THE ROLE OF DIGITAL MARKETING IN IMPROVEMENT OF THE PERFORMANCE OF ASSOCIATED BRITISH FOODS

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction 4

1.1 Background to the research 4

1.2 Problem statement of study 5

1.3 Research objectives 6

1.4 Research questions 6

1.5 Significance of study 6

Chapter 2: Literature review 7

2.1 Internet Economic Development 7

2.2 The impact of the Internet on media 9

2.3 Digital marketing tools 10

2.3.1 Email marketing 10

2.3.2 SEM and SEO 11

2.3.3 Social media marketing 12

2.3.4 Mobile advertising 13

2.3.5 Display advertising 14

2.4 Digital marketing benefits and challenges 15

2.4.1 Benefits 15

2.4.2 Challenges 15

2.5 Performance of the organisation 15

2.6 Organisational performance and digital marketing 16

Chapter 3: Methodology 16

3.1 Introduction 16

3.2 Research Philosophy 17

3.3 Research Approach 17

3.4 Research Design and Strategy 17

3.5 Ethical Considerations 18

3.6 Limitation of study 18

3.7 Timeline 19

Chapter 4: Discussion 19

Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation 20

5.1 Conclusion 20

5.2 Recommendation 22

References 23

Appendices 31

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Background to the research

Digital marketing is considered a significant business aspect that has emerged in recent years (Kannan, 2017). All the organisations, irrespective of the size, are focusing on the implementation of the innovative tools. This will help in retaining existing customers and attracting new potential customers in the digitalised business environment. Each industry is adopting digital marketing in various ways, including the food sector, in which digital marketing is considered to be profoundly significant. The food sector is emphasising on integrating digital presence in the organisation as there is a high probability of achieving several advantages with the help of the digitalisation. The organisations are reinforcing the digitalisation process in the activities performed by the marketing department to obtain the desired result by changing their strategic approach.

The study focuses on the significance of digital marketing in improving the performance of the organisations in the food sector. The leading organisation considered in the survey is Associated British Foods, a UK-based food processing organisation that is retailing its product in different corners of the world. According to Audenaert, Decramer, George, Verschuere, and Van (2019), it has been opined that marketing is the function performed by the organisation through which they can maintain consistent contact with the clients of the organisation. At the same time, understanding their expected needs and developing the products accordingly so that the needs and demands of the customers can be fulfilled. The products are designed so that the requirements can be solved while building the communication system to express the organisation’s purposes. As opined by Kumar, Lahiri & Dogan (2018), it is found that marketing is the process through which needs can be fulfilled profitably. Hence, it is deduced that the meeting is determined as the revaluation process of understanding the social and human needs so that it can be satisfied. The overall concept of online marketing is referred to as the implementation and adoption of the internet for achieving the objectives of the organisation through marketing. In addition to this, e-marketing is the term which is used for internet marketing along with mobile marketing. It can be stated that digital marketing is the broader term that takes the use of the internet as well as communication technologies and the related information to achieve the marketing objectives. Digital marketing can be considered as taking the digital technologies through marketing can be done, and goals of the business can be achieved by surpassing the needs of the clients in a better way than the competitors.

Organisation performance is referred to as the overall performance of the organisation and is reflected by the overall performance of human resource functions, marketing, financial performance in the specified time (Mousa & Othman, 2020). The objectives and goals of the organisation can be formulated within the set time. Also, performance measures the effectiveness of the organisation in context to the set objectives. Therefore, the organisation’s performance is referred to as the organisation’s ability to achieve the goals that include quality product, high margin of profit, more significant market share, better financial outcomes, and application of relevant strategies. It includes specific dimensions that are not easy to quantify, such as financial and non-financial indicators used for measuring performance. The economic indicators include the growth in sales and profit margin percentage. In the service sector, employees’ productivity is considered the method of measuring performance (Aydin & Tiryaki, 2018). At the same time, performance can also be evaluated in comparison to the other organisations in terms of inventory management over the time limit, delivery time, and quality of the product. Marketing performance is ascertained by evaluating the sales, determining the market share, evaluating the marketing expenses, and overall financial performance of the organisation. It is essential for the organisations to seriously consider the marketing activities management while observing the results and, therefore, taking the necessary actions. The overall impact of marketing on the performance is essential to analyse understand as the marketing activities directly affect the sales and organisational performance to a large extent.

1.2 Problem statement of the research

Business performance is found to be a multifaceted and complex concept that is influenced by the environment. The competition characterises the climate of the business, and hence, it is appropriate strategies that are used for marketing. It can enhance the overall performance of the transaction (Todor, 2016). Performance can measure the organization’s effectiveness, taking into consideration the company’s overall vision and goals. In addition to this, the organisation’s business is designed in a manner that opportunities and threats can be identified with the help of the assigned and existing resources. Performance failure can result in a low level of competitiveness of the organisation, which can impact the position of the organisation in the market.

The concept of digital marketing is new, and its overall influence on the performance of the organisation requires to be evaluated adequately. Some of the elements of digital marketing are considered adversely. However, to perform digital marketing, the organisations are required to have a presence in the platforms forming part of digital marketing (Kaur, 2017). Marketing professionals need to participate in the organisation’s quality performance with the help of brand building and increase sales revenue. It also involves the retention of the customers, acquisition of the customers, the satisfaction of the customers, and the growth of the overall market share (San Lim, Heng, Ng & Cheah, 2016). Moreover, as ICT has emerged, the organisation does not have any alternative rather than adopting electronic technologies within its operations. It is essential to seek methods through which unique experience can be created and provided to the consumers using all the ICT channels and exploring ways for interacting with the consumers. It can be stated that the organisations that are making investments in the internet channels exhibit positive performance resulting in profitability.

1.3 Research objectives

• To understand the effect of digital marketing in business expansion of Associated British Foods.
• To evaluate the contribution of digital marketing tools in manufacturing companies.
• To determine the alignment between performance and digital marketing.

1.4 Research questions

• What is the impact of digital marketing on Associated British Foods in the context of expansion?
• How do e-commerce platforms and social media as digital marketing tools contribute to manufacturing companies transmitting their products and services to the customers?
• What is the relation between digital marketing activities and business performance?

1.5 Significance of the study

The study has exhibited a positive impact of digital marketing on the non-financial and financial performance of Associated British Foods. The study helps provide the managers with the required knowledge and also assisting them to engage in effective decision-making by adopting the strategies related to digital marketing. It can be deduced that allocating resources is an essential managerial function within the organisation through which success can be achieved by using the limited existing resources. The findings will also be beneficial to help the managers and CEO of the organisation to recognize the effective marketing strategies and platforms so that the fund can be appropriately allocated. This will also lead to gaining a positive impact on organisational performance, along with bringing necessary improvements within the business using digital marketing tools.

The Scholars and researchers will benefit from more valuable insight into the existing knowledge with the help of this research study. In addition to this, it will serve as a platform using which further investigation can be done on the relationship between the other strategies and implementation of digital marketing by the organisations in the food sector. Furthermore, it will also assess the government and a policymaker on the significance of resolving the issues and challenges faced in the implementation of digital marketing and the hindrances witnessed in its adoption so that the other sectors can be improved and contribute to the economy.

Chapter 2: A literature review

2.1 Internet Economic Development

According to Eichhorst, Hinte, Rinne, and Tobsch (2017), it has been found that drastic changes in the market can be witnessed throughout the globe, which has resulted in digitalization due to the impact of the internet. It is becoming a renowned and influential channel that is used for communication.  De Haan, Wiesel, and Pauwels (2016) have averred that in 1994, the website appears for the first time, along with online advertising in other forms. Also, this year, there was the development of the search engines and the use of the banners. The revolutionary changes were mainly possible due to Google and the innovative tools used by the organisation (Castellacci & Tveito, 2018). It completely changed the manner companies engaged in its business operations by creating a new mode of channel. It facilitated the organisations and customers to interact with each other while making the relationship stronger and direct (Wang & Kim, 2017).

As opined by Lin, Paragas, and Bautista (2016), it is found that individually, Google has resulted in the development of some of the significant activity which can be included in the strategies built by the organisations. It provides e-business, e-commerce, and e-marketing. It is stated that e-marketing is referred to as the virtual space in which the online marketing is aligned with the traditional market so that it can become a significant part of the strategies formed in the business (Pogorelova, Yakhneeva, Agafonova & Prokubovskaya, 2016). It also includes web solution research for communication and strengthening the relationships between the customers and the organisations. E-commerce is considered the next step in which the organisations initiate offering their products online (Cristobal-Fransi, Montegut-Salla, Ferrer-Rosell & Diaries, 2020). This is regarded as a global phenomenon that mainly started in the Chinese and US markets. Although the UK started with online marketing after these countries, in the year 2018, the total business turnover through e-commerce marketing is 18.5% 16.2% in 2014. Hence, it can be deduced that the share of e-marketing is increasing further (Eremina, Lace & Bistrova, 2019).

E-business is regarded as a combination of e-commerce and e-marketing. In this phase, the organisations witness the maximum development of all the online activities. With the help of technological development and maximum use of the internet, it has been possible to diffuse online activities together (Peit, Velasco & Spence, 2019). As averred by Laurell & Sandstrom (2017), it is also stated that the economy, internet, and people have acted as the main actors for the integration of online activities. Individuals can stay connected with the help of the internet, which has resulted in online economy enlargement and nurturing. In these areas, the experience and participation of the consumers are considered the main aspects (Park & Choi, 2019). The critical difference which exists between all these three elements is connected to the role of the users. According to Jacksi & Abass (2019), it is construed that web 1.0 is considered the static tool used by the users only to search on the internet to collect information. On the other hand, web 2.0 is regarded as the participatory and dynamic platform where the users can also participate actively to shape the internet as well as the available information. Such a shift can be witnessed, which has resulted in open-source platforms and a base for the increasing demand for social networks and the other modern platforms used by the users in today’s era (Elbanna, Bunker, Levine 7 Sleigh, 2019). This has resulted in rising the significance of the internet in the life of individuals. It implies that the overall internet economy has developed in this way (Repnikova & Fang, 2018).

The digital market can be very dynamic, and therefore, it is not easy to monitor the market effectively. Certain evidence proves its value will further increase in the upcoming years. It can be stated that the digital market will also impact on the growth of the economy. It is reflected through the fact that the users of the internet are rapidly growing. Also, the new internet devices are facilitating the individuals in using the available net smoothly. Web 2.0 creates a considerable impact on the behaviour of the consumers and contributes to the empowerment (Voramontri & Klieb, 2019). To make the study interesting, specific facts and figures have been provided. The average time spent online by the adult population in the UK every day is 3 hours 8 minutes. The time for the age group between 18-24 years increases to approximately 4 hours, and above the age group of 55 years, it is around 2 hours 30 minutes. This category of the population also demonstrates a high growth rate in context to the time spent on websites using the smartphones and other similar devices. Hence, it can be stated that it has a high potential digitally to get exploited.

2.2 The impact of the Internet on media

Rapid changes can be witnessed in the marketing process of the business environment. The organisations are shifting to digital approaches as the connected consumer’s overall number is increasingly mobile, mobile telephony expansion, adoption of the elevated broadband, etc. In the year 2014, considering the spending of the consumers, it was found that the traditional marketing approaches resulted in a 1% increase. However, digital marketing approaches resulted in an 11.2% increase in consumer spending. Also, it was valued approximately 46.2% of the overall market. Therefore, these projections ensure that the digital consumer’s spending will consistently turn into the primary market driver in the coming years (Mani & Chouk, 2017). The advertisers and the market professionals are focusing on accepting the persuasiveness and validity of the new digital elements. According to the experts, it is believed that digital spending will contribute half of the total media spending, especially the broadband expansion section.

In 2019, the digital share of the total spending was 27.5%, and in 2015, it reached 43.4%. By the year-end of 2020, it is expected that the share will be approximately 55%. In addition to this, the mobile platform is also becoming one of the digital tools necessary for the business. This is because of the media accessibility that is using mobile devices in tablets and smartphones and is gaining high acceptance due to the achievement of the unique experience (Yu, Lee, Ha & Zo, 2017). Between the years 2009 and 2014, the demand for mobile broadband has risen to 24%. At the same time, market professionals are increasing the budget for digital expenditure, especially mobile advertisement. Also, it is becoming one of the largest categories in advertising. It can be stated that the strategies developed in the marketing area within the business will profoundly rely on the use of the internet, mainly in some of the sectors. It is assured through the fact that digital advertising is the category of the advertisement, which is rapidly growing. In the year 2014, it increased to 16.2%. On the other hand, the traditional ad approaches gradually decline, such as printed advertisements and newspapers (Kumar & Gupta, 2016).

2.3 Digital marketing tools

According to Svalastog, Donev, Kristoffersen & Gajovic (2017), it has been construed that the digital phenomenon can influence different aspects of life. This includes interaction with the other individual, communicating with friends and relatives, and purchasing the products and services. All these changes have resulted in creating a requirement of digital marketing by the organisation so that it can compete in the market with other organisations (Senyo, Liu & Effah, 2019). Also, organisations are taking into consideration the broader picture and planning to expand on a global scale. In the marketing mix, there is a need to include the digital channels as these channels are indispensable for different kinds of business (Zubcsek, Katona & Sarvary, 2017). Digital marketing is considered the marketing technique that adopts new media to promote and market the products, brand, services, and organisation. It includes content marketing, which is a significant part of digital marketing. It is vital to half the valid and relevant content as the digital markets is a platform that leads to interaction and conversation (Szolnoki, Dolan, Forbes, Thach & Goodman, 2018). The customer base can be increased on this platform. The main features of the product can be defined easily. Furthermore, it is expected that the content will also be a part of the well-designed website that needs to be updated and monitored regularly with the help of specific tools.

2.3.1 Email marketing

Zhang, Kumar, and Cosguner (2017) opined that email marketing is considered direct marketing that states the help of the emails for communication and spreading promotional and commercial messages. This will retain the existing customers and attract potential customers (Sahni, Wheeler & Chintagunta, 2018). Through the statistics, it is evaluated that statistics itself is an appreciated tool that is used for digital marketing throughout the globe. In the US market, people started using statistics. However, later it became significant for Europe and the other developing countries. According to Wu, Li & Liu (2018), it has been opined that the email marketing technology has been adopted by the organisation that includes both B2B and B2C. It can be stated that around 82% of these organisations are using email marketing techniques for marketing purposes (Brock, Carlson, Moilanen & Schillo, 2016). As averred by the 2015 State of Marketing Report, around 73% of the marketing professionals find it significant. Also, 60% of them Zhang, X., Kumar, V., & Cosguner marketing professionals assure that the marketing of the products and services is facilitated by email marketing. Approximately 20% of marketers consider it their primary source of revenue (Waheed & Yang, 2017).

Todor (2016) has asserted that the organisations acknowledge email marketing as emails are highly preferred for use as a communication instrument. This results in providing the organisations with the opportunity to increase their customer base. In addition to this, there are other advantages as well. It includes low in terms of expense, assurance of high ROI. It can be used immediately and directly for sending or receiving messages (Budac, 2016). It facilitates the marketing professionals in testing and personalizing the messages to be more impactful (Ghavami-Lahiji, 2016). Traceability is it’s another significant trait such as email marketing software and platforms. For example, Mailchimp.com supports the users in tracking the opening rates of the emails with negative or positive feedback. Also, to understand the sales volume connected to these activities through bounce messages, click-through, web bug, etc.

2.3.2 SEM and SEO

According to Mackintosh et al. (2017), SEM and SEO are considered crucial digital marketing tools connected to the functioning of search engines, mainly to the operation of Google. With the rise in the demand of the websites and the search engines in both the business environment and everyday life of the individuals, it also has been developed over the time (Aswani, Kar, Ilavarasan & Dwivedi, 2016). Both tools assist each other so that they can improve the strategy of web marketing. It is based on the assumption that important elements should be more visible before being accessible to users. The main objective is aligned with the assumption. This helped the organisation to be more visible on the world wide web (Nilsson & Alanko, 2016).

SEO is the Search Engine Optimisation, which includes all the activities applied to the search engines so that the positioning of the website can be improved between the many organic results. Nilsson & Alanko (2018) has stated that the resulting pages are known as Search Engine Results Page (SERP). For the specialists of SEO, it is essential to understand the overall statistics related to the number of users who serve the internet and the on-site positioning factors. This is related to content optimisation and website architecture (Piñeiro-Otero & Martínez-Rolán, 2016).  For instance, it uses keywords such as optimisation of the contents, optimisation of the images, attribution of the tags, definitions of URL, the definition of tags, and keywords.

SEM is Strategic Engine Marketing, which is concerned with the web marketing activities applied to the search engines so that the traceability and visibility of the website can be improved. It includes the specific strategy development parallel to the company (Durmaz & Efendioglu, 2016). The SEM activities have the objective and focus towards influencing the potential users to visit the website so that it can turn to sales. Also, the SEM specialist concentrates on the off-site positioning factors that are considered external elements to the site. However, it can directly impact sales.

2.3.3 Social media marketing

Social media is considered as one of the most important digital marketing tools that exist and is implemented According to Piñeiro-Otero and Martínez-Rolán (2016), it is evaluated that the social media has become the new reality that facilitates the individuals and the organisations to express the beliefs and ideas followed by them. It is the new method of messaging which can profoundly influence the corporation where the managers have identified that there is the utmost requirement of the active social media strategy (Felix, Rauschnabel & Hinsch, 2017). This will provide them with the opportunity to gain a competitive edge in the consistently changing digital environment. In addition to this, taking into consideration the overall statistics will create more impact on the readers. It has been reported that approximately 93% of the organisations use social media as the marketing platform, which is the percentage that is consistently increasing (Shareef, Mukerji, Dwivedi, Rana & Islam, 2019). There are approximately 3.175 billion active internet users, out of which 2.206 billion are highly active on the social media platforms.

In the year 2015, around 176 million users were increased. In addition to this, the research of IBM reports that the critical parameters include social network metrics, ROI, the experience of the customers, new clients, global sales impacted by the marketing activities, and the conversion rates. This consists of the overall turnover to analyse the marketing campaign success level (Iankova, Davies, Archer-Brown, Marder & Yau, 2019). All these reasons lead to social media marketing, which also provides specific benefits for the organisations. It permits organisations to maintain a direct relationship and interaction with the customers so that the trust can be built for the organisations. This will lead to an increase in the productivity and sales of the organisation, along with higher brand equity. Moreover, organisations will get more exposure in aligning with renowned other brands through higher search ratings. Also, the company’s marketing expenses can be reduced with the help of using social media as it does not need a high budget and investment. The social media platforms include Flickr, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Organisations have to include social media in their marketing program as it the two-way channel.

Facebook is one of the essential social media tools, with 1.6 billion active users every month, and half a million users are added on an everyday basis (Chen & Lin, 2019). It can be deduced that every second 6 new profiles are generated. Through this number of active users, Facebook can reach 4.5 billion likes every day. Instagram, which is another important digital marketing platform shares 70 million shared videos and photos on an average. Twitter has every day, 500 million tweets on a standard (Godey et al., 2016). The other social media tools include Snapchat, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Weibo. It is also found that social media is a significant influencer for the entire society and organisations. Hence, the social networks have introduced some of the tools used by the organisations at a low budget to strengthen their marketing campaigns and supervisor in them.  It is a way through which social media experimentation can be increased at the business level (Tafesse & Wien, 2018). For instance, in 2016, Instagram developed three business tools, which include additional features for the design of the corporate profile, especially for the organisations, insights which include analysis of the metrics such as impression, reach, and followers. The third business tool of Instagram is promoting the post with the set target (Wang & Kim, 2017).

2.3.4 Mobile advertising

Mobile advertising is regarded as part of marketing using smartphones Enwereuzor (2017). This part of the sector is known to have multiplied within the advertising industry. It is reported that 30% of the overall income in digital advertising is generated through mobile advertisements. According to Jacobson, Gruzd, and Hernández-García (2020), it is construed that this is because most of the individuals are having smartphones, which has substituted the requirement of laptops and PCS for surfing the net. The mobile ad revenue can be controlled by Google and also by the renowned social networks (Vinerean, 2017).

The share of revenue with respect to the mobile platforms and devices exhibit another market facet. The leader of this market is iOS and Android. In the year 2017, Android reflected mobile traffic of 65.39%, along with 44.39% of the revenue generated through mobile advertisement. In the case of iOS, 52.05% of revenue was generated, and mobile traffic of 28.93%. As construed by Kayumovich and Kamalovna (2019), it is found that the market advertisement exploits mainly the three channels, which includes rapidly growing mobile applications, mobile web using the innovative tools such as QR code and advertisement through MMS and SMS (Rosenkrans & Myers, 2018). The main objective of mobile marketing is to create brand awareness and achieve direct responses from customers while increasing the companies’ engagement with customers. The trust and interest of consumers are possible to grow with the help of mobile applications. At the same time, it is expected that mobile advertisements will further achieve popularity in the upcoming years. It will also become one of the dominant digital media tools in the advertisement sector (Martínez-Ruiz, Izquierdo-Yusta, Olarte-Pascual & Reinares-Lara, 2017).

2.3.5 Display advertising

Display advertisement is also a vital digital marketing platform aligned to the activities performed on the smartphones (Bae & Park, 2018). This is known as a display advertisement as the advertisement can be witnessed on the website connected to its central theme. It is found that there are various visual forms, such as images, audio, video, flash, and text. Also, the display advertisement can be divided into some of sections. It includes pop-up, rich media, interstitial and banners, and buttons. These activities encompass the interactions of the user. This has led to measuring the effectiveness of mobile advertisement in terms of CR, which is click rate. Gao and Zang (2016) have opined that click rate is the percentage ratio between the total number of clicks and Impressions. It is also significant to define the strategy precisely so that the pop-up on the website’s banner can be positioned correctly. On the other hand, it can be stated that CTR is a significant indicator of the maximum number of digital marketing platforms and display advertisements. It is also posited that mobile devices have registered the CTR percentages, which exhibit the significance of digital marketing.

It can be concluded that it is essential to take into consideration some of the aspects. This involves understanding the trends of digital marketing from the viewpoint of the organisation. Content writing is the most critical activity. Also, email marketing and web personalisation are covered in the operation of marketing automation. Social media marketing and mobile advertisement are also a significant form of digital marketing. These marketing tools are witnessing an increase in demand due to the development of innovative platforms and devices. In addition to this, the objective of organisations behind using the tools of digital advertisement is to achieve a competitive advantage along with strengthening its position in the local, national, and global markets. For instance, there are new tools for curating content that support marketers in strategies of mobile and social media advertisements. Also, this will help in increasing the influence of visual and micro-content.

2.4 Digital marketing benefits and challenges

2.4.1 Benefits

The tools of digital marketing can be taken into use for increasing the visibility and traffic of the websites of the organisations. Along with this, the devices can also help in creating advantages in context to the organisations. Digital marketing is beneficial for companies to be ahead of their competitors. It also facilitates them to plan expansion at a global level (Zubcsek, Katona & Sarvary, 2017). Digital marketing, especially the social media platforms, have provided the opportunities to all the organisation irrespective of its size equally. Small companies can compete with large corporations and big brands using digital marketing tools and strategies (Feng, Fu & Qin, 2016). Therefore, it can be deduced that the digital business environment acts as the same base for every company and give the privilege to exploit the market at the same level.

2.4.2 Challenges

According to Dasser (2019), it has been averred that digital marketing leads to specific challenges for organisations. For instance, the active audiences are found to be beneficial as the tool used for promotion. However, it is advantageous only if the given feedback is positive. In the case of negative comments, there is a high probability that the active audiences can damage the organization’s corporate image, which has a terrible impact.  The most challenging element for the organisation is defining ROI, which is significant for evaluating digital campaign effectiveness (Krizanova et al., 2019). However, it is difficult to track it for all the activities, mainly if there is a lack of a two-way communication system between sales reports and marketing activities.

2.5 Performance of the organisation

According to Sureephong, Dahlan, Chernbumroong, and Tongpaeng (2020), performance is based on both monetary and non-monetary elements that provide the outcome of the task completed in context to the objective set by the organisation. Performance is the degree of effectiveness and attainment of the aim. Performance is expected to be assisted by performance management that involves cause-effect relationships considering different variables. Measuring the performance is restricted to the financial perspective and concentrating on the organisational internal aspects and information related to performance accessibility. This barrier can be removed, and it is essential to measure performance on a multidimensional subject. Effective organisational performance can be achieved by product quality improvement, production efficiency improvement understanding the demands and requirements of the customers responsively.

In addition to this, other factors can evaluate the organisation’s performance besides monetary aspects. Considering various literature, performance can be referred to as an overall contribution to the achievement of the organisational goals and objectives within the set period. Therefore, it is possible to measure performance with the help of several dimensions: implementing, marketing planning, and evaluating the marketing outcomes to ensure the improvement of the performance.

2.6 Organisational performance and digital marketing

Digital marketing is highly useful to increase the efficiency of marketing communication that is used in the company. It supports the organisations in engaging in effective customer interactions and the capacity to affect the organisation (Saura, Palos-Sanchez & Cerda Suarez, 2017). As the competition is growing in the market, it has become necessary for the market professionals to look for attractive and useful ideas through which the targeted customers can be attracted. As stated by Pomering (2017), it is found that the organisations take the help of the marketing activities to create value for the customers, along with delivering the desired organisational objectives. It is evaluated that the impact of social media on creating awareness of the organisation among the consumers is increasing. Also, there is a rise in the acquisition of information with the behaviour of the buyers through social media, which as the essential tool for performance evaluation of the brand.

Chapter 3: Methodology

3.1 Introduction

0 the focus of the chapter is on the methods and processes used for the research work. It takes into consideration the research philosophy and approach. In addition to this, the design and strategy of the research work are also included in the chapter. Moreover, it sheds light on the justification of the methods used for collecting data and giving insight into the limitations and ethical considerations forming part of the study.

3.2 Research Philosophy

Research philosophy has defined as the assumptions based on the researchers’ opinion, which also simulated the strategy and approach used for research. Brailsford, Eldabi, Kunc, Mustafee, and Osorio (2019) has posited that the research philosophy is connected to the development of knowledge. It can be adopted either as ontology or epistemology. These are the research philosophy types that can create an effect on the research processes in their way. At the same time, it will also raise the effectiveness of the used techniques for managing the study approach. Ontology focuses more on the reality that encompasses the attributes of objectivism, subjectivism, and constructionism. On the other hand, epistemology includes the categories of interpretivism, positivism, and realism. It focuses more on the existing knowledge and process in a specific research area.

In the study, positivism philosophy has been used. The research’s primary concern is to determine the role of digital marketing strategies in performance improvement of Associated British Foods. This can be evaluated with the help of the existing theory, which has been who is in the literature review chapter. With the positivist philosophy’s support, the researcher is evaluating the literature and methods based on reality. Moreover, the strategies can be developed that are used in the research to give recommendations at the end of the study. The positivist philosophy helps in making sure that the research methodology section is well-structured.

3.3 Research Approach

The research approach includes an inductive and deductive approach (Varpio, Paradis, Uijt & Young, 2018). The inductive method is used for collecting data while contributing towards the theory development. The deductive approach is based on the hypothesis development using the research strategy. This involves the use of specific theories to ensure proper development. It also assists in the improvement of the existing theory. Hence, this research study focuses on deductive theory.

3.4 Research Design and Strategy

Research design is helpful in analysing the research strategies to achieve the expected result. Research design can be explanatory research, descriptive research, or exploratory research. Explanatory research is used in the research work to reflect on the causal relationship existing between the variables, which is to be ascertained. Such a design is based on the statistical evaluation. Exploratory research design has the objective of handling the issues related to the research along with helping in the achievement of the theoretical knowledge. In this study, an exploratory research design is considered as it is suitable for the analysis.

The data collection method is of two types that are used for conducting the research. It includes primary data research, secondary data research. The primary data collection method refers to the information, which is the first-hand data that is self-collected. On the other hand, secondary data is based on the work of other researchers and their study. In this case, the second method has been used for the completion of the work. Data analysis is done by taking into account qualitative analysis or quantitative analysis (Klock, Gasparini & Pimenta, 2019). It is possible to use both the data analysis methods or only focus on a single method. The qualitative analysis includes beliefs, video clips, perspectives, interviews, and stories. These are the theoretical data. Quantitative data are graphs, statistics, and charts; it is the numeric data.

It can be stated that secondary qualitative data is more suitable and effective in this research study. It will provide the benefit of understanding the perspectives of the consumers, along with the other researchers. On the other hand, there is a drawback that is a lack of primary data search as there was less time to complete the work. Therefore, it is only based on secondary research without the interviews and surveys collected from the participants. It focuses only on the previous studies on which evaluation is done.

3.5 Ethical Considerations

Ethical considerations a significant part of the research study. It is essential to ensure that the work is conducted ethically following the university’s guidelines and considering all the rules and regulations involved in the research study. The study has been done by making sure that the rights of individuals are appropriately safeguarded. Also, conduct is strictly followed for keeping the research work and its data confidential. Moreover, the work of previous researchers has been appropriately referenced and cited.

3.6 Limitation of the study

In the research study, the main limitation is that the primary data collection method is not used due to the lack of time. Primary research encompasses questionnaires, surveys, interviews, etc. This will provide the scope of considering the individual’s opinion and perspectives like managers, CEO of the company, and the customers of the Associated British Foods. Therefore, it can be stated that the accuracy, relevance, and appropriateness of the data would have been more if it was primary data. There is an absence of understanding of the recent opinion of the individuals.

3.7 Timeline

The research study involves the timeline, which reflects on the time taken to conduct different activities involved in the research. This has been done with the help of the Gantt chart. This is defined as the bar chart, which helps in showing the project’s schedule. It sheds light on the required time for the research study to be completed, including all the activities (Ong, Wang & Zainon, 2016). The Gantt chart is becoming highly advanced as it reflects on the events and the current schedule, along with their relationship dependency. It has been found that the approximate time taken for completion of the work is 10 – 11 weeks, approximately three months. The activities included in the schedule are a selection of research topics, working on the study layout, collection of secondary data, development of literature review subsections, research methodology development, finding the conclusion, and providing recommendations (Appendix 1).

Chapter 4: Discussion

Technology has a vital role to play in the organisational performance improvement that functions in an intensely competitive business environment. It has deduced that the adoption of technology is getting significance in the food sector, which is focusing on outperforming the rivalry companies. To improve the performance, Associated British Foods is focusing on implementing the various strategies forming part of the digital marketing that includes social media, mobile applications, short text messages, online advertisements, digital displays, websites, and e-mail marketing. According to Aswani, Kar, Llavarasan, and Dwivedi (2018), it has been noted that digital marketing helps in the achievement of the personalized and regular message of the customers, and it does not add to the cost of the company. Moreover, it permits the organisation to introduce campaigns at a global level as well as specifically in certain regions. This will help in the improvement of marketing leads. Digital marketing strategies are facilitating the food organisations to increase the customer base by attracting potential customers and retaining the existing ones. It can reach out to a higher number of customers by fulfilling their needs and demands.

The research has determined that the use of digital marketing techniques has been helpful for the organisations working in the food sector as the financial performance can be improved, growth in the market share can be witnessed, the higher sales volume of the products, higher profitability, and acquisition of the new potential markets. This is also the perception of Kabbiri, Dora, Kumafr, Elepu and Gellynck (2018), which has found at the organisation adopt the technology so that it can gain higher productivity and profitability along with the optimisation of the processes. The study shows that the food sector does the use of digital marketing as it has the affordability, effectiveness, and efficiency for communication of the marketing process. In addition to this, the most common techniques for digital marketing in the food sector are social media marketing and e-mail.

The popularity gained by these strategies contributes towards providing the ease of using the direct and customised messages from the customers (Pansari & Kumar, 2017). However, social media marketing needs more integration and involvement with other media platforms. It is considered to be the preferred strategies over different techniques such as digital displays and websites. In addition to this, it is evaluated that the conventional methods used for marketing appear to be less relevant than digital marketing methods. It can be construed that the digital marketing tools are specific to the target, efficient, and capable of reaching a large customer base. The study reflects on the Associated British Foods, which intends to adopt the digital marketing strategies that can increase the value of their operations and focus on improving the performance by retaining existing customers and attracting more customers. It can also achieve expansion of the market reach with the help of an effective communication system and techniques.

Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation

5.1 Conclusion

It can be deduced that the emergence of the internet and the applications have resulted in revolutionary changes from changing habits to adopting it as business practices. Mainly, it is found that the marketing sector is witnessing a paradigm shift from traditional tools to the digital ones by providing certain benefits to the organisations that are used in a structured and continuous manner. Among all the existing advantages, there is a benefit of better transparency between the companies and the customers at a global level. This has led to an increase in the brand’s awareness, direct connection with the customers, reduction in cost, and an increase in ROI and certain other advantages. The implementation has also resulted in specific difficulties for the organisations that can be mitigated if all the activities are gradually linked to the digitalisation while being consistent with the application.

Digital marketing activities are possible to be applied fruitfully to the food sector, which is essential, especially for the organisations like Associated British Foods, as the demand for the food sector is increasing rapidly, especially on the digital platforms. Also, it is highly searched on the web. The variants of the tools used in digital marketing vary for food organisations with increasing diversity. However, it is essential to initiate the activities with highly visible, well managed, and well-structured website that is linked with the food blogs and social networks. In addition to this, it can also function as e-commerce and can be visited and checked using mobile applications.

Associated British Foods is one of the organisations with the potential of digital marketing its products as the food of the company. There are so many food organisations that are applying all the tools that are used in the digital marketing for supporting the offline initiatives while extending the process of digitalisation with the brands which are small organisations dealing with the food products and promoting the food traditions and environment of a specific country as well. These organisations can operate on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google Plus, Pinterest, and other social media platforms to gain publicity and directly communicate with the customers to make the relationship more reliable with the consumers. The evaluation of the social media tools implies that it is significant to be available on the different social channels with an effective strategy exhibiting diverse content on a regular interval for engaging the customers with the brand.

Some organisations have their new marketing system developed, and some brands have their own created blogs or have aligned with renowned food blogs for conducting the activities. It has been noticed that the organisation that takes the help of the existing tools uniformly have a higher probability of gaining the strong position in the global market in context to the digital traffic which is generated towards the official website which exhibits SEO strategies, web-driven backlinks and high level of foreign traffic used for sustainable global visibility.

Overall, the study concluded that brands operating in the food sector could increase efficiency through better and quality performance in the digital marketing area. It has been confirmed that these brands can apply digital marketing platforms consistently and coherently. Considering the great significance of digitalisation process in the existing scenario, food organisations such as Associated British Foods should design the digital marketing strategy in a well-structured manner that can cover various platforms for higher visibility acquisition. At the same time, it will be possible to operate the business globally by achieving advantages using digital platforms. It is essential to consider the leading social media tools to gain the opportunity and create a large customer base with low cost for implementing the marketing campaigns.

5.2 Recommendation

The study is based on an in-depth analysis of the impact of digital marketing strategies on the performance of the Associated British Foods, a food organisation. It also highlights the areas needing additional research. It has established that digital marketing contributes to the performance of food manufacturing organisations in the food sector. It has been recommended that Associated British Foods consider further adopting digital marketing strategies to a large extent to become more competitive and achieve the dominant position in the global market. This will also help in improving the performance of the organisation.

At the same time, the study also suggests that the organisation should consider using the existing resources on the specific strategies of the digital marketing process, which can create an impact on the performance of the business. Moreover, the effectiveness of digital marketing techniques can be enhanced if all the key stakeholders take the required responsibility to support digital marketing adoption and implementation. Departments individually will not be able to achieve as much success as they will be able to gain together as a team. In addition to this, it is also suggested that other researchers can involve in further study and research based on particular countries. It can reflect on the acceptance of digital marketing techniques along with focusing on the improvement of digital marketing strategies at the organisational level. Also, it is possible to indulgence a similar study emphasising on the other sectors to more factual information and have knowledge about the position of digital marketing in other industries, along with its overall impact.

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Appendices

Appendix 1: Timeline of the project