Professional Documents
Culture Documents
E-Marketing Plan_18907681
Perth ID : 18907681
Miri ID : 700016989
http://indochinenatural.com
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................3
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN.......................................................................................................... 10
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INTRODUCTION
Indochine Natural is founded by an Australian scientist and a Vietnamese fashion designer started
to produce their own products that are preservative and synthetic free as they encountered skin
irritations by using common body care products. The company was formed in 2006 in Vietnam
and a production facility was inaugurated on Penang, Malaysia in 2009. (Indochine Natural 2017)
Their products include natural shampoo, facewash, body wash, handmade soap, household
cleaning, face oil, face mist, mosquito repellent, cosmetic clays, and more. (Indochine Natural
2017) The products are sold throughout Malaysia in various locations such as The Gardens.
(Indochine Natural 2017) Their products is also available in Singapore through their distributor,
Loochino Natural. (Loochino Natural 2017) Furthermore, their products can be purchased online
and is shipped worldwide. (Indochine Natural 2017) Their environmental friendly products are
handmade using traditional methods and local plants as the ingredients, gently nourish and clean
the body while giving out exotic fragrances. (Indochine Natural 2017)
In developing countries the cosmetic market has been growing hastily and Asia Pacific holds the
second highest market value of more than US$70 billion after Western European market. The
major force of the cosmetic market in Malaysia is skin care products which amount to US$229
million of the total cosmetic expenditure which is US$407 recorded in 2013. (Hassali 2015) Due
to extensive advertising and marketing, Malaysian consumers’ interest in premium brands are
increased. When Malaysian consumers are provided a rebate when looking for premium cosmetic
product, they will be effortlessly affected by the promotion offered. Due to many products include
new ones can be easily obtained from everywhere, there is a fierce rivalry im the industry. (Hassali
2015) For the purchasing rate of cosmetics products to grow, the most successful method is to
make advertisements throughout the media and magazines. The most popular cosmetics products
in Malaysia are those that are produced naturally where these products are advertised of being
environment friendly by the company. (Hassali 2015) This report thus is prepared to focus on how
Indochine Natural can utilize online marketing to increase their brand reputation and sales.
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
Environmental Analysis
In terms of legal environment, the recent issue that appeared is that there are a lot of illegal fake
sellers that sell counterfeited product online to consumers. (Lau 2017) This at first appeared as a
threat to Indochine Natural as the fake sellers may sell the similar product like Indochine Natural’s
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but at a much cheaper price, or they may even counterfeit Indochine Natural. But, the Malaysia
government, Ministry of health has taken aggressive action to crackdown these illegal sellers and
will tighten the governance of beauty products. (Lau 2017) Thus, this became an opportunity for
Indochine Natural, as their sales would not be affected by the counterfeited products.
And with regards to technological environment, the global beauty e-commerce market has been
growing substantially where $24billion was spent on online beauty products by consumers. (Fung
Global Retail & Tech 2017) By 2020, the cosmetics market is anticipated to achieve $390.07
billion globally according to Allied Market Research. And according to Google, 66% of beauty
care product consumers mentioned that YouTube affected them to make purchases by aiding them
to envisage how the products works. (Translate Media 2016) Thus, cosmetics brands are
generating creative content and utilize SEO to increase their brand awareness. Instagram are
searching for creative ways for consumers to interact so they can purchase products on its platform.
(Translate Media 2016) Therefore, the online e-commerce poses as an opportunity for Indochine
Natural, thus they need to fully utilize their website and social media to deliver content to their
followers to spotlight their products.
As for the social environment, green beauty has been rising rapidly where lesser known brands
are becoming mainstream products due women requesting for it according to a survey. (Kinonen
2016)Through Harris Poll survey, it was discovered that 59% of women aged over 35 think that
purchasing green beauty products are crucial to them whereas 73% of millennial women prefer
natural and cleaner products. As the demand for green products increases, there is the need to know
what are the products’ ingredients. (Kinonen 2016) About 55% of women aged over 35 and 62%
of millennial women, before purchasing a product, keep re-reading the ingredient labels to make
sure there are no harmful ingredients. (Kinonen 2016) This also poses as an opportunity to
Indochine Natural as they use traditional method and local botanical plants such as lemongrass to
produce their product at the same time environmental friendly. Aside of that, Indochine Natural
also gives back to the community by collaborating with disabled people to create dish wash soap
made of recycled cooking oil and also with local disadvantaged farmers to create kitchen and
bathroom loofa that function under Fair Trade Standards. (Indochine Natural 2017)
As for the market-related factor, in 2015 Malaysia’s domestic manufacturers exported cosmetic
products that costs RM1.124 billion which is a 4.4% growth and that the beauty industry has the
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possibilities to further move the Malaysia’s economy according to the Malaysian External Trade
Development Corporation (MATRADE). (International Trade Administration 2016) Domestic
exports from January to August 2016 costs RM809 million and it was anticipated to increase by
5% at the end of 2016. Skin-care and make up products display the highest demand in the cosmetics
industry in Malaysia. And lately, many local skin-care companies are moving towards having their
own personal skin-care brands rather than being the distributor of foreign brands. (International
Trade Administration 2016) Hence, this again is another opportunity for Indochine Natural as
they ventured in the Malaysia market.
Lastly, in terms of competitive environment, Indochine Natural faces competitors that are big
player in the market such as The Body Shop, L’Occitane, Bath and Body works, and Lush. These
big players also position themselves as green products but they have more established reputation
as well as very well-known around the world as they have many shops around the world. (Lush
2010) Morever, in Malaysia, local brands such as Esmeria are arising. Thus, these poses a threat
for Indochine Natural. (Esmeria 2017)
SWOT Analysis
The table produced below is a SWOT analysis of Indochine Natural. By examining the
environment that Indochine Natural conduct their online business, the opportunity and threats
stated below are recognized.
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The target of this E-Marketing plan in terms of psychographic segmentation is decision maker
in a family or group of friends or an individual regardless of their gender, age and ethnicity who
are categorized as “innovators”, “thinkers”, “experiencers” and “achievers” in the VALS
framework. Compared to all other consumer’s, Innovators spend the most time on the internet.
(Breman 2012) They accept new ideas easily and go for niche products. (SRI Connsulting Business
Intelligence 2002) Therefore, as Indochine Product are considered new, if they launch an
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advertisement online, Innovators will be the first to see it and purchase it. As for thinkers, they are
educated and use internet to seek for information in the meantime they prefer product for its
functionality, therefore as Indochine Natural’s product are good for the skin, they might purchase
it. (SRI Connsulting Business Intelligence 2002) Furthermore, experiencers spend the most time
on social media compared to other users. (Breman 2012) Also, experiencers are constantly seeking
something new and spend more on fashion, socializing and entertainment. (SRI Connsulting
Business Intelligence 2002) Therefore, they would purchase the new product by Indochine Natural
that have good fragrances at the same time good for the skin. Lastly, as for achievers, they tend to
use increase their personal productivity as well as to create and broadcast a "perfect-life" story on
social media. (Breman 2012) They favor premium products to be presented as successful to their
peers, as since Indochine Natural product are considered as upper middle class item, they might
buy it. (SRI Connsulting Business Intelligence 2002)
As for the target market under behavioral segmentation, the benefit sought by the customer is
that they will not have skin irritations. Indochine Natural products are produced using traditional
methods and local botanicals that gently clean and nourish the body. (Indochine Natural 2017) The
other benefit sought by customer is also convenience, where they can purchase the product from
anywhere even without visiting the physical store. As for the category usage under behavioral
segmentation, it is aimed towards new and returning customer, who mostly utilize mobile
smartphone, tablet, laptop or PC to carry out their online activities, and at the same time aiming
on those who use bath products regularly as there are some daily routines to use the body care
products by Indochine Natural, such as after washing face, need to apply the face mist. (Study
Tiger 2017)
Differentiation
Indochine Natural plan differentiate themselves through service differentiation and site
atmospheric differentiation that need to be achieved through this E-Marketing plan. Since
Indochine Natural has a good customer service, where they engage with their customer comment
on Social Media and that their products are likeable, to move this good customer service into their
E-Marketing effort will not be a big deal. For service differentiation to be achieved, Indochine
Natural must make sure that its customers have the ease of placing the order and received the items
on the right time without having to leave their house. (Bhasin 2016) Furthermore, Indochine
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Natural need to develop its website to be more user friendly where they can quickly find the
product they want and the information is clear. The design also need to be aesthetically pleasing
and have high quality pictures (Strauss and Frost 2014). By achieving these, customers will have
faith in the firm and thus significantly help to increase the Indochine Natural’s awareness,
recognition, credibility and have an edge against other competitors in Malaysia.
Positioning
Indochine Natural target to position themselves as natural and organic handmade body care
products that uses traditional formula and local plants that gives out exotic fragrances with the
tagline, “Escape the ordinary”. By using the products, customers will feel soothing and encounter
less skin irritation. To deliver such service, Indochine Natural must have strong dedication to
increase its customer satisfaction through its well-designed e-commerce platform where customers
can purchase the product easily and get fast and reliable response from the company for any
inquiries.
E-MARKETING OBJECTIVE
The objectives of this E-marketing plan are established within the period of two years which is
from 2018 to 2020. The objectives are to: (1) Increase the website visitors by 20% to increase the
brand awareness through improving the website’s accessibility and functionality and by promotion
strategies such as Google AdWords, (2) Increase the number of enquiries by 15%, (3) Increase
online sales revenue that make up 20% of the overall business revenue, (4) customer satisfaction
to be maintained by achieving a 6:1 (positive: negative) ratio of the sentiment of feedback.
E-MARKETING STRATEGY
As for product strategies, the aim of this E-Marketing plan focuses on enhancement of the
existing product strategy which is to improve Indochine Natural’s current website improvement
so that it can be fully deployed as a proper e-commerce platform where Indochine Natural can sell
their body care products easily to its customer. This enhancement is necessary because when
clicked to Indochine Natural’s website, it not only serves B2C but also B2B which will confuse
customer, moreover when click into their products, it doesn’t show “add to cart” immediately
where one has to click the particular product first only then can add to cart, thus the navigation is
confusing as well. (Indochine Natural 2017) If a customer feels confusing, they will feel frustrated
and later give up on purchasing the product, hence, it is crucial for Indochine Natural to upgrade
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its website to achieve the E-marketing objectives. On top of that, the website design must be
improved as it is not aesthetically pleasing and the fonts are kind of small as well as navigation are
quite confusing. Besides, a layout design change is needed to accommodate not only desktop users
but also non-desktop users as 51.3% of web visits arise from mobile devices while 48.7% of visits
arise from computing platforms. (Heisler 2016) In addition, online chatbot must be installed in the
website so that customer service employee can respond to customer enquiries in real time as
Indochine Natural target to differentiate themselves through outstanding service.
In terms of the pricing strategy, Indochine Natural should apply psychological pricing. Instead of
the product priced at price at RM 50 per unit, it should be priced at RM49.99 which is known as
the left-digit effect in price cognition that makes the consumer brain think that it is cheaper as it is
perceived as RM 40 rather than RM50. (Boachie 2016) Even though many products already adopt
this strategy that some consumers are immune it, but still many did not pay attention thus still
widely practiced and will increased Indochine Natural sales volume by using this strategy.
(Boachie 2016) In addition, Indochine Natural can also practice promotional pricing to encourage
the customers to buy the products within the time period. For instance, during Malaysia Day week,
Indochine Natural can offer buy 2 free 1 or purchase RM 180 about to get 30% discount. This will
increase the demand of the product thus increase the sales volume. (MBA Skool 2017)
With regards to distribution/ place strategy, Indochine Natural should practice direct distribution
strategy and sell its products directly to its consumers through its E-Commerce platform, its
website to avoid intermediaries which will save cost for the company and customers. (Strauss and
Frost 2014) This strategy is successful in B2C market as the delivery of the products are more
rapid. So, the website also provides transactional functions to expedite communication with its
customers and to ease the process of transaction. (Strauss and Frost 2014) Once the products orders
are paid online, customers will receive and email for confirmation and that the item should be
shipped immediately to their door within the timeframe guaranteed. In addition, Indochine
Naturals can offer free delivery to customers who purchased their product more than RM200
As for promotion strategy, Indochine Natural should fully utilize its social media account such
as Facebook and Instagram since these platforms required minimal advertising cost as low as $ 5
to per day to reach the target market. (Marsan 2016) Consumers can search for information, post
an inquires, left a comment or give a review on the accounts which will eventually increase the
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company’s credibility. Recently, Instagram is being widely use to for promotion, as it has 700
million users, which has an unlimited marketing potential as its online community is large and
diverse. Besides, Instagram has a 4.21% engagement rate higher than any other social media and
its advertisements are less intrusive and annoying. (Katai 2017) Thus, it is suggested for Indochine
Natural to constantly update their social media account to build and strengthen its brand awareness
and positioning even though it has about 7,000 likes to reach higher.
Next, for the sales promotion, it can be carried through the company’s website. For instance, the
company can provide a voucher of 15% discount to those who register their account at the website
to encourage them to make a purchase after registering account as 92.5 million people will use
online coupon by then end of 2012 and 27% of them prefer online coupon because of convenience
according to one research. (Strauss and Frost 2014) Indochine Natural can also provide a free small
soap as a gift to customers who make purchases more than RM150. Furthermore, it is crucial for
Indochine Natural to appear on top of Google search engine page as the natural body care industry
is very competitive. To achieve this, the firm can create a Google AdWords account. By using
Google AdWords, Indochine Natural’s website link will be shown at the top of the search engine
page when potential customers search for relevant keywords such “natural”, “body”, “soap” or
when they visited website that sell similar products. (Google 2014) The firm can also reduce the
possibility of misspend money on futile promotional endeavor since Google AdWords depends on
its pay-per-click system and it offers the choices to set maximum cost per day, which can aid in
managing the promotional expenses.Aside of that, Indochine Natural need to use email marketing
to send out personalized email that is persuasive and relevant to each customer. To achieve this,
Indochine Natural can get customers to register an account before they make a purchase on the
website and their email is required to be entered to register. By this, the type of products that the
customer frequently purchased and put into wish list can be recorded, and in the future the firm
can analyze the customers’ preference and interest and design an email with content and promotion
that will attract them. (Marketing Schools 2017)
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Strategy Details Tasks Timeline
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Product Increase online ➢ Marketing department must make sure the content for the Plan- January 2018
Strategy 1 transaction by website is well prepared and must be interesting enough before Commence- May 2018
improving passing it to the IT department
Indochine ➢ Finance department must prepare the budget and allocate fund
Natural’s ➢ IT department must oversee the website designer and developer
website to make the website development has a satisfactory progress
Product Redesign ➢ Marketing department need to liaise with web developer and Plan- Jan 2018
Strategy 2 Indochine designer to create the design & layout of the website to be Commence- May 2018
Natural’s aligned with Indochine Natural’s positioning
website to ➢ Finance department must prepare the budget and allocate fund
become more ➢ IT department must oversee the website designer and developer
user friendly, to make the website development has a satisfactory progress
non-desktop and design is user friendly for all platforms while being
user friendly aesthetic
and
aesthetically
pleasing
Product Load online ➢ Human resource department must assign personnel to be in Plan- January 2018
Strategy 3 chatbots on the charge for the online chat bot and to answer customers’ Launch- May 2018
website enquiries Ongoing process from
➢ Finance department must prepare the budget and allocate fund 2018 to 2020
➢ IT department must work closely with the Website developer
to ensure the online chatbots is installed and working
Price Implementation ➢ Marketing department need to fix the price for all products and Plan- January 2018
Strategy 1 of the promotional period including the dates Launch- May 2018
Psychological ➢ Accounting department need to make sure that the priced set It will be an ongoing
Pricing will generate profit and good contribution margin process from 2018 to
➢ IT department need to make sure that in the website stated the 2020
Price Implementation correct prices.
Strategy 2 of Promotional
pricing
Distribution/ Practice direct ➢ Customer Service employees must handle online transactions Launch- To be started
Place distribution and reply to customers’ online enquiries after website is
Strategy 1 model ➢ IT department need to make sure the website navigation is improvised
(transactional smooth and s working properly for customer to make It will be an ongoing
function) transaction process from 2018 to
➢ Logistic department need to process order and once customer 2020
made payment to ship out the products
Promotion Utilization of ➢ Marketing department need to manage Facebook & Instagram Plan- January 2018
Strategy 1 Facebook and account to boost likes and followers by developing interesting Launch- May 2018
Instagram content for each platform or paid advertisement and reply to It will be an ongoing
customer’s comment process from 2018 to
2020
Promotion Sales ➢ IT department need to monitor the processes Plan- January 2018
Strategy 2 Promotion ➢ Marketing department need to make sure coupon for first timer Launch- May 2018
register and free gifts for purchasers are sent to them Ongoing Process from
2018 to 2020
Promotion Launch a ➢ Marketing department must create a Google AdWords Account Plan- January 2018
Strategy 3 campaign of and launch a campaign with related keywords, so the higher Launch- May 2018
Google chances of customer seeing their advertisements online. It will be an ongoing
AdWords process from 2018 to
2020
Promotion Utilize email ➢ Marketing department must analyze customers’ database and It will be an ongoing
Strategy 4 marketing design content according to their preference and purchase process from 2018 to
behavior 2020
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