Category: Uncategorized

Findings and Limitations of Market Research

For my class MKT 337 Market Research, I drafted the phantom idea to pitch a sports bra that accommodates nursing to Nike.

View this post on Instagram

Best Down-dog assist ever. Wearing @aloyoga #sponsored

A post shared by Ashley Galvin (@ashleygalvinyoga) on

When contemplating any product launch, one must first conduct Market Research. Before investing in a product or concept, a company will want to know if there is any demand for the product or idea? Who will the potential purchasers be? How should the product be promoted, what should the price tag be, and where should it be sold? Are there any legal or ethical considerations associated with the product or concept? These are questions that a researcher will seek to answer.

In some ways, Market Research is like any other scientific research: A methodical series of steps must be followed, an experiment drafted, results recorded and analysed. But what makes Market Research unique, is that data is derived from observing the behaviors of people, often-self reported, and people can be unpredictable, un-self aware, and even fickle. Unlike a hard scientific experiment, where the results are dependable (i.e., at what temperature does water boil?), data collected about the shopping habits of a particular group of people (a market segment) may change in the time it takes to write the report!

Market Research has its limitations.

So again, the new product idea being pitched to Nike is a nursing sports bra. This seems like a great fit for Nike to add to their apparel line. This product introduction us timely for a couple reasons:  Nike expects sales to women to be one of its primary areas of growth (Lutz, 2015), and

Industry trends certainly support this: The women’s sports apparel market in 2018 was valued at $26.8 billion (Salpini, 2019). In previous decades, athletic apparel was considered a men’s market. Offerings for women were an afterthought, with the belief that a company could take the male version of an item, simply “shrink it and pink it” (Salpini, 2019), and call it good. But the industry now understands that items must be actually designed for women, in appearance and function. A logical step in that process is to include women’s reproduction considerations in the designs. Not only does this include a sports bra that accommodates nursing, but also modest athletic wear for Muslim and Orthodox Jews, and maternity athletic wear.

Nike.com
Image result for maturnity athletic wear"
Rankandstyle.com

To keep their forward-going momentum, Nike needs to pop out this nursing sports bra.

Continuing to support women in athletics, particularly in respect to reproduction, is an important ethical issue for Nike: The company has been undergoing scrutiny recently over its treatment of female athletes (Cain, 2019; Draper, 2019).  In true Nike form, controversies become gold mines for the company.  Nike has a history of crafting clever engagement and practicing brilliant public relations and damage control by getting out ahead of any negative press, taking full responsibility for any oversights, and instituting real change with their organizational practices.  Introducing this new product can act as an “olive branch” that the company needs right now to address and begin reparations for any company misdeeds or insensitivities.  Marketing this product will help Nike steer back toward its core values of supporting all athletes, in all stages of their training journey, and realign the company with the industry trends of supporting and encouraging female athletes.

But back to the limitations of Market Research: In creating a market proposal to launch the nursing sports bra, the target demographic for the product to relatively narrow, that is, expecting or current mothers who remain physically active and breastfeed their infant. Research about the demand and design of the sports bra relies heavily on self-reporting from the consumer group by way of on-line and in-person surveys. Anonymously observing women nursing their children to assess habits isn’t considered acceptable, obviously. And self-reporting always has its limitations. People aren’t always as aware of their own habits as one would think. Many women might not like to discuss breastfeeding, being, of course, a highly personal subject. Women who are expecting are going to be guessing at what they intend to do n the future. What actually happens may end up being different: A woman may not nurse for as many months as she plans to, or she may not end up resuming her fitness regimen as early or as vigorously as she might like. For the purposes of creating a marketing proposal for a class, much of the research is based on the hypothetical: having not an actual budget and resources to conduct interviews and the necessary actual research, an amount of the outcomes are based only upon academic studies and anecdotal evidence.

Regardless, understanding the basics of conducting Market Research and interpreting the findings is essential to the bidding and launch of an actual product, and the exercise in the classroom provides a great basis for learning the process to bring to fruition when the time comes to research a project in real life.

References:

Babin, B. Essentials of Marketing Research. [MBS Direct]. Retrieved from https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781305688094/

Binkley, Christina (Dec 09, 2019) Nike Takes the Plunge Into Modest Swimwear, The New Yorker, retrieved from: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-and-off-the-avenue/nike-takes-the-plunge-into-modest-swimwear

Cain, Mary (Nov 07, 2019) I was the fastest girl in the world, until I joined Nike, New York Times, retrieved from:  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/opinion/nike-running-mary-cain.html

Danziger, Pamela N. (June 19, 2017) Nike To Stay Out In Front With Biggest Data Of All: Demographics Forbes.com, retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2017/06/19/nike-to-stay-out-in-front-with-biggest-data-of-all-demographics/#760f06dc432c 

Draper, Kevin (May 24. 2019)Nike Says It Will End Financial Penalties for Pregnant Athletes, New York Times, retrieved from:  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/24/sports/nike-pregnant-athletes.html

Lutz, Ashley (April 7, 2015) Nike is going after 3 kinds of customers Business Insider Retrieved from: https://www.businessinsider.com/nike-is-going-after-3-kinds-of-customers-2015-4

Salpini, Cara (Sept 03, 2019) Game-changers: Have women reshaped the sportswear market? RetailDive.com, retrieved from: https://www.retaildive.com/news/game-changers-have-women-reshaped-the-sportswear-market/561607/

Me, design for Nike?? đź¤©

Have you ever thought of designing a new product and pitching it to an existing company? Especially an industry titan such as Nike, Inc? It’s not totally out-of-reach: It would just require some planning, hard work, dedication, and a great pitch.

But before considering that pitch, one must surely do their homework. Or, in this case, Market Research. Before putting oneself out there with such an idea, one must first ascertain if such a product would have any demand, that is, if anyone would by it. And what about buying it more than once? Is the introduction of this new product sustainable over the long term? Nike is going to want these questions answered before they offer any serious consideration to the project. They’re not just going to toss it up and swing….

Why would one want to pitch a product to Nike, in particular? Nike, Inc has been an industry titan almost since its inception. Born as Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964 in Beaverton, OR by University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman, the company officially became Nike, Inc. in 1978. The company was founded on the principle of developing better athletic footwear for better athletic performance. Keeping it’s focus on that mission, Nike has grown into a behemoth of a company, dominating the sportswear industry in the US and abroad. Nike has, over its history, acquired other companies (a recent notable being Converse in 2003), continuing to expand its influence and grow its market share. According to Marketwatch.com, in 2019 Nike, Inc. posted revenues of $39.12B, with net income of $4.03B. Nike has been on a 5-year upward trend, with figures in 2015 showing $30.7B and $3.27B, respectively.

Nike has weathered its share of up’s and down’s, with controversy over supply-chain and labor ethics, environmental impact of production, and various “scandals” involving individual athletes and issues of race, religion and values (read: Colin Kaepernick). Over the years and in response to some of the criticisms, Nike has modernized it’s supply chain and environmental impact, and improved its labor relationships. Although many of these controversies have resulted in calls for boycotts of Nike, the company has always used brilliant marketing strategy to get out ahead of the challenges and instead use them to strengthen its Branding: Nike is about sports, period. To them, it does not matter what color an athlete is, what religion (Muslims welcome!), how popular the sport, or even how fit the competitor. Sports is Sports. One of Nike’s current taglines is, “If You Have a Body, You’re an Athlete.” (Nike.com).

Nike’s social media is rife with inspiring stories of people from all walks of life who just love sports, are overcoming a myriad of obstacles, and are reaching new heights. You kind of have to be made of stone to view Nike’s YouTube channel or IG feed and not feel inspired.

Nike on YouTube

One of the more recent controversial news items that cast Nike, Inc in an unfriendly light was a news story in the NY Times asserting that Nike treated female athletes who chose to get pregnant poorly, by failing to honor their contracts. Supportrs for the athletes were vocal in demanding Nike make accommodations for parenting. Nike vowed to review and improve its policy regarding performance-based contracts.

This facet of Nike’s history might suggest that they may be interested in launching a new product: A sports bra that accommodates nursing mothers!

Sports bra design certainly has come a long way, with the newest designs far better fucctioning than their predecesers decades ago. Sports bras are more supportive, durable, comfortable, on occaision even flattering. But the final step toward an ultimately functional design would be a sports bra that has clasps at the top of the cups so that the front panels can drop down, just like traditional nursing bras. The sports bra would be different in that it is still made of super supportive materials, with a layer of absorptive material and an athletic fabric that minimized the appearance of leaks.

This sounds like a great idea for a new product. But to find out if it actually is a profitable idea, market research needs to be conducted to determine whether or not the idea appeals to consumers or if there is a big enough market segment to sustain the launch and sales of this idea.

Stay tuned to find out how we decide to go about this research!

References:

Company History, Nike, Inc (2019) Nike.com

Nike Inc. Cl B (2019) Marketwatch.com, retrieved from: https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/nke/financials

Nike on Instagram (2019) https://www.instagram.com/p/BlOeTZhg9ai/

Nike on YouTube (2190)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUFgkRb0ZHc4Rpq15VRCICA

Ethics in Marketing

The iconic sleazy used car salesman. Don’t be this guy!

Fair or not, the field of Marketing has a mixed reputation. Especially when grouped into a larger heading of “Sales and Marketing.” Kurt Russel brilliantly portrayed the stereotypical greasy salesman in the 1980 film Used Cars: lying, cheating, doing whatever he had to do to sucker someone into buying a car. Marketers who employ the same tactics in their advertising campaigns are acting unethically. And while the majority of marketers strive for a professional, fair and balanced representation of their products, the few “bad apples” who market using deceptive practices are, unfortunately, who consumers tend to remember.

To a person aspiring to join the field of marketing, it is important to learn a good set of ethical best practices and to work within them right from the beginning. The American Trade Association (AMA.org) has published an Statement of Ethics created by industry members to guide marketing efforts along a path of integrity and fairness. While it is a somewhat exhaustive list of rules, the intention of the guidelines is summarized quite nicely in the Preamble:

“The American Marketing Association commits itself to promoting the highest standard of professional ethical norms and values for its members (practitioners, academics and students). Norms are established standards of conduct that are expected and maintained by society and/or professional organizations. Values represent the collective conception of what communities find desirable, important and morally proper. Values also serve as the criteria for evaluating our own personal actions and the actions of others. As marketers, we recognize that we not only serve our organizations but also act as stewards of society in creating, facilitating and executing the transactions that are part of the greater economy. In this role, marketers are expected to embrace the highest professional ethical norms and the ethical values implied by our responsibility toward multiple stakeholders (e.g., customers, employees, investors, peers, channel members, regulators and the host community). “

(AMA.org, 2019)

In essence, this renders down to a marketing campaign that presents a fair, balanced and truthful representation of a product, without taking unfair advantage of the consumer, or even the competition. What does this mean for an Integrated Marketing Campaign? An IMC will combine traditional print and media advertising with social and other on-line media. When using Social Media, many personal users blur the lines between reality and presentation: It is well-known that it takes numerous attempts at a “selfie” to get one worth sharing. With the multitude of picture filters now available, a remarkable number of people miraculously now have Disney eyes and flawless skin!

From Pinterest.com
Thank Goodness for Snapchat!

While questionable enough in personal use, it is unprofessional and unacceptable the blur those lines when marketing. Even when using social media to portray a product or service, the marketer must strive for an accurate representation. This is no place for a filter or a image cropped so as to change its depiction.

Social media can be effective in marketing products to raise brand awareness by encouraging information about a product to spread by “word-of-mouth” advertising. But when a marketer intentionally “seeds” a product with an influencer or brand ambassador, it is in keeping with ethical practices to disclose in the advertising that such a seed took place, or that the ambassador is being compensated in some way by the company. (Clow, p. 402) While some critics may argue that this should never occur at all, it is considered acceptable, as long as the disclosure is prominently communicated to the consumer.

In an IMC, planning how and when to launch information and advertising is often influenced by what the target market segment is. Ethical best practices dictate that when the target group is children, extra care must be taken to ensure that the advertising does not take unfair advantage of the viewer: Products must be accurately shown as they really are; accessories that are not included must be stated so; and if adult supervision is required of the child’s use of the product, this supervision must also be depicted in the advertising. (Clow, p. 404)

Why are following these rules of ethics so important? The first topic that comes to mind is consumer protection: The consumer must be able to trust the representations of products and services conveyed. In our market economy, there are already so many choices to be considered for every purchase. Adding the burden of attempting to weed out lies and gross exaggerations to the purchasing process would render it almost impossible. Lying to get somebody to buy something is stealing their money. Misleading a consumer into engaging with an unsafe product or with a product in an unsafe way is dangerous and at an extreme could lead to criminal charges, as well as injury or fatalities.

But another consideration of keeping in Ethical practices is to maintain industry self-regulation: The AMA is a trade association representing marketers, and it is professional marketers who have devised and drafted the Ethical guidelines. Most industries have self-populated associations with their own Best Practices guidelines. The reasoning behind this is that those who work in an industry know the considerations better than an outsider, and it is in their own best interests to watch over themselves as peers, rather than an outside group doing it. An industry that fails to self-regulate will eventually lose their ability to do so. Sort of like children who cannot get along earn themselves a babysitter.

Pinterest.com

Every marketer who flouts the rules risks bringing the industry one step closer to government regulation, which generally leads to cumbersome complications in the oversight and regulation process. To support and maintain industry autonomy, every marketer has the responsibility to uphold the Ethical Guidelines. To do is for the good of consumers, our market economy, and the marketing industry as a whole.

When beginning a career in Marketing, all these considerations can seem daunting. It is wise to prepare oneself by reviewing the AMA guidelines, and spending some time drafting one’s own personal guidelines. Decided ahead of time, boundaries are easier to observe and maintain when challenged. For me, personally, I gravitate toward representing products I am genuinely enthusiastic about, and create a campaign focused on the merits and strengths of said product, rather than trying to devise ways to swindle the customer into buying something. Of course, when first starting out on this new career, it is not always possible to choose the most preferable products or companies to represent while working to populate a resume. Regardless of the task, however, one can always observe a commitment to integrity and maintaining good ethical standards. Place this commitment as priority, and one will build a reputation as an effective and reliable marketer!

References:

American Marketing Association, Statement of Ethics, Retrieved from: https://www.ama.org/codes-of-conduct/

Clow, K. E. Integrated Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing Communications. [MBS Direct]. Retrieved from https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780134485027/

Used Cars Poster (10/25/2019) Meansheets.com2011/04/20/used-cars-posters/

Pinterest.com/pin/369576713145502000/

Author’s own Snapchat image, SnapCat.com/sunhfam

At the End of the Day…

Photo By Niechelle Wade

So I’m studying the role of goal-setting in Marketing campaigns. Specifically, S.M.A.R.T. goals.

Really in any arena of life, setting out to accomplish something is admirable. But without setting a goal as to how one will go about it, it’s just kind of a wish or a whim. Setting a goal aids in accomplishing two things: a goal leads to a plan, which is deciding how, exactly the intention will become reality; and a S.M.A.R.T. goal will also include a quantifier, a way of ascertaining when the goal is met. At the end of the day, understanding the ‘how’ and ‘how much’ of the goal has been accomplished keeps the project functional. Whatever ones project may be.

But back to marketing campaigns and S.M.A.R.T. goals. What makes a goal SMART? Specific, Measurable, Action-based, Realistic, Time-oriented. Satisfying these parameters pulls a goal from the realm of a whim into the sphere of an attainable reality. When planning a marketing campaign, merely declaring that “we need to increase sales” is making an observation, not setting a goal. But of course, this is where most campaigns start.

So how can this be developed into a SMART goal? By addressing all the prompts in the goal: “Sales of our product are quite good for the 20-30 year-old female demographic. They love aspect A of our product. Let’s aim to generate new sales in the 30-40 age group (Specific). Let’s re-craft our message and highlight another aspect, aspect B, of our product (Action-oriented) to acquire new leads. Social media platform X is popular with this segment, let’s create some content focusing on aspect B (Specific, Action-oriented). It’s September. Currently our percent of sales from this group stand at 5%. Let’s bring that up to 20% (Measurable, Realistic) by the end of this coming Holiday season (Time-oriented). See the difference?

Now that there is a smart goal in place, bringing it to being will be done by strategizing the proper tactics to utilize. Strategy is the overall plan to get to the goal. In this scenario the strategy will be to highlight aspect B of the product to appeal to the new demographic and increase sales. Tactics are the specific actions taken to attain the goal, such as identifying the appropriate social media platform and creating content (Southwell, 2019). This is an example of tactics working to support strategy. Understanding the difference between the two can enable a nebulous idea to become a tangible list of actionable items.

When goal-setting for a Marketing Campaign, it is a vital savings of both labor and financial resources to work SMART. Answering each prompt will keep the process focused and lend an incredible mount of clarity to the task at hand. Especially when working with inter-departmental groups, taking the time to lay out what exactly is to be accomplished fosters teamwork within the group and gets everybody on board to support the project. Working SMART will ensure that questions such as, “what are measurable outcomes?” and “what’s the most effective use of resources in support of this strategy?” can be definitively answered. Such clarity of plan is also important to justifying a healthy budget allocation toward demand creation with management.

Constantly monitoring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is an effective way to gauge the success of the tactics chosen to attain the goal along the way. In this scenario, rather than waiting until after Holiday season sales are tabulated to find out if the plan worked, tracking KPIs along the way will lend valuable insight as to whether or not the tactics are working, or if any changes can be made to better-align he strategy with the overall goal (Klipfolio.com).

Some good KPIs to watch in this scenario include Brand Awareness: Is the new content created on different platforms increasing the awareness by our target demographic? If not, should different platforms be utilized, or different timing scheduled? Another good metric here would be Click-Through Rates (CTRs). When potential customers see the brand/product online, are they enticed enough to click a link to visit the website, or are they making a purchase? If improvement is needed, perhaps change up the content or add a call-to-action prompt. How about Customer Engagement? Are customers sharing the content, mentioning the brand/product, or uploading their own content? Monitoring these indicators all through the life of a new campaign can show marketers what is working, where more support is needed, and how potential customers are responding to their efforts.

With so much “noise” of many advertisers on any marketing platform, crafting an effective and relevant campaign takes skill, consideration and planning. Utilizing the prompts to create a good SMART goal, drafting a strategy and then setting it in motion with a solid plan of tactics can mean the difference between successfully reaching ones marketing goals, or merely becoming a part of all that background noise.

References:

Key Marketing Metrics Every Marketer Should Measure (n.d.) Klipfolio.com, Retrieved from https://www.klipfolio.com/resources/kpi-examples/marketing

Images Retrieved from https://freephotos.cc/ unless otherwise indicated

Southwell, Charlie. (2019, June 16). Marketing Strategy vs. Tactics – Explaining the Difference.[web log comment]. Retrieved from http://charliesaidthat.com/digital/digital/difference-between-marketing-strategy-vs-tactics-an-example/

The Power of Influence

“Your influence on others is your net worth, treat it as such” -Peprah Boasiako

A social media influencer I follow is Ashley Galvin of Ashley Galvin Yoga. Ashley is a skilled, blithe and beautiful yogi, mother, and wife of fellow yogi Josh Kramer. Ashley lives in Laguna Beach, CA. She has 508.5K followers on IG, and 30K followers on FB.

Ashley’s primary company for whom she markets is Alo Moves (Alomoves.com), an online yoga studio to which students can subscribe for monthly unlimited classes with various popular instructors. Ashley has a number of series recordings on the site, so students can do a single class or a sequence. She markets their line of workout gear, as well as their classes.

Yoga studios and websites rely on inspirational and motivating teachers and celebrities to bring new students to the study. Yoga is hard work, and an inspirational figure needs to be a master of the more intriguing poses and make them look easy. But more than form, yoga is about stilling the fluctuations of the mind, and a yogi must also embody peace and confidence. For this role, Ashley Galvin is perfectly suited.

Ashley’s content is a beautiful mix of still images and short videos of challenging poses, places she’s been and everyday life in general highlighting her strength, balance, and inspirational form. Ashley posts on Instagram, Facebook , and while she doesn’t have her own YouTube channel, Alo Moves features many of her videos and clips on their YT channel.

A clip from Ashley’s Detox Flow Class

Ashley is an effective influencer for Alo Moves because she has an incredible figure and is amazingly flexible. Her form and spirit embody the art and study of Yoga. Most of Ashley’s content revolves around just being herself. She has an amazing energy that comes through on the screen, and she travels to exotic locations to shoot, film and teach.

View this post on Instagram

Do more than just exist.

A post shared by Ashley Galvin (@ashleygalvinyoga) on

Ashley seems like a Goddess, but she keeps it very real. Ashley became a mother not long ago, and she shared not only the journey into parenthood with her audience, but confided her feelings of deep emotions, changing body and self image, and of facing the challenges of being away from home to continue to teach and film.

Effective social influencers sell products without even appearing to do so: Reminiscent of the old high school, “what is the popular girl wearing?” mentality, influencers gain their following by just being themselves, and their followers happen to obsess over what they are holding in their hands, wearing, or going out to see in the theater. Some influencers will actually do a pointed product review, but many are paid to just to be associated with a product service, or mode of entertainment.

The use of social media influencers has risen in popularity (and effective ROI) recently because of the “word-of-mouth” style of advertising it offers. Followers of celebrities and influencers like to think of themselves as friends with the the people they follow, and hearing them endorse a product or service is as effective as if a friend or family member is recommending it, if not more so. This helps bring more of a human touch to the company in the eyes of the consumer. In this day of very crowded advertising platforms and saturated marketing messaging, the use of an influencer really helps a message stand out and be noticed by the right market segment for a company’s product. Influencers are paid impressively for their endorsements, as companies realize how effective this mode of advertising has become.

As for me, I do not currently subscribe to Alo Moves, although I may once we get settled in CA and life evens out a bit. I have studied yoga previously and can do my own home practice, occasionally referencing one of Ashley’s videos on YouTube. But I continue to follow her for inspiration, not just with my practice, but also for her calm and peaceful energy, and her real sense of grace. Even though I may not be buying anything she is selling, I know every time I like one of her posts, I am contributing to her clout as an influencer, which is what is integral to earning a sponsorship in the first place!

Namaste.

Thanks, Whirlpool!

The pedestal raises your washer and dryer to a more comfortable height and storage bins for laundry hold and hide detergent, dryer sheets, and other laundry needs.
Whirlpool on Pinterest

As a marketer, I tend to see through campaigns and view them for what they are: Carefully curated contraptions designed to sway the consumer into becoming a customer. I can appreciate a well-crafted effort, for sure, but I generally consider myself immune to many of the cheap and tawdry works that are merely trying to swindle a quick buck out of the hands of the less-vigilant.

But I will say a marketing campaign that I recently discovered struck me at my core and made me stop and wonder at its authenticity and true appreciation for the human experience. After a bit of a marketing slump, Whirlpool has woken up to the needs of its target market and launched a brilliant new campaign called #Everydaycare.  Whirlpool appliances are standard, run-of-the-mill home helpers:  Washers and dryers, refrigerators, ranges and ovens, microwaves, etc.  Use of these items is daily drudgery, and there is little glamour in it all.  Raising a family is often thankless work.  In most conversations, women (and men) who stay at home to run the house are considered unemployed.  It is easy for a homemaker to feel disconnected and marginalized, both by the family and by society.

            The drafters of the #Everydaycare campaign recognized the needs of their target audience and designed and amazing strategy that simply focused on highlighting the importance of the care that parents give everyday to their families.  With the #Everydaycare promotion, Whirlpool understood the needs for their customers to feel autonomous, competent and connected (Zhu & Chen, 2015).  Whirlpools campaign ran TV spots and YouTube videos demonstrating the cumulative importance of the care parents practice every day, demonstrating how their appliances helped by being reliable, utilizing smart features to automate tasks, and offering the #Everydaycare community for parents to share their stories of the work they do to support their families.  The appliances helped parents feel in control of their schedules (autonomous), offered solutions to enable a day’s work to actually get done (competence), and the community of sharing stories helped fostered a sense of community for an often isolating and thankless job (relatedness).  The campaign was inclusive, sharing stories of different ethnicities and even stay-at-home fathers, a demographic often over-looked by the domestic products market. This video, appropriate for graduation season sums up the messaging of the #Everydaycare campaign:

The campaign used social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest) to encourage families to post their stories using the hashtag #Everydaycare and #Itsallcare.  This created a social community for a demographic that can often feel isolated, trapped in the daily drudgery that can leave little time for an outside social life.  Whirlpool even hosted a musical contest, where entrants submitted videos performing the song “You are my Sunshine”, which was the theme track for the campaign.  The winner was featured on a national TV ad.

The #Everydaycare campaign was launched in 2014.  Not only did the project show real ROI for the company with a “12% year-over-year unit growth and a 6.6% lift in sales” (shortyawards.com, 2019), but the customer engagement showed that the message resonated with consumers.  Whirlpool regularly shared tweets and comments from followers on their social media platforms.  This allowed everyday families to know that their individual stories were being heard, further fostering the much sought-after sense of community and connectedness.  On twitter and Facebook, Whirlpool customer service would answer individual comments and product questions. Customers felt that their stories mattered.

       While the message and pull of the campaign is powerful (even speaking personally), now 5 years later the follower interaction is trailing off.  When the campaign previously launched, users were liking sharing and commenting with their own stories.  But more recently, posts and engagements on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter has dwindled off, with the most recent posts on FB and Twitter being from January 2019. One area where Whirlpool seems to be dropping the ball is with their app, used to integrate and control their smart-enabled appliances.  The reviews about the app are consistently poor, with the same complaint repeated that the appliances will not actually connect to a wifi signal, nor will the app control them (Googleplay, 2019).  And while the promotional campaign has been successful in driving sales and engagement, Whirlpool is purportedly not serving the customers very well with quality products.  Many of the current and previous FB posts are riddled with comments from dissatisfied customers who are frustrated with their appliances and poor performance by the customer service and repair departments. Interactions such as this are common:

          As I stated in a previous post, when marketing, a company must be able to deliver on the product or service they are advertising.  It will remain to be seen if Whirlpool will be able to improve upon the app and continue to address customer concerns about the quality of their products and their repair team.  Having similar issues with another line of products, I totally understand the customer’s frustration, especially having to go for days or weeks (!) without the use of an appliance that I just paid a great deal of money for. 

            Regardless, one cannot argue that Whirlpool’s implementation of the #Everydaycare campaign was very successful at reaching and engaging its followers.  I, as a working mother of 4 teens, really felt the impact and appreciated the nod of support for such a tireless and often thankless job.  As I watch my third child graduate next week, I find myself able to look back on all those countless loads of laundry and dishes as the building blocks of a solid foundation that I was able to build for my family.  So for that reminder and inspiration, I say, Thanks, Whirlpool!

References:

8th Annual Shorty Awards, Whirlpool Entry, Retrieved from: https://shortyawards.com/8th/everydaycare-whirlpool-digitaslbi-and-crowdtap-2

Whirlpool App reviews (2019) Google play store, Retrieved from: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whirlpool.android.wpapp&hl=en_US

Home, Kitchen & Laundry Appliances & Products. (n.d.). Retrieved June 2, 2019, from https://www.whirlpool.com/everydaycare.html#helping

Whirlpool Facebook page (6/02/2019), Retrieved from: https://www.facebook.com/whirlpoolusa

Whirlpool Pinterest page (6/01/2019), Retrieved from: https://www.pinterest.com/whirlpoolusa/

Whirlpool Twitter feed (6/02/2019), Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/whirlpoolusa

Whirlpool YouTube channel (6/02/2019), Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/user/whirlpoolusa?pbjreload=10 Zhu, Yu-Qian, Chen, Houn-Gee, (2015) Social media and human need satisfaction: Implications for social media marketing, Retrieved from: https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1016/j.bushor.2015.01.006

My Digital Closet

My digital activities are a closet or sorts, as one never knows what one might find on any given day!

My day starts with checking my Facebook and Instagram feeds, and checking my two email accounts.  Then I check my SNHU page and email for class announcements.  There are a couple comic strips I like to follow on GoComics.com, I check my horoscope on Astrostyle.com, and then I get news headlines from my Google feed. 

My go-to devices are my smartphone, laptop, and sometimes tablet.  I rarely get on a desktop these days, unless there is a specific reason like I want to view multiple images, type a bunch of text, or do a project with a lot of mapping.

Interacting with the FB and IG is often a strange combination of uplifting and depressing.  Facebook used to be entertaining, but it seems that generally my same friends are posting everyday and their messages don’t really vary much.  So it has become predictable.  I like IG better:  Since I choose who to follow, there is more variety.  But it can be depressing as well. I follow fitness and yoga influencers, and they are both inspiring and intimidating.  Sometimes I am motivated to do a harder workout, but other times I wonder how I’ll ever look like that or do that armstand!  The travel and foodie accounts I follow give me a more positive feeling, for sure.

I have a Twitter account, but I don’t use it much anymore.  After my last trip to CA back in February, I tweeted about how I had a wonderful experience flying Jet Blue for the first time.  A couple of rando’s hijacked my tweet to respond that they did not think Jet Blue was very good at all.  Really?

I do get a large number of marketing emails, around 100 a day, I counted.  A few of these I signed up for, most I did not.  Unsubscribing from these emails does nothing, nor does creating “rules” or blocking them.  I find this frustrating, as I spend a portion of my day deleting emails.  I don’t think unsolicited emails are a very good way to gain new customers.  I should check the numbers, though, maybe it works for other demographics.

The emails I did sign up for are generally shopping sites, I like to check out designer discount.  I will open an email for a good sale, or discount code, or if I’m looking for something in particular.  Some of my favorites are Nordstromrack.com, Hautelook.com, Zulily.com, FreePeople.com and Madewell.com.

Marketing over digital media has obviously exploded recently.  I find it annoying.  Just like in the past with print media, where it was around so much that one cold not even push a shopping cart or pick up the gas pump without finding an ad in one’s hand, now it is so with digital space:  Every spare corner holds an ad.  Many sites the ads cover or interrupt the content.  And what I find really annoying, if I am looking at an item on a shopping site, I then see the item everywhere else I surf for the next several days.  This may work to entice some people to buy the item, but to me it’s overkill and a turn-off.

One of my goals as a future marketer is to develop new ways to market without shoving advertising down people’s throats.  It’s too much, time to do something different.  I do like the newer methods of product placement and writing products into storylines in programs and films, this seems less intrusive and actually more effective in getting a potential customer “sold” on a product.

This is a snapshot of my digital life.  It will be interesting to see how it evolves as I get further into my Social Media Marketing class.  Wish me luck!

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started