Paper Sample on Digitalization: A Global Phenomenon Shaping Our Lives

Introduction

The world is moving further and further towards the direction of digital, and this is witnesses through the recent upsurge in the use of a smartphone. Company's like Facebook through its Facebook Ad campaign designs advertisement specifically for smartphone users; this is due to the smartphone advertising pool being bigger than desktop. With billions of people daily around the globe tapping on google for searches and other uses. Every Company and organization has its footprints in the digital world, whether having a website or having at least one social media account. Hence digital marketing is gradually becoming the heart of corporate advertising, and this creates an opportunity for businesses and organizations who are looking to improve their sales to consider aligning their strategies with the help of digital platforms.

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The use of the electric bicycle in Australia is becoming popular by each passing day as the number of units sold has tripled over the past three years. For worldwide ebikes, this creates an opportunity to set its foot in the industry that it's still in its infancy stage, with every country striving to achieve a green economy status electric bikes it's at the forefront as it has the capabilities to move a greater distance quickly and most significant with zero carbon emissions.

In its quest to launch its operations in Australia, worldwide ebike Company can create a buzz in Australia by the use of social media and pay per click advertising. Social media accounts for 70% of the total internet users in Australia, thus proving to be an essential avenue in launching a product and improving sales in the short term.

Market Opportunity

The Current State of Digital Marketing in Australia

Marketing has always been all about connecting potential customers in the right location and at the right time. In the current times, that means going to wherever they devote most of their time on. Digital marketing comprises all the marketing activities that involve the use of an electronic device or the internet. The electronic gadgets include smartphones, laptops and desktop computers. Businesses depend on digital channels to conduct their marketing such as search engines like Google and Bing, social media such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, email and other websites to get in touch with their current and prospective customers. To be competitive in the current business landscape, it's in every business interest to embrace some aspects of digital marketing. Digital marketing is crucial for a business in creating brand awareness. Hence every business ought to establish a website and sign up on at least one of the major social media giants.

The digital space of Australia is on the upward trend as more businesses spend more time on digital media advertising than ever before, and the trend is expected to continue further in the coming years. With the booming e-commerce industry and the growing fast adoption of smart technologies, it presents an excellent opportunity for more growth and promising opportunities for markets.

Australia, in general, is experiencing an increase in the growth of internet users over the past years with a penetration rate of 87 percent. The use of Social media stands as the most prevalent avenue as, by January 2019, the actual number of social media users has seen a steady rise of 6 percent while the number of mobile social media users has also witnessed the same phenomenon with an increase of more than 6 percent. Of the total population of Australia, this represents eighteen million for dynamic social media users in the country and more than sixteen million smartphone social media consumers each experiencing a penetration rate of 72 and 64 percent respectively. On average Australians spend five hours on the internet and an hour and a half on social media.

Australians through studies have revealed they prefer tailored targeted advertising over the general targeted advertising, hence shifting the focus of marketers in strategizing on specific customer-centred advertising. Online shopping has also witnessed tremendous growth across all sectors. The industry has averaged more than 22% annually on the total value of consumer goods in the e-commerce market, currently being valued close to 20 billion US Dollars. In general, Australians are comfortable shopping online, be it on desktop, social media or mobile devices.

Facebook in Australia is the biggest and most popular social platform in which commanding a substantial 80% of the total internet user population. Facebook's appeal has also seen it becoming popular with small and medium businesses together with large firms using Facebook for advertising in preference from other social media platforms. Closely following Facebook in the market is YouTube and Instagram. Australians have also proven to be more open to new technologies and innovations as it has been witnessed the rise of the use of voice search.

Existing Prospects for Marketing E-bikes Digitally

Over the past three years, in Australia, the number of electric bicycles has tripled, and sales are rising rapidly than any other sector of biking in the country. For example, in 2017, Australian electric bicycle sales doubled from the previous year, with an estimated sales of up to 30,000 units. The increase in popularity of electric bicycle is mainly attributed to several factors that proponents put forward such as that it can help individuals acquire exercise, ability to ease traffic congestion and ultimately play a huge role in the reduction of vehicle emissions (Kennedy, 2019).

Google Trends presents an opportunity for marketers as it can be used to understand their audience better appropriately. Google Trends offer insight on what keyword searches are currently popular or over a given period. Google Trends also enables marketers to visualize how their popularity changes over time. With the knowledge about public interest and search behavior, the marketing department in organizations can be able to use the experience to shift their focus on aspects in which their content are inadequate.

Google Trends can play a vital role in the understanding competition through obtaining data on search and trends done in a particular geographic region, periods and categories. With the data, the Company might be able to compare as much as five searches hence be on the forefront in understanding the changes in taste and preferences of consumers (Jones, 2013).

Persona Research

Electric bicycle users tend to be people with higher incomes and well educated compared to regular bicycle users, and they tend to be older than the daily bicycle users. The uptake by older people is mainly because electronic bicycles tend to significantly reduce the barriers of riding among older people. The obstacles to riding include terrains such as hills, excessive physical exhaustion and longer journey time. The report has shown that most people who have expressed their desire and willingness to purchase electric bikes include individuals who cycle less frequently and women compared to men.

Type of Research to Identify Buyer Persona in the Australian E-bike Market

The objective of conducting a buyer persona research for any organization is to cultivate a strong and actionable understanding of the buyer in regards to how they behave before, during and after engaging with a particular product or service. To identity buyer personas in the Australian electric bicycle market, the use of background research and qualitative research is vital. In qualitative research, the use of interviews and surveys will be the best method in conducting the research.

Benefits of Using Interviews

Despite the rise in the use of online survey conducting face to face interview remains the most convenient and accessible data collection technique. Interviewing has several advantages over other data collection methods. The benefits include precise screening, and the respondent is incapable of giving out fabricated information such as sex, age or ethnicity. Interviewing captures the spoken and non-oral cues, such as body posture which can show some sort of discomfort and passion when specific questions are posed. Unlike online surveys where during the review, the interviewee might get distracted by texting, browsing the internet and answering emails face to face interview will keep the respondent focused on the discussion. Face to face interviewing also enables the researcher to capture the emotions and behaviours of the respondents (DeFranzo, 2014).

Methods of Finding Interviewees for the Research

Use Current Electric Bicycle Users

The existing electric bike users would be the best ideal place, to begin with since they have already purchased the product. Conducting Interviews on individuals who already own the bike is essential since it will help in acquiring information about the product, experience gained in using the bike, dissatisfaction with the bike, experience while making a purchase for the bike and opinion on areas that need to be improved in the general e-bike industry and eCommerce marketing.

Conclusion

The potential prospects include individuals who have not yet purchased the electric bicycles. The prospect customers would provide information on why they haven't bought the bike and also provide insight into their desire to purchase soon. The information obtained from them would enable marketers to strategize on their marketing plan depending on the demographics of customers.