Week 4 Digital Leadership Experience Questions

      Hi everyone. I'm sorry this is late. I hope you will all have enough time during the week to respond to my questions.
      I recently began working for a start up food company called munchery.com. Munchery's business plan is pretty simple. They have top notch chefs make gourmet food exclusively for delivery. I would recommend taking a  brief look at the company's website just to get a better understanding of what they do.  (https://munchery.com/).
      In Chapter 11 of The New Rules of Marketing and PR, David Scott gives a detailed explanation of how to build a modern marketing campaign. We can't cover an entire marketing or PR strategy in a 500 word blog post, so we will just cover one aspect of this chapter. Scott defines a buyer persona as "a representative of a type of buyer that you have identified as having a specific interest in your organization or product or having a market problem that your product or service solves (Scott,2013)."  Munchery.com is a relatively new company that just received a large investment, so they are currently interested in growing their business. This means they need to reach as many potential customers as possible and do it in a meaningful way. In this weeks discussion, I want you to focus on the buyer personas that munchery.com is interested in and the outlets to reach these potential customers. Consider what Munchery.com is and how they can solve people's problems.

Questions;
 1) What do you think are the buyer persona profiles that munchery.com should be targeting when creating their marketing plan? Please explain how you came to these conclusions.
2.) What outlets do you think are the best means to reach these buyers?  And why?


Scott, David. (2013). The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley


I hope this is clear and makes sense to everyone. If you have any questions feel free to reach me via this blog or email at everett.gifford1@foxmail.marist.edu. I am looking forward to your responses.

I saw this on the 5 Gum Twitter page that prompts chewers to take a picture of whatever is behind them without looking. I thought that this was an interesting and engaging tactic. Here is the link:

https://twitter.com/5gum/status/510841348430495744

Response to Shana Barnes Week 3 Blog Post

Shana's blog this week was in response to Dana Jackson's questions regarding 5 Gum's marketing campaign. Shana points out that 5 gum offers the possibility of winning a sensory adventure for those that participate in the 5 gum truth or dare challenge. This is a great incentive, however Shana thinks that 5 does not engage their customers enough on social media. Kerpen says in Likeable Social Media "the companies and organizations that stand out are those which use social media to meaningfully engage customers and foster dialogue, instead of those who rely on simply, and repeatedly, talking at consumers (Kerpen, 2011)."  It seems like 5 gum is engaging their customers, but not doing enough to keep a conversation going with the people who have already talked about it on social media.
   I also liked the example Shana gave about her local brewery's contest to name their house brew. It sounds like a fun campaign that people could get involved in. However, Shana said that she was disappointed that the brewery did not continue the conversation on social media. I think that a conversation on social media could have been an outlet to gain even more attention and build a positive relationship with customers who were already interested in their product. Very good post Shana.

In regards to my first post this week; I just saw a 5 gum advertisement on TV. It was a very short commercial and it did have a # phrase on the screen, but I did not have enough time to read it. At least that is some kind of prompt to get people involved on Twitter. Now it seems like they must continue to generate conversation on social media in order to create a "buzz" around their campaign.

Kerpen, Dave. (2011).  Likeable Social Media. San Francisco, CA: McGraw Hill

Response to Erica Jordan's Blog Post

This post is in response to Erica Jordan's week three blog post about 5 Gum's marketing campaign and its difficulties creating a buzz around its new truth or dare marketing campaign. I really liked Erica's suggestion to use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as platforms to reach 5's target audience. She mentioned using each platform's strength, such as pictures on Instagram and verbal messages on Twitter in order to reach potential customers where they are already active. Erica said that 5 Gum needs to create a buzz around their new campaign. I completely agree with this assessment because if 5 does not create some kind of buzz around their product then they are essentially wasting a pretty decent marketing campaign. If 5 could get customers to go online and share pictures and tweets about the gum then I believe that 5 would draw more attention to their campaign and their product.
   Erica gave Lifelock as an example of a company that had a good marketing idea, but did not implement it correctly. This was a great example because Lifelock had a very interesting idea that showed faith in the company, but turned out to be very detrimental to the company's image.  The fact that hackers were able to hack into the CEO of Lifelock's accounts really did make the company look silly and unreliable. Very good post Erica.
 

Week 3 Blog Post

I like 5 Gum’s marketing idea to put truth or dare statements on every piece of gum. I think it is an interesting way to get people involved with the product, however I don’t think it is a unique idea.  We see it more and more often with low risk consumer products. Coca Cola is the first product to come to mind that has a similar marketing scheme. Coke puts a slogan that reads “share a Coke with         .”  It is such a simple idea, but it works. I know because I bought a Coke with my girlfriend’s name on it simply because it says her name. I’m not necessarily proud of that, but it was such a novelty I couldn’t resist. I have also seen billboards that have Instagram photos on them reading #shareacoke. Now that is genius marketing. Coke didn’t have to do anything, but pay for the ad space. I think 5 Gum could use a similar strategy to attract attention to their brand and marketing campaign. First, I would suggest some kind of prompt or even an incentive that drives people to social media and suggests that they post something about 5 Gum.  Another idea would be to put an advertisement out in traditional media that would attract attention to the 5 Gum brand and their truth or dare marketing campaign. Both of these tactics would be a good way to engage their market. As Dave Kerren says in Likeable Social Media, “You have to be interested in your consumers and prospects, and the creation of a solid bond with them must be your goal (Kerren, 2011).” I think prompting customers and potential customers to converse or at least visit their social media pages is a good way for 5 Gum to build attention for their brand and their campaign. 5 Gum can then utilize this conversation for the good of consumers and their business. 

                I thought briefly about your question regarding another brand that I am familiar with that has a great marketing, but failed to fully implement it successfully. The first brand that I thought of was Magic Hat and their marketing idea of putting little slogans on the bottom of every cap. I thought they could possibly spur larger interest in the brewery if they had people post pictures and comments on Facebook and Twitter regarding the beer and the slogans on the bottom of the caps. What I realized is that Magic Hat absolutely rules at marketing. I have never been an avid social media participant (that’s all changing), so I went on to Magic Hat’s Twitter and Facebook page and I realized how phenomenal their integrated marketing communications were.  I still think they could start a social media program that gets people posting pictures of events/situations where people are drinking Magic Hat or the cap’s slogan pertains to a customer’s life.  I think I will look further into Magic Hat’s marketing programs because I was immediately impressed. In the meantime I will look for another brand that has a great marketing idea, but has failed to implement it successfully.  

                This is my first blog ever! Great questions Dana. I will be checking in again soon.   

Kerren, Dave. (2011).  Likeable Social Media. San Francisco, CA: McGraw Hill