Monthly Archives: April 2013

A Reflection

As a member of Team 10 (whaddup!), we decided to focus our marketing attention and energy onto global retail brand Zara, a member of the Inditex Group and famous for its “fast-fashion model.”

The company has already been thoroughly analyzed numerous times, as evidenced by reports on the internet. Through our own personal experience and research, we were able to quickly decipher who Zara’s typical consumer segments are and the image they are attempting to achieve in their Promotion (albeit, little promotion) and Place.

What I was surprised to find out during research for Part A, however, is that Zara’s main direct competitor is considered to be The Gap. It’s no wonder that The Gap is a major force to be reckoned with in the retail world, but their image is completely different. The Gap screams traditional America (slightly more East Coast after Mickey Drexler stepped in and saved them, sort of like the revolutions to J. Crew) with “khakis, khakis, khakis.” Zara, on the other hand, is much more fashion-forward and cutting edge. While they do have some relatively staple items, their stock changes as often as bi-weekly and they model some of their pieces off of global runways, not a New England soccer mom.

Picking a target segment was not difficult. We feel that Zara could do a lot more for men, ages 18-24 who are low income, in school, and hope to remain in fashion. Zara is already cost effective with its low pricing, but it could offer more in its product line for men and we made the bold suggestion of adding an in-store tailor or at least training sales staff how to measure. Their suiting is affordable, but is not generally the best fit off the rack. Having this added convenience could go a long way in building loyalty to a brand, for a big item such as suiting.

The video was an interesting venture. Luckily, we had someone on our team with a little bit of experience in production. I can’t imagine how many extra hours some teams probably put in to get it complete for only 10%. In the end, we were happy with our product and our recommendations and I am happy to never say “fast-fashion model” again.

Utilizing Social Media

Having had a small amount of experience utilizing social media in a business setting, I am always curious to see how various companies manipulate social media networks to their advantage. Be it Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, etc. etc., companies have a huge opportunity to reach vast amounts of people at the click of a button.

Social media marketing blog Convince and Convert recently posted about JetBlue and how they utilized Facebook on April Fool’s Day. The idea was highly unique:

Proclaiming that, “April’s No Fool,” JetBlue gave back to those most impacted by the day – people named April. JetBlue offered people with the first name April who were flying the airline on April 1 a JetBlue credit equal to the value of their flight.

An interesting promotional move — a very directed sales promotion, and a funny public relations stunt. And it seems to have paid off: close to 500 people interacted with the post, it was shared over 3,600 times, and moderately made its way around the internet as the antithesis to most online April Fool’s pranks (see: G-Mail Blue).

Fellow COMM 296er Cody Malloy also discussed social media marketing in a recent post on his own blog:

Convince & Convert reports that posts to users’ “fan pages” can reach anywhere between 2% and 47% of the fans subscribed to the page. That is quite the difference. It really just goes to show you that you really don’t know how effective or worthwhile a fan page Facebook post will be.

Cody then goes on to state:

Social media posting are all about posting at the right time, so you have to take into account various factors (age, geographic location) of your fans/followers.

I couldn’t agree more. Social media can also be a huge burden for companies: a free forum for consumers to post their thoughts both negative and positive (as Nestle once found out). Additionally, some companies make the mistake of neglecting their social media, using them as avenues for automated updates rather than communication, or for constant spam. However, sometimes companies come along like JetBlue and use it in an innovative way — and it works.

To explain one model, God made a farmer.

In our fast-paced age it takes a lot to gain the attention of consumers, especially on one of the most cluttered mediums: television.

Loud, flashy, obnoxious are all terms that could be used to describe a large majority of the advertisements that hit television nowadays. True, that may be of my own opinion but I’d love to hear the arguments of someone who disagrees.

For me, Dodge truly gained my attention with their 2013 Superbowl Ad simply titled, “Farmer.” The commercial itself was fairly quiet. The images moved slowly, there was a relative lack of colour in comparison to most advertisements that aired that day. Over the moving images, a piece of poetry was read. It was simple, and it has gone viral: close to fifteen million views on YouTube in less than two months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMpZ0TGjbWE

Why then, can an ad such as “Farmer” attract so much attention during an ad such as the Superbowl? Simply put, it directly follows the AIDA promotion model, which can further be reduced to three steps (CAB)

Cognition (Awareness or learning) – within the mix of all the loud, flashy, raunchy commercials, the quiet calm of “Farmer” was sure to catch the attention of many. Additionally, for a select crowd, the explicit farming images would have likely heightened an awareness within them, if they are connected to agriculture.
Affect (Feeling, interest or desire) – the poetry laid over the images has the direct intent of stirring up a feeling of warmth and respect towards a traditional American occupation, an embrace of religion/faith and, for any farmers watching, a sense of pride and connection.
Behavior (Action) – although an ad such as this may not immediately compel a consumer to purchase a truck, if it was successful in winning over a consumer on the cognition and affect factors, they could link the Dodge brand to the feelings they had: warmth, respect, pride, patriotism, faith. If a consumer is in need of a truck, they may view Dodge more positively.

What are some of your favorite commercials?