JewelMint
The brand I chose to research was JewelMint. It is a jewelry line by actress Kate Bosworth. The concept behind her jewelry line is to create your own style with the pieces that she creates.
If you go to the website www.jewelmint.com, you sign up for free and create a profile. This process begins by taking a style quiz. The questions ask about patterns, colors, and celebrity styles. When the quiz is over, it recommends jewelry for you based off of your results. I took the quiz and it picked jewelry that I would definitely buy.
On JewelMint’s facebook page, you can do just about anything on the website, if you have already signed up. Also, if you ‘like’ the page, you can get exclusive deals and style tips that others would not get if you didn’t ‘like’ it. JewelMint has just over 891,000 likes and 6,700 people are talking about the jewelry line. It is a new jewelry line, so I think these are good numbers for Kate Bosworth. I learned about the line from Twitter. I follow Lauren Conrad, another jewelry/clothing line designer. She promotes it on her Twitter and it has brought a lot of attention to the brand. Kate Bosworth has gotten lots of companies and celebrities to jump on board and promote her jewelry line, and I think this because the pieces are so nice and reasonably priced.
JewelMint’s consumer motivations would definitely be Create and Connect. With visitors of the site/facebook being able to take a quiz and pick what they truly like, this fits under both of these motivations. Once JewelMint becomes more known, I think they will Compete with more jewelry lines that other celebrities create. Metrics that they are using is ‘likes’, talk abouts, as well as people taking the style quiz when they sign up for their website. I think these metrics really help to see the traffic for the roughly new jewelry line.
I personally think that JewelMint’s Facebook page is really good. The only improvement I could think of is the colors. The page could use more colors, maybe colors that are popular in her jewelry will interest visitors to sign up and see what the line is all about. I like that the Facebook has deals and style tips as well as contests, pictures and prizes. Just by visiting their Facebook, I signed up to win jewelry pieces. All they needed was an email address, and I was willing to give that information for a chance to win pieces from the line. Even if you don’t like the recommendations, you can browse through more styles to see all the pieces in the line.
I think other designers are going to follow her lead and make their site more like JewelMint’s. Being able to have to a fun quiz and have style recommendations is something that a lot of sites do not offer. It’s like having your own stylist online. (After doing this assignment, I bought a necklace that was recommended to me!)
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Posted on 23 November '11 by admin, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Personally, I do think privacy is dead. I don’t really mind that it is dead and that people can find out my interests about me. I try to monitor what I put on Facebook but that doesn’t mean other websites can access my information. I like when I get ads on my Facebook or other sites I’m on about stuff I looked up on the internet. Recently, I was on oldnavy.com and I was tempted to buy a certain shirt. 2 days later, I was on Facebook and one of their ads was for that same shirt but it was now on sale. I bought the shirt!
That kind of privacy is fine. I think it crosses the line when there are pictures of you on other sites other than your Facebook, twitter or blog. I also don’t think it’s safe when there are pictures of your house or relatives on the internet where they don’t know about. Identities get stolen all the time, and it’s just a matter of time before people I know have theirs stolen. Until there is more privacy, this issue is going to continue whether we like it or not.
With the Wall Street Journal article, I could sort of relate with the 17 year old girl who was self-conscious about her weight. She was getting ads about weight loss pills when she was not happy with her body. There are some ads that I just don’t want to see. For instance, when my relationship status went from “in a relationship” to “single”, I immediately got ads for dating websites. That was a little depressing, but I know that companies like that get their new customers that way. It’s just how the business works now a days.
I really don’t think the government needs to step in or develop laws that would limit the amount of information available on the Internet. If they did, it will become harder for marketers to target their products to consumers. I do there should be boundaries but these boundaries may limit marketers to who they reach. Past conversations or medical history should be off limits. I find it very creepy that I get ads related to what I wrote on someone’s profile wall. They pick out the most random words and then I get nonstop ads about that particular word.
Overall, yes, it’s pretty creepy how much the Internet truly knows about me. I haven’t had any issues (yet), but who’s to say that I won’t? I have a Twitter, Facebook, blog, LinkedIn, etc and at any time someone could access those and learn things about me. Privacy on Facebook has changed and people I am not even friends with can see who I write to and what I say to them. If there are more changes like this, I will have no choice but to get rid of my social media profiles. Even though I feel this way, a lot of other people may feel different and are comfortable with privacy on the Internet.
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Posted on 16 November '11 by admin, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Personally, I do think privacy is dead. I don’t really mind that it is dead and that people can find out my interests about me. I try to monitor what I put on Facebook but that doesn’t mean other websites can access my information. I like when I get ads on my Facebook or other sites I’m on about stuff I looked up on the internet. Recently, I was on oldnavy.com and I was tempted to buy a certain shirt. 2 days later, I was on Facebook and one of their ads was for that same shirt but it was now on sale. I bought the shirt!
That kind of privacy is fine. I think it crosses the line when there are pictures of you on other sites other than your Facebook, twitter or blog. I also don’t think it’s safe when there are pictures of your house or relatives on the internet where they don’t know about. Identities get stolen all the time, and it’s just a matter of time before people I know have theirs stolen. Until there is more privacy, this issue is going to continue whether we like it or not.
With the Wall Street Journal article, I could sort of relate with the 17 year old girl who was self-conscious about her weight. She was getting ads about weight loss pills when she was not happy with her body. There are some ads that I just don’t want to see. For instance, when my relationship status went from “in a relationship” to “single”, I immediately got ads for dating websites. That was a little depressing, but I know that companies like that get their new customers that way. It’s just how the business works now a days.
I really don’t think the government needs to step in or develop laws that would limit the amount of information available on the Internet. If they did, it will become harder for marketers to target their products to consumers. I do there should be boundaries but these boundaries may limit marketers to who they reach. Past conversations or medical history should be off limits. I find it very creepy that I get ads related to what I wrote on someone’s profile wall. They pick out the most random words and then I get nonstop ads about that particular word.
Overall, yes, it’s pretty creepy how much the Internet truly knows about me. I haven’t had any issues (yet), but who’s to say that I won’t? I have a Twitter, Facebook, blog, LinkedIn, etc and at any time someone could access those and learn things about me. Privacy on Facebook has changed and people I am not even friends with can see who I write to and what I say to them. If there are more changes like this, I will have no choice but to get rid of my social media profiles. Even though I feel this way, a lot of other people may feel different and are comfortable with privacy on the Internet.
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Posted on 16 November '11 by admin, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Here are the numbers for my blog site:
- 00:05:13 avg time on site
- 31.40% new visits
I was very surprised to see that I had visitors from Canada, Switzerland and Malaysia but then realized that they were “spam bots”. I figured this out because they were on my site for 0 seconds.
The most viewed page was my homepage with 142 views. My About Me page information has 41views. My resume page has 10 views while my contact page has 16 views . Due to my blog posts, I feel like that’s the reason why my homepage is the most viewed because my posts are the main reason for my site.
For keywords, I have Kristin Altenhoff blog, Kristin Altenhoff, as well as the website URL because I have it linked on my facebook and tweeted about it on Twitter.
Web analytics is a useful tool for websites to see how much traffic they are getting and where the traffic is coming from. When I first saw this, I thought it was creepy but thinking about it from a company’s standpoint, it’s very helpful to better reach their target market. Knowing if they came to your site from social media/word of mouth or through google search, they can change up their site to get even more traffic.
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Posted on 9 November '11 by admin, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Custom Fortune Cookies – Fancy and Fun
http://www.fancyfortunecookies.com/Custom_Fortune_Cookies_s/50.htm
Fortune cookies made to your liking. All types of flavors and designs available for your next wedding, work event or party! Come try it out!
I chose to use Fun and Fancy along with the Customized aspect. This can hit any age but specifically those who are throwing a party, wedding or work function. My call to action would be for visitors to try out the customization feature of the website for their event. The landing page I chose was the Custom Cookie page because then they could just start picking out what they would want for their cookies.
“Fancy cookies”
“Decorative fortune cookies”
“Customized fortune cookies”
Those were the 3 keywords that I looked up. The one that I found best was “Customized fortune cookies”. Although the competition level was high, this could be a good thing having more traffic and browsers look up what I offer.
Monthly searches = 12,100
Local monthly searches =9,900
Keywords that I liked were “Cookies for Parties” and “Decorative Cookies.” They each had medium competition and would be easier to buy. I think both of these could get a lot of visitors to the site that are looking for desserts for parties and want something a little different.
$1 for the Max CPC $, the estimated average CPC was $0.80. The estimated ad position was 3.56, the estimated daily clicks was 52.57, and the estimated daily cost was 41.82.
$2 for the Max CPC $, average CPC went up to $1.20, estimated ad position went to 1.25, estimated daily clicks rose to 84.57, and estimated daily cost went up to $109.41.
The Max CPC affects the average CPC and ad position. The more money you put into it, the higher your site’s position, which will mean more clicks, and more customers/traffic flow.
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Posted on 2 November '11 by admin, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is structuring a web page so that it is found, read, and indexed by search engines while being effective. SEO is very important because it makes your website and its content relevant and visible to people searching the Internet as well as search engines. Makes contacting a business easier, whether it be by phone or finding an address.
Here is a definition I found that I like: “Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a technique used to increase a website’s visibility and traffic by increasing a website’s Alexa Ranking and SERP (Search Engine Results Page) Ranking” (wedevstudios.com)
After running my blog website through Googlerankings: Ultimate SEO Tool, I found that the words I use the most are:
- post
- posted
- twitter
- want
- walgreens
- market
- chris
- restaurant
- 2011
- looking
I’m not too surprised that these are my most used words. I didn’t really think I wrote 2011, but I think it’s picking up on the dates when I submitted the posts. Personally, my most used words are pretty boring. Wish they were more interesting and surprising.
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Posted on 23 October '11 by admin, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
When I got on the McDonald’s website, I clicked on corporate opportunities; I had to click and skim around to find exactly what I was looking for. It took me five clicks to find what I was looking for. It was pretty easy to find what I was looking for and I didn’t lose any interest with only five clicks.
The McDonald’s website didn’t really make me want to apply for a job right now. Nothing stood out to me, especially since there were no pictures or anything appealing. A little too formal for what I thought it would actually be like.
Of course, McDonalds used red for main points or highlighting on the page. Black and red font color for the text. They had very good spacing on their site which made it a whole lot easier to read and made certain postings really stand out.
Even though McDonalds had a pretty good setup, Walgreens had an even better/nicer layout. I clicked on Operations; they gave me a general description of what the job entails and what one would do at their Operations job on an everyday basis. At the bottom, I selected whether I wanted to apply online, or learn more about the benefits of working at Walgreens. What I really like about this job search was that I could search geographically the Walgreens locations closest to the zip code I live in. Also, if I was looking to move, I could see job openings available in that location as well. It took me less clicks than McDonalds, FOUR clicks, to find what I was looking for with Walgreens.
Walgreens’ website was similar to McDonalds’ website in the fact that it was pretty plain and formal. Walgreen’s, unlike McDonalds’, informed me what jobs were available in the field that I was looking for, which is always good to know. Walgreens used red, black, and blue for the links and job postings. Walgreens was a little more difficult, because I had to scroll through the page to find what I was looking for. It was nice, but not as neat and organized as McDonalds’ website was. If I had to choose one of the two websites, I would choose Walgreens. It was easier to use, and helped me find exactly what I was looking for. They went into more depth with my search and I like that a lot more.
Neither company had a site that made me want to work for them. I appreciated both website giving me the information that I was looking for and that I didn’t have to click twenty times to do it. Based off reputation, I would want to work for Walgreens just because I am more familiar with their corporate jobs. Also, it was a nice feature on their website to have a more in-depth, advanced search. Both companies seem to have quality jobs for qualified applicants, but again, I would choose Walgreens. 
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Posted on 18 October '11 by admin, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
I chose to make my ads with the West Suburban Animal Shelter located in Downers Grove, IL (my hometown). The first ad is to adopt a puppy named Anne. Clicking on the photo will open a tab/window and take you to the landing page I chose. This page has all the information about Anne and a button to learn more about adoption.
The same goes for my second picture of the kitten named Pebbles. Her landing page has information about her and a button for more adoption information.
With A/B testing, you can see if more people are interested in adopting a puppy or a kitten. (I’m very afraid of cats so my guess is for Anne)
The metrics I would use to measure the ads effectiveness would be the click through rate. The ads are very similar except for the animal (dog vs. cat).
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Posted on 10 October '11 by admin, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Posted on 28 September '11 by admin, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Last week, Ryan Eugene, webmaster of ItSupplies, came to talk to our class about the company and his role in everything. Ryan graduated from NIU in 2008 and majored in Interactive Marketing.
ItSupplies was founded in 1998 by Greg Lahart and it began as a small business selling office market HP devices. Its catalog started as a primary sales channel through phone orders. He discussed the stages of which the website has gone through which can be closely related to the history of the internet. Slow at first but continually changing.
Timeline:
2000-website is catalog
2009-New website content management system
2009-Email marketing
2010-Organic Search yr/yr – Blogs/increase SEO
2011-New corporate websites in construct; Data used for segmented marketing
With the website, ItSupplies was able to get new customer acquisition on a global scale. It’s less costly than using lists and the analytics allow for easy assessment for conversion rates. Ryan informed us that the website is an extensive online catalog & ordering process center in which users can place secure transactions and receive items as early as 6 hours after placing an order via EDI.
I was surprised at how out-of-date the website was, but Ryan said it’s a long process, especially with bigger competitors in the market.
I really enjoyed hearing from a former NIU Interactive Student and would like to thank Ryan Eugene for speaking to our class.
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Posted on 28 September '11 by admin, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
