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Executive Summary This E-Marketing Plan has been designed for K&K Recycling Services. K&K Recycling Services is a small company that has limited resources but realizes the potential and importance of having a sound E-Marketing strategy. Key issues facing the company involve its limited marketing efforts. K&K Recycling Services has a very limited marketing budget that is primarily used for direct sales. Lacking innovation and failure to adopt modern business models may very well hinder K&K Recycling Services’ profitability and growth.
K Recycling Services, along with its top three competitors in the industry use basic E-Marketing strategies such as a company website and Search Engine Optimization via Google. While K Recycling Services already uses strong keywords, the company can increase its SERP ranking by researching the types of words that are used most when inquiring about the scrap metal recycling industry. K Recycling Services’ core competencies lie in their ability to react quickly to opportunities in the marketplace. Furthermore, K&K Recycling Services prides itself on their high level of commitment to building strong relationships with their customers.
Opportunities in the scrap metal recycling industries have become more apparent as there is a growth in usage of recycled materials, which consequently increases the prices of scrap metals. However, this increased price also provides greater incentives for thieves in this industry. K&K Recycling Services needs to consider various market factors that pertain to the scrap metal recycling industry. These factors, after all, can change or solidify the company’s current strategies while at the same time helping them achieve goals and set objectives in the years to come.
The objectives for this E-marketing plan focus around increasing customer awareness and increasing customer satisfaction. These objectives will be tackled through an enhanced website and efficient use of the customer relationship management software. The timeframe for the implementation of this plan is six months. Please read on for a detailed analysis of K Recycling Services, the industry within which it operates, as well as our recommendations and implementation plan. Table of Contents Brief Company Introduction1 Summary of Key Issues1 Internal Analysis2 Current Marketing Practices2 E-marketing efforts2 Measuring Marketing Efforts2
Business Results3 Resources Available for Marketing Efforts3 PESTLE Analysis3 Political Analysis3 Economic Analysis4 Social Analysis4 Technological Analysis5 Legal Analysis5 Environmental Analysis6 SWOT Analysis6 Strengths Analysis6 Weaknesses Analysis7 Opportunities Analysis8 Threats Analysis8 Competitive Review9 K Recycling Services ??? www. kkscrapmetal. com9 Competitor 1: Triple M Metals LP ??? www. triplemmetal. com10 Competitor 2: American Iron and Metal ??? www. scrapmetal. net10 Competitor 3: Thomson Metals and Disposal LP ??? www. thomsonmetals. com11 Google Search Comparison11 Tier 1 Strategies12 Segmentation12
Targeting12 Differentiation13 Positioning13 Objectives for the E-Marketing Plan14 Recommendations14 Website14 Email15 Implementation16 Budgeting & Sales Forecast17 Evaluation18 Customer Perspective18 Internal Business Perspective19 Learning and Growth Perspective19 Financial Perspective20 Conclusion20 Works Cited22 Appendix A ??? K Recycling Services Values26 Appendix B ??? K Recycling Services Website Visitors28 Appendix C ??? K Recycling Services Website Page Source28 Appendix D ??? K Recycling Services Website Key Words29 Appendix E ??? K Recycling Services B2B Segments30 Appendix F ??? Implementation Plan ??? Gantt Chart32
Appendix G: Budgeting & Sales Forecast33 Brief Company Introduction K Recycling Services, founded by Kevin Morgan in 1993, has grown from a local scrap hauler and recycler in Pickering, Ontario to a national scrap metal recycling and industrial services company operating in Ontario, Western Canada and the Northeastern United States. In addition to providing traditional scrap recycling services to its core industrial accounts and peddlers, K Recycling Services has focused on working with large Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) to provide them with customized solutions (K Recycling Services About, par. ). Their mission statement is to treat its employees, customers and suppliers with respect and integrity. Basing their values on the four pillars of Service, Integrity, Creativity and Respect (See Appendix A), K Recycling Services never settles for the “status quo. ” The company strives to challenge itself and offers creative solutions, thereby adding significant value and solidifying their client relationships (K Recycling Services Mission, par. 1). Summary of Key Issues Being in a traditional industry that is driven solely by face-to-face interactions, the company has felt no immediate need to innovate and differentiate itself by engaging in E-Marketing initiatives (Sweeney). ??? Lack of appropriate human resources and skills to utilize company assets and take advantage of emerging industry opportunities hinders K Recycling Services from expanding into serving other sectors (automotive and rail sectors) or growing into other related markets (non-ferrous trading market) (Sweeney). Inadequate marketing efforts by management, as reflected in a lack of a marketing budget and evaluation methods as well as poor reporting structure and accountability may prevent the company from meeting its objective of providing better service to all its customers (Sweeney). ??? With only a company website, the lack of e-marketing efforts may limit K Recycling Services from reaching its goal of expanding its lines of business and geographic presence, particularly in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Eastern United States (Sweeney). Internal Analysis Current Marketing Practices
K Recycling Services’ current marketing practices include the following: Product: K&K Recycling Services operates a large fleet of luggers, rolloffs and tractors along with hundreds of containers and trailers. Equipped with loaders, bailers, excavators and graders, K&K Recycling Services is able to efficiently process and sort materials in order to satisfy the desire of mills, foundries and smelters to obtain a high quality recycled product. Price: Price fluctuates depending on the client’s needs and the scope of the work. Place: The firm currently operates in the Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Eastern United States.
Promotion: K Recycling Services’ marketing efforts entail face-to-face direct sales, which involve entertaining clients and prospects as well as sponsoring local sports teams and charities. The only other promotions that K&K offers consist of a $5/per Net Ton discount to the Steel Mills for paying their invoices within 15 days (Sweeney). Aside from this, they do not offer any other types of promotions on its products and services. E-marketing efforts Operating in a very traditional industry largely dependent on face-to-face marketing, the company does not see the immediate need to engage in E-Marketing (Sweeney).
As such, their e-marketing efforts only comprise of a company website (http://www. kkscrapmetal. com), which is primarily used as an information tool to educate clients and prospects about their business in the scrap metal recycling industry. Traditional advertising consists of listings in trade association publications (I. e. Canadian Association of Recycling Industries ??? CARI) (Sweeney). Measuring Marketing Efforts K&K Recycling Services has not established any goals or objectives against their Marketing and E-marketing efforts. They do not even receive any recognition for sponsoring sports teams and charities.
They do however have a Google Analytics account that they monitor periodically to see basic key performance indicators. Business Results In FY2010, K&K Recycling Services had a revenue growth of 77% and volume growth of 44%. This indicates that the volume growth accounted for 55% of the revenue growth while price increases, prevalent in a commodity business, accounted for 45% (Sweeney). Resources Available for Marketing Efforts K&K Recycling Services currently has 50+ employees and utilizes a modern ERP system, a Microsoft platform with CRM at the front end and GP Accounting system on the back end.
Marketing-wise, K&K Recycling Services does not currently have a marketing budget. However, K&K would consider allocating $1,000 – $2000 a month towards e-marketing efforts. Furthermore, K&K has a small payroll of 50+ employees however none of the employees are dedicated to Marketing and K&K does not have a Marketing department. K&K would consider hiring or outsourcing marketing efforts to test recommendations that are provided in this Marketing Plan. K&K Recycling Services also allocates funds to its direct sales efforts and also own a box at Air Canada Centre and GM Oshawa Center that is used for entertaining clients and prospects.
Furthermore, K&K Recycling Services outsources all IT and web development to contractors (Sweeney). PESTLE Analysis Political Analysis ??? The Canadian government supports scrapping vehicles in an effort to ensure greater proportion of all waste is recycled. Together with the Automotive Recyclers of Canada, it has been developing a national code of practice for vehicle recycling to ensure high environmental standards and consistent practices for vehicles retired under the program which participating recyclers will be required to follow.
Car owners, on the other hand, benefit by receiving a tax receipt for the value of the scrap metal in their vehicles (“Government gets tough”, par. 13-14). ??? CARI (Canadian Association of Recycling Industries) lobbyists continue to advocate for Extended Producer Responsibility to regulators. It is an attempt to hold manufacturers responsible for seeing how materials that are used in their products get sorted when its product life is due. Focus should be on designing products from the perspective of its end life so they can avoid incorporating different materials in it, thus allowing it to be completely ecycled (CBJ. ca, par. 10-12). ??? According to Michael Power (Candy, par. 13-14), resource nationalism is said to emerge in 2011. Metal resource suppliers will be experiencing a strong demand from customers. However, governments of countries supplying this demand may step in and derail this growth by adjusting metal commodity prices or stopping the level of output from increasing in an effort to assert control over their countries’ resources and economies. Economic Analysis Reports have shown that the quantity of waste sent for disposal increased in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta between 2006 and 2008. Saskatchewan saw the biggest increase in the amount of waste disposal (8. 3% change) while Alberta sent the most waste for disposal in 2008 (equivalent of 1. 1 metric tonnes per person) largely attributed to industrial waste disposal (Statistics Canada, par. 1-3). ??? Recovering from the economic recession, markets have seen recycled material commodity prices stabilizing and more businesses resume investing in “green” practices.
As a result, the recycling industry is expected to experience a market rebound and recover the losses it suffered from plummeting commodity prices during the recession (Leybovich, par. 2). ??? Scrap metal prices are rising due to export demand for ferrous and non-ferrous metals in developing countries, particularly in India and China, which is known to be the world’s largest metal consumer (CARI, par. 13). Furthermore, an expected boom in industrial production, automotive and aeronautics industries will lead to an increase in the use of non-ferrous metals (Yan, par. 10). Social Analysis Metal recycling, once considered a green industry, is now causing industries and governments alike to be concerned about the serious health risks it poses to exposed workers and more so to consumers, should these recycled metals make their way into consumer products (Tang, par. 1). Metals are found to release toxic air contaminants during its processing operations (Larson, par. 2). As of 2011, international agencies are still working on a protocol for monitoring and disposing metals (Vulcan, par. 1). ??? Websites (Do What You Can. ca) designed to help people deal with waste responsibly are emerging.
Manufacturers and retailers are now working with municipalities to create a safe and convenient system of informing the public about proper disposal of ‘special care’ household wastes (Amoy, par. 2). ??? Ontarians can now recycle electronic items such as MP3 players, cameras, telephones, and radios at more than 500 approved sites ranging from municipal, not-for-profit, retail and other types of depots. Ontario Electronic Stewardship (OES) program aims to collect and divert electronic wastes from landfill by making recycling easier for people (CARI, par. 18). Technological Analysis Eventual maturity of machinery used to haul, collect, and sort scrap metals (separating ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metals). Companies within the industry are having to plan for how they will handle the inevitable maturity of their equipment, and ensure that their new equipment consistently fulfills the needs of scrap metal recycling activities (Highfill, p. 1). ??? Many scrap metal recycling companies both in Canada and in the U. S. are lagging with their technological innovations of equipment. Competing companies are using highly advanced technology to ensure a dramatic decrease in the use of energy.
In addition, competitors are also using technology with significantly reduced melt loss as well as technology that uses low-grade scrap aluminum (Triple M Metal LP, par. 3). ??? In order to produce high quality, value-added, recycled metal products through enhanced recycling, Natural Resource Canada is continuing R&D efforts to overcome technological challenges. The purpose of this technology is to identify and assess the status of major sensing technologies for the separation of various materials (e. g. , ferrous and nonferrous metals, glasses, rubber, plastics, etc. from scrap metal and for the identification of impurities in molten scrap metal (Natural Resource Canada ??? Metals Recycling Technology, par. 6) Legal Analysis ??? The Canadian Export and Import of Hazardous Wastes Regulations are key elements of federal legislation affecting the Canadian metal recycling industry (Latest amendment: 1994). A metal recyclable is considered “hazardous waste” if it exhibits any one of nine hazard characteristics as defined under the Transport of Dangerous Goods Regulations (Smith, p. 11). ??? Canada-U. S.
Agreement on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes ensures that the treatment, storage and disposal of hazardous wastes are conducted in a manner that properly manages the risks to public health, property and environmental quality. The Canada-U. S. Agreement controls and monitors the flow of hazardous wastes between the two countries (Smith, p. 13). ??? Bill 205, Scrap Metal Dealers and Recyclers Act, passes second reading in Parliament. This law will now force all Alberta recyclers and dealers of scrap metal to collect personal identification (i. e. ake and model of the vehicle transporting the metal) in all transactions in an effort to stop scrap metal theft (Zickefoose, par. 3). Environmental Analysis ??? Metal recycling conserves energy, defers the development of less economic mineral resources, and eases the burden on municipal landfills (energy savings, virgin material savings, emission reduction, water pollution reduction, mining waste reduction) (Smith, p. 11). ??? As a result of lowered energy usage, less greenhouse gasses are emitted. Therefore, recycling metals is an advantage to reducing the impacts of global warming.
Most importantly, recycling metals has the potential to reduce energy consumption of the production of metals such as aluminum, magnesium and lead by 80%, copper by 70%, and zinc by 75% (Answers. com, par. 1). ??? U. S. President Obama calls for preparing a national strategy for recycling materials in a manner that both safeguards human health and the environment. This national framework set out for the Task Force must focus on ensuring environmentally sustainable and responsible metal recycling practices. This affects many companies both in the U. S. nd in Canada. (CARI, par. 15) SWOT Analysis Strengths Analysis ??? K&K Recycling Services is able to react quickly to pursue opportunities in the marketplace as it has “very low debt, with a five million dollar operating line” (Sweeney). This translates into K&K Recycling Services being able to pursue clients with large orders allowing K&K Recycling Services to pre-purchase scrap metal, whereas its competitors do not have such large borrowing capacity. ??? K&K Recycling Services prides itself on building strong relationships in the scrap metal industry.
In this industry, direct methods of communication are required such as face-to-face meetings, personal calling and cold calling (Sweeney). All business transactions are done with centralized decision-making, and this requires good personal relations between K&K Recycling Services and its clients. ??? The facility was built on green land (i. e. farm land) and was specially designed to be a scrap metal facility. The facility is a bit of a showpiece, leaving a good first-impression, with customers immediately impressed. This allows K&K Recycling Services to stand out as a superior facility compared to its competitors. K&K Recycling Services has recently acquired a modern ERP system which is beneficial as the scrap industry is highly logistics-based; the system efficiently tracks and records all transactions such as the moving of scrap metal from the yard to the steel mill, booking trucks for the job etc. This system is fully integrated and provides records of payments, an online dashboard which lets company personnel access the system anywhere from the web, and provides push reporting, which sends out email reports of sales per month, volume and other reports as required (Sweeney).
Weaknesses Analysis ??? K&K Recycling Services is an entrepreneurial company and requires innovative and self-driven employees. Reporting structure and accountability has been negatively affected due to lack of effective communication within the organization (Sweeney). ??? Operational bench press: large orders require a greater labor force with a commitment to quality; additional employees with these characteristics are seldom easy to find at whim. This creates issues when K&K Recycling Services is confronted with large projects without prior notice. Low sales bench press has been identified as there is a high turnover rate amongst salespeople, however it is usually evident fairly quickly if a new salesperson is the wrong person for the job (Sweeney). ??? DSO and DPO imbalance: Days sales outstanding and days payable outstanding imbalances are the result of receivables being processed every forty days, and payables being processed every thirty days. “On an average day we have 2. 2 million dollars of scrap load out there” (Sweeney) therefore processing time would hold essential resources for extended periods of time. Customer concentration: Ford and CN are two of the largest clients K&K Recycling Services works with, making K&K Recycling Services heavily reliant on them. An undiversified clientele is very risky in a commodity-based industry. ??? No commodity hedging program: Hedging programs are only available for non-ferrous metals and require a great amount of resources and core competencies in which K&K Recycling Services is not ready to invest. Although higher margins would result from hedging programs, a hedging trader would be required on staff, which would require a significant amount of money.
Opportunities Analysis ??? Expansion in Alberta & Western Canada: Large decommissioning jobs are available in Alberta (Sweeney). Acquisition of partnership with other material processing yards would enable K&K to sell scrap through their own brokerage, “Barrie, has a few yards and we have been interested in marketing their material” (Sweeney). ??? Increasing demands of scrap metal has made the value of scrap metal at its highest point ever, selling at $11. 25 per 100 pounds (Law, par. 4). K&K Recycling Services would be able to sell much higher volume, and make more revenue. There has been tremendous growth in the usage of recycled metals: K&K Recycling Services has experienced steady increase in volume of ferrous and non-ferrous metals in the past five years (Sweeney). Threats Analysis ??? Increasing prices of scrap metal have inadvertently also increased the incentive for people to steal metal. The British Transport Police announced a record number of thefts in April 2010, with about 2,000 incidents per year (Ozimek, par. 5). K&K Recycling Services needs to invest in enhancing its security. Volatility with the global steel mills due to pockets of economic weakness around the world will dominate, due to an empty supply chain, over damping/under damping, scarcity and inelasticity of steel (Applebaum, par. 3-6). This will affect K&K Recycling Services as they sell to steel mills. ??? The strength of the Canadian dollar against the US dollar has the effect of reducing the corresponding Canadian dollar prices, as Canadian producers who export to the United States are paid on the basis of prices set in US dollars (Kolet).
This translate into a loss of potential dollars due to the exchange rate differences. Competitive Review K&K Recycling Services ??? www. kkscrapmetal. com K&K Recycling Services currently partakes in a very limited number of E-Marketing strategies which consist of a company website, search engine optimization (SEO), and the use of Google Analytics. The company website is very simple and straightforward ??? contact information, tabs, and links can be easily seen and located, however, the site lacks professionalism with its layout, oversized text and images, as well as its overall design.
With the help of Google Analytics, K&K Recycling Services can measure how effective SEO strategy has been ??? for example, we see that Google is the source for over 90% of visitors that go to the K&K Recycling Services’ website (Appendix B). By using SEO with Google, K Recycling Services ensures that their search engine results will be improved. By using Meta tags (such as keywords), the company can also increase its rank on Google’s search engine results page (SERP). Currently, the company uses many key words, which include “scrap metal,” “ferrous,” “non-ferrous,” “waste management,” “demolition,” “Ontario,” and many more (Appendix C).
This information can be found by viewing the page source of K&K Recycling Services’ website. It is noteworthy to mention that people often land on the website using key search words such as, “K&K recycling,” “kk scrap metal,” and many other words that specifically include some variation of “K&K,” which is the company’s name (Appendix D). This information from Google Analytics tells us that majority of the people visiting the website are looking specifically for K&K Recycling Services.
Had they used search words that did not include the letters “K&K,” we could conclude that visitors landed on the K&K Recycling Services’ website unintentionally. While most visits to the site have occurred from natural searches of the keyword “K&K Recycling,” the company can work in increasing its SERP ranking so that even when general search terms such as “scrap metal recycling” are used, the company’s website appears on first or second page of results, which is often the only page many people look at when trying to fulfill their search query.
K&K Recycling Services competes with many other companies within the scrap metal recycling industry, with the top three competitors comprising of Triple M Metals LP, American Iron and Metal, and Thomson Metals. Competitor 1: Triple M Metals LP ??? www. triplemmetal. com The top competitor is Triple M Metals LP, the largest metal recycling company in Canada with operations in the U. S. as well as in Britain, and 2007 winner of the Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies award.
In terms of E-Marketing efforts, the company partakes in the same basic strategies as K Recycling Services, using a company website and SEO. From our experience of the site, we found that the site is easy to navigate through in comparison to the K Recycling website. The company does not use Meta tags of keywords (not seen through page source view), which means that their SERP ranking will be lower compared to other scrap metal recycling sites that do use keywords. Competitor 2: American Iron and Metal ??? www. crapmetal. net The second top competitor for K Recycling Services is a company by the name of American Iron and Metal, a global company with Canadian roots that has been serving the metals industry since 1936. The company partakes in the same E-Marketing efforts as the first competitor ??? a company website and SEO. From our experience of the site, we noticed that the website uses a low amount of images and graphics. There is only one pane on the left side displaying all of the tabs that offers the website’s information.
There are various upgrades needed to give it a more professional and mature look. The K&K Recycling Services’ website is still ahead of this company’s overall design of the site. This company, like the first competitor Triple M Metals LP, also does not use keywords (not seen through page source view), which puts their SERP ranking far lower than other sites in the industry. Since the site does not offer anything interesting, and has not been updated since 1999, the SERP ranking is even lower then it could potentially be. Competitor 3: Thomson Metals and Disposal LP ??? www. homsonmetals. com The third top competitor is Thomson Metals and Disposal LP, a company that partnered with Murray Demolition and Quantum Environmental in 2007, to create the strongest industrial service offerings in the nation. Thomson Metals brings its scrap metals recycling expertise, from 1980, to the partnership. Thomson Metals and Disposal LP still maintains its own website, along with being featured on the Quantum Murray website. For this analysis, we will look solely at Thomson Metals and Disposal LP’s E-Marketing efforts, which consist of a website and the use of SEO.
Based on our experience of the site, the website images and layout are appealing, however, there is a lack of information about the company itself (its history, its expertise, and about its new partnership with the two companies mentioned previously). While the Quantum Murray logo is featured on this site, there needs to be a stronger linkage between the different sites that make the partnership clear. In terms of SEO use, the site includes many keywords within its title instead of using them specifically as keywords.
Such words in the title include “scrap metal recycling,” “waste management,” “demolition,” “metal salvaging,” and so on. General words such as these ensure a higher SERP ranking on search engines like Google. Google Search Comparison When comparing how each of these four companies rank on the SERP of Google, we decided to use words that would be most typical for the industry. Therefore, the words “scrap metal recycling” were used in the Google search bar when conducting this review.
The results are as follows: ??? Thomson Metals and Disposal LP = 1st page (first result) ??? K Recycling Services = 2nd page (sixth result) ??? Triple M Metals LP = 3rd page (eighth result) ??? American Iron and Metal = not within first 10 pages o “American Scrap Metal Recycling” as keyword = not within first 10 pages o Site only found when searched with company’s actual name These results confirm that Thomson Metals and Disposal LP use keywords that are general to the scrap metal recycling industry, and therefore, ranked first in the SERP Google search.
While Triple M Metals LP is the top competitor, the reason why it ranked on the 3rd page is because it describes itself as a “metal recycling” company, not a “scrap metal recycling” company. This small, but noteworthy difference has made a significant difference in the way that Triple M Metals LP ranks on the SERP of Google. If we type, “metal recycling” in the Google search bar, Triple M Metals LP all of sudden appears on the very first page as the fifth result. With this, we see that it is crucial to choose keywords correctly! All three competitors as well as K&K Recycling Services use basic E-Marketing strategies as mentioned above.
It is not typical for companies in the scrap metal recycling industry to be active online; however, increasing their E-Marketing efforts may be the route that these companies need to take in order to make them more successful. Tier 1 Strategies Segmentation K&K Recycling Services provides five different services with each of these services targeting different segments to which the company would have to provide a customized marketing mix to effectively target the segment. Based on the scrap metal industry we have established four key demographic ariables that will allow K&K to base their segmentation of the business markets. The variables chosen are size of buying unit, type of industry, geographic location, and whether the target firms have centralized or decentralized buying decisions. Please see the chart in Appendix F for a complete evaluation of K&K Recycling Services’ B2B segments. The four key segments according to Ken Sweeney, CFO of K Recycling Services, would include: Ontario’s manufacturing industrial accounts, automotive decommissioning, railroad industry, and decommissioning work in Alberta. Targeting
B2B ??? The optimal target group would be to target decommissioning services. There have been many new entrants into the rail road industry, each of which require decommissioning services and K&K Recycling Services praises themselves in having an expertise on decommissioning rail parts (Sweeney). There have been many recent projects in Alberta, where K&K Recycling Services can effectively decommission work (Sweeney). Automotive and OEM decommissioning are also great opportunities that K&K Recycling Services has been trying to pursue. This Segment can be broken down into smaller geographic segments.
K&K Recycling Services is also capable of servicing a large geographic market, and using e-marketing tools can be a cost effective way to provide K&K Recycling Services with a larger clientele of decommissioning services. Differentiation In the scrap metal industry, K&K Recycling Services’ differential factors include having great relationships with its clients (CRM), and the company’s cash availability (Sweeney). K&K Recycling Services is not the oldest, most environmental, or cheapest in the industry and thus needs to leverage its unique selling proposition.
As noted in Appendix F, this segment consists of centralized buying and this emphasizes the need for K&K Recycling Services to have direct communication with its clientele, and maintain relations with its past and current customers as well as implementing a way to attract new clients and assuring them with customer satisfaction. “As more firms shift away from price differentiation, customer relationship management (CRM) becomes more predominant as a means of differentiation (Strauss p. 202)”.
Furthermore, K&K Recycling Services offers competitive pricing, which is an appealing factor to customers. Positioning K&K Recycling Services’ current positioning statement is: “Scrap recycling services & customized solutions. ” It is recommended that K change its positioning statement to the following to focus on the benefits that customers will experience when employing K’s services: “At K&K Recycling Services we are able to promptly react to service our client’s unique needs with customized solutions, while forging strong relationships. K Recycling Services takes pride in its ability to react quickly to meet the needs of a diverse range of clients. K Recycling Services is capable of achieving this through its abundant availability of cash, which enables them to adjust their services to meet client specifications. “Many firms position by touting specific benefits that provide advantages over competitive offerings (Strauss p. 204)”. Due to the type of industry in which K Recycling Services competes, purchasing decisions are all centralized.
It is therefore essential for K Recycling Services to communicate and understand what their clients require in order to add value to the relationship. Objectives for the E-Marketing Plan In conjunction with Ken Sweeney, Chief Financial Officer at K Recycling Services, and with a detailed internal audit of the current state of affairs at K Recycling Services, the following objectives have been set for this e-marketing plan: 1. To increase awareness of K Recycling Services by October 2012.
This will be achieved through an enhanced website with more region-specific content as well as search engine optimization techniques. The success of this objective will be measured by an increased Google Page Rank (which is currently at 0/10) and an increased number of visitors to the website (through Google Analytics). 2. To increase customer satisfaction by August 2011. This will be achieved through the efficient usage of customer relationship management software.
The success of this objective will be measured by the number of customers who sign up for the website’s mailing lists, as well as the feedback they will leave on the website. Recommendations Website A website is an electronic brochure that allows for visitors to gain company and product/service information (Strauss, p. 295). To meet the objectives of increasing customer satisfaction, as well as increasing awareness, it is necessary to make certain improvements to the current K&K Recycling Services website.
To begin, it is noteworthy to mention that the Alberta market for scrap metal recycling services and sales is growing (Sweeney). In addition to currently serving the Alberta market, the company also serves the Toronto market, as well as the US market. Taking these points into consideration, it is crucial that the company enhance its current website to include pages for each geographic location which will ultimately provide a more satisfied user experience. By creating pages for each geographic area that the company serves, it can satisfy each of its target audience’s better then competitor sites (Strauss, p. 96). What’s more is that the organization of the site using tabs will enable visitors from each of these regions to easily gather information about the specific services, locations of scrap yards, and contact information that apply to them (Ezine Articles, par. 4). Having this addition of pages will also allow the company to enhance its website quality (online spiders recognize this) and increase the use of keywords (keywords on each page), thereby increasing its searchability and rank on search engines (Entrepreneurs-Journey, par. ). To build on the above recommendation to enhance the quality of the website through additional pages, (and keywords on each), K&K Recycling Services can also provide greater information on its services and quality content. K&K Recycling Services currently disseminates information in regards to the services it provides via its online website. In order to further create customer value online, we recommend that K&K Recycling Services provide more detailed and specific information on each service it provides to potential clients.
This will ultimately increase the benefits delivered to site visitors since they have access to more useful information and a more satisfied experience. In addition, the greater organization and information on the site will help to increase awareness of the business and its offerings. Having more useful and detailed information on the services the company provides will also increase the length of each visit which is an indication of visitors finding more value in the websites quality content, resulting in longer browsing time, satisfaction, and overall awareness (Entrepreneurs-Journey, par. ). This can potentially lead to greater business prospects and clients. With improved website design and the addition of the simple elements mentioned above, K&K Recycling Services will deliver greater customer satisfaction and greater awareness, further enhancing their site searchability while fulfilling both objectives mentioned earlier. Email “Email remains the most important communication technique for building customer relationships (Strauss, p. 303)”.
To meet the objective of improving customer relations we would like to initiate the usage of the sales functionality of K&K’s CRM system. K clients are involved in selling and buying large amounts of ferrous or non-ferrous scrap metal. Ken Sweeny has mentioned that clients gross a minimum of a million dollars per year, and on any one day K has approximately one to three million dollars’ worth of scrap metal being transported. Customers with such large orders would like to ensure that they are doing business with a credible and professional organization.
An automatic delivery system can be configured using K&K’s current CRM system, which will enable K to send invoices, delivery and pick up confirmations via email. To ensure that this feature does not negatively affect client relationships, K will be required to ask permission before opting in their clients to the automatic delivery system. Such permission would be recommended for any future email marketing promotion as well. As K builds its client list, more effective communication techniques will arise.
K will be able to communicate announcements, promotional offers or any information of importance to relevant clients. E-mails can be personalized to provide clients with a deeper connection with K Recycling Services and improve customer relationship. Emails can also contain hyperlinks and graphics which will increase traffic to K’s website and add professionalism to all messages sent out of the organization, enhancing the relationship furthermore. A clear advantage to email marketing is that is fairly inexpensive “It requires no postage or printing charges.
The average cost of an email is message is less than $0. 01 (Strauss, p 304)”. Email marketing will allow for K&K to have conversations with individual customers in a way to help develop a better relationship, in addition to improving repeat business. Lastly K&K can promote the automatic delivery of emails by emphasizing how K&K is helping reduce waste and keeping the environment clean. Implementation Assuming that K&K will receive our E-marketing plan during the last two weeks of April, implementation of our recommendations will begin in the first week of May.
Ken Sweeney, K&K Recycling Services’ consultant, will need to contact Karmatize in order to get their assistance in improving and updating their company website. According to Mr. Justin Lee of Karmatize, the specific tasks related to such an endeavor will require an average of two weeks to a month to complete. Since SEO is a trial and error process to see which techniques work best for the company, Karmatize will need to maintain the website for at least three months after it has been improved.
To enhance CRM capabilities, Ken Sweeney will need to contact and work with K’s CRM provider to configure its current program so it can include an automatic delivery system that will allow the company to engage in Email marketing. Since the company already has a CRM system in place, configuring it to incorporate the aforementioned feature will approximately take about a week to accomplish. The next step will entail a continuous process of inputting customer data into the system, gathered by informing customers bout the company’s new communication method and giving them the choice to opt in. This will coincide with CRM maintenance, which encompasses not only technical but also the marketing aspects associated with Email marketing such as creating and sending personalized business emails to customers. Since Email marketing will be established as a standard marketing activity at K, the company’s sales force will be in charge of the marketing facet, even possibly employing the services of Karmatize to help them design their emails.
Technical particulars, on the other hand, will be handled by K&K’s CRM technical support. Appendix F shows a detailed implementation plan presented through a Gantt chart. Budgeting & Sales Forecast K has agreed to allocate $2,000 a month for marketing purposes, meaning that over the 6 months that this marketing plan will be implemented there will be a total of $12,000 that can be applied towards implementing these recommendations. As a result, the recommendations are all under the allocated $12,000 with the “worst case” scenarios costing the most for K to implement.
For example, if K were to implement the recommendations in this plan the “best case” scenarios total costs over 6 months would be $4,430. Therefore, this would result in $7,750 remaining that could to be used towards other marketing initiatives over this six-month time frame. If K were to implement the “worst case” scenario, total costs would be $9,094 which would leave $2. 906 to be applied towards other Marketing expenses over the six-month period.
The best, likely and worst case cost scenarios have been outlined in Appendix G, based on the recommendations provided in the Implementation Plan. K has the potential to gain approximately 10 new customers (best case) by implementing a new website design with detailed information and enhanced functionality. In addition, customer retention rate will remain at 100% (best case) by implementing trigged based emails to retain K Recycling Services’ clients by sending them information such as invoices, shipping confirmations, newsletters and promotions in almost real time.
Evaluation Using the Balanced Scorecard (Strauss and Frost, 38-42), the following are quantitative and qualitative metrics K&K Recycling Services can use to monitor the progress and success of the E-marketing plan. Goals and metrics in each perspective are arranged in order of relevance. We recommend K&K Recycling Services to measure these goals at least, on a monthly basis to ensure they are being met accordingly. Customer Perspective Awareness: Unique visitors to the website each month, Percentage of customers who opt to receive company emails (Adoption Rate), Percentage of email addresses collected from potential customers through the website, Increase link traffic from emails to web site ??? Customer satisfaction with web site: Number of visits to the site, Length of visit ??? Building customer relationships: Customer retention percentage To be able to optimize customer value, K&K Recycling Services has to build customer awareness through email marketing and improving its website.
Using cookies, awareness can be measured through the number of distinct users who have visited the website over a month. This indicates the effectiveness of the SEO techniques employed by Karmatize on the website. Percentage of customers who opt in and percentage of email addresses collected shows the magnitude of the reach of email marketing and effectiveness of SEO techniques respectively. Percentage of opt-ins not only signifies awareness of the company’s new communication method but also customer loyalty and trust as those who do opt in convey acceptance of the company’s business activities.
Percentage of email addresses collected from the website again confirms the strength of SEO techniques used as visitors who found the site relevant and gave their contact information are likely interested in doing business with the company. Customer satisfaction with the new web site can be measured through the number of visits to the site as well as the duration of their visit. If customers find the website to have the relevant information that they need, they would visit more often and stay longer on the site. Finally, if customers find value with the company, customer retention percentage will increase over time.
This measure is likely to be evaluated once or every two years. Internal Business Perspective ??? Superior Web site content management: Web site logs traffic pattern statistics (Google Analytics) ??? Quality online technical help: Amount of time to answer customer email ??? Website: Time to load a web page, Google page rank ??? Partner value: Partner contribution to web page design To update the content on K&K Recycling Services’ website, Ken Sweeny, sales team, and Karmatize would be required to collaborate on what type of content they would want to provide on their website.
Employees have to ensure that they adapt the recommended E-marketing activities into their daily routine without too much difficulty or alteration of their standard tasks. Recommendations will not affect K manufacturing quality, employee skills and productivity. Content that is produced to be published on the website should enhance the company’s productivity, as K&K employees would naturally be more familiar with all aspects of the scrap metal industry.
Using their familiarity and the experience they can bring ideas of content that would be required by potential clients, or an individual who is looking to learn of the scrap metal industry “Information systems are a critical component of the internal perspective for e-business firms” (Strauss, p. 37). Google analytics and Karmatize’s SEO tools can provide monthly reports on the effects of the newly introduced content, which will be used on a continuous basis to improve the website and strengthening K Recycling Services online presence.
When Email marketing is initiated it is crucial the company employees ensure that they appropriately prioritize responding to emails in a timely manner. Learning and Growth Perspective ??? Online service innovation: Percent of sales from new website features ??? Successful penetration of new markets: Percentage of firm’s sales in each new market ??? High Internet lead-to-sales conversions: Revenue per sales employee from Internet leads, Number of conversions from online leads Increased value in knowledge management system: Number of accesses by employees, Number of contributions implemented from employee and customer feedback ??? Continuous improvement in CRM system: Number and type of improvements over time As discussed in the internal perspective K&K employees brainstorming content ideas for the website, will help initiate K&K cultural attitude related E-marketing techniques as they will see how Karmatize has implemented their ideas into the K&K website and how their ideas have affected the monthly SEO reports.
This will instigate employees to gain interest in using E-marketing techniques to strengthen K&K customer relations. K&K email marketing also builds on changing the workforce attitude towards E-marketing techniques. K&K will need to provide continuous training and learning opportunities for both recommendations, which will speed the adoption and effective use of the e marketing techniques. Financial Perspective ??? Sales growth: Dollar volume of sales from one time period to the next ??? Increase market share: Market share percentage Lower customer acquisition costs: Costs for direct marketing divided by number of customers An indication that the E-marketing plan is effective is if profits and market share increase positively. If sales grow from one year to the next and if market share percentage increases, then it means the plan has been implemented successfully. Furthermore, with an enhanced website and through email communication with customers, the cost of acquiring and maintaining customers become lower thereby enabling the firm to save and use its resources towards another purpose. Conclusion
As previously stated, K&K Recycling Services’ key problems include a lack of E-marketing initiatives, inadequate marketing efforts by management, and a lack of a marketing budget. K Recycling Services operates in a traditional industry where customer service and satisfaction is paramount to their success. Furthermore, due to their lack of e-marketing efforts, most visitors to their website specifically had to search “K&K” to arrive there. Our proposed recommendations serve as the best solutions to resolve these issues. Our marketing objectives specifically aim to increase awareness and customer satisfaction.
Awareness will be achieved by increasing the website’s searchability as well as loading the website with appropriate content for each key geographic region that K&K Recycling Services caters to. Furthermore, more detailed general content will help visitors to the website achieve a better understanding of K&K Recycling Services and its offerings. Customer satisfaction will be ensured by the effective use of customer relationship management software. Through the use of the CRM software, customers will be contacted regularly to ensure ultimate satisfaction.
Furthermore, the CRM software will enable administrative effectiveness. In conclusion, it is our strong belief that should these recommendations be applied as specified, K&K Recycling Services would be right to expect increased customer satisfaction and increased brand awareness. This will ultimately result in increased customer retention, acquisition and sales. Works Cited “About Us. ” Triple M Metal LP. N. p. , n. d. Web. 20 Jan. 2011. . “Additional Information. ” Message to Justin Lee. 17 Mar. 2010. E-mail. Amoy. “Do What You Can ??? Recycling in Ontario | Greenr. ” Greenr | We All Play a Part.
N. p. , 21 Aug. 2009. Web. 26 Jan. 2011. . “Answers. com – Recycled Metals. ” WikiAnswers – The Q&A wiki. Answers Corporation, 10 Jan. 2011. Web. 24 Jan. 2011. Applebaum, Michelle Galanter. Steel Outlook 2011 – Volatility Is the New Black. 31 December 2010. 26 January 2011 . Canada Jan. Industrial Product and Raw Materials Prices. N. p. , n. d. Web 20 March 2011. “Canadian Association of Recycling Industries (CARI) – Association Canadienne des Industries Recycalge. ” Canadian Association of Recycling Industries ??? Association Canadienne des Industries Recycalge. N. p. , n. d. Web. 6 Jan. 2011. . “Canadian Association of Recycling Industries – CBJ. ca – The Canadian Business Journal. ” CBJ. ca – The Canadian Business Journal. George Media Inc. , n. d. Web. 26 Jan. 2011. . Candy, Geoff. “Mineweb. com – The world’s premier mining and mining investment website Commodities: A big picture view for 2011 – PODCASTS | Mineweb. ” Mineweb. N. p. , 1 Jan. 2011. 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Mission & Values | Scrap metal recycling services for Ontario (Toronto, Pickering and GTA), Western Canada and Northeastern United States.. ” K&K Recycling Services | Scrap metal recycling services for Ontario (Toronto, Pickering and GTA), Western Canada and Northeastern United States.. N. p. , n. d. Web. 26 Jan. 2011. . Lakhan, A??Dwarka. “Effective email marketing tips – Building Your Business Daily ??? News Investment Executive. ” Investment Executive. transcontinental Media, n. d. Web. 18 Mar. 2011. . Larson, Denny. Global Community Monitor:??PRESS RELEASE: New Report on “Green” Recycling Industry Exposes Unregulated Toxic Air Pollution Threat. ” Global Community Monitor:??Index. N. p. , 16 Sept. 2010. Web. 26 Jan. 2011. . Law, Daryl. Scrap-metal Business Booming. 5 February 2011. 5 February 2011 . Leybovich, Ilya. “Recycling Industry on the Rebound: IMT Industry Market Trends. ” The complete source for the latest industrial news solutions.. ThomasNet News, 27 Apr. 2010. Web. 26 Jan. 2011. . “Metals Recycling Technology. ” Natural Resources Canada. N. p. , n. d. Web. 22 Jan. 2011. . Smith, Brian. “Recycled Metals. Canadian Minerals Yearbook 41 (1994): 28. Natural Resources Canada. Web. 17 Jan. 2011. Ozimek, Jane Fae. Bold as brass metal thieves disrupt rail, comms, electric. 5 February 2011. 5 February 2011 . Statistics Canada. “StatsCan Releases ‘Waste management industry: Business and government sectors, 2008’ Report. ” Recycling Council of Ontario. N. p. , 22 Dec. 2010. Web. 25 Jan. 2011. . Strauss, Judy, and Raymond Frost. E-marketing. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, N. J. : Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Print. Sweeney, Ken. Email interview. 20 Jan. 2011. Sweeney, Ken. Telephone Interview by Jatinder. 01 Feb. 011. Tang, Kay. “Radiation in Scrap Metal | eHow. com. ” eHow | How To Do Just About Everything! | How To Videos & Articles. eHow, Inc. , 20 Apr. 2010. Web. 26 Jan. 2011. . The Pulse – Newsletter of the Canadian Association of Recycling Industries. ” Canadian Association of Recycling Industries. N. p. , 12 Dec. 2010. Web. 25 Jan. 2011. . Vulcan, Nicole. “How to Recycle Naturally Occurring Radioactive & Scrap Metal | eHow. com. ” eHow | How To Do Just About Everything! | How To Videos & Articles. eHow, Inc. , 12 Jan. 2011. Web. 26 Jan. 2011. . “Web Content Writing – Web Copywriting – Cost Estimates. Web Content Writers – Content Writing – SEO Copywriting. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. . “Website Design Considerations – Single Vs Multiple Page Websites. ” EzineArticles. N. p. , n. d. Web. 16 Mar. 2011. . “Website Metrics ??? Increase Your Visit Length. ” Entrepreneurs-Journey. N. p. , n. d. Web. 16 Mar. 2011. . Lee, Justin. Email interview. 19 Mar. 2011. Yan, Zhou. ” Non-ferrous metals set to plunge further. ” China Daily Website ??? Connecting China Connecting the World. China Daily Information Co (CDIC), 11 May 2010. Web. 26 Jan. 2011. . Zickefoose, Sherri . “Bill aims to stop metal thefts in Alberta. Calgary Herald. canada. com, 8 Nov. 2010. Web. 15 Mar. 2011. . Appendix A ??? K&K Recycling Services Values K&K’s values are based on the following four pillars: |Service:?? |Providing timely, reliable and consistent service to customers and business partners. | |Integrity: |In a commodity based industry, trust and relationships are important. K understands that integrity within those | | |relationships builds long lasting and profitable partnerships. | |Creativity: |K strives to be a solutions provider not just a ‘hauler’ and ‘processor’.
K works with customers to solve their | |???? |problems in creative ways. | |Respect: |K understands that treating others with respect and care is important. This holds true for customers, employees, | |?? |suppliers and other key constituents in the community. | | |K is long term supporter of the Children’s Aid Foundation and Community Care’s ‘Meals on Wheels’ program | Source: “K&K Recycling Services ?? Mission & Values | Scrap metal recycling services for Ontario (Toronto, Pickering and GTA), Western Canada and Northeastern United States.. K&K Recycling Services | Scrap metal recycling services for Ontario (Toronto, Pickering and GTA), Western Canada and Northeastern United States.. N. p. , n. d. Web. 26 Jan. 2011. . Appendix B ??? K&K Recycling Services Website Visitors Summary: Google Analytics shows that 91. 90% of visitors on the K&K Recycling Services website come directly from the Google search engine. Source: “Google Analytics – Dashboard . ” Google Analytics. Google, n. d. Web. 1 Feb. 2011. . Appendix C ??? K&K Recycling Services Website Page Source
Summary: Viewing the website’s page source reveals the key words that are used by K&K Recycling Services. The key words appear on the last line shown in the image above. Source: “Google Analytics – Dashboard . ” Google Analytics. Google, n. d. Web. 1 Feb. 2011. . Appendix D ??? K&K Recycling Services Website Key Words Summary: Google Analytics shows all of the keywords used by K&K Recycling Services, as well as the percentage of visits that have occurred from each keyword. Source: “Google Analytics – Dashboard . ” Google Analytics. Google, n. d. Web. 1 Feb. 2011. . Appendix E ??? K&K Recycling Services B2B Segments Product/Services |Size of buying unit |Type of industry |Geographic |Centralized/Decentralized | | | | | |buying decision | |Ferrous |Small, medium large |-OEM |Ontario, Alberta, |Centralized | | | |-manufacturers |Saskatchewan, New York, | | | | |-Steel Mills(ferrous) |Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan,| | | | |-Smelters |Illinois, Indiana. | | | |-Foundries | | | | | |-Industrial | | | |Non- Ferrous | | | | | |Brokerage & Marketing |Small, medium, large | | | | |Decommissioning & Demolition |Large |-Rail road | | | | | |-Automotive | | | | | |-lines | | | | | |-factories | | | | | |-Municipalities | | | |Waste managements |Small, medium |-Industrial |- South-western Ontario |Decentralized | | | |-Municipalities | | | Appendix F ??? Implementation Plan ??? Gantt Chart Appendix G: Budgeting & Sales Forecast Website Upgrades & Enhancements | | |Karmatize will provide the web services and hire an external copywriter | |Worst Cast |Total Costs |Description | |60 hrs x $65hr |$3,900. 00 |Website costs as provided by Karmatize | |18 hrs x $70hr |$1,260. 00 |Copywriting Services – Industry Rate | |TOTAL |$5,160. 0 |?? | |?? |?? |?? | |Likely Case |Total Costs |Description | |48hrs x $65hr |$3,120. 00 |Website costs as provided by Karmatize | |12 hrs x $70hr |$840. 00 |Copywriting Services – Industry Rate | |TOTAL |$3,960. 0 |?? | | |?? |?? | |Best Case |Total Costs |Description | |40hrs |$2,400. 00 |Website costs as provided by Karmatize – retainer fees | |8 hrs x $70hr |$560. 00 |Copywriting Services – Industry Rate | |TOTAL |$2,960. 0 |?? | | | | | | | | | |Email Marketing – Microsoft CRM System | | |Utilizing existing Microsoft CRM system | | |Worst Case |Total Costs |Description | |$2,000. 00 |$2,000. 00 |Training | |$3,000. 00 |$3,000. 00 |Graphic Design – Templates | |$34. 00 |$34. 00 |Microsoft CRM – 1 user per month | |$100 month |-$100. 0 |Reduction in costs due to automated delivery of emails and invoices (mechanical | | | |and manual) | |TOTAL |$4,934. 00 |?? | |?? |?? | | |Likely Case |Total Costs |Description | |$1,000. 00 |$1,000. 00 |Training | |$1,500. 0 |$1,500. 00 |Graphic Design – Templates | |$34 x 3 |$102. 00 |Microsoft CRM – 3 users per month