NOVEMBER 26 13

Rebecca Abel

Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2

SITUATION ANALYSIS 3

INDUSTRY OVERVIEW 3COMPANY ANALYSIS 4CUSTOMER ANALYSIS 6COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS 7SWOT 9

TESTING AND ANALYSIS 10

FACEBOOK TESTING 10GOOGLE ADWORDS TESTING 11EMAIL MARKETING TESTING 15

RECOMMENDED STRATEGY 16

CORE STRATEGY 16MARKETING STRATEGIES AND SUPPORTING TACTICS 16

OBJECTIVE 1: WEBSITE UPDATES 16OBJECTIVE 2: SOCIAL MEDIA IMPLEMENTATION AND CAPITALIZATION 17OBJECTIVE 3: GOOGLE ADWORDS AND SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION 18OBJECTIVE 4: PHASE IN OF EMAIL MARKETING 19

TIMELINE 20MONITORS AND CONTROLS 21

APPENDIX 23

BIBLIOGRAPHY 30

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARYYarntons is a clothing retail company that specializes in men’s and women’s clothing, as well as providing local school uniforms to 10 schools within Auckland. This family-run New Zealand company is known for their consistently high quality products, tailored customer service, community outreach and having a loyal customer base. However, the retailer is now looking to strengthen its online presence, with the hopes of continuing to uphold their strong reputation as the leading retailer of RM Williams leather boots.

Through an in-depth situational analysis, the retail industry, the customer base, the competitive environment, and the effectiveness of current marketing strategies have all been examined in order to identify the internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as possible external opportunities and threats. Primary research was also conducted through a series of Facebook, Google Adwords and email marketing tests in order to get a better understanding of the New Zealand retail industry and the customers who frequent it. These findings, in conjunction with our secondary research, helped to lead us in making realistic recommendations for Yarntons.

The proposed marketing plan identifies key objectives that will allow Yarntons to achieve their business goals: increase brand awareness, increase in revenue, differentiate from key competitors, and maintain its reputation as leading retailer of RM Williams merchandise. This will be accomplished through:

Website update o Addition of online storeo Content and context upgradeso Search bar inclusion and customization optionso Customer Relations Management Program

Social media implementation and capitalizationo Continued segmentation and content creation for Facebook pageo Facebook button added to websiteo Blogger outreach program

Google Adwords campaign and search engine optimizationo Using search ads in future campaignso Keyword optimizationo Website analytics synchronization with Google Adwords

The phase in of email marketingo A/B Testingo Seasonal promotion email advertisementso Community involvement displays through email

A proposed timeline has been set forth in order to better structure how these plans can be implemented starting in January 2014, and going until December 2014. In order to assess the effectiveness of these eMarketing efforts, a dashboard should be utilized, containing metrics that

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measure the connectivity of the Facebook page to the website, customer interaction through social media, and the connection between bounce rate and Adwords campaigns.

SITUATION ANALYSIS

INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

Yarntons and the New Zealand Retail IndustryThe New Zealand retail industry is currently performing well with nearly 33,000 retailers across the country. This is a growing number with an increase of 9.3% of retail outlets since 2000. New Zealand retail sales are also showing an increasing trend with 2012 sales growing by 3.7% on 2011 sales (New Zealand Retailers Association, 2013). Current economic conditions are favorable to retailing in New Zealand. GDP is constantly growing at close to 3% with low inflation of 1.4%. Borrowing rates are the lowest they have been since 1990 encouraging, new businesses to open their doors (Reserve Bank of New Zealand, 2013).

Within the retail industry, Yarntons operates in the apparel retail segment. Globally, apparel retail shows growing trends with the market growing by 3.1% in 2012 to reach a total value of $1,249 billion (Marketline, 2013). This trend is reflected in New Zealand 2012 figures, which show that there are currently 3,910 clothing retail stores in New Zealand. Apparel retail sales have shown solid growth in New Zealand over the past years, with sales increasing from $1,967 million in the year 2000 to $3,545 million in 2012 (Marketline, 2013). Market reports suggest that this trend will continue into the future.

Yarntons is located in Auckland, New Zealand. This area has proportionally more apparel retail stores than any other area of New Zealand with 38.4% of retail stores and only 34% of population (New Zealand Retailers Association, 2013). Yarntons operates in 3 different areas selling men’s clothing and accessories, women’s clothing, and school uniforms. School uniform sales are a strong part of the business, due to the nature of the product being sold, as it will guarantee sales every year. Yarntons has established contracts with the schools it provides uniforms for, to ensure the sole rights to sell the uniform over the coming years. The Devonport menswear store has a strategic advantage in that it is the only store selling men’s clothing in its town. A threat to Yarntons is the ease of purchasing clothing online. This issue is furthered with the current strength of New Zealand’s exchange rate. Currently 34% of New Zealanders are actively shopping online. Yarntons is behind the online shopping trend and does not have a website is which clothing can be purchased.

Another factor affecting Yarntons and the apparel retail industry in Auckland is tourism. International visitors to New Zealand have increased by approximately 3% per annum, which is desirable for Yarntons and other apparel retailers in Auckland (New Zealand Retailers Association, 2013).

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COMPANY ANALYSIS

Background on YarntonsThe business originated in 1945 and has been family run since. Yarntons has 3 locations across Auckland. The stores sell a range of men’s and women’s fashion, school uniforms and tourist clothing. Over the years, the business has generated a strong, loyal customer base. The stores have become a ‘one stop shop’ for their respective towns.

Men’s ClothingMenswear has a range of clothing styles and trends. The menswear customers are typically middle aged and medium to upper income. The most important menswear supplier is RM Williams. This brand is a high quality Australian brand with a strong following in New Zealand. One of the most important items that RM Williams sell is the high quality leather boots. The phrase “great quality leather boots” happens to be the most searched Google term that will link to the website.

School UniformYarntons supplies 12 schools in local areas with school uniform and uniform related accessories. This makes up a large part of the business and peaks in late January when schools commence for the year. The majority of school uniform provided is New Zealand-made, which happens to be a strong selling point. Over the years Yarntons has developed strong relationships with these schools and as a result has contracts to be the sole provider of their uniform (which is compulsory for all students).

Women’s ClothingThe Yarntons women’s wear department holds a range of small suppliers suited to casual and smart-casual settings. The suppliers used by Yarntons are usually independent and provide clothing that is unique and slightly different to what is found in nearby department stores.

Social Media & WebsiteUp until last year, the business has not involved itself in Internet marketing, sales or social media at all. In June of last year, the business set up a website through a third party website producer. Initially the website take up was slow but has since lifted to an average of 40 visits per day. The majority of the website traffic is searching for RM Williams clothing, closely followed by searches for School uniform related items. Currently the business does not offer online sales, but instead the website encourages customers to make an enquiry about the availability of sizes and styles. Following this, a transaction can take place offline over the phone or in store. Yarntons has suggested they are interested in looking into turning the site into an e-commerce site in the coming year starting with school uniform. One reason for the reluctance to move into e-commerce is the increase in costs charged by the third party website host. Another reason is the difficult process of connecting the old point of sales system to characterize by size and style.Up until now, the business has avoided social media. A Facebook page has recently been set up and the business is looking into the options of diversifying into other social media platforms.

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Current Goals and ObjectivesYarntons currently has a strong vision for the future of the company. Their three main objectives include:

1. Generate more revenue: This will hopefully be achieved through directing traffic to its website. The current website has 1,000 hits per month. The ideal goal is to increase this by at least 500 by the end of 2013. In conjunction, the company hopes to increase website user retention. As the current return visits amount to one quarter of traffic, Yarntons hopes to increase this to one third.

2. Improve customers’ brand loyalty: This will be accomplished by upholding the standards of Yarntons as a family-run and local apparel company, dedicated to high quality, stylish products.

3. Improve brand awareness by at least 5% by the end of 2013: Bruce’s plan is to increase brand awareness of Yarntons by maintaining it’s reputation as a leading retailer of RM Williams clothing and footwear in Auckland.

Key Success FactorsAs noted earlier, Yarntons specializes in a range of contemporary apparel for the men’s, women’s and school uniform markets. While most department stores and clothing retailers carry similar types of products, Yarntons establishes a solid position in the industry with distinct points of differentiation. The family-run company has identified the following as key success factors which have succeeded in making the store a popular uniform and apparel brand for 65 years:

Locally Owned and Operated: Bruce Yarnton has been managing the store and personally dealing with everyday clients in the main Birkenhead store branch.

Tailored Customer Service: Yarntons offers custom alterations services in-store and boasts an experienced and friendly staff. The apparel chain is committed to upholding the proud family tradition, which has guaranteed customer satisfaction since 1945.

Consistently High Quality Products: The company offers an array of high quality products, most popular of which is the RM Williams leather boots. The boots are handcrafted using a single piece of leather, which results in a highly weatherproof and strong boot. Each pair of boots also goes through 68 hand-held processes to ensure a snug fit and shape. Another high quality product is the Merino Possum sweater, which provide extraordinary warmth (up to 30% more than a 100% wool garment).

Loyal Customer Base: Since the company started in 1945, Yarntons has been serving loyal customers, who are mostly in the 35-60’s age range.

Marketing History and Tactics

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Currently, Yarntons employs few marketing activities to help promote the business. Because of its reputation as a family-run business, the company relies heavily on word of mouth, and its loyal customer referrals. In addition to this, its website launched in 2012 brings in about 5-10% of their customers. Yarntons also utilizes print ads in the Auckland Daily News, New Zealand Herald, Sunday Magazine, Flagstaff Times, and Sunday Star Times, which has been greatly effective in increasing awareness to the RM Williams promotions, but other brands have had less noticeable effects. The company occasionally does radio advertisements to promote seasonal sales. These provide potential customers and foreign tourists with information on souvenir items, such as the popular Devo_Tees. Lastly, the company is greatly involved in charitable activities, such as fundraising for fashion shows using Yarntons own apparel. For example, the Raeburn House, an organization supporting North Shore mental health programs, has been sponsored by Yarntons in its annual fashion show. Yarntons also collaborated with Oxfam, a non-profit organization that supports initiatives to provide fresh water to underprivileged communities in Africa, as well as the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind.

CUSTOMER ANALYSIS

Current CustomersTypical customers of Yarntons are classified into two groups: children ages 11 to 16 who have their school uniforms supplied, and individuals or families with wealth which fall into the category of middle to upper class. There is constant and fixed sales which come from the school group since the demand does not fluctuate within the year. Peak sales for school uniforms and accessories occur in late January and then gradually decease.

The second group is more significant for Yarntons since they account for a large majority of sales. This group is composed mainly of Baby Boomers in their mid-40’s to 60’s who hold stable jobs and reside within urban areas. Since the product style is catered more towards the elder and working class, Yarntons’ current clients value quality, durability and timelessness in choosing clothing and footwear. Most clients have been loyal to Yarntons ever since the retail store opened and therefore have established great trust in the retailer. They are not as concerned with fitting into the latest fashion trends and so prefer comfort and class.

Size of the MarketIn terms of the overall retail industry, the New Zealand clothing and footwear industry was worth $36.2 billion in revenue in 2012 (Figure 1), with 31% representing the Auckland clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (Economic Intelligence Unitl, 2011) (Figure 2). The approximate size of the market is therefore calculated at $11.22 million (see Figure 3 in the Appendix for calculations).

According to the 2013 Retail Market in New Zealand, Auckland leads the way with an increase in store numbers of over 65%. The number of clothing stores has increased from 906 to 1,501 (Retail Market in New Zealand, 2011). This has positive and negative effects for Yarntons.

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Firstly, an increase in retail stores can lead to more demand and urbanization. On the other hand, it can also result to oversaturation of the market and increased competition.

Online BehaviorAs it turns out, 98.8% of searches for Yarntons comes from the search engine Google. Additionally, 23.2% of visits to the website is direct traffic, which means that the visitor inputs the whole URL of the website or has it already bookmarked in their tool bar.The third source of traffic, with 7.6%, is from other websites that link to Yarntons website. Most important is nz.bing.com, followed by northcote.school.nz. More detailed information on online customer behavior can be found in Figure 4 of the appendix.

Once the visitors are actually on the website, 51.2% of them actually stay to explore the content and view more than one page. The majority of visitors go to the “catalogue view”, as this is where product information can be found.

As for the amount of time spent on the website, the vast majority of visitors, 61.7%, leave the page in 30 seconds or less. This is likely due to people clicking on the site by mistake, or people who are looking for quick information such as contact information or store hours. For those who spend between 30 seconds and 2 minutes on the website, this 18.3% of visitors is likely more heavily searching through content.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

Competitive Overview

BarkersBarkers has been in business for over 40 years, and (similar to Yarntons), has become a household name. The company has 26 stores across New Zealand, a comprehensive online store, and partnerships with various organizations including the All Black and Flying Nun (a record label). They describe their clothes as being made of “quality materials, and classically tailor cut to create an effortless style” (Barkers, 2013).

The company tends to target males ages 25-40, who opt to dress themselves in smart-casual attire, offering dozens of suit options, weekend wear, footwear and accessories. Based on the website audit, Barkers scored particularly high on their site’s content, communication, commerce, customization, community, and consistency. This is due to their unique pages, optimized product descriptions, availability of two way communication, frequently updated blog and social media channels, easy to use and purchase on online store, VIP program customization, and their universal theme and clean layout to their website. Their social media channels include Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Pinterest and a Blog. They use these mediums to engage current customers, attract new ones, constantly updating content with current deals and contests, and providing customer service. Barkers is also particularly strong with their online response time, responding to customer feedback in as quick as 1.5 hours. Additionally, their organic

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search results for “Barkers Clothing” is exceptional, as it is easy to find links to various Barkers’ landing pages, social media accounts, and Yelp reviews.

Rodd & GunnRodd & Gunn has 84 lodges around New Zealand and Australia, as well as a straightforward online store. The brand attempts to target the more rugged, outdoorsy male, age 30 and up, who desire clothing that is “practical, superbly textured and durable… superior workmanship, high quality design” (Rodd & Gunn, 2013). They offer a 2-year guarantee on all of their products, and a loyalty club for brand advocates.

After completing a website audit for Yarntons, it was revealed that Rodd & Gunn particularly excelled on the dimensions of context, commerce, community, mobile capabilities, feedback, and social media integration. This is due to Rodd & Gunn’s easy website navigation, search bar availability, loyalty club, mobile site, highly visible feedback link, and social media buttons on homepage. In terms of Google search, they dominate the organic search, unfiltered and in news, videos, blogs and discussions, but are not as strong when it comes to searching for keywords within their respective category. This can be attributed to better search engine optimization, and their desire to share vast amounts of content in various online locations, such as charity affiliations and company news. Additionally, they appear to handle and monitor social media well. This involves responding to customers’ positive and negative comments, interacting with social influencers, and attempting to create trends with hashtags, through Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. While their Facebook page is flourishing with over 14,000 likes, there is still room to grow their Twitter account with around only 250 followers, as well as their Youtube account which only contains 2 company generated videos.

Competition MatrixThe following matrix outlines the level at which three men’s clothing retailers in New Zealand rank against one another on the basis of website efficiency, and social media effectiveness.

Low = 1Low-Medium = 2Medium = 3Medium-High = 4High = 5

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Website Efficiency Social Media EffectivenessYarntons 3 1Barkers 4 5Rodd & Gunn 3 4

SWOT

By applying their brand’s strengths to mitigate their current weaknesses, Yarntons has a great chance to compete at par with some of the industry leaders, especially in the area of eMarketing.

Strengths: Well-established brand since 1945 Loyal customer base among the older demographics Owner-operated (ability to react quickly to issues) Strong partnerships with suppliers Sole supplier for 10 schools’ uniforms

Weaknesses: No online store available Lack of social media presence Low enquiry rate Lack of clear vision and strategy of website for the long term High bounce rate Lack of time in order to fully commit to social media efforts Uncertainty in social media return on investment

Opportunities: Rise in popularity of social media Uniform sales have potential to turn one-time buyers into loyal customer base Increase in New Zealand tourism promotes more potential customers

Threats: Competitors are well established with e-commerce and have a solid social media

presence. High New Zealand dollar makes goods expensive in this small market. High costs associated with setting up e-commerce website capabilities

0 1 2 3 4 50

1

2

3

4

5Website Efficiency vs. Social Media Effec-

tiveness

Barkers

Rodd & Gunn

Yarntons

Social Media Effectiveness

Web

site

Eff

icie

ncy

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TESTING AND ANALYSIS

FACEBOOK TESTINGThe Facebook page was put together in the week starting October 28, 2013. Prior to launching the page, 2 content posts were already created. These posts had links the Yarntons’ website in order to gage how successful the page was in generating website traffic. In the 3 weeks following the launch of the Facebook page, 3 different methods were tested consecutively to gain likes for the page.

First MethodThe first method the team tested to gain page likes was to invite friends to like the page. To do this, Bruce invited some of his Facebook friends who were also potential customers of the business. With 60 friends invited, this led to a slow inflow of likes of the page, resulting in 40 new likes. At the end of this test the posts had reached 50 people in a 4-day period from November 4 to November 8, 2013. No noticeable traffic had reached the website from Facebook.

Second MethodThe next method used to promote the page was to share the page. The team found some Facebook groups and pages around Auckland that included Yarntons’ current and potential customers. We then shared the page to some of these groups and encouraged customers to join the page and interact with the content. For example, one group used was a local rugby club that the business has sponsored for the past few years. This test was largely unsuccessful after 4 days, as it only generated 10 new likes for the Yarntons Page. Although it only garnered a few likes, this was able to increase the reach of the posts by 15 each. ?

Third MethodFollowing these trials, Bruce gave us permission to run a promotion to aid in the launch of the Facebook page and to help generate some more exposure for the page. This promotion targeted

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the uniform segment of the business. Bruce stated it was a priority to engage with the school uniform segment due to the fact that school uniform and uniform related goods would be in high demand over the next few months. The promotion involved a Jansport Super Break Backpack, which is very popular with school uniform customers valued at $69.95 (Figure 5). The promotion encouraged Facebook users to like the Yarntons page in order to go into the draw to win one of the backpacks. This method proved much more successful. The post received 2 shares and reached 500 people. It resulted in 90 new likes for the page (Figure 6).

Facebook Paid AdvertisingLastly, we tested the effectiveness of paid advertising on Facebook. We were given a $25 budget from Bruce. The advertising option we used was to boost a particular post. The audience we chose to target was the friends of people who already liked the page. As the target of the campaign was school uniform customers, we set an age range of 13-24 on the campaign. The lifetime budget was set at $25 with a duration of 48 hours. The effects of this promotion were more noticeable than previous campaigns. In the 48 hours, the post reached 5718 Facebook users, 5599 of which were a direct result of the paid advertising, and 192 were organic reach. The Campaign also resulted in 44 new likes for the page.

GOOGLE ADWORDS TESTING

TestingIn approaching the testing of Google Adwords campaigns, it was decided that we would try out two different types of ads in the same time period with the same budget, so that at the end of the campaigns we can compare which one was the most effective in moving forward.

Yarntons is currently promoting men’s RM Williams boots, which is also the brand which drives the most traffic to the website and drives the most sales. After discussing the Adwords testing with Bruce, we decided to target our test to the specific product promoted on the website, since this aligns with similar activities on the website in the future. Through our testing, we hoped to gain valuable information on when and how to use the Google Adwords tool in order to support future promotions through increasing site traffic, which will translate into offline sales.

The test was set as follows: Test: Search Network vs. Display Network Start: 14th November End: 22th November Location: New Zealand Availability: Desktop computer, mobile. Budget whole: $114 Canadian ($57 each) Max budget per day: $10 Canadian Text Advertisement shown in both campaigns: Figure 7 in Appendix

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When trying to find the optimal keywords, we grouped our keywords into four main categories that would cover the majority of Yarntons’ customers.

1. R.M. Williams Brand – the brand that drives the most website hits and sales RM Williams boots, rm Williams Auckland, rm Williams New Zealand, RMW

boots, rm Williams, R.M. Williams Auckland, RMW Auckland2. Product – keywords related to the actual product for sale

Men’s boots, boots for men, Quality boots, boots for husband3. Category – keywords related to fashion and apparel in New Zealand

Fashion Auckland, men’s fashion sale4. Yarntons – Keywords directly related to the Yarntons’ brand

Yarntons, Yarntons’ hours, Yarnton’s men’s fashion

ResultsSince Yarntons does not run an e-commerce business, the only way to really evaluate the campaigns impact on the website is to trace traffic. In the one week period, the number of visitors rose from 44 to 81 per day. Also the number of the returning visitors increased and can infer that those were the people interested in the promotion, reconfirming some details, or to check where is the nearest Yarntons’ location is. A visitor summary graph can be found in Figure 8 of the Appendix.

One possible metric of success could also be the number of enquiries on the site. Bruce reports that the average number of enquires is 1 per week, but some spikes do occur during the year for a variety of different reasons. During our two campaigns, we generated 2 enquires, which although is above average, it is hard to track whether they came from the Adwords campaign or not. This is due to the fact that the website Google Analytics was not synchronized with the AdWords tool.

When comparing results for the search network versus display network, we looked at the number of impressions, clicks, CTR (click through rate), price, and best performing keywords.

Campaign A: Search NetworkClicks: 77Impressions: 47,186Average CTR: 0.16%Price: $87 CanadianKeywords that performed best in terms of clicks:

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As expected the broadest keywords such as “Fashion Auckland” and “men’s boots” performed best in terms of impressions and consequently in clicks. Also, the flagship brand of Yarntons, RM Williams, with geographical specification (Auckland, New Zealand) drove a lot of impressions and clicks as predicted.

Keywords that performed best in CTR:

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Interestingly the CT rate shows which category of keywords performed best in getting consumers to actually click on the advertisement. The top 4 keywords that resulted in a click were all from the category RM Williams brand, such as RMW boots, RM Williams Auckland, RM Williams New Zealand, and RM Williams boots.

Keywords that performed best in CPC (cost per click):

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Here again, the keywords containing the brand R.M. Williams were the cheapest. (We only looked at those keywords that actually generated clicks, since this is a cost-per-click system).

Therefore, the top 5 best performing in all three categories are: RM Williams Auckland RM Williams New Zealand RM Williams boots RMW boots Men’s boots

Campaign B: Display Network

Impressions: 92,256Clicks: 18CTR: 0.02%Price: $9 Canadian

The display network campaign generated altogether 18 clicks, which is a substantial amount less than the search network display. Also the CT rate is 0.02% which also indicates that either the ad should be adjusted to that kind of campaign or that display campaigns are not as appealing to Yarntons’ customers. When looking at keywords, only two generated actual clicks (Men’s

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fashion, and men’s boots). Interestingly enough, the display ads campaign generated 92,256 impressions, which is almost twice the number of impressions we generated with the search network campaign. This could also mean that the ad was not optimized for that campaign, or that the keywords used were not the right choice.

EMAIL MARKETING TESTING

TestingHaving only print ads, radio ads and the company website as marketing channels, Yarntons tested the effectiveness of direct email advertisements. We found this a viable and potentially positive tactic in order to address the objective of increasing Yarntons’ click through rate to potentially generate additional revenue.

The email marketing service provider Mailchimp was utilized in creating an email campaign. Bruce had agreed to let the team use Yarntons’ current Christmas Holiday Promotion as the email message. The team conducted A/B testing to see the most successful campaign with the highest click rate. One email advertisement indicated Yarntons Biggest Holiday Promotion, while the other had a headline that stated “Buy 1 Boot, Get a Watch Free” (see Figure 9 for email mock-ups).

ResultsAfter observing the results, the team found that the second headline garnered the most clicks and open rate; therefore this was chosen as the official email ad. This email ad was then sent to 80 email contacts which Bruce provided. The outcome on Mailchimp Analytics was then recorded by the team and analyzed.

RECOMMENDED STRATEGY

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CORE STRATEGY

The core strategy that is recommended for Yarntons contains four key elements: a website update, social media implementation and capitalization, Google Adwords and search engine optimization, and the phase in of email marketing. By addressing these areas, Yarntons will be able to actualize some of their future company goals. This includes, but is not limited to, increasing brand awareness, creating a more user-friendly and highly trafficked website, increased social media presence, attainment of client contact information for market research, and higher quality search results in popular search engines. In turn, this will quite possibly lead to greater revenue through in-store traffic and purchasing, as well as online purchasing and brand exposure.

MARKETING STRATEGIES & SUPPORTING TACTICSObjective 1: Website UpdateIn regards to the current website in place for Yarntons, there are a few areas that could use some special attention to help take the website to the next level. Firstly, in order to address the objective of enhancing customer experience online, we have proposed a few tactics to implement.

As this is a website for a clothing store, it is almost expected from online shoppers now-a-days that clothing store websites offer options to purchase items online to be shipped to their destination of choice. Although this is an issue that requires some major investment and contemplation, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages, and by adding this feature, Yarntons will have a better chance at competing closer to industry leaders such as Barkers.

Another aspect that should be addressed in the near future should be the possibility of offering customization for users of the website. By allowing personalized touches to the shopping experience, the customer’s time spent on the site will be that much more memorable and intimate and can potentially lead to the customer returning to the site. Also, on the same track, in order to make the customer’s participation in the website that much more enriched, an option for two-way communication between the user and company would be beneficial. For example, a live chat component would help ensure that the customers’ needs are always being attended to and will convey that Yarntons genuinely wants to offer the best customer service possible. Also, by upgrading the photos of the products to higher quality, uniform images, and by adding a search option tool, users will be able to find exactly what they are looking for, and be likely to enjoy their experience more, in turn elevating their perception of the Yarntons’ brand.

Additionally, in order to move forward with email marketing, Yarntons will need to find a way to obtain contact information of those who visit the site. We suggest implementing a Customer

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Relations Management program, in order to collect this information, which will help in advertising efforts and marketing research.

Secondly, with the goal of driving site traffic, there are a few suggested tactics that will help to achieve this. The first is to increase the exposure of the R.M. Williams brand on the website. This is due to the fact that this is a highly searched term in search engines, this brand is one of the most successful ones sold by Yarntons, and Yarntons holds promotions with this brand throughout the year. By creating landing pages for this content on the website, it will help to increase Yarntons’ search-ability, and will in turn assist in gaining access to emails of a greater clientele to help with future marketing efforts.

Also, another opportunity that Yarntons should begin looking into, is the possibility of partnering with a few tourist organizations throughout New Zealand. Since Yarntons offers a variety of souvenir shirts and accessories, it is a logical fit to hopefully get some advertising with these organizations, promoting the Yarntons’ website and brand overall. For example, Yarntons could begin this process by registering their business on the newzealand.com tourism website, in order to provide additional locations for connection to their own personal website.

By refurbishing Yarntons’ website with a few additions and alterations, this company can begin to secure a more dedicated customer base, elevate the customer experience, and allow for more sales to be made from those who are unable to physically attend the stores in person.

Objective 2: Social Media ImplementationThe social media side of this eMarketing plan focuses on three components in order to optimize Yarntons’ online presence. Firstly, we recommend that Yarntons craft a campaign around boosting likes to the page aimed at Men’s and Women’s clothing customers. The reason we recommend this segment is that currently the Facebook likes are heavily weighted in favor of school uniform customers. In reality these customers make up less than one third of sales, with the men’s and women’s clothing customers making up the majority. Being able to interact with these customers through Facebook could change the way that Yarntons uses paid media. The money used for paid media could be used to target new groups or in additional eMarketing efforts. To interact with these customers, we recommend firstly focusing on listening and monitoring to find these target segments, then eventually investing in some paid Facebook advertising. We recommend that the company pay for a side advertisement for the business, would specify to target people who live in Auckland (+20km), New Zealand and are 25 years and older. This would give the advertisement access to 600,000 people. It is advisable to base the ad around an in-store promotion or sale, such as an end of season discount.

Secondly, in order to drive continued traffic to the Facebook page, we recommend a button linked to the Facebook page be added to the Yarntons’ website. This will attract new communities to the site, and continue to help spread brand awareness.

Lastly, as part of the social media plan, we propose a blogger outreach program be put into effect. By connecting with various New Zealand bloggers, there is a very great possibility of them featuring product reviews, endorsements and/or sponsorships of the brand. Additionally,

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this is a great way to spread brand awareness and increase connectivity through links to the website and Facebook page. In order to attract the various customer segments common to the Yarntons’ brand, we suggest reaching out to three different communities of bloggers; 1. Men’s and Women’s Fashion Blogs, 2. Mommy Blogs, and 3. Farming Blogs. The Fashion Blogs will be helpful in promoting the more stylish clothing options available at Yarntons, and can be reached at blogs such as Street and City Photos, Lani Says, and Katherine is Awesome. The Mommy Blogs will be useful for promoting the school accessories available for the children of these mom blog readers. A great resource to find these type of blogs is through the website Kiwi Mummy Blogs, which features a database of dozens of New Zealand based Mom blogs. The Farming Blogs on the other hand will be more receptive to brands like RM Williams, and clothing that will be more suitable to match their lifestyle. A few viable options of bogs include Our Wee Farm, Frog Pond Farm, Rural Women New Zealand and Mad Bush Farm. Links to these blogs can be found in Figure 10 of the Appendix.

Objective 3: Google Adwords and Search Engine OptimizationAfter thorough data analysis, we found that in the battle between search and display ads, the search ads performed better in terms of clicks. We generated more clicks, which translated into more site traffic. In turn, this should hopefully translate into increased offline sales, enquires and returning visitors. On the other hand, the display ads generated far more impressions, meaning that the ad was actually exposed to more people (almost 100,000). Due to these findings, we recommend Yarntons to use either only search network or search + display campaigns for future campaigns, as these type of ads would perform best. If Yarntons were to select primarily display network campaigns, it is recommended that an image be included in the advertisement, as we know that images perform better in attracting customers.

For the search network campaign, we exposed the 5 most valuable and high performing keywords relating to the flagship brand of the Yarntons business. Since our client wishes to start a few similar promotions of the RM Williams in the future, we would highly recommend using these 5 specific keywords (RM Williams Auckland, RM Williams New Zealand, RM Williams boots, RMW boots, Men’s boots).

Another recommendation is that the Google Analytics for the website be synced up with Google Adwords, as this will provide insights on how effective the campaigns really are and what to improve in order to get the most out of the available resources. Also, with the future goal of turning the website into an ecommerce site, Yarntons would really benefit from this syncronization with Adwords, as this would be the perfect way to track the customers and their behaviour on the site after the click on the advertisement. This will be highly beneficial as exact ROI numbers on campaigns will be available and can help guide the way in adjusting budgets, advertisements and online strategy.

Objective 4: Phase In of Email Marketing With the goal of increasing click-through rate of email adverting by 5% by the end of 2013, we propose continued use of Mailchimp marketing service. The first strategy we recommend is to

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continue the use of A/B Testing to determine the most effective email campaigns. In order to do this, it is necessary to obtain a thorough and bountiful collection of email contacts from customers. Through an updated and improved website with an option to input consumer’s email address for special news on Yarntons discounts and promotions, the team hopes to gather all potential contacts for email ads. With this list, Yarntons is able to send out scheduled email ads to target both past customers, and potential new customers, with the hopes of transitioning them into loyal repeat customers.

Furthermore, there appears to be a window of opportunity to integrate Yarntons’ community blog information and relevant community events into email advertisements. Since Yarntons’ key drivers for success are its loyal customer base and its nature of being locally owned and operated, it is recommended to align these factors with the consumers’ perception. One way of doing this is through incorporating exciting and interesting New Zealand event news into the email ads. For instance, Yarntons can mention festivals and special events, such as Devonport’s Christmas Festival in their email ads, and Yarntons’ participation with the event. Showing customers how involved Yarntons is with community personifies the brand as socially responsible and knowledgeable on local matters. Yarntons can even go one step further by offering discounts when people go to these Kiwi Festivals. For instance, email ads have headlines, which say “$10 Off with Proof of Ticket from New Zealand Festival of Tennis”. Overall, this tactic shows how Yarntons embraces the New Zealand culture and lifestyle and promotes more tourists to enjoy a slice of it.

TIMELINE FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PLAN

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In order to assist with the implementation of this plan, we have provided a proposed timeline of when to activate each stage. The phases are organized by each strategy, and are staggered throughout the year to allow for analysis and time for each action of implementation to take form.

MONITORS & CONTROLS

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Marketing Metrics and DashboardOne recommendation we have for Bruce is to put together a comprehensive Dashboard that can be used to ensure that he is reaching his eMarketing goals. After discussion with Bruce, we have put together a Dashboard that complies the required information to monitor.

One of the goals that Bruce believed to be important was to “have people getting to the website through the Facebook page”. The metric involved with this objective would be ‘number of people getting to yarntons.co.nz from linked sites’. To find this information Bruce would check the incoming links sections of the website reports, which would show him a graph of sites that have successfully linked to Yarntons. This information may give insights into the success of the promotions taking place on Facebook. If the number is low (Bruce suggest 25 page links per week), changes can be made (Ex. provide more links to product pages on Facebook promotion posts or ensure that the links you are posting are active).

Another aim of Bruce’s was to encourage interaction through Facebook. A metric to measure this objective would be shares, comments, likes, and sentiment on posts. The information can be viewed in Facebook’s insights tab. It is pre-collected and put in a graph form organized by post. This will give insights into how customers are connecting with the posts and how users feel about the company generated content. If engagement is low, then a resulting action could be to change the wording of the posts to encourage different customer reactions and/or segments.

Another important part of Yarntons eMarketing is the effectiveness of online marketing efforts. Bruce is new to the idea of advertising online and wants it to be as valuable as possible. This is especially important for a small business like Yarntons, with limited funds available for online advertising. One possible metric can be to measure the bounce rate (information on current bounce rate can be found in Figure 11). This can be found from the number of customers who only visit one page and then immediately leave Yarntons’ website. A high bounce rate could

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represent that customers are reaching the site by accident and it is not the site they are looking for. This could be an issue for the business as it can be seen as a waste of Adwords money if the customers reaching the site from the paid ads are ‘bouncing’. A potential action as a result of a poor bounce rate could be a re-design or re-wording of an Adwords campaign to better target customers.

APPENDIX

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FIGURE 1 – NEW ZEALAND RETAIL SALES

FIGURE 2 – PERCENTAGE OF INDUSTRY REVENUE WITHIN AUCKLAND

FIGURE 3 – ESTIMATED MARKET SIZECalculations

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NZ Market Revenues x % of Industry Revenue by Region = Total NZ Market Worth

NZ Retail Clothing and Footwear Revenues

% of Industry Revenue by Region (Auckland)

Total NZ Market Worth

36.2 billion 31% $11,222,000

FIGURE 4 – ONLINE CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR

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FIGURE 5 – FACEBOOK PAID ADVERTISING

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FIGURE 6 – FACEBOOK LIKES STATISTICS

FIGURE 7 – TEXT ADVERTISEMENT FOR ADWORDS CAMPAIGN

FIGURE 8 – VISITOR SUMMARY DURING ADWORDS CAMPAIGN

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FIGURE 9 – MOCK-UPS FOR EMAIL TESTING

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FIGURE 10 – LINKS TO SUGGESTED NEW ZEALAND BLOGGERS

Street and City Photos (http://streetandcityphotos.blogspot.ca/) Lani Says (http://www.lanisays.com/) Katherine is Awesome (http://www.katherineisawesome.com/) Kiwi Mummy Blogs (http://www.kiwimummyblogs.co.nz/our-blogs/) Our Wee Farm (http://ourweefarm.blogspot.ca/) Frog Pond Farm (http://frogpondfarm.co.nz/) Rural Women New Zealand (http://www.ruralwomen.org.nz/index.html) Mad Bush Farm (http://madbushfarm.blogspot.ca/).

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FIGURE 11 – CURRENT WEBSITE BOUNCE RATE

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barkers. About Barkers. 2013.<http://www.barkersonline.co.nz/About-Barkers_302.aspx>.

Business Toolbox. Recreational, Clothing, Footwear and Personal Accessory Retailing. Statistics New Zealand, n.d. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://businesstoolbox.stats.govt.nz/IndustryProfilerViewProfile.aspx?ProfileID=GH132>.

MarketLine. Global - Apparel Retail. Industry Profile. London : MarketLine, 2013. <http://www.academia.edu/4917165/Global_-Apparel_Retail_MarketLine_Industry_Profile_Global_Apparel_Retail_Publication_Date_February_2013>.

New Zealand Retailers Association. The Retail Market in New Zealand - An Analysis. Auckland: New Zealand Retailers Association, 2013. <http://www.retail.org.nz/downloads/2013%20Retail%20Market%20in%20NZ.pdf>.

Reserve Bank of New Zealand . Mortgage rates. 31 10 2013. 05 11 2013 <http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/statistics/key_graphs/mortgage_rates/>.

Rodd & Gunn. About Us. 2013. <http://www.roddandgunn.com.au/About-Us/Information/35>.

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