Pandora Ads

Pandora ads are so annoying. But it's funny because I can recall most of the ones I hear while listening to my stations. and what's even more surprising to me is that they are LOCAL advertisements!

So how does Pandora effectively use advertising? If you think about it, when we watch TV there will be a cluster of maybe 5-7 commercial every 15 minutes if you're lucky. Pandora will throw in one 30-second ad about every 15 minutes. It's genius advertising because listeners always notice as soon as an ad pops up. It is usually a little louder than the music and always interrupts the continuous play as soon as you become comfortable again. And we remember them! Viggle has been blowing up my stations recently and I will admit I have no idea what it is but one of these days I will be curious enough to look it up.

In addition to the impeccable timing of ads, I often notice they are for local businesses. I used to get BioScience Labs all the time and I remember it would say something about college students needing extra money and how to participate in their studies. Hold up. How do they know I'm a college student? They use your location to better tailor the ads. And I'm sure when I signed up I gave them my age. So really, it's brilliant advertising!

Rebranding

Enough. Is. Enough.

That was the basis for JC Penney's massive re-branding attempt in 2012. Forever, JC Penney was known for having blow out sales with countless direct mail coupons. They were all about the sale.

In 2012 they attempted to re-brand by offering everyday low prices and no more sales promotions. The problem with this was that no one understood what the new pricing meant. There were different levels and colors and consumers felt they were now paying more than they did in the coupon era of JC Penney. 

JC Penney took away the major characteristic to their brand. Especially because their target market was middle to lower class professionals who did not have the disposable income traditional department store shoppers possessed. Their customers would wait for those coupons and magazines in the mail and plan their next trip to JCP when they were stocked up on coupons. When the infamous "sales" were eliminated from the marketing plan, consumers were no longer driven to stores with the thrill of chasing a sale.

JC Penney has since attempted to re-integrate their characteristic sales and direct mail promotions. Multiple attempts and multiple CEO's have tried to revive this company. Unfortunately, they have not rebuilt from the $985 million loss in 2012.

Smart Shopper

Today I received the gem of all mail known as the Gallatin Smart Shopper. If you are unfamiliar let me enlighten you. When you are low on cash and need dinner or your car has been due for servicing for three months, where do you turn? The Gallatin Smart Shopper. This coupon book has saved me countless dollars. So, if you were to ask me if direct mail marketing is dead I would have to disagree!

Internet marketing is as popular as ever but companies are still recognizing the value in direct mail marketing, a trend that many forget exists. Good ol' snail mail. After a little exploration into the Smart Shopper website I was pleased to find that this coupon company makes good use of multi channel marketing. They offer printable coupons directly from the website in addition to the ability to load coupons onto a smart phone!

http://montanasmartshopper.com/

Social Media Marketing

Social media is so prevalent in today's world that it could be considered one of the more powerful marketing tools. Who doesn't have a Facebook page or Twitter account? I mean look at us students using a blog for school work! Anyway, let me get to the inspiration of this post.

Fences. One of my friends just had a fence built around her house. And the fence looks awesome. So I was over there one day and we were talking about this fence and how good it was looking, endlessly complimenting the contractor on what good work it was (we actually don't know a thing about fences but it does look awesome!). I made a comment to my friend along the lines of, "I bet he is so busy with jobs right now, you were lucky to get this done so quickly." 

Bear with me this story is going somewhere...

She then mentioned to me that he was struggling to find work. This I couldn't believe partly because of the rate Bozeman is growing right now. She then went on to say how he fails to market himself. This contractor has zero social media presence. We agreed that would be his first step to gaining traction in the market. My friend and I sat there and discussed this topic for quite some time (she has a public relations degree) and I kept commenting on how much this all related to the material I was learning in Marketing class. 

Facebook is free and the perfect way to start marketing yourself with an online presence. 

Consumer Behavior

Retail is a crazy environment to work in. Here I am, in college and working my first retail job at Verizon. I can apply so much of what we have learned about how consumers buy to my work, I see it every day. The amount of research that goes into store design is mind blowing! Who knew that the layout and atmosphere of a store impacts how much money you will spend there? It does!

So here is my little sliver of insight into the store I work in. We recently relocated into a beautiful, new location next to Kohl's. We are now a Smart Store and the largest in Montana. This is very similar to what our store looks like.

A reaction we get a lot is that customers feel like our store is similar to an Apple store. Well, Apple seems to get everything right. But, as you look around you will find everything is strategically placed to lure customers. The front half of the store is seen as very welcoming and warm. The finishes are nice and highly similar to something you might find in your own home. This is where all the accessories are. The back of the store consists of white cabinets with bright lighting over the phone displays. Much more hospital like. Coincidence? No! It's all strategy to get the consumers to walk through all the accessories before they reach the phone displays, the main reason they came into the store. 

I am constantly amazed by the amount of research that goes into designing a store around consumer behavior. For example, did you know the most often chosen path of direction when a customer walks into a store is to the left? So where do you think all the high ticket accessories are placed in retail stores? ;)

Knowing what I know from working in retail I can't go into a store without noticing a display's placement or what items I might have to dig through to get to the one I want. Especially in large, corporately owned stores. 

Just Do It.

Those three words and everyone knows what I'm talking about. Nike. The brand is huge! I am a faithful Nike consumer for many reasons including the quality of the products, how they fit into my lifestyle and, I will admit, the prestige of the brand. Oh, that infamous Nike Swoosh. How did Nike build such an empire? Well I'm not a doctor, but I would have to give props to their marketing strategy. A marketing strategy is defined by identifying the target market determining the marketing mix, and building a competitive advantage.

Nike has a decently expansive target market, but can be boiled down to athletic people with a need for performance clothing and shoes. With that said, athletic people is a vast category. Nike has done a good job at separating this into many segments that tailor the consumer's needs. Placing myself into a segment would include characteristics such as female, early 20's, student, and physically active. So which Nike products do I use in my everyday life? First, their clothes are a staple in my wardrobe. Items like t-shirts, hoodies, socks, and sweats. Also, I couldn't live without my black and grey Nike Free shoes. And those are just basic Nike products! I could compare myself to my older brother who would fit into a segment such as male, mid 20's, athletic, and an avid golfer. Products that reach his segment include almost everything he uses while golfing: hat, shoes, glove, clubs and golf balls. Just the golf products alone is massive! In comparison, one could easily see how Nike reaches into countless segments composing their target market.

A marketing mix is the combination of the 4 P's: product, price, promotion and place. Nike's product? Name one. There are so many! I'm going to go with shoes. The shoes are good quality, range from causal to high performance, and are stylish. Prices range from $50 to $200+ for more customized styles. The brand is promoted EVERYWHERE! Their multi-billion marketing and advertising budget is largely responsible for their high visibility. Billboards, television, internet, sporting events and not to mention every athlete that has ever has a Nike endorsement to name a few.

Nike faces other huge competitors as well like Adidas and Under Armor. Tactics Nike has used to stay competitive include customized shoes, team jerseys, and probably the most recognizable is the multi-million dollar endorsements they enter with huge athletes. Just the brand recognition alone has paid huge dividends to Nike competitively. After analyzing the marketing strategy it is clear to me why they are such a big player in the industry. They seem to always be evolving and expanding to new markets and their faithful customers are always there waiting to get their hands on whatever it is. They know how to pull consumers in and retain that base, my bank account can attest to it!