Unit 6 M3 Online Marketing Strategy

MARKETING CONSULTANCY

CONTENTS LIST

Executive Summary

This report is about online marketing strategy of O2 Arena. The purpose of report is to explore different new and innovative ways of marketing for O2 which they are not using or using less effectively. The marketing consultants will explore number of key areas where the organisation under consideration can improve their marketing and attract more customers and increase their revenue further. First content is about the current position of organisation and the problem statement. In the next part the author will highlight different external and internal environment factors which directly or indirectly can impact on the performance of organisation. Here the author will compare
the theory of different external and internal environment with the O2 specifically and main stream entertainment industry in general.

The author then selected the objectives of study. Here he focused on the SMART objective formulation. After the objective, the author linked the objective with theory to give readers the reasons why the objective of study is chosen and how the online marketing can be effective for the growth and productivity of an organisation.

The most important part of this report is about the formation of online marketing communication. Here author took three main areas where the organisation can improve their marketing. First of all the e-mail messaging came under discussion, then author highlighted different merits and demerits of e-mail based marketing and then apply this on the O2. The authors also have told the readers about the resources required for e-mail marketing and how the organisation can make it more effective and useful.

The next strategic focus was on the social media use for the marketing of organisation. Here the consultants suggest three key tools which are most suitable for O2. The first was facebook, and then twitter and lastly the blogs based customer communication. Lastly author gave different mobile marketing tools like SMS, mobile internet, push notification and location based marketing. Both positives and negatives of these tools are given to bring realistic information about these tools. At the end, the author has given some suggestions for the management of mobile communication.

The last part of work is budget based profit and loss and also cash flow statements are given. These are produced on the basis of different assumptions. These are not the whole organisation statements but just for the marketing projects suggested by the reporters. The Company (O2 Arena)
The O2 Arena used to be known as millennium dome. It was established before new century and it was hub of celebrations of new century in London. However, it closed just after the opening due to some political issues. After remaining closed for seven years, the building was taken over by the world most famous entertainment group called AEG. They opened the organisation in 2007 after some motivation and alignment. They kept the outer tent as it was before but changed it from inside. They converted into entertainment venue containing arena in the middle and surrounded by restaurants, bars, clubs, shops, cinemas, exhibition center and lot more (The O2, 2013).

This is one of the biggest Arenas in United Kingdom and has capacity of massive 20000 just inside the main arena. In addition to that they have small arena for the smaller concerts have the seating capacity of 3000 people. They were host of athletic games during London Olympic 2012. In addition, they hosted world most famous singers and actors and became world most wanted destination (The O2, 2013).
Furthermore, the Arena can also be converted into the sport advance and hosting basketball, boxing and Tennis as well. The stage shows and theatres are another speciality of Arena.

Current Position
The revenue of organisation is increasing continually after they started in July 2007. The trend shows that its revenue is growing. After few years of operations, the organisation has become entertainment market leader in United Kingdom. It is also well known building in the world. The experienced, skilled and effective management of organisation has linked the organisation with the world most live entertainment hub and big stars like to come to the O2 and perform their arts (The O2, 2013). The core team is managing the different external companies who are working for AEG. The reason behind hiring different organisations instead of managing themselves is to get help from the experience of organisations who are in the services market for the long time. These organisations are doing well so far excluding some of the customer services issues (The O2, 2013).

The organisation is also expanding its functions as well. They are adding some different new and innovative ideas in their existing services. Previously they have made a path going on the O2 building. There is platform on the top where the visitors can take pictures and see the view around. Another new thing near O2 is Amaranths cable car which is on the Thames and connecting the Greenwich Peninsula to the Prince Regent. Such innovations and development around the place are keeping the customers of organisation interested with the place and ultimately gives the benefits to organisation by increasing its sale by using their different services (The O2, 2013).

However, this report will see some of the gaps in the marketing activities and will evaluate if these gaps are filled who much they can increase this revenue.

Problem identification
The customers in the entertainment industry do not take the information themselves but most of the entertainment organisations are involved in marketing their services. They motivate the customers by linking their emotions with their services.

This situation is more applicable on the O2 and they can do better by doing appropriate online marketing. Their current way of marketing is more relevant on the promoters of their shows. However, if the organisations also increase their marketing activities, they can do much better. They are continuously linked with the customers unlike the promoters. They are in better position to give better information to their customers.

In addition to that they can give information about their extra services they are providing in their arena. This would be like up selling and cross selling of services. In addition, the customers are more familiar with the O2 not the promoters of the shows. They can cash up their trust straightaway doing direct marketing with the customers. The reporters believe that the organisations have capability and resources to improve their marketing through the information they are getting from the customers when they visit the organisation during their visit to the O2 (The O2, 2013).

Some of the problems exist in the market due to less effective use of the existing systems. If these systems are streamlined and their performance is measured against the investment and expenses the organisation is doing on these functions then marketing management can be improved further. There are some new and cheaper solutions of marketing which can be the further needs of the customers but organisation is reluctant to use these without any big reason. If the organisation wants to grow in the future then they must have to consider modern technological solutions. The customer information needs are changing and organisation cannot live with the same systems forever. The technology is changing the society quickly and only those organisations survive who have capacity and will to go with the technology so they can catch the changes in the society, which is ultimate objective of all sensible organisations. The O2 management though is flexible and happy to accept the changes but there is no platform which keeps the organisation, align with the changes in the business environment (The O2, 2013).

Situation analysis of the market (STEEPLE Analysis)
This analysis is about the external environment of organisation. The external environment of organisation can contain in number of elements in their external environment. However these can be divided into general categories through the STEEPLE Analysis.

Social Elements
Aaker and McLoughlin (2007) examined that the society is the element for which the organisation is working. It is sum of people live in an environment and shares the values with each other. The social trends and society has greater impact on any organisation. The organisations for the best marketing and communication with their customers must have to understand the society and social values. The timely understanding of the values of society can help the organisations in achieving their broader goals and objectives. The organisations can adjust themselves with the changing social needs and can increase their sales. It is especially important for the marketers of organisation to understand the society and then inform their organisation about the expected changes in the society.

The O2 Arena is considered as the social hub of London. They are hosting well recognised singers, actors and different sport people. The people come to see them from long distances across the country. The marketers can tell their organisation, what people they like most, where they want to see these people and when they see those people. The marketers then give this information to O2 marketing management who invite different celebrities to their organisation. If they will find out the exact needs of the people then they would be in better place to bring the right events and concerts in their organisation (The O2, 2013). Technological Elements
Gripsrud and Benito (2005) examined that the technology is overcoming on all the functions of an organisation. Technology in the manufacturing, management and finance is playing its role to make the organisations more competent. However, its role in the marketing management cannot be ignored. The customer care, customer services, customer management all can be made better through the use of information technology. The modern organisations are spending significant part of their budget in the access and then use of modern technology.

McDonald (2007) suggested that for the optimal use of the theory the access of technology is not only important but the organisations also need to have skilled employees in the organisations. More prudent organisations are first developing the skills in their organisation to use the technology just after getting it, more benefits can be obtained from the technology from very beginning so breakeven point for the investment on the technology can be achieved. The major issues faced by the organisation in using the modern technology is that there are more frequent changes in the technology happen and they have to adjust and re-adjust their technology with the changing market conditions. In O2 the use of technology in different functions of the organisations is quite common. In the marketing, they are also using the technology for the collection and analysis of customer information. However, this all is not based on the more developed technology. There are number of processes and tasks which are still manual. This takes more time of the employees to feed the information and get the results. However, this all can be converted into more automatic system. This all will increase the efficiency of their employees and level of accuracy of marketing information will improve. The customer services and customer care would improve further by adoption of better technology (The O2, 2013).

Economical Elements
Wilson and Gilligan (2005) examined that the economic conditions are impacting on the buying power of the customers. If the target customers of organisation have better income sources and more disposable income then they would freely spend the money on different needs. It is common that the people first prefer to spend on their basic needs and then gradually expend their spending on luxury products and services.

The entertainment industry come in the luxury and people spend first on their basic needs and then think about the entertainment. The organisations in the depressed economic conditions are mostly lowering down their prices so more customers can access their products and services. In case of O2 the organisation is not setting the prices of basic concerts but the promoters decide what would be the ticket charges. However the O2 can be stakeholder here and can give their suggestions that to set the prices as the customers can afford. The customer segment a concert is attempting however is more closer to the promoters and promoters know better about the economic condition of people to whom they are targeting (The O2, 2013).

Environmental Elements
According to Gilligan and Wilson (2009) the physical environment consideration also comes in the priority on the strategy of organisation. The organisations who are more socially responsible are taking all the care to save the environment. They are realising their customers that they are taking care about the society in general. This ultimately is increasing the goodwill of organisation. The organisations that are producing the material and different sort of chemicals in the air are more dangerous for the environment. The affect of services organisations on the environment is less as they are not physically involved in the delivery of any physical thing. However even the services organisations are keeping environment pure to realise the customers that they are socially responsible organisations.

In case of O2 Arena they try to save the environment by encouraging their customers not to come on the cars but come on the tubes or through other sources of public transport. This all is done to realise the customers that they are taking environment as serious issue. In addition to that they are spending larger amount of their budget on the cleaning and to avoid the health and safety risk (The O2, 2013). Political Elements
According to Harrington and Ottenbacher (2011) the political issues and political changes can have affect on the organisations business working at that environment. The political moves like changes in the tax rate, control over the inflation and other similar other factors also affect on the people in the society and affect of the people ultimately coming on the organisations working in that area. The government is biggest body which is caring about the life of people. If they think organisations working in the country is not good for their people then also can ask the organisation to shutdown.

The O2 arena is Iconic entertainment venue in London. People from different parts of the world come to this prestigious place and conduct their concerts. The political system in United Kingdom is more stable and more established. There are not lot of changes in the political arena and business working in United Kingdom is safer. The government even wants to attract more investment in the society and hence they have positive attitude towards the businesses (The O2, 2013).

Legal Elements
Chan, et al (2011) examined that the laws and regulations have direct or indirect affect on the businesses. The laws are made to protect the rights of different organisations and individuals. If an organisation is consistently becoming the reason of danger of their visitors or rights of people are violated at the business place then these matters can go to court and courts can order anybody in the country to align their activities with the rights of people. The organisations and all the individuals bound to follow the laws.

The people are also important for the organisations itself. There are some problems going on which can become the reason of litigation then organisations take pro-active actions to sort these issues so further complications can be avoided.

The health and safety issues in case of entertainment industry are most important. There are lot of people coming at the same place. These should be safer when they come and enjoy the concerts. The organisation for this purpose can put more security and stewarding services to ensure all the operations are going on smoothly and there is no risk involved with the public health and safety. To put extra caution the organisation also makes the contingency plans in case of emergencies (Brennan, et al, 2008).

Ethical Elements
Ethics are the norms of society. The people like the things which are according to their ethics and replace the things which are against their beliefs. The ethical values come from the society. The organisations work in that society should respect and align their business operations according to the society. More they will align more they would be able to attract the customers. However the ethics also change with the changes in the society. The organisations have to follow the continuous process of alignment with the needs of society.

The organisations in the entertainment industry should see that there is ethical evolution of the entire concert happening. If there are some issues then these need to be removed. The media have power to find out the ethical issues with the organisation and then publicise that issues to the public. The entertainment industry is more sensitive and if the ethical values of the people are not considered then customers quickly can leave the organisation and join another entertainment venue (Abrams and Kleiner, 2003).

SWOT Analysis of O2 Arena
The SWOT Analysis is taking into the account the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The first two elements of the swot analysis are related with the internal environment of organisations and last two are more general and about the external environment of organisation (Carlsen and Andersson, 2011). Doyle (2008) stated that the internal analysis is dealing with number of dependent variables which can be controlled with the right strategy, policy and planning. Keeping eyes on the internal forces i.e. strengths and weaknesses, the organisation can make realistic strategy. They can find out their core competencies and also the key limitations of organisation.

Strengths of O2
The location in the entertainment and even all the businesses is most important consent. The organisation that captures better places where the customers can access easily can get more customers to their organisation. This is reason the organisation find out the strategic places where customers can access them and visit them. The transportation facilities should be better for better access. It should be in the areas where people can find the organisation. It should have more space to accumulate its customers.

In terms of place the O2 Arena is one of the best places in London. The place has historical importance and also it is near the financial hub of United Kingdom. The meridian line is passing just over the O2 Arena. It is in the Greenwich and Greenwich Mean Time is known to everybody in the world. There are number of historical places near O2 like Old Navel College, Royal observatory and number of other famous places (The O2, 2013).

The O2 is connected with different sources of transportation. The customers of organisation can come through the cars; they also can come through the buses. The most importantly the tube services are just passing near the O2 which is most important source of combination in London. The O2 have its own river transport in the shape of Thames clipper. This is taking the customers to different famous and busy locations in London. The customers can get Thames clipper services after every 15 minutes. For the world wide visitors, the City Airport is only few miles away for O2.

The other strengths of O2 are its effective management. The strong management of O2 has attracted all the big concerts to the O2 in six year time. This is big achievement. They not only invited to the bigger celebrities to the organisation but also given best customer services to their visitors. They are most busy arena in the world in terms of number of concerts. In average they are doing 15 concerts in a month however these numbers can vary during different times of year (The O2, 2013).

They are part of big entertainment group called AEG Group. This group own some of the best Arenas in the world and hence understand better that what the demand of industry is. They also have better contract with the people like singers, actors and sports bodies. This is further helping them to attract best people for their customer’s entertainment.

They have created a strong goodwill due to their services to the customers. Due to their excellent services, they are able to position their services higher. They are charging higher prices from their customers and customers are paying the amount. The higher price setting is giving the organisation higher profit margin.

The organisation has unique design building like half football. Some visitors are just coming to the bind and taking its picture. The building has capacity of 20000 people only inside the main arena. However there is lot of space outside as well where smaller arena called indigo, exhibition centre, clubs, bars, and shops are situated under the same roof. This is helping the organisation to sell their services to the customers not only for the main reins i.e. watching the concept but the customers can use their other services and in this way they can increase their revenue further (The O2, 2013).

Weaknesses of O2
Firstly the organisation is working in very sensitive environment where customers visit directly linked with the economic condition. If there will be economic depression then it will first impact on the O2 business as they are working in the industry which is not the priority of people. The other weaknesses of O2 are the prices they are charging. They are charging much higher prices than their competing organisations in the same areas like Wembley arena. If the customers will perceive that the organisation is not providing the same level of services or they have less money to spend on the entertainment they will go to the organisation which is less in cost. For the parking only they are charging 28 pounds. Similar other services of organisations are also very costly. The customers mostly complaints the organisation is charging higher prices and it is impossible for the people with the normal income to come and enjoy their time in O2 (The O2, 2013). There are number of organisations providing them different services. These organisations have their own control of common and the organisations have less control over these client organisations. They are outsourcing their parking services, security services and different other services from different organisations. However the organisation is more sensitive to their customers. If their customer is not getting right services due to these organisations, it would be loss for organisation which they cannot control (The O2, 2013).

They have not best marketing so far with their visitor point of view. The customers can get information from only few marketing sources. The information about the concepts does not go to the customers’ through the centralized marketing campaign but different stakeholders are doing marketing in their own ways. This is becoming the reasons of confusion in the customers and ultimately they lose their customers who could possibly come to organisation (The O2, 2013).

Opportunities for O2
The organisation can expand its business to other cities of United Kingdom like Manchester and Birmingham. They can find out their visitors in these areas as well. The organisation has opportunity to make the hotels near to their O2 building. During the event days they can increase their hotel sales as well. They have places and resources and it is best way they can invest and get extra revenue.

After running O2 the place greatly developed and there are number of buildings near O2 like college, TFL building and other private offices. This is showing that this place is getting the attraction of people and in such situation the hotel business also have possibility of growth. They can add other relevant businesses in the O2 which also can attract the visitors to the O2. They couple of time came with the innovative ideas like Ice Rank outside the O2 and remain reasonably successful. If they come with better ideas then they can get more customer attraction and attention.

They can invest in the social welfare projects to increase their goodwill in the society. There are number of other bigger organisations using this technique for their marketing purposes. This is sort of long term investment. Furthermore, they would be more visible in the public in this way as the modern customers are giving more ratings to the organisations who are working for the social welfare (The O2, 2013).

Threats for O2
Some other organisations with better entertainment ideas can come which can harm the benefits of organisation. Though for this purpose more investment is needed but there can be some investors who are willing to pay to develop bigger venues then O2.

The Excel Centre is also bigger venue and very near to the O2. They have capacity to accommodate huge numbers of people. However they are famous for the exhibitions if they modify their exhibition centre into arena they can be competitors for O2 Arena.

There can be some regularly changes and these can seriously impact on the business of O2. This is especially true for their club business. Each weekend the police people get lot of tough time. If they will carry on then courts can put some restriction on the pubs and clubs business. Furthermore, there can be some success for the customers as well. The organisation might have to pay huge compensation for these legal claims (The O2, 2013).

The key personnel of organisation can leave the organisation and ultimately can impact on the performance of organisation. The experts in the entertainment industry are less and finding out for the key role would be hard for the organisation (The O2, 2013).

Figure 1 – Impact of telecommunication with Marketing Methods

Objectives
To increase the revenue by 15% of O2 Arena through combination of online and offline marketing during Year 2013.

All the organisations want to grow financially. The main indicator of the organisation’s growth is its revenue. If the revenue of an organisation increases then it can be said that the organisation is growing and catching more customers or able to sell their products and services at the higher profit margin. For the future forecasting the organisations set out their revenue target and measure their performance against those objectives. The performance measurement system links the organisation actual performance with the expected performance. If the organisation keeps align their expected performance with their day to day performance then objectives would be able to achieve (Greenbank, 2001).

Gok and Hacioglu (2010) further stated that the objective of organisation needs to be more specific and more linked with the operations and functions of organisation. Setting out too optimistic or pessimistic goals and objectives both can de-motivate the employees working to achieve those goals and objectives. Too much optimistic goals of organisations discourage the employees as employees believe that they are not able to achieve higher goals or objectives set by their organisation. This demonization is main obstacle in the way of employee’s optimal performance.

On the other extreme when the organisations set out the lower goals are set them again the employee’s would not is able to work at the optimal level. The employees may be able to achieve more through their skills and energies but lower goals setting will keep them lower performing. This lower performance ultimately will impact on the benefits and especially financial objectives of organisation. At the one hand the organisation will spend on the employees’ lot of their resources on the employees in the shape of their salaries, benefits and others. The use of other utilities at the work place and on the other hand the organisation will lose the opportunity to get higher productivity and profitability for their organisation (Harrington and Ottenbacher, 2011).

So more the objective of organisation will be relevant more they will be able to achieve. There is narrow line between the optimistic objective and pessimistic objective. Organisations from their historical financial and other information coming from the performance management and measurement system evaluate that what the organisation is doing at the moment, where their performance is lacking and on the basis of this information and analysis, they can set out the further strategy and objective which would be realistic and more closer to the real positions of organisation.

The organisations while setting out their objectives, they are looking at their core competencies, skills and the broader goals of other organisation. It is also important to scan the internal and external environment of organisation before setting out the objectives. It is possibility that there are numbers of past evidences that the organisation will grow in the future but the external environment variables can make the negative impact on the organisation. The main evidence is the credit crisis of 2007-2009, when lot of organisations from their historical information was assuming that they will grow in the future but in reality they declined and some of the mega organisations like Lehman Brother Shut down. This shows the external environment variables should be evaluated before making the decision about the objectives and goals of organisation (Egan, 2008).

The external environment of organisation is fuzzier and more uncertain. Single organisation cannot find out what will happen in the future. However the careful analysis can give some clues. There should be system of scanning the external environment at the top management level which closely look at the external environment. The mechanism helps the organisation to take pro-active action to avoid any risk or opportunity coming from the external environment. However the properties of the immediate external environment like customers, suppliers, competitors and others are quite different from the far external environment like the political, social and economic forces in outside world. The impact of the close and far external environment is also quite different from each other (Dahlen, et al, 2010).

Armstrong, et al, 2009) stated that Marketing is function of organisation which is linked with all the functions of organisation. The marketing activities affect on the revenue of organisation, manufacturing activities and also on the human resources in some extent. The marketing activities have direct relation with the financial health and growth of organisation. The financial health and growth of organisation can be improved by increasing the marketing activities. The aim of organisation though is to increase the financial wellbeing of organisation but this wellbeing is coming from the customers of organisation. The customers can be motivated and also satisfied through the marketing activities. This is the reason the marketing expenses of an organisation are most important and big expenses in the income statements of organisations. The marketers bring the organisation and their customers and in this way more customers are coming to an organisation to buy their goods and services.

The author set the objectives that to increase the revenue of O2 by 15% infact based on the past performance of organisation. The organisation however expects that their 2013 revenue would be more then 2012. The reason behind it is that the company has decided to increase their marketing budget and they will do marketing in best possible ways to attract the customers to their organisation. They are also thinking that their brands have better goodwill and their own marketing communication with the customers can increase their revenue significantly (The O2, 2013).

After the Olympics they more strongly believe that their public goodwill has increased and they are more famous brand name. The people like to come to visit O2 and enjoy the entertainment they are offering. This condition further supports the company’s assumption that they are able to increase their revenue. The marketing consultancy team will go in further detail through the analysis of the internal and external environment of organisation and see the validity of their claim.

The consultancy group visited the organisation couple of times during the formation of report and got the information from the value managers and other relevant teams for further detail information. By compiling the information gathered from the external and internal environment of organisation the report will be presented. The reporter here will see that whether the goal set by the organisation is realistic and can be achieved in the light of current market condition and if this is true then what would be the conditions under which they can prove it true.

Appropriate Strategy for the Marketing
The strategy is setting out the path that how to achieve the objectives of organisation. It is set in the light of existing information obtained from the internal and external environment of organisation. However some of the variables in the external environment are uncertain and probability of their happenings is not coming in the normal distribution of an organisation. In other words some events can happen which are new and unique for the organisation. The strategy obviously would not be covering these issues and problems (Coleman and Ingram, 2004).

Gok and Hacioglu (2010) analysed that the strategy is general guide line for the organisations and its employees. They can change it with the passage of time when some new variables will happen. The alignment with the strategy of organisation with the external environment variables will keep the organisation closer to their objectives. The organisations though make the strategy but keep space for the changes in the strategy. The main objective of the organisations is to achieve their goals and not to prove that their strategy was right or wrong. The marketing people are bringing the information from the field. The finance people on the other hand are gathering the financial information generated historically. The strategy personnel combine this information and make the strategy for the organisation according to the information available and also on their perception about the future events (Hooley, et al, 2004).

The researcher further described that marketing strategy is especially hard due to number of uncertainty in the external environment. The people are most uncertain as they can change their preferences at any time. The marketers are working in the field and find out these changes in the people perceptions about different businesses. They then align with the performance management system that equate these changes and take necessary actions to make changes in the marketing strategy.

Report of Marketing Strategy of O2
This report is among to give the marketing strategy to the O2 by keeping in mind both the online and offline marketing options. However these reports have number of limitations and based on the existing available information about the internal and external environment of O2 Arena. The internal information of O2 arena came from the reports integration with some of the managers and other personnel in the organisation. The external environment information came from the author own knowledge and knowledge gained from their research about the entertainment industry in the United Kingdom (The O2, 2013).

Online Marketing
Ranchhod and Gurau (2007) examined that online marketing is most recognised marketing ways in the new era of information technology.
The new generation of customers of an organisation prefer to get the information through the online sources as it is more convenient and more customised information. The proportion of online marketing is cautiously going up with the passage of time as the computer literature and internet facilities are increasing.

For the effective online segment the segmentation of the customers is important. If the O2 management thinks that they are dealing and communicating with their computer literate customers then it would be best for them to market through internet sources including the mobile sources. This way is cheaper, more customisable and also faster. The offline marketing is also effective tool in the hand of contemporary organisations. However, it can only be suitable for the right segment of customers. It is depending on the marketers which segment they are thinking is best for them to do offline marketing. However, normally it is better for the organisations to get the customer profile information when they interact for their customers. This makes it easier to make the right segment for the right kind of customers (The O2,
2013).

Marketing through Internet
The O2 though is doing online marketing on their website. Furthermore, they are selling their tickets on the websites as well. They are not only selling the main arena tickets but also the additional facilities are also sold through their main website.

However the website of organisation some time gets faults and customers cannot access the website. This is most frustrating for the customers and also the reason of loss for the organisation. When the customers cannot access the website due to heavy traffic then they have no other platform where they can get the information and also can get the tickets.

In the absence of the website the customers can also call the help line but this has also some limitations.
The customers normally have to wait in the queue for the long time, but in case of problem with the website, it gets nearly impossible to serve with the customer service representatives to buy the ticket. Infact their customers services are designed to give the customers some specific information. There are less numbers of customers who can come to get more information. The human resources strengths in this department in average are 20 people. So this solution is not working very well for organisation due to its server limitations (The O2,
2013).

There can be some other ways of communicating with the customers. Following are the strategies for the O2 to make better connection with the customers and ensure that customers never remain wrong the information they need.

E-mail to Customers
Lihra and Graf (2007) stated that the e-mails are common of the most effective tool for the communication with the customers. There are number of exciting benefits of e-mailing which cannot be completed by any other sources of communication. The e-mailing first is fast services where the organisations can send the message to the organisation in more personalised way. The customers here are not bound to read the information and hence it is more ethical as there is no hassle for the customers to consider the mail as junk. The mailing also allows the customers to send the feedback information to the organisation. The organisation on their website gives different key e-mailing addresses on which the customers can send the message regarding their queries, appreciation and questions.

On the organisation side it is easy to send the e-mail message to thousands of people together. There are applications which are allowing the organisations to send the marketing message to whole of their customer segment together. This is time saving in this contest that organisations if have some valuable information then they can design one message and send lot of their customers simultaneously and without big hassle. If customers want information then they can contact with the organisation or go on given link for the further information to access it. However on the other hand if they do not need that information they can discord the information and delete it.

The mail messaging has no limit of message. The messages can be enriched with pictures, videos and also with the pages of text based information. This gives the marketers more space and choices to express their marketing message. The e-mails as compared with any other ways of communication with the customers are considered more private. These are just like the petal mail to the customers and hence probability of passing through the customers criteria of effective information is more.

The problem happening with the mail messaging is that there are large numbers of organisations are sending the mail to their customers. The customers cannot read all these messages and most of them are deleted without reading them. Some of the customers do not like to get information or have trust on the mail based information and hence the responses from such customers are rare.

The organisational point of view they need workforce to reply the mail message which is costly. If the bold of mail message is just linked with the information then it is matter of consideration for the organisation that whether they should reply the mail messages or not. If organisations are giving their customers and option to send them e-mail and then customers expect that organisations will reply their mail back. If they are not doing so then it can annoy the customers and ultimately will impact on the relation of organisation and customers.

To long text based mails are mostly ignored by the customers. The mails need to be shorter and give more solid and relevant information.
For the O2 mailing to the customers is more successful way of communication with the customers. There are number of reasons behind it. The first reason is that the organisations have more classified mailing data of customers and they can send if organisation through the mail to more relined information (The O2, 2013).

The second reason of its success is that the information that organisation can provide can be reality interest for the readers and there response can be immediate. The third reason is that the information customers needed is more text based information. Like time of show, which is coming to play, what are the finishing times, who are the supporting acts? What is the dress code, the profile of audience? This information can be expressed better in an e-mail. Though the website of organisation can give the same information but customers normally do not open the website but they are more frequently opening their e-mails and hence possibility of reaching to the customers is more through these online marketing sources (Lynch, 2012).

The cost of sending information to the customers through the e-mail is only the staff cost who are writing the mails and sending these to the customers. The organisation does not need to apply their lot of resources for the management of mails. However, they must need to ensure that they have mailing system then they should accept the incoming mails of the customers as well. These mails need to be replied well in time so the customers can get feedback information without getting annoyed.

The strategy of mailing should also be expended to the analysis, that what perception of people reply back and what type of questions are asked most of time. The mail based communication should be organised for marketing the services or organisation better. The customers complain in reality give the chances to the organisation to do it again. The organisations which are more customers sensitive and know the importance of customer eliminate all the complications and limitations from their processed and services so the same customers or other customers do not get same issues again (Kotabe and Kristiaan, 2004).

Social Media
Henley, et al (2011) examined that the social media websites are one of most fastly growing ways of communication. There are millions of people on the social networking websites. The customers share information with each other like viral marketing. The information flow is in all the way. The organisations and marketers need the platform where they can meet with the people and give them their marketing information. The contemporary organisations are using the social media platforms to communicate with the customers. They are not only communicating with the people but also they can see the customer queries, questions and complaints. They also can fix the problems of customers before they get angry and send the information to other customers. The facebook and Twitter are two most important social media websites with millions of people on there.

Facebook
The O2 can manage a fan page on the facebook. Here they can give the customers different web links from where they can get the information and link with the organisation. In addition to that their marketing team should be linked with the customers all the time on the facebook. They give the answers of questions asked by the customers. They can give them information about the timing and also can share the schedule of upcoming events. The easy the customers will get the information about the organisation, more they will get oriented towards the organisation (The O2, 2013).

Gordon (2011) found that customer unlike the past wants more specific information. They can get the general information from number of sources and do not interested in the general information. However all the people need more specific information according to their specific needs and wants. The O2 facebook marketing team can provide their customers this specific information in real time basis.

However, while doing the marketing through facebook they must keep in mind that they need to give the response to the customers very quickly. It is not possible for any organisations to make the customer 100% satisfied. This is the reason number of customers come with the queries. If their queries are not listened and not sorted then they can get annoyed and give negative feedback (Donovan, 2011).

In the social media both positive and negative feedback quickly can be shared and seen. To avoid this section the marketing team of O2 facebook needs to fix the problem on the priority basis before the customers get more annoyed and dissatisfied.

They also give the link on the facebook from where the customers of organisation can buy the ticket. In this way they can use this huge customer platform for the selling of ticket. The facebook use should not only limit to the information about the main arena but it should be expended to all other services that O2 is providing to their customers. This will increase the scope of facebook for O2 further. The organisations are spending their resources in the management of social media team and it should get the optimal benefit out of it (The O2, 2013).

Twitter
The twitter like facebook has database of millions of customers. The people here are sharing the news and their point of views. The organisations are also giving their marketing messages to their customers. However this platform is quite different from facebook in terms of its layout (Bradley, 2011).

The O2 also can make small team which manage their twitter marketing. Though the twitter they can make a ground and customers come to that ground and see lot of information and conversation or they also would be able to pass their comments. The website environment of twitter is friendlier and easier for the customers. The rule of response and listening and answering the customers should be same as on the facebook.

Blogs
Hart and Tzokas (2008) suggested that the blogs can be launched on the website. This is discussion about the product and services. The people are putting their information needs, questions and queries on the blogs and the marketing people answer those questions and queries. This is more specific way of doing the marketing but the main problem with the blog based information is that it is hard to attract more people on the blog website.

The O2 can use blog but it should be linked with own website. In other words it should not be separate website so more customer traffic can see it and also pass their comments. The marketing people of social media should also manage the blogs and give needed information to the customers as soon as they can. The blogs based customer comments also can be shared on the other social media websites. However if there are some negative comments of the customers which the marketers think they can damage the image of the organisation then these should not be shared (The O2, 2013).

Social Media Management
The social media like other media management needs time and resources. The organisations have to increase their marketing budget to manage the media campaign. They need more people specifically for the management of social media. They have to pay their salaries and benefit. They also need office for this purpose and there are varieties of other expense which organisation must have to pay.

In addition to that the organisations also have to manage the tools and devices to the people so they can communicate with the customers in the right and appropriate way. These tools and devices also need cost. The social media management can increase the marketing cost of organisation significantly but same time it has long term benefit for the organisation. They can create more satisfied and loyal customers. These satisfied customers can give reference of organisations to some other customers. In this way, the marketing message of organisation can be mollified (Karpati, 2003).

The O2 recruitment teams also ensure that the people in the social media management have right skills, education and frame of mind to give their customers right services. This is important as they are working for very sensitive segment of customers and any wrong communication can damage the reputation of organisation. The organisation also needs to give them training after they start the jobs. The training will align the skills of these employees with the specific needs of organisation. The general skills are effective but some time organisations need some more specific and customised skills. It is responsibility of organisation to give their employees these skills for their best performance.

The performance of the social media teams also need to be analysed and evaluated. There can be different key performance indicators in this regard. The first indicator can be the number of queries they are sorting per day. The other can be net increase in the revenue due to the social media teams. The third key performance indicator can be level of communication and level of satisfaction the social media members of team have given. How much positive feedback can be another key performance indicator? The organisations always compare the return on investment.

Kotler, et al (2009) found that the organisations obviously invite huge amount of their resources on the social media team development and in return they want to see the changes due to this investment. They should return more as compared with the investment on them. In addition to that with the passage of time and passing through the learning curve the performance and efficiency of the employees working for the social media teams should also increase.

Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing like social media is another growing source of marketing communication. The key benefit of it is that it has access to the customers of organisation at any time. The mobiles are one of the main parts of modern human life and if this can be used for the marketing purposes then it would be blessing for the organisations. There are number of organisations using these sources as their marketing.

The modern smart phone without any doubt has increase the use of online marketing. The organisations here not only can send the message but also they can sell their goods and services. The process of sending information and settling the transaction is so fast and effective that both that customers and organisations can save their cost as well.

Pietro, et al (2012) examined that when the customers come to the organisation or go to the convenience source of communication with the organisation, it takes time. Huge number of customers changes their mind to get the information and buy from the organisation because of shortage of time. The mobile however has removed these issues. They can contact with the organisation without spending any time. The organisations today have their own telephone customer services departments who are answering the queries of customers.

The O2 also have telephone marketing and customer services department. They solve the queries and questions and answer the customers. However, inspite of calling the mobile marketing has number of other exciting scope. The O2 Arena in mobile marketing can use following tools (The O2, 2013).

SMS Messaging
Madhavaram, et al (2011) stated that the short message services allow the organisation to send the message to the customers on their home or mobile phones. The customer mobile numbers are obtained when customers log in their website or when they contact with face to face. This information then saved in the general database of organisation. When the organisations want to contact with their potential customers they can send this information to them. The key benefit of test message is that the customers can read it at their time.

Lihra and Graf (2007) also described that it is not pushing the customers to answer the phone which can be annoying for the people some time. The limitation of SMS message can be the length of message. Only limited number of text can be writing on the text message. It is also expensive when the numbers of respondents of message are more. It is also hard to find out most relevant customers. Most of the time customers delete the message without reading the message.

The O2 can use text messaging when the information is not very critical and also does not need more text to express the message. If the message will be short and customers need more information than it can be reason of confusing and ultimately the customer frustration. Furthermore, they also need to make the right segment of the customers to whom they are communicating. This is ethical to send the message to the right people. The marketing team in the SMS messages should mention from where the customers can get more information in case if some of the information is missing (The O2, 2013).

Mobile Internet Marketing
The modern smart phone is just like the computer. The users of these mobiles can access the internet at any time and at any place. The organisations when communication with the customers through the mobile based internet marketing has two options. The first option is that they allow the customers to find out from the search engines and then find out the information from their general website. However the format of the web appearing in this way may not be reader friendly and also it can take more time in borrowing the information.

Some time it is annoying as that data flow hang during the processing of website. The alternative solution is that which modern bigger organisations are using is that they are making their mobile application. They customise these applications according to the specific needs of customers. This is best way to contact with the customers on the phone but same time it is costly as well, as the design of such application is also cost to the organisation.

The O2 can make their own application which their customers can use on the mobile. This application should be available on apple phone application shop and android and also window based mobile. This can give the customers more easy and convenient access to the information they need about the O2. There should be amity in the application through which the customers can get the information (The O2, 2013).

They also should allow the customers to buy the tickets of arena through their mobile applications. Furthermore, these mobile applications should be linked with their pages on the facebook and twitter. If the customer wants to interact with their customer services team on the facebook then they should be able through mobile application. The customers also may get the numbers of customer services and other services like car parking services from the same application.

This convince to the customer will add more customers and also the level of customer satisfaction will also improve. However, here it is also important to consider that all the customers may not have the smart phone and may not get the information from mobile application. Such customers of organisation should be communicated with their convenient ways of marketing.

Location Based Mobile Marketing
The modern mobiles are coming with the built in GPS system. The location of the people can be found with the help of GPS system. The organisations nearby are using this location to find for the marketing purpose. When some mobile holders come in the range of this organisation they are sending them marketing message. The interested customers can access these services of organisation in this way. This is another way of marketing through the mobile.

In terms of O2 arena they can also use these services very effectively. The people in the certain range. The London is top visiting place in the world. Millions of people come to see London and its historical place. Though, this specific way they add lot of visitors who like the concerts. In addition to that they also can attract the local interested people. However again such marketing should be ethical and not more frequent. Only it should be send when there is some valuable information for the customers. If they will do it more frequently without considering the importance of the information then it would be annoying for the customers and customers can take it negatively. The people are designing that text message also should look after GPS based mobile messaging (The O2, 2013).

Push Notification
The push notification message system is first introduced by the apple when they launched their first iPhone in 2007. Now the android and other mobile operating systems are also using this system. The use system is effective it is used ethically. The push message appears somewhere on the application. If the customer is interested then they can press on the pooch message and they are diverted to the site of that advertising organisation. There they can get further information, they can chat to the customer services of that organisation online, and they also can call the organisation for further informational. Such sites are also allowing their customers to buy on the phone from them.

The O2 can give add on the most busy website on the mobile can give these ads and push the customers to come on their website and get information about their upcoming events. The modern mobiles come with build in social media websites. These are mostly used websites. If they give their pop up on this website then probability of catching the customers would be higher. This is emerging way of pushing the customers to get services and there are some ethical implication of such messaging as well. The pop ups are mostly not consider the good ways of giving the information. However, if such push ups are coming from well reputed and recognised organisation like O2 then customers can give values to such messages.

Management of Mobile Based Marketing
The mobile based marketing however does not need more extended team of the people who can manage the massages. However if they want to develop their own mobile based application then they have to pay significant amount of money depending how much they want to customise. In addition to that the push management also need few staff which can find out the busy websites and then advertise the message of organisations on these websites.

The mobile messaging team also need to be connected with the management who can give them right and authentic information, so the customers can be communicated with the right information. The mobile marketing team can work under the same managers. To make it more effective the mobile marketing new ways are also needed to be found and then customised their marketing according. The mobile technology is most fastly changing technology and regularly some new methods and ways of mobile marketing are introduced. This need to be found and then apply the right and valuable among them should be the job of mobile marketing managers in addition with making the mobile marketing more effective.

The mobile marketing team should be linked with some other marketing teams like offline media team, social media teams and other sort of marketing so through communication and collaboration they can developed centralized system where the information comes and they according to their limitations and domain pick the information and share this information with the customers. The information in the organisations like O2 changes every day. There need to be processes which check that make sure the valid information is coming to the marketing people in real time. Any delay in the information can result into the wrong information to the customers which can convert into customer dissatisfaction. The unhappy customers then can do word of mouth de-marketing for the organisation (The O2, 2013).

The data coming through the mobile marketing from the customers also need to be organized and shared with other authorised and especially with other marketing teams. This will help all the concerned people to take some actions to avoid the complications and issues with the customers. The central information at the end can be used for the making of overall marketing strategy. The effective information is extracted from the marketing intelligence information coming through different marketing sources and then effective, detailed and comprehensive strategy is formatted.

Figure 2 – Social Media Marketing

Budgeted Statements

The O2 Arena
Statement of Cash Flows by using Direct Method
Project Cash Flow Statement for 3 Years

Current
I year Projected Income Statement

Years 2012
2013

Accumulated Income from Operations £ 18,000,000
£ 20,700,000

Less Expenses

Salaries Exp. £ 2,000,000
£ 2,200,000

Marketing Exp. £ 1,500,000
£ 2,800,000

Operation Exp. £1,600,000
£ 1,400,000

Admin Exp £ 1,200,000
£1,500,000

Fees of Client Organizations £ 1,600,000
£ 150,000

Staff Accessories £ 1,000,000
£ 1,000,000

Office Exp. £ 200,000
£ 210,000

IT Equipments £ 600,000
£ 400,000

External Experts Fee £ 1,100,000
£ 1,100,000

Customer Welfare Exp. £ 200,000
£ 230,000

Travelling Exp. £ 150,000
£ 170,000

Total Expenses £11,150,000
£ 11,160,000

Gross Income from Operation £ 6,850,000
£ 9,540,000

less: Taxes due

£ 5,708,333
£7,950,000

Net Income £1,141,667
£ 1,590,000

The O2 Arena
Statement of Cash Flows
Project Cash Flow Statement for 1 Year

2012
2013
Cash Flows from Operating Activities

Net Income from Operation
£1,141,667
£5,396,667
Add Expenses Not Requiring Cash:

Depreciation of Long Term Assets
£ 600,000
£300,000
other Depreciations
£ 250,000
£320,000
Other Adjustments:

Add Decrease in Accounts Receivable
£1,000,000
£ 400,000
Add Increase in Accounts Payable
£8,500,000
£100,000
Less Decrease in Accounts Payable
£ 450,000
£ 360,000
Less Increase in Prepaid Expenses
£45,000
£60,000

Net Cash from Operating Activities
£ 11,986,667
£16,936,667
Cash Flows from Investing Activities

Increase in Marketable Securities
£ 60,000
£80,000
Sale of Fixed Assets
£150,000
£250,000
Purchase of New Equipment
£ 400,000
£400,000
Net Cash Used for Investing Activities
£ 610,000
£730,000
Cash Flows from Financing Activities

Lease Payment
£ 880,000
£750,000
Net Cash from Financing Activities
£ 800,000
£400,000
NET INCREASE/(DECREASE) IN CASH
£13,396,667
£18,066,667
CASH, BEGINNING OF YEAR
£2,000,000
£15,396,667
CASH, END OF YEAR
£ 15,396,667
£ 33,463,334

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aaker, D.A and McLoughlin, D., (2007) “Strategic Market Management”, (European Edition) John Wiley & Sons Ltd Chichester

Abrams, R and Kleiner, E (2003) “The Successful business plan: secrets & strategies”, 4th edition, The Planning Shop Publishers

Armstrong, M., Brown, D and Reilly, P., (2009) “Marketing an Introduction”, Essex: Pearson Education

Bradley, N., (2011) "Twitterville. How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods", Journal of Consumer Marketing, 28 (6), pp.461 - 462

Brennan, R., Baines P., Garneau P., and Vos, L. (2008) “Contemporary Strategic Marketing”, Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke

Carlsen, J and Andersson, T.D., (2011) "Strategic SWOT analysis of public, private and not-for-profit festival organisations", International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 2 (1), pp.83 – 97

Chan, P., Finnegan, C and Sternquist, B., (2011) "Country and firm level factors in international retail expansion", European Journal of Marketing, 45 (6), pp.1005 – 1022

Coleman, G and Ingram, H., (2004) "A new approach to benchmarking learning and development strategy", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 16 (1), pp. 52 – 58

Dahlen, M., Lange, F., and Smith, T., (2010) “Marketing Communications: A brand narrative approach”. West Sussex: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

Donovan, R., (2011) "Social marketing 's mythunderstandings", Journal of Social Marketing, 1 (1), pp.8 – 16

Doyle, P., (2008) “Value-Based Marketing: Marketing strategies for Corporate Growth and Shareholder Value”, (2nd edition) John Wiley & Sons Ltd Chichester

Dupree, J., (2011) "Customer Worthy: Why and How Everyone in Your Organisation Must Think Like a Customer", Journal of Consumer Marketing, 28 (4), pp.315 – 316

Egan, J., (2008) “Relationship Marketing: exploring relational strategies in marketing”, (3rd edition), Harlow: Pearson Education

Fifield. P., (2007) “Marketing Strategy”, 3rd edition. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann

Gilligan, C and Wilson, R.M.S., (2009) “Strategic Marketing Planning”, (2nd edition) Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth, Heinemann

Gok, O and Hacioglu, G., (2010) "The organisational roles of marketing and marketing managers", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 28 (3), pp.291-309

Gordon, R., (2011) "Critical social marketing: definition, application and domain", Journal of Social Marketing, 1 (2), pp.82 - 99

Greenbank, P., (2001) "Objective setting in the micro-business", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, 7 (3), pp.108 – 127
Gripsrud, G and Benito, G.R.G., (2005) “Internationalization in retailing: modelling the pattern of foreign market entry”, Journal of Business Research, 58 (1), pp. 1672-80

Harrington, R.J and Ottenbacher, M.C (2011) "Strategic management: An analysis of its representation and focus in recent hospitality research", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 23 (4), pp.439 – 462

Hart, S and Tzokas, N (2008) “New Product launch “mix” in growth and mature product markets”, Benchmarking: An International Journal, 7 (5), pp. 389-405

Henley, N., Raffin, S and Caemmerer, B., (2011) "The application of marketing principles to a social marketing campaign", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 29 (7), pp.697 - 706

Hooley, G.J, Saunders, J.A and Piercy, N.F (2004) “Marketing strategy and competitive positioning”, Pearson Education

Karpati, L (2003) "Smart Things to Know about Marketing", European Journal of Marketing, 37 (1/2), pp.330 – 334

Kotabe, M and Kristiaan, H., (2004) “Global Marketing Management”, 3rd edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, publishers

Kotler, P., Keller K.L., Brady, M., Goodman, M and Hansen, T., (2009) “Marketing Management”, (First European Edition) Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey

Kutz, B and Snow, B., (2010). Contemporary Marketing, 2nd ed. Toronto: Nelson Education.

Layton, R.A., (2011) "Marketing: is management all that there is", Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, 3 (2), pp.194-213

Lee, K.L and Lin, S., (2008) “A fuzzy quantified SWOT procedure for environmental evaluation of an international distribution center”, Information Sciences, 178 (2), pp. 541-553

Lihra, T and Graf, R., (2007) "Multi-channel communication and consumer choice in the household furniture buying process", Direct Marketing: An International Journal, 1 (3), pp.146 – 160

Lynch, R. (2012). Strategic Management, 6th edition, Pearson Education

Madhavaram, S., Badrinarayanan, V and Granot, E., (2011) "Approaching global industrial marketing from a managerial cognition perspective: a theoretical framework", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 26 (7), pp.532 – 541

McDonald, M. (2007) “Marketing Plans: how to prepare and how to use them”, (6th edition) Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth, Heinemann.

Pahl, N and Richter, A., (2009) “SWOT Analysis – Idea, Methodology and a Practical Approach”, GRIN Verlag

Park, Y and Sternquist, B., (2008) “The global retailer’s strategic proposition and choice of entry mode”, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 36 (4), pp. 281-99

Pietro, L.D., Virgilio, F.D and Pantano, D., (2012) "Social network for the choice of tourist destination: attitude and behavioural intention", Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 3 (1), pp.60 – 76
Ranchhod, A and Gurau, C., (2007) “Marketing Strategies: a contemporary approach”, (2nd edition) Harlow: Prentice Hall Pearson Education.

The O2 (2013) “About O2 Arena”, available online at http://www.theo2.co.uk (Accessed on 01/01/2013)

Victor study (2008) “Five Forces of Competition”, [online] available at http://www.vectorstudy.com/management_theories/five_forces_of_competition.htm (retrieved on 01/01/2013)

Wilson, R.M.S and Gilligan, S., (2005) “Strategic Marketing Management planning, implementation and control”, (3rd edition) Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford