This is a presentation that two classmates and I worked on for my marketing 350 class at Grand Valley State University. We used many different ways to communicate so that we could all work on the project at the same time and not have to meet. Some of the tools we used were Google Documents, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google Alerts. Using all of these tools made the project easier on all of us with our busy schedules.
Company:
The Company behind this advertisement is Berkshire Hathaway, but the brand is Fruit of the Loom. The product that they are selling in this ad is their line of underwear.
Target Audience:
The target audience for this ad is 30-60 year old men. I say this because one of the lines in the ad is, “no castle in the south of France all we had were underpants that made us feel like royalty.” They are trying to attract people who don’t have a lot of money but want to have underwear that make them feel like they are royalty. According to Prizm one segment that they are targeting is American Dreams segment. This group is comprised of middle aged families with an average income of $56,000. The average middle aged families have 2-3 children and are in the age group of 30-60 years old. Also, the majority of this group have a college education.
Positioning and Differentiation:
Positioning is the process of creating an identity in the minds of your target market. In this ad they use the positioning that their product is not as expensive as their competitors but still have the comfort that their target market are looking for. They also use differentiation to make their product more attractive than their competitors. Fruit of the Loom uses the fact that they make a more comfortable product by using a softer band as leverage over their competitors.
AIDA:
If you look at the life cycle of the product that is being advertised in this ad it is in the market growth stage. So the ad is trying to build up a secondary demand. What this means is Fruit of the Loom is trying to get their target market to not only buy underwear but to buy it from Fruit of the Loom. Next they look at the adoption curve to see when people are going to accept their product. The group that this ad is targeting is the early majority. This group avoids risk and waits to consider new ideas until many of the early adapters have tried it. Since this product has been out on the market for a while the early adapters have already tried this product, so it is best to target the next largest group. The AIDA model consists of four parts attention, interest, desire and action. These four parts relate to three promotion objectives informing, persuading and reminding. Informing consist of trying to get people’s attention and interest in the product. Persuading is the part of promotion that brings in desire. Reminding is the part of promotion that brings action. This ad is in the last section of promotion called reminding. They are trying to get people to take action on the desire that they already have for Fruit of the Loom underwear.
Company:
The Company in this advertisement is McDonald’s, and the products they are selling are their new espresso drinks.
Target Audience:
The target audiences for this ad are the people that love the expensive espresso drinks but are sick of spending so much money on them. The main age groups that enjoy these drinks are the younger group from 12-30. One segment that this ad is aiming for from Prizm is the Young Digerati. This group is young and they make enough money to have some disposable income. The average age for this group is 25-44. They also have a yearly annual income of $88,000. They are home owners, have 2-4 kids, and have a graduate degree. There is also a younger target group of younger kids that this is also targeted at that don’t have a lot of money, but they also don’t have many expenses because they still live with their parents. This age group is from 12-18.
Positioning and Differentiation:
Positioning is the process of creating an identity in the minds of their target market. In this ad McDonald’s is trying to create an identity of making quality espressos like other coffee shops, but keeping their prices low. They want people to come to them for their espresso needs and not to the typical coffee shops. They also use differentiation to make their product more attractive than their competitors. The way they differentiate their product is by showing that their prices are lower than the competition for the same quality product.
AIDA:
If you look at the life cycle of the product that is being advertised in this ad it is in the market growth stage. So the ad is trying to build up a secondary demand. They are trying to get people to not only buy espresso but to buy McDonald’s espresso. Also, they can look at the adoption curve to see when different groups will accept their product. The group that needs to be targeted for this ad is the early adopters. These are younger people who are respected by their peers and are more likely to try new products over later adopters. The acceptance of this group of people is pivotal because the next group looks to the early adopters for guidance. The AIDA model consists of four parts attention, interest, desire and action. These four parts relate to three promotion objectives informing, persuading and reminding. Informing consist of trying to get people’s attention and interest in the product. Persuading is the part of promotion that brings in desire. Reminding is the part of promotion that brings action. This ad by McDonald’s is in the second part of promotion persuading. They are trying to get people into their stores to try their product so they can evaluate the quality versus other coffee shops.
Situational Analysis
Lupita Ventura is the owner of West Side Furniture and has been running the store for the last ten years in the outskirts of a growing city of 275,000 people. The target market for her store is blue-collar workers, so the store emphasizes in the middle and lower priced furniture. She has grown her sales up to $3.5 million a year, but she has stayed at $3.5 million for the last two years and is worried she might have reached her limit. After taking a look at the SWOT analysis for her business Lupita now knows the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of West Side Furniture.
1) Internal Strengths
2) Internal Weaknesses
3) External Opportunities
4) External Threats
Another thing that Lupita looked at when she analyzed her business was the four P’s of marketing product, price, place, and promotion. The following list is what Lupita discovered for her business:
1) Product
2) Price
3) Place
4) Promotion
Problem
West Side Furniture has not been able to have sales of over $3.5 million in the last two years after continuous growth over the previous eight years even after advertising on cable TV and in the newspaper.
Recommendations
I have four recommendations to help Lupita to better manage West Side Furniture and increase her sales to above $3.5 Million.
1. She should pay her salespeople a smaller salary and more on commission on the sales that they make.
2. She should expand the target market to include upper priced furniture.
3. The salespeople should be more aggressive and helpful to the customers.
4. She should hire one new salesperson to let the rest of the staff know that she is serious about getting results. She should also let them know if their sales don’t improve then they will be fired.
Rational
The rational for my first recommendation deals with one of the internal weaknesses talked about earlier that people who come into the store but don’t end up buying anything. If you pay your salespeople based on how much they sell it will encourage them make more sales and not let people leave without buying something. The second recommendation will help with the external threat that Lupita noticed that the total number of sales in the furniture industry is increasing but her numbers weren’t. When you can’t expand anymore in the market you are in it is best to expand into other markets where there are more opportunities. She needs to expand her target market to attract new and different people into her store. The third recommendation will also help with the internal weakness of customers leaving without buying anything. If your salespeople are more aggressive they will end up making more sales and less people will end up leaving to buy from other stores. The last recordation is because your salespeople are not listening to what you have to say, so you need to show them that you are in charge and they have to listen to you. If you threaten your employees and show them you are not afraid to hire in new people then they will start to listen and do what they are told. Once they start doing what they are told they will start making more sales and your internal weakness will again be solved.
Before my course in marketing with Dr. Ward I didn’t fully know what Social Media was or how it could be used. I have a Facebook but I only used it to keep up with friends and family. Through this course I now have a LinkedIn, Twitter and now a blog to help build my identity. Social Media is the new way the world communicates. The power of Social Media is only just being discovered by many companies including Independent Bank, Comcast and Ford. The value to these companies and everyone else is that you can distribute your message to millions of people without a lot of time or money spent. Companies are also using Social Media to get feedback from their customers, and then use that information to better the product or service. I do the same types of things but instead of selling a product I am marketing myself. I can use Social Media to meet possible employers or clients as well.
At first I didn’t see a lot of use for Social Media, but now that I am using it on a more regular basis I can see how powerful it really can be. At first I would just post because I had to for class, but now I am posting interesting articles so that the people that follow me can learn from them. I also ask the people that are following me because they know a lot more about marketing and Social Media than I do, and I want to gain as much knowledge from them as possible.
Knowing how to use Social Media will also help me in the future after I graduate because my future employer will expect me to know and use Social Media. Also, Social Media can help me get the job that I want through networking. Employers expect recent college graduates to know how to use all of the different types of Social Media. Since Social Media is new many of the older generations don’t know how to use it to its fullest potential. That means in the next couple of years there will be high demand for people that know how to use Social Media to its fullest potential. Social Media also can help introduce me to important people that can help land me a job after I graduate. The more people I can connect to and the more professional I use my Social Media outlets the better off I will be after graduation.
Michiganders,
My name is Matt Kooiman and I am starting a new blog about Michigan, Marketing and Social Media. I hope you all enjoy my posts to come.
Matt on Michigan 