Welcome to my very first blog!
As you may have read in my about me or biography, I am a senior at Texas Christian University, studying Strategic Communications with a minor in Business. I want to start blogging to keep up with the latest news and trends in the advertising and public relation fields. I also want to stay current with what is going on in the news and will frequently be posting blog posts to give feed back or commentary. My other interests include cooking, traveling, staying active, and reading. I also enjoy going to as many TCU football games (upper left image) as I can or spending time with family whenever I am home. This blog will be used to post about industry related events but every now and then will post a little something different about my life and what is going on now.
I hope you enjoy my blog and frequently check back for blog posting. I will try my very best to post on a regular basis and to stay up-to-date.
Sincerely,
Rachel McMillian
Fashion Designers Cozy Up to Social Media
The highly anticipated and dreaded day of graduation is slowly but surely coming towards us graduating seniors. As a senior, I have put a lot of thought into my strengths, weaknesses, and interests when contemplating where I would like to see myself in the next few months. Strategic Communication majors have a wide range of opportunities and fields where we could potentially work. In my opinion this is both an advantage and disadvantage to entry level graduates. With so many options, how does one decide where to start? Advertising is something that I have always been passionate about whether it means account planning, media buying, or the creative side of the industry, all of these aspects excite me. Upon graduation I would be ecstatic to enter into a field with either high creativity in their marketing efforts or any fashion field.
In the past few months and years social media has made a huge leap in popularity among its young and savvy users. Social media sites have even edged their way onto older generations desktops and mobile devices. Parents are seen popping up in the most innovative social sites and are learning to utilize them accordingly. With all of this being said it is no wonder that fields such as fashion have come up with creating content that is suitable and appropriate for each different social networking site available. Some of the most innovative fashion lines is Burberry, Victoria Secret, and MICHAEL KORS. These brand have been known to engage their customers with interactive ads by allowing them to see behind the scene, online contests, and allowing them to comment and interact with the labels. An article included in DashisGroup’s blog mentions the top 15 fashion lines that engage in and how they reached their potential with these mediums.
Burberry, one of the brands at the top of their list, was the first to “embrace Instragram For Video,” successfully keeping their brand exclusive but also ever present. Other brands such as Forever 21 and Victoria Secret have realized that their main target audience are those who are proficient at social media. Reaching consumers at this level where they are actively engaging in has benefitted the sales and reputations of all these brands. If done in the right way, by adding more social integration into their marketing efforts could make an outstanding impact. This is the field where I see myself thriving. Creating content that is fun, interactive, and entertaining for the consumers who will most likely buy your products.
One of the most beautiful things about this field is that it isn’t going anywhere soon. Fashion is always evolving, pushing the boundaries, and coming out with new products every few months. Without a doubt this field will need advertisers and creative minds to keep them at their best. I believe that I could really excel in this environment which makes me look forward to the future.
To read more on DashisGroup visit their article: http://dachisgroup.com/best-fashion-brands-in-social-media/
Internet, Just Another Option
Online advertising has certainly been on the rise in the last few months. With that being said companies and brands are being forced to have an online presence because consumers now expect it. Having an online presence could mean a Facebook page, website, or any other social site such as Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, blogs, etc. These sites have seen great success especially with the younger generations who rely heavily on their mobile devices and the idea of staying connected 24/7. Even with all of this success it is important for marketers to understand that traditional marketing is not dead. Traditional marketing will never entirely go away, it is a huge business that will continue to gain millions of impressions over many platforms.
Marketing and advertising executives need to realize that while internet is booming now that it should be used to aide the other aspects of the marketing plan. In order for a company’s marketing objectives to be successful they need many parts to fill in the puzzle. Parts like packaging, promotions, direct response, public relations, special events, direct marketing, media, point of purchase and many other aspects that lead to the ultimate purchase of a particular product. If fashion moved away from everything traditional or relied too heavily on online advertising their sales would decrease. Online advertisement should never be used alone, the company website is there to aide people in their search, get more information or connect with the brand in different ways. Tweets and Facebook quotes should ultimately reflect the company culture and carry out the same overall theme as all the other marketing techniques. The main point of using a IMC model is to build long-term brand value.
One of the greatest examples of an IMC approach that I have seen is Chanel. Chanel does a great job of getting their information and product line out in the public in a way that still promotes their luxury brand. Some of their many examples of advertisement is their double page spread in all major fashion magazines. This reaches their consumers when they are actively engaging in their reading material. On these advertisements it shows where they can purchase their products and pushes them to seek more information online. They also coordinate their print ads with their commercials and always have the same person/actor doing the campaigns at one given time. Chanel will also send out samples of their products to give consumers more of a reason to love their products. When companies go out of their way to send people free things consumers will be more inclined to try out the products, especially in the fashion and cosmetic industry.
IMC is more than just a few advertisements on the main traditional mediums. It is the combination of all marketing endeavors under one theme. The idea is to have everything working together to promote the brand and its one marketing concept. Chanel is just one example of the many fashion brands that use IMC to better their efforts. I hope to see many more brands incorporate these tactics into their business plans.
(Pictures below are just a few demonstrations of how Chanel incorporates the IMC model)
Make SEO Your New Best Friend
As I have previously talked about in my last two blog posts, the internet will continue to grow in popularity, it is essential to learn how and when to use the internet to promote your brand or company. According to an article by Mashable, the new question isn’t whether or not we are reaching our target audiences but have our audiences lost faith in advertising as a whole? An infographer made by Ambassador (picture shown to the right) breaks down the many changes advertising has seen in the last few years. These stats are important when deciding where to work and what kind of work you should channel your energy in landing the most wanted jobs.
First, Ambassador projects that in 2016 online print ads will jump to 62 billion while regular print will slowly decrease from 32.6 to 32.3 billion. Online prints, as we have recently learned in class, can greatly increase your search engine optimization results. Search Engine Optimization is the direct result of your website on search engines. Search engines are vital to increasing traffic to your site by having noteworthy information that is relevant to the searches people make on sites such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. The increase in online prints can greatly help the fashion industry by having content online that is linkable to their main website. Another point that Ambassador makes is that “93% of respondents ages 25 to 34 said they use search engines to find a company,” this age group is a common target audience that most fashion designers are targeting especially the moderately priced to upper scale brands. While search engines are great, the website of your brand is the face and the first thing a customer will most likely come into contact with when searching online. It is said that the company website was “listed as the most trusted advertising medium.” This is important insight into understanding how the consumer thinks.
Another interesting fact that Ambassador makes is the idea of how much does the consumer really believe what we are saying. Companies are under the impression that 43% of the time they do, when in reality only 14% admit to believing what they see most of the time. This gap is huge and is projected to get smaller with the increase in clutter ads in the marketplace. When entering into this field, I believe it is important to work for a company that advertises in a honest way. Being creative and innovative is far more appealing to me as a consumer than having flashy commercials that air on the Super Bowl every year.
Moving forward in my professional career, I want to be able to be apart of a team that works to create ads that are both engaging, entertaining, and classy. What I mean by classy is ethical, honest, and in good taste. I want to be able to be proud of the work we put out rather than pushing meaningless material to consumers that grow to resent my brand or company. I hope to find a company where I will make the most impact and enjoy my job to the fullest.
Click the link o read more by Mashable: http://mashable.com/2013/07/03/infographic-advertising-do-you-buy-it/
(TCU home football game)
(Macchu Picchu, Peru
(Family photo as little brothers graduation)