Google Adwords is one of the newest and most cost affective ways to generate web traffic to a brand’s website. Large companies and startups alike use Google Adwords to help consumers find their site using specific key words and search criteria.
Using Google Adwords, I entered swell.com to see the key words and phrases used to search for items that are found on the site. The most relevant keywords and phrases are mens board shorts, board shorts men, and vans authentic lo pro shoes. First I searched locally where the company is based out of in California and then looked at the numbers globally. Mens board shorts is searched 210 times per month locally and 3,600 globally, board shorts men is searched 10 times a month locally and 110 globally, and vans authentic lo pro shoes is searched 10 times a month locally and 50 globally. When I looked at…
After doing some research on Reputation Management it became evident that there are many options out there for when you want to protect yourself and your brand on the world wide web. I would say that two of your best options are Brand.com and Reputationx.com. These two companies are highly rated and given the best reviews.
Brand.com has overall 1 million members, was rated the #1 online reputation management company by TopSEOs.com, and was winner of the 2013 Red Herring Award. This shows that the company is well-known and goes to show that its million customers are very satisfied. Having a good reputation online reveals a company’s strengths rather than its weaknesses. If your online reputation is not as good as it could be it can be a huge downfall and cause you to lose brand loyalty. What Brand.com does for you is create different ways of monitoring what…
[Victoria’s Secret Twitter Accounts standing at almost 3 million followers and having close to 44,000 tweets, only follows a little over 1,000 accounts].
On its Twitter account, Victoria’s Secret mostly markets their latest products. Numerous twitter statuses have links that lead you to its main website: victoriassecret.com. Most of the tweets have a hashtag (#) and many times, a picture as well. A lot of the tweets are based around the photo put up. VS integrates some of its related accounts, such as @VSSportOfficial, onto its main one. It also tags the VS Angels as well, such as @ArianaLima & @angelcandice. VS tries to involve its followers by telling consumers to check something out, asking questions or for opinions, and having contests and giveaways.
Victoria’s Secret’s audience is for the most part young women, so they try and target them as best they can. And I believe they do a good job. As I scrolled through their Twitter Timeline, I saw attractive product suggestions, beauty tips, hip word usage, and even a tweet that said “It’s the weekend! #Partytime❤️” The brand wants to have a young and fun image, and I believe they are doing a great job achieving this.
Tweet Categories
Holiday/Seasonal – 8/50 = 16%
|This category includes tweets that are about or mention a holiday or a temperate climate|
– Some Examples: Tweets #4-9, giving away Halloween product and using hastags #Trick #Treat #Halloween #candycorn
Marketing new products – 8/50 = 16%
|In this category, VS is showing off or mentioning something about the latest items they have|
– Some Examples: VS Swim 2014 (#45) & Perfect Shaped Bra (#48)
Specials/Sales – 5/50 = 10%
|The category is about any type of product promotional price reduction or “limited-time” reward|
– Some Examples: PantyParty (#49) & Secret Rewards (#37)
News/Events – 12/50 = 24%
|This category is about any type of new incident that is occurring or will occur involving the VS brand, Angels, or products|
– Some Examples: (#1) Answering VS Sport questions & (#35) New VS Fantasy Bra
|In this category, the tweets are about any competitions or freebies given|
Product Suggestions – 7/50 = 14%
Some Examples: (#46) Cotton Mayfair item & (#50) New Indigo Bra Set
This category have tweets that the VS brand marketed for consumers to buy.
How To Improve Tweets
Victoria’s Secret already does follow a lot of advice given on the Twitter Chapter. It uses many links, writes relatable information, and tweets late afternoon (around 4pm). However, Victoria’s Secret could find creative ways to call attention and have viewers click on the links they post. And, the brand could post more tweets on the weekend, since many people are online and shopping.
Even though the brand already does at times, it could put more invitations to Retweet out to its followers in order to gain more viewers. The brand does has famous phrases, sayings, and items (Angels, Secret Reward Card VS__) that are their trademarks, but they could also have more unique tweets. This includes not repeating what they have previously mentioned in their earlier conversations.
1) Sparkle Towels Commercial Featuring Kerri the Fairy
The setting of this commercial is in supermarket, where a woman is about to buy the “Bounty” paper towel product, when a fairy appears. The fairy hints that “Bounty” is expensive and references to one of Bounty’s commercial as a joke. She talks about how Sparkle is the better brand to buy without spending much money. At the end of the commerical, towards the bottom of the screen, it read: “Meet Kerri at SparkleTowels.com Here is the commercial:
2) Mix Match 2 for $5 – Burger King
The main focus of this commercial is buying any two Burger King sandwiches for the price of $5. It goes on to give examples of what combination of sandwiches you can choose. No social media outlets were shown. Here is the video:
3) Esurance Commercial – Savings Whiplash
This commercial explains that it is difficult to know where to start when trying to save money on car insurance. It even shows different places that car insurance is advertised. The narrator states that there are many places that offer savings, but he says that Esurance should be choosen because it is made to save money, since it was founded online. At the end of the commercial, it shows its main website: esurance.com | 1800-ESURANCE
4) Kashi Foods GOLEAN Surfing TV
This commercial is on a beach, with a surfer who looks energetic and fit. In the commercial, it states that Kashi helps consumers “do the things [they] want to do” with their tasty and nutritional cereal. They even give facts about what it contains. The video is shown here:
5) “Impressive” Redesigned Kia Optima 2014
This commercial only has two sentences said. Most of commercial is just instrumental and shows how beautifully the Kia Optima car is outside and in its interior. No social media outlets are given. Video:
7) Bumble Bee SuperFresh
This commercial talks about the new product from Bumble Bee. It shows a group of people around the dinner table enjoying the seafood, using attractive adjectives to describe it. Like the Kashi commerical, it also mentions nutritional facts. The words: http://www.bumblebeesuperfresh.com appear on screen. Video:
8) Raymour & Flanigan
This commercial included its tagline “best price guaranteed” and shows various furniture. At the end of the commerical, it has the Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter icons. Unfortunately, I could not find the video of it online.
8) iphone5c
In this commercial, both Sprint and Apple were advertised. It shows consumers from all parts of the world using the new iphone. And the different colors that Apple offers of the product also plays a role. At the end, it showed Sprint.com and the Apple logo. I could not find the video to this one either 😦
9) Acura – 2014 Acura MDX – Set Free Made For Mankind
This is shown in what looks like a desert, mountain range. It centers around a woman who is there alongside wild animals. It then shows her at the edge of cliff and cuts to her in the Acura MDX. She looks like she is enjoying the car and is portrayed as a free spirit. The end of the commercial shows acura.com/MDX.
10) People Like Your Vibes: Burlington Coat Factory
This video showed a couple of people that coincide with the Burlington brand. The commercial shows that this brand has a sense of style. It has burlingtoncoatfactory.com at the end.
11) Gold bond – No Mess Powder
This brand is endorsed by celebrity, Shaquille O’Neal. The narrator says the product has cooling and drying; Shaq reinforces this by saying “stay cool:”
12) Wells Fargo – Banking – Meet Sydney – Together We’ll Go Far
This commercial talks about how a woman is having financial trouble and Wells Fargo helped her achieve her goals. At the end of the commercial, it shows 1-800-TO-Wells | wellsfargo.com/conversations
Why brands did & did not use social media;
Almost all brands did use social media advertisement. The only one that did was one that had wide variety of products to look at. Ex: Raymour and Flanigan – they have all different types of furniture. I think this was effective and a good idea to show customers that they are actively on these other platforms.
The other brands did not use the advertisement because people will always visit them. They are all well-known brands and used more simplicity. Many, however, did put their main website, and I think this is better because their main websites can direct them to all the other media sites they have.
Media Channels of Wells Fargo & Kashi:
Wells Fargo – This bank does display how it cares for its customers. On the different media outlets, it conveys how the brand is ready to help customers with any needs or problems they have. They also talk about rewards and deals. It seems like a friendly and supportive bank, just how they give their image in the commercial.
Kashi – This brand really does display the message it sends out on its social media. On Facebook, it talks about being organic and people’s well-being. It gives out a healthy and happy image – similarly to its surfer commercial.
“Thrill me, please me, tease me, surprise me. Give me love. Give me beauty, Give joy. Give me days I’ll always remember and nights I´ll never forget. Give me everything I want and nothing I need .. Give me you. Give me sexy. Give me Victoria’s Secret.”
HelloBombshell!®
So, you’re wondering how exactly does VS create a community? I will show you how, using the Seven Aspects of the Primal Code for marketing… Creation Story, Icons, the Rituals, the Sacred Words, the Non-Believers, and the Leader.
Creation Story – Now, some people do not actually know the back story about how Victoria’s Secret came to be. However, several people, like myself, had first heard about the Victoria Secret company’s origin through the very popular movie, the Social Network. Here is a video clip of the part that I mean (P.S. watch until 0:55)
Okay, so if you watched the clip, you have more or less of an understanding of how Victoria’s Secret came to be in Justin Timberlake’s words, at least. If you didn’t watch the clip, that’s okay too, because I will explain with more detail:
Victoria’s Secret was founded on June 12th, 1977 by businessman, Roy Raymond. Though today it is the largest lingerie retailer in the United States, when it had first started, it was just a small shop in California. Raymond established the shop “as a place for men to go and comfortably shop for lingerie for their wives/girlfriends.” In its first year of operation, Victoria’s Secret earned $500,000. A few years later, in ’82, Raymond sold the company for $1 million dollars. This was not a wise decision, as according to the Wall Street Journal, Victoria’s Secret last year made $6.2 billion in annual sales. Roy Raymond himself? Well, let’s just say, it was not a happy ending…
The Creed – Victoria’s Secret is owned by the Limited and has said some slogans on different occasions. However, it does not have a set creed like Nike’s JustDoIt or McDonald’s I’m Lovin’ It. I will name some of the brand quotes help to understand more about its visions and values. According to the Limited, all of its brands are:
Driven by Passion. Guided by Values.
– The Customer Rules! —> To give complete customer satisfaction.
– Passion Leads to Success–> “Emotionally, intellectually and spiritually engaged” in their work to product great results.
– Inclusion Makes Us Stronger–> Cherish diversity, to embrace “others’ thoughts, experiences, hopes and dreams.”
– It Matters How We Play the Game–> “Winning means nothing unless how we get there is fair, collaborative, rooted in our values and contributes to the greater good.”
The Victoria’s Secret company has various campaigns, one of which is “Love Your Body.” These are its latest commercials about it, also known as “A Body for Everybody, Love Your Body,” which focuses on marketing its products as well. It is made to empower women about being happy in their own skin, with whatever type of body you have.
Does anybody agree that VS does empower women, or do you also criticize them for only showing one body type in their campaigns?
Icons – A huge part of Victoria’s Secret – maybe even the biggest, besides the clothes of course! – is its models. Essentially, they are many times how identify with the company. These models – referred to as Angels (countless times actually modeling wings) are the face of Victoria’s Secret.
Other icons include the dog from Victoria Secret’s PINK collection, LOVE PINK, and of course, the initials of VS itself. Icons are so important for a company; they need to pick ones that standout from all other corporations. In this way, because can just simply look at a logo and know what it is. I believe Victoria’s Secret does this well. Frequent and even not so frequent shoppers know what LOVEPINK means one of V.S.’s collections. And the pink dog with a heart is another icon that is unique. Most times, even without the heart in the logo, V.S. shoppers know its their beloved company.
The Rituals – One very famous and highly anticipated ritual from the VS company is its annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show. It is given at the end of the year on CBS and has around 10 million viewers. The Angels strut VS’s newest collection. Many high profile celebrities attend the show, and the show itself causes much talk from social media outlets. The Angels can also be almost guaranteed to be seen attending social events, such as Fashion’s Night Out.
These rituals are vital to V.S. brand because they are highly successful and cause a lot of buzz. The company receives the attention it wants
Does anybody else watch The Victoria’s Secret fashion show? Do you go out for FNO, and are the Angels some of the celebs you look for?
The Sacred Words – There are a few frequently used words by Victoria’s Secret, and I, myself, have even used in this post. VS is known for words like: AngelBombshellPINK. The only word I have not discussed is “Bombshell,” and it means a very attractive woman. To be a fan or really have a sense of the company, these terms are a must to be familiar with, as they are continuously repeated. I think sacred words really help make a brand what it is. It is a special lingo that the brand community has. Community members can attest to no other company but their favorite one having it.
The Non-Believers – Victoria’s Secret does not have much competition, but one of its main, if not, its main competitor is Aerie, which is a brand from American Eagle. It is a seller of lingerie for young women. For a company to be highly successful with little to no competitors is a good sign that it is doing a good job and will be in business for a while.
Here is an interesting article about VS competition:
Do you think Aerie is considered a real competitor, or does it not stand a chance at all to VS?
The Leader – There is not a set leader in the Victoria’s Secret company, because all the models share that spotlight together. Granted, there are models more well-known than other ones or have a better handle at the runway. Good leader(s) of a company contribute to making it popular/in style. Leaders are the face of the company, and without any really interesting ones, a company would be in trouble.
Some other models are also known for being shown most in the Victoria’s Secret company’s short videos, commercials, or events:
The angel in this video is Lindsay Ellingson.
Just to name a few – here are some examples of some of the most famous VS Angels:
From top to bottom: Candice Swanepoel, Adriana Lima, Mirana Kerr, Gisele Bundchen, and Alessandra Ambrosio.
On AboutTheData.com, they ask for first name, last name, address, city, zip code, dob, last 4 digits of ss, email, and to choose a password in order to pull out information about you. These are the results…
Characteristic Data:
Correct: Date of Birth, Age Range, Ethnicity Based on Surname
Incorrect: Education, Marital Status, and Presence of Children. (I do not know where they got 1 child from, lol!)
Home Data:
None was given.
Vehicle Data:
Incorrect: I have an Auto Policy Renewal ?? – I’m not even sure if I’m on my dad’s insurance..
Economic Data:
Correct: Presence of Credit Card – I felt this was very vague and general.
Incorrect: Household Income Ranges 1 & 2
Shopping:
Correct: Type of women’s apparel (some is still kind of general though)
Incorrect: dollars spent, # of purchases, offline purchases, etc.
Household Interests Data:
Correct: PC Internet / Online Service User & Consumer Electronics (Both are very common! I feel like that’s like 99% of households around here!)
Most of what was stated was wrong about me. And what was right could be true about many people–nothing was really specific. I sometimes take online surveys, but they are anonymous, so I am not sure where they got much of the information. According to them,
“Acxiom collects non-sensitive data for our online marketing products from three different types of sources:
Government records, public records and publicly available data — like data from telephone directories, website directories and postings, property and assessor files, and government issued licenses
Data from surveys and questionnaires you fill out
General data from other commercial entities where consumers have been provided notice of how data about them will be used, and offered a choice about whether or not to allow those uses — like demographic data”
I am kind of glad that much of the information is not correct. This means my identity is harder to find and may not be as likely to make fraudulent.
Chapter 15 Discussion / Concepts Related to Privacy & This Post.
The part about Milne and Culnan’s study of who reads privacy policies on page 411 of the textbook was interesting. 32% of people “supplied incorrect information to a website when asked to register.” Come to think of it, I do this as well! Sometimes, when I HAVE to register for something I will only be using once, I will choose just about any options that I can get away with. I don’t always put my full name or dob either. I do this for 2 reasons. 1) I will not use the site again, so who cares? 2) If I do not completely trust the site, I will not put 100% accurate information they ask me for.
Another interesting part of this chapter was in the heading of Privacy, or Lack Thereof, on Social Networks on page 415-17. It focuses its attention to Facebook and its progression over the years. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, admitted that his company had made errors and did not uphold all the promises of privacy for the public. Facebook now has to undergo privacy audits for the next two decades! I truly think that the public’s interests are one of the main focuses for our government. Our privacy is not completely safe, but it is also not completely stolen either.
I also want to talk about page 432 in the textbook, with the heading Napster and Other Intellectual Property Controversies. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) had shut down LimeWire, a program for music sharing, and greatly opposes illegal downloading of music. However, I believe that downloading music this way should be allowed. Yes, artists depend on the money they receive from purchases of downloads or records, but I do not believe it is that much as tours, concerts, etc. Plus, they will be heard by more individuals by letting people download both legally and “illegally.” And this can actually generate more revenue for them. People may like the artist so much after listening to them, that they go to shows or buy their merchandize. Besides, many artists do not mind if their music is downloading or shared this way either.
Lindsay Ellingson 
VS Sport 
jarinacabana 
People magazine 
Victoria’s Secret 
katherin0bustamante 