Ch. 18 Social Media and Marketing

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Martha Stewart

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In today's world communication happens in the blink of an eye. From one second to the another information is traveling at the speed of  light across the world. The World Wide Web is the most popular form of communication capturing the attention of everyone from the Pope (twitter ) to President Obama (Facebook). Interests and opinion are voiced and posted on several websites describing, explaining, and dissecting products, services, and specialty items. Social media sites are a haven for Marketers, with the right marketing plan an organization can expand and advertise their products & services to a world wide audience.

             

Martha Stewart Verified account

@MarthaStewart

curious,inquisitive,experimental entrepreneur who cares about the world we live in

Katonah, NY · themarthablog.com

• 5,498TWEETS
• 7,733FOLLOWING
• 2,878,957FOLLOWERS

Consumer's spend more time browsing websites and engaging in conversation on the web than they watch television. Marketers can obtain valuable information researching websites, blogs, and postings. Martha Stewart writes a blog on her website called Living Blog informing her fans and customers on current events, trips, and recipes. She also has guest writers contribute to her blog and entries of blog post, pictures, and videos from fellow crafters displaying their version of table settings, cake decorations, and inspiring pictures. This can be considered a Corporate blog, promoting the company and it's brand, however, many of the posts Martha Stewart posts writes interacting through this website can also be considered a Non-Corporate Blog because it's authentic from herself not a marketing team.



Marketers can utilize social websites to collect information and devise a marketing plan based on trends, comments, posts, blogs coming directly from consumers and their expectations. Positive and Negative comments are important to analyze and consider. Implementing changes in products based
on consumers comments can help a brand correct their products or services negative aspects. Once consumers see modified results with a product or service they will be inclined to continue a loyal relationship with the brand. Marketers should listen to the consumers and consider their needs.

                                


Social Networking information needs to be monitored daily in order for the company to successfully market their brand on the internet. Information can have an devastating impact on a brand if negative information and comments surface without an intervention plan. Below is a website link acknowledging 5 Habit of a successful online marketing campaign. Review Sites such as Social Media Examiner can be helpful to Marketing Groups as they research information on popular websites and marketing plans.


 

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-habits-of-successful-content-marketers-new-research/

Having two million followers and over eight hundred thousand likes is an incredible amount of Earned Media from fans, loyal customers and first time consumers enlightened by the Martha Stewart Brand. Martha Stewart Living Website represents an Owned Media along with posts, blogs and comments. Martha Stewart's magazine, TV Shows, and published books are Paid Media for and from the Company to continue expanding her brand.

Martha Stewart is connected to many social media outlets and one thing is for sure she has mastered the art of marketing on the internet.  

Ch. 10 Product Concepts

Worldwide Recognition 

Martha Stewart debuting her home organization line in CANADA

Global brand names like Martha Stewart are successful because the name is associated with products that are trusted. Consumers are drawn towards brand names because they attribute them with quality products. Quality, loyalty, and durability are just a few words used to describe a product that people will continue to buy.


The key to becoming a recognizable brand name is having a good introductory product line that can be distinguished from the existing market. For Martha Stewart, she began branding herself as the face of the company through cookbooks and event crafting. Consumers were impressed by her ability to construct an entire event from decor to food by using creative items such as pine cones, pumpkins, and flowers, things you can find in-expensively to create settings. She also incorporated food & drinks arranged on platters and serving dishes that visually appeared to be food decor.
Her recipes for an event continue to carry the theme and color of the events she was having. Martha Stewart began her career as a home maker who had a creative edge for homemaking. Consumers could relate to her and her products.

Martha Stewart's product line consisted of recipe books, and cookware. She began to create a Product Mix including specialty serving dishes, bakeware, and cooking tools to help create the signature Martha Stewart appearance. Her unsought products became popular due to her successful product lines. She expanded her product mix width to include an extensive line of home decor, curtains, bed linens, pillow, wall paint, organizers, and picture frames. Her image defines her products, they exude clean, elegant, natural images that are new interesting in the home decor market.

From soup to nuts, an expression emphasizing having everything needed, or covering all the basics, is the definition of celebrating an event for Martha Stewart. Her product line covers all the essentials needed in order to capture her image or decorating concepts. Her blue trademark symbol is recognized by consumers and is considered a personal stamp of guarantee.

Below are just some images of products created by Martha Stewart:
Cookbooks, Paint, Room Organizers, Yarn, Jewelry, and Smoothies!!!!

Product Line & Product Line Extensions 

                                                       

                                               
                                               

CH. 17 Personal Selling and Sales Management

Happy Shopper

The art of Selling, to a consumer, is based on the relationship between the company and the consumers individual demographics, specifically their interactions with the company's products and services. In order to successfully sell products and services to consumers, the sales person has to build a relationship with the buyer. One form of selling is called Relationship selling, for example: Martha Stewart has carefully spent 15 years teaching her consumers how to incorporate more meaningful, functional, beautiful lives with her line of products and services. Consumers want to enrich their lives, and the lives of their family and friends, therefore Martha Stewart designs her products and services as an intricate need to celebrate special moments. She establishes connections, a special bond between consumers and all the happy celebrations in their lives.

The Martha Stewart company can build successful relationships with the potential buyers by collecting consumer information. Consumer information contains valuable details about each consumer that can help the company with future product developments. When a consumer interacts with a company's associate, the consumer is in need of guidance or assistance purchasing or inquiring about the products or services. This is an important opportunity to gain information about the buyer and how they view the company's products and services. More importantly, the consumer at times is interested in the over all experience they will receive rather than just the products and services. As the company continues to gather buyers purchasing information the need to capture the important data pertaining to sales process leading to closing the sale is called Knowledge Management. This process compiles consumer information and records it in order to learn about the relationship between the consume and sales associate.

Consumers leave information in various places in a store or on-line. When consumers create registries, complete warranty, or inquiring for a product's information they are leaving Touch Points.  Touch Points are all areas of a company that consumers have had contact with. Information Kiosks, price scanners, and on-line commentary are additional Touch Points used to gather useful information. JC Penny is developing a new kiosks system exclusively for Martha Stewart products, this will enable her company to directly educate consumers about her products, and consumers will gain valuable design information as we'll as in-store product quantities and availability. Please click on the link below for more information. 

Martha Stewart Products will be sold in small Kiosk machines featured above in JC Penny

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2013/03/02/Store-within-a-store-concept-goes-to-court/UPI-36211362239481/

Technology can offer innovation and details on how a company can research their target market by connecting and establishing a Pre-approach "homework" on all consumers interacting with their company. The sales team in JC Penny should be trained to offer product knowledge to ensure and secure the consumer buying process is happening. A sales associate should engage the consumer in a conversations and suggest items pertaining to the consumers present desire. To further explain this, imagine a consumer entering the store and their main concern is a house warming gift for their niece, a sales associate should approach the consumer and ask if any assistance is needed. Once the consumer admits to needing assistance, the sales associate should be open to listening to the consumers present need, more over what they are looking for. The sales associate should under stand the need and proceed to the items closely relating to that product line, or event. The sales associate can quickly begin Negotiating with the potential buyer and entice them by in-store sales, rebates, and coupons to seal the deal.

Martha Stewarts product line, at first, captures consumers with her creative innovative design , however, without a great sales team, products and services will not sell themselves. As a young retail associate for Speedo, I was asked to educate myself on the product line, materials, and durability of the products. Speedo's consumers were active people, swimming, running, and biking. It was my job to inform myself and to stay connected in order to successfully complete a sale and increase profit for the company. 

Ch. 16 Advertising, Public Relations, and Sales Promotion

Advertisements surround our daily routines, as consumers we are unaware of every product sold to us because Ad placements are blended strategically in our visual and audio environment. In order for a company to successfully promote a product, the advertising appeals have to be identified and marketed exactly how the consumer wants and needs the product to be. This type of advertisement is called Product Advertising, this also includes Pioneering Advertisement, Competitive Advertisement,  and Comparative Advertisement.

• Martha Stewart's advertising team has to incorporate Pioneering Advertisements to promote new products. New cookware sets and bed linings with an increase in threading will be the highlighted features in Pioneering Advertisements. Consumer are interested in making good decisions especially with new product lines. They need to be able to differentiate between competitive brands.
  
   
• Competitive Advertisements are used to highlight and promote branding. Martha Stewart is a household brand in constant need of continuous branding to ensure the company's longevity. Brand recognition will resonate with the consumers and their primary groups. This form of advertising will assist in building a loyal consumer relationship. Another benefit for consumers are contest and sweepstakes, Martha Stewart promotes entrepreneurship with her Made in America contest and by having sweepstakes contests.
  
   
• Comparative Advertising allows the brand Martha Stewart to promote their products over the competing name brands such as Jaclyn Smith's line of home decor and Target's Threshold Brand. Martha Stewart's clean lined patterns and bold contrasting colors are innovated selections used to enticed the consumer into thinking about decor in a new way. 

Creative Decisions in Advertising  for a advertising product campaign consists of a common theme, slogan, and set of advertising appeals assist with generating a product that consumers will recognize.  "Sharing the good things everyday" is one of Martha Stewart's slogans, this slogan describes the products Martha Stewart creates such as bake ware sets for cupcakes and cakes, and beautiful glass display jars to showcase the baked goods and treats for family and friends. The picture below illustrates the creative beauty for a holiday display. This advertisement can be delivered around the hoildays to like Christmas time creating an advertising appeal and product placement. 

A advertisement has to run on a Media Schedule, just as I mentioned above product placement is key when promoting a product. The Media Mix should include several platforms of advertisements. Some of the platforms consists of Internet Ads, Television Commercials, and Direct Marketing like the Home Shopping Network. A Star product should continue to receive advertisement publicity in order to continue to generate a large profit for the company.

Martha Stewart is a successful house hold name due to a combination of intelligent marketing, creative strategic advertisement, and naturally home good products.  

Ch. 14 - Marketing Channels and Retailing

Martha Stewart has developed contracts with many major Chain Stores such as Home Depot, Michaels, Kmart, JC Penny, Macys in order to expand and cater to consumers in different demographics. This marketing process is also know as a Intensive Distribution aim at maximum market coverage. Lines of Home Decor, Cookware & Utensils, Crafting Decor & Supplies has allowed her to market her products in stores with a large customer following. By carefully choosing the 6 P's (The 4 P's in a Marketing Mix Product, Place, Promotion, Price & Presentation, Personnel) Martha Stewart Products will attract different customer in each Retail store.

My recent trip to Michael's Crafting Store in Forest Hills helped me to understand the importance of marketing in a Retail Chain Store.   Defining a Target Market in Michael's should be based on Creative Crafting, this group of consumers are interested in creating, decorating, and designing. The consumer is self sufficient and requires some instruction, materials, and tools to explore their creative talents. This consumers also wants to be able to create, decorate, and design for all occasions from Weddings, Birthdays, and Holidays.

Silk Screening Window Shades

Martha Stewart also has an How-to Silk Screening video available on her website. Please click on the link below to watch the video. 

http://www.marthastewart.com/252993/how-silk-screen

Michaels supplies all of the Martha Stewart tools

you will need in order to successfully craft and silk screen. 

The Merchandise Type and Density displayed in The Martha Stewart aisle in Michaels allows the consumer to quickly survey the materials and tools they will need in order to successfully create their project. If the consumer is unable to understand or find a particular product or tool The  Michaels sales associate is well trained in crafting since the majority of their items are crafting related. The Personnel is essential should be an informative product asset in order to have a productive business. The Level of Service provided in a retail store such as Michaels allows the consumer to feel comfortable and have a familiar shopping experience in the future. Michaels also rewards their consumers every week with an instore coupon worth 40% off any one regular price item, which save the consumer money. This coupon is can be used in addition to their many other coupons available only for that week. 

Martha Stewart Company has many different forms of production, she has Global Channels in China where she manufactures some of her products. Many of her products are also manufactured  in the United States where she continues to influence entrepreneurs to promote Made in America items.    

http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/2746300730001/martha-stewart-on-american-made/

CH. 6 Consumer Decision Making

WHICH ONE SHOULD I BUY?

What makes a consumer purchase a product? Is it Age, Culture, Beliefs, Values, Sex, or all of the above? Consumers are driven by events, holidays, birthdays, and many other special moments in their lives to buy a a certain type of merchandise. Some products such as Tilex, Tide, and Herbal Essence are purchased out of necessity, in order to stay clean you must wash your clothes (Tide) and wash your hair (Herbal Essence). These are all considered The Needs and or Wants of the consumer.  The Need Recognition   is a result of an imbalance between actual and desired states as per MKTG Text Book Student addition 7,  for instance a consumer enters a Target Department Store and comes across a new beautiful Vera Wang Sweater on sale, the initial Motivation would be Fashion or Trend, the need would be to stay warm in cold weather. How do marketers convince the consumer to buy a sweater if their need is  to buy cooking utensils?

Martha Stewart China Collection

The marketer has to consider many aspects of the consumers demographics. In many cases certain Social Class Standards can mean the difference between how much need vs. wants a consumer can purchase. Upper Class consumers are usually well to do people with a family income well above the national average. This class ordinarily has the advantage to purchase their needs and wants without much concern about cost and how much they spend. However, the majority of this class is educated and will be extremely Involved in the buying experience. They are also consumers that tend to buy their products in higher end stores like Bloomingdale's, Whole Foods, Sax Fifth Avenue. There are specific type of cars this consumer purchases that have a more expensive maintenance cost than other vehicles like BMW, Mercedes, and Jaguar. The Socialization Process plays an important role for this class of consumers more than the other classes.
Martha Stewart's is regarded as an inexpensive product with a look of modern luxury. Her bedding sets are 1000 count threads with embroidered designs. Martha Stewart has a  line of beautiful china that exudes elegance and class.

Martha Stewart Jacquard Bedding Collection

Middle Class consumers ordinarily do not have the same luxuries as the upper class, although they can afford to shop in the more expensive stores at times, they're more likely to shop in stores that have products more reasonably priced such as Target, Kohl's, Shop Rite. This class would be more inclined to try knew products that can compare to an older product but at a lower price like Targets  Archer Farms food line. This name brand of foods offers granola bars, cereal, frozen vegetables among so many other foods that are many consumers favorites at a lower cost. It's a direct competition for popular name brands such as Quaker, Green Giant, and Betty Crocker.   This class would also be more inclined to purchase a vehicle that has less expensive maintenance cost and more gas efficient systems like Nissan, Ford, and Chevy. Martha Stewart has a product line in many popular department stores like JCPenny, Macy's, and Home Depot, Middle Class workers tend to shop in these stores for the quality of the product and the convenience of having them in their neighborhood malls.

Lower Class consumers are usually low paid workers or people who are dependent on government programs for financial stability. More than likely this consumer is only given a small amount of benefits for food and would need to purchase food and clothing in a store that can accept the government benefits. This class does not have the room to afford luxury items and would ordinarily buy out of Routine Response Behavior.  Supermarkets that usually accepts government benefits or are inexpensive are Western Beef, Conway's, and V.I.M.

Cultures and Values  often play a big role with consumers and their products. Foods that are primarily used in certain cultures will almost always sell in neighborhood where that culture predominately lives. Marketers will survey the demographics of a particular neighborhood in order to advertise and market their products. Packaging and ingredients are a must in some cultures, because they might represent their countries flag or foods. To some this will mean authenticity, original and nostalgia. Family is almost always the driving force in theses cases, and will influence the buyers choice when choosing a product.

 Martha Stewart products promote happy homes. Her recipes are filled and decorated like it's Thanksgiving everyday of the year. This important quality is for everyone.

  

Ch. 5 - Developing a Global Vision

                            We're Read Internationally!

                              http://www.themarthablog.com/2013/07/were-read-internationally.html

Developing A Global Vision  can impact a companies expansion and financial gain in an instance. Many companies view domestic markets as their Cash Cows in terms of stable target markets and familiar distribution & pricing settings. Although domestic markets can experience significant marketing changes, like trends and component lifestyles, many demographic factors stay the same such as language, cultures, and distribution settings. A countries domestic market is their comfort zone, laws, taxes, and other governmental business components are easily understood. Should a company like Martha Stewart Living   continue to remain a domestic brand name product, or should they take a risk and expand globally to places like The United Kingdom, China, Greece, and Latin America.

Establishing a Global Market has allowed many countries to increase their profits and develop new target markets around the world. According to MKTG Marketing Text Book Student Edition 7  "World Trade climbed $200 Billion in a year to over $ 12.5 Trillion a year in 2009".   McDonalds, Frito Lays, and Coca Cola are all American companies that have experienced financial success worldwide by adapting a Global Marketing Standardization. This allows a company like McDonalds to create their signature foods like French Fries, Hamburgers, and Wraps in other countries because the idea is that customers in markets around the world want to experience eating the same foods they serve in the Untied States. Knowing a countries demographics and laws allows the foreign company to market their products successfully by respecting their lifestyle components . For instance Mcdonalds serves a sandwich called Chicken Maharaja  in India that is marketed like a Big Mac burger, but it does not contain beef because one of the main religions in India is Hindu, and in this religion they worship the Cow. This strategic concept is called Product Adaptation.  The foreign company should adapt to the new environment in order to market their product to that target audience.

Many other aspects of Global Marketing are important to consider when introducing a new product to a foreign country such as Economic Development, Political Structures and Actions. Marketers have to largely consider the economy and the target audiences financial income. Does this country have a sophisticated  societal system, or is it an under developed system? Does this country allow it's citizens a great deal of independence, or is Non-Democratic government. Legal considerations  are can vary depending on the governmental structure existing in a particular country. If your product or service is considered offensive to the people in the new potential country, you can lose credibility and ultimately lose the target market.

Martha Stewart Living Magazine  is now available in countries like Thailand, Indonesia, and Germany among many other countries. Her famous domestic products are advertised and displayed throughout the magazines and her readers are now interested in obtaining her linen, cooking utensils, and cookware. By distributing her magazines in various global countries, Martha Stewart is creating a demand for her products, therefore already attracting a new large target audience. The Marketing director can begin to calculate the highest demand and create a global marketing plan catering to the specific needs and wants that the country has. The products that can be offered are used throughout the world, bed linens, cookware, and home decor is a popular staple in many countries around the world. Martha Stewart can become a leading Direct Investor with an active ownership in a new foreign market. Because Martha Stewart has a large social media following, the company can benefit from the comments and interests written on her blogs.
Thus gaining a bigger insight on her domestic market, but also on her potential new foreign markets.