Click Frenzy Australian Online E-commerce Event - Case Study Example

Topic: Brand Management Name: Lecturer: Course name: Course code: Date: Click Frenzy Click Frenzy is an Australian online e-commerce event that offers exclusive special 24 hour retailing service. Click Frenzy simplify an advertising board for the exclusive specials that retailers will be offering to customers over the 24 hours while the interested customers are redirected by the by the e-commerce website to the option of click to buy. Consumers who are willing and interested in purchasing the special offers must register the details in the site to be allowed to access the site. Click Frenzy offers marketing exposures to the retailers by allowing them to include their retail business with ecommerce. Also, they expose retailers to more business perspectives by subjecting the retailers to wide listing of comparable products. The source of Click Frenzy The idea of Click Frenzy was a scheme of Power Retail which was similar to Cyber Monday from the US. Cyber Monday transpires a day after the thanksgiving and online offers to US shoppers for 24-hour sale to purchase of several products at condensed prices. Click Frenzy was designed with the view of America's Cyber Monday figures representing their total 24 hour turnover of $ 1.25 USD (Temporal, 2011). The growth in the number of retailers and online shoppers anticipates success of Cyber Monday. The successful procedure of Cyber Monday since 2006 gave Grant Arnnot a reason to apply the event in Australia with hopes of success as Australia's first true online flash sale. Question Two Consumer’s decisions on making a buying decision on the product and services Consumers make purchase decisions when they buy products or services. The consumer decision-making process entails four steps that consumers go through when making decisive options on buying a good or service. A marketer has to deeply understand these steps in order to facilitate consumers move towards the product and close to selling by guiding the marketers to comprehend consumer’s needs and effectively communicate on them. Need Recognition Need recognition reflect a state when the consumer is attributed with a difference between an actual product/ service desired and available product, when the customer realises the need of having certain product (Girden, 2001), the marketers need to create an imbalance in consumers between the preferred products and the present products. The marketers should affect the need of consumers from searching out and buying a product or service Information Search Subsequently the consumer developed a need, he should commence an information search on diverse alternative selections that they can acquire to satisfy their need the mos (Wagner, 2009)t. Click Frenzy marketers should have a procedural scheme to analyse the divergent consumer need to enhance sufficient changes in customers’ needs. Evaluation of Alternatives and Purchase After consumers have procedurally recognized his/her need, conducted an information research and created an absolute decision, they shall make a decision based on their findings. To make a final decision, consumers habitually decide on one a product basing on its importance. The last part of this step is the consumer’s decision on whether to buy the product/service or not. Post-Purchase Behaviour After a consumer decision on buying the product, He/she expects great satisfaction on his decision of purchase (Wayne D. Hoyer, 2008). In case the consumer is not fully satisfied on his selection, the consumer can demoralize other from buying the product or service or as well he can return the product. Click Frenzy marketers ensure that their consumers are absolutely satisfied and that they should not develop any negative post-purchase attributes. Question 3 a.) Positioning of Click Frenzy- Positioning refers to a process of creating the image of the brand in the customer’s minds. Product positioning facilitates creation of an impression of the brands amongst the consumers. Click Frenzy position their products strategically to mentor their consumers in making clear imaging of their products online (William M. Pride, 2011). Click Frenzy facilitated their product positioning among their customers through the following steps, i.) Having knowledge on the target audience- Click Frenzy marketers identified their market audience and have a deep understanding on their preferences and to satisfy their demands. ii.) Product features identification – Click Frenzy are well aware the features and benefits of their product. This features and benefits enhance great understanding on the marketing skills. iii.) Maintenance of the brand position- Frenzy effected their positioning by living up of the consumers’ expectations. This was achieved through non-compromising the product quality and sustenance of the required brands. iv.) Promotion of brands- Click Frenzy utilizes online theme of advertising their products with unique trademarks and well represented details of the product. b.) Target market Click Frenzy targeted market is majorly on the shoppers (consumers) and retailers. The system enhances the marketing of the retailer’s products and affects their sells while subjecting the products to consumers only left with an option of clicking to buy the goods available. Click Frenzy register retailers online to enable them join their online sales as well as facilitating registration to enable them access the online goods from different retailers. c.) Points of parity and points of difference Point of parity- refers to a point of advantage that a competitor has over the business, and it need to be counteracted to facilitate better business performances. Frenzy would have complete market dominance when it nullifies the advantage that a competitor has over it. Point of Difference- refers to something that makes a difference from the business competitors (Mark S. Glynn, 2012). This distinctive difference gives customers the reason to buy the business product or service rather than the business competitors. d.) Competitive frame of reference It simply defines the market the business competes in. Click Frenzy faces an online competitive frame of reference. Click Frenzy compete with the other online system markets and the system would consider adopting creation of point of parity or point of difference in order gain the competitive advantage of the other online competitors. Impacts of frame reference for positioning The frame reference defines the need of product positioning. Since it reflects the market competitors, frame reference induces the measure taken to enhance the business competitive advantage and broaden the number of customers (Kapferer, 2008). Competitive frame reference causes the business to take measure that facilitates advantage over its competitors. Question 5 a.) Click Frenzy‘s sources of brand equity b.) Individuals and organizations All definitions of Click Frenzy typically depend on brand knowledge structures in consumers’ minds. In other words, the true brand power constitutes thoughts, images, feelings, experiences, beliefs, attitudes exist in the minds of consumers. This brand knowledge influences consumers’ response to prices, products, channels, communications, and other marketing activities by decreasing or increasing brand value (Jamal, 2009). All information types come in terms of associations sets to the consumer brand memory. Besides, brand knowledge is a network memory model of network nodes and links. c.) Brand awareness The essential elements of brand knowledge are brand image and brand awareness. Brand awareness relates to brand node strength or trace in memory seen in the consumers' ability to recognize or recall the brand under diverse conditions (Halstead, 2006). The breadth of brand awareness influences consumption and purchase circumstances in which the brand is imagined. Brand image affects consumer perceptions and preferences reflected in various brand linkages held in consumers' memory like strength, uniqueness, abstractness, and positivity. d.) Advertising In relation to customer-based brand equity dimension, the passive approach to brand equity evaluates possible sources for brand equity by linking to brand knowledge with regard to advertising (Gordon T. Brand, 2004). The passive approach employs personal selling, social media, electronic and print media. They optimize several aspects of brand knowledge thus causing the differential response that develops marketplace brand equity. One measure may capture one aspect of brand knowledge while multiple measures accounts for the multiple dimensional state of brand knowledge. b.) Assessing the level of brand awareness The different methods to evaluate consumer knowledge depend on potential sources of brand equity. Since it is essential to capture the depth and breadth of awareness; favorability, strength, and exceptionality of brand linkages; the consumer response favorability and the activity and intensity of consumer loyalty. It employs quantitative and qualitative measures. Successful brand management needs indulgent consumers thinking, feelings, and actions towards brands (Dhar, 2007). Identifying appropriate measure relies on the relative significance of brand awareness for categorical consumer behavior in the resulting roles. For instance, research reveals that consumer decisions constitute point-of-purchase like brand name, packaging, and logo. As a caution, brand recall can be viewed as less significant when consumer decisions occur at the point-of purchase. Consumers' brand choices and evaluations depend on what is recalled about the brand. Question 6 Click Frenzy did a good job in managing its visitors and customers The emergence of disastrous online sale made new promises amaze the consumer population with discounts range of 60-90% of potential shoppers and participating retailers. A myriad of opportunities point to Social media as mega phonic, when angry shoppers using Twitter hash tag dubbed Click Frenzy as Click Fail in an attempt to sign onto the dreary sale website on end (Davies & Fitchett, 2007). For the meantime, large retailers like Dick Smith, Myer, and Harvey Norman had their websites falling over bottlenecks. In an effort to stage its guerrilla sales event in department stores using guerrilla tactics to rival suppliers on Click Frenzy overloads the system, rendering the site inaccessible to visitors and customers for hours. Technical experts have been denounced by Click Frenzy organizers and retailers for undermining software and technology platforms as incompetent of managing the demand. Others questioned the trick to access details of millions of potential shoppers to obtain advertising revenue (College, 2012). The sites gear up to sustain more than a million visitors on a 24-hour session. Some retailers experiencing confusion say that sales directly and indirectly raise online sales through the power of marketing. Retailers like Woolworths, Catch-of-the-Day, and Windsor Smith feel that the website’s failure motivates potential shoppers to look for alternative bargains. Question 6 Social Media impact the reputation of Click Frenzy Click Frenzy receives positive responses from visitors and retailers over phenomenal sales. Social media like Google, twitter and face book has skyrocketed sales. There is a 550 per cent increase in sales with the trend suggesting similar sales number in a 24 hour period. Social media has brought over seventy-five per cent of most visitors to a new site, thus boding well for prospective sales centred on key holiday period (Blythe, 2008). Managing risks of promoting high-profile events give rise to customer and client expectations. Shoppers who want genuine sales are wary of rising cases of fakes. Without proper management, social media is the worst menace, specifically during a crisis. It limits the potential of quick fix in the digital world execution. Question 8 How can retailers prepare for Click Frenzy Preparing for a successful point for Click Frenzy, retailers and customers require activity and broad market awareness that can be generated in a short time (Bloch, 2009). Retailers and brands signing up to the event has leveraged Click Frenzy to sign up, and brands rub thousands of customers to the site. This further supports the general belief that consumers adoring a sale searches far and wide for a superior bargain. With no specific metrics released, huge volumes of traffic results in the site crashing. This is a promising sign of prospective future success for new retailers requiring one-off sales events. Question 9 Building a strong brand online Building a brand online boosts awareness and builds the reputation of Click Frenzy. People investing in online brands have higher chances of seeking it out and staying loyal. Research the audiences help to build a brand online by creating clear understanding of the audience. Research tools allow prospective customers to learn more on products and services (Belch, 2010). The data should capture audience, including gender, marital status, age, locale, and household income. It is advisable to give a brand a voice by determining what audiences need to hear, and the message to pass across. Balance online media mix does well in building brand via multiple channels. Employing content networks and display to build the brand by repetition get adverts out in front of the target audience. Methods like site specific targeting, behavioral targeting, and re-messaging help to create consistent messaging in the entire buying cycle. It allows consumers to recognize and recall the online brand by Click Frenzy. It allows clarity of choice when customers prepare to make a purchase (Alice M. Tybout, 2011). Planning the social media integration depends on what the brand says or does online, types of interactions with consumers in the Click Frenzy business. Finally, building up the reputation online optimizes the strategy for reaching the audience. Question 10 What do you think are the future branding challenges and opportunities for Click Frenzy There will be a reactive approach to brand developments that elicit re-branding of Click frenzy products and services. Accountability misses in the branding initiatives since no formal metrics influences the branding initiatives effectiveness such as public relations, advertising, direct marketing, , and web activity. Many companies make false marketing starts since they cannot bring branding initiatives to conclusion. They start strong but lose focus in the event leading to lengthy process involvement or delegating to unqualified persons. Failure to construct the ‘Who Are We Today’ Syndrome undermines the core brand foundation on Click Frenzy (Aggarwal, 2008). Branding initiative needs re-thinking of the company’s position, core focus, key values, and image. Companies in unhealthy competition destroy reputation and success of other businesses. Again, competitors using price-cutting tactics in commodity business essentially buys market share on perceived value hence getting driven out of the business. Click Frenzy branding may be a necessary evil but not worthy to take it as irrelevant in the industry. These are casualties of poorly implemented marketing or bad marketing options. It is not good to make an assumption that everybody knows the product or service. Name recognition to a company is those who have been in operating in a business for a longer period of time (Aaker, 2005). Unrealistic Expectations give rise to the complaint and dissatisfaction which hinders accountability. The greatest reason for branding failures is the lack the resolve to remain on the course. Many organizations reiterate on selling as opposed to branding. This needs a capable sales team to drive opportunity of every client. 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