Dean’s Email Marketing Analysis

In today’s market, an effective way for marketers to reach current and prospective consumers is through email marketing. Not only does email marketing incur small costs, it can be used as an effective tool to drive revenue growth and yield a high return on investment. Email marketing, along with many other digital marketing tactics, is easily measured through analytics.

As a consumer, I have experienced email marketing campaigns to try and sway my purchasing decisions. Most recently, I have been receiving marketing emails from Constant Contact (this is ironic because they are an email marketing software provider). The reason that Constant Contact has access to my email address is because I use to volunteer for a local non-profit where I wanted to leverage their email/contact list. I initiated the company’s account and used my personal email address for the account’s address.

Usually, I never open Constant Contacts’ emails directed to me even when they usually send about two per week. With this assignment – it has driven me to open and analyze the last two emails I have received. The subject line of the last email was “Visit us at the New York Expo next week.” This subject line was enticing to me because I am always looking for conferences to increase my knowledge. The content of the email (below) did match the subject line.

By studying the content of this email, the call-to-action is for me to click on the red button and register for their expo for free. The timing of the event did not work for me so I did not click on the link. The design of this email was simple and straight to the point.

The obvious goal of this email was to advertise their event to users that are familiar to their product. In that regard, this email succeeded. I believe, however, that this was sent to a segmented list as it is advertising an expo in New York City. Since the event is only one day, it is not worth advertising nationally or internationally. That is why I believe that this list was geographically segmented to all users in New York State. In the future, I should expect a follow-up email about the same event.

Constant Contact sent me a second email with the subject line: “Discover the great features in your account.” The email is shown below:

 The purpose of this email was to bring awareness to their newly implemented features. I believe that although effective, there is too many links. Since I am already aware of many of these features, I did not click on any of the links. In my opinion, this email was also sent to all the users and was not segmented.

In conclusion, both emails provided me with a path to unsubscribe to give me the option to no longer receive these emails. If you wish to read more about email marketing, I suggest you read Hubspot’s blog on email marketing as it provides further analysis on effective tactics to use.

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Radio – Is it Still Effective?

Hello Friends, we are quickly approaching the end of semester and I only have two more required blog posts! My number of viewers/readers have been steadily increasing as the weeks come and go. I only need about 100 more clicks to reach my semester goal! Again, I would like to thank Professor Scardillo for posting the link to my blog on his LinkedIn profile. He’s a great mentor and professor. I encourage you all to take his a look at his LinkedIn profile!

Reminder: Please continue to share my blog with everyone you can! The semester is quickly winding down meaning that we have limited time! www.deanfromsiena.wordpress.com.

Before I get started, I just wanted to praise WordPress.com for a minute. WordPress just updated their website so now their users can easily track how many views and visitors they have. It is also more aesthetically pleasing. As I am writing this current post, it looks modern and sharp. Exciting stuff!

First, I would like pose the question about the effectiveness of radio advertising. After the first known broadcast was introduced in August of 1920, the effectiveness of the radio has greatly diminished after the inventions of the television, computers, internet, and cellphones. Some experts have even predicted the use of radio to be extinct when the television was introduced in the 1950’s. This theory was clearly disproven as people continue to consume radio messages. The radio industry has seen a gradual increase in advertisement spending.

Using the radio today still provides businesses with sufficient advantages such as, targeting certain demographic groups, relatively low cost (compared to TV advertisements), and the greater possibility in running repeating messages that will build awareness or develop brand knowledge. These advantages, however, may be offset by some limitations. For example, by targeting certain demographic groups may lead to a very small percentage of the whole population. Also, generally speaking, consumers only listen to the radio in two main parts of the day, morning and evening. The scarcity of consumers listening to the radio throughout the day also provides some degree of worrisome.

I would like to take some time and talk about my personal experience with radio. I love to listen to the radio. I am a big fan of NPR, or National Public Radio. NPR provides their listeners with the latest news, weather, and advertisements. My love for the radio stems from the convenience that it provides me. It is so convenient because I am always in my car when I listen to it. As a commuter student, I am frequently driving back and forth to either school or work. When I drive, I also need background noise. Radio is a perfect solution to my personal problem!

Fun fact of the day: Albany, New York is the United States’ 58th largest radio market.

I want to thank you again for reading my latest post on the internet. Stay tuned to see what Dean from Siena is going to say! Have a great Thanksgiving!

Best,
Dean Maloney from Siena College

 

Top 5 Subliminal Logos

Hello Friends,

It is hard to believe that this is already my eighth installment of my blog! First, I would like to thank Professor Scardillo for informing me of the great importance in maintaining my weekly blog at a high level. I would also like to extend a genuine ‘thank-you’ to my repeat readers who have supported my efforts while writing this blog. This blog has been a great outlet to really express and show all of my Advertising knowledge that I have learned from Professor Scardillo’s class.

Next, I will exhibit my gratitude by writing a top ten list of subliminal advertisements. My first blog post on subliminal messages in September was highly praised by you the readers. Also, in Scott Stratton’s book UnMarketing, he writes that a key factor in creating an effective and popular blog is to provide lists. Research shows that American’s are more likely to be engaged in reading a list rather than large readings in paragraph form. I hope you all will appreciate my kind gesture.

Reminder: I am still well under my semester goal of 1,000 views! I need your help in sharing my blog to spread my thoughts and ideas so that we can all learn and have fun together. Www.deanfromsiena.wordpress.com 

5.) Wendy’s Fast Food Restaurant

Everyone is very familiar with Wendy’s and their mascot Wendy Thomas, the daughter of founder Daniel Thomas. With society’s recent push of a healthier lifestyle, the fast food industry is often perceived as unhealthy and avoidable. If you notice Wendy’s collar, you can make up the word “Mom” being spelled out to encourage the idea of a healthier home cooked meal.

4.) Baskin Robbins

Baskin Robbins is the world’s largest specialty ice cream chain. One of the many reasons of their success is the association of the number “31” that is clearly visible in their logo. Baskin Robbins is best known for their 31 unique flavors that give the consumer an option of trying a fun and new ice cream flavor every day of the month.

3.) FedEx

FedEx is one of the most iconic supply chain and logistic companies that used by millions of consumers daily. A creative strategy when designing their logo was to position the letters “E” and “x” next to each other so that they could form an arrow. FedEx hopes that their consumers perceive this arrow as forward direction, speed, and precision.

2.) LG Electronics

Depending on the person, the LG Electronics’ logo could be perceived as a winking face with the “L” as the nose. This face is used to promote positives brand associations by potential customers of LG. It is also common to associate the LG logo with the iconic video game character, Pacman.

1.) Tostitos

Everybody eats Tostitos Chips. Let’s be honest with each other, they are absolutely delicious. But you may have missed a couple friends sharing a chip and salsa in the Tostito’s logo. Still can’t see it? Look at the two lower case “ts” in the logo. Tostitos did this to reestablish the social gathering of consuming Tostitos chips. This idea also reinforces the need to buy a complementary Tostitos’ salsa!

I hope you all have enjoyed reading my list as much as I have enjoyed writing it. If you recall, subliminal messages are so powerful because they fall under visual communication which is the most powerful communication for advertisers. Visual advertisements can also be used in all communication channels (broadcast, print, and digital).

Please comment your ideas and thoughts. Perhaps there is a great subliminal logo that I have missed! Again, thank you for reading and expect me to be back next week!

Best,

Dean Maloney from Siena College

Photoshopping – What an Effective Tool

Hello Friends,

It is good to be back on WordPress. This is my first blog post in over two weeks! Thankfully, my readers have been great and consistently generated more views by sharing this blog with their friends and family. My total views has now grown to be more than 330 hits. Although I still have a a lot of progress to make in order to get 1,000 hits, I am still confident that I can reach my goal, easy.

Reminder: Please continue to share, share, and share my link: www.deanfromsiena.wordpress.com.

The purpose of today’s Advertising class was to discuss the importance and relevance that visual communication has in the advertising industry. In today’s fast-paced society, an individual is exposed to over 3,000 advertisements a day! Since we are not super humans, we can not remember and recite all of the information contained in all 3,000 messages that we encounter throughout our day. Meaning that it is the job of advertisers to create a message that has the ability to grab one’s attention and stick in their memory. This concept is known as an ad’s stopping power. To effectively create the idea known as stopping power, many companies have turned to using visual communication. Visual communication is known to be twice as effective than textual or audio communication channels.

One way to maximize the impact of stopping power through visual communication is by photoshopping to enhance your message. We all know what photoshopping is and why advertisers use it (visual communication is twice as effective than other forms of communication). A lot of people often take issue with the use of photoshopping in our society and we will look at a few examples of photoshopping that have backfired on advertisers later in this blog. Photoshopping, however, usually has a positive impact on photography that many people many not even realize. It is most likely subliminal or under one’s threshold of perception. For example, the photoshopping technique allows visual messages to have the correct lighting and color scheme. This correct lighting of contrast, color selection, and saturation give the advertisers the power to prioritize, emphasize, and highlight exactly what they want their audience to see.

Axe Example:

As you can see in the Axe shampoo advertisement shown above, the color selection of every aspect of the advertisement (background, water, etc.) was chosen carefully to emphasize key components of their product such as brand name, packaging design, labeling, and brand quality. The precise selection of the color and brightness versus contrast was determined and executed through the use of photoshopping. Axe has seen the rewards from effective advertising as their stock price has increased 17% over the last quarter.

Now let’s have some fun and look at some results of sloppy photoshopping. It’s very funny to see!

In conclusion, there is a lot more that goes into photoshopping than just trying to distort one’s body image to make it more “socially acceptable.” When using photoshop, it is important to check for errors, because effective photoshopped pictures, as shown above, can have such strong stopping power. A simple error in photoshopping can lead to brand disloyalty and a lack of credibility to that brand. Even for the large, established brands shown above such as Ralph Lauren and Victoria’s Secret.

I hope you enjoyed my blog about the use of photoshopping. Stay tuned to see what I am talking about next week! See you then! Share my blog: http://www.deanfromsiena.wordpress.com

Best,

Dean Maloney From Siena

How Strategic Planning Works

Hello all, This past week has been a great week for my blog. Recently, I have been getting a large number of readers and viewers on my blog. I currently have 230 views which is about a quarter way to my semester goal of 1,000! I have noticed that Facebook has been a great outlet to get my blog recognized. I am fortunate enough to have great friends and family “share” my blog on Facebook which has resulted in over 180 views! Therefore, I have connected my blog to update my Facebook friends and family whenever a new post of mine is published.

Please Remember: Share my blog with your friends so we can all learn together, www.deanfromsiena.wordpress.com

We spent the past week in our Advertising class discussing the importance of strategic planning. Not just strategic planning of one’s advertising campaigns, but for organizations as a whole. Strategic planning is defined as the process of which an organization decides on how to allocate their resources to pursue their long term direction or strategy of choice. The four processes of this process include:

• Identify a Problem
• Determining Objectives
• Deciding on Strategies
• Implementing Tactics

I’m not going to go into detail on how this works and give you step-by-step lecture. Why? Because nobody will want to read my blog and I will never reach 1,000 hits. With that being said, I will talk about the strategic planning of the most important kind of brand, an individual’s brand, because I believe that it is more important that any type of company.

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1. Steven Cox

Steve is a great friend of mine. Out of all my collegiate friends, I believe that he is the most motivated, realistic, and focused on his professional future that is rapidly approaching. I immediately approached Steve, who recognized his problem, he was a college student without a job. In order for Steve to land his career aspirations, his objectives are to gain his Master’s Degree at SUNY Oswego where we then plans to work for a certified public accounting firm. While employed he plans to spend his time and money in pursue of his CPA in order to work in corporate finance and eventually become a CFO.

Steve plans to accomplish his objectives through working hard while as an undergraduate student and transferring that into a potential job through networking with various professionals on Linkedin (Steve’s LinkedIn, Check it out.. smart student with a lot to offer). There’s is no doubt in my mind that Steve will not succeed based solely on his thorough strategic plan.

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2.  Sam Derico

Another great friend of mine is Sam Derico. Sam is in his third year at Becker College, Massachusetts studying Sports Management. He plans to one day land a job with his Sports Management Degree from Becker College locally in the Capital Region, New York. He aspires to have a job that is comfortable to him through networking in his professional field.

Sam is in a great position in comparison to his competition due to his strategic plan after college graduation.

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3.  Chris Landers

Lastly, I would like to talk about another aspiring college student. Chris is currently enrolled at Hudson Valley Community College studying Criminal Justice. In talking to Chris, his “dream job” is to be a youth advocate who works with troubled youth through juvenile delinquency who have had problems growing up. He hopes to achieve this by working and using his time with children at Colonie Youth Center and establish relationships with the kids, parents, and other people in the industry.

I have complete confidence that Chris has the skills to succeed and with his strategy!

I hope you guys enjoyed my real life examples of how strategic planning should be done. Stay tuned for next week to see what is up for discussion!

Best,

Dean Maloney from Siena College

The Power of Subliminal Advertising

Hello all. I would like to update you all on my latest viewing stats. I am currently at thirty-two views, which appears to be the highest of my class. Although, it may be the highest, the amount of viewers and readers are still well below my goal of 1,000! Please help me out by sharing my blog with your friends and family so we can have many productive discussions and all learn something new together: www.deanfromsiena.wordpress.com.

This past week in my advertising class we talked about how brand communication works through advertising. Boring, yes, but oddly very interesting and I will show you why. We covered some important topics such as interactive communications vs. mass communication, buzz marketing, the AIDA concept, and emotional responses. However, there is no other technique that it more appealing than implementing subliminal messages into advertisements to trigger a direct, hopefully, impulse decision from a customer.

What is subliminal messaging?

Subliminal messaging can be defined as a message that exists and operates below the individual’s threshold of perception. In other words, as a consumer, you may see the subliminal message, but since it operates below the individual’s threshold, you may not notice it is even there. The goal of the advertisements is to allow you to process this message unconsciously, even if you don’t really notice you even did. It is a pretty interesting and intriguing topic that is used by marketers everyday. So let’s look into a few examples on how this really works.

1.) Milwaukee Brewer’s Logo

The Brewer’s logo from 1978-1993 appears to be just a baseball glove or mitt with a ball inside of it at first glance. When in reality, if you take your time to really look at it you can notice it is comprised of a “m” and a “b.” So why did the Brewers decide to do this? I do not know for certain, but my educated guess would be that they really want fans and baseball followers to associate the Milwaukee Brewers and baseball together as one to increase the brand message. You should go off my educated guess, I mean I am a Siena College student after all!

2.) Amazon’s Logo

Everyone now is very familiar with Amazon and what they offer. Just in this past year, Amazon passed Wal-Mart retail stores as the largest retailer in the United States. So what is so subliminal about their domain name and a gold arrow? There are a few messages that you probably did not pick up. For example, the arrow starts at the letter ‘A’ and ends at the letter ‘Z.’ The significance is that Amazon is trying to reinforce, subliminally, that they have access to deliver you your purchased products regardless of your geographic location. The yellow arrow also symbolizes a smile. The purpose is to associate happy and good feelings along with the Amazon brand. The color yellow also can me interpreted as joy, happiness, intellect, and energy. These are all adjectives that Amazon wants their customers to feel about their brand.

3.) Tostitos’ Logo

Everybody eats Tostitos chips. Let’s be honest with each other, they are absolutely delicious. But you may have missed a couple friends sharing a chip and salsa. Still can’t see it? Look at the two lower case “ts” in the logo. Tostitos did this to reestablish the social gathering of consumering tostitos chips. This idea also reinforces the need to buy a complementary Tostitos’ salsa.

These are just a few small examples of how subliminal messaging is mixed into daily advertisements. If you are still interested on this topic, you should do some research of your own! It is very interesting and maybe you can task yourself with finding subliminal messages in advertisements in the future.

Keep the discussion going! Comment below with your thoughts, ideas, and other examples!

Until Next Week,

Dean Maloney From Siena

*All images are from http://blog.hubspot.com/

What Makes Advertising so Controversial?

Hello all, I’m very glad to be back on WordPress. Unfortunately, my last post only received five views! I think that’s a little pathetic, so I am posting this link (deanfromsiena.wordpress.com) on my Facebook and Twitter page! Like I said, give me until the end of semester and I will have readers all around the world reading about my experiences in advertising. Now, I would like to update my readers on my experiences in Professor Scardillo’s Advertising class at Siena College. This week, his students were raised with a very important question as soon as the class period started:

“Does advertising shape social trends or mirror social trends?” In other words, this question asks if advertising creates social trends or are they reactive to common and popular social trends that are currently happening in our society. It is often argued that advertising both shapes and mirrors social values. I would agree with this claim. For example, if you take a look at Poland Spring’s advertisement below, you will see how the attitudes of “going green” in our society lead to the new eco-friendly Poland Spring bottle that features a smaller plastic cap, made with 30% less plastic, and 100% recyclable. It should also be noted, however, that Poland Spring is one of the first companies to really use green marketing technique to build brand awareness as this ad was released in 2012. So, in this case, advertising does both shape and mirror societal values.

Newly shaped Poland Spring Bottle in reflection of our Environment

Another claim of controversial advertising is that it has such a heavy influence on children, teenagers and elderly. This suggests that advertising is unethical in their practices. The goal of advertisers/marketers is to persuade consumers to think they need material products when in reality the lives of the consumers would continue without these materialistic products. So, many marketers create advertising campaigns to target the weak consumers such as children, teenages, and elderly. Advertising will often build up the expectations of a product or service. For example, many cereal companies will create ads to get the attention of children watching TV. See for yourself on this Youtube video about Trix’s recent advertisement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYWDvZl31Ac. There are also many “info-mercials” that will target the vulnerability of the elderly population. This deception can be done through false advertising, misleading claims, or endorsements.

This problem of advertising controversy is not going disappear in thin air overnight. Unfortunately, there are so many greedy people in business that seek to take consumer’s money for their personal benefit. The solution to this problem would be for people to get educated and take the time to actively shop for a product/service. A great aspect of our country and capitalism is competition. This gives us consumers a decision!

In conclusion, I personally believe that marketing has become very unethical. One day, I hope to start a career in the advertising industry. As a humanitarian, I pledge to use fair advertising tactics to give value to my future customers (increased value means an increase benefits which yields customer satisfaction). Stay alert fellow consumers and use your options to benefit yourself! Stay posted for next week’s post. Who knows what it is going to be about!

Best,

Dean Maloney From Siena

How to Advertise During Lake George’s Car Show

It’s official! First week of Junior Year at Siena College is in the books. Although this week is normally filled with stress, I have found myself already enjoying my courses, professors, and classmates.

Most recently in my Advertising class, I have been tasked with creating and maintaining a weekly blog throughout the semester. I love this new, creative assignment. As Professor Scardillo said on the first day of classes, you will be surprised on how many people will be reading your blog. My goal is to have readers by the thousands! Difficult, yet doable. In addition, this can be served as a competitive advantage for myself as I enter the highly competitive job market in the next few years. Meaning that I am just going to have some fun with this and hopefully my readers will too.

This past weekend my family and I took a trip north to attend the 27th Annual Adirondack Nationals Car Show in Lake George. You would not believe the amount of people that walked the village’s sidewalks. Not to mention the large amount of money that was dispersed throughout the weekend.

If anyone is familiar with the village of Lake George, you know that it has great stores targeted to tourists filled with multiple promotional offers and menus for their finest restaurants posted out in the flow of people traffic. This all is expected. What was not expected, in my opinion, was the number of cars that were for sale. I’m not talking about your mother’s old 2004 Chevy Impala. I’m talking about a classic 1973 Pontiac Judge 442 with 50,000 miles with a ‘For Sale’ sign listed at about $35,000. Let’s backtrack for a little bit. Why would somebody park this beautiful car on the side of Lake George’s street for the whole weekend? It’s simple advertising ladies and gentlemen.

Last class I have learned the three basic functions of advertising, identification, information, and persuasion. The identification is clear, it is the car itself for sale. That is known through our societal practices of putting ‘For Sale’ signs on products that we would like to sell. The advertisement also had necessary information. The information listed was the car model, year, miles, price, and the seller’s contact information (usually cellphone number). Then finally, persuasion is pretty easy on such a luxury product like a 1975 Red El Camino. Anyone in their “right state of mind” would want to own and get behind the wheel of this car!

What I found most interesting about this is simply the number of cars that were parked on the side of Route 9 with ‘For Sale’ signs. I must have seen 10-12 cars for sale. The potential sellers are reaching their target market, people that have the disposable income and the passion for a luxury item such as an old race car. Unfortunately, I was not able to see any physical transactions occur, but I would be shocked if not one business deal was agreed upon.

So I would consider this weekend a success. I was able to take the information I learned in my Advertising class and then apply it and recognize it in the “real world.”

That’s all I have for topic! Thank you for reading and stay posted for my post next week!

Best,

Dean Maloney From Siena