EFFECTIVENESS OF DIGITAL MARKETING FOR PROMOTING ONLINE FOOD DELIVERY WEBSITES IN U.A.E

EFFECTIVENESS OF DIGITAL MARKETING FOR PROMOTING ONLINE FOOD

DELIVERY WEBSITES IN U.A.E

Name of the faculty guide- Ms. Maha

Submitted by:

SUSAN GEORGE

BBA FOR WORKING PROFESSIONALS –YEAR 3 SEMESTER-6

ROLL NUMBER – AUD0236

ENROLLMENT NUMBER- A40157212002

1

AMITY UNIVERSITY DUBAI CAMPUS

JUNE 2015

TABLE OF CONTENTS

S.N

O

TOPIC PAGE

NO.

2

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

Executive summary

Acknowledgements

Declaration

Certificate by faculty

I. Introduction

I.1 Background

1.2 Aim

1.3 Research Objective

1.4 Methodological issues and problems

II. Literature review

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Digital Marketing

2.3 U.A.E Internet Social and Mobile

Statistics

2.4 Online Food Delivery Websites in

U.A.E

2.6 Online Food Ordering attitude in

the U.A.E

2.6 Different Digital Marketing

Channels used by the Online

Food Delivery websites

5

6

7

8

9

12

32

35

43

3

11)

III. Research methodology

IV. Tabulation ,results and discussions

V. Conclusions and recommendations

VI. References

VII. Appendices

45

52

TABLE OF APPENDICES, GRAPHS AND TABLES

S.NO Name of the Figure PAGE NO.

4

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

11)

12)

13)

14)

15)

16)

17)

18)

Google Webmasters Documents

Exemplar Vehicles in the Social Media Zones

Banner promoting a Wholesale Supplier Directory

Average daily time spent online and Mobile

Internet Use

The most preferred cuisines by Foodonclick

consumers in 2014

The areas with the biggest appetite

Snapshot of Food on click’s weekly newsletters

Talabat.com’s transactional emails

Eye Tracking Study

Paid advertisements and organic listing in the

Google search engine

Paid ad used in the Snickers campaign

Paid advertisements that appear in Google from

the desktop

Paid advertisements that appear viewed from

mobile

Facebook advertisements of 24h.ae.

Tweet from Eat Easily’s twitter account

15

18

19

24

26

27

28

29

29

30

31

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

5

S.NO

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

1)

2)

Banner ads of foodonclick.com

E-mail advertisement from Foodonclick.com

Talabat.com’s TV Commercials

NAME OF THE TABLE

Table showing three websites, the countries

they operate in and the number of orders they

get in a month

The table showing number of likes, each online

food delivery website has in its official

Facebook page.

The table showing the total number of followers

and tweets the online food delivery websites

have in Twitter.

The table showing the total number of followers

the online food delivery websites have in

LinkedIn.

The table showing the total number of followers

the online food delivery websites have in

Instagram.

The table showing the total number of views the

online food delivery websites have in Google

PAGE NO.

32

33

33

33

34

34

34

45

45

6

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

Plus.

The table showing the total number of

subscribers the online food delivery websites

have in Youtube.

TABULATION FROM THE SURVEY

The pie chart showing frequency of the

respondents ordering food online

The table showing the number and percentage of

respondents who ordered food online.

The figure showing the respondents enquired

information before ordering food online.

The table showing the sources of information

that consumers used before ordering food

online.

The figure showing the type of media the

respondents have received an online food

delivery website Ad

The table shows the type of media the

respondents have received an online food

delivery website Ad

46

46

47

48

50

52

7

The table shows the response to the statement

that the digital marketing messages that are

used by various UAE based food delivery

websites in creating awareness

The pie chart shows the number of respondents

who responded to the statement digital

marketing enhances brand awareness more than

using traditional marketing communications

8

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Due to urbanization, change in lifestyle, and rising online

culture of the tech-savvy population in the U.A.E, consumers

have moved away from phone to order online. (Al Masah

Capital, 2014) In order to increase consumer awareness, it

is imperative that the online food delivery websites

use digital marketing effectively and creatively to promote

their websites.

The objectives of the dissertation are to establish how

effectively Digital Marketing is used by existing Online

Food Delivery websites in U.A.E and compare it with

traditional marketing communications.

The concept of digital marketing is explained in detail. It

consist of Email marketing, SEO (search engine

optimization), PPC (pay per click), Social media, Online

advertising, Affiliate marketing, Text messaging, Blogging,

RSS & News Feeds, and Viral marketing.

The U.A.E internet social and mobile statistics show that on

an average daily time spent online, 5 hours are spent on

PC/Tablet, 3 hours and 45 minutes on the mobile phone and 3

hours and 35 minutes on social media. This statistics shows

that it is important digital marketers leverage these

platforms to advertise online food delivery. There are 76%

active mobile internet users in the country. As a result in

9

order to tap into these populations the websites and

advertisements need to be mobile-friendly and the apps need

to be user-friendly too.

The websites in which a person can place an order in the

U.A.E are 24H.ae, Eat Easily, Food on Click, Mfood, Talabat

and Roundmenu.

Online food ordering attitude is favorable in Dubai,

increasing every week. Fast food is most preferred and the

most used ordering tool is from their smart phones through

mobile site, Android or Iphone apps.

The different digital marketing channels used by the online

food delivery websites are Email marketing, SEO (search

engine optimization), PPC, Social media like Facebook,

LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Google plus and Youtube . It

also includes blogs, online advertising, - Facebook,

Twitter, Mobile and Banner ads, E-mail, T.V and Radio Ads.

Quantitative data have been gathered through surveys to

understand and analyze how effective these digital marketing

have been used and how these websites can improve it.

Analysis has shown that these websites need to increase

their presence in the digital marketing channels including

Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus, Youtube and Blogs.

Although there has been research undertaken on online

shopping in U.A.E, and other research done about the online

food delivery in other countries, no prior research has been10

done in this area of study specific to U.A.E. In the future,

as this market grows, this research will help them improve

their digital marketing to the consumers ordering food

online. (Al Masah Capital, 2014)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would also like to express my gratitude towards my program

leader Mr. Vinod and Ms. Maha for giving me an opportunity

to present my research in the form of a project and also

11

would like to extend my sincere thanks to my family who

have willingly helped me out with their abilities.

12

DECLARATION

Title of the dissertation is` Effectiveness of digital

marketing for promoting online food delivery websites in the

U.A.E’

I declare that:

1. The work presented for the assessment in this summer project

is my work and that it has not previously been presented for

another assessment and the sources used have been

appropriately acknowledged.

2. The work confirms to the guidelines for presentation and

style set required.

Date:

13

Susan George

Enrollment number: A40157212002

CERTIFICATE BY FACULTY

Forwarded here with is the Sixth Semester Project on

“EFFECTIVENESS OF DIGITAL MARKETING FOR PROMOTING ONLINE FOOD

DELIVERY WEBSITES IN U.A.E” done by Susan George, enrolment

number A40157212002 of BBA for Working Professionals.

This project is in partial fulfillment of the requirement of

the degree of BBA for Working Professionals from Amity

University Dubai.

14

Ms. Maha

AMITY UNIVERSITY DUBAI

Impact Hub DubaiJune 18, 2015

This letter confirms that Miss Susan George has obtained

information in the form of interviews from our organization,

to support her dissertation titled ‘Effectiveness of digital

marketing for promoting online food delivery websites in

U.A.E’.

Sara SalehCommunity and Operations ManagerImpact Hub Dubai

15

I. INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides the scope of this dissertation, which

includes the background, statement of the problem and

research aim and objectives are provided. The methodological

issues and problems are also discussed.

I.1 Background

16

A short time ago, businesses used to advertise through an ad

in the yellow pages or by direct mail. They want to reach

customers and be cost effective simultaneously. But these

businesses did not have any way to measure advertising

impact.

Digital Marketing has transformed the above situation by

providing the business with an option to customize their

advertisements, according to the customer, based on the

product or service and measuring the advertising impact to

achieve success. (Google Corporation)

The Online Takeaway Food Delivery Market, which is the

largest in the U.S, has grown in the U.A.E too. (Tiwari,

2015).Taking into consideration how the consumers residing

in UAE are digitally savvy, importance has been put by

organizations within the country to use digital medium to

promote their products and services.

The need and importance of this research is because academic

research has not yet been undertaken in the Online Food

Delivery sector in U.A.E and their digital marketing

activities.

Research work has already been done in E-commerce and E-

commerce marketing in U.A.E and this study gives more

insight into the Online Food Delivery Market and compares

their digital marketing to the other successful digital

marketing campaigns.

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1.2 Aim

Online Food Delivery is a growing sector in the United Arab

Emirates and the food websites have made significant

progress ever since their inception. Despite this progress,

the literature reveals that relatively little is known about

the Digital Marketing activities of the Online Takeaway Food

Delivery websites in the U.A.E and how effective they are

compared to other digital marketing campaigns.

Consequently, this research aims to narrow this research gap

and conduct empirical research. The results will be used to

provide recommendations to the websites to improve their

digital marketing campaigns.

1.3 Research Objective

The subsequent research objectives have been taken up with

the purpose of guiding the researcher to achieve the above

aim:

The overall objective is to improve the effectiveness of

Digital Marketing for promoting Online Food Delivery

websites in U.A.E and:

18

To establish how Digital Marketing is used by existing

Online Food Delivery websites in U.A.E.

Compare their digital marketing activities with each

other.

1.4 Methodological issues and problems

The sample that was selected to complete the survey

does not represent the whole population and the

results offer fewer detailed accounts of human

insight.

The answers need not essentially indicate how the

respondents feel about a subject might not be the

closest match in some cases.

All the above issues arose because quantitative

methods to collect data were undertaken.

When the interviews were undertaken by the

researcher, open ended questions were asked because

the respondent’s knowledge of the topic was

limited.

Data available through secondary sources is very

limited.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

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In this chapter, the concept of digital marketing is

discussed in detail. It consist of Email marketing, SEO

(search engine optimization), PPC (pay per click), Social

media, Online advertising, Affiliate marketing, Text

messaging, Blogging, RSS & News Feeds, and Viral

marketing. In the section, U.A.E’s internet social and

mobile statistics: Web traffic across devices, Average

daily time spent online and mobile internet use

statistics is analyzed. After a brief introduction to

online food delivery websites in U.A.E, detailed

statistics shows the online food ordering attitude in the

U.A.E. Different digital marketing channels used by five

online food delivery websites in the U.A.E namely

24H.ae ,Eat Easily ,Food On Click ,Mfood and Talabat is

analyzed.

2.1 Introduction

This section covers a wide compass of writing identified

with the research problem in this study. This will be done

through the utilization of various resources including

books, articles and sources from the web that are reliable

for this study.

2.2 Digital Marketing

20

According to Financial Times Lexicon, Digital Marketing is

the “The marketing of products or services using digital

channels to reach consumers.” The aim is to promote brands

through varied forms of digital communications. (Lexicon,

2014)

Digital marketing broadens beyond online marketing and

includes display advertising, search engine marketing,

mobile phones (both SMS and MMS), social media marketing,

and any other mode of digital media.(Lexicon, 2014)

The elements of Digital marketing include:

1) Email marketing

Email marketing uses e-mails to market a commercial message

to a current or potential customer. This is done to enhance

the customer relationship, to maintain customer loyalty and

encourage repeat purchases, acquire new customers or to

convince current customers to buy a product instantly.

(Pearson, 2009)

IDG List Services which provides brokerage services full

list management provides a concise response in their article

called "4 Benefits of Emailing" (Sterne, 2000)

Swift Lead Creation- Email has swift output and

response to create leads. (Sterne, 2000)

21

Media support- Email can be an add-on to any form of

media to send a message, announcement of a product,

seminar date or trade fair. (Sterne, 2000)

High Response rate- The total number of responses is

higher as the significant information is sent to only

the target audience. (Sterne, 2000)

Privacy Issues- Subscribers have an option to subscribe

to receive e-mails and opt out if they choose not to

receive the same. This again ensures a more receptive

audience.

Types of Email Marketing

The three types of Email marketing include Direct Emails,

Transactional Emails and Email Newsletters

Newsletter campaigns are sent to a set of subscribers who

have opted to receive newsletters. The aim is to build

customer relationship by giving our news and information

that will be of interest to the customers. (Weber, 2009)

Mail Chimp is an example of an email marketing service

provider which organizations use to generate email

newsletters.

Transactional Emails are the emails triggered when the

customers do an action which includes buying a product or

making a reservation for which emails are sent to confirm

the transaction. Other types of massage include email

22

receipts; password reset emails, order status emails,

purchase or order reorder emails, basket messages and

confirmation emails.(Marketing schools, 2010)

Direct Emails are promotional messages which include

information about sale, special offers etc. sent to a

list of customers collected by the Companies.

Yemeksepeti, Turkey’s biggest online food delivery

website, gives confirmation for each order by email and

when the delivery is done. It emails more than 1.5

million special promotions to its customers every month

as of 2009. The email service provider used by the

website called Strong View also included personalized

mailing, a critical feature for Yemeksepeti because its

customers had to be updated on special offers from the

local eateries. Founder of the website, Melih Ödemisays

Yemeksepeti has developed an online reputation based

solely on their email campaigns. (Klein, 2009)

2) SEO (search engine optimization)

SEO is concerned on-page and off-page design strategies used

to progress the search engine rankings. This generally means

modifying the website using content and design elements,

without any expenses. It enriches user experience and better

visibility in the search engines.SEO does not impact the

23

paid or "sponsored" results on the search engine such as

Google AdWords. (Ledford, 2009)

Figure 1.Google Webmasters Documents. This figure illustrates

Google’s “Paid” Search and Organic Search.

3) PPC (pay per click)

Pay per click is what an advertiser pays each time a user

clicks on his ad on publisher website. The PPC for the

advertisement is determined by the advertiser. Few

advertisers may pay more per click compared to the

competition, depending on what they are advertising. By the

Google Search Engine, these advertisements are called

“sponsored links”. (Mordkovich, 2005)

Advantages of pay per click advertising

24

With the growth of the online advertising, this type of

advertising has become popular and lucrative means of online

advertising today. It helps business to increase online

visibility and ensure prominence in the search engine

results. (Mordkovich, 2005)

4) Social media

According to Dr. Augustine Fou, Founder of Marketing

Science Consulting Group, Inc., Social media is the form

of media where people’s conversations and actions online

can be mined by advertisers for insights but not coerced

to pass along marketing messages. (Heidi Cohen, 2011)

Zones of Social Media

Social Media is relevant because of the large number of

channels and vehicles that bring large and a variety of

consumers together. (Tuten, 2014)

The four zones of social media channels are:

Zone 1: Social Community-

Social communities depict channels of social media that

center upon connections and the regular activities

individuals do with other people who share the same

interest or identification. Thus, the social communities

include two-way and multi-way communication,

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conversation, coordinated effort, and the imparting of

resources and experiences. (Tuten, 2014)

Zone 2: Social Publishing-

Social Publishing sites aiding in the dissemination of

content to an audience. It includes blogs, micro sharing

sites, media sharing sites, and social bookmarking and

news sites. (Tuten, 2014) Blogs are websites that host

regularly updated online content; which includes text,

graphics, audio and video. It might be maintained by

journalists, individuals, traditional media providers, or

organizations and feature a wide range of topics.

A micro sharing website includes a sentence, sentence

fragment, embedded video, or link to content residing on

another site. (Tuten, 2014)

Zone 3: Social Entertainment

The zone of social entertainment consists of channels and

vehicles that offer play and enjoyment. These incorporate

social games and gaming sites, social empowered console

games, alternate reality games and entertainment

companies similar to Spotify. (Tuten, 2014)

Social games are facilitated online and incorporate

opportunities for interaction with the individuals from a

player's network and also the capacity to post updates to

one’s status activities and gaming achievements to online

26

profiles. Examples of social game vehicles incorporate

Candy Crush and Mafia Wars. (Tuten, 2014)

Another part of Social Entertainment will be

Entertainment communities. Myspace which was at one time

social network now characterizes as a social

entertainment service because its value lies in the

network of musical artists, groups and their music the

site offers. (Tuten, 2014)

Zone 4: Social Commerce

Social commerce alludes to the utilization of social media

to support in the online purchasing and selling of items,

products and services. Social commerce impacts phases of the

consumer decision-making process. Channels include reviews

and ratings, deal sites and deal aggregator and social

shopping markets and social storefronts. (Tuten, 2014)

27

Figure 2.Exemplar Vehicles in the Social Media Zones. The

figure shows the four zones of social media channels.

Furthermore, organizations can socially empower aspects of

their conventional e-commerce sites by utilizing tools such

as Facebook Connect and share applications. Examples of

review and ratings vehicles include Yelp and Epinions.

Groupon is an example of a dealer vehicle. Yipit, DailyFlock

and 8coupons are deal aggregators. (Tuten, 2014)

5) Online advertising

The online advertising industry has developed quickly in the

last decade. With 33% of total revenue, display is the

second most imperative online advertising after search. The

basic organization of the display advertising market is the

following: while surfing the internet, clients visit

different sites (also called publishers) that have a stock

of advertising slots to offer. This is possible by coming to

potential advertisers, or through intermediaries whose

primary part is to aggregate supply and demand of

advertising space and to act as matchmakers. Advertising

networks (such as Google Adsense) and advertising exchanges

(such as AdBrite) are such intermediaries. (De Corniere,2014)

Intermediaries and large publishers (such as Facebook or

Google), have entry to advancements that empower them to

accumulate and examine lots of information at an instance.28

Advertisers submit bids that depends on the site's content

and the ad, information about the location of the consumer

(obtained through the IP address), his past browsing history

(acquired through cookies), or the data he gave to the

platform or its partners. These new opportunities give extra

motivations to obtain and utilize individual data about

customers. (De Corniere, 2014)

1) Affiliate marketing

The basic definition of Affiliate Marketing is that it is an

internet based system in which an affiliate refers sales or

customers to another business and gets paid for the same.(Affilorama, 2014)

29

Figure 3. The image shows a basic affiliate website,

with a banner that promotes a Wholesale Supplier

Directory.

When the banner is clicked, the user is redirected to the

merchant’s website. The merchant has the ownership of the

product or service and they get paid a commission if the

person who visited the website purchases the product. The

commission they get paid is a percentage of the selling

price of the product.(Affilorama, 2014)

7) Text messaging

Text messaging or SMS (Short Messaging Service) received

attention over the last years. Currently it is an imperative

mode of communication for organizations to interact with the

customers. SMS text message marketing provides marketers the

ability to reach out to the clientele directly, regardless

of their location, with information pertinent to them.

(Ryan, 2014)

A key factor of SMS text message marketing is the ability to

instantly connect with your customers with no special regard

given to their place. (Up North Media, 2015)

8) Blogging, RSS & News Feeds

30

According to the Oxford dictionary, a blog is a regularly

updated website or web page, run by an individual or small

group, written in an informal or conversational style.(Oxford Dictionaries, 2015)

RSS is an XML document which facilitates syndication of

content. It consists of dates, authors, headlines, content

summaries is structured data. Individuals or Web site

publishers who subscribes to a feed receives data which is

changed to information from an RSS reader. RSS is an acronym

for Rich Site Summary.(Pilgrim, 2002)

News feeds are a constant transmission of information,

comprising of news updates, to sites through a syndicated

news service provider. Subscribers get it in the form of

summaries that redirects them to the original website or

source.(Pilgrim, 2002)

9) Viral marketing

Our actions influence the people as our decisions are

influenced by them. A marketing discipline that exploits

this phenomenon, for better marketing results, is Viral

Marketing. Viral Marketing is a business strategy is like

how a virus spreads from one person to another person. The

same way, a product is promoted by spreading information in

the same way. (Digital marketing institute, 2015)

31

2.3 U.A.E INTERNET SOCIAL AND MOBILE STATISTICS

The marketers in the Middle East have started marketing

using digital marketing in addition to traditional methods

like events, magazines and newspapers.

Digital in the U.A.E

According to the research done by Global Media Insight

(A Dubai-based web design and development agency) in

U.A.E the total population in the country was 9.58

million.(Global Media Insight, 2015)

Internet users were 8.81 million users out of the

population of 9.58 million.(Global Media Insight, 2015)

Mobile Internet users were 7.27 million and 5.40

million people had an active social media account.(Global Media Insight, 2015)

32

The top Social Media Platforms were Facebook, Google+,

Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.(Global Media Insight,2015)

Figure 4.Web Traffic across devices. The figure illustrates

the web traffic based on each device’s share of total web

pages.

33

Figure 5.The figure illustrates the Average daily time spent

online and Mobile Internet Use.

The U.A.E internet social and mobile statistics show that on

an average daily time spent online, 5 hours are spent on

PC/Tablet, 3 hours and 45 minutes on the mobile phone and 3

hours and 35 minutes on social media. This statistics shows

that it is important digital marketers leverage these

platforms to advertise online food delivery. There are 76%

active mobile internet users in the country. As a result in

order to tap into these populations the websites and

34

advertisements need to be mobile-friendly and the apps need

to be user-friendly too. (Global Media Insight, 2015)

There are 76% active mobile internet users in the country.

As a result in order to tap into these populations the

websites and advertisements need to be mobile-friendly and

the apps need to be user-friendly too.(Global Media Insight,2015)

2.4 ONLINE FOOD DELIVERY WEBSITES IN U.A.E

With thousands of food orders placed online per month, the

online food ordering trend has been on a rise in the UAE.

In all the food ordering websites, a consumer has access to

variety of different cuisines and hundreds of menus online.

(Barakat, 2014) The standard process for all these websites

is as follows. An order can be placed with a number few

clicks. It is then transferred to the restaurant by means of

an integrated system and food will be delivered within the

specified time limit on the website. The websites are free

and offer payment on delivery.(Barakat, 2014)

The websites in which a person can place an order in the

U.A.E are:

35

1) 24H.ae

2) Eat Easily

3) Food On Click

4) Mfood

5) Talabat

6) Roundmenu

S.no Name Countries present Number of

orders(per month)1) Eat easily U.A.E 18,0002) Talabat UAE, Kuwait, Qatar,

Saudi Arabia,

Bahrain and Oman. 

140,000

3) Foodonclick UAE, Saudi Arabia,

Lebanon, Qatar and

Oman. 

 90,000 

Table 1. This table shows three websites, the countries they

operate in and the number of orders they get in a month.

Registration is mandatory with all the food delivery sites

require confirmation if food has been ordered for the first

time. Own food delivery is done only by Room Service

Deliveries although it was slow and it is the only website

which accepts credit cards. (Locke, 2014)

Talabat and Food on Click has the most user-friendly website

with the fastest delivery. (Locke, 2014)

36

2.5 ONLINE FOOD ORDERING ATTITUDE IN THE UAE

Lately, the ease and sufficiency of online food

ordering has made of it an increasing trend in the UAE,

changing the tradition of looking through menus and

making orders over the phone. Ordering food online is a

more viable option compared to scouring the house or

the workplace for a menu, grabbing the telephone,

gazing upward quantities of either eatery, dialing up a

number, and enduring further confusion via telephone

correspondence. Add to that, that your decisions are

constantly constrained to whatever telephone quantities

of eateries you may have saved money on your telephone.(Foodonclick.com, 2014)

Foodonclick has published statistics for the year 2014

about specific days the biggest number of orders take

place and at what point of time during the day in the

UAE in the year 2014.(Foodonclick.com, 2014)

According to the statistics, the number of people

ordering food online is increasing ever week.(Foodonclick.com, 2014)

The most used ordering tool: 30% of the users order

form their smart phones through either mobile site,

Android or iphone apps. (This trend is expected to grow

more than desktops and make up 50% of the orders in the

year 2014). (Foodonclick.com, 2014)

37

70% of the users make use of desktops to make the

order. (Foodonclick.com, 2014)

Desktops/ Laptop users make the most number of orders

on Thursday. (Foodonclick.com, 2014)

Mobile users order most on Saturdays. (Foodonclick.com,2014)

Most order happens at 7pm and least at 8am.

(Foodonclick.com, 2014)

Figure 6. The most preferred cuisines. The figure shows

statistics on the most preferred cuisines by

Foodonclick consumers in the year 2014.

38

Figure 7.The areas with the biggest appetite. The figure

shows the areas within Dubai that has ordered food

online through Foodonclick in the year 2014.

39

2.6 DIFFERENT DIGITAL MARKETING CHANNELS USED BY THE ONLINE

FOOD DELIVERY WEBSITES

1) Email marketing

Foodonclick.com, Talabat.com, 24h.ae, Eat Easily and Mfood

has their weekly emails informing the subscribers about

discounts on the partner restaurants and also information

regarding new restaurants that join the websites.

Figure 8. The figure is a snapshot of the weekly newsletters

which Foodonclick sends its users on a weekly basis.

The websites also send Transactional Emails which are

triggered when the customers complete the order online.

40

Figure 9. This figure shows the transactional e-mails which

Talabat.com sends when a transaction has been complete in

its website.

2) SEO (search engine optimization)

Figure 10. This figure shows the Eye Tracking Study

41

In this eye tracking study, it shows where users are looking

when they enter do a search in the search engine. It is

evident to help the brand become noticed if the websites

appear on the first few positions of Google .On a average

100% consumers look at the top left side of the page while

50 % look below the red line. (Partners, 2007)

When the researcher typed ‘order food online’ in the Google

search engine, all the 5 online food delivery websites were

listed/However the first two websites listed was Talabat.com

followed by 24h.ae

If we link this to the study done by Optify ( A digital

marketing software company) which states that the websites

in the first few positions receive 54.8% o the clicks

(Optify, 2013) , Talabat has more probability of getting

noticed as it is important to be near the top of the page.

3) PPC (pay per click)

42

Figure 11.This figure shows the paid advertisements and

the organic listing in the Google search engine.

The ads inside the rounded rectangles are the paid ads which

appeared above and on the right side of the organic listing.

The online food ordering websites have employed their PPC

budget in creating ads in the search engine. Compared to

this an interesting campaign was done by Snickers for their

‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’ campaign. They used

Google to reach hungry people every time they made a

spelling mistake, and reminded them they can’t spell when

they are hungry. Hungry people have a tendency to misspell

words with regularity. Snickers worked with Google to find

the top 500 search terms and then used an algorithm to find

common misspelled words for those 500 words. It expanded

43

their list to 25,381 misspellings. In just 2 days they

reached the target of 558,589 people. This campaign shows

that by being creative how the marketer can do cost-

effective marketing. (Digital Strategy Consulting, 22)

Figure 12. This figure illustrates the paid ad that appears

when a person misspelled a word in Google.

4) Social media

1)Facebook

Name of the website Likes in the

44

Facebook Page24H.ae 14,000Eat Easily 7,764Food On Click 145106Mfood 6233Talabat 89924

Table 2. The table shows the number of likes, each online

food delivery website has in its official Facebook page.

Food on Click has the most number of likes with 145106

followed by Talabat with 89924 likes Cadbury Crème Egg which

has 2,551,874 likes in Facebook switched its ad spend from

TV to Facebook and gained 7% increase on its overall sales ,

three months after launching the campaign. An extended

series of posts with an overall common theme was posted

across the three months to achieve the result. All the food

websites can employ this strategy to get more likes for

their pages. (Digital Strategy Consulting, 22)

2) Twitter

Name of the

website

Total number of

followers

Number of Tweets

24H.ae 3748 718Eat Easily 677 797Food On Click 3923 2863Mfood 13 137

45

Talabat 10,505 8,399Table 3. The table shows the total number of followers and

tweets the online food delivery websites have in Twitter.

Talabat has 10,505 followers whereas Foodonclick has only

3923 followers.

3) LinkedIn

Name of the website Number of Followers24H. ae -Eat Easily 98Food On Click 5506Mfood -Talabat 1530

Table 4.The table shows the total number of followers the

online food delivery websites have in Linkedin.

Food on Click has 5506 followers followed by Talabat. Both

24H.ae and Mfood does not have a LinkedIn account.

4) Instagram

Name of the website Number of followers24H.ae -Eat Easily -Food On Click 835Mfood -Talabat 39,300

46

Table 5.The table shows the total number of followers the

online food delivery websites have in Instagram.

5) Google Plus+

Name of the website Number of views24H.ae 20,382Eat Easily -Food On Click 172,038Mfood -Talabat 1,080,185

Table 6.The table shows the total number of views the online

food delivery websites have in Google Plus.

6) Youtube

Name of the

website

Number of

subscribers

Number of views

47

24H.ae -Eat Easily 27 8,732Food On Click -Mfood - -Talabat 1,297 1,062,860

Table 7.The table shows the total number of subscribers the

online food delivery websites have in Youtube.

Talabat’s channel includes

Interviews of its Ex- CEO Mr. Mohamad Jaffar.

Achievements Timeline.

Peek Reviews of the listed restaurants.

Television Commercials. In August 2014, uploaded

its Ramadan TV ads which got over 482,395 views.

7) Blogs

A blog exists to achieve one aim of the blog. This aim

should be backed by a story. A marketing persona will help

the website tailor its blog according to the passion and

interests of the consumer. There is an increasing need for

quality and relevant content.

The two websites that have blogs are Foodonclick and

Talabat.com.

Foodonclick.com has blog posts in both Arabic and English,

Recipes, competitions and many interesting articles.48

‘Foodaholic’ by Talabat consists of articles about their

visits to various events and colleges and also press

releases.

5) Online advertising

Pay- per- click advertisements includes ads on Google,

Yahoo and Bing.Google Search Ads are available in the

tablets,computers and Mobile phones.

Figure 13. The figure shows the paid advertisements that

appear in Google when a person searches for the same in

their desktop

49

Figure 14. The figure shows the paid advertisements that

appear in Google when a person searches for the same in

their mobile.

Facebook Ads

The two types of Facebook ads are domain ads and page

post link.

The domain ad is not supported on a mobile and this

type of ad has a title with a short description usually

appearing on the right column.

The page post link appears in the newsfeed, right

column and is supported in the mobile.

50

It consists of a large image and a title and

description underneath.

51

Figure 15.This figure shows the Facebook advertisements

of 24h.ae .

Twitter Ads

Figure 16. The figure shows a tweet from their twitter

account.

When this ad gets promoted (icon with the orange arrow

pointed towards the top right) under the tweets and under

the ‘who to follow ‘it is a twitter ad.

52

Banner Ads

Figure 17. The figure shows the various banner ads of

fooclick.com

Mobile Ads

53

SMS ads

Figure 18. The figure shows an SMS customer received from

Foodonclick.com

Email Ads

54

Figure 19. The figure shows an e-mail advertisement from

Foodonclick.com

TV Ads

Figure 20.The figure shows Talabat.com’s TV Commercials

55

Radio Ads

Talabat does radio advertising.

III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research methodology is a systematic way to solve a problem.

It is also defined as the study of methods by which

knowledge is gained. Its aim is to give the work plan of

research. (Rajasekar, 2013)

56

In Chapter 1, the objective of the study was stated to be to

determine the effectiveness of Digital Marketing for

promoting food e-commerce websites in U.A.E

Moreover, to achieve that objective, the aims of the study

were listed were:

1) To establish how Digital Marketing is used by existing

global Online Takeaway Food Delivery websites in U.A.E.

2) To establish how digital marketing enhances brand

awareness more than using traditional marketing

communications

This chapter discusses in detail research method as well as

other research techniques that were applied to achieve the

stated aims and objective. This section discusses, research

method, justification for the preferred research method,

data collection methods, sample size, research population,

sampling technique, data analysis, reliability and

validity.This chapter talks discusses in detail research

method and additionally other research techniques that were

used with a specific end goal to attain the stated aims and

objective.

1) Types of research

Types of research that could have been done for this

dissertation include Theoretical and Practical approach.

Theoretical means using sources which are already published

57

and the practical uses primary information from

observations, interviews and questionnaires. This

dissertation uses both types of research.

2) Research Methods

The types of research methods are:

Descriptive Qualitative (Ethnography/ Case Study)

Descriptive Quantitative

Correlation/ Regression Analyses

Quasi experimental

Experimental

Meta-analysis

3) Justification for quantitative research

In this study, quantitative research method was utilized

with the purpose of investigating the effectiveness of

digital marketing to promote online food delivery websites

in UAE.The justification for using quantitative research

method as it is the most perfect way discovers variables

that influence a result. Besides, this way is most feasible

for to gather response from a substantial sample size.

4) Data collection

Quantitative research method was used and a research

questionnaire was administered to collect the data.

58

Questions used were close ended questions. Respondents had

an option of choosing more than one option for some

questions. The questions asked were used to capture data,

such as Behavioral Information, Attitudinal Information and

Classification Information about the respondent.

The reason why questionnaire is used is because it is

efficient in analyzing large amounts of data using less time

and effort. Compared to qualitative, the data can be

analyzed more objectively and quantified. Further, there is

no bias from the respondents’ side. (Popper, 2004)

The above figure is an example of a structured questionnaire

administered to collect information regarding smoking.

4) Research subjects and sample size

59

The subjects participated in the survey from the age group

16-25.The total number of respondents who participated in

the survey was 70. All the respondents were from all over

the United Arab Emirates.

5) Sampling Technique

All the 70 respondents were selected using convenience

sampling because they were available and volunteered to

complete the survey.

6) Limitations of the study

The sample that was selected to complete the survey

does not represent the whole population.

The results offer fewer detailed accounts of human

insight.

The answers need not essentially indicate how the

respondents feel about a subject might not be the

closest match in some cases.

IV. TABULATION , RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

This chapter presents the data obtained from the survey

in the form of pie charts and tables.

1) Establish the frequency of the respondents ordering

food online.

60

The respondents were inquired about how frequently they

order food online.

Figure 5.1 The pie chart shows how frequently the

respondents order food online

FREQUENCY Number of

Respondents

Percentage (of

total respondents)Never 4

5

65.2%

2-3 times per

month

1

5

21.7%

1-2 times per week 7 10.1%

3-4 times per week 1 1.4%5-6 times per week 1 1.4%

Table 5.1 The table shows the number and percentage of

respondents who order food online.

65.2% of the total respondents have never ordered food

online. This can be because some consumers prefer ordering

food over the phone because of the lack of human interaction

61

online. (Barakat, Gulfnews, 2014) .Other consumers receive

error messages in the website and also face delays for the

orders happens. (Barakat, Gulfnews, 2014) There is also an

issue if not finding the restaurant that the consumer wants

or a specific dish in a menu that is not listed in the

website. (Barakat, Gulfnews, 2014)

21.7% orders 2-3 times in a week, 10.1 % orders 1-2 times a

week and 1.4 % orders 3-4 in a week another 1.4 % orders 5-6

times in a week. During summer holidays, Ramadan and

weekends, Foodonclick, Eateasily and Talabat has reported a

reduction in their number of orders. During Ramadan it is

because only two meals are taken in a day.(Barakat, 2014)

According to Foodonclick, during the summer season there is

a drop in their orders because people tend to stay indoors

and have food, whereas during winters people go out and

consume food.(Barakat, 2014)

In order to encourage consumers to order more food online,

these websites give promotions and coupons on the selected

restaurants. But what really set one website apart from each

other are their payment options, minimum delivery charges,

actual order time and average delivery time. (Locke, 2014)

62

2) Establish sources of information before the respondents

ordered food online.

The respondents were enquired how they seek online

information before ordering food online.

Figure 5.2 The figure shows how the respondents enquired

information before ordering food online.

Sources of

information

Number of

Respondents

Percentage (of

total respondents)Ask a friend who

has ordered food

35 50.7%

63

online.Search for an

online food

delivery website

in a search

engine.

21 30.4%

Check out reviews

on comparison

sites

1

6

23.2%

Search for an

online food

delivery website

in social media.

(Facebook,

Twitter, Blogs)

9 13%

Visit online food

delivery website

you frequently

visit (Website or

App)

21 30.4%

Other 1 1.4%

Table 5.2. The table shows the sources of information

that consumers used before ordering food online.

64

50.7 % would ask a friend who has ordered food online,

30.4 % would search for an online food delivery website

in a search engine and another 30.4% would visit an

online food delivery website they frequently visit

(Website or App). 23.2% checks a review on comparison

sites, 13% would search for an online food delivery

website in social media. (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs) and

1.4% uses other sources.

Word of Mouth Marketing is strong as 50.7% of the

respondents have responded that they would ask a friend who

has ordered food online before. Thus in this context it is

important for the online food delivery service to build

sufficient levels of satisfaction, trust and commitment

among its users.

30.4 % responded that they would search for an online

food delivery website in a search engine. When the

researcher typed ‘order food online’ in the Google search

engine, all the 5 online food delivery websites were

listed/However the first two websites listed was

Talabat.com followed by 24h.ae. The other websites need

to improve their search marketing and get better rankings

organically.

30.4% would visit an online food delivery website they

frequently visit (Website or App). Consumers are web-savvy

and the advertisements online has to be supported across

65

three types of devices which is Laptops/Desktops, Mobile

phones and Tablets. In addition to the type of devices,

Social Media is an excellent platform to market online food

ordering as a person spends 3 hours and 35 minutes on an

average on a daily basis. (Global Media Insight, 2015)

There are 76% active mobile internet users in the country.

As a result in order to tap into these populations the

websites and advertisements need to be mobile-friendly and

the apps need to be user-friendly too. (Global MediaInsight, 2015)

66

3) To establish which type of Media the respondents have

received an online food delivery website Ad

Figure 5.3 The figure shows the type of media the

respondents have received an online food delivery website Ad

67

Type of MediaNumber of

RespondentsPercentage (of

total respondents)

Facebook 52 75.4%

Twitter 5 7.2%

Blogs 6 8.7%

Youtube 18 26.1%

SMS 7 10.1%

TV 9 13%

Radio 18 26.1%

Billboards 16 23.2%

Email advert 14 20.3%

Brochures 21 30.4%

Newspapers 17 24.6%

Other 4 5.8%

68

Table 5.3 The table shows the type of media the respondents

have received an online food delivery website Ad

The most common mode of digital marketing is through

Facebook according to 75.4% of the respondents followed by

30.4% who saw ads in Brochures. 26.1% saw ads in Youtube,

26.1% heard ads in Radio, and 23.2% saw ads in Billboards,

24.6% in newspapers, 20.3% through E-mail ads.

The most common mode of digital marketing is through

Facebook according to 75.4% of the respondents. This

response can be associated with the fact that Facebook is

the largest social network with more than 1.39 billion

active users. (Helmrich, 2015) And therefore all the online

food delivery websites have a Facebook page to post content.

30.4 % responded to have received brochures of these

websites. The reason for this fairly big percent is because

along with the website and social media pages, printed

brochures which are tangible and convenient reach the

appropriate target audience and drive traffic to these

websites. QR codes readers on the brochure facilitate users

to connect through the mobile phone to the website. These

websites can track how many people have scanned their QR

codes. This is the reason why most number of respondents

after Facebook have claimed to seen an ad in a brochure.(ICAEW, 2013)

69

26.1 % have responded to have received ads in both Youtube

and Radio.A global study by Nielsen facts that online video

ads obtain a higher impact than TV ads.It also finds

audiences who are hard to reach. The figures have risen from

56 percent in 2008 to 75 percent in the year 2013.

(Emarketer, 2013) 

24.6% of the respondents have seen ads in newspapers. One of

the traditional medium of advertising, newspaper generate

original and trusted content and are more respected compared

to any other medium. Consumers choose to read a newspaper

and it’s not invasive to their privacy. It is a medium free

from distractions and readers’ mental engagement and

concentration are high for this medium. (The newspaperworks, 2013)

Billboard attracted 23.2% of the respondents. When the

audiences are on the move, spending less time in the house

and more time in the traffic, billboards enables this

audience to see the ad with their eyes.

Advertising through E-mail has attracted 20.3% of the

respondents. This is because of the fact that consumers have

control over the emails during their routines. They decide

which E-mail to open based on their interest in the content.

TV has attracted 13% of the respondents. According to Citi

Research, on a global scale, the number of people watching

TV has declined. Fewer households own a T.V. People are

70

spending more of their time on mobile, and less of their

time on TV. (Edwards, 2013)

Foodonclick.com, Talabat.com,24h.ae, Eat Easily and MFood

have their weekly emails informing the subscribers about

discounts on the partner restaurants and also information

regarding new restaurants that join the websites but only

20.3% of the respondents have responded to have received ads

through E-mail.

4) Effectiveness of various digital marketing messages that

are used by various UAE based food delivery websites in

creating awareness

Figure 5.4. The figure shows the response to the statement

that the digital marketing messages that are used by various

UAE based food delivery websites in creating awareness

71

Number of

RespondentsPercentage (of

total respondents)

Strongly

Agree13 18.6%

Agree 31 44.3%

Don't

Know

1

927.1%

72

Disagree 7 10%

Strongly Disagree 0 0%

Table 5.4. The table shows the response to the statement

that the digital marketing messages that are used by various

UAE based food delivery websites in creating awareness

18.6% strongly agree and 44.3% agree to the statement that

various digital marketing messages that are used by various

UAE based food delivery websites in creating awareness, on

the other hand 10% disagree to the statement.

Although 18.6% strongly agree and 44.3% agree to the

statement that various digital marketing messages that are

used by various UAE based food delivery websites in creating

awareness, on the other hand 10% disagree to the statement.

In order to change the perception of this 10%, there is a

need to use medium which they prefer to receive marketing

messages of the food delivery websites. From the response of

the previous question, respondents have responded to receive

ads in brochures after Facebook. Also respondents have said

to have received ads in newspaper. This might indicate that

there are a percentage of respondents who perceive that

traditional marketing is more effective to create awareness.

73

5) Establish digital marketing enhances brand awareness more

than using traditional marketing communications

Figure 5.5 The pie chart shows the number of respondents who

responded to the statement digital marketing enhances brand

awareness more than using traditional marketing

communications

Number of

Respondents

Percentage (of

total

respondents)

Strongly

Agree

26 37.1%

Agre

e

34 48.6%

Don't Know 8 11.4%Disagree 2 2.9%

Strongly

Disagree

0 0%

74

Table 5.5 The table shows the number of respondents who

responded to the statement digital marketing enhances brand

awareness more than using traditional marketing

communications

48.6% of the respondents agreed that digital marketing

enhances brand awareness compared to traditional marketing

communications, 37.1% strongly agreed and 2.9% disagreed.

48.6% of the respondents agreed that digital marketing

enhances brand awareness compared to traditional marketing

communications, 37.1% strongly agreed and 2.9% disagreed.In

the recent years, although digital has emerged as a cost-

effective method to make marketing results, it is important

that the food delivery websites do not overlook traditional

methods which can help improve their marketing campaigns.

Both traditional and digital has to be used according to

specific goals and who has to be engaged.

75

V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

In this section, the research is concluding by examining the

conceivable reasons for the outcomes of the survey. This

would help in the drawing conclusions and recommendations

for the online food ordering websites in the U.A.E to create

more awareness by means of digital marketing.

5.1 CONCLUSION

The overall Objective was to determine the effectiveness of

Digital Marketing for promoting Online Food Delivery

websites in U.A.E and to establish how Digital Marketing is

used by existing Online Food Delivery websites in U.A.E and

To establish how digital marketing enhances brand awareness

more than using traditional marketing communications.

Facebook is used by all the websites and 75.4% of the

respondents have responded to have seen an ad in it. But

Twitter which is a medium used by all the delivery websites,

according to the respondents have not received76

advertisements through it. Youtube in which only Talabat

and Eat Easily is present, has again been ranked after

Facebook for having received advertisements. This mismatch

is due to the difference in the way consumer interacts with

the different medium. Users use Youtube to mainly watch

videos and twitter for customer engagement.

Traditional medium like Brochures and newspapers were also

ranked high by respondents indicating that although digital

has emerged as a cost-effective method to make marketing

results, it is important that the food delivery websites do

not overlook traditional methods which can help improve

their marketing campaigns. Both traditional and digital has

to be used according to specific goals and who has to be

engaged.

Word of Mouth Marketing is also strong as in the survey

administered, majority of the respondents have responded

that they would ask a friend who has ordered food online

before. Thus in this context it is important for the online

food delivery service to build sufficient le vels of

satisfaction, trust and commitment among its users.

5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS

User experience is not consistent in all the websites.

24h.ae’s users face trouble registering in their

website. Room Service Deliveries is the only website

77

that takes payment by credit card, rest all the

websites require cash on delivery. The online food

delivery websites should strive to create a consistent

user experience, starting with the registration

process, time taken to submit the order, delivery time

and payment options. Also minimum charges and delivery

costs add to the costs to the user.

All the websites don’t deliver to all the emirates.

There is scope to expand their customer’s base by

delivering throughout U.A.E, and even other countries

in the Middle East.

Once that consumer has logged into the website, the

websites can invite the consumers to opt-in for future

communication like newsletters which is not present in

all the websites. Currently all the websites have

options to download their apps and like their social

media accounts in their home page of the website. All

the websites except Mfood provides coupons on their

partner restaurants.

Talabat.com and Foodonclick has a blog. Blogging is

important as the websites can share their expert

knowledge of the .Blogging in addition helps the

website get better ranking in the search engine as the

same keywords appear more in the website. 

Traditional and digital marketing can be combined to

reach the consumer in a more exciting way. Talabat

78

takes part in start up and youth entrepreneurship

events, career fairs and food festivals and events.

Other website should actively participate in these

events to promote themselves more aside from their

digital marketing activities.

3 out of 5 websites don’t have an account in

Instagram. The reasons why 24H.ae, Eat Easily and

Mfood should be present in Instagram is because it is

a medium for all types of audiences, regardless of

their age and occupation , devoid of any distractions

like advertisements and connects everyone with photos.

Mfood and Eat Easily should use Google Plus because

brands can use the communities feature to connect with

more customers from other groups. Hangouts can be used

to get together a particular type of cuisine lovers or

cooking a recipe online. The content that is posted in

this platform is indexed by Google, so it positively

contributes towards increasing the page rankings.

Talabat’s channel includes interviews of its Ex- CEO

Mr. Mohamad Jaffar, Achievements timeline, peek

reviews of the listed restaurants in its website.

Other food websites who are still not present in

Youtube like 24H.ae, Food On Click and Mfood can use

quality content like Talabat’s to gain more followers

in the social media.

79

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VII. APPENDICES

1) Research Questionnaire

Digital Marketing & Online Food Delivery websites

This survey is about online food delivery websites like

Foodonclick.com, Talabat.com etc.

{online food ordering is placing an order with your favorite

restaurant in a website that feature interactive menus,

ratings and also allows you to make reviews}

* Required

Name:

Age *

How frequently do you order food online? *

o  Never

o  2-3 times per month

o  1-2 times per week

o  3-4 times per week

87

o  5-6 times per week

If you were to order food online which is the first

action that you would do? *

o  Ask a friend who have ordered food online.

o  Search for an online food delivery website in a

search engine.

o  Check out reviews on comparison sites

o  Search for an online food delivery website in

social media. (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs)

o  Visit online food delivery website you frequently

visit (Website or App)

o  Other: 

By which type of Media have you received an online food

delivery website Ad? *

o  Facebook

o  Twitter

o  Blogs

o  Youtube

88

o  SMS

o  TV

o  Radio

o  Billboards

o  Email advert

o  Brochures

o  Newspapers

o  Other: 

The various digital marketing messages that are used by

various UAE based food delivery websites have been

effective in creating awareness *

This is a statement about what how effective you think

are the Digital Marketing used by the food delivery

websites

o  Strongly Agree

o  Agree

o  Don't Know

o  Disagree

o  Strongly Disagree

89

Using digital marketing enhances brand awareness more

than using traditional marketing communications *

o  Strongly Agree

o  Agree

o  Don't Know

o  Disagree

o  Strongly Disagree

Thank you for completing the survey!

90