

Summative Assessment Businesses are revolutionizing to the digital world. Thus, this aspect has thoroughly changed how individual businesses or rather people connect, integrate and collaborate in the business relationships. This is relatively crucial in a connected globe since the businesses require the best tools ever to run their operations. Digitalization in Fashion and Design Businesses Anisa International is among the leading companies in the beauty industry. It produces cosmetics, brush designs among other fashion products. Having been founded in the year 1992, this firm is dedicated to presenting innovative products in the market. Thus, it is socially responsible and supports the entire market in order to ensure that the best products are available in the market. The company uses the most recent technology to run all its operations; every section or rather department of Anisa International has gone digital, starting from the marketing, management, communication and distribution of its products (Yahoo Finance, 2004). To start with, Anisa International, Inc. has gone digital in marketing of its products. There are a number of social websites that have allowed platforms for advertisements and other marketing procedures for various companies. Sites such as Facebook, twitter, YouTube and Google have made it easy and cheaper for business organizations across the globe to effective market their products. For instance, Anisa International has a Facebook page whereby all the news about the new products, changes in the existing products, prices of particular products and general company operations are posted. This style of marketing is somehow effective as it is easily accessible by any individual irrespective of age, gender, race or social class. With the current level of technology, there are hundreds of millions internet traffic daily; people access or rather visit various sites with diverse aims. Thus, for fashion lovers, Facebook pages for famous companies and other fashion websites are their destinations. Information in Anisa’s Facebook pages is accessed or rather read by thousands of individuals daily. Therefore, the company easily spreads the news about its products via this medium. In addition, management of firm’s operations in todays’ world has gone digital. Many organizations have transformed from paper work or rather manual way of transacting and recording information to the digital way of handling all the operations of the companies. For instance, Anisa International, Inc. has all the information about the company’s operations stored and handled electronically. This is made easier through the use of networked computers that are controlled by a central system administrator; every computer in the organization is linked to another computer in the same department or different department depending with how the departments relate. Thus, making follow ups and accessing data or rather information from such systems is relatively easy and faster as it can only be done by a press of a button. Moreover, regulating and coordinating operations is faster since the organization’s management can trace every step it has made in the recent past. This is extremely crucial as it assist to evaluate or assess the firm’s position in relation to the previous years (Hoffmann & Coste-Maniere, 2013). Communication is a crucial aspect in any business or organization as it dictates how effective the firm’s operations are. In the modern society, there are more than enough ways through which businesses or rather individuals in businesses do communicate. Communication might be between the staff, between a sales person and a customer, between the management and the junior staff or between the organization and the target market. Thus, in a market whereby many transactions are digitalized, communication is an essential factor as it will determine the degree or level of sales in an organization at the end of the day. For instance, Anisa International, Inc. has a wider range of online clients whereby it experiences traffic day after day. In most cases, clients or customers make inquiries for a particular product before a final purchase is made. Thus, in order to maintain such customers, the company has an established channel of communication through which it receives emails and other short messages from customers and offers an appropriate feedback via the same channel (Davenport, 2013). This kind of communication facilitates quick transactions, confidentiality and an easy track of transactions in the organization. Therefore, mails and other electronically transferable messages have made it easy for the customers to place orders for particular products at Anisa International. Distribution of products across the globe has greatly transformed as a result of the fast evolving technology. Many business enterprises in the current world engage in online businesses where each and every transaction is settled digitally. With the increase rate of smart cards, master cards and other credit cards in the finance industry, customers have the ability to make purchases from the comfort of their homes (Brynjolfsson & Saunders, 2012). This is facilitated with the increasing commercial websites that sale products on behalf of the companies or rather, many companies have decided to extend their services and sales online. Furthermore, when a purchase is made online, it is the responsibility of the selling company to deliver the requested goods to the client. For instance, Anisa International has an online store where customers can place their bids and requests. Thus, immediately after a client has made a full purchase of the firm’s product, the organization takes the initiative of shipping the bought products to the customer’s respective location. With this easy distribution of products, without the customers necessarily changing geographical location, Anisa International has enlarged its market to many other countries since it does not have to establish a physical store in all the countries; its online store serves. Opportunities for Digital Innovation in the Fashion Industry The fashion industry is growing day after day as people develop various interests and tastes in different classes of products from the fashion and design companies. As the demand for these products increase, companies in such industries have to update their level of innovativeness in order to match the ever increasing demand. For instance, these firms will have to employ new technology that would enable them to produce items which will compete favorably in the fashion markets. In addition, such technology is meant to satisfy various levels of customers’ expectations from the company (Brynjolfsson & Saunders, 2012). Anisa International, Inc. is among the largest fashion and Design Company in the globe. Having ventured in online business, this firm has a number of digital innovation opportunities. To start with, the company has an opportunity of increasing its digital accessibility through development of applications or rather software for mobile devices. Such an application can be designed in a way that it can enable a customer to access all the information about the company’s products, methods of purchase and payments, the credit cards allowed by the firm, the shipping options available to different parts of the world and the level, class and prices for a number of products in the company’s online store. Moreover, these mobile applications can be made available for different brands of mobile devices such as apple products, android products, Microsoft products and even blackberry products. Thus, the applications can be designed with an option of different languages that suits customers or clients from every part of the globe (Davenport, 2013). In addition, Anisa International, Inc. has an opportunity for digital innovation in the credit and master cards section. The company has the potential and ability to come up with its own credit cards and smart cards which can be used by its customers to make quick purchases; whether online or at various retail outlets. The credit cards can be used worldwide and thus supported by various international banks such as Barclays Bank. Due to the rise of digital money transfer sites such as Paypal, Payoneer and Skrill, Anisa International can therefore link its credit cards with any or all the money transfer companies in order to facilitate easy loading and transfer of cash from one’s account to the company in cases where a purchase is made. Thus, these innovation opportunities will enable the company to expand its markets due to quick online transactions and its accessibility to the clients. Current Digital Trends in the Fashion and Design Industry The shopping experience for both retail and digital spheres is now converging with the advancing technological levels. With the pervasive culture whereby everyone has narrowed down to the screens of mobile devices, television programs and bus stops can work as outlets since consumers are ever armed with smartphones and tablets. This embraces the innovation of new applications and technology which has created room for people to browse various collections and opt to shop from wherever location they are; whether at bus stations, work places or from homes. Thus, the ability of the consumers to browse, to shop and to share information about fashion products to anyone irrespective of the location and the interactive displays enhance the accessibility of these products and exposes consumers to s richer experience of fashion brands (Brynjolfsson & Saunders, 2012). Fashion and design shoppers have greater expectations for better products and services since they currently enjoy all round experience in shopping; in both the digital and the physical spheres. Thus, these customers tend to utilize the technology that the many brands of fashion drag to adapt to. In addition, accessibility of the multiple digital channels has led the digital retail to a critical cost whereby the interactive displays alongside the mobile connected stores are now in a position to actualize at a relatively lower cost. Many mobile users for devices such as iPads and android products have bridged the gap between businesses and consumers. Factors Influencing the Fashion and Design Business There are a number of factors which impact on the fashion and design businesses. These factors range from political, environmental, cultures, fashions, aesthetics and the company identity in the market. To start with, environment is a major concern in most societies where production practices are present. A number of potential consumers of the fashion products are concerned with environment of the businesses and the damage it can cause through industrial production. Thus, when coming up with a product, it is wiser to for a business to make sure that the materials used can be recycled or rather the product being manufactured can be produced from a greater portion of recycled materials. Secondly, culture impact on fashion and design businesses. Various products have diverse target groups; different cultures and nations. Thus, a product that is acceptable in a particular culture might be deemed to be offensive or rather less desirable in other cultures. Moreover, fashion of time has a greater impact on the design products. In most circumstances, individuals will always opt to purchase or acquire the most recent products and the latest in the fashion markets (Brynjolfsson & Saunders, 2012). Finally, political stability and perspective on fashion products influences the fashion and design businesses. For instance, the government and legislature forces can come together against a particular fashion product and disapprove of its existence in the market due to certain standards and beliefs of a nation. Leaders in Digital Innovations Polyvore is a leader in digital innovation in the fashion and design industry. This firm has let the whole design and fashion industry become live on a single website as it is the largest fashion destination site across the globe. The company attracts close to thirteen million visitors every month; who use the site to check out the most recent fashion and style. In addition, the firm updates its webpages regularly in order to meet the customers’ or rather the visitors’ demands. Polyvore website gives room for discussion of a given product and a direct purchase when need be. Moreover, this site present monthly comprehensive reports which are forwarded to the company’s retailers; the reports contain the trends, brands and the specific retailers that get or receive many buyers in a given period of time (Beauty Packaging, 2006). Action Plan Anisa International, Inc. has the potential of coming up with a commercial website which can support multiple activities such as business reports, trends in the company’s fashion, latest designs and products, purchases and orders and customer service where need be. Setting up a business website has cost implication. Many businesses have managed to establish and host websites despite the fact that it is not an easy thing (MacDonald, 2011). Thus, it requires an operational implementation strategy since the success of businesses in the modern society fully depends with the firm’s level of technology and innovativeness. The following is a breakdown for creating and hosting a website: Buying a domain name: $ 10 per year Hosting of the web: $15 per month Appropriate software for the site: $400 (DreamWeaver) Advertisement of the site in newspapers, television and magazines: $20. After setting up this website for the business, its implementation is equally crucial as it will determine the traffic of the site. This would take a period of six months since the plan of implementation has to be followed to the latter. The implementation plan for the firm’s commercial website is as follows: 1. Officially launch the website within the organization and let all the stakeholder be aware of its existence. 2. Employ website administrators who will be updating and posting content on the site. 3. Market the website through social media such as Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Google and Yahoo. 4. Create traffic by directing every search, of the company, from the search engines, to the official site. 5. If possible advertise and market the website in television and newspaper by offering discounts for the customers who will purchase a given quantity of products online. 6. All these steps should take utmost six months for the site to be fully active and operational. Reference List BRYNJOLFSSON, E., & SAUNDERS, A. (2012). Wired for Innovation. Massachusetts . MIT Press. Print. BEAUTY PACKAGING. (2006). Top 20 Global Beauty Companies. Beauty Packaging. Retrieved From: http://www.beautypackaging.com/articles/2006/10/top-20-global-beauty-companies DAVENPORT, T. H. (2013). Process Innovation: Reengineering Work through Information Technology. Harvard. Harvard Business Press. Print HOFFMANN, J., & COSTE-MANIERE, I. (2013) Global Luxury Trends: Innovation Strategies for Emerging Markets. Palgrave Macmillan. Print MACDONALD, M. (2011). Creating a Website: The Missing Manual. Massachusetts. O’Reilly Media, Inc. Print. YAHOO FINANCE. (2014). Anisa International Undergoes Significant Expansion, Creates New York Design Incubator. Yahoo. Finance. Retrieved From: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/anisa-international-undergoes-significant-expansion 132800585.html;_ylt=Asfq2dz2WZ.9.Pbht8ofAi_QtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTBsaGVqY3E0BGNvb Read More