Sequoia - E-marketing Plan

Thèmes abordés

E-marketing - Sequoia - Marketing

Résumé du document

Since 1988, the supermarket Sequoia specialized in organic and natural products. The objective of this store was to provide healthy and organic food and also products for cleaning the house, cosmetics, etc. that was intended to enhance the well-being of customers.

The choice of the firm Sequoia was very clever and was considered in terms of an E-marketing analysis since it did not have a good online presence whilst that would seem to be inevitable for any company today. Indeed, there were a lot of advantages to be on the Internet and we will discuss them in this paper.

In the first part of the document, we will analyze the current internal and external situation. The external situation will be done through a Pestel, a Porter and a market analysis. On the other hand, the internal audit will be done through a study of the new Sequoia marketing strategy, their resources and capabilities and their current offer and results. Finally, we will conclude this section with a Swot analysis.

Before segmenting, targeting and positioning the market, we will define the customers of bio and natural products through a short analysis of different organic customers. After those classifications, we will identify who are the people that could be the most interested in using the website for buying Sequoia's products and after that we will focus on the new positioning recently chosen by the firm.

The fourth part of this paper will define the main objectives of Sequoia in terms of E-marketing. The company should find the answers to questions like "Why do we want an E-marketing plan ?" and "What would be the benefits of an E-marketing plan ?". In order to add a more practical aspect to this section, we will try to develop a strategic pyramid.

The last step of this E-marketing plan will consist of drawing the marketing strategy, program and support. We will go through the classic and extended marketing mix but also through the specific function of the E-marketing mix that can be synthesized in the "2P + 2C + 3S" formula: personalization, privacy, customer service, community, site, security and sales promotion. Before concluding this paper, we will also show what are the advantages and inconveniences to be on the Internet in the case of Sequoia.

Extraits

[...] In addition, by the educational effect, some other youngest people are also sensible to those elements. They consider that going back to industrial food would a regression in their level of life. In the case of Sequoia, they represent something like of their clients and they are essentially composed by young retired that are vegetarian ; Those who are the oldest clients of this way of consuming. They have been present since de 70' and are activists. They reject mass consumption, are worried about the environment and animals protection. [...]

[...] Even if the shop is very small, the company has a broad line of products and a small catering service ; Nature Essence is a very new shop that opened on the 10th of April 2010 in Waterloo. This shop is part of a famous French chain. In short, we can say that there are a lot of small stores that sell bio food. However, for the moment, there is no brand with a significant number of shops in Belgium. The market has not yet reached his maturity. Consequently, we can say that the demand remains higher than the supply. Sequoia has the advantage to get a very good reputation and a lot of products. [...]

[...] Source : Bioforum In 2006, the proportion of Bio food consumed in the total food consumption was around but, according to the bio market evolution, we assume that this percentage is higher than four years ago. The growth rate of this market is estimated to more or less 10% per annum[11]. According to the CRIOC, the growth in the bio sector is mainly due to the increasing demand of products because the designation is better known and recognized than before of Belgian know it). [...]

[...] These categories are increasingly present in our society. Indeed, homosexuals are increasingly accepted and there are more and more retired people as the population becomes older. The agricultural sector is well subsidized by the European Union but a survey has shown that 90% of the people think that agriculture is important for the future, which is excellent news for the bio sector[7]. Finally, a new trend appears: people are more and more ready to pay on the net, want to buy products and have deliveries at home. [...]

[...] This has the term of “valuation” because Sequoia is getting a new offer and some complementary services. When we are talking about the price (the amount of money needed to buy products) on the website, people are thinking that they are lower but, in reality, they are higher because of the market immaturity, intensity of competition and some customers prefer reputation to discount price. In order to block this trend, Sequoia needs to be free of charge when a customer is buying something on the website. [...]