IMC-wise, take Josi's cue and focus on the Gaga's Workshop-Barney's New York program. There are many moving parts, and they all have significant weight -- even the smallest tactic, such as Become a Gaga Workshopper.
It took no more than a minute to turn our unofficial PRFandP classmate, Allie Chandler, into a bonafide little monster. Next, the feline monster was blasted to my Facebook page with my personal message, a link to Gaga's Workshop and a playful line of Gaga-esque brand copy: "I'm ridiculously goodlooking as a Gaga's Workshopper."
I just promoted two three brands (Gaga, Barney's and Allie C.) with one click. Direct marketing, with a social media spin.
Girl Scouts of America is one of the most loved and familiar brands in the world. With a mission to build girls of courage, confidence, character (and make the world a better place), the Girl Scouts of America develops cute little armies of personal sellers to push affordable and delicious products. The Girl Scouts are so cute and courteous in their green uniforms you almost have to buy something from them...and who doesn't love those Thin Mints?!
I have received so many emails from Amazon, Overstock, Best Buy etc. that I want to scream! Direct Marketing is an effective but truly annoying technique :-P I would rather sift through mounds of paper advertisements and watch the same commercial over and over again than have a cluttered inbox--but that's just me. Macy's has done a terrific job with their Black Friday advertisements. Check out this video. Whether you love him or hate him, the commercial is hilarious, lol...
Time for some PRFandP transparency. Have you ever been to a Black Friday Sale? (Does this kind of thing happen in Canada?)
Think about Black Friday as it relates to a retailer's IMC efforts. The National Retail Federation estimates that the number of shoppers hitting stores today will be up 10 percent from 2010.
I've been bombarded with Amazon's Black Friday email direct marketing. Thanks to PR, Black Friday headlines dominate the news. You can't escape the sales promotions. And my cynical side wonders if WalMart's PR pros stage, post and promote some of the YouTube fight videos.
Black Friday is big business, and retailers have been strategically planning IMC efforts all year long.
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is all about the mix -- the integration between various IMC channels that work as a unified force, rather than permitting each to work in isolation.
Advertising, Promotion, PR and Direct Marketing can hog the IMC spotlight, so you have to make sure that Personal Selling gets some TLC.
Employees can be the most powerful brand ambassadors, whether they're directly involved with sales or not. Just ask the Zappos folks. They've even written a book about it.
Good customer service is becoming a dying art, but Zappos gives me faith. Zappos is an online retailer, but the core of their business -- at the most basic level -- is a call center: one-on-one customer service-related conversations.
"Service" is so integral to the brand Zappos puts it front-and-center for all the world to see. For Zappos, corporate culture is the Personal Selling program that contributes to success.
Lots of companies pull out the "culture" card, but few can pull it off so well. Why is a company like Zappos successful and so many others fall flat?
Personal Selling programs come in lots of shapes & sizes. Seen any good examples? Come across a good case study?
Crowd sourcing...to be completely honest, the concept seemed rather bland to me at first. In preparation for my week as PRFandP's administrator, I did some research on the different ways that crowd sourcing can be used. I discovered a world of possibilities! Once I opened my eyes to all the different ways crowd sourcing can be used, I was shocked and impressed with many of the amazing projects that incorporated crowd sourcing. Listed below are a few of my favorite examples:
1. Collected Visions Collected Vision began in 1996 by Lorie Novak. Novak sent out a request for people to send her any old family photos which she then placed on her Collected Vision website. Visitors to the site can browse through old photos and captions that have also been submitted by visitors to the site. One installation on the website that I found to be extremely intriguging was Positive Visions, where Novak asked the public to submit stories and photos of people affected with AIDS. Check it out here! Although her website is a bit...dated (I honestly don't even remember the internet existing in 1996) it is an amazing project.
2. The Johnny Cash Project The Johnny Cash Project is a simply outstanding example of crowd sourcing. Project director, Chris Milk, (a real life music video director) decided to make a music video for Johnny Cash's last studio recording, "Ain't No Grave." Milk provided a reference image on the Johnny Cash Project website which was then used by participants (the general public) to create their own frame for the music video. For some reason the music video made me a bit dizzy...but enjoy!
3. A Life in a Day
A cinematic experiment produced by Ridley Scott is my FAVORITE example of crowd sourcing. Scott sent a request out for people to film their day on July 24, 2010 and submit them to Youtube. The response was unbelieve. The documentary film is made up of video clips from over 80,000 submissions sent from over 192 nations across the world. I already posted a link to the full film, so here is a link to the trailer.
I challenge everyone to find their own creative example of a project or art piece that incorporates crowd sourcing. There are tons out there!
When we talked about Gaga this week, I couldn’t agree more with Eric. She is everywhere! Whether it was Monday in class, yesterday when I visited the Harper’s Bazaar exhibition at the ICP Museum, today’s opening of the very bizarre Gaga’s Workshop at Barneys New York or for the Very Gaga Thanksgiving special on ABC tomorrow, she never stops entertaining.
Gaga is a huge social media star, she constitutes a case study in itself. She is the most popular user on Twitter, reaching 16 million monsters this November. She was also the first person to hit 10 million fans on Facebook (now counting more than 45 million fans), as well as 1 billion views on YouTube, according to Mashable. I know, I know... quality versus quantity but go to visit Gaga’s Facebook page yourself; you will agree with me that she has both and she really owns her audience like no one else! The keys to her success: she – or should I say her team – is updating the platforms with new and creative content like videos, posts, you can even buy music and subscribe to her newsletter. Also the extravagance and style of the star certainly helps to keep the conversations. Oh and talking about branded entertainment, who can tell me how many products you can identify in her 9.5 minute music video, Telephone?
And this isn’t it; did you know that she recently partnered up with social gaming company Zynga to launch GagaVille, a Gaga-themed offshoot of Zynga’s hit game, FarmVille? I admit, I am a huge fan of the Lady.
