Expanded Marketing Mix for Online Marketing
Marketing mix has usually been considered as 4P’s, namely Price, Place, Product and Promotion. The 4P’s strategy is useful for products and goods, while services require additional techniques. The resent research shows that the 4P’s marketing mix does not contain enough tools and techniques for defining marketing strategy for the electronic market. Taking the Zain Saudi Company as an example for consideration marketing mix strategies, it is useful to direct the 7P’s strategy to it.
Selected marketing mix
Zain Saudi Company is the one that deals with mobile telecommunication technologies in addition to 4P’s marketing mix mentioned above, people, progress, and physical environment should be added as the crucial ones in the sphere. The marketing mix of 7P’s is called expanded one.
The influence of the Internet on the business world may never be overestimated. The Internet helped internationalize the services and attract more customers. Dealing with telecommunication technologies, Zain Saudi Company is sure to use the achievements of science and technology to optimize the resources, improve the quality of the offered services and make the work with the customers more available (Prasad, Ramamurthy & Naidu 2001).
Discussion of key issues
The main idea of the paper is to consider the Zain Saudi Company marketing strategy in the light of the competitive ability and Internet use. The marketing mix strategies are going to be considered along with the online branding and target market options.
Varying the Marketing Mix for Online Marketing
The Internet is an essential part of the Zain Saudi Company’s development. The company website perfectly meets the company’s strategy and helps both attract new customers and maintain relations with those who already use the company’s services. Furthermore, the Internet is essential in “developing a better firm-wide understanding of the needs of and value creation for export customers”, “developing a firm-wide understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of competitors in the export markets”, and in “encouraging cross-functional contributions to the design and implementation of strategies for providing better value and satisfaction to export customers” (Prasad Ramamurthy & Naidu 2001, p. 102).
The Internet marketing mix strategies used by Zain Saudi
Considering the Zain Saudi website, the main marketing mix strategies may be easily considered. The company uses the expanded marketing mix strategy to create better tools and technologies for business running. For better consideration, the results are going to be put in the table.
Table 2. The Internet marketing mix strategies used by Zain Saudi Branding
To consider the Zain branding strategy, the branding strategy, in general, should be understood. Branding is defined as “the process by which companies distinguish their product offerings from the competition” (Jobber 2009, p. 261). The company website offers the history of the company development to show the changes in the company brand name for giving customers an understanding that the MTC was the former Zain brand name and that the company has more than 25-year-old- experience in the field. The name of the company is known quite beyond his limit of Saudi Arabia. The statistics show that the company services are offered in 23 countries of the world and are consumed by more than 70 million people (Zain 2010).
The company worked much to become a world-famous country. According to Dr. Al-Ahmadi the company representative, “We are unique, and there are not many cases of companies from emerging markets that have managed to reach this level of global recognition (in Epaud 2008, p. 8)”. The company brand is recognized via bright colors and the motto “A wonderful world”. The company directs its branding strategy to the services it offers relating the advertising to the surrounding world, beautiful and inimitable, though people are unable to understand that silent magnificence. The main significance of the company brand is that it offers unique services, being on different continents, the customers can be considered as local users (Williams 2008).
Zain Saudi Company’s target markets for the online marketing mix strategies
The company is mostly directed at people who communicate much with the neighboring continents. The company services peculiarity is that it “spanning two continents allows Zain customers (pre-paid and post-paid) in Africa and the Middle East using “One Network” to enjoy the benefits of being treated as a ‘local’ customer wherever they are” (Williams 2008, p. 47). So, the service is aimed at relatives, friends, and other people who have to communicate being on different continents. Furthermore, the company also chooses travelers and tourists as its target audience. Mostly, it is Muslim pilgrims who make Hajj and should conduct phone calls home.
Evaluation Zain Saudi Company metrics
Being the company that is closely connected to the web services, Zaid should be evaluated from the point of view of 4S’s standing for “scope, site, synergy, and system” (Bradley 2007, p. 38). The main characteristics of each element of the model are going to be considered. Thus, scope depicts strategy and objective: market analysis involving competition, forecasts and trends, potential customers, internal analysis of resources, processes, and values, and strategic role of the Web activities. The site stands for a web experience that should highlight the information about customers’ expectations from the site, the main useful issues, and the main motives for returning. Synergy explores three sides of integration: front-office integration, back-office integration, and third-party integration. The system describes all the facilities connected to technological processes, requirements, and website administration, namely different kinds of software, protocols, services, and other options (Constantinides 2002).
Relating the 4S’s strategy to Zaid, it is significant to mention that the company is in third place in the country among those that offer telecommunication services. At the same time, offering a unique service “One Network”, the company remains beyond the competition. Still, the nearest competitors are not mentioned on the site and it is impossible to consider the place of the company on the market. The company values its customers and tries to offer them the best quality services. The company representatives may be connected through the internet. The information about the company’s shareholders, mission, strategy, and values is available. It tells about the company’s best intentions and openness to its clients. The company tries to integrate its services to the three parties mentioned above. Furthermore, the company should provide better communication with the customers via the web site and motivate them to return. The customers’ desires and expectations should be met.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Internet business model and strategies
In conclusion, being the third in the country’s rate company that offers telecommunication services, the company still has several rivals. Still, offering the unique “One Network” service, the company remains beyond the competition in the market. The generally accepted 4P’s marketing mix is not enough for the services, so people, process, and physical environment items should be added. Thus, the research showed that even the 7P’s marketing mix is not the model that should be used for the company that offers web services. Constantinides (2002) offered the marketing mix service that perfectly meets the requirements for the company with web direction. The Zaid Saudi Company is one of those providing services in the telecommunication sphere, it is impossible to consider the impact of web technologies on the industry. The Internet gives huge opportunities, becoming one of the main promotional techniques.
Internet marketing mix execution and evaluation
Turning to the internet marketing mix execution and evaluation, it should be mentioned that the Zain Saudi Company has a web suite where actively presents the customers with information about the company, its products, and services. Notably, the company website offers online communication with the company representatives along with job offers. Still, the site does not contain all necessary information, if it relates to the 4S’s web marketing strategy. The site does not contain the competitors’ analysis and the analysis of the internal resources. Nevertheless, the company website offers the information about company’s shareholders, strategy, mission, vision, and quite useful information on the company widespread. So, being a rather developed company, Zaid should widespread its influence and pay more attention to the services it offers online. Living in the world of innovative technologies, people got used to finding all the necessary information online. Aid should meet those customers’ desires and become more available through web services. Zaid directors should pay attention to the Internet as following only the expanded marketing mix structure in the modern world is not enough, the Constantinides’ (2002) web marketing mix model should be applied.
Reference List
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Bradley, N., 2007. Marketing Research: Tools and Techniques. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Constantinides, E., 2002. The 4S Web-Marketing Mix model. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 1, pp. 57–76.
Epaud, B., 2008. Three times lucky: And Saudi’s third mobile operator licence goes to… World report: Saudi Arabia, p. 8. Web.
Jobber, D., 2009. Principles and Practice of Marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Prasad, V., Ramamurthy, K. & Naidu, G., 2001. The Influence of Internet-Marketing Integration on Marketing Competencies and Export Performance. Journal of International Marketing, 9(4), pp. 82-110.
Williams, S., 2008. Telecoms: the Zain gain. Middle East, 393, pp. 46-47.
Zain, 2010. The wonderful world. Web.