A few articles are now stating that developing a digital marketing plan is the future for the furniture industry. An Ataxia article communicates how new home owners are living in a more immersive digital age, therefore furniture retailers need to stay on top of shifting consumer trends, advancements in online marketing initiatives and technology shifts (Ataxia, 2017).

Here is some research into how existing competitors market their products:

Below is a web advert which is advertising IKEA’s Christmas collection. IKEA is using two marketing methods here: web/online and campaign. IKEA have launched their Christmas collection around the appropriate time of year (November), in time for consumers to buy products ready for the most festive month (December). This advertisement is simple, yet effective; it uses products in situ, with minimal text to indicate what the collection is, without stating it directly. I aim to produce an advertisement like this, both for web and print, that will illustrate to consumers what the collection is without being too obvious, therefore leaving the consumers mind engaged and thinking about the Kontor brand.

Below is a web page of IKEA advertising their YPPERLIG collection. IKEA are using a web and online method of marketing and linking this directly with the ability for consumers to buy the products online.

Made.com produced a short 20 second video, which they use on their website and scheduled on TV. This video uses a minimalistic approach there only two things are in shot at any time: a furniture product and a consumer. This is an effective marketing strategy as it reaches people who are online and offline on a national scale.

As Made.com is all digital based, there are no print advertisements produced, however, they have a strong Facebook presence with 1,075,995 (Made.com, 2017) likes and a large Twitter following of 33,100 users (Made.com, 2017).

‘Banner ads on websites or in apps continue to generate significant revenue. In fact, banner ad revenue is expected to grow at 7% compound annual growth’ (Ironpaper, 2017). This therefore shows a positive outreach as a marketing strategy and is something I wish to adopt in the advertising and marketing of Kontor. Below are some examples of existing banner advertisements:

Even though the print media industry is facing an uphill struggle with increasing competition from the internet and digital platforms, spending on items such as magazine spreads are at a high of 8.65 billion, with gigantic organisations still advertising their content in this manner such as L’Oréal (Statista, 2017). Below are some examples of furniture being advertised using print as a marketing strategy:

However, examples seen above are just for one item of furniture. This is still vastly useful as I can look into advertising each piece of the collection separately, therefore consumers are able to purchase one object if they do not want to buy whole collection. Nonetheless, it is still highly useful to see the collection as a whole in advertising to market the brand and increase awareness of the different products. Below are some examples of furniture collection print advertisements:

Bibliography:

Adtaxi (2017) Developing a Digital Marketing Plan in the Furniture Industry. Adtaxi. Available from http://www.adtaxi.com/2017/05/10/develop-digital-furniture-marketing-plan/ [accessed 15 November 2017].

Ironpaper (2017) Banner Advertising Stats and Trends for 2017. Ironpaper. Available from http://www.ironpaper.com/webintel/articles/banner-advertising-stats-and-trends-for-2017/ [accessed 15 November 2017].

Made.com (2017) Made.com’s homepage [Facebook]. 15 November. Available from https://www.facebook.com/Madedotcom/ [accessed 15 November 2017].

Made.com (2017) Made.com’s twitter feed [Twitter]. 15 November. Available from https://twitter.com/madedotcom?lang=en [accessed 15 November 2017].

Statista (2017) U.S. Print Media Industry – Statistics & Facts. Statista. Available from https://www.statista.com/topics/1052/print-media/ [accessed 15 November 2017].

A marketing plan is a comprehensive document or blueprint that outlines a business advertising and marketing efforts for the coming year. It describes business activities involved in accomplishing specific marketing objectives within a set time frame.

Below, I have created a marking plan which discusses what Kontor will do in one year (2018) to raise awareness of the brand, to generate sales and to increase the brand’s overall professionalism to gain market share.

Advertisement is vital in todays society. The United Kingdom ranks fourth among the world’s largest advertising markets (Statista, 2017) giving Kontor a successful and vast opportunity to reach its target audience. On average, UK adults use their phones 264 times a day (CIC, 2017) therefore, having web, online and social media marketing plays a vital role with communicating to potential consumers.

In the marketing plan, I have granted 3 months out of the year to focus on SEO marketing. SEO marketing (search engine optimisation) uses strategies, techniques and tactics to increase the amount of visitors to a website through a search engine. One fragment of this type of marketing is local SEO; 30% of searches are related to location (Google, 2016) and 72% of consumers who did a local search visited a store within five miles (WordStream, 2016). This illustrated how important local searches are, as they can direct local consumers to the Kontor website. 61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority (HubSpot, 2017), therefore, SEO marketing has a a presence during a quarter of the year in order to increase business growth and get the Kontor brand and collection out for consumers to see.

Another effective tool to market a product is by blogging. 53% of marketers say blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority, and if Kontor posts 16+ blog posts per month, we will get 3.5 times more traffic the companies that publish 0-4 monthly posts (HubSpot, 2016). This therefore is vastly effective and is why every month is accounted for on our marketing plan to ensure content is being created on blogs to boost the Kontor brand, and enable consumers to interactive with the business, thus boosting awareness and leading to sales.

Another vital part of marketing is social media, to which every month of the year will have content across all of the various networks. Facebook continues to have the most engaged users with 70% of people logging on daily, and a further 43% who do so several times a day (Pew Research Center, 2015). This is why I have stated that marketing the Kontor collection over Facebook will happen every month, and more specifically, several times a month. Facebook is an engaged platform reaching a vast amount of adults which fit our target audience, therefore increasing view ability and leading to consumer purchasing. Instagram is a social media network which will be worked on every month. Instagram as 500 million monthly active users with over 95 million photos and videos shared every day (HubSpot, 2017), therefore, the amount of potential consumers reached is vast. Instagram is a photo and video sharing platform, therefore Kontor will be able to carry out free advertising and marketing of the collection and the brand.

In a 2017 e-strategy trends report, it is stated that 15% of consumers respond to banner ads and 7% of consumers respond to billboards from small businesses. This is reflected in the amount of months in the year that will look into these marketing services. They still play a vital part of a businesses marketing strategy, however, don’t reach as many consumers as say social media would.

To conclude, a marketing plan is a hugely effective way to increase brand identity and to raise awareness of the Kontor home office collection. There are several aspects to a marketing plan such as content marketing, web, online, national marketing and even campaigns. Therefore, keeping organised and planning ahead will allow more ease to the business when launching and developing the Kontor brand and collection.

Bibliography:

E-Strategy Trends (2017) Top Small Business Marketing Channels. David Erickson. Available from http://trends.e-strategyblog.com/2017/11/06/small-business-marketing-channels/28811 [accessed 15 November 2017].

CIC (2017) Digital is Transforming UK Media. The Creative Industries. Available from http://www.thecreativeindustries.co.uk/industries/advertising/advertising-facts-and-figures/digital-advertising [accessed 15 November 2017].

Google (2016) Google Trends. Google. Available from https://trends.google.com/trends/. [accessed 15 November 2017].

HubSpot (2016) Content Marketing Statistics. HubSpot. Available from https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics [accessed 15 November 2017].

HubSpot (2017) Search Engine Optimization Statistics. HubSpot. Available from https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics [accessed 15 November 2017].

HubSpot (2017) Social Media Statistics. HubSpot. Available from https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics [accessed 15 November 2017].

Pew Research Center (2015) Social Media. Pew Research Center. Available from http://www.pewresearch.org/topics/social-media/2015/ [accessed 15 November 2017].

Statista (2017) UK: Advertising Industry – Statistics & Facts. Statista. Available from https://www.statista.com/topics/1747/advertising-in-the-united-kingdom/ [accessed 15 November 2017].

WordStream (2016) 8 Super-Fascinating Digital Marketing Stats Revealed at SMX East. WordStream. Available from http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/10/06/smx-east [accessed 15 November 2017].

Task:

Moving onto using Blender specifically, I need to make a list stating everything that needs to be modelled.

In terms of the home office collection, below is a list of the products that will be in the collection specifically, and that will need marketing and advertising:

1. Large floor standing vase
2. Small table standing vase
3. Storage box for desk
4. Floor standing lamp
5. Wallpaper
6. Picture frame

The next thing to consider is building everything else in ‘the scene’; ‘the scene’ will be the home office environment that will be used in order to advertise the collection of products. Below is a list of what else needs modelling to make up the environment:

1. Home office shell (walls, floor)
2. Window
3. Desk
4. Chair
5. Additional furniture such as a bookshelf
6. Additional decorations such as a plant

I plan to model all of these items in Blender, then I will need to texture pain them (in blender or substance painter), then to be all placed together to make a short video that will be used as a online banner, or a YouTube video to advertise the collection. Furthermore, screenshots can be taken from this scene to aid print advertisements of the home office collection.

All elements that will be modelled will be textured as well, as everything in ‘the scene’ will be visible.

Adobe Dimension CC (formerly Project Felix) makes it easy for graphic designers to create high-quality, photorealistic 3D images. Composite 2D and 3D assets to build product shots, scene visualizations, and abstract art.

Adobe (2017) Introducing Adobe Dimension. 3D design made simple. Adobe. Available from https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/dimension.html [accessed 14 November 2017].

Fortunately, experimenting with Adobe Dimension has been relatively straight forward, as Adobe offer a tutorial you can follow, to grasp what the program is like, and how you can manoeuvre around it. Below are some screen shots of me following the first tutorial:

One issue I discovered while using this program is that my computer processor is not big enough, therefore the program was struggling to run, thus resulting in a poor quality of image and slow rendering. One way of resolving this would be to find a computer in the University that would have a processor big enough to run the programme at ease.

Positives about this program include if someone has no experience about 3D, thats ok, as the program does most of the work for you, such as perspective and environment lighting. Moreover, with it being an Adobe product, you are able to export files straight across from other programs such as Photoshop and Stock to create life-like environments.

Negatives about this program include that fact you have to purchase any models or environments from stock; you cannot import 3D models for other softwares such as blender. Another negative includes that fact that you have a limited selection of materials and objects, and if you wanted anymore, again you’d have to buy them.

To continue experimenting with Adobe Dimensions, I decided to see if I could make a digital screen in an environment; below are screenshots of the process:

Final product here:

As you can see, you can produce some incredible things in Adobe Dimension in a short amount of time. However, you are limited to what you can create without spending vast amounts of money on models and environments.

To conclude, I will not be using Adobe Dimension in the marketing of my collection of products as it is unable to offer me features I need such as importing my own models in. Therefore, I will look at an alternative, such as doing everything in blender.