Throughout the semester, and specifically in the last assignment, I have learned all different kinds of social media, internet, and analytic techniques that marketers can utilize.  When it comes to the final project, my group analyzed Nike and Adidas.  The findings were very interesting, and gave us a lot of valuable information on the companies, as well as great takeaways on web analytics.

As far as regional interest for both brands, there were some interesting findings.  Using Google Insights, we looked at the countries with the most searches for both Nike and Adidas.  Interestingly enough, Slovakia was the most popular location for searches for both countries.  For Adidas, Germany was up there, as well as Czech Republic, Netherlands, and the UK were some of the top locations for brand searches.  For Nike, after Slovakia, the US, Uruguay, Paraguay, the UK, and Trinidad and Tobago were the top searches.

Using Google insights, we also took a look at the top search items for both brands.  For Adidas, Nike was the top search.  This is very interesting, and presents a problem to Adidas.  Adidas shoes, Adidas 2011, Adidas online, as well as Puma were some of the top search items.  For Nike, Nike shoes, shoes, Nike air, eventually Adidas and Nike 2011 are all the top search terms.  When analyzing this, we see that search items are association words, in other words, words that include product names or new models.  This is important because it shows people are searching specifically for Nike and Adidas products, not just the brands itself.  Searchers, or consumers, know what they want from the brands, and they are searching for them.

When analyzing visibility scores on how sociable, Nike’s score was higher, especially on Facebook, Twitter, and Stumble Upon.  This shows that there are more mentions and brand awareness on social media sites for Nike than Adidas.  As far as sentiment and reach, Nike has higher strength and passion, but Adidas has higher reach and sentiment.

The top keywords for each brand are very interesting as well.  For Adidas, the words wear, sneakers, kill, funnyortruth, nikes, jordans, follow, chucks, as well as vans are popular keywords.  This is not good for Adidas.  People are associating other brands, other products, and bland words.  On the other hand, Nike has keywords including shoes, mens, basketball, free, shox, cheap, and dunk.  These are all positive because most of them are associated with the brand itself, and none of them are hurtful to the brand.

The sources for these mentions and searches for Adidas include photobucket, twitter, dig, stumbleupon, and youtube.  Searches for Nike occur on dig, twitter, photobucket, stumbleupon, youtube, and facebook.  The mediums are about the same, except for Facebook making it higher on the list than Adidas.

Nike plus is a great idea, and a great way to involve customers in their own social media network built around their brand.  This is the future for social media, and after analyzing both brands, Nike is doing a far better job than Adidas.

Many companies nowadays must have a social media strategy.  That goes for retailers, as well as other companies in any industry.  In particular, Nordstrom is a very interesting company to analyze, as they are one of the leading retailers for clothing, as well as one of the most high end retailers.

First of all, it should be known that Nordstrom has a website.  This is important because all social media traffic can be directed directly to their site, which has all sorts of information.  Second, it should be noted that they have a Facebook, as well as a Twitter, and they have recently created a mobile application for the iPhone.  I will go in depth of what is seen from each social media strategy.

Facebook has millions of users, and it should be noted that Nordstrom has over 1.1 million likes.  This shows that many people are engaged socially with Nordstrom.  The first default page that pops up is “In the Know,” which allows people to cast their vote for what they like and what they don’t like.  Popular items are voted to the top, where unpopular items are sent down below.  There is a section called “beauty central,” which has how-to videos of how to be beautiful for the upcoming or current season.  Obviously, like any other Facebook page, there is a wall, an info page, and pictures.  Questions and concerns can be addressed, as well as documented through Facebook, which can help improve the overall strategy.  Facebook motivates consumers to both interact with the company socially, but also to come to the store when they see their product offerings, and how they interact with consumers like them.

Nordstrom also uses Twitter.  The Twitter page has sent over 14,000 tweets, and a lot of them are thank you’s to customers for being loyal customers, or for giving valuable help to Nordstrom.  This is very important for a company like Nordstrom to keep up their customer service, even outside of their stores.  However, a lot of the tweets sent out are informational, and about product offerings that they have.  Over 150,000 people follow Nordstrom on Twitter, which is a significant number.  This is a measurable medium, as interaction is documented and can be measured by the social media team.

Finally, they have a mobile application for the apple market.  It allows customers to shop on their smart phone, even though there are a number of features as well.  First of all, customers may shop based on being a man, woman, junior, babies and kids, and designer collections.  This allows customers to get specific product offerings that they truly want.  There is a “your style” section, where you can search for clothing for men or women, which include specific kinds of styles that match the customer.  For example, there is a “chic comedienne,” the “timeless eclectic,” the “modern sensualist,” the “downtown girl,” the “cardio queen,” and finally, the “social butterfly.”  This allows the customer to find offerings that match what they feel matches themselves perfectly.  Furthermore, the application allows people to search for products, and add them to a wish list.  Events based on specific locations are also available, and it is important to realize that the events can be changed based upon the location the customer is at.  Finally, there is a shopping bag for all items that are purchased.  All purchases are documented, and each customers are strongly paid attention to.  This application motivates consumers to make impulse buys, and it allows consumers to shop at their own pace, which is great to keep customers coming back due to the quality of service and merchandise.

Overall, Nordstrom has a great integrated social media strategy.  They tie mobile applications to computers, as well as allow customers to interact with the company, which is what a high-end retailer needs to do.  Honestly, Nordstrom has a strongly integrated strategy, and not a whole lot of work is necessary.  The only thing that they could add may include continuous improvement in the areas that are already being used by Nordstrom, and before about a week ago, I would have suggested a mobile application, but they just released their new app.

Consumer privacy while visiting websites or searching the web has gotten worse and worse.  Consumers need to know that they are being tracked, and targeted.  Although companies and websites may not be malicious in nature when collecting data from web viewers, there still remains a privacy issue that nonetheless is becoming greater and greater.  Tracking became possible in 1994 when text files also known as “cookies” were introduced to Netscape.  Eventually, cookies were used to remember passwords, and now many websites use cookies as history trackers, and other kinds of tracking devices have come into fruition as well.

Lotane Solutions created software called “beacon” software, also known as “web bugs,” which monitors computer activity.  It packages the data collected from websites into profiles without names and sells the profiles to companies.  It is positive that people’s names are not given with the data, but still, beacon software actually tracks exactly what web viewers are doing on a page, including what is being typed, and where the mouse is moving.  There is a difference between tracking what purchase history is available, what people are searching for, but seeing EXACTLY where the mouse is located, or what words are being typed before anything is actually searched for is scary, and consumers need to know about such issues.

Over the last 18 months the sale of tracking devices including “beacons” has skyrocketed.  More than 100 middlemen and tracking companies are selling profiles to marketers.  This is definitely an issue, and it should be regulated by the government, as many people are completely unaware of this.  Furthermore, the nations top 50 websites on average install 64 pieces of tracking technology.  There were about a dozen sites that installed more than 100.  This shows that web tracking is getting bigger and bigger, and is becoming a large scale issue, as billions of people are using the web nowadays, and sites such as Facebook and Twitter have extremely personal information that should NOT be sold to marketers.  Amazon, Comcast, and a number of other popular websites also contain private and personal information that should not be disseminated, and regulation is definitely an avenue.  Quants, or math gurus that provide expertise in quantitative analysis that help companies decipher data collected from tracking devices.

It is important to realize that there is SOME regulation, but there needs to be far more.  Cookies are legal, but there is NO regulation on flash cookies or beacons, which take the standard cookie idea and expand upon it greatly.  Seeing as the government is involved heavily in many other legal privacy matters, it is imperative for the government to jump in and stop some of this web tracking before it gets out of hand, even though this information could be greatly valuable to marketers, especially in this day and age when this information is both valuable, and far more unique than information previously available.

Overall, it is imperative that some regulation is handed down on companies, websites, and firms who know that they are tracking consumers, and there needs to be regulation on all types of tracking devices on the web.

1. There are 23 website visits for my Interactive Marketing Website.  There are 15 unique visitors. There have been 43 page views. The average time on site is roughly 10 minutes.  The bounce rate is about 43%.

2. The visitor location is mostly in Dekalb, but a few are in Naperville and one person viewed it from Chicago.

3. The top pages on my website include the home page with 30 views, followed by goals and aspirations at 7, and a number of other pages have 2 views including assignment 10 and resume.

4. Most of the traffic that my site gets is direct (probably from myself) but my site is referred by Dr. Labrecque’s page.

5. There are no keywords from searches available.  There are 0 searches for my site via Google.

6. Being a personal site that I am working on in class, none of this info surprises me.  I did not expect to have a geographically dispersed amount of people visiting my site, nor did I expect to have any Google searches, as I myself don’t even Google or search for my site.

1. Target demographic: our target demographic can be summed up by two buyer personas

• Party Mom: female, age ranges from 22-65 that are throwing holiday parties.  This buying persona also most likely is very creative and trendy, also uses resources online for tips and ideas for throwing parties. The call to action entices the viewer of giving gifts during the holiday season.
• Creative gift buyer: female, age range of 16-65.  This persona is similar to the party mom, they seek out trendy, creative, unique gifts.

The gift that we offer goes beyond a tangible item, but also offers the intangible benefits of thoughtful and creative good fortune. The landing page we chose was:

http://www.fancyfortunecookies.com/Peppermint_Patty_Gigantic_Fortune_Cookie_p/gppmntpty.htm

1. Fortune cookie gifts
2. Low competition
3. Global Monthly Searches :  16,600,000
4. None of the keyword suggestions fit.  All of the ideas provided by Google are refering to cookie recipes, traditional christmas cookies, etc.  Nothing about customizing, or even cookie gifts.  Therefore, 0 of the 100 ideas from Google will work in this scenario.
5. Global Monthly Searches :  16,600,000
6. None of the keyword suggestions fit.  All of the ideas provided by Google are refering to cookie recipes, traditional christmas cookies, etc.  Nothing about customizing, or even cookie gifts.  Therefore, 0 of the 100 ideas from Google will work in this scenario.

8.

In order for a site to be successful and appealing to people who desire to use it, it needs to be usable, accessible, and it has to persuade the visitor to do something.  The McDonald’s corporate careers website is a website that I analyzed to see how the website design principles came into play for this particular site.

When first viewing the site, you will see the McDonald’s logo in the upper left. This makes it easy for the viewer or visitor to see what website it is.  There is a big headline and minimal writing in the middle titled Corporate Careers which is brief, and to the point.  This enables viewers to be attracted to the section of the website.

For an OMIS major looking for an IT career opportunity, it is very clear where you look for “corporate” jobs with the McDonald’s corporation.  It took 3 clicks on the McDonald’s website to get the listings for jobs in Illinois in the operations field.  The three jobs available were energy supply manager, engineering manager, manager, and management communications.

Even though this website isn’t very interactive, and it isn’t fancy, it does the trick as far as accessibility and usability taking minimal clicks to get to corporate jobs, which is ultimately what this part of the website is for.  It is easy to navigate, and it is easy to use the different icons and hyperlinks to get where you need to go.  It is fairly easy to get to benefits as well as careers, as there is a link on the side of the page.  There are benefits listed in bullets following a brief description of what the information entails.

Although the website is usable and accessible, it isn’t truly persuasive or compelling.  This website doesn’t make you necessarily want to work for McDonald’s.  There is a lot of white space on the page which makes it look bland and boring, and the font as well as the icons are also boring and simple as well, even with the social media icons in the upper right.  There are really only 3 main colors seen on the page: white, red, and black.  The yellow McDonald’s logo is very small in the upper left, so the website isn’t very visually compelling.  There are also minimal pictures, and no videos to look at either.

To improve this part of McDonald’s website, it is important to get rid of the white space, add more images, dimensions, color schemes, and videos to engage with a future McDonald’s executive.

When comparing McDonald’s site to Walgreens, there are significant differences.  Even though Walgreens doesn’t have tons of colors, or videos and images, it is more visually appealing with red icons.  There still is too much white space, but the design and layout of the site makes it a lot more compelling.  An OMIS major would have more trouble finding a job, as you can find an Operations section, but you still have to make a few clicks to the “search” area.

I chose to use this particular design for a few reasons.  I thought that this was a perfect picture for a animal shelter advertisement.  A cute cat in the shelter along with someone holding it was perfect.  The cat’s eyes in the middle of the add was perfect as well.

I chose to put the writing on both sides of the cat to bring attention to the cat, and the font comes second after there is an emotional appeal with the viewer.  “These animals need you” is perfect because it sends a message, and on the other side of the cat is the information and the actual message, “Adopt a pet.”

For A/B testing, I chose to go at two angles.  It asks donations and gives information, and the other asks for people to actually adopt an estranged pet.

The landing page I chose to use was just the first page of the website, Dekalb County Animal Shelter.  This enables people to learn more about the particular service/organization. There is a lot of information on the main page of the website, therefore, it would be a good idea to have consumers click through to that page versus any other particular page on the site.  In addition, it enables the person who clicked the ad to navigate to specifically what they want, whether it be to donate time or money, or to adopt a pet.

In order to properly gauge the effectiveness of this ad, it would be important to use a few metrics.  Click-through rate and web traffic to the actual website after the ad was placed would be great to find out how effective or ineffective the ad was.  This would help gauge how many people truly clicked the advertisement, as well as how many people are making their way to the website, as not everyone may necessary click the ad right away.  The ad may resonate in some people later on as it is an emotionally appealing ad.

Last Wednesday we had a guest speaker, Ryan Eugene speak to our marketing 370 class to talk about the company that he works for.  His company sells IT supplies to professional photographers, in addition to businesses.  He was a graduate of NIU in 2008 with a marketing degree and an emphasis in Interactive Marketing.  One of the biggest things he talked about was the addition and use of a new blog for the site.  This media helps connect with customers more easily, stay up-to-date with other companies in the industry, and help drive traffic to the website.

Ryan Eugene spoke of the importance of many different tools that a blog should use.  First of all, he talked about the importance of having a proper layout in addition to an easy-to-look-at color scheme for the audience to look at.  He decided to use simple white/gray/black shades to make it easy on the eyes and still look appealing.  He chose these easy colors after he sent out surveys to others in the industry.  When talking to your customers, and keeping close ties with them, it is important to make sure that the customers feelings are not overlooked.

For proper interaction between the two markets, it’s important to discuss all relevant topics in a blog.  It’s important to show merchandise to ultimately drive traffic to the website.  Ryan however, was unable to explain to us how much the blog contributed to sales, due to the fact there are other marketing strategies that occur that make it difficult to pin-point where the sales are coming from.

Ryan showed us a few examples of other blogs that he felt were out of date, and that needed work on their layout.  There was too much white space, which ultimately hurt the blog-readers eyes, and most likely drives traffic away from the site, not towards it.

Another use of his website is to analyze searches that are important to the consumer.  He showed that it goes along with proper Search Engine Optimization practices do make sure this is implemented and running.  Analyzing keyword searches and being able to find the proper results will give a webmaster useful insight as to what consumers want and need.

Ryan mentioned that his company uses social media websites as well, such as Twitter.  However, it didn’t appear that Ryan or his company had a solid grip on what it takes to maintain presence on Twitter.  It would make sense to implement a full social media strategy versus just using Twitter, and to properly utilize the social media avenues available to them.  Other companies are very good with their social media presence.  A number of companies do a lot of customer interaction on Facebook, but companies manage issues on Twitter, such as “Comcast Cares.”  They manage their PR through Twitter and Facebook, and they do a great job with it.

ItSupplies could very well use social media as a customer service channel.  They could also link their blog to their social media sites, like we’re doing in Marketing 370. They could use social media for a online coupon strategy.

It is important for all companies to stay current and have a solid social media presence nowadays.  Ryan does a lot of good marketing for his company, but it’s important to remember there’s always more that can be done.

There are a number of Widgets and Plugins that are useful in the modern day Business environment.  Below are 2 that prove to be very useful:

1. WP Touch is a Plugin that transforms a WordPress Blog into an phone/mobile application theme.  This can be particularly useful for businesses because it can enable fast-paced businesspeople to access personal blogs about what is currently going on from the palms of their hands, and not just from a laptop or desktop.

Plugin by: BraveNewCode Inc.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wptouch/

2.  This plugin allows the user to use wordpress for greater search engine optimization performance. This is important for companies that either need or want Google to rank them highly

Plugin by: Michael Torbert

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/jetpack/

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