Friday, January 19, 2018

Week 2 Marketing Blog

Topic 1: Social Listening 
  1. What brand did you select?                                                                                                          I chose the brand H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB. It is a Swedish multinational clothing-retail company known for producing clothing specializing in fast fashion for men, women, and children and teenagers.
  2. What is its Value Proposition?
    H&M is a brand associated with top fashion and top designers but yet keeps the prices low for most products, in addition, they have a lot of celebrity endorsements to reinforce its attractive image.
  3. What are 3 good and bad things that  people are saying about your chosen brand?       Due to recent controversial advertisement which featured a black kid wearing a hoodie with the words "the coolest monkey in the jungle," most of the things that people were saying about H & M were negative.  Negative comments include: "There's a White Supremacist who works for H&M who thought it was funny to make a black boy model a hoodie that said 'Coolest Monkey In The Jungle'," and "black kid is the monkey, and another ad feature a white kid being the 'survival expert.' And  know folks are pretending like they don't know that black children have always been racially characterized as monkeys, H&M screwed up." Another negative comment  was, "I'm hysterical over the lack of awareness by H&M." I say that what people were saying about H&M was reasonable (especially from the perspective of a person of African/Black descent) because racism is something that will not be tolerated by the masses in this day and age, even if H&M did not intend for the ad to be racist.                                                                                                                                                                                                       I did find some positive things people were saying about the brand and some even stood up for the brand's advertisement by saying things like, "I thought the hoodie was cute, sue me." Another positive comment (more or less), "H&M is a non American company. Non native brands do not have to be familiar with USA's historical conflicts." What they were saying made sense from their point of view (they were looking ad the ad as nothing more than a hoodie and a child), but most of the people that were saying positive comments about the brand were Caucasian so it would make sense that the negative comments outweighs the positive.                          
  4.  What aspects relate to marketing, please explain? What's the challenge facing the brand?  Due to controversy and backlash about a potentially racist hoodie, H&M had to offer an apology and hire a diversity leader, customers are the focus of marketing's activities so it was wise for them to do that to turn their customer's frown upside down. Another aspect that relates to marketing is social listening, H&M was forced to listen to what people were saying on social media and then proceeded to fix those complaints.                                                                                                                                                                
  5.  If you were the brand manager, how would you respond to customers? If I was the brand manager and I experienced backlash about the hoodie, I would offer a sincere apology on all the social media platforms that the brand uses. I would let them know the hoodie was designed with no racist intent, and that the product would be discontinued and removed from all stores.



Topic 2: Marketing In The News
  1. Summary: Adidas is growing from a conceptual perspective and from a broad view. It has been making full use of the digital opportunity, whereas other retailers are struggling to compete online. The company has also been focusing and emphasizing quality growth and margins to boost its stock performance. It has been gaining popularity and growing in countries such as China and the USA, with sales going up from 6 % to 11% in the US. Adidas' ability to innovate, react fast to changing trends as well as to market demand, distribution discipline, and its degree of diversification by product is leading the company to a prosperous future in the stock market while spooking its competitors who are struggling to keep a constant growth rate.                                                                                                                                                                                  
  2. Marketing Issue and/or challenge: Adidas has found a way to fully exploit its online opportunity and could possibly make and reap big profits.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
  3. How was the issue or challenge addressed? Response (good or bad?): Adidas sees a lot of potential in the sportswear industry because that industry grows from 4% to 6% a year. They are competing against other brands by making full use of the digital opportunity in addition to reacting fast to changing trends and emphasizing quality growth. To reinforce the issue, they are offering new and differentiated product portfolio. It is also focusing on scale and recognizing trends before they happen, things like this are diving the company to higher profits.                                                                                                
  4. Value Proposition: Adidas offers innovative trendy apparel and shoes for leisure and athletic performance, with high pricing to reinforce its premium image/positioning standing.                              
  5. What did you learn and can apply in this class? I learned that for a company/brand to truly stand out in a competitive industry, they must take full advantage of whatever opportunity that presents itself and capitalize on the results. I also learned that it is useful to react fast to changing trends and recognize trends before they happen, it's like the saying "the early bird gets the warm." Also offering a remarkable product one that is trendy but also unique, will give an advantage over competitors because it will be appealing to see something innovative and stylish.
Article Link: http://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/adidas-stock-price-has-found-a-way-to-fully-exploit-its-online-opportunity-and-it-could-make-a-killing-2018-1-1013326915

Company Link: https://www.adidas.com/us/

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