In terms of the rising globalisation and expansion of the use of the internet technologies more and more companies revert to the use of new marketing mechanisms in order to be enhance online and offline presence. The importance of the maintenance of high brand recognition is confirmed by the entities in different industries where preservation of the customer satisfaction and awareness are regarded the most critical indicators on business performance of the brand. This paper concerns operation of the Trinity Independent Living, one of the division of the Trinity Construction company that delivers services in the United Kingdom. This division has been specifically created for the needs of the disabled persons in order to ensure they will be provided with proper adaptations in their households. Although, the performance of the division is not effective as it has been anticipated by the managers of the headquarter of the company during foundation of this group. This is explained by low online and offline presence of the company, its weak visibility for the targeted audience. Given this fact, this paper presents marketing plan that should be used and implemented by the company in pursuit of better collaboration with private clients. The realisation of the E-marketing plan for the Trinity Independent Living should be beneficial for future growth of the company in the domestic market and across the borders of the United Kingdom.<\/p>
Keywords: disabled persons, facilities, Trinity Independent Living.<\/h2>
Background description
The construction market of the United Kingdom is featured with boom of the companies engaged in the delivery of the services to the people with disabilities. The Trinity Construction takes small market share in this sphere of business as its division has been recently introduced. However, the headquarter of the company is an authorised agency in the United Kingdom as it is valued for provision of quality construction projects and services to the customers all over the country. While the company was established in 1992, its popularity continues to grow. Currently the company is owned by team of the professionals as Surveyors and Chartered Builders. This entity aims to attain bigger share on the market by expression its commitment to the promotion of the sustainable policies where provision of the adjustments to the people with disabilities is an example of such performance. Trinity Independent Living acts as a company which conducts significant refurbishment and internal fit-out for its customers.
In majority cases, company collaborates with several local authorities which serve for the needs of the people with disabilities. Given a fact that the Trinity Independent Living does not have access to the private persons, it should deliver products and services through intermediaries as non – governmental organisations, municipalities and others. Clients refer to the company in case it is necessary to install equipment in support of the additional living aids so that adults can gain access to bathing. During the whole period of the operation of the company, the management has faced problem related to limited awareness of the people between installation of a level access shower and other facilities for people with disabilities. In addition, experience of the managers of the Trinity Independent Living reaffirms that people do not know that adjusted facilities are offered in the British market. This finding implies that the activity of the Trinity Independent Living is not popular as it still should improve its physical and online presence in order to get target audience. Beyond the fact that the Trinity Independent Living is a specialist contractor having a team of qualified professionals, it still faces problems in expanding its popularity. The team of this professionals has all necessary resources in order to enhance awareness of the customers living in the United Kingdom about performance of the company. This objective should be achieved through implementation of e – marketing plan that is focused on the improvement of online presence of the organisation for its clients. In the meantime, the Trinity Independent Living collaborates with Independent Occupational Therapists that perform disabled bathroom layout. With that, partnership with public contractors is not sufficient for growth of the company as its popularity remains at the same level.
The range of the products and services of the company is rather extensive. It succeeds to develop full home adaptations that are relevant to installation and operation of stair – lifts, floor lifts. Accordingly, the company is capable to perform structural alterations, repairs and decorations. The team of the company has a qualified architect that is capable to develop plans of adjustment in households. At the same time, the Trinity Independent Living successfully collaborates with local municipalities with regard to the receipt of the approvals from local authority in order to integrate necessary amendments in the structure of the house. In this respect, the company has to follow rules and norms of the Construction Design Management Regulations 2015 as it performs functions of the principal contractor and principal designer.
The staff of the company refers to the competitive advantage of the organisation. It successfully hires and holds professional team of technical specialists, tradesmen and other employees. All these people ensure that adaptations are properly integrated and installed in the households. In addition, there is no evidence that the Trinity Independent Living performs its work of low quality due to minimal amount of disruption and negative feedback on this unit. Therefore, the reputation of the company is strong and reliable that should be used as competitive advantage for the organisation in terms of the promotion of the performance of the business unit at all levels. Finally, it is highly important to note that Trinity has a strong health and safety culture. The management of the organisation takes care of regular training, where performance of every team member is observed on behalf of health and safety consultant.
Problem formulation
The purpose of this project report is to suggest a strategy that can be used in order to successfully strengthen the brand name and position on the market but also to create and implement a marketing plan that will be used and monitored to see how these changes will affect the company. The project will include an updated marketing mix, activity plan and also a budget that covers all the expenses related to promoting these activities. This paper aims to analyse England’s external environment, disability market, competition challenges and growth trends in order to come up with a suitable marketing strategy for the development of the Trinity Independent Living in both dimensions including online and offline performance of the company.
After doing research on Trinity, it has been revealed that this company lacks visual identity which is not helping their online and offline presence. Based on this, I decided Independent Living needs a new look, which will help them strengthen their online presence, while trying to give suggestions as to how they can enhance their offline presence as well.
To make sure the marketing plan and suggestions are reliable, the main question and the sub question should be answered.
How can Trinity Independent Living increase customer awareness through online and offline strategies?
1. Analyse the macro and micro environment to develop a suitable marketing plan about Trinity Independent Living.
2. How can Trinity improve their online and offline presence? How can they be more visible online and offline?
3. What is the most suitable marketing plan for Independent Living?
4. What are the costs associated with implementing such a plan?
Delimitations
The primary constraint to this research paper is limited availability of the information on the services of this company. The other impediment for accomplishment of this paper lies in the fact that it might be rather difficult to approach targeted group of customers of the Trinity Independent Living by improving online presence of the company for several reasons. First of all, the people of disabilities that are covered by the notion of the “target audience” of the company are not active users of the internet technologies and applications. This implies that adults refer to the age group between 40 – 70 years old. Given this fact, the marketing plan should be designed in a manner so to force young people to purchase services for the adults having certain disabilities. At the same time, the last delimitation of the project lies in lack of funds to be used for implementation of the marketing plan in full. Therefore, priorities should be selected.
Methodology
The accomplishment of this paper is made by use of mix of research methods and approaches. The first data collection method is case study analysis. This particular strategy has been employed with a purpose to define peculiarities of the performance of the Trinity Independent Living in terms of the provision of the services to the people with disabilities. The other method is meta content analysis that is used for processing of the primary and secondary data about effectiveness of the marketing plans. This method reveals pros and cons of all strategies that should be used in rise of online presence and visibility of the company.
Quality Assessment &Source Criticism
There is limited amount of studies that have been performed in reference to the investigation of the marketing opportunities for entities dealing with products for people with disabilities. Therefore, this marketing plan is featured with certain novelty.
Structure of the Thesis
This thesis is structured in several interconnected and logical parts. Chapter 1 introduces background information about subject – matter of the paper. It outlines the research problem that should be solved and presents list of research questions defining the scope and flow of the research. In Chapter 2, theory on customer awareness notions and role of online and offline presence of the companies are considered. For the purposes of this paper, special emphasis is given on the role of the offline and online performance of the company, its presence on strengthening of the customer awareness. Chapter 3 describes the pros and cons of use of qualitative research method for data collection. In Chapter 4 key findings are presented and discussed. In addition, this paper covers an analysis of the marketing strategy for further growth of the company in pursuit of its online and offline presence in order to enhance its targeted audience and raise attractiveness in the United Kingdom. In a nutshell, Chapter 5 contains description of the primary conclusions and recommendations that should be integrated by Trinity Independent Living and other companies having same problems in pursuit of better service quality.
Literature Review
This part of the paper contains an analysis of the available studies that have been prepared earlier by other scholars with regard to the importance of the development and implementation of the marketing plan for growth of the companies. Numerous secondary studies including journal articles, reports of the companies and analytical organisation are subject to examination so to receive responses to the research questions. The findings of the literature review assessment are applied in the discussion session as theoretical observations preceding practical implementation of the marketing plan for the Trinity Independent Living.
The notion of visual identity
Attracting customers should be achieved by strengthening of the visual identity of the brand. According to scholars, visible elements of the brand may encompass color, form, shape or any other symbolic meanings that differentiate one brand from the other. Van Riel and Balmer (1997) insist on the fact that the corporate identity include three elements as visual design, corporate communication and organisation conduct of the staff (Riel and Balmer 1997, p. 342). With that, Borja de Mosota (2003) explains that corporate visual design comprises the next elements:
Product design
In view of the current speed of growth of the business environment, the findings of Gray and Balmer (1998) are still relevant in part of the fact that corporate identity reveals distinctive characteristics of the organisation. Hence, any growth of the company in the domestic industry should be connected to the strong corporate visual identity (Van den Boash et al. 2005). Namely, the targeted audience of any entity should clearly understand that this visual element represents this or that brand delivering certain type of products and services to its customers. Kohli et al. (2002) specify that corporate visual identity should be perceived a group of elements extending to name, symbol, logo, typography, color, slogan and different graphical elements.
Importance of Online and Offline Presence for Business Unit
Online presence is found by scholars as a minimal threshold that should be met by the companies in maintenance of the effective business communication with customers (Chandrasekar, 2010, p. 30). According to scholars, online presence and visibility of the present evidences the alignment of the brand to the latest innovative technologies and symbolises readiness of the company to communication with its consumers through maintenance of the constant collecting of feedback Halligan and Shah, 2009, p. 43). Business analysts define that having a website is not sufficient for online presence of the brand as well as it will not add to the competitive advantage of the company desiring to compete with the others McDonald and Wilson 2011, p. 12). From day to day, the customers are turning to the use of the internet communication, where social media platforms are valued for their effectiveness. Accordingly, scholars suggest that formation of strong online presence should positively affect physical operation of the brand by educating targeted group of customers (Ryan and Jones 2009, p. 10).
In the age of the digital technologies, any business has to refer to the development of strong online media visibility and presence (The Nielsen Company 2013, p. 7). Any business should have an updated social media page, mix of communication tools, e – commerce platforms, etc. (The Nielsen Company 2013, p. 8). The recent rule in the development of online presence of the brand implies that even business unit does not deliver its products and services online, the consumers currently expect that this company is properly represented in different social media resources. Scholars note that modern consumers have certain peculiarity in behaviour concerning giving preference to the company dealing with clients online. This behaviour lies in the fact that a brand will be reported incapable to increase its profitability or popularity, if customer does not see this brand online. As a result of this discussion among scholars, it has become evident that the consumers have accustomed to make initial research about company, its performance, feedback, quality of the products (The Nielsen Company 2013, p. 9). Potential customers should not spend a lot of resources in searching and collecting information about the brand. If search engines do not provide sufficient amount of data about interested brand, there is a risk that client will refer to the services of the other entities (The Nielsen Company 2013, p. 10).
The other reason for development of online presence for brands is presentation of the products and services (Ryan and Jones 2009, p. 11). The availability of the recent mobile technologies and applications suggests that uploading photos on the Facebook page of the brand is the cheapest way of advertisement (Ferrell & Hartline 2011, p. 21). By visiting this communication tool in the Internet allows to the customers to get all basic information about company, its products, services and other issues. Scholars consider that online presence is a reflection of the brand working for 24 hours (Ryan and Jones 2009, p. 13).
Online presence is a key element in formation of the relationships with customers and potential group of consumers (Ryan and Jones 2009, p. 13). By considering position of the most scholars, it Is better to agree in opinion that social media implies establishment and development of the relationships (Ryan and Jones 2009, p. 13). In fact, benefits and resources of the social media presence of the company are subject to future investigation. In the meantime, the most companies have to initiate communication with consumers in social media in order to reduce gap that exists because of the limited activity of the brand in the Internet (Dyson 2004, p. 636). According to recent observations of the scholars, customers express more support to the brand which have strong online visibility and presence (Ryan and Jones 2009, p. 14). Therefore, modern business unit should take all necessary measures in order to ensure that this brand is not left behind. Development of online presence is a long – term investment that should be properly rewarded by the marketing specialists of the company. In addition, the research field does not contain evidence that for disability market creation of the strong brand visibility and online presence are not needed. In turn, it is presumed that the persons with disabilities should be additionally informed about improvement of online presence of the most sustainable brands similarly to the Trinity Independent Living.
With elaboration of online presence, it is expected that any business will turn into unstoppable mechanism taking orders and performing them for the benefits of the clients (Chaffey 2011, para. 12). In the meantime, online presence of the company should reveal what aspects of business performance work for it and which should be substituted (Kardes et al. 2010, p. 121). From this perspective, development of online presence implies that integrating of the company in the world of the mobile technologies and applications is an absolutely essential element in the strategy of the company. Active position of the brand in the social media and other resources within Internet leads to enhancement of the accessibility to wider group of the customers, while there is no difference if these consumers suffer from disabilities or not (Kardes et al. 2010, p. 1212).
Customer Awareness and Online Presence of the Brands
Over the last few years, the scholars changed focus of the investigation of the role and place of the traditional marketing to the investigation of the online presence mechanisms for the growth of the company (Ryan and Jones 2009, p. 12). According to scholars, the new methods are impressive in effects and consequences as it allows to reveal new capabilities of the brand (Leadley and Forsyth 2004, p. 9). In addition, digital marketing tools are important as they reduce a gap between company and its customers (The Nielsen Company 2013, p. 7). In view of the peculiarities of the modern business environment, one should agree that performance and profitability of the brand are contingent upon the effectiveness of online presence of the company (McDonald and Wilson 2011, p. 11). Having an appealing image before customers is a way for gaining more revenues in the domestic industry. If a brand does not have a clear identity or online image, this brand will be not able to attract target audience and keep interest of the current consumers (Sengupta 2005, p. 34).
Scholars agree in position that the world of the internet is a source of the numerous opportunities of growth and effective development for a company (Leppäniemi & Matti 2008, p. 20) (Ferrell & Hartline, 2011, p. 39). With use of the online mechanisms and platforms, companies gain an opportunity to interact and communication with target audience (The Nielsen Company 2013, p. 12). Furthermore, maintenance of the communication online is a key to better customer awareness about performance, business activities of the brand (Amber 2002, p. 8). Presence of the brand in the social median will contribute to the formation of the online reputation of the company, its management, while consumers will be able to trace back progress of the entity in the Internet and establish appropriate tights with the company (McDonald and Wilson 2011, p. 19. Opportunities provided by the Internet can not be invoked by conventional marketing instruments. Therefore, promotion of the online presence is a timely requirement of business environment, while companies have to stand to it. Consequently, growing of the popularity of the online tools of communication confirms that most of the consumers decided to collect information about company they are interested in (Kardes et al. 2010, p. 120). After this, they are looking for opportunities allowing to minimise costs and maximise benefits out of the potential purchase of service or goods. Due to the fact that customers express their attitude to the brands in form of the reviews and posts published in social media, a company should be concerned with maintenance of the reputation by keeping positive feedbacks (Hollensen 2006 p. 12).
Scholars insist that any customer will be able to remind a quality good brand if it has a clear and great online presence (Hirai 2011, para. 11). The majority of the consumers gives a priority to the search within Internet for information about activities of the company, its product range, reviews and other factors (Porter 2008, p. 40). In this respect, one should agree that the entities try to represent themselves in the positive light in order to attain customer. Therefore, it becomes apparent that several companies prefer to filter out negative reviews at the website with a purpose to keep quality standards and avoid move of the consumers to the direct competitors. Poor online presence of the company will distract from performance of the brand, while this entity will remain vulnerable to external factors (Porter 2008, p. 70).
Literature Review Gaps
The overview of the available studies on the rise of the customer awareness and brand recognition, it appears that there Is a limited access to the discussion of the information to be interested for people with disabilities. One should understand that there are no studies where scholars may agree of disregard an opinion that the marketing strategy of the brands should be different in case targeted audience is represented by people with disabilities. Given this fact, it is hard to state that the conventional marketing plan will work for people with disabilities as it grounds on the use of the traditional communications of the business experts concerning promotion of the online presence of the company.
Summary
Lack of studies on the evaluation of the effectiveness of the marketing mechanisms in access to the company providing services and products to the people with disabilities forces investigation of the unique tools. However, this gap should be filled in in the nearest future as it is reasonable that the Trinity Independent Living has problems with promotion of its services due to the fact that its products are not commercial per se. Therefore, they do not pose interest to the overwhelming number of customers regardless the fact that the people with disabilities should also feel themselves safe and necessary in the modern community.
Methodology
In this part of the paper, the use of special methodology is explained. Following research strategy that has been developed for this project will lead to the same results in other studies aimed at the consideration of the effectiveness of the instruments for strengthening of the customer awareness.
Research Strategy
This paper should be performed with use of the case study analysis where focus is limited to the performance of the company offline and online ((Saunders and Tosey 2009, p. 20). The interest is paid to the investigation of the visibility of the brand for its targeted audience in order to define what instruments should be chosen and applied with a purpose to raise attractiveness of the company for its current and potential customers ((Saunders and Tosey 2009, p. 25). The research strategy to this study encompasses several stages. At the very beginning, the research problem is identified and discussed. Afterwards, the data collection is made in order to use theoretical information about customer awareness, online presence of the brand with regard to the practical development of the company in terms of the promotion of its services and products (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill 2009, p. 33). Understanding of the potential of the organisation is performed by comparing observations of scholars from literature review and their applicability in the development of the marketing strategy for the Trinity Independent Living.
Research Method
Research is considered a dynamic process of the processing of the data in systematic manner (Sunders et al. 2012). In this particular case, systemic approach to data processing implies identification of the logical connections between methods used for data collection with regard to the value of the data (Thomas 2003, p. 49).
Data Collection Methods
The investigation of the capabilities of the company and its perspectives for growth in the domestic industry will be measured through evaluation of the current visibility of the company for its targeted audience. This examination will be performed by taking attractiveness of the website of the company, its social media identity for the customer that might be interested in the products of the Trinity Independent Living. Hence, observation methods and case study methods are employed for evaluation of these factors. Accordingly, the other research method is used with a purpose to define attitude of the customers to the visibility of the brand and its attractiveness for disabled persons in the United Kingdom. This data collection objective is achieved by use of the questionnaire filled by the persons with disabilities that live in the United Kingdom.
Sampling
In view of the fact that this paper partially involves both qualitative and quantitative research methods, discussion of sampling is needed. In particular, this paper refers to the needs and interests of certain group of the consumers as people with disabilities. The research is limited to the investigation of the living conditions of people with disabilities residing in London or any other Eastern region of the United Kingdom. The disabled persons have been selected for accomplishment of the questionnaire, while it was no difference in age or status of the person invited for participation in this research project. With that, the research extends to the investigation of the needs and interests of the people with disabilities and it is perceived as only requirement to this research paper. People without any physical or mental diseases have been excluded from this research due to the fact that they are not covered with target audience of the Trinity Independent Living. The accomplishment of the effective marketing plan should ground on the primary data. In this marketing plan, conduction of the primary data collection is offered so to define needs and wants of the people with disabilities. This approach is regarded as the most appropriate for elaboration of unique and effective marketing strategy for the Trinity independent Living.
Limitations
Every study is featured with existence with specific list of limitations and barriers arising before researcher in the accomplishment of the paper (Tunarosa and Glynn, 2016, p. 12). With regard to the subject – matter of the paper, the first limitation is linked to the limited number of studies where scholars or business practitioners may discuss options for marketing of the companies producing items or services to the vulnerable groups of people. In view of this limitation, an author to this paper had to elaborate own understanding of the marketing of the products that do not pose any commercial interest. The other limitation takes root in the budget of the company that is provided by the leadership of the organisation for implementation of the new marketing strategy which implementation should assist with development of the Trinity Independent Living in the Internet resources.
Ethical Issues
The paper is deprived of any ethical considerations due to the fact that it has not employed extensively any interviews or questionnaires. Gathering of the data with use of the questionnaire is present in part of the evaluation of the attitude of the people to the performance of the Trinity Independent Living with a purpose to define if the le
