Integrated Marketing And Communication Plan/Strategy For Online Sports Footwear Business

Mission

Due to dynamic business environment, many organizations are under continuous stress which has directly impacted personal as well as professional life of common individual. So, in order to remove this stress, fitness activities act as one of the best medicine in this world (Darch, West, Winzer & Diggle, 2012). To carry out these activities, sport foot wear plays very important role by offering their comfort service to the user. Almost 60% of Australian population is actively participating in fitness an activity which seems to be best opportunity for this online sports foot wear business flying high (Health, 2017).

Flying high is actually an online sport foot wear small company which is in the service of offering high quality product within affordable price both for men and women (Santomier, 2008). In addition this company also offers varieties in their sports footwear segment such as running shoes, cross trainer, trail running shoes, sneakers and so on.

Flying high company wants to offer high quality footwear in such a range that every single fitness lover can purchase this product without impacting their income budget.

Flying high company is actually dreaming of becoming one of the leading sport footwear companies in Australia by capturing major share of the sports footwear industry market.

Primary objective of this company is to form a strong customer base with the help of their quality products. For every kind of business whether online or offline, stronger customer base is considered as route of expansion. 

Factors which will decide the success of this company will be effective e-marketing strategy, USP and strong availability of related resources. In many cases, it has been seen that even effective marketing plan failed because of lack of resource which usually results in dissatisfaction of potential customers

Strength

Offering large varieties of products on the single platform will be strength of this company. Operating on online platform will help this company in increasing its market reach with cost saving strategy because company does not have to invest in factory and showrooms. This amount company will invest in research and development of the product (Helms & Nixon, 2010). As, products are only visually present so there is no risk related to the unsold products which may be stored in the showroom. Like other stores there is no timing of closing and opening which may hamper the purchase of the product. This company is offering 24/7 service to their potential customers which is not offered by other sports footwear stores.

Vision

Weakness

Potential buyer cannot try the product before they buy the product which limits their power of checking fitness related to that product. Immediate available of product after buying is not possible in this service.

Opportunity

Purchasing behavior of potential customer is trending towards online shopping which is beneficial for this business. In addition almost half population of Australia is showing their interest towards fitness products which seems to be better opportunity (Yuan, 2013). Growth in social media demand is offering this company an additional opportunity to increase their market reach which will ensure the formation of strong customer base.

Threat

Threat related to this business mainly arises from those companies which are already in the market with similar products like athletic shoes. Another threat is related to quality of the product because product will not be manufactured by the company itself which can possible trigger a sense of dissatisfaction among the potential customer which can impact the image of the company in the business market (Van Wijngaarden, Scholten & van Wijk, 2012). 

Political

Australian is having a stable government which is very important for the growth and development of any business. Australian government is investing almost 1.3 AUD on health care of the population. In order to lower down this huge budget, government is focusing their interest in making people aware about the fitness benefit with the help of promotions in terms of fitness related activities and events (Yüksel, 2012). It simply indicates that in coming year’s fitness business will become one of the biggest business market of Australia and this seems to be best opportunity for fly high company to launch their operation in Australia.

Economic

At present Australia is having an economical wealth of almost 8.9 trillion AUD which appears to be good because it display the purchasing power of the citizen. Australia economy is mainly based on three sectors which is service, manufacturing and agriculture in which service sector dominates the two other sector with larger margin (Yüksel, 2012). As the business operation of fly higher is based on service segment, it provides an additional advantage to this business pattern.

Social

Australia population is a mix culture which involves individual from all religions and race. At present Australia is considered as one of the most educated country which has triggered their social responsibility towards community. As per study social responsibility seems to be emotionally connected to the citizen of the Australia and by offering high quality shoes in low price will help this fly high online footwear business to connect with the emotional aspects of the citizen which will help in forming exclusive image in the market.

Objective

Technological

Australia has emerged as one of the most innovative country on the global platform because this country is investing almost 30 billion AUD every year on research and development which is considered as backbone of the any innovation. Australian citizen believes that it is the technology which is making their life making their life easier by offering all kind of service that are associated with day today life. Even, Fly high companies business is also based on technology in the form of online sports footwear service.

Environmental

Due to global warming, the law related to emission has become very strict in which heavy penalty is being imposed by the government (Issa, Chang & Issa, 2010). As this fly high business is offering online service which has not manufacturing part in their operation so this business seems to be free for such threat and even will get full support from the present government.

Legal

Legal aspects plays important role for the progress of any business. Business law related to Australia is very flexiable and are in full support of service industry. As this business is associated with the service industry, legal aspects act as additional advantage for the growth of this business. Recently the country has favoured new free trade policy which will surely provide a better platform for this kind of business. In addition government is aware about the growth of online business and hence are looking for rebit on the taxes applied on e-commerace business in Australi because this segment is actually offering lot of job opportunities for the youth and government is also using cloud base system to provide full security to these types of business from online theft and  frauds 

In order to provide this business a unique identity in the business market, the management will make use of E marketing or it can be said that management of fly high will take help of digital marketing platform. This platform will offer two types of benefit to this online footwear business, one is extensive market reach and other is cost efficiency. The management wil make use of diogital marketing tools mainly company website, Social media page and Blog.  Primary, the company will display their presence in the form of website, which will include details information about the company, product line, availible varities, apealing image and videos (Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014). In addition this website will also include selecting and payment mode related to the product. On this website the company will aslo display the recent events in which they have formed partnership and their future plan in fornt of potential customers. The company will create Facebook page, Instagram page which are very famous youth population of Australia. On this social media page, the company will upload picture and small videos related to their products and link them with fitness associated products. Here, the company will chose those images and videos which will these products as best option to purchase in affordable price which is usually the dream of every sports lover that are not financially that much capable (Kannan, 2017). In addition to this the company will link blog with company original website which they will use as a mode of spreading information related to the products. One of the best advantage which this Blog will offer is two way communication between provider and potential customer because it allows the potential customer to present their view in the form of  perception, their preference and style which is not available on other marketing tools. 

Platform	Reach	Frequency	Cost
Social media page (Facebook, instagram)	Will cover 70% of population	Four post daily	AUD 50,000
CompanyWebsit and Blog	Will cover 30% of population	Two post daily	AUD 35,000

As the company is in their initial stage, this strategy will help the company in aline their product with the market need through their fast and extensive customer reach. This feature of e-marketing will help the company in create an exclusive image in the target market within short span of time because around half of the population of world is on social meda and its presence is increasing every day.

Conclusion

In this world of fitness lover, Flyhigh online footwear company will act as one of the best option to fulfill the need of many individuals which are not financially strong but have great inclined towards fitness events. This company objective is to fulfill the dream of high quality product in low cost in expensive country like Australia. 

References

Darch, S. E., West, S. A., Winzer, K., & Diggle, S. P. (2012). Density-dependent fitness benefits in quorum-sensing bacterial populations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(21), 8259-8263.

Health. (2017).  Research and Statistics [online]. Retrieved from: https://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/health-pubhlth-strateg-active-evidence.htm

Helms, M. M., & Nixon, J. (2010). Exploring SWOT analysis–where are we now? A review of academic research from the last decade. Journal of strategy and management, 3(3), 215-251.

Issa, T., Chang, V., & Issa, T. (2010). Sustainable business strategies and PESTEL framework. GSTF International Journal on Computing, 1(1), 73-80.

Kannan, P. K. (2017). Digital marketing: A framework, review and research agenda. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34(1), 22-45.

Santomier, J. (2008). New media, branding and global sports sponsorship. International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, 10(1), 9-22.

Shilei, L., & Yong, W. (2009). Target-oriented obstacle analysis by PESTEL modeling of energy efficiency retrofit for existing residential buildings in China’s northern heating region. Energy Policy, 37(6), 2098-2101.

Tiago, M. T. P. M. B., & Veríssimo, J. M. C. (2014). Digital marketing and social media: Why bother?. Business horizons, 57(6), 703-708.

Universities Australia. (2018). OPINION – Our R&D plea to business and government: hear the alarm bells [online]. Retrieved from: https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/Media-and-Events/media-releases/OPINION–Our-R-D-plea-to-business-and-government—-hear-the-alarm-bells#.XHTsCogzbIU

Van Wijngaarden, J. D., Scholten, G. R., & van Wijk, K. P. (2012). Strategic analysis for health care organizations: the suitability of the SWOT?analysis. The International journal of health planning and management, 27(1), 34-49.

Yuan, H. (2013). A SWOT analysis of successful construction waste management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 39, 1-8.

Yüksel, I. (2012). Developing a multi-criteria decision making model for PESTEL analysis. International Journal of Business and Management, 7(24), 52