Digital Marketing Assignment: Creating Digital Media Strategy for Wesfarmers

Question

Task

Digital Marketing Assignment Instructions: You are required to create a digital media strategy for an organization or situation of your choice. The process of researching, listening and planning will help you to achieve your communication goals by managing diverse stakeholder groups in the digital media sphere.

Research, plan and develop a creative and engaging digital media content strategy. Your report must include the following steps:

Perform an environmental scan to analyze the situation and get to know the community. Identify the conversation and key words.
Identify your target audience and analyze their interests and needs.
Perform a communication audit to research and analyze the current communication in the digital sphere following the five stages of listening and observing.
Identify the main discourse topics and opportunities.
Set your communication goals to successfully engage your target audience and develop your SMART objectives for each target audience.

Answer

Introduction
The primary motive of present digital marketing assignment is to focus on creating a digital media strategy for an organization. Digital market refers to the marketing that is done online and is the advertising of products to interact with targeted audiences with the use of internet and other digital platform. Therefore, the chosen organization for the assignment is Wesfarmers, which is an Australian-based company that operates in retailing products of chemical, fertilizer, industrial as well as safety products. However, in this assignment, there will be an environmental scanning of the firm followed by the identification of the target audience and analysis of their interest and needs. Furthermore, the assignment will be performing a communication audit in order to analyze the current communication. The assignment will also recommend some communication goals that could help the firm to successfully engage with the target audiences and develop the SMART objectives for each target audience.

Environmental Scanning Process
The environmental scanning of Wesfarmers is as follows:

SWOT Analysis
Strength- Wesfarmers Limited is comparatively victorious at the implementation of innovative projects and has developed effective return in capital expenditure with the development of innovative income streams. In addition to that, the company has maintained a effective flow of cash that enables them to handle the company better and to enter into new projects.

Weaknesses- As per the research, the weaknesses of Wesfarmers is in the highest competition and is said to be underneath the highest succeeding competitors in the industry. In addition to that, the company day’s inventory is high as compared to that of the competitors. This is because; the company lacks in forecasting the demand.

Opportunities- In Wesfarmers Limited, the opportunities are the new environmental policies that will help the firm create a level playing field for all competitors in the industry. It will make the company able to create a competitive advantage and to achieve market share in the innovative product group.

Threat- The major threats identified in the organization is that, since the company is expanded in more than two countries, the currency fluctuation gave the volatile political climate in the various market all over the world (Byrne, 2021).

PEST Analysis
Political- The political factors affecting Wesfarmers Limited is the political stability and significance of the Food and Staples Retailing sector in the economy of the country. The factor also includes the level of the legal framework for contract enforcement in different countries.

Economic- Wesfarmers Limited has been impacted by economic factors such as the economic development of the country. The level of economic development of various countries directly impacts the growth of organizational performances.

Social- Conversely, the social factors that have been influencing the operations of Wesfarmers Limited is demographic trends such as the aging inhabitants, trends of migration and socio-economic variables that can affect the business process of the company.

Technological- The technological factors that manipulate the business practices of Wesfarmers Limited are social media marketing, innovations in the technologies, the technological cost structure. There are different technological structures in different countries; therefore, the business operations for Wesfarmers Limited have to operate accordingly (Henry, 2018).

However, the keywords identified from the environmental scanning process are as follows:

Wesfarmers Limited has effective and strong capital expenditure and cash flow.
Wesfarmers is not being able to compete with their competitors as the competition level is continuously increasing in the market.
The company has been operating in various countries because of which the operation level also varies with the different policies of the countries.
The company has been dealing with issues like poor demand forecasting ability and high competition.

Target Audiences
As per the analysis, the Target Audiences of Wesfarmers Limited is the shoppers who seek for convenient products, varieties of products, and customers who seek discount and services in the products. The target audiences of the company are not limited to a certain age group because the products sold by the company are flexible to all age groups (Wesfarmers.com.au, 2021). The major needs and interests of the target audiences of the company are as follows:

The target audiences of the company expect them to provide a wide variety of products with which they can select the products that satisfy their needs.
The target audiences expect them to provide better discounts and services with the products so that they can afford the products at a reasonable price and at the best quality.

Communication Audit
The communication audit of Wesfarmers is as follows:

Scope- The main scope of the firm is to fulfill the needs of target audiences by communicating with them about the company or brand through effective communicating channels.
Communication samples- Wesfarmers involves an effective digital marketing process such as the feedback received from the consumers are consider the main concern, the needs and expectations of the consumers are met to some level.
Audience Feedback- Since Wesfarmers is the most renowned and successful company around the globe, audience feedback indicates a positive image.

Analysis of the present communication in the digital sphere with the help of the five stages of listening and observing is given below:

Listening to a conversation about the company- In Wesfarmers, the communication process to seek information about the companies in the market highly effective and strong as it can be identified by the success of the business in multiple countries.
Listening to people’s perspective about competitors- Wesfarmers also listen to what the consumers in the market think about competing companies in order to plan their own business strategies that could fulfill the needs of the consumer.
Listening to the tone of the community- Since Wesfarmers is expanded in multiple countries, the firm listens to the tome of the community to understand their responsibilities towards other companies in social media.
Listening to different social media channels- Wesfarmers also listen to the information about the various channel of social media in order to analyze the most effective channel to interact with the customers (Justus & Shelby, 2021).

Main discourse topics and opportunities
As per discourse analysis in the digital marketing of Wesfarmers Limited, it has been identified that the company has great listening skills within the social media platform. The seniors of the company regularly and openly listen to their stakeholders in order to understand their perspectives and needs or expectation. The feedback received from the consumers or target audiences is considered seriously. Since the discourse analysis indicates a positive image of the firm, the opportunities that the firm can get from this discourse is that the overall business operations are well managed and are improved according to the needs and expectations of the audiences in the market. The positive level of discourse also leads to better competitive advantages that will help them to compete with rivals in a profitable manner (Wesfarmers.com.au, 2021).

Recommendation
With the consideration of the communication audit of Wesfarmers, there are some of the measurable digital marketing goals that need to be set by the firm to successfully engage with the target audiences that are mentioned as follows:

Create Content- In order to engage with the target audience, Wesfarmers must create better content so that they encounter the marketing or the company’s website. Creating content means developing article, blog, videos, etc., wherein the company must advertise their product.

Social Media- The most effective communication strategy is that the company could adopt to engage with the target audiences is the use of social media. The company must communicate with the audiences via social media because it is a widely used communication channel throughout the world.

Use affirmation responses- Wesfarmers must ensure that they respond to their consumers' queries and doubt in order to make the feel that they are provided with better services, and it will also improve the consumer loyal within the firm.

SMART objectives for each of the target audiences are as follows:

Specific- Wesfarmers must have a clear and specific goal in order to meet the expectations of the target audiences. It will help them to operate accordingly and provide consumer satisfaction to a higher level.

Measurable- Wesfarmers should be able to track the take and preferences or trends of the target audiences in the places it operates. In addition to that, the company should measure the progress so that they can acknowledge the needs to reach the goal.

Attainable- Wesfarmers must adopt communicational strategies in such a way they can assess the needs of the consumers and the products as per the expectations of the target audiences.

Relevant- The communication goal set by the firm must be pertinent to the targeted audiences in the market and should make sure it increases the consumer base of the firm.

Time-Bound- The firm must set a timeframe in order to reach the communication goal setting because it will help them to be focused and to be connected with the target audiences (Hughes & Fogel, 2018).

Conclusion
The overall assignment is based on Wesfarmers Limited, wherein the environmental scanning has been done with the help of SWOT and PEST analysis. With this analysis, the keywords have been identified specifically. Further, there has been an identification of the target audiences has been done along with the analysis of their needs and interest. In further discussions, the assignment has prepared an audit of communication to investigate the present communication in the digital marketing with the five stages of listening and observing. Lastly, the assignment has provided a set of recommendation and SMART objectives in order to engage with target audiences.

References
Byrne, J. (2021). Wesfarmers Limited SWOT Analysis. Retrieved 26 June 2021, from https://www.case48.com/swot-analysis/625-Wesfarmers-Limited

Henry, Z. (2018). Wesfarmers Limited PESTEL Analysis. Retrieved 26 June 2021, from https://www.case48.com/pestel-analysis/625-Wesfarmers-Limited

Hughes, J., & Fogel, A. (2018). How to Set SMART Goals (With 5 Examples). Retrieved 26 June 2021, from https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/business/smart-goals

Justus, A., & Shelby, P. (2021). Five Stages of Listening and Observing. Retrieved 26 June 2021, from https://keepingitsocialsite.wordpress.com/2016/01/20/five-stages-of-listening-and-observing/

Wesfarmers.com.au. (2021). Retrieved 26 June 2021, from https://www.wesfarmers.com.au/docs/default-source/asx-announcements/2018-annual-report.pdf?sfvrsn=0

Wesfarmers.com.au. (2021). Stakeholder engagement. Retrieved 26 June 2021, from https://www.wesfarmers.com.au/sustainability/our-reporting/stakeholder-engagement

Appendix

Appendix 1

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