Problem Statement

Online marketing management in transportation is the process of an organization, which is related with the supply chain management. One of the most important part of this process is transportation. In this research article we are going to analyze the case study of Holden. It is a global manufacturer of Australia which deals in motor vehicles and its components (Farry, 2015). The company is performing very well in their business but now they want to extend their business to the global stage. For the same they needed an appropriate leadership and planning. The chief director of Holden proposed to have an efficient team of executives who have excellent knowledge of online marketing management. The team can utilize their skills to develop the strategy for the business growth in future. Recently company has introduced a management team, which has nine executives and all will be working under the knee of Mr. Peter Hanenberger. The main purpose of this research project is to promote the use of marketing management in Holden to develop a common picture of effective management. It will also help if identifying the areas which will strengthen the business growth the security vulnerabilities which might affect adversely the business operations. The main objective of this research proposal is to increase the profit of company by 20%, increase the exports consistently in future and maintaining the brand reputation in Australia.

The main issues which can be seen the business operations and logistic department of Holden are related with digital marketing and the strategies of online marketing management which are proposed to enhance the relationship of Holden group with their regular clients. The problem statement of Holden group can be explored as:

• Which digital and online marketing strategies must be followed and in which way that can be implemented?
• How to strengthen the bonding between company and the customers is a firing issues as well?
• In this project proposal, we are going to focus on the latest innovative technologies which can be adopted by the Holden group to achieve the target of customer relationship management.
• The impact of adopting latest technologies in business will also be analyzed in depth.
• After discussing the problems in details, we will also try to find out the solutions for the successful implementation of IT technologies in business to improve the efficiency and brand image of Holden group.

The main aim of this research proposal is to find out the role of online marketing strategy in transportation in Holden. To implement the online marketing a proper planning must be done (S. Ison, 2013). In this proposal report, we will try to find out the solutions of the following points:

• RQ1: Which strategy must be followed by the Holden group for the success of marketing management as per the structure of their organization?
• RQ2: How the members of management team of Holden will implement the digital marketing in their workplace?
• RQ3: Are the employees and customers of the Holden organization feel satisfied and comfortable for this technology and how this concept will influence the performance of employees of company?
• RQ4: The process of online marketing and the approach of customer relationship management in transportation.
• RQ5: Which steps can be preferred to enhance the working culture in organization?
• RQ6: Reviewing performance of the business and analyzing the driven forces to enhance the management strategy.
• RQ7: Evaluating the effectiveness of process and discuss the effects of changes on business operations.

Above issues will surely support in finding the goal of this project report.

Online marketing in transportation has been proved as a good researching business process. It is also proved that the online marketing has been affecting the economy of Australia and other countries as well.

In a transportation or logistic group, company can gain more success if there is lot of travelling throughout the country. It will generate more revenue for the company and also strengthen the relationship with customers. In today’s world of information technology any business can show their online presence using website, mobile application and the social media network. With the help of this, they can promote their business greatly. In this scenario, there must be a well-planned online marketing management strategy for the organization. In case of Holden group, the online marketing will be beneficial because customers of Holden are increasing day by day to the internet and they are preferring online purchasing to save their time.  It generates the need of online marketing management. Online shopping is also preferred by customers as they are able to compare the product’s specification and prices without any hassle.

Objective of the Research Proposal

With the help of online marketing management any business organization can communicate with their clients and improves their CRM. All these factors convince the Holden group for implementing online marketing management in their business. Using it the organization can achieve following benefits:

Less expensive tool for promotion: Promoting business through exhibitions or physical outlets is expensive mode of marketing. With the help of internet marketing there is less investment. It will not increase the cost of maintenance and rent. Company won’t require any physical store to display the products. It reduces the inventory cost of organization (Hashmi, 2016).

Flexible store hours: In online marketing management, there are no rigid timings for opening store. It provides flexibility for opening the store 24 hours a day. From the customer’s perspective, it is also convenient, as they can place their order anytime as avail the services of company as per their spare time.

Customized advertisement: Advertising the product is like oxygen for any business. With the help of latest innovative tools of online marketing company any create a customer’s list from their past buying and internet surfing activities. Company any target the customers easily and get a true reflection of customer’s interest. Impressive advertisements and selling campaigns can be planned by the company as per the data available from internet activities (Gassin, 2006).

Social Media can be used: In present scenario, the online marketing management strategy is mostly dependent on the use of social media platform. Social media is the most important tool for online marketing as per the study done by Harvard school of business education. It is showing that nearly 5% increase in sell for those companies who are using social media for their product’s promotion.

Better CRM: The relationship with clients can be built strongly with the help of social media platform. By sending email, feedback forms after delivering the services to clients, thank you messages and greetings on birthdays and anniversaries, company can get a personal touch with their customers. Regular clients can get more special offers and discounts on products and services.

The project proposal must have a definite output which must fulfill the need of proposal. The outcome of this research report is to provide a conceptual framework which must analyze various factors of online marketing management at Holden group (PAWAR, 2014). This analytical framework will be beneficial in analyzing the current strategy and the expected management strategy in decision making process by the organization. Although the implementation of online marketing management strategy has many consequences which must be analyzed but with the help of proposal the board of director at Holden may get an idea about how to implement online marketing management in company. With the help of online marketing the boundaries will not be the constraint. The expected consumption on marketing the product will be reduced it makes possible business to get connected with their customers 24×7 time. Potential customers can be targeted for offers and discounts provided by the company (Wu, 2014). It would be very much simpler to send any email to clients to convey the important information in less time. In online marketing management multiple SMS can be send to multiple clients at the same time. The expectation of getting instant feedback can be possible through online marketing management.

Benefits of Online Marketing Management for Holden Group

Conceptual framework is the layout about how the online marketing management tools can be used for enhanced integration and coordination within Holden group. It may be in form of program which can be used to get the maximum outcome of business (Eriksen, 2014). The main aim of this conceptual framework is to maximize the benefit and minimize the cost. Marketing promotion is the component of this framework which includes promotional activities for almost all type of businesses (AKGÜN, 2015). Online management consists of sponsorship marketing, direct marketing, sales promos and database marketing. The integration of all these type of marketing will strengthen the communication between company and customers. The integration may be horizontal, vertical, external and internal integration. The main tools which can be used in Holden group for online marketing management are:

Online advertisements: Advertising the products in effective way can build the impressive image of business. It crosses the geographical limitations in unexpected way (kary, 2015). In traditional way of advertising the cost is the most important factor.

Promoting sales: The sale can be promoted by discounted coupons, contests and lucky draws to get a strong and fast response from customers (Robinson, 2013).

Customer relationship: The main motive of online marketing management if to enhance the relationship with the customers.

Direct marketing: it can be in form of direct mail, through telephonic discussions and online discounted offers to customer’s wall on social media network. Direct marketing can be customized as per changes needed. The message conveyed to the clients are more impressive and up to date. 

To analyze the research proposal for this project report, we can follow various methods, but here we are explaining some of the very common methods which we prefer on other methods:

The view of literature: The data which is involved in the analyzing the concept can be collected from various white papers, literature reviews, online articles and blogs and the research documents. The contents collected from these sources are analyzed and the outcome may be the enhanced service quality and more profit (Wiley, 2014).

The data collected from different kind of sources can be selected on the basis of their effectiveness and total contribution in the research proposal. Data collection methods can vary on the basis of type of audience (TSENG, 2005). We prefer online feedback form, open interviews and questionnaires in Holden group for the same.

After collecting the data, it can be analyzed by using a proper method. It can be qualitative or quantitative. In quantitative analysis mainly the diagrams and figures are being used which can be in form of charts (bar chart, pie chart, Gantt chart etc.) This way of analysis needed a well-structured database. Qualitative analysis can be the contents derived from literatures and the findings can be explained in form of forums and online surveys.

Conceptual Framework for Online Marketing Management at Holden Group

Methodology is the way to doing something (Smutny, 2015). By selecting methodology approach the way of getting information or data can be changes. By doing some changes in methodology the characteristic and terminology can be changed. The way of viewing and handle any problem depends on their perception of fundamental view. There may be multiple methods to implement the option in a group but it is important that which method we are preferring onto other method. A specific approach which can be used to work on the proposal of project can be the final discussion and it can be drawn from all of the available options. In online marketing management system four main components can be involved in the methods: 

The reality concept: It is the real view of the world. It shows how the real view can be created and whether the view exists itself or it is the reflection of somebody else (Aamuvuori, 2014).

Concept of science: It represents the knowledge which can be acquire with the help of education and it can be used to analyze the impact of advertisement on the psychological mind of human being.

Ethical concept: It shows the normal behavior of human being which matches with the analytical study of researchers and consultants. The ethical aspects are the old area of consideration in the field of online marketing management (Bang, 2015). It includes some problems also such as: the liability of products, selling tracts, false promotion of products, price manipulations, marketing for low and medium scale customers and its attentiveness etc. The functional areas of marketing management can be explained as (pmprerna, 2015):

• Product related problems
• Price related problems
• Promotion of products
• Issues related with sales
• Problems related with clients
• Problems related with marketing ethics
• Issues related with internet access
• Problems related with rules and regulations
• Social life related problems

Section- III: Organization of the study 

The whole research proposal can be briefly represent in the following layout:

• Chapter one: This chapter will explain the proposal of research in summarized form.
• Chapter two: It explains the case study in depth of Holden group. What is the current working strategy in organization and why there is need of online marketing management?
• Chapter three: It shows the main conceptual framework, which is supposed to be implemented along with the hypothesis.
• Chapter four: This chapter is the main Sectionwhich will give the details of recommended methodology in this research work. It shows the study of literature reviews, collection of data from various sources, converting this data into meaningful analytic reports.
• Chapter five: It will explain the main outcomes of the project proposal.
• Chapter six: This will be the last Sectionof this research paper and summarized the main findings (chand, 2012). It also discuss the implications of these findings so that the objective of project proposal can be achieved.

For the successful completion of a project, we must have to keep an eye on all the activities which are involved in the project. All these activities must be completed in a time frame. If we missed the deadline of any activity, then the whole project will be affected and the delivery of project will be delay. It leads more cost. To overcome this problem, we are represent each activity along with its time constraint in form of Gantt chart in this Section (Geraldi, 2008). Gantt chart is the best tool to convey this information in visual format. It represents the activities, their order and the timings consumed by every activity.

From the above Gantt chart, we can explain the proposal of research in the following points in summarized form:

Methods for Analyzing the Research Proposal

The proposal was analyzed which was started on May 20. This step was of 12 days duration, in which the main consideration was to identify the exact need of this research proposal.

After analyzing the need, the proposal was started and it was continued till 40 days.

To analyze the framework of proposal, the main points was, the collection of actual facts from the Holden organization itself. This data was used to prepare a final analytic report. This report needed to be represented in front of board of directors for the approval. This data collection step is the most important as the further whole process depends on the accuracy and reliability of this data. This is the longest phase of our proposal report.

After using some analytical tools or application, the report was prepared in a professional way and represented in formal way for the approval.

If we discuss about the financial investment for the proposed research project, it is approximately $5000 within the expected deadline provided in proposal that is 03 October 2017. We can analyze this complete time frame in prescribed Gantt chart.

The justification of this budget can be specified as follows:

1. In the first budgetary aspect we use various Literature views for the better understanding of concept. For this we have various options in form of International thesis reports, journals, online articles and white papers. Some of these articles and journal papers are paid, so we estimated around $500 for the same.
2. To fulfill the requirements of data collection and analysis, we can use various tools such as questionnaires, feedback form and conducting interviews. We can plan for the site visit also for the same. To process all these, we must need a sufficient time, so we looked for some other alternative way to accomplish this task. We created one online feedback form and communicated it to all the employees and concerned stakeholders for the same. To keep the record for future, we will take the printouts of the detailed feedbacks provided by individuals. Although it will save our time but we have to appoint some individuals who will be available on site, for any clarification to the employees of company. These hired persons will take a short session to explain every aspect. This whole process will be estimated around $1000.
3. After collection of data from various sources, the next step would be preparing reports for the better understanding through presentation. In this step we prepare analytic report using specific application such as SPSS, Excel or SAP etc. It will needed $2000.
4. To prepare above data analytic reports, we hire some IT professional, who will guide and help the other employees for above task. The salary and expenses for this training will be $1500

Above budget can be summarized as:

References 

Aamuvuori, A. (2014, May 5). nbnfioulu-201406101713.pdf. Retrieved from jultika.oulu.fi: https://jultika.oulu.fi/files/nbnfioulu-201406101713.pdf

AKGÜN, A. E. (2015). A Conceptual Framework for Marketing Strategies . Journal of business studies, 12.

Bang, V. V. (2015). Marketing strategy in emerging markets: a conceptual framework. Journal of strategic marketing, 13.

chand, S. (2012, October 10). Essential Functions of Marketing. Transportation and Storage, p. 5. Retrieved from citeseerx.ist.psu.edu: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.661.6104&rep=rep1&type=pdf

David Keith Westerman, N. D. (2014, September 10). introduction-mediated-communication-social-media-and-beyond-0. Retrieved from he.kendallhunt.com: https://he.kendallhunt.com/product/introduction-mediated-communication-social-media-and-beyond-0

Eriksen, K. (2014, February 8). 081103_speciale.pdf. Retrieved from projekter.aau.dk: https://projekter.aau.dk/projekter/files/16056831/081103_speciale.pdf

Farry, K. (2015). Case study: Holden. Melbourne: Hay group. Retrieved from https://www.haygroup.com/au/downloads/details.aspx?id=16268

Gassin, N. A.-I. (2006, Many 12). gbs_thesis_62.pdf. Retrieved from gupea.ub.gu.se: https://gupea.ub.gu.se/bitstream/2077/2262/1/gbs_thesis_62.pdf

Geraldi, J. (2008, august 20). 17538371211268889. Retrieved from www.emeraldinsight.com: https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/17538371211268889

Hashmi, J. (2016, september 12). 6-benefits-of-internet-marketing. Retrieved from clicktecs.com: https://clicktecs.com/6-benefits-of-internet-marketing/

kary, J. (2015, July 2014). 09_chapter%204.pdf. Retrieved from shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in: https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/7794/9/09_chapter%204.pdf

Keller, M. (2013, June 1o). 051313p10.shtml. Retrieved from www.socialworktoday.com: https://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/051313p10.shtml

PAWAR, A. V. (2014, November 20). Study-Of-The-Effectiveness-Of-Online-Marketing-On-Integrated-Marketing-Communication-Amruta-Pawar.pdf. Retrieved from www.dypatil.edu: https://www.dypatil.edu/schools/management/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Study-Of-The-Effectiveness-Of-Online-Marketing-On-Integrated-Marketing-Communication-Amruta-Pawar.pdf

pmprerna. (2015, November 20). Ethical-Issues-and-Transportation-Industry. Retrieved from www.scribd.com: https://www.scribd.com/doc/21243365/Ethical-Issues-and-Transportation-Industry

Robinson, A. (2013, June 18). marketing-in-logistics. Retrieved from cerasis.com: https://cerasis.com/2013/06/18/marketing-in-logistics/

Ison, M. A. (2013, October 4). research-in-transportation-business-and-management.Retrieved from www.journals.elsevier.com: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/research-in-transportation-business-and-management

Smutny, Z. (2015, March 13). 267867381_A_Methodology_Concept_of_Online_Marketing_Management_with_a_Knowledge_Base_of_Interactions_from_Internet-based_Services. Retrieved from www.researchgate.net: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267867381_A_Methodology_Concept_of_Online_Marketing_Management_with_a_Knowledge_Base_of_Interactions_from_Internet-based_Services

TSENG, Y.-y. (2005, March 10). 1657.pdf. Retrieved from www.siam.org: https://www.siam.org/journals/plagiary/1657.pdf

Wiley, M. (2014, October 26). c06ReviewingPerformanceTheNeedForChange_web.pdf. Retrieved from www.wiley.com: https://www.wiley.com/legacy/Australia/PageProofs/c06ReviewingPerformanceTheNeedForChange_web.pdf

Wu, O. H. (2014, december 23). masterthesis-oliverhorvath-tommywu_0.pdf. Retrieved from closer.lindholmen.se: https://closer.lindholmen.se/sites/default/files/content/resource/files/masterthesis-oliverhorvath-tommywu_0.pdf