Yahoo - Direct Marketing - Research Paper Example

Yahoo! Hands On Case Table of Contents Question 3 Question-2 4 Question-3 6 Question-4 7 8 Reference 9 Question What is the chief advantage of direct marketing? Direct marketing is a process of making direct communication with the target market. With advancement in different forms media such as electronic media and internet it is quite easy for companies to make a direct contact with large number of individuals in a convenient manner. Companies often pay attention to direct marketing because of the advantages associated with it. Few of the advantages have been discussed below: Cost effective: Companies often consider direct marketing as a highly cost effective marketing technique. Through direct marketing companies can directly communicate with the potential customers and motivate them to take required steps like making call to a toll free number or visiting a website so that they can assist the company to raise its revenue. Companies often use filters to identify the target customers so that chances of converting potential customers are high. Often a single successful sale can pay for the cost made for the whole campaign. Hence, effective direct marketing is a cost effective way to market the product and services to the targeted customers. Personal presentation to your market: Through direct marketing the company can convey all the required information regarding products and services to the target customers in a more personalised manner. The customers can clear all their doubts regarding the products and services and hence it is quite easy to inspire them. As compared to other forms of marketing, direct marketing is one of the most personalised and effective one (Baverstock, p.95). High selectivity: Direct marketing is not equivalent to mass marketing. Rather it is more like one to one marketing process. Companies often use sophisticated form of data management tools to identify the target customers who possess specific characteristics. Direct marketing helps companies to focus on these target customers to convey the specific information. Such selective nature enhances the success rate of direct marketing (Baverstock, p.95). Perfect Timing: Direct marketing also helps companies to select the best time for arrival of sales message to the target customers. This further makes the process of marketing more effective (Baverstock, p.96). For example, companies often inform customers about arrival of new collection of designer clothes in their shopping malls in end of November or in early December because this is the time people start their shopping for Christmas. Conveying relevant information to the target people at the right time is the main reason behind the success of direct marketing. Support to other marketing methods: Direct marketing should not be considered as a standalone marketing technique because it provides vital information regarding the market which can be used by other marketing departments. This information assists companies to introduce the required changes in their retail marketing tactics or to modify the website to make it more user-friendly (Baverstock, p.96). Question-2 Is that advantage useful to a Web company like Yahoo! who is trying to reach an audience of teens and tweens? The Web companies like Yahoo! can also use the concept of direct marketing to convey specific information to the target audience. The growing competition in the market provides more choice to the consumers and thus they can easily shift from one product to another or from one service provider to another. Therefore, it is quite essential to add an extra personal touch in the marketing strategy that improves customer loyalty and here is the role of direct marketing. Yahoo!’s present target customer group is teens and tweens who spend a lot of time on internet and other electronic sources. At present Yahoo! is quite popular among its target customers but many of them are not well aware of different services offered by the company. Therefore, Yahoo! can use the concept of target marketing to convey information regarding different services. As compared to mature adults, the teens are curious to explore the world and thus they rely on web to search for the answers. Yahoo! can act as a guide for these teens through direct marketing. Through target marketing the company can develop a strong emotional bond with its target customers and these satisfied customer base can actively participate in word of mouth promotion. At present, the web based companies are facing harsh competition in the market. Rival companies are using different strategies to attract customers. It is really difficult to retain customers for long. There is also a high risk of new entrants because the entry barriers are not that harsh. Therefore, Yahoo! needs to use some innovative marketing strategy to convey its message effectively to the customers. The customer base in the age group of teens and tweens are more interested in developing relation through internet because they do not share a strong bond with their family members. They are more dependent on internet to share pictures, songs, mails, instant messages with friends. Therefore, they spend several hours on internet. Direct marketing will help a company to foster a relation with such users. Once the customers gain confidence on the company, they will pay special attention on the message conveyed through direct marketing. Apart from conveying information to the customers, the company can collect ample information from the customers that can be used by the marketing department. Question-3 Explain your thinking on why or why not the Yahoo! project should include a direct marketing component. Yahoo! project is an innovative one that assists the company to build a healthy relation with the customers. An imaginary character called Dave has already gained popularity among the target customers. Through the new project, called Dave’s site, the company can collect ample information regarding the target customer base. This site will provide an opportunity to analyse customer behaviour in a more diversified manner. This innovative site will have different sections to attract teens and tweens. There will be several platforms through which they can chat, send messages, exchange information, pictures, songs and a lot more. The concept of developing Dave’s site is a direct marketing strategy where companies can convey required message directly to the customer. Through this project, Yahoo! plans to portray Dave as a cool guy among the teens. The character has been designed in such a manner so as to make it the youth icon of the teens. They can ask questions to Dave and get good guidance from him. Similarly, the tweens can share their thoughts and ideas and for them Dave is more or less like a friend. This imaginary character possesses the potential to attract and retain the users of Yahoo! However, there is no such guaranty that with time this character will be successful in maintaining its popularity in the market. Hence, the company should keep introducing required changes in the project to retain its charm among the teens and tweens. Question-4 Which of the various forms of direct marketing seem most appropriate for this client and why? Direct marketing is a broad marketing concept that includes direct mailing, direct selling, telemarketing, automatic merchandise and internet retailing (Kurtz, MacKenzie & Snow, p.446). Depending on the customer requirements and the nature of products and services to be offered, companies decide the most suitable form of direct marketing. While deciding the nature of retail marketing to be used by Yahoo!, the company should analyse all possible forms of direct marketing. Such analysis should help the company to identify the most suitable direct marketing concept for Yahoo! As for example, the concept of direct mailing does not suit the target customer base of Yahoo! The teens and the tweens are not interested in traditional mails. Therefore, direct mail will fail to generate required impact on the target customers. As Yahoo! is not selling any tangible products or any specific service to the customers, for which they have to pay to the company; direct selling exactly makes no sense for Yahoo! The same reason is valid for telemarketing. The company’s revenue is mainly through advertisements which are available on its site, hence Yahoo cannot call the customers to come and visit its site. Therefore, internet marketing is one of the most ideal direct marketing tools to be used by the company. Through internet marketing, the company can adopt relational marketing strategy by developing healthy relation with the customer. Yahoo! can use web based marketing concept to monitor the behaviour of its target customers. Required changes should be made in the company’s web page to make it more attractive and user friendly for the teens and the tweens. Internet marketing is a platform that will enhance the interaction level between the customer and the company and as a result customers will get a fair chance to convey their message directly to the company. Hence it can be concluded that Yahoo! can make its marketing practices more effective by efficient utilisation of direct marketing concept. Reference Baverstock, A. How to Market Books: The Essential Guide to Maximizing Profit and Exploiting All Channels to Market. Kogan Page Publishers. 2008. Kurtz, D. L. MacKenzie, H. F. & Snow, K. Contemporary Marketing. Cengage Learning. 2009. Read More