THESIS PROPOSAL
What is the working title of your thesis?
The working title of my thesis is “ How luxury brands have adopted digital channels to increase revenue”.
What is the project about?
The aim of this project is to analyze and research how digital marketing has changed and improved luxury firms. Except from explaining what digital marketing is, how it entered our lives and what benefits has brought to brands (in particular luxury brands), I will finally come to the conclusion if the adoption of it have increased luxury firm’s revenue.
From my point of view when talking about marketing, the final purpose, after having discussed about how and why they adapted marketing strategies (in this case digital marketing), it is to evaluate if this specific approach will carry out more money to the company or not.
The project will therefore explore the journeys that some particular luxury firms undertook after having applied digital channels. The project will come up with a conclusion explaining if digital channels have finally helped increasing luxury brand’s revenue at the end of the year.
What are the research questions?
When undertaking my project, few research questions have to be explored. First of all when introducing digital marketing I will therefore explain how it has expanded through different digital channels.
So one of the main research questions I will analyze closely will be “ How traditional marketing have been transformed into digital and why?”.
This will lead my-self to analyze what exactly happens when digital marketing penetrated our lives.
Other research questions that are fundamental to address are related with the philosophical research and explore of Digital Marketing and Digital Channels, and the correlation between them. When looking to the data of the firm I chose, the research questions will be related to the finding of quantitative and qualitative data. Until now I decided to analyze either Burberry and Chanel and examine their digital marketing journey. A research question can be: “Were they pro and aware of the use of digital channels to promote their products?” also, “when have they started applying the strategic approach?”.
After having researched and analyzed data of the performance of the luxury firms chosen when digital marketing is applied, some direct and drastic questions should be addressed: “Is the materials/data adequate enough to draw a concrete and objective conclusion?” also, “Did finally the story and data observed of the following firms have shown enough results that prove that the adoption of digital channels to promote their products, have increased their revenue or not?”.
Why is the project important?
In what regards academic reasons the project should definitely be undertaken because it’s the final masterpiece that will define our Bachelor and major. What this project required from us is to adapt all the skills we improved and learned during our BBA program, to answer and define a question related to a theme we would like to discuss, discover and elaborate. In my situation, as I am doing my major in Marketing, I decided to discuss a marketing strategy.
Mostly the elaboration of this project will contribute to a further knowledge in what regards the fields I am analyzing, which as I mention before is my major.
Applying the theory learned in the last years to an actual project will be not only beneficial for my-self but also for other parties that can benefit from the awareness of the project.
This thesis is not a simple assignment, but a successful and outstanding essay that has the purpose to release significant information to the reader.
It is important to work on a subject you care and are interested about, or with whom you have already had something to do. In my past I’ve been working as an Intern in a luxury firm, “Roberto Cavalli”, while I was working there I got passionate to understand how such important company can be so profitable. My work as intern was in the Press Office field, but I had to relate a lot with Marketing. At that time, digital marketing was not still famous and applicable for a lot of luxury firms. Now is my turn to elaborate this theme and explore how digital marketing has changed luxury firms.
How is the project based in existinq literature?
As the project has to be based in existing literature, I have found different articles that discuss the ethical issue on purpose. Digital marketing has entered our lives recently but it became so commonly used from different business, because of this a lot of research and thoughts have been explored and published. For example when talking about the adoption of digital marketing on organizations, a particular article has state that this kind of approach is strategic orientated businesses and more precisely a holistic approach which means that when using this kind of technique, organisation have to consider different policies and processes and not only the specific component (Leader to Leader, 2016).
A lot of literary mention the application of digital marketing as well as different opinion and thoughts regarding it. This strategy it’s not something recent and it is a topic that has been explored a lot (more articles will be found at the end of my thesis proposal, on the references). All the literary information I found are giving me the input to finally analyze the topic in question by examining if the following strategy has the purpose to increase profitability.
Another piece of literature that have been useful for a greater understanding of the topical issue is related with blogging. Blogging as mentioned. As being a successful tool in what concerns communication. The more important it become when it started to communicate the firm’s value proposition. Following this digital channels sales take place, by creating a conversations with their clients (Ligos, 2017).
How will the students answer the research question?
In order to answer my research question, I will specifically analyze one or few firms. When I say analyze, I mean that I will first of all look to the story of the firms in what they concerned the use of marketing, plus the step they have adapted when using digital marketing for the purpose of increasing sales. Secondly I will find relevant data that will show possibly a curve that will finally carry my research question to an answer. Other than that, it is important that all aspects should be considered, not only the amount of data collected, but also as I mentioned before the story of the brand. For example, after having read some articles I found out that some firms were opposite the application of digital channels as first, as they wanted to keep the exclusivity of their brand. Finally they had to accept by adapting the strategy as they noticed that competition was increasing in the market and that the use of digital channels(such as website, social media etc…) in order to promote their products would have been the only solution to increase their revenue, profit and therefore brand value.
This is a simple but also important example that will conduct my research to a more specific and significant answer. Finally the use of secondary information can be an essential method that will help to answer the research question more accurately. Data is also fundamental when giving a detailed and specific answer to a project. In this case I thought to analyze first of all the data found online, as most of the company have all their records published. If the last ones, will not be enough for the purpose of my research, I thought to utilize some connections in the field to ask for further detailed data in what concern the firm’s sales with the use of digital channels. Within my project I will therefore distinguish the e-commerce with the digital marketing, as they are related but different.
In order to have a more specific answers, one of the methodology that have to be addressed is the investigation of possible different parties that can be involved in the process of digital sales, and so have an impact on the numbers. For example, within the field I will explore, influencers have a great and important impact on individual’s choices. It is inevitable that nowadays, studies, have shown that social influence can affect consumer behavior on the digital platform, as well as including the perception of quality and purchase intention (Leng, 2019).
Outline your project schedule
I have three fully months to write my thesis.
In the first 10 to 12 days I will undertake the 1st Phase of the topic which include: Personal research in what regard the topic and subtopics of my project. Then I will start writing the introduction with the research found regarding the hearth of topic “digital marketing”, giving a brief description.
Therefore I will explain research aims and objectives of my project, as well as the importance of my study from my point of view and research context.
Finally I will ending my introduction by outlining the chapters of my thesis, and explaining them.
In order to complete the 2nd Phase I will need 10 more days, and I will talk about: The overview of the literature applied to the topic. I will define the conceptual issue and their importance.
Therefore with the material found, will discuss models and theories applied on what regards the use of digital marketing through digital channels. This will come from highlighting what writers have discussed in journal articles related with the topical issue.
The third phase is the research methodology. I will explain and define the importance of my methodology and why it is fundamental for my research.
I will discuss therefore the various philosophies found in regards. Afterwards I will justify my research strategy in order to collect relevant data.
Methodology applied when collecting data will be related to reliable sources found in the field. Possibly and if necessary, will need to use further detailed data coming directly from the Businesses resources. Other methodology like questionnaire and interviews will be addressed in order to get more opinions associated with data. Research reliability and ethical consideration will be further reviewed and explained. In order to complete this part I will need 18 to 20 days, as is the hearth of my thesis.
During the 4th Phase I will discuss the response rate of the data collected and discuss the findings of my research. Afterwards, I will evaluate the findings to the literature reviewed in one of my previous chapter. Finally in this phase I will interpret collected data by using a program, such as Microsoft excel, to highlight the findings (by using charts, tables etc…). As this phase is really delicate I will need 10 to 12 days to evaluate formally all my findings.
For the 5th Phase, the last one and most important of the project, I will discuss the conclusion drawn from my findings and analysis in relation to the objective of my research. Recommendations will also be addressed in relation to the findings of my topic. Finally I will argue what further researchers could do in order to further explore the topic. The conclusion is really important, therefore I will need more or less 10 to 12 days to write it.
Definitely, I will need more days afterwards in order to go through all the project and everything I wrote about and by checking everything related with; grammar, information, charts, word count, sources, references, etc…
References
Boenigk, S., & Schuchardt, V. (2013). Cause-related marketing campaigns with luxury firms: An experimental study of campaign characteristics, attitudes, and donations: Crm campaigns by luxury firms and charities. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/nvsm.1452
Bryant, J., Cody, M., & Murphy, S. (2002). Online sales: Profit without question. Tobacco Control. https://search-proquest-com.hult.idm.oclc.org/docview/1781880917?accountid=78988
Diderich, J. (2019). Bernard arnault touts digital innovation as online sales soar: The lvmh chief introduced the first global luxury blockchain and revealed the group’s online sales rose by more than 30 percent in 2018. Wwd: Women’s Wear
Digital marketing: A strategic and holistic approach. (2016). Leader to Leader, 2016.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ltl.20263
Farrar, M. (2010). Understanding digital marketing. Manager: British Journal of Administrative Management.
Gaber, H., Wright, L., Kooli, K., & Kostadinova, E. (2019). Consumer attitudes towards instagram advertisements in egypt: The role of the perceived advertising value and personalization. Cogent Business & Management.
https://search-proquest-com.hult.idm.oclc.org/docview/2218842687?accountid=78988
Jan-Benedict, E., Batra, R., & Alden, D. (2003). How perceived brand globalness creates brand value. Journal of International Business Studies.
Järvinen, J., & Karjaluoto, H. (2015). The use of web analytics for digital marketing performance measurement. Industrial Marketing Management.
https://www-sciencedirect-com.hult.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S001985011500139X
Koranteng, J. (2005). Digital sales rising. Billboard.
Kumar, V., Choi, J., & Greene, M. (2017). Synergistic effects of social media and traditional marketing on brand sales: Capturing the time-varying effects. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.
Leng, H. (2019). Marketing on instagram. International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship. https://search-proquest-com.hult.idm.oclc.org/docview/2218842687?accountid=78988
Ligos, M. (2017). Digital marketing. Midjersey Business.
https://search-proquest-com.hult.idm.oclc.org/docview/1914575412?accountid=78988
Loyalty and luxury brands. (2013). Strategic Direction.
https://www-emerald-com.hult.idm.oclc.org/insight/content/doi/10.1108/02580541311298056/full/html
Shields, R. (2012). Instagram in advertising u-turn. Marketing Week (online Edition)
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