JackThreads Marketing

I could  not tell you how many times I've ordered clothing off the internet, only to find out it doesn't fit once it gets to my house. The worst part is, half the time I convince myself that I'll lose weight to eventually fit in it! So I waste my money and space and keep an item of clothing that I won't ever wear. This is why I love the company JackThreads.

I first found this company when I was googling cheap clothes for a new job I had gotten. In the past, I've spent so much time and money trying to shop for clothes for a new position only to get frustrated and just buying things which I don't even like. This company caught my eye because it isn't a brand of clothing, but is a host website of other brands at extremely competitive pricing. I recently started a new job and went to go look at their site to see what kind of business casual clothes I could find. It turned out they had just dropped their new app and were working on making their website push shoppers to download the app. So I did, and I love it.

The new thing that JackThreads does since I last shopped with them is send you the clothes you ordered free of charge. You don't pay until you've decided you want to keep the clothing you ordered, and they pay for the shipping on the return items you decided against, so you never actually have to pay for shipping. Now that I shop through the app, it recognizes the color ways I tend to favor and I get alerts when new products come in with the same colors. It recognizes that I usually shop button up shirts so I get alerted when they have new types of button up shirts. It's almost like I have a personal shopper in my phone who is actually trying to help me save money!

Unfortunately, this is a men's only company. But with how customized and cost effective their app is, I would be shocked if there isn't a women's clothing company with the same interface for their apps.

Lane Bryant's Fall 2016 Marketing Campaign

Lane Bryant’s Fall 2016 avant-garde campaign featured an advertisement entitled #ThisBody Is Made to Shine.  The campaign featured plus-sized celebrities and models such as Ashley Graham, Candice Huffine, and the outgoing Gabourey Sidibe.

The campaign focused on self-confidence and was on a mission to curtail body or fat shaming in social media and in society as a whole. The ad cleverly used a YouTube Video, filmed in black and white, with Lane Bryant models reading actual comments posted to them on social media regarding their bodies, paying little attention to whether the comments were negative or positive.  The campaign included snippets of several joyous plus-size models in their underwear on black and white video responding to negative replies to this campaign.  The replies were triumphant, filled with confidence, sassiness and demanded respect.

The use of this campaign is to employ the visibility of video to respond to the anonymity of Twitter.  The darkness of those negative replies was compounded with the joy and confidence of the video replies. In contrast to Twitter, these replies were unhidden, transparent and empowering. 

This marketing campaign left a great impression on me and became part of my top of mind awareness while doing my favorite pastime of shopping. The genius of this campaign was a subtle pushback to the obvious attacks on the perceived perfect body image and the subliminal messages portrayed by the media.  There was an element of exuberance as the Lane Bryant models delicately challenged the images portrayed by Victoria’s Secret models.  There are some advertising campaigns that do not affect you, but this campaign appealed to my visceral side, remained in my memory and prompted me to visit Lane Bryant.

Widgets, Clicks and Tweets Technology Post

When is the last time you enjoyed your lunch break without being concerned about what you missed via social media? How much time do you take perusing through comments and suggestions by your consumers and trying to stay ahead of the game in regards to relevant information?

When I started in the sales arena over 20 years ago, computers were not in every cubicle, as a matter of fact, we still used encyclopedias and had a tremendous paper trail. During that time, it was a chore to sift through paperwork or find pertinent information to share. Now with the influx of technology, the workloads have doubled even quadrupled in most cases. 

Today the paper trail has been replaced with scrolling through millions of heartfelt responses to social media sites. The ease of responding makes for a very time-consuming task for those who manage this process. Reports show Facebook has 1.65 billion monthly active users. In addition, there are 350,000 tweets every minute.

How would you like to arrive in the office and have in your inbox respective topics that give you the best trajectory to follow for the day or week specifically geared toward your business specifications similar to the service of Google Alerts for emails?

New technology companies such as DrumUp take the time to go through tons of content across the web in real time.  DrumUp uses sophisticated algorithms to locate and recommend high trending stories that will keep your audience informed and allow your business to stay relevant.  The beauty of this product is it connects with Twitter, LinkedIn & Facebook accounts. This software is customized to the specific needs of your business.

DrumUp boasts of minimizing social media management by up to 90% and has a host of key features including; content suggestions, hashtag and @mention suggestions and employee advocacy and analytics specific to your business needs.

Honey Nut Cheerios goes viral.

There are several versions of the Honey Nut Cheerios cereal “dancing families” campaign, but this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hox91325i60  is my favorite. From the moment I saw it come across my TV screen I knew there was something very familiar about it. I could not put my finger on it until I watched it a few times. 

The commercial is entirely made up of YouTube “sensations” and/or people who’s video’s have gone “viral”.  Using successful videos that have already been proven to be "liked" is an innovative way to make a commercial!

For those who recognize the faces as they come across the screen it’s a “hey I’ve seen their video” moment. Some viewers may relate to the “realness” of the people in it, which then gives the commercial a feeling of authenticity. The brilliant part is that even if you don’t recognize the videos from being viral, it’s a feel good commercial that still works for a few of these reasons:

1. Dad’s are showcased handling the hustle and bustle of the morning breakfast drill as a fun interaction with their kids.

2. Dad’s dancing silly (because they are typically not known for dancing freely or at least not very often in commercials).

3. The kids are down right stinking cute and who doesn’t love to see little ones dancing and mimicking dance moves.

4. Simple product placement of the cereal box. It isn’t intrusive and you’re almost compelled to watch the whole commercial to see what it is they are selling.

            There are no speaking parts in the commercial, not even a voice over.  The actors who aren’t really actors, don’t even have to act-they just have to be themselves (like in their videos). In the last 4 weeks I’ve seen several commercials using the same concept. Which leads me to believe this is a pretty innovative way to almost guarantee viewers are going to like the commercials.    

Smart Digital Screen

Do you love attending parades and/or rallies? Were you there when the Stanley Cup passed through the streets of Chicago? As great as these events are at creating a sense of community, they also pose as a potential threat to attacks.

Ever since the Boston Marathon, the importance of an evacuation plan for mass events has become a hot topic. Risk assessment has become a huge part of planning these types of events. Unfortunately, we cannot plan for everything. My good friend, Greg Evans, has developed a 10 foot tall platform for advertisement, but based in emergency planning. Greg first had an idea to create an emergency alert system for races like marathons and triathlons. A platform that would alert the runner of what was happening and where they need to go for safety. Since the runners aren't using their mobile devices for anything more than music, they have no connection to what's going on around them or in the world. Greg realized this prototype was playing on fear, so he changed the idea a bit. What he came up with was Smart Digital Screen.

Smart Digital Screen is a multimedia platform to feed out advertisements and information to event goers. Information like restroom or medic location, mile markers, and maps will rotate on the screen with advertisements from the sponsors. The other part of the platform is the real time news it will offer. Drones are an option for the events to include which will feed live images to the platforms in case of emergency. As previously stated, the platforms will alert runners to emergencies like weather or attacks.

Greg realizes that this is a specific niche he is playing to, but there is also nothing like this on the market for event planners. Greg is working on adding a hot spot to the platform, which he believes will help open the range of events he can reach (i.e. music festivals).

No one wants to live in fear, but we have to realize the constant possibility of emergencies. Thank goodness there are people like Greg Evans working to help us live our lives as normally as possible.

Buying a Jeep

My husband and I were driving down the road recently, and suddenly, we heard a loud clunk coming from the rear of our 2004 Chevy Trailblazer.  We had been nursing the poor old girl along, but the time had come when we knew we had to send her into retirement.  We drove past a billboard advertising a Jeep Grand Cherokee—we looked at each other and simultaneously said, “how about a Jeep” for a replacement car.  While we were driving, I pulled up the Jeep Facebook page on my phone to see what others had to say about Jeep in general. 

The first few posts were from happy Jeep owners enjoying their vehicles, and scrolling down I came to Videos, demonstrating some of the incredible driving conditions the Jeep can tackle.  The music was rocking, the people were young, energetic and adventurous. They were snowboarding and skiing on a really steep, snowy mountain, a situation that I probably will never tackle in my lifetime, but hey, it looked cool.  And exciting.  Scrolling down further, there were posts from one happy Jeep owner after another.  Another thing I noticed was that no matter what the driving conditions were, people were thrilled with their vehicles. 

Facebook also lets you know which of your friends “Likes” Jeep—this is strong testimony for me.  If my friends like something, I know them and trust them, so, this product becomes trustworthy and believable.  Their “About” page gives me the information I need about the business and who to contact if need be.  Ok, so I’m hooked just from looking at their Facebook page.

The Jeep website gives you all the necessary specifications of the vehicles.  So far, so good.  My husband and I decided to go visit a showroom and take a test drive.  We were not disappointed.  Our sales rep had me drive into an old abandoned parking lot and had me drive over a curb and down an embankment.  Now I’m really hooked.  We continued to put the vehicle through the paces, and fell in love—not literally of course, but you know what I mean.

We are now the happy, satisfied owners of a Jeep Grand Cherokee and are looking forward to all the new adventures that lie ahead.  The question is, did social media help with our decision?  Yes.  I depend on other people’s opinions and reviews when I make purchases.  If there are numerous satisfied customers, then I figure the product is good enough for me to purchase—at least try it for myself.  It has become an integral part of the decision-making process that I have adopted when I shop.

Key Finder Tags

Ever misplace your keys? Add a key finder tag sensor to your key ring and you won't have to waste time trying to find them again!

A key finder tag is a form of clever technology that attaches to your keys or any other important items. When an item is lost, you can use the mobile app to trigger the sensor. Once triggered ,it will set off a beeping sound, or a melody that will help you find the item you are searching for. The best part is that the technology works both ways, in that you can use the chip sensor to find your missing phone. The tags use short-range signals like Bluetooth or in some cases GPS to send and receive signals to and from your mobile device via the app. So it’s pretty cool that you won't have one, without being able to find the other.  

There are similar brands on the market that pretty much function in the same matter, with variations on range/radius, loudness of the ring tones, size of the tag and price points. The average cost is about $25.00. Here is a list of tags currently on the market: -TrackR, -Chipolo -Duet -Lapa2 -Linquet -Mynt -XYtag. You can stick it to almost anything: wallet, in purse zipper pocket, leave in your car, even on pets!  

Perhaps the best use of this technology would be, to keep pets from being stolen out of pet stores. Thieves have been known to walk away with the pets during "playtime" when there are numerous amounts of customers and it’s hard for the employees to keep track of which customer is playing with which pet. The sensors can be set to go off if the pets are removed from the perimeter of the store. This is a quick way to keep inventory of the animals. Not to mention much less invasive and expensive like embedding a chip into the animals. 

This technology takes the term "keeping taGs on your stuff" to a whole new level. ~Maribel