Week 4 - Defining a Target Market (b) - Emme's Cater Co (www.emmescatering.com)

I've decided to use my friend's catering business Emme's Catering in Carlsbad, CA. The reason that I decided to work with her business is two fold. She needs the help keeping on top of her social media and I just happen to be taking a social media marketing class. So we decided to scratch each other's back.

Currently beyond hew website www.emmescatering.com she is also using Facebook (43 likes) and Instagram (47 followers). She is also considering using Twitter and Pinterest as well. The goal is to determine a viable way to use the latter two and determine if it is in the best interest of Emme's as opposed to jumping on the bandwagon.

My roll is to assist her in using these platforms correctly to no only get her more followers, but also use it as a way to stay in contact with her customers, potential and referrals as well. I think that the interesting piece for me will be learning how to use these platforms to research and not simply promote.

The owner of the company and I have different ideas of what her target market is. She would like to focus her efforts on catering for business breakfasts, brunches and lunches. While I believe that ultimately this is a strong goal for her business plan overall, I have suggested to her that she might want to look at it slightly differently as a way to reach more people.

Currently she is catering for quite a few local breweries who like to have good cuisine paired with their adult beverages. Since this is one of her main methods of getting her name out in the market I think that she should focus on mentioning, while at the events, that she caters for business meal events. This is something that I don't see on her social media as her message and I am not certain that she mentions this while she is out promoting herself. So I would say that her target market are adults who enjoy good food.

Decision makers for any business have personal lives. By making sure that she is out in front of them on a personal and business level is important. A good way to ensure that you are in front of a broad audience is to get a broad spectrum of people a not only seeing you, but also talking about you as well. By mentioning that she primarily does business catering and by getting some good reviews about her business, I think that this will have a positive impact on her business efforts.

Week 4 - Defining a Target Market (b) - Emme's Cater Co (www.emmescatering.com)

I've decided to use my friend's catering business Emme's Catering in Carlsbad, CA. The reason that I decided to work with her business is two fold. She needs the help keeping on top of her social media and I just happen to be taking a social media marketing class. So we decided to scratch each other's back.

Currently beyond hew website www.emmescatering.com she is also using Facebook (43 likes) and Instagram (47 followers). She is also considering using Twitter and Pinterest as well. The goal is to determine a viable way to use the latter two and determine if it is in the best interest of Emme's as opposed to jumping on the bandwagon.

My roll is to assist her in using these platforms correctly to no only get her more followers, but also use it as a way to stay in contact with her customers, potential and referrals as well. I think that the interesting piece for me will be learning how to use these platforms to research and not simply promote.

The owner of the company and I have different ideas of what her target market is. She would like to focus her efforts on catering for business breakfasts, brunches and lunches. While I believe that ultimately this is a strong goal for her business plan overall, I have suggested to her that she might want to look at it slightly differently as a way to reach more people.

Currently she is catering for quite a few local breweries who like to have good cuisine paired with their adult beverages. Since this is one of her main methods of getting her name out in the market I think that she should focus on mentioning, while at the events, that she caters for business meal events. This is something that I don't see on her social media as her message and I am not certain that she mentions this while she is out promoting herself. So I would say that her target market are adults who enjoy good food. By mentioning that she primarily does business catering and by getting some good reviews about her business, I think that this will have a positive impact on her business efforts.

Week 4 - Defining a Target Market (a)

I decided to do my comparison on the two diaper companies Econobum vs Cheap Diapers. Right from beginning with the domain or company names gives you a good indication as to what these two businesses are representative of eco-friendliness and bargain prices. Once you arrive at the sites you will notice that my suspensions are correct.

The differences do no stop there. Let's with the diapers themselves. Econobum promotes reusable cloth diapers that are one size fits all, while Cheap diapers promotes the more used disposable option that come in three different sizes to meet customer needs. In my opinion those being targeted by Econobum fit in to 2 different but distinct categories: those whom consider themselves eco-friendly or "green" and those who don't mind the opportunity cost of maintaining the cloth diapers. Cheap Diapers on the hand is exactly the other side of the spectrum. Their diapers are sold at wholesale prices and are disposable. While I don't want to allude that parents who use these diapers aren't eco-friendly, this seems to be a lower priority when considering cost and convenience.

Although both of these companies are family owned and run, They each have their own message that is prominent.  There is one final difference that I would like to point out is in respect to their calls to action. Econobum is promoting their product that has to be purchased from a 3rd party. Cheap Diapers has a call to action that allows consumers to purchase directly from their site. In the long run, those who want to buy from you will do so in most cases. However, if a business distributes their product through a vendor who is not in favor with the consumer, this could lead to lost sales and revenue. The only way that I can see any direct crossover in their customers would be either a change in budget or philosophy on the environment.

Week 3b: Aesthetic, Design, and Branding

www.facebook.com
www.amazon.com

These are two of the websites that I use frequently. I believe that there are several reasons that these sites are effective and used by myself along with millions of other users.

• User Friendly
• Purposeful 
• Aesthetically Pleasing
• A multitude of items to keep you interested and therefore stay on the site

Although completely different, each site has a good color scheme and contrast of colors. This along with proper alignment that makes easy on the eyes. I also think they both have great navigation functionality. Each page contains their logos and have relevant information in the same proximity. They both have done a good job creating some sort of hierarchy that places important or most relevant information as the focal point.

They both offer you some level of flexibility in how you are able to customize what it is you are looking at. With Facebook you can add groups, apps and games. Amazon allows you to do a few different things depending on which product you are using of theirs.

I use Facebook in the same manner as many, which is to stay in touch with friends and family. It is also a very good source of various types of information that includes peoples opinions and rants, political views, current events, funny videos, food recipes and of course ads.

I use Amazon not only to shop but also compare items. It is also a decent resource for research. Since they have added the Prime feature I also use it to watch movies, as well as, listen to music.

I understand the value of ads to each of these companies. However, I could do without seeing so many unless I am shopping. Facebook's new Live feature is pretty cool. They could integrate it a bit better. It appears under the app section and that seems odd to me. I cannot personally think of any changes for Amazon's site.

Commented on Katie Nolte's and Makiela Robinson's blogs.

Week 3a: Aesthetic, Design, and Branding

This is a quick analysis of a few sites that I have found to be both inadequate and excellent in their own rights. Lets start with the inadequate sites:

www.exmouth-view.co.uk

This site was off to a bad start from the minute that I landed on the home page. The first thing that I noticed is that the site doesn’t have a profession look or feel. The second problem that I ran across was that all of the photo links are broken on the home page. This would definitely make me move on to the next site. Once you navigate to a different page, there is no menu to help you continue to navigate or browse the site. The biggest problem that I see is in their call to action. There is no way for customers to book a room online.

www.spotmetering.com

This was another site that when I first looked at it I had a difficult time understanding what message was being sent, not to mention the binary coding image at the top. The site also looks unprofessional in terms of layout. I also believe that I have found over the years that people really do not like to scroll. This is how all of the pages are set up. Another fault in my opinion is that when you click on any of the navigation links on the home page, a new tab is opened. The how to order section could have more instructions tied to the images, such as “click here to order on Amazon”. I am not certain that everyone would know to click on the images.

Neither of the sites above have any type of consumer interaction. This seems to take away from the overall experience. I would also recommend that they each spend some time looking at more professional sites to see where they could get better.

Now lets move on to the excellent sites:

http://www.ford.com/

Right from the minute that you land on their home page you are given a few different methods that allow you to interact with the site and continue your experience. The architecture of their navigation is complete. It not only includes informational links for the consumer, including how to find a dealer, it also has options for Ford car owners to have their needs met as well. The last part that I found very useful is their buyer tools section at the bottom of the page.

http://www.apple.com/

Like Ford, their site is engaging from the moment you hit the home page. The menu is designed in such a way that it is broken down by product. Apple has also done a very good job at giving you options to interact whether it is by product or genre of MacOS, iOS or WatchOS. Apple also does well by advertising their newest products right in your face once you arrive. And for the music enthusiast they even advertise music events. It appears to me that Apple has done a great job at reaching all of their target markets on one site.

I believe that it is very important to have a good online presence. Since it is the anchor it is important that your site reaches your target audience and gets your point across in 7 seconds or so. From that point I think that how your site is organized to filter them to your call of action is equally important. Most would call this ease of use. However I wold define that as something completely different but important as well.

Once you have chosen your target market, the next thing to do is get your message across. I know that sounds a bit over simplified, but if you can accomplish numbers one and two then you are on your way to having a successful start to your online campaign.

Week 2b: Communication - Business & Consumer

Apple

https://apple.com

https://www.instagram.com/officialapple_inc/?hl=en  

https://www.linkedin.com/company/apple        9/21/2016

https://www.facebook.com/Google      9/21/2016

https://www.pinterest.com/AAPL/       

Google

https://www.google.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Google      9/21/2016

https://twitter.com/google        9/21/2016

https://www.linkedin.com/company/google     9/21/2016

ESPN

http://www.espn.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ESPN          9/21/2016

https://twitter.com/espn            9/21/2016

https://www.snapchat.com/discover/ESPN/7296089122                             

https://www.linkedin.com/company/espn         8/22/2016

Stone Brewing

http://www.stonebrewing.com/

https://twitter.com/StoneBrewingCo    9/21/2016

https://www.youtube.com/user/StoneBrewingCo         7/21/2016

https://plus.google.com/+StoneBrewingCo        9/16/2016

https://untappd.com/StoneBrewingCo 9/21/2016

https://www.pinterest.com/stonebrewingco/ 

Best Buy

http://www.bestbuy.com/

https://twitter.com/BestBuy      9/21/2016

https://www.facebook.com/bestbuy/   9/20/2016/

https://www.instagram.com/bestbuy/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/best-buy 9/21/2016

What I was able to determine is that most of these companies, although they are in different industries, utilize social media. When you take a look at the various companies, along with which social sites they frequent and their posted comment, I think that it is easy to form an opinion on which companies are practicing good utilization of their social pages versus which are just trying to “keep up with the Jones family” or doing it “because everyone else is”. The latter in my mind is a mistake when you take into account the costs associated with maintaining these social sites on a large scale.

When speaking in terms of “costs” to maintain these social accounts, I think that some of the main contributing factor are going to depend on the scope, the scale and the nature of your business. Once these factors are considered, it will not only help determine which social sites to use but also to best use them to increase your overall business.

Let me use Apple as an example. We all know that Apple is the Company name and brand. However, when you search for their social sites that are frequently used, you will find that they are normally tied to a specific product in their case such as iPhone, iPad, MacBook, etc. So in this instance there are several different “Apple” social sites associated with many products. The same can be said about ESPN as a broadcasting channel and all of their different shows, which all have their own social sites and uses.

In conclusion I do not believe that there is a one size fits all concept to how businesses should use social media. Similar to putting together a business plan, I think that all companies have to determine what their needs are and then follow that up with the research necessary to figure out which social sites to use and what their approach should be.

Commented on the following group 4 student posts:

Lena McMaster, Katie Nolte, 

Week 2: Communication - Business & Consumer

I have had several different occasions which wound up being very difficult communicating with the given business. In most cases it has been as simple as wanting to speak directly to a person, yet you have to go through the menu options. The idea of the menu that offers you “quick” options by selecting which ever menu number closely relates to your issues is nice, but not realistic in some cases. If your problem isn’t addressed by one of the menu options and you are lucky enough to speak with someone, in most cases they have to transfer you to another department. This in itself adds to the initial frustration.

In my experience of trying to contact businesses via social media has been mixed. I believe that it depends on a few different factors that determine how soon, if at all, that you will be contacted. Obviously large businesses or those that have a strong internet following may have some difficulty responding to you if they get a large number of messages via social media. You may get lost in the shuffle if they do not have a strong system in place to handle the flow of information in place.

On the other hand, social media can be extremely visible online. So if the issue isn’t dealt with correctly, this can be made public a lot faster than if you are playing phone or email tag with a customer service. The benefit to online information in this instance is that a person who has had the same issue may be able to respond and help you resolve the issue. The down side is that negativity breeds negativity. If the issue isn’t addressed, this could lead to a mass of people expressing their negative views and opinions towards the matter at hand and the company.

I personally have had several good experiences communicating with businesses via social media. This includes comments back to me, pointing me in the right direction for information, special offers, references, referrals, and 

I have even closed a few deals via social media.

If I ran a business that had a social media presence, I would respond to both positive and negative comments. For the positive comments I would thank the person who left the comment and make sure to ask them to come again and ask them to refer us to their friends and family.

What made my particular experience positive was simply the recognition of the problem, acknowledgement and a resolution. The fact that I spent money on a defective product had me slightly upset. When I emailed and call the company with no response that was even more upsetting. I don’t generally like to make a spectacle out of any situation. However, I felt compelled to express my discourse online. In the end, the company contacted me and made things right. They offered me some extra items for my troubles which I declined. I was more concerned about what I had purchased even though I was very appreciative of their extra effort to resolve the issue.