Marketing Strategy, Research Paper Example

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the different factors of the ever changing market, which may affect the launching of my product line. With research and editorial support, this paper will discuss the different aspects of my marketing strategy that is outlined to compensate with the use of cutting edge technology to stand out in today’s market.

Introduction

Social networks have changed the way businesses run online. With the expertise of knowing how to successfully navigate through the internet and engaging with consumers a business can be an overnight success. There is no doubt the power of social media with platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIN, Pinterest, Twitter, and other social platforms. Many major companies are running marketing campaigns and developing their marketing strategies around how to successfully manage the changing the technology driven market to launch their product lines. As with major companies, so will this study aid in developing the market strategy to help successfully launch our product line.

Overview of Product Line

My fashion line is casual sportswear for male and female. My marketing plan on how to manage the fashion line is based on the kind of casual sportswear. I like to market towards both men and women, that will have a low cost of production but high quality.

Facebook Analysis

Facebook is one the premier social network platforms that companies large and small rely on to engage with users, with audience exceeding over one billion users, Facebook can help launch businesses overnight if you know how to use it to your advantage. Facebook has grown from the platform for college students to network to a growing force that has changed the way of life, and ignited a phenomenon in the social, and business atmosphere. The Guardian quotes that they are over 37 million brand pages with over 3 billion likes and comments every day. (Guardian, 2012) Social marketing on Facebook has shown results for several companies, and Facebook is taking notice. With a number of new metrics geared towards business, such as, “People Talking About This”, “Total Likes, and “Weekly Total Reach” metrics. (Hussain, 2011) The first metric helping marketers target first time users that have generated content about the company or products, and the latter metric helping to get a picture of all the users that have seen the content, and have shared with friends. And the total likes will help show demographics in order to see population of people who like your page and now how many people are talking about it.(Hussain, 2011) These metrics are important to business who want to accurately measure their audience and if they target market is being reached.

Facebook also offers ingenious ways that companies such as ours can market successfully online with targeted promoted posts that help marketers allow for you to target who sees your ads based on seven specific criteria businesses can choose from. Promotional offers which can be given to customers that visit the company’s Facebook page, such as, special offers, coupons, and discount codes. Promoted posts are posts that companies pay to get advertised and stay afloat in newsfeeds of fans of the company’s website. The more traditional route that is common on usage on Facebook is column placement. The business’s ad can be seen by users in the right hand column, and viewers can click on the ads targeting them to the company’s website. Facebook has researched that they have hundreds of millions of users log on to Facebook every day, with an estimated 74 billion minutes spent on Facebook every month. (Facebook, 2012) The competitions in our target market have a sizeable presence with Fidoo reporting that biggest Fashion Company on Facebook, Converse that sells casual and active sportswear and shoes has over 34 million followers. So the competition and others are well aware of the powers of Facebook, and success is noted, with Converse having a 14% increase in revenues at the end of 2012. (Nike.inc, 2012) If major companies can you use Facebook to garner success, so can smaller companies that have proven to find success on Facebook buy knowing how to use the tools Facebook has made to allow for better marketing and growth.

Twitter Analysis

Twitter as like Facebook is another major platform with an estimated 127 million users. Twitter is not a social platform that should be taken likely compared to Facebook’s billion users. Twitter is a part of pop culture and headline news. This is more evident with the 2012 Presidential Election, with 31 million tweets sent about the presidential election breaking records, with over 300,000 tweets sent per minute. (Capobres, 2012) The number of users is constantly growing, with marketers and businesses taken notice. More and more companies are starting up accounts, it is free, and easy to use, with followers garnered by the minute. Twitter is the ideal social tool in consumer engagement and customer feedback.

Twitter is a highly interactive platform that allows for customers to get up to minute updates on services, programs, and events. No longer having to rely on press releases, newsletters, or emails, Twitter allows for businesses big and small to compete on the same playing field. Just knowing how to master the skill of social engagement and customer relationships, will help a business garner major followers, and gain success. The target audience for our product line is actively on Twitter, with the biggest fashion lines in casual athletic wear Nike and Converse garnering over 1 million followers. (Fidoo, 2012) Many followers of celebrities are on Twitter, with notable fashionistas Kim Kardashian, Rhianna, and a host of overs toppling millions in followers that check out the latest fashions that in pop culture is wearing. In marketing our product line it is important to remember that constant engagement with Twitter itself, and the followers are the keys to businesses success. Constant updates with creative statuses and catchy hash tags allow for more followers and the products “trending” on users newsfeeds. Competitors use great tweets that get re-tweeted by people who are following others, and those re-tweets are seen by all of their followers. It is simple and beneficial equation that equals results. Twitter can be a great place to help launch businesses and get noticed.

Other Social Media & Apps

Other notable social platforms are the up and coming social media sites Pinterest and Instagram. Pinterest to “pin” trendy photos from users or from other sites most notable are shopping sites and other trendy photos. Many websites are hip to the game and allows users to hit the pin button on a photo that they like. A recent study showed that 70 % of Pinterest users are there for shopping inspiration. (McGee, 2012). With this in mind, Pinterst is the ideal platform for businesses trying to launch a product line. It is a simple platform that garners great results. Instagram liken Pinterest lets users post photos online, from various sources. Many companies have taken notice by putting brand pages on these sites with photos of trendy clothing and shoes. The most users that are on these sights are in the age range of 18-30, targeting the tech-savvy demographic that takes trends from popular celebrities and magazines. Although these companies do not have the same amount of users as Facebook or Twitter, Pinterest has an estimated 10 million users and growing, and Instagram has an estimated 100 million users that are filtered in thanks to major platforms Facebook and Twitter.

 Website Overview and Rationale

Websites are another vital part to marketing strategy that is essential in attracting and engaging visitors to convert them into becoming customers. It is not rocket science that when figuring out that the reason your business might not be doing so well despite all the other methods of marketing, your web design are the keys to business success.

The website should have a professional touch. First impressions are important, and visitors usually know within the first seconds if they want to stay on your website. If your website lacks the eye catching design for customers to continue to search through your web site than you potentially lost a sale. Customers can tell the difference, and put their trust in customers that have a professional tone to their business. The type of website will not be cluttered with flashy images, auto-play videos, and cheesy applications that seem to over complicate a website and cause the website to usually lag when being loaded. Visitors don’t have that long of an attention span. Overdoing with pop-ups and animations deter the focus from the products, a quality design can effectively market to your customers.

The type of feeling that the website would have is showcasing a clear message with content not riddle with SEO words, but actual words that can help the customer know what they are buying. Branding is what sets you apart from your competition; the business website is no doubt the best return on investment for your business. The business design, logo, or your byline shows the heart of your business. The web design will help to build a brand that people will recognize and ultimately relate to. Unlike most websites quality, clear contact is effective in good business web design. Nothing is more important than having quality content to insure that customers are truthfully informed when visitors want more information on products and services. Updated information is essential to keeping potential customers current and keep traffic regularly to your site. Colors and designs that go with the company logo and do not overly distract from the products but compliment them like, Nike, Adidas, and other notable sites that have a clean clear interface that continually generates millions of users per day. If they can reach their target audience on a continual basis, then our company can as well.

Conclusion

Overall, social media play a vital part in successfully marketing your business to the tech-savvy market dictated by trendy, young consumers that are aligned with the latest gadgets, social media platforms, and media. Knowing how to successfully apply this knowledge to the marketing strategy will help the product line be a success with the target audience and expand to other users as well.

Works Cited

2012 Top 50 Social Media Fashion Companies. Fidoo. 2012

http://visual.ly/2012-top-50-social-media-fashion-companies

Capobres, Kacy. Election 2012: President Obama, Twitter Break Records. Fox News. 2012 http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/11/07/election-2012-president-obama-twitter-break-records/

Hussain, Annum. Facebook Launches Revamped Insights Tools for Business Pages. 2012. Hubspot. http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29064/Facebook-Launches-Revamped-Insights-Tool-for-Business-Pages.aspx

Lewis, Mike. Nike Q3 Revenues Jump 15% , Converse YTD 17%. TransWorld Business. 2012. http://business.transworld.net/92710/news/nike-q3-revenues-jump-15-converse-ytd-17/

McGee, Matt. Study: 70 Percent of Pinterest Users are There for Shopping Inspiration. Marketing Land. 2012. http://marketingland.com/study-70-percent-pinterest-shopping-inspiration-24146

Tariq, Saman. How Facebook Can Help Your Business Grow. 2012. Bits Station. http://bitsstation.com/2011/02/how-facebook-can-help-your-business-grow/