Assignment 4

Mario Borisov

P90X

              P90X, while technically a product of Beachbody, the fitness workout program has taken on a life of its own and has become one of the hottest selling products of its kind. To improve the marketing of their product even further, the people in charge of P90X have gone beyond simply having a website by creating a Facebook page that provides them with both 'mass' and 'interpersonal' communication channels. Having access to them is one thing, but taking advantage and using the tools of Facebook to promote your product is another. P90X does a brilliant job of using all that social media has to offer because they focus on the message they carry on it.

             First, I will examine how they fair when it comes to premiums - free or reduced prices on products. One of the most common types of users that like/friend companies on social media sites, such as Facebook, are users that are looking for premiums and great deals on products that they otherwise would be less likely to purchase. P90X offers regular deals on their products and also has rewards and giveaways. For example, they had a free trip to LA plus $5000 for one of their customers. Furthermore, they occasionally give credits/discounts and promotion codes to save an upwards of hundred of dollars for their different P90X packages. This kind of promotion is a great message to have on a company's Facebook and it gives a reason for many people to like their page.

             Second, we will turn our attention to how P90X fairs when it comes to participation - creating events, venues, games and surveys for users. To capture another large group that is likely to like a Facebook page - users looking for entertainment - the P90X people have dedicated a great deal of their time, energy, and effort on creating content that is pleasing to such a crowd. For example, they have regular surveys about different products their users use. This serves a dual purpose: 1) It gives the users the ability to participate, which is key in making people come back to one's page and 2) It gives the company vital information that can be used for the development and promotion of other products. Furthermore, they encourage users to share their 'progression' photos and highlight the ones that are most popular. This creates a type of competition which makes people try to get as much likes as possible. This, in turn, leads many to tell their friends to come visit the page and like their content, creating a win win situation for everyone. Another brilliant win for P90X and their smart use of social media.

             Third, the most important factor of the 'interpersonal' relationship that P90X can achieve is providing a 'customer service portal' - a place where users can speak directly to the company, a customer service of the 21st century. Again, P90X does not fail to deliver a great experience. Not only are their admins active in responding to customer requests and questions, but they also have live chat events and other cool ways for the customers to express their love (or hate) for their product. Furthermore, they promote local events of P90X where customers can go visit and ask questions in person.

             Forth, when it comes to regular content flow, P90X has daily updates. This not only keeps Facebook users coming back to check for the latest update, but it also forces the P90X staff to be creative and not just recycle old content. In today's age of constant, fast, on the moment content, if you do not keep up, you are left behind. P90X clearly knows that and they focus not only on quality, but also - quantity. Beginning with competitions for the best/most impressive transformations and ending with great customer service and live chat events, P90X has mastered the use of social media. They have recognized that simply being on Facebook is not enough, the message they portray and the ingenious tactics they imply (where both parties gain something and participate) is the way to take full advantage of what social media has to offer.

     Tony Horton: video instructor for P90X

Michelle Carney

Campbell

Figure 1. Page 1 of http://www.campbellsgo.com/. Note Pinterest/Tumblr style appearance.

Figure 2. Page 2 of http://www.campbellsgo.com/. Note Instagram-style photo and poor caption “memes.”

Campbell’s has recently re-vamped its old-fashioned home-style image for the on-the-go youth of today by marketing its new GO Soup! on a Pintrest/Tumblr inspired website (http://www.campbellsgo.com/). Although the website seems to have all of the ingredients for a web success – cat gifs, Instagram-inspired photos of the soup packages around NYC – it is far from being a social media success.

The website gives minimal nutritional information using the same cat gif, but offers no premiums or incentives for users and customers. Users are able to participate by sharing the Campbell GO soup blog posts on their own blog, but the maximum number of shares/likes/re-posts on any given post by the users was under 10 (almost every post had 0 shares/likes), even though some posts were 3 months old. There was absolutely no user-generated content – instead, it seemed like Campbell’s was forcing very fake “user-generated content” and trying way too hard to appear like a hip blog. Most of the posts were poorly made puns/jokes based on the soup’s name (“Dear Fort Knox, Please let me out” for Golden Lentil Curry) or just out of place forced jokes (“Uhh, Why aren’t they called ‘Unihorns?’”). There is no outlet for customer service, but users can go to the upper right hand corner to go to the general Campbell’s soups webpage (that does have Premiums and can users contact the company, but that is hardly a Customer Service “Portal” for user dialogue). It is clear from the timestamps that content is added in batches every so often, not a constant stream updated every couple days. A bunch of new content was added when the site first started three months ago, and then is added in batches every couple weeks, and every batch contains content that is all the same and none of it is engaging, making Content Flow almost obsolete.

The Campbell’s GO Soup! does not utilize premiums, user participation, user-generated content, customer service outlet, or content flow, which is probably why all of their (very limited) content is not doing so well. By using the same dozen or so images and the same four templates, the Campbell’s GO Soup! is trying to create their own meme subculture that could be shared on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, or Pintrest. In reality, the website comes off as a sad attempt to create everything that is popular on the internet, as evident by their tags (“lol,” “gif,” “cat,” “instagram,” “food,” “photography,” etc.), and falls into the uncanny valley of bad marketing. It is quite obviously made by a marketing team in an attempt to be cool, quirky and hipster, but is clearly trying way too hard with its poorly designed captions. Poorly thought out joke gifs on “HOW TO” (ex. “cross the street” (i.e. make it mad), “get over an ex” (answer: ‘with a zipline’), etc.) and “DO’s and DON’T’s” (“Do light an inspirational fire within a person, Don’t light an inspirational person on fire”) could not even muster a chuckle in a group of 20 year olds, which, by the looks of the website, is the target audience. The website has the potential to be a lot better if it allowed user access to make their own captions for the “HOW TO” and “DO’s and DON’T’s” gifs or blank caption memes for users to fill in, and GO Soup! could use their website to showcase the user creations, boosting their User-Generated Content. Also, adding a poll on quirky topics such as “Where is the best place to eat Campbell’s GO Soup!” would easily increase the user Participation while staying on goal to appear hip. And adding a new “meme” or some kind of give-away/coupon every two days would increase the Content Flow as well as give out Premiums. Additionally, if they enabled comments on each of the posts (currently disabled), there would be more of a Customer Service “Portal” for communication between Campbell’s and its potential customers/users in a fun and friendly environment.

The website itself is a fun idea, although it is a little strange that a soup (or a GO Soup!) would need a website, and they used all of the tricks of the internet (tagging, cat gifs, creating their own memes) but in doing so, they ultimately came off as inauthentic and destroyed their chances of reaching their target audience, the youth on-the-go.

Eileen Cheng

Sephora

At first glance the Sephora Facebook page doesn’t look like much. However, when you start to actually look at the content, you realize that Sephora has definitely been engaging their users. They target all of the four major user types (minus the negative fans). They target the “Premium Hunters” with the premiums that they offer on the Sephora fan page. They offer statuses with coupons, they offer free exclusives, and they also have a special event called “Fan Fridays” that offer buyers/fans free gifts every Friday. The fact that this is every Friday gets people to continuously come back to the page to see what they can get this Friday. They also target the Positive users by asking users to provide feedback through questions in the statuses. Beyond the questions, they also have surveys where users can also vote for their favorite choice. This makes it simpler for people to voice their opinion without actually having to write an opinion and make a comment.

Sephora goes further and actually has other activities on their page. They engage users through User-Generated content like the “Create Your Own Coverstory.” In “Create Your Own Coverstory,” users can use a Sephora application on the page to create their own cover picture with their own pictures. They update the fan page regularly with more premiums and more statuses asking users opinions on products or styles. On top of that, they also have additional “pages” on their page that are seasonal. For example, in this season they have the “Holiday Hub.” On the “Holiday Hub” you can check out seasonal tweets dealing with Sephora, what’s going on Sephora’s pinterest, videos with the hottest trends for the season, as well as an Instagram feed. Sephora’s fan page engages users with interactive material and also keeps up to date on all of the technological trends.

Angela Hseih
Victoria's Secret

I would say that the Victoria’s Secret fan page on Facebook is successful if I only looked at the number of users that liked the page. They have over 20 million likes. However, after looking at the content that they post on their feed, I realize that they don’t actually engage all of the social media users that they possibly could. For example, they do a good job of connecting with the “Premium Hunters” with the premiums that they offer on their page. With statuses, Victoria’s Secret offers coupons like 20% off, Rewards Coupons, and more. However, they have less statuses asking questions to their users. Some of the questions as statuses deal only with the VS fashion show. Just like their content flow isn’t updated everyday. It seems as if they are not as interested with engaging their users in new questions and getting customer opinions everyday.

However, some of what they do well, is that they are a good customer service “portal.” They actually have a link on their page to another page with a portal on how fans can give customer service feedback. They also engage users with a little user-generated content. For example, right now, you can post on their “Teeny Bikini” campaign. In this campaign, fans can post pictures of their bikinis that they have bought by Victoria’s Secret. They also post all the events they have at their stores, whether it’s a “Meet the Angels” event or a discount event. They also try to engage users through their “Blogger Buzz” feed and their Instagram feed. The “Blogger Buzz” feed is more interactive because it allows people to ask bloggers questions. However, the Instagram feed only shows pictures that Victoria’s Secret posts--which is less interactive. Therefore, even though Victoria’s Secret has 20 million fans, they could definitely be more interactive.

Jennifer Lopez
Shiekh

I choose to do an analysis on Shiekh’s Facebook page. Shiekh is company that sells shoes for both men and woman, they also sell bags and clothes for men but they are better know for their shoes. The page on Facebook has thousands of “likes”, they update their page weekly with pictures of shoes. Their facebook page doesn’t give out free stuff but their premium is that it has provided updates if they have specials or coupons, for example “buy one get 1 50% off” and they usually include a lot of pictures of shoes with the offer.

They are do participate a lot on their page. Sometimes they create games; like when is Friday they ask which type of shoe will you be wearing this weekend. And they include multiple pictures of shoes (most for woman) people to comment and “like”. Sometimes they also have game where you match the purse with the best set of high heels and a lot of girls participate and “like” the game.

Their page also offers user-generated content. When people tag them on twitter with pictures while wearing their (Shiekh) product, and they like it they upload it to the Facebook page and give credit to the person using it.

However, they don’t provide a costumer service portal, they have blocked people from posting on their wall, so people who have something to say they usually post it on pictures that Shiekh post. And Shiekh does not always respond. People can tag Shiekh but other can’t see it, for example on their page it says how many people are talking about Shiekh but we can’t see what they are actually saying.

They are providing new and engaging material regularly. When a new type of shoe comes out they post pictures and asks peoples opinion. When they have sales they post it, they tend to update their status with pictures, quotes, games etc at least once a week if not more.

Rosa Ortega
Papa John's FB Page

http://www.facebook.com/papajohns

In light of the recent negative attention that Papa Johns has gotten after comments about Obamacare from the company’s CEO I decided to analyze Papa Johns Facebook page and how successful their marketing is. Initially I noticed that I have mutual friends that are fans of the Facebook page, which signaled to me that their marketing is somewhat successful. Recent examples of Premiums given out by the company were free pizzas after the online purchase of any pizza with a particular promotion code, and 120,000 pizzas given out randomly to “Papa Rewards Members.” The company gave out 2 million pizzas total in the past month displaying a very competent Premium move by Papa John’s Marketers.

             The Papa John’s page does not include much User-Generated Content and the page seems to be dominated by fans as well as people who dislike the company (because of the recent events).  The Costumer Service Portal and Participation on the Papa John’s Facebook page go hand in hand. There are many posts by the page that ask about opinions of new releases, ask about new ventures (such as the Taylor Swift sponsored concert), and ask generally about pizza and related topics that receive many likes and comments. These examples also show how the page is regulating Content Flow, making posts very regularly and with varying topics. Overall I would say that even though many people have been making negative comments on posts made by the Papa Johns CEO, the facilitators of the Facebook page have been doing a good job as far as Premiums, Participation, Customer Service Portal, and Content Flow. The company could do a much better job at supporting User-Generated Content because there are not many current efforts to support User-Generated Content. Overall I think that the Papa John’s has been successful in its marketing strategies but there are more efforts that can be taken to make it better. 

Rafael Ramirez
Not in yet

Joshua Rosenzweig
Disney.com 

So I did a website analysis of Disney.com. In all honesty I believe Disney is doing a fabulous job of marketing their products, whether it is new movies, projects, kids games, etc. When you first open to the home page, there is a slideshow showing recent things Disney has its hands in. For example, their new movie Brave came out so they were advertising it by showing pictures and links to take you to see the trailer or to buy it. They have a menu bar that connects you to different aspects like the Disney Store or games or something called Create (which consists of creating artwork mostly for contests...WHAT?!) if you scroll down on the home page you see sections broken up by various topics. Examples include characters (which you can click on and takes you to a subsection of their website where that character is featured); you can click on links to the Disney store where they show that something is discounted or on sale.

So pretty much let us go down the list. When it comes to premiums they aren’t giving away anything for free, but they do make sure that things that are on sale or discounted are the first things you see. This website Screams participation, whether it is all the games they have (even created three new games to go along with their new movie Wreck-it Ralph, which by the way was awesome) or Disney’s Create contests where people can submit artwork to various contests going on. User-generated content is what I just said; they have photo galleries of all submitted artwork. They are constantly updating their main page to keep up with all the work they are doing, especially the slideshow presenter at the top of the home page. The one thing that is lacking is communication with others. There is no domain portal where people can chat with each other about Disney movies or other things. It is the one thing the website is missing. But I believe they don’t need it, since it is Disney and its mostly a children’s site, having open chat rooms might be troublesome. So not having a forum of some type if completely fine with me.

Overall, I would give this site a 10/10. They make sure that the users interests are met and that they market themselves quite nicely. 

Christina Vasiliou
Domino's Pizza Twitter

Overall, based on an analysis of features on the Twitter page/feed for the company Domino’s Pizza, their social media marketing is quite successful.  First of all, Twitter accounts give the person or company a means to gain “followers” who will receive updates when the person or company “tweets.”  Tweets are restricted to 140 characters and pictures (or “twitpics”) can be added.  People can tweet “@” the person or company (ex: “@dominos”) and the person or company will get a notification that they were mentioned in someone else’s tweet; this allows the person or company to then tweet back “@” the person.  In the case of Domino’s pizza, they have pretty consistent content flow on their Twitter page, tweeting 2-3 times per day.  Twitter accounts’ success are based off consistent content flow and without often tweets, Twitter accounts will not be successful.  Domino’s tweets, while consistently outputted, are interesting in that not all of them are directly about pizza or Domino’s service; instead, a lot of their tweets are completely unrelated to pizza and are instead used as a way to increase their visibility to their “followers” or potential customers.  An example of this, is their current most recent tweet that says “#TGIF! Sorry… just practicing for tomorrow!” (November 15, 2012)  Domino’s is ensuring that they are appearing on their followers’ Twitter feed and by using a “hashtag,” anyone who searches “TGIF” will be confronted with Domino’s pizza. 

In terms of premiums, Domino’s often tweets pictures of their current deals they are offering.  Their Twitter feed directs you to their website where more coupons are available (they have an entire “tab” named “Coupons” where you can automatically add them to your current order.)  Because their website is very convenient for the offering of premiums, their Twitter feed does not focus on these offers as much, and instead refers those seeking them to their website.  Domino’s twitter account encourages participation by their followers by often tweeting simple, non-pizza related surveys for their followers to answer.  Examples include, “SUV vs. Sports Car?” (Tweeted November 5, 2012) or “Escalator vs. Elevator?” (Tweeted October 28, 2012).  Additionally, Domino’s encourages their followers to “retweet” (or post their original tweet as a new tweet) their posts.  This increases Domino’s visibility on Twitter and the tweets, again, do not even necessarily relate to pizza.  An example is “RT if you wish Friday could last all week #PIZZAPARTY” (Tweeted November 2, 2012).  This also relates to user-generated content because if you tweet @dominos, and Domino’s likes your tweet, they may favorite it or retweet it themselves.  Also, Domino’s tweets their “Fan Comment of the Week” in a picture and responds to it in the tweet.  The most recent comment of the Week was “Domino’s if you were a woman, I would marry you,” from Anthony M., and Domino’s responded by tweeting “This may sound cheesy, Anthony M., but… ‘I do.’” (November 13, 2012). 

 

Domino’s recently went on a campaign to improve not only their pizza but also their customer service, and this can be seen on their Twitter feed.  If Domino’s receives a tweet from someone complaining about their food or the service provided, Domino’s will oftentimes respond “@” that person asking them for their name, location, and phone number so that they can follow up with that person about their experience.  Even though, Domino’s is allowing (and potentially encouraging) public criticism on their Twitter feed, they are also publicizing that they are responding to complaints and attempting to fix their customer’s problems.  Domino’s mixes fun, humor, participation, customer service, and premiums on their Twitter feed, and honestly, after looking at their Twitter, I think they have gained a follower (and a customer) – which is their social media marketing goal.

Wai Lam Wong
Barnes & Noble

 https://www.facebook.com/barnesandnoble?fref=ts

Barnes & Noble is a popular book seller in the United States and currently has 1,485,819 likes on Facebook. It attempts to engage its fan base through posts such as "Fill in the blank: If I wrote my autobiography, the title would be ____________" and asking Facebook users' their opinion on reading material such as "What's the best movie adaptation of a sci-fi book?" However, all of its interactions are passive and a vast majority consists of simple question and response that is rather dull. An indicator of its success at engaging users is the average number of likes per post. While the company has over 1.4 million likes, the number of likes on posts hovers around the mid-hundreds with some hitting one to two thousand likes. Even at an average of 1000 likes per post, participation is less than 0.0007% of its users.

The company posts links on the page to its merchandise (books, albums, etc) on www.barnesandnoble.com and to relevant movie trailers and videos. However, the last Barnes & Noble-created video was posted in August and the page does not actively encourage fans to create content to enhance the page. There are no organized structures such as raffles, competitions, or galleries for users to share their favorite books and content besides posting on the timeline. There is little evidence of extensive involvement of individuals and the page does not have a life of its own to pull users to it on a frequent and consistent basis. The community guidelines allow "BarnesandNoble.com pages and non-commercial, topic-related content" but almost all active discussions are initiated by the company representative in relation to promoting certain books or related events. User-initiated conversation overwhelmingly complains of poor service with only a smattering of compliments. The company responds to some criticisms but not all and sometimes only exacerbates the frustration of the customer by advising them to contact customer service (who the user, in one case, had already been criticizing as unresponsive). In most cases, the administrator does not address complaints on the page satisfactorily.

A positive aspect of the Barnes & Noble Facebook page is the posting of premiums such as Free Fridays and sales on merchandise such as books, DVDs and CDs which attract positive comments. Some of the more successful posts and promotions (sales tend to fare better than typical posts) ask questions which stimulate dialogue among users and create discussions that help develop the sense of community on the page. The page also has a well-balanced amount of posts every few days so that it does not overflow users but reminds them of the company. However, the general quality of the posts is unexciting.

In summary, the page offers adequate premiums through promotions and discounts and has good content flow but is deeply lacking in essential areas. Its unimaginative content does little to encourage user participation and user-generated content, and there are few examples of effective customer-service that could score points for the company in the minds of users. There has been a dependable reading culture and community for many years and Barnes & Noble should utilize the great potential of technology to enhance and facilitate readers’ experiences through e-books and internet communities such as its Facebook page.