The Vanca Case Analysis. On the Importance of Holistic Approach to Digital Marketing in Medium-Size Business

Abstract

The Vanca case demonstrates an important dilemma of small and medium businesses in highly competitive market segments: their limited resources call for very precise decisions on marketing spending priorities; these decisions should come as a result of deep analysis linking consumer behavior to company economics; yet the companies do not have the necessary analytical skills within them. As a result they get immersed in technicalities of marketing campaigns, instead of building an integrated marketing vision, this puts them in disadvantageous position against the bigger players in the segment. Building a holistic framework of effective marketing for the brand before the development of technicalities of approach to online marketing campaign may be a good way for the new Digital Media Manager to start his new job. The suggested framework builds on some research findings on the specific of consumer behavior in fashion industry, the typical strategies followed by the market player, the specifics of the Indian online fashion market and the position of The Vanca company relative to the competition. The analysis suggests two strategic dilemmas for the company, solving them requires more data on company economics than provided within the case. The first dilemma is whether the company should follow the “brand builder” of “fast mover” strategy, the second dilemma is should the company insist on turning its own site into a major sales channel or use it more as an image-driving vehicle, relying on the third-party sites for sales. Within any strategy the company should base its approach to marketing, including the structuring and presentation of information on its own site, on the data-driven segmentation of customers. The point of departure should be differentiation between the “aspirational” and “situational” customers, with the aim of introducing more segmentation through data analysis within the Customer Relationship Management system. A roadmap of six steps is suggested, with the aim of installing the process of constant improvement of the company’s online performance, ultimately moving into the model of “data-driven” company with most of key business decisions made on the basis of “hard” analysis of consumer behavior and the company’s economics. Communicating this plan to the management of the company could be a personal challenge to the new Digital Marketing Manager, as it would significantly depart from the initial brief he received. Yet the roadmap is based on analysis of the key marketing factors and allows building a strategy for consistent improvement of the company’s operational results. The fact that the company took in May 2 the pains to completely renovate its web site shutting it down for at least 10 days probably indicates that it finally saw the need of fresh strategic approach to the whole of its marketing.