Executive Summary
From the findings of the Digital Marketing concept, this report aims to provide a clear understanding of the current scenario of the marketing efforts by analyzing digital channels of the business. Website and social media have been used as an analysing tool to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of the Australia Natural Care and its competitor Nature’s Way. To measure the efficiency and effectiveness of digital channel, scholarly justifications have been provided. Throughout the report many things have been taken into consideration, the comparison table shows how Australian Natural care is better then Narure’s Way. In the recommendation section SMART objective have been provided along with one value proposition.
Introduction
This report is focused on analyzing the effectiveness and efficiency of the Digital marketing channels for Australia Natural Care and its competitor Nature’s Way. For the Websites and Social Media, analysis criteria are set out in accordance with the target market and consumer behavior towards the companies. In section 3, analysis of digital channels for Nature’s Way are analysed with the help of one of the key value propositions. In order to pin the areas of improvement, a comparison table is done will show the weaknesses and strengths of Australia Natural Care. Areas of improvements are converted into recommendations in the last part of this report. Digital channels refer to companies using social websites like Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, youtube and Instagram. There are other digital marketing channels as well like search marketing, display advertising that is used to generate traffic on social websites. They are also important for analysis but they should be considered into a more extensive analysis.
Australian Natural Care
Australian Natural care is one of the leading supplement and vitamin online supplier in Australia. All of its products are manufactured in Australia and it is running its operations from the last 25 years. It is not just the convenience that customer will get but also the certainty about the vitamin products customer will have. Expert advice is provided by the company to the customers about which product will be more beneficial for their health. To ensure the delivery of the product, company dispatches the order on the day when the order is placed so that customer will get the order a as early as possible. Australian Natural care started out as a small store in a quite street on Bayron Bay in 1989. The founder of this company was involved in the study and research of vitamins and supplements for nearly 20 years with a clear objective to provide good quality vitamins and supplements that will fulfill the needs of the consumer and let them stay healthy. One of his belief was prevention is better then cure, he observed that the diet taken by Australians is not enough to make them on the top of their health peak. He always believed to keep the range of the product simple and effective. Company currently have 30 call centers with excellent personnel like nephropathy, whose main objective is to provide better assistance and advice to the customers. The level of service provided by Australian Natural care cannot be compared to anyone. One of the key strength of the company lies in its delivery network, the time customer places an order on the same day company dispatches the order so that customer will get the order as soon as possible that he or she will not have to wait, ANC customers can learn anything that is related to the health care and supplements. The feedback provided by the customers shows that the company’s customers are well educated and they are more interests in providing the feedback on what they want to see in the company products. Company believes that more a customer knows about his or her health, more are his or her chances that they will improve their health status.
Nature’s Way
Nature’s way is another supplier that delivers Vitamins and supplemental in Australian market. Main objective of the company is to increase the sales and pose high competition to other suppliers of the same industry. They oeffer multi products in different age groups like they offer products for kids as well as for other age groups. Health advice is provided by the health advisers employed in the company.. The product line of Nature’s way includes individual vitamins and nutrients as well as nutritious oils like coconut and flax. These are created using only the finest ingredients to ensure the usage will give benefits in all terms. The first major supplement company to be certified as an organic food processor, Nature’s Way was the first to bring clinically proven European phyto medicines to the market. Nature’s Way today offers more than 500 premium nutritional and natural products containing herbs, vitamins, minerals and other specialty products. Nature’s Way keeps innovating, working to bring the best health products to the market at the best prices, with top sellers including their Alive! line of vitamins and their EFAGold Coconut Oil.
Digital Channel Analysis Criteria
In simple words, channel attribution analysis answers the most pertinent question that every digital marketer has in his mind – “What part of my marketing efforts, should be credited for this specific sale?” Hence, connecting marketing spends and efforts with the sales made, is marketing attribution. Working out which channels of marketing contributed to what portion of the total sales is channel attribution analysis.
Digital marketers always want to know how each marketing dollar performs and how it translates into sales. So, any technique that can help them understand this mystery so that they can spend their budgets wisely is welcomed. Earlier, they used results from various analytics platforms or some customized solutions built in-house, but today channel attribution analysis has become a science and requires special expertise due to the high complexity. Multiple digital channels (display advertising, search advertising, affiliate advertising, website, mobile site, mobile app). Multiple media (online, offline, mix). Multiple screens (mobiles, tablets, desktops, kiosks). Multiple sales channels (online, mobile, in-store, events). The customer journey and path to purchase is highly intricate as they follow multiple channels, media, and screens to make that final purchase. It is very important for marketers to accurately give credit where it’s due. The area of channel modeling is still in the evolving stage and there are various techniques that analysts utilize to arrive at the golden numbers. Here are some of the popular techniques used.
Last-click model: This is a single touch-point model where the credit for the purchase is given to the online customer touch point from which the click-to-purchase occurred.
First-click/First touch-point model: This is also a single touch-point model where the credit for the sale is given to first identifiable click or ad impression/view recorded for a customer.
Average allocation model: This is the multi touch-point model where equal credit is given to all the recorded touch-points.
U-shape model: In this multi touch-point model higher credit is given to the touch-points at the beginning and the end of the customer journey.
Time decay model: In this model more credit is given to the touch-points at the end of the customer path to purchase.
In order to obtain information about any consumer goods or services, the internet is one of the biggest avenues used for this purpose. It is vital for the companies to effectively convey their message by using the appropriate marketing channel. For an online service provider companies like Australia Natural Care, it is very important to provide the service that is according to the needs of the consumers in order to maximise consumer experience and consumer engagement. In companies like Australia Natural Care, preparation of an effective marketing plan will help them increase their customers and this will enable them with its current position in the market and will identify the weak spots for the company so that they can be overcome, improved upon in future. It is essential to consider the needs and wants of the consumers in order to analyse the analysis criteria for this report to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the digital marketing channel.
Target Market
Breaking of a market into small segments and then concentrating on one or multiple segments, whose demands and needs are related to the product or service the company is offering is termed as target market. It has been found that more than 60% population in Australia uses some sort of supplements in their daily life. Australian medicine industry reported that they have generated $4.7 billion revenue in 2016 (Bullen, 2017). In Australia, vitamin and supplement industry is a big business. The industry is growing with the increasing rate of 12% every year and one of the reports from National Institute of Complementary medicine shows that Australian spent four times more on pharmaceutical products (Rourke, 2013). Most of the supplements and vitamins consumed by the people with age more than 70 years.
Source (Australian Bureau of Statistics)
Target Market Behavior
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Most of the dietary supplements and vitamins consumed in Australi are used by females in order to get good body shape, while the ratio of men of using vitamins is less (40%).
Australian Burea of Statistics
Most of the vitamins and supplements used by different age groups have been shown in the above pie chart. It has clearly be seen that 40% use of supplements are used by people who are over the age of 70 years and after that major use of vitamins are by consumers in age between 51 to 70 years (30%), 18% is the percentage of the consumers between the age of 31 to 50 (Adults) and 12% aer the consumers who aer in age of between 19 to 30 years.
Social Media
Australia has been ranked as 5th highest internet penetration in the world (Neilson, 2012). The younger generation is higher users of the internet. The figure below depicts five main social media platforms that are used by Australians in 2018.
| 15,000,000 active users | |
| Youtube | 15,000,000 Users |
| 9,000,000 Users | |
| WordPress | 5,700,000 Users |
| Linked In | 4,200,000 |
Source (Civic web media)
Android cell phones have a high impact on consumer behaviour, now they can access the internet at any time at any place. The number of active users for Facebook has come down to 15 million as it was 17 million in 2017. But still, it is one of the biggest social application used by Australians. On Facebook the traffic is not that much on the official page of Australian Natural care, likes are on average 50. Although Instagram account seems more effective than Facebook. The number of followers are 10.7K and average likes they get are 200. Although it seems that facebook is not that much important in the Australi, the use of instagram has replaced the use of facebook. Instagram offers more unique features then faecbook but one aspect of facebook makes it still on the top and that is voice and video calling that has not yet been introduced in Instagram.
Website
An effective digital experience is the one that is satisfactory and relevant to the audience and adds a value to the brand. There are certain aspects of the website that the company should maintain like search engine optimization, responsiveness, content, access, research and design (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick 2016).
Criteria
Social Media |
|
| Platform | Is the content delivered on the right platform? |
| Content | Is the content relevant to the target market? |
| Interaction | Does the company reply to the comments? |
| Dynamics | Does the company use live videos and images? |
Website |
|
| Content | Is content available on the website? |
| Performance | Is it optimized for mobile, what is its speed, where does the traffic come from? |
| Usability | Is website can easily be used? |
| Service | Do they respond quickly? |
Competitor Analysis: Nature’s Way
Website Analysis
Content
The homepage of Nature’s way shows up as a normal homepage of an online supplement company. It doesn’t show flashes and rotating pictures. In terms of key audience value, the information on the products available on the website is extensive. The displays of the images are very bright. Just to give it a catchy look the design of the website should have been different. At the bottom of the page, every query that comes into the mind of the reader is already there. The presentation of the website should have different. All the information and FAQ’s are given at the bottom of the page. Most of the reviews about the company’s products are excellent (According to Trustpilot.com). In conclusion, the website shows efficient knowledge, effective price, good quality products but the presentation of the website is not that good that it should have been. One of the interesting thing that one can easily see is there is not introduction of the company given on the website that is quite surprising. If someone ants to see the histry and introduction about the company, first thing he or she will do is to look for the introduction tab in the website, if not available this will pose as a bad image in the mid of the consumer.
Performance
Overall website score on website.grader.com is 64, which shows it’s an average website that needs a lot of improvements in different areas. The figure below shows the visualization of the website.
The main strength of the website lies in the use of information of different products along with the dimensions of the product images. Speed can be improved with the help of consistent URL for minimizing redirects. The page size of nature’s way is too large and it has a lot of requests too. They should lighten the size of the website by compressing heavy images. It is optimized for cell phones. One can easily access the website from his or her cell phone. The traffic sources for the website mostly comes from the search engine. Bounce rate for the website is 70% that indicates that consumer that opens up this website would leave the website after visiting one page. This reveals the engagement to be increased from the outset.
Usability
Usability of the website is very difficult. If you want to place your order you have to go through different pages. Start by clicking the product portfolio, then selecting the product, then looking for how to pay, things get difficult to do the way you proceed towards your order placing.
Service
Customer who access the website and have some queries to be solved but there is no FAQ page to assist customers. This imposes a negative impact on the customer by the company website. Which surely is not in the best interest of the company.
Social Media Analysis
Platform
| Handle | Followers | Posts | |
| @natureswayaustralia | 27,794 | 400 | |
| @natureswayoz | 8268 | 397 | |
| Youtube | @natureswayaustralia | 183,260 | N/A |
There was no twitter account owned by the company, from the statistics obtained from the social websites of Nature’s Way. It has clearly be seen that on facebook they are not highly active and do not respond as quickly as they should have. It has written that they will reply any query within some hours. A company like this cannot afford to lose a customer who needs an instant feedback from the page admin. For queries there is no FAQ page in the website, if they have any query first thing consumer will do is to look for something on the facebook page if he or she did not get any reply from the admin, a company will lose the customer which surely is not what company wanted. By looking at the Instagram account they have been engaged in many social activities, spreading out motivational quotes and messages along with the displaying their own products.
Content
The value of journey is not present in different social websites although they have been involved in different encouragement activities, food truck wa one of those activities carried out in the past. They effectively try to get in touch with a maximum audience as they can with the help of motivational quotes.
Dynamic
Company social media shares videos and images on almost every second of the week but they never go live on Instagram. Nature’s Way Instagram posts are as follows
Interaction
To most of the customers they do not give replies, but to some they do. This is inefficient from the company’s point of view. They should know that every customer is important for the business. This makes customers feel unvalued which should not be in the best interest of the company.
Company Analysis
Website Analysis
Content
The homepage of Australian Natural Care shows a variety of different colours, the use of rotating screens is effective as it appeals the customer.
Above figure s
Above figure shows the homepage of Australian Natural Care website, on can easily see everything that he or she regarding supplements and vitamins or any other product category they are looking is available under a particular bar. The use of “Leave a message ” at the right middle side of the website creates a positive image in the mind of the consumer. The reviews on the top right side of the website enable a consumer to look for the reviews that the consumer of their products has written. We often listen that the first impression is the last impression. The first impact of the website goes into the mind of the customer as positive. The availability of information on the products along with the price and free delivery service makes a consumer visit and buy the products more and more. One can also see the blogs written on different products of Australian Natural Care.
Performance
The overall performance of the website is 92% which is an excellent performance. The performance of the website is evaluated by (website.grader.com). Performance rate is 22/30 which clearly shows the excellent performance of the company and its image in the industry.
The page size is less than 3 Mb but because of the high page requests, it does affect the performance of the company. It can be reduced by combining files to minimize the number of HTTP requests that the website makes. One of the main weakness that slows down the website is the use of high-quality images and videos. If they compressed these images and files then the speed can be increased. The strength of the website lies in its effective use of styles and serving sources from the consistent URLs. Headings, page titles and meta descriptions make the SEO of the website effective.
Most of the traffic comes from the search engine. The audience views at least two pages of the website when they open up its link. When the website tested on the Apple safari al the contents of the website were working properly.
Usability
The website has a very simplest way that is used by the consumers to place an order. This is one of main difference that it has with Nature’s Way. To purchase a product user don’t have to scroll down anything, he or she has to click a product that he wants to purchase and make a payment of the product, free shipping will be provided by the company. Latest mode of payment are used. Payment mode is up to the consumer’s choice.
Service
Services have always been the top priority of the company. T pays a lot to focus on this side which is why they have retained their customers so effectively. If the consumer has any query related to the product he can contact the company through various sources like email, in person, on call or via personal message. There’s a particular department that has one sole purpose to work on the query of the consumers and resolve it as soon as possible.
Social Media Analysis
Platform
| Handle | Followers | Posts | |
| @AustralianNaturalcare | 23,898 | 800 | |
| @ausnaturalcare | 10.7K | 177 |
Australian Natural care uses mostly those social media that is widely used by Australian like Instagram and Facebook. They have continuously stay updated on these media sites. Although they have not yet entered into the world of Youtube and Twitter. Facebook and Instagram allow direct communication with the consumers.
Content
On Instagram, their official page shows a lot of valuable information regarding the advantages of their products as well as other things like why vitamin D is important for one’s life. They often share recipes to make one stay healthy and fit. One of the most interesting thing that has been observed in Facebook and Instagram is they continuously tell their audience about what to do in different situations like what to do if your sugar level is low or what er the things that are lower in sugar.
Dynamics
The Facebook page of Australian Natural care has posted pictures mostly in the last couple of years.
The images and videos posted on the facebook account appeals the customers and develop their interest in the company’s products. Their page heavily features high-quality images.
Interaction
It has been seen in most of their posts that they do really appreciate the feedback coming from the consumers and also appreciate any suggestion that is coming from theirs. It does not matter that the suggestion is on the product basis or anything. They respect everyone’s views and do their best to keep everyone happy.
Comparison Table
| Criteria | ANC | Nature’s Way | |||||||||
| Strengths | Weaknesses | Strengths | Weaknesses | ||||||||
WEBSITE |
|||||||||||
| Content | |||||||||||
| Excellent quality of products. Quality not quantity. | No introduction of the company on the website. | ||||||||||
| To the point information. | High-quality pictures | Website Outlook | |||||||||
| Positive Reviews. | No FAQ’s tab | ||||||||||
| Eye-catching style. | |||||||||||
| Performance | |||||||||||
| Overall score 92. | Overall Score is 64. | ||||||||||
| Performance 22/30 | Performance 19/30 | ||||||||||
| Page size 2.9Mb | 114 Page Requests | SEO score 25/30 | Page Size 4.5 Mb | ||||||||
| SEO score 30/30 | |||||||||||
| 3.4 Speed | |||||||||||
| Usability | |||||||||||
| Easy to use | Difficult to use. | ||||||||||
| Easy to gain information on the company. | Easy to gain information on the company. | ||||||||||
| Service | |||||||||||
| FAQ’s | Slow reply | No FAQ’S | |||||||||
SOCIAL MEDIA |
|||||||||||
| Platform | |||||||||||
| Facebook & Instagram | No Twitter | Facebook
Youtube |
No Twitter | ||||||||
| Content | |||||||||||
| CSR activities. | Value of journey is not present. | ||||||||||
| Events
Motivation Messages Valuable Healthy information. |
|||||||||||
| Interaction | |||||||||||
| Excellent Response rate.
Encourages Suggestions |
Okay, Response rate. | Generic Response rate. | |||||||||
| Dynamic | |||||||||||
| Excellent style | |||||||||||
Recommendations
Analysis fromteh previous section reveals that Australian Ntural care has an effective Digital marketing channel but there are certain aspects could be improved. The main concern for the company is to deliver high quality supplements and vitamins on the door step of the consumers and reatain them. The overall objective of the company is to retain thei rcoustomers, provide excellent quality products, increase the preference towards their product in the market and increased sales. The 5s objective model of Austalian Natural Care for next 6 month is ven below;
- Sell : From female buyers, generate more sales.
- Serve: On facebook and Instagram respond quickly.
- Speak : Establish meaningful conversation with custoemrs that will lead to a dialogue.
- Save : Advertise most important products on Instagram and facebook without increasing the cost on distribution so that sales can be increased.
- Sizzle : Develop an online value proposition by offering customers something extra then the product. It could be free tips along with free delivery that is already provided by the company. Ask on weekly basis for the reposne from the product use.
With respect to SMART framework, three of above objectives can be justified in according to the customer engagement, experience and value. Initial objective is to increase the sales from the females with the help of high marketing efforts. This is possible as most of the product buyers of Australian Natural care are females. So with proper marketing efforts this objective can be achieved. It is always one of the main concerns of the company to increase the sales of the product and retain the customers as well. Women can be encouraged to buy a certain product if it is properly communicated towards them. Another objective is to create a value proposition that will add some value to the product which is asking about the response from the consumer for the product that he or she had purchased form Australian Natural Care. This will create a strong positive impact of the company in the mids of the consumer and “Word of Mouth” will result in increased sales which is the ultimate objective.
Conclusion
In order to analyse Australian Natural Care and Nature’s way, a criteria was developed. The analysis of both the company’s Website and Social media platforms revealed strengths and weaknesses. From the analysis it is concluded that Australian Natural Care has better performance in Digital marketing channel then Nature’s way. Recommendations were described for Australian Natural Care with the help of Digital Channnel analysis to increase sales and provide value preposition by having a check on th health of the consumer after the use of the product that has been bought from the company.
References
Bullen, J. (2017). A closer look at Australia’s most popular supplements. ABC News. Retrieved 29 March 2018, from http://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2017-02-13/a-closer-look-at-australias-most-popular-supplements/8265840.
Chaffey, D. & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2016). Digital Marketing Strategy, Implementation and Practice 6th ed., pp. 123 – 166. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
Nielson (2012) Australian Online Landscape Report.
Rourke, A. (2013). Vitamins take Australia. the Guardian. Retrieved 29 March 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/11/vitamins-take-australia-hollywood-names.
