Company Introduction
This report describes a brief discussion about Linfox organization. It is covering the introduction of the company, SWOT analysis, and competitive analysis. In addition, it also describes the objective of digital marketing communication and explains the targeting, positioning and branding strategies from an online perspective. It also describes the mixed plan and DMC strategies for Linfox Company. In the following, an effort has been made to discuss the monitoring and control approaches for the organization.
Linfox is a logistics and supply chain management established in Australia, which was initiated by Lindsay Fox in 1956. The company operates in many countries involving Australia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and China. Their Logistics employs 23,000 people in Australia, Asia, and New Zealand, operates 5,000 vehicles, and operates 3.2 million sq. meters of warehousing around 10 countries. They specialize in operation, warehouse management, complex supply chain, distribution, and integration. It is the second-biggest road freight company in Australia and deals with the association of industries including plastic, steel, and Chemicals organization (Hartley, 2014).
In the Australian supply and logistics industry, it has been seen that the threat of new entrants is high. The new entrants create innovation, execute a new process and system to deal in the business so, it could maintain the difficulty for Linfox company of Australia. The new entrants can deliver a new value proposition, practice the lower practice strategy, and decrease the cost to induce a high amount of customers. However, there is a necessity to Linfox Company of Australia to develop strategies and solve these hurdles to safeguard competitive edge (Merkert & Hensher, 2014).
In the Australian supply and logistics industry, the organization required to assess the data from various suppliers. Additionally, in a leading place, suppliers can decrease the profit margins. Therefore, there is a necessity to execute an effective as well as efficient approach. Therefore, the reason behind the high bargaining power of supplier is that there is quite a little number of suppliers under the Australian supply chain industry. The influence of higher bargaining power of suppliers may reduce the productivity and profitability of Linfox Company. The Linfox Company of Australia should execute negotiation power in order to decrease higher rates from the suppliers in the supply chain industry of Australia (Nel, 2016).
In the supply chain industry, it has been evaluated that the bargaining power of buyers is high due to greater accessibility of logistics and operations industry. It has been examined that the demand of customers is high in the supply and logistics industry. In addition to that, customers need to purchase superior products as they can pay lower rates. It may create difficulty for Linfox Company. The high bargaining of buyer might affect long-term profitability. Customers want to get discounts on the maximum extent that indirectly affect the revenue of the organization (Palacios-Marqués, Soto-Acosta & Merigó, 2015).
In the supply chain industry, it has been estimated that the threat of substitute products is high in case of Linfox Company of Australia. For example, there are substitutes of Linfox Company of Australia such as FedEx, Mainfreight, and DHL etc. In addition to this, the threats of substitute products are high as a competition of Linfox Company of Australia concentrates on the value proposition (Moatti, Ren, Anand & Dussauge, 2015).
Competitive Analysis
The rivalry among these current competitors in the supply and logistics industry is high then it will reduce the growth of an industry. Furthermore, Linfox Company of Australia operates in the logistics and operations industry. This rivalry may create the issues for generating the greater profitability of Linfox Company of Australia (Porter & Heppelmann, 2014).
· Linfox Company of Australia has a strong association and financial position to seek growth and success for the company. · They have created leadership and positive brand image in the market. · They provide consistent service, quality procedures, and procedures. · They have possessed strong experience and a bond within the industry (Lillestol, Timothy & Goodman, 2015). · Developing a more transparent company cost-cutting and controlling initiatives. · The Linfox Company of Australia should also intensify and broaden the company with the present customers in order to improve reliance (Amelec, 2015). |
· Linfox Company of Australia has raised their fuel prices and generated a negative image in the mind of customers. · They have identified a lack of diversification and their market share is limited. · Holding excess amount of stock and incompetent workforces generate complexity in the innovative market (Simatupang & Sridharan, 2016). · The Linfox Company of Australia has severe competition with DHL, Toll, and Post, which can slow-down their market growth. · There is communication issue among buyers and suppliers (Ahmad, Rezaei, Sadaghiani & Tavasszy, 2017) |
The Linfox Company of Australia will implement and perform an undifferentiated marketing strategy in order to affect the buying power of customers within a stipulated time and cost. This method can be valuable for the supply and logistics industry as it concentrates on only one marketing mix strategy to target the majority of customers in achieving the maximum profits (Govindan, Khodaverdi & Vafadarnikjoo, 2016).
The Linfox Company of Australia can concentrate on urban customers to attain more benefits from these customers. The main objective of choosing these customers is that they use supply chain activities more speedily rather than other activities. It could be effective and efficient to achieve a feasible outcome (Czinkota, Kaufmann & Basile, 2014).
The Linfox Company of Australia can utilize various strategies for decreasing the concern of organization in fewer expenses and less time. These strategies are the social listening plan, owned media design, and paid media design (Hsu, Tan & Mohamad Zailani, 2016). These strategies are followed as below:
(Fung & Choi, 2018)
The Linfox Company of Australia can attain the awareness related to supply chain activities and systems by executing paid media design with placement. It is seen that there are different sources to work upon the supply chain activity, which can be accessed by Linfox Company. These sources are LinkedIn, display, pay per click, YouTube, and paid social (Oelze & Habisch, 2018).
The Linfox Company of Australia can practice social listening and earned media together with a plan in order to communicate directly with specified and potential customers and builds a trust among them within a lesser time. The main objective of this method is that it helps an organization for developing a two-way communication among customers and employees (Lintukangas, Kähkönen & Ritala, 2016).
(Zhang, Jiang, Shabbir & Du, 2015)
The Linfox Company of Australia can execute this tool in order to improve their products and services in Australia and covering other nations. It is considered that the organization can generate more goodwill, productivity, and profitability by executing various elements such as the website of the company, blog of the respective corporation, and mobile site (Windler, Jüttner, Michel, Maklan & Macdonald, 2017).
- They should operate closely with clients for offering value-added services and customized logistics processes.
- They should make their distribution channel more effective and efficient (Valos, Haji Habibi, Casidy, Driesener & Maplestone, 2016).
- Their SMART objective is to enhance customer satisfaction within the next 6 months with the assistance of social media channel.
- Their SMART objective is to standardized contracts for warehousing, freighters, and clients within the next 2 years through a digital platform (Wang, Gunasekaran, Ngai & Papadopoulos, 2016).
The Linfox Company of Australia can implement an effective digital marketing communication mix plan because this would direct to make a close connection with the customers and helps them to generate favorable feedback. This institution can use this tool at a greater extent for dealing their business in an effective and efficient way and get higher success (Batra & Keller, 2016).
Online advertising is to be done by the Linfox Company as this can maintain the brand awareness of the organization. It is assessed that by doing online advertising, the company can achieve brand loyalty and secure the position for the long-term perspective (Shankar, Kleijnen, Ramanathan, Rizley, Holland & Morrissey, 2016).
SWOT analysis
It is one of the largest growth areas in digital marketing communication. It would also target the customers to gain maximum advantage. It also assessed that mobile marketing plays an important role with their customers for a longer perspective (Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014).
Under the existing concept, Email marketing can be an effective tool for the organization in order to make a cordial relationship with their customers by constantly updating email. However, the Linfox Company can maintain the awareness concerning operation facilities and can support to enhance understanding related with needs of the products and demands of the customers (Killian & McManus, 2015).
Social media management can be a substantial aspect for the Linfox Company in the present business scenario as it can develop the brand image and goodwill of the company. There are several social media channels like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, which help the organization to achieve the objectives (Parveen, Jaafar & Ainin, 2015).
The Linfox Company can maintain productive customer services and respond progressively to their feedback via a social media channel. The feedback is very important in social media management as positive feedback can be valuable for inducing potential customers. Additionally, it is seen that negative feedback can lower down the image of the company and they are concentrating on areas in which the Linfox Company can improve. Social media can generate ability for the organization in order to share the data and delivers a channel for increasing direct communication with customers, followers, partners, and competitors (Qrunfleh & Tarafdar, 2014).
Under the digital marketing plan, it can seem like an essential strategy as it will maintain the whole inflow and outflow of the cash. This method may direct towards the organization in order to pay money on a particular area for achieving the goal.
The Linfox Company can execute the feedback strategy and gathers the opinion and belief of the customers in order to meet their demands and needs and grow the company. In addition to this, feedback strategy can also be valuable for the organization to attain the awareness of the brand (Hofmann & Rüsch, 2017).
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be interpreted that the Linfox Company can implement the competitive assessment tool in order to evaluate the situation of the industry. The SWOT analysis is used for evaluating the internal and external factor of strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats in the market. It can be stated that the Linfox Company may generate digital marketing objectives and maintain support in creating the approach of digital marketing for the organization. It can be examined that the Linfox Company can concentrate on positioning, branding, and targeting strategy. It can also execute various strategies associated with digital marketing communication like mobile marketing, social media marketing, online advertising, email marketing. Therefore, it can be concluded that the Linfox Company can have also different approaches to controlling and monitoring factors like return on investment plan and feedback.
References
Ahmad, W. N. K. W., Rezaei, J., Sadaghiani, S., & Tavasszy, L. A. (2017). Evaluation of the external forces affecting the sustainability of oil and gas supply chain using Best Worst Method. Journal of cleaner production, 153, 242-252
Identification of the company’s target marketing, positioning, and branding
Amelec, V. (2015). Increased efficiency in a company of development of technological solutions in the areas commercial and of consultancy. Advanced Science Letters, 21(5), 1406-1408
Batra, R., & Keller, K. L. (2016). Integrating marketing communications: New findings, new lessons, and new ideas. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 122-145
Czinkota, M., Kaufmann, H. R., & Basile, G. (2014). The relationship between legitimacy, reputation, sustainability and branding for companies and their supply chains. Industrial Marketing Management, 43(1), 91-101
Fung, Y. N., & Choi, T. M. (2018). Product Development Process of an International Luxury Fashion Brand: Implications to Hong Kong Fashion Trading and Manufacturing Companies. In Contemporary Case Studies on Fashion Production, Marketing and Operations, 27(3), 27-41
Govindan, K., Khodaverdi, R., & Vafadarnikjoo, A. (2016). A grey DEMATEL approach to develop third-party logistics provider selection criteria. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 116(4), 690-722
Hartley, S. (2014). Trucking around: A little look at Linfox Logistics. Busidate, 22(1), 2
Hofmann, E., & Rüsch, M. (2017). Industry 4.0 and the current status as well as future prospects on logistics. Computers in Industry, 89, 23-34
Hsu, C. C., Tan, K. C., & Mohamad Zailani, S. H. (2016). Strategic orientations, sustainable supply chain initiatives, and reverse logistics: Empirical evidence from an emerging market. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 36(1), 86-110
Killian, G., & McManus, K. (2015). A marketing communications approach for the digital era: Managerial guidelines for social media integration. Business Horizons, 58(5), 539-549
Lillestol, T., Timothy, D. J., & Goodman, R. (2015). Competitive strategies in the US theme park industry: a popular media perspective. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, 9(3), 225-240
Lintukangas, K., Kähkönen, A. K., & Ritala, P. (2016). Supply risks as drivers of green supply management adoption. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112, 1901-1909
Merkert, R., & Hensher, D. A. (2014). Open access for railways and transaction cost economics–Management perspectives of Australia’s rail companies. Research in Transportation Economics, 48, 227-236
Moatti, V., Ren, C. R., Anand, J., & Dussauge, P. (2015). Disentangling the performance effects of efficiency and bargaining power in horizontal growth strategies: An empirical investigation in the global retail industry. Strategic Management Journal, 36(5), 745-757
Nel, S. (2016). Social media and employee speech: the risk of overstepping the boundaries into the firing line. Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa, 49(2), 182-222
Oelze, N., & Habisch, A. (2018). Responsible supply chain implementation-Are multinational companies gods and small and medium sized enterprises oxen?. Journal of Cleaner Production, 179, 738-752
Palacios-Marqués, D., Soto-Acosta, P., & Merigó, J. M. (2015). Analyzing the effects of technological, organizational and competition factors on Web knowledge exchange in SMEs. Telematics and Informatics, 32(1), 23-32
Parveen, F., Jaafar, N. I., & Ainin, S. (2015). Social media usage and organizational performance: Reflections of Malaysian social media managers. Telematics and Informatics, 32(1), 67-78
Porter, M. E., & Heppelmann, J. E. (2014). How smart, connected products are transforming competition. Harvard business review, 92(11), 64-88
Qrunfleh, S., & Tarafdar, M. (2014). Supply chain information systems strategy: Impacts on supply chain performance and firm performance. International Journal of Production Economics, 147, 340-350
Shankar, V., Kleijnen, M., Ramanathan, S., Rizley, R., Holland, S., & Morrissey, S. (2016). Mobile shopper marketing: Key issues, current insights, and future research avenues. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 34, 37-48
Simatupang, T. M., & Sridharan, R. (2016). A critical analysis of supply chain issues in construction heavy equipment. International Journal of Construction Management, 16(4), 326-338
Tiago, M. T. P. M. B., & Veríssimo, J. M. C. (2014). Digital marketing and social media: Why bother?. Business Horizons, 57(6), 703-708
Valos, M. J., Haji Habibi, F., Casidy, R., Driesener, C. B., & Maplestone, V. L. (2016). Exploring the integration of social media within integrated marketing communication frameworks: Perspectives of services marketers. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 34(1), 19-40
Wang, G., Gunasekaran, A., Ngai, E. W., & Papadopoulos, T. (2016). Big data analytics in logistics and supply chain management: Certain investigations for research and applications. International Journal of Production Economics, 176, 98-110
Windler, K., Jüttner, U., Michel, S., Maklan, S., & Macdonald, E. K. (2017). Identifying the right solution customers: A managerial methodology. Industrial Marketing Management, 60, 173-186
Zhang, J., Jiang, Y., Shabbir, R., & Du, M. (2015). Building industrial brand equity by leveraging firm capabilities and co-creating value with customers. Industrial marketing management, 51, 47-58