With the advancement’s in technology, one of the most popular ways a Company or Brand are able to promote their business is through the use of Digital Marketing. This is a relatively new concept but Chaffey et al (2009) in his work outlined that there are in fact six crucial types of digital media communication channels.

In this blog I am going to analyse the national company Wickes through the use of these six channels defined by Chaffey et al (2009). My reasons for choosing this company is because I currently work part time at my local store and therefore I feel that I have some pre-existing knowledge of their campaigns and the way they work. Wickes are one of the major players in the area of home improvement retailers, they are owned by Travis Perkins. They are an extremely large and ever expanding company with over 200 stores throughout Britain.

Search Marketing:

This form of marketing is the use of search engines in order to market and promote their business. The two forms of this are the use of search engine optimization (SEO) which is the technique of ranking websites, this is done based on what the search engines perceive to be most relevant. Then there is Paid search, such as pay per click where they are listed based on the amount a company is willing to pay for each click they receive through the search engine.

With regards to Wickes one way of getting information about them is to directly search the company name, when you do this the first link at the top of the list is there actual website, http://www.wickes.co.uk/. The second is the companies twitter account, which is just @Wickes. However, for someone who isn’t specifically searching for Wickes and are just after a DIY store in general they will typically just search a phrase such as ‘DIY store’, when you do this on google what you are faced with is a map with various stores on of which the second store listed is in fact Wickes. The actual Wickes website is the second link down after the map. The key word for Wickes to appear on Google seems to be the word ‘DIY’. However, in this instance the first link is in fact B&Q which has the web address http://www.diy.com/.

Online PR:

Online PR is the maximisation of mentions of a company or brand on websites of a third party, for example social media or blogs. As mentioned above when you Google Wickes, the second link is to their twitter page. The fifth link down is where you are able to access their Facebook page. The use of such social media is a platform which allows customers to give feedback. On their twitter page it is clear to see that it is used as a customer service tool, it allows customers to complain where they are then responded to by Wickes in an attempt to resolve issues. There are also tweets of praise and positive feedback some for their service in general, or more specific to a store or a certain staff member. From their Facebook page it is clear that it is used as more of an opportunity for them to advertise, they use as a way to promote certain deals or inform customers who are clearly interested enough to ‘like’ their page of new products and services.

Online Partnerships:

This concerns the creation and management of promotion of a company’s online services through third party websites and email communication. From Browsing the Wickes website, the only advertisements, they have for other companies is Travis Perkins who own them. They also have a section called ‘preferred partners’ were two companies are listed, one being mybuilder.com which allows customers to find the most suitable builders or tradesmen’s for their needs. The second is to a company called access point (www.apuk.net) which is more for the trade customers and allows them to arrange products to be taken to sites.

Opt-in Email:

This is the use of the in-house list of customer’s email addresses as a means to promote the company. Wickes have a section at the bottom of their site which is where customers are able to sign up to receive e-newsletters which include deals. Wickes are also running a scheme which is not advertised on their website but I am aware of this due to working there that allows tradesmen who regularly use their stores are able to sign up for a trade account instore, this means that each month they receive an email listing the latest deals as well as a unique code they can use in store all month long to receive 10% off when they spend £10 or more. This is a great incentive to draw in the trade and is a win win situation for both parties! They also have various email addresses posted on their website to allow customers to directly contact customer service (customerservices@wickes.co.uk), home delivery (homedelivery@wickes.co.uk), feedback (customer.relations@wickes.co.uk) etc.

Viral Marketing:

This is the online word of mouth. Wickes are a national company so their presence online is large, as they are well known and respected. This means that they rely a little less on the word of mouth at their current status, however this can still be used to pull in new customers.

I feel that Wickes are quite successful in terms of Chaffey’s six channels, they maximise the use of the current social media channels they use such as twitter, Facebook and Pinterest and through their YouTube channel, however they are yet to branch out into Instagram which is a channel they may want to consider. What speaks volumes is ever growing amount of turnover represented in their constant expansion.

References:

http://www.wickes.co.uk/.

https://twitter.com/Wickes.

https://www.facebook.com/Wickes.co.uk/.

Chaffey et al (2009). Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. England: Pearson.