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Wedding Co. | 2

Wedding Co.’s Big Day

The Proposal

The Wedding List Company began in Australia ten years ago with their wedding registry business. Their

bridal registry service can be accessed via online or in their showroom. Couples use this service to

register the wedding gifts they would like to receive from their guests. The Wedding List Co. carries

leading designer brands available in one convenient location. They also pride themselves on being very

service oriented for the customer. The Wedding List Co. registry service has been very successful, so

they have decided to expand upon what they know best; everything special for a couple’s wedding day.

They have created a personal wedding website called ‘Wedding Co.’ This website acts as a blog for

couples to keep track of their wedding plans and to easily inform their guests. Couples sign up for free

and then are able to personalize their site. Weddingco.com.au has many beneficial features such as a

RSVP manager and the ability to access their gift registry. My research task for the company was to

create a market analysis of the personal wedding website industry and a possible expansion plan for the

Wedding Co. website into the United States, United Kingdom, and Asia. I major in Marketing and

Operations Management so analyzing a company’s position in a market is of vital importance to both of

my fields of specialization. I had to analyze the competition and strategize the best way to modify the

website to cater to the new customer demographics. I have also worked on these aspects throughout

my internship. My other main project during my time at Wedding List Co. has been building their retail

store, ‘Love Lust Want’, through social media marketing and advertising. The Wedding List Co. cannot

build long term customer relationships because most people only get married once. The Love Lust Want

retail component is a way for Wedding List Co. couples to continue to purchase the company’s products

and a way for Wedding List Co. to gain new Australian online shoppers. The Wedding Co. website is

another way to expand their bridal service by offering one more option in their registry packet.

Wedding Co. can be used for the Wedding List Co.’s current customers and can be useful for any

engaged couple looking for a user-friendly personalized wedding website to reach out to their guests.

The wedding blog was my focus for the research project because this report provides me with a tangible

document of necessary steps for conducting a market analysis. This research will also benefit the

Wedding List Co. with possible ways to expand their personal wedding website. I think that I have

gained many beneficial skills during my time at Wedding List Co. and have also been able to help their

businesses grow.

Wedding Co. | 3

Positioning the Plan

It is important to start by analyzing the entire wedding industry in order to be successful with the

personal wedding website subset. According to Ms. Karen Dobie, IBISWorld (Australia) General

Manager, “wedding expenditure is relatively inelastic…low consumer sentiment will play a part in

wedding planning in the year to come…the most dramatic changes we anticipate in wedding spending

will be in filming and videography, along with stationary…couples are also to undertake a little DIY in

areas such as designing and ordering invitations, place cards and creating personalized wedding photo

books” (IBISWorld). This opens up a door for Wedding Co. to make a few changes to their website so

they are able to achieve brand equity as a personal wedding website expert.

To date, Wedding Co. has been successful in the Australian market. The website appears second on

www.google.com.au without any ad spends. The figure below shows the number of Wedding Co.

subscribers per year:

FY14 FY13 FY12 FY11 FY10 FY09

187 (to

date)

275 134 76 265 583

High

Google

ranking

High

Google

ranking

High

Google

ranking

No

marketing

Less

Marketing

Launch

marketing

There was a slight decline in subscriptions in 2011, but there has been an increase in customer

acquisitions without any marketing efforts. Subscribers are achieved only from the Google search and

are all Australian couples. This increase alone shows the potential growth rate Wedding Co. could have

in the Australian wedding blog market. Wedding Co. is also current with the some of the wedding

industry trends Karen Dobie mentioned. The website currently has a photo gallery option which could

be a portal to the trending personalized photo books. Overall, I believe the Wedding Co. is in a good

position within the Australian personal wedding website market.

I also wanted to compare the wedding trends in the United States, and their statistics were very similar

to Australia’s. The following excerpt from a Wedding Industry Statistics article written by Chris Jaeger

provides strong evidence to support the Wedding Co. business plan.

Wedding Co. | 4

These statistics were acquired from XO Group Inc. who surveyed 18,000 married couples in the US in

2011:

“Every Wedding Has a Website. Couples increasingly communicate with guests online. The vast

majority of couples now have personal wedding websites (69% of couples created one in 2011

vs. 65% in 2010 and 60% in 2009), and brides are increasingly using social media to share

wedding details with guests (45% of couples did so in 2011 vs. 32% in 2009).”

Based on the above survey results, I believe Wedding Co. is bound for success. Personal wedding

websites have and will continue to grow so it is crucial for Wedding Co. to keep an eye on competitors in

the US market.

The United Kingdom is also keeping up with the increase in personal wedding blogs. According to an

iVillage article, “couples have been moving away from RSVP cards for a long time, and have been opting

for email or website guest-tracking…more and more couples are also keeping their wedding details on a

custom website, to keep guests up to date” (Poulter).

Wedding blogs in these three established countries are trending right now and will continue to grow in

usage. It was important to research the United States and United Kingdom wedding industry’s as well

because they are very similar to Australia’s market. People will always fall in love and want to share

their commitment to each other with their friends and family. The best way to reach your loved ones

today is via the internet, especially with technology more accessible than ever. This is why I believe the

Wedding Co. website will also be successful when extending to niche markets in Asia.

Wedding Co. | 5

Marrying Your Beloved Market

The Competitors

There is a competitive nature in the personal wedding website market so it is crucial to realize who the

top competitors are and which markets the website will have the most success on entering. Also, the

Wedding List Co. needs to start thinking of a strategy to generate revenue from the Wedding Co.

website. My criterion for rating other top personal wedding websites includes their functionality,

number of advertisers, and the number of packages they offer. When I Google-searched “personal

wedding websites” for Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; I found some websites that

only offer a personal wedding blog, similar to the Wedding Co. model. I also found wedding service

websites that offer a personal wedding website as an option. A more in-depth description of my

findings from each website can be found in the Appendix (Figure 1).

The Wedding Co. website is very current with its top competitors in Australia and with competitors in

the similar markets of the UK and the US. All personal wedding websites are used for couples to blog

about all of the events leading up to the big day, upload their pictures, and allow their guests to RSVP

through the site. But, some personal wedding blogs offer different package types that must be

purchased for a fee. These packages include offerings such as how long the couple has access to their

website as well as various premium options such as better design layouts. The other trend I found on

competitors’ websites was that some had affiliate advertisers. This would be beneficial for Wedding Co.

to implement because if they promote a sister company on their website, in return that sister company

will advertise for Wedding Co. More advanced wedding websites promote ‘trusted’ wedding suppliers

or advertised the companies that sponsor them which can improve their personal wedding websites

reputation. The personal wedding websites with little to no advertisements had much more visual

appeal but the wedding websites with more advertisements have a better chance of gaining subscribers

and generating revenue. The busiest websites were wedding portals or a wedding service website that

offered a personal wedding website as an option, but a personal wedding website was not the main

focus of their site.

A features tab is already in place on weddingco.com.au so I think that Wedding Co. needs to charge for

their personal wedding website packages at a comparable price to their competitors. I do believe a

completely free option should remain, as a way to quickly gain subscribers, but I don’t believe offering

packages for a fee will be detrimental. It would also be beneficial to try affiliate advertising with trusted

Wedding Co. | 6

Wedding List Co. suppliers. I do not think the Wedding Co. website should aim to be Australia’s “one

stop wedding shop.” By specializing as only a personal wedding website, Wedding Co. can continue to

grow their offerings while benchmarking with the top personal wedding websites. Wedding Co. can

look at what competitors do in these similar markets as guidelines when the company is ready to

expand upon their website. The United Kingdom already has a lot of personal wedding websites that

are very similar to Wedding Co. so I do not think it would be beneficial to enter this personal wedding

website market with the company’s current model. The United States also has many personal wedding

websites that offer more amenities so I do not think Wedding Co. should try to compete in this country,

either, at this time. A lot of marketing research would need to be done if the Wedding Co. is serious

about entering these established markets. I do believe the Wedding Co. website has a competitive

advantage for entering the Asian market, especially with an Asian domain name (www.weddingco.asia).

There are not any standalone personal wedding websites in Asia and Wedding Co.’s competitors’ in

Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States direct their websites towards English style

weddings.

Newly-Niche

Co-owner of the Wedding List Co., George Loiterton, considers the Asia market, in general, to be a niche

market for personal wedding websites. He believes that the countries where their personal wedding

website would be the most successful include Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and India.

These areas are geographically close to Australia, and Asia is considered to be the up-and-coming

market for Australia. These Asian countries have wedding website portals and blogs about weddings

trends, but they don’t have any personal wedding websites for couples to easily communicate wedding

plans to guests. I chose to focus the majority of my research on Singapore. It is a relatively established

country and is located between Malaysia and Indonesia. Singapore can act as the base model for

launching Wedding Co.’s personal wedding blog into other Asian countries.

Wedding Co. | 7

The graphic on the previous page, acquired from the Singapore Demographic Bulletin, provides the wide

demographics of Singapore including Chinese, Malays, and Indians. Because Singapore has such a

diverse population, launching a slightly updated model of Wedding Co. should be sufficient for the other

Asian markets that Mr. Loiterton wanted to focus on as well. These demographics also suggest that a

personal wedding website would be helpful for Singaporeans to communicate to their guests as they

might be from China, Malaysia, India, or other various countries. According to a reputable bridal

magazine, “’wedsites’ are so popular these days – especially for couples with guests coming from

abroad, or those getting married in a remote location where lists of nearby accommodation and travel

details are essential. In a nutshell, it's a website where your guests can go to find ALL the information

about your wedding” (Du Parcq). With ‘wedsites’ trending in the United States, United Kingdom, and

Australia, cosmopolitan cities like Singapore should be thrilled for a ‘wedsite’ option. The wedding

industry in Singapore is also substantial enough for Wedding Co. to enter. There is an “average of

24,500 marriages held annually…an estimated spending of SGD$7,000 per couple….and an estimated

$172 million industry” according to a Singapore published e-book ‘Bridal Packages: What every bride-to-

be should know.’

George wants to launch Wedding Co. into Asia with its current content and minor changes to the

website design and navigation. Initially, the website will be launched in English, but that should not be a

problem. All of the wedding websites I found for Singapore were in English and they provide everything

couples need to know for planning the big day (Appendix, Figure 2). According to an Asian Lite article,

“floating wedding websites are not new, but the trend has really caught up now, thanks to increased

internet access and reduced cost of creating such sites.” It also appears that there is a want and need

for a personal wedding website because this is the only major wedding component the Singapore

market is missing. I only found one Singapore based wedding portal that offers a personal wedding

website. Perfect Weddings Directory advertises wedding services in Singapore, offers essential guides

for the wedding day, and offers wedding tools. One of these tools is a personal wedding website but it

is not the main focus of their wedding site. Singapore can still considered a niche market because they

are not offered any standalone personal wedding websites like Wedding Co.

Wedding Co. | 8

Sweeping Asia off its feet

Overall Considerations

From a Marketing Perspective, it is always important to focus on your customer. The Wedding Co.

website has appealed to Australians thus far. In order to be successful in Asia, it is crucial to be socially

conscious of the various cultural differences so that the new overseas customers are able to understand

the need for personal wedding websites. Singapore itself is very diverse with many cultures and

religions which is why I chose this country as a subset to represent Asia as a whole. Singaporeans are

made up of Chinese who practice Buddhism, Malays who are Muslim, and other popular religions

practiced in Singapore include Christianity, Taoism, Hinduism, Sikh and Confucianism. While these

religions may have different wedding ceremonies, Singapore’s wedding websites included blogs about

wedding trends and inspirations that are very similar to wedding trends in Australia. This is convenient

for merging Wedding Co.’s overall content, but in order to differentiate from other personal wedding

websites, I think it is important to target the Asian demographic as much as possible. According to an

EthnoConnect article, “if you are targeting a specific market be aware that most Asians know the

difference between images of people who are Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Southeast Asian,

South Asian, etc. In addition there are distinct differences in music, dress, food, and many other aspects

of Asian culture. You must be completely familiar with the group you are trying to reach and find experts

who know how to reach them. However, there are some similarities among Asians such as a strong

belief in family, frugality, and community. Effective words that might be used in ads appealing to the Far

Eastern cultures could include: family, belonging, cost-efficient, investment, long-lasting, time-savings,

and guaranteed” (Lee). Knowing where and how to market to your target audience is crucial for the

success of weddingco.asia.

How to Market

To begin gaining popularity for weddingco.asia, I believe the best way to start is with search engine

optimization. Loren I. Shuster, Country Director of Singapore and Emerging Markets at Google spoke

about the acceleration of everything; “soon everyone and everything can and will be online, and with

the availability of the Internet on mobile and other platforms, consumers are becoming hyper-informed

and they do a lot of their research online before they make purchasing decisions” (Ann).

Wedding Co. | 9

A New Media Trend Watch article provided the following statistics of top search engines for "All

Categories" in Singapore, for the 24 weeks ending May 22 2010 by volume of searches:

1. www.google.com.sg: 66.33%

2. www.google.com: 15.58%

3. sg.search.yahoo.com: 11.14%

4. www.bing.com: 2.24%

5. search.yahoo.com: 2.21%

(Experian Hitwise, May 2010)

Search engine optimization affects organic, not paid search results and is an economical way for

weddingco.asia to being gaining popularity in popular search methods. Search engine optimization

begins with building codes into the website. These title and meta tags are created based on what you

think your target audience will search for and the content in your website. The next way for

weddingco.asia to gain search engine optimization is to link Wedding List Co.’s Facebook and Pinterest.

According to Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, “organic word-of-mouth buss is what

helps your site’s reputation with both users and Google, and it rarely comes without quality content”

(Google, Inc.). Almost all of the wedding websites I saw had links to their social media sites. When I

Google-searched personal wedding websites on www.google.com.sg, Perfect Weddings Directory was at

the top of the list from paid advertisement and was followed by the leading American personal wedding

websites. People in Singapore are able to access and use personal wedding websites from other

countries but these websites are not targeted toward the Asian market. This content linking strategy is

successful because most search engines take the popularity, number of visits, and similarities of a

company’s site into account when developing their formula for search criteria placement. Merging

social media sites allows a start for a wide-spread increase for weddingco.asia, especially if the correct

website codes are in place. The Wedding List Co. Facebook and Pinterest will be suitable for

weddingco.asia because most of the current posts are about wedding inspirations. As I mentioned

earlier, Singapore’s wedding blogs had similar content to Australia’s wedding blogs. The Wedding List

Co. could also start posting about topics that appeal to both Australian and Asian couples. For example,

they could post about trendy destination weddings in Asia or they could post Asian themed wedding

inspirations. The more relevant the content is to the target market, the quicker weddingco.asia will rise

to the top of organic listings. Any visits to weddingco.asia will increase the sites frequency for Google’s

Search Criteria Formula and build Wedding Co.’s popularity. This leads to a potential customer

Wedding Co. | 10

acquisition, which then leads to all of the couple’s guests visiting the personal wedding website, again

advancing towards the top of key word searches.

Ranji David, Executive Director for Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Singapore stated how “IAB has

been doing to educate, enable, inspire and elevate digital marketing in Singapore…during the 1st half of

2011, only 8% of the advertising budget is spent online in Singapore, comparatively, the mature markets

like US and the UK are seeing figures in the 30-odd percentile” (Ann). Of course there are always ways

for a company to spend money on marketing, so the Wedding List Co. needs to decide how much money

they want to put toward weddingco.asia. Marketing in Singapore will be less expensive than what the

firm is used to due to the difference in advertising budgets between the countries. A cost effective

option to start with would be a Google AdWords because it offers cost-per-click option. This campaign

would help Wedding Co. target new audiences and would only be charged if people click the ads.

The following marketing ideas are feasible but I have not yet fully researched how to implement each

opportunity:

1. Public Relations from Singapore wedding blogs talking about weddingco.asia

2. Purchasing ad space on one of Singapore’s wedding websites

3. Affiliate marketing with Singapore wedding services

I think that these marketing suggestions would have more return once a decent amount of subscribers

have been achieved in Asia and when weddingco.asia moves from a free to freeium personal wedding

website. Regulations for conducting business in Asian countries will also need to be researched before a

fee can be charged for wedding website packages. (Singapore’s rules for ecommerce can be found in

the Appendix, Figure 3).

Social Considerations

A social issue for entering an Asian market is that there are different government regulations pertaining

to internet censorship. According to a recent New York Times article, “Singaporeans joined a weekend

protest against a new government policy that requires some news Web sites to obtain licenses and

possibly to remove offensive content…this is definitely an attempt at censorship, and it’s quite plain to

see that this regulation is not in the interests of anyone but the government.” While this debate mostly

affects news sites, it is still an issue that could potentially affect launching a website in Asia and is not

something we usually think about in Australia, the UK, or the States. Our countries have the privilege of

Wedding Co. | 11

the freedom of speech and internet censorship is not an option. In Asian countries, the government has

the potential to try and control what is posted onto the internet. “The rule affects 10 Web sites so far,

including Yahoo News in Singapore. To receive a license, a Web site now must post a ‘performance

bond’ of 50,000 Singapore dollars, or $39,400…the Media Development Authority in Singapore has said

it will impose financial penalties or suspend the licenses of Web sites that violate the conditions.” These

government regulations could be detrimental to Wedding Co. by preventing them from gaining search

engine optimization on Yahoo thus not gaining as many subscribers. “About 150 operators of blogs and

other Web sites in Singapore participated in a 24-hour display of dissent last week by replacing their

pages with black screens featuring the slogan ‘#FreeMyInternet.’ Human Rights Watch said Friday that

the rule ‘casts a chill over the city-state’s robust and free-wheeling online communities, and will clearly

limit Singaporeans access to independent media’” (New York Times). Internet protests like this could

also put a hold on gaining subscriptions to weddingco.asia. Government censoring the internet would

be deemed unethical in Australia. But in Asian counties, the government has more power to limit users’

rights on the internet. Government regulations pose potential threats to weddingco.asia and these

social issues show how different the government structures are between Australia and Singapore.

Design Suggestions

Based on cultural differences between Australia and Asia, I think that weddingco.asia should have a

deep red background color instead of the current light blue. While the majority of Asian wedding

websites were pink, there were many that were different colors as well. I think a deep red will help

weddingco.asia stand out and it best suits Singapore’s population considering its largest demographic is

Chinese and red is a prominent color for oriental themes.

Because there are not standalone personal wedding websites offered in Asia, Asians may not be as

familiar as to exactly what personal wedding websites offer. I think that Wedding Co.’s features should

be emphasized on the front home page. Two of the UK personal wedding websites I found did this, and

I thought it was helpful to know what features they offered.

Wedding Co. | 12

These features could be placed next to the main photos on the home page:

‘Your long-lasting, personalized wedding website to share your love story with the ones you love

Choose a free website design

Blog your wedding experiences start to finish

Upload your images to your photo gallery

Share with your family & friends for time-saving RSVPs

Keep your guests informed with the details of your wedding day’

A sample of a personal wedding website was also common and I think this is another important element

to show your customers. Couples want a user-friendly website for themselves as well as for their guests.

A personal wedding website sample shows the couple what they can expect their wedding blog to look

like, and expands upon Wedding Co.’s features. I also think there should be more emphasis on the

“Setup now, it’s free to join >> click here to start button.” It blends in with the “Find a couple” section

right below and isn’t bold enough to intrigue me to sign up. The main pictures on the home page also

need to be changed to pictures of Asian couples or Asian weddings.

I think that another main attraction for choosing a personal wedding website is the various design layout

options the website offers. Most weddings have a color scheme, so it is important to include enough

design templates for the couples to match their wedding theme. Based on Singapore’s Perfect

Weddings personal wedding website, some of Wedding Co.’s current design offerings will suffice, but

need to be expanded upon. Perfect Weddings offers 15 design choices with each design having a

different color and a different font from one another. Wedding Co. offers 11 design templates, some

with different color choices, but they all have similar fonts and design layouts. I think that Wedding Co.

should create more design templates with different font styles, and then give couples the option to

choose different color schemes so they can best match their wedding colors. Wedding Co. needs more

design templates in general because competing personal wedding websites offer many designs layouts.

Adding website designs to weddingco.asia is even more important because of the wide customer

demographics.

Wedding Co. | 13

I acquired the following examples from an article provided in my Creativity and Communication class I

was enrolled in at Indiana University this past spring. The images are from Before & After magazine:

Glamour, chic, cosmopolitan demographic

Youthful, fun, trendy demographic

Grace, elegance, classical demographic

Rustic, destination wedding demographic

Wedding Co. | 14

The graphics on the previous page are just suggestions of design layouts that will help differentiate

Wedding Co.’s personal wedding website. I also found some design inspirations from wedding themes

offered at the Singapore Marriot Hotel. Wedding Co. could then use this color scheme designer website

as a guide when choosing more color options for their designs. Popular themes from the Singapore

Marriot include elegant pastel colors, various crystal themes, and an oriental theme with deep reds,

gold, and black. The company could also look at any color scheme/wedding theme blog for design

inspirations. I like that Wedding Co. features some of their design options at the bottom of the home

page because it is a way to draw subscribers in.

The current Wedding Co. website offers the Wedding List Co. wedding registry. This registry option will

not be transferred to weddingco.asia because it is an Australia based wedding registry. Also, bridal

registries were not common offerings on wedding websites in Singapore because wedding gift giving

practices are different in Asian countries. For example, the Chinese Wedding Guide provides all of the

customs behind a Chinese wedding and said that wedding “gifts are usually in the form of red packets or

jewelry.” There may not be a need for the site to have a gift registry list, but I suggest that the registry

tab be kept on weddingco.asia for couples to input their registry details if they have any.

The suggestions I have made for the website design can have a beneficial impact to gain subscribers in

Asian markets because Wedding Co. would be appealing to what couples are looking for in a personal

wedding website.

Wedding Co. | 15

Happily Ever After

Based on my research, these are the recommendations I have for the Wedding Co. website’s extension

into Asia. Singapore acts as a platform for further extension of a personal wedding blog into Malaysia

and Indonesia. I evaluated the most popular personal wedding websites in Australia, the United States,

and the United Kingdom to understand where Wedding Co. is positioned in this innovative subset

industry. There is potential to emerge in these established markets, but the focus right now should be

to establish brand recognition in Asia. Wedding Co. can be recognized as being the first personal

wedding website in this market.

Wedding Co. | 16

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Blogoprenuer, 13 Jun 2012. Web. 27 Jun 2013. <http://www.blogopreneur.com/>.

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ebook.pdf>.

Choudhury, Chandrahas . "Thailand Corners the Big Fat Indian Wedding Market." World View Hot Topics

in Pivotal Markets. Bloomberg Business Week, 7 Feb 2013. Web. 18 Jun 2013.

<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-06/thailand-corners-the-big-fat-indian-wedding-

market.html>.

Du Parcq , Alice. "Put Your Wedding On The Web!." Bride’s Magazine. Conde Nast Digital, 18 Mar 2010.

Web. 28 Jun 2013. <http://www.bridesmagazine.co.uk/planning/general/planning-

service/2010/03/18/best-free-wedding-websites>.

IANS. "Creating Wedding Websites is a Trend Now." Asian Lite. New Asian Media LTD, 21 11 2012. Web.

18 Jun 2013. <http://www.asianlite.com/personal-tech/creating-wedding-websites-a-trend-now>.

IBISWorld, . "IBISWorld Update: Australia's Wedding Industry." IBIS World Press Release. IBISWorld, 10

Oct 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2013.

<http://www.ibisworld.com.au/about/media/pressrelease/release.aspx?id=299>.

Google, . "Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide." Google User Content. Google Inc., n.d. Web. 3 Jul

2013.

<http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en//webmas

ters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf>.

Jaeger, Chris. "Wedding Industry Statistics from the Knot." Wedding Industry Statistics. Marketing to

Brides Online, 27 Mar 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2013. <http://weddingindustrystatistics.com/>.

Wedding Co. | 17

Jina. "Chinese-Wedding-Guide." . N.p.. Web. 3 Jul 2013. <http://www.chinese-wedding-guide.com/>.

Lee, Michael Soon. "Marketing to Asians: A Valuable but Challenging Market." EthnoConnect.

EthnoConnect. Web. 3 Jul 2013. <http://www.ethnoconnect.com/articles/4-marketing-to-asians-a-

valuable-but-challenging-market>.

McWade, John. "How to set a text-only logotype." Before & After. Before & After Magazine, n.d. Web. 1

Jul 2013. <Indiana University Resources>.

Poulter, Holly. "10 wedding trends that are here to stay." iVillage Limited. Web. 27 Jun 2013.

<http://www.ivillage.co.uk/10-wedding-trends-are-here-stay/165397>.

"Singapore Demographic Bulletin." Registry of Births and Deaths. Immigration & Checkpoints Authority,

n.d. Web. 3 Jul 2013. <http://www.ica.gov.sg/data/resources/docs/Media Releases/SDB/SDB_February

2012.pdf>.

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DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS, EDUCATION, LANGUAGE AND RELIGION. Singapore: Press Release,

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Wedding Co. | 18

Appendix

Figure 1:

Personal Wedding Website Competitors

A. Australia

1. Your Day’s personal wedding website is very similar to Wedding Co. They offer 14 days free

then a $99 subscription for one year which is their only package. The website is very plain

and they plan to offer affiliate marketing in the near future. I would consider this website to

have standard functionality. (www.yourday.com.au)

2. Paperless Wedding is standard personal wedding website. They have 3 packages. The first

option is for free offering save the dates and theme choices for a personal wedding blog.

The second option costs $69 for one year which provides similar functions to Wedding Co.’s

website. The third package begins with a free trial and costs $89 for one year. They have

four advertisements on their website for wedding invitation providers.

(http://www.paperlesswedding.com.au/home.php)

3. Easy Weddings is a busy website with high functionality. It acts like a one-stop-shop for

wedding planning and they offer a free wedding website. They advertise various Australian

wedding services and have advertising space on their site. (www.easyweddings.com.au)

B. United Kingdom

1. Getting Married is a free, standard functioning personal wedding website and does not have

any advertisers. (http://www.gettingmarried.co.uk)

2. Worldwide Wedding offers standard personal wedding website features. Their packages are

6 months free, 12 months for $31, 18 months for $39, and various MB upgrades or upgrades

for extending the time period of the personal wedding website. There are no outside

advertisers on the site but it is a pretty busy layout.

(http://www.worldwidewedding.com/packages)

3. Your Wedding Web seems like free, easy to use, standard functioning personal wedding

website. They advertise on towards the bottom of their site through articles on their blog.

(http://www.yourweddingweb.co.uk/)

4. Wedding Site is a standard functioning personal wedding website but the website also offers

other planning features for couples to use. The Wedding Site has a portal to advertise for

their “trusted wedding suppliers” and they have 2 other places for companies to advertise.

(https://www.weddingsite.co.uk/)

Wedding Co. | 19

5. The Wedding Notebook was similar to the UK’s Wedding Site. The Wedding Notebook

offers a standard functioning personal wedding website and advertises wedding suppliers

through a directory link on their page. (http://www.weddingnotebook.co.uk/)

6. Our Wedding has an easy to use website and they charge six pounds a month for their

standard functioning site. They also have a directory for trusted wedding suppliers.

(http://www.ourwedding.co.uk)

C. United States

1. Wedding Window has a high functioning free personal wedding website with various

premium (pay for) options such as themes, apps, planning tools, premium pages, and

customizable and unlimited options. They advertise on their blog called Wed Loft and

promote their “favorite finds” wedding products. (www.weddingwindow.com)

2. The Knot is a high functioning website and offers many things along with their free wedding

website such as wedding ideas and links to local vendors. They also advertise their

partnerships at the top and bottom of their site. They also are offered in Australia.

(http://uw.theknot.com/admin/choosedesign/)

3. My Wedding has high functionality by offering inspirations, a free personal wedding

website, and their own shop for wedding day accessories. They have two advertisements on

their page and is available for the US, Canada, UK and Australia.

(http://www.mywedding.com/)

4. Wed Share has a free personal wedding website option and 5 other packages for upgrading

the website and they offer wedding planning tools. They advertise the magazines they were

featured in. (www.wedshare.com)

5. Wedding Woo has a clean, organized wedding website. They don’t have any advertiser’s

and have standard functionality. They offer a 7 day free trail then two packages; $39 for

one year and $59 for two years. (www.weddingwoo.com)

6. Wedding JoJo has a free option or pay per month option and they advertise other

companies on the bottom of their site. They offer Martha Stewart designs which could

attract US women. (http://www.weddingjojo.com/)

7. Wedsite has a very simple layout and creates a personal wedding website as an eBook which

was different from all of the other personal wedding website layout designs I have seen.

(http://www.wedsite.com/)

Wedding Co. | 20

Figure 2:

Wedding Websites in Singapore

1. Singapore Bride “provides a one-stop portal to cater to the needs of local wedding couples.”

They advertise “to put many bridal shops on-line so that couples preparing for their wedding can

browse, shop, and choose a suitable wedding package at their own leisure.”

(www.singaporebride.com)

2. Extraordinary Weddings is another wedding directory and they also provide inspirations and

events. (www.extraordinary.com.sg)

3. Wedding Plan is another one stop wedding site that has a directory of every service you need

for planning a wedding in Singapore. It acts as a search engine website where various wedding

services can advertise. (www.weddingplan.com.sg)

4. “The Wedding Mansion is more than just a one-stop wedding essentials boutique, we are a

promising brand that extends our retail offerings to impeccable wedding planning services and

venue decoration services that feature innovative style and exceptional quality.”

(http://www.weddingbureau.com.sg/twm)

5. Wedding Forum is a bridal review and marketplace portal. They blog about local wedding venue

reviews and tips for local wedding trends. (http://www.weddingforum.sg/forum.php)

6. “Wedding Tweets provides wedding tips, inspirations, and ideas to help Singapore Brides plan

the perfect wedding.” They also have a directory of wedding services.

(http://weddingtweets.com.sg/)

7. Perfect Weddings Directory (http://www.perfectweddings.sg/)

Figure 3:

Singapore ecommerce regulations

http://www.guidemesingapore.com/industry-guides/ecommerce/singapore-ecommerce-startup-guide