And the verdict (or rather swimsuit) is in!

Famous for the red swimsuit that took Instagram by storm last spring, Sunny Co. Clothing is still making good on the promotion it promised: a free swimsuit. Sunny Co. knows how to grab a girl's attention and marketers everywhere took notice. Before companies offered a percentage off of a purchase, but now while scrolling through my Instagram feed, I see companies offering "free yoga pants with subscription" or other similar promotions. The offer may seem counterproductive, giving away free product when you are trying to sell that very product, but the loss from the free product can quickly be recovered in increased sales of other products on the e-commerce website. It is also a way to build brand loyalty. The customer will think "if XXX company gave away this amazing promotion, then they may do something equally as amazing at a later date." While replicating the promotion will be less effective for brands in the future, it was truly a breakthrough stunt for the now nationally known company Sunny Co. Clothing. 

P.S. For all you who are thinking about cashing in on the promotion, the suit may look like it only fits a barbie doll body type, but it runs pretty true to size. I ordered the size up from my usual because I was worried about the suit riding up and it is too large for me.

Gigi's Cupcakes Takes on Social... and fails.

Gigi's Cupcakes is known for its sky-high frosting and delicious cupcakes. The branding lends itself to women of all ages and really anyone with a serious sweet tooth. The mission is clear: provide superior cupcakes. However, what they are not providing is superior service.
The Athens location alone proves my point with how it handles a bad review.
Don't believe me?
Have a look...


Gigi's needs to establish a professional standard of communication and fast because this is not acceptable behavior by any means for a company. The Athens location violated the first rule of the service industry: the customer is ALWAYS correct. Not only did the company belittle this customer, but it also did so in the public eye. This is the quickest way to lose potential customers. While this is only one location, it reflects poorly on the entire brand. Good luck Gigi's.

Target Hits the Bullseye?

Target recently released a project which will use digital to add extra value for the consumer during the busy holiday shopping season. The idea allows the buyer to email their friends and family the item that they selected as the gift and the receiver can evaluate and return the gift in exchange for one of equal value all over the internet. This idea both adds value for the consumer by decreasing the time the consumer spends in store and decreases expenses for the company by reducing shipping costs among other operational fees. 

I'm interested to see how this venture develops. I don't know if it will be a resounding success as it doesn't take into account the value of the shopping experience or giving gifts in person, but I think this could be a perfect move when shopping for that third cousin twice removed.

KFC: The Colonel Takes On Tech

KFC is stepping into next-generation technology with their virtual reality “training” videos. The videos are published via the brand’s Youtube channel. Although the videos are portrayed as an employee training program or for employees only, the videos are cartoonish and clearly made to entertain a viewer. The content contains an escape room type game where the user learns to make KFC’s famous fried chicken and the graphics mirror closely those of video games like the Bioshock or Fallout video game series. KFC currently has three videos in the series with views ranging from 40K to 117K. This is a great example of brands manipulating new digital technologies to fit with the overall message and voice of the brand without allowing the technology to dictate the content. 

Assessing My Personality Type

In Social Media Marketing Strategy lecture, Professor Osbon outlined five different personalities found in a functional marketing team.

1) The User Advocate

2) The Cheerleader

3) The Cynic

4) The Risk-Taker

5) The Analyzer

The labels are fairly self-explanatory. The user advocate focuses on the needs of the user, the cheerleader supports and encourages the team through thick and thin, the cynic critiques the approach reigning in the wild ideas to stay on message, the risk taker comes up with the out of the box promotions, and the analyzer relies on hard data to find a path to move forward. 

I find that I most closely am defined as the Cheerleader. I like to promote progress and find a way to achieve goals despite the obstacles. There is always a way to success, and I enjoy helping others find that path. As with any group of generalized labels, I find that I show aspects of each. I am adaptable and could fit any of these labels should the need arise. If I were to rank these in order of how readily I would slip into each position I put them in the following order.  

1) The Cheerleader
2) The User Advocate
3) The Cynic
5) The Analyzer
4) The Risk-Taker

How would you rank your personality type? Do you fit into one box?

Instagram Ads

When Instagram first began allowing advertisements on its users' home feeds, it caused me to pause and stare at the photo wondering how I knew the person in the picture. I mean I had to know them if I was following their account. Didn't I? I searched my memory for the place of this strange face, so when I finally felt stumped, I scrolled up to see the username and realized that I didn't know the person at all. A company put that nameless face on my screen.
Sure, the advertisement got me to pause, but it also had other repercussions. I didn't appreciate the feeling that I forgot someone from my past, so I went through and unfollowed all the people I only vaguely knew. That way if in the future I struggled to remember a person on my home feed, I would know it was an advertisement and could just scroll through faster. I became more selective, to cut people out and decide who I didn't really care about, in order to avoid promotions and advertisements.
I don't speak for all users, but allowing advertisements on a user's home feed changed the way I view and use Instagram.

Clowning Around

It...

I still may not know the full premise of the movie, but I know that the picture of a single balloon tied to the grating of a street drain is taking social media by storm. Well, that and It is about clowns. The stunt was cheap but effective at establishing an iconic image for It. Isn't that the key to a horror movie? Giving just enough information to the viewers to make their imaginations run wild. 

After the clown scares last year, some people are saying It is going a bit too far, but killer clowns seem to be the trending topic of the season. American Horror Story has also taken creative liberties, incorporating coulrophobia into its latest season. 

I wonder what will come next.

e-Dating

Tinder. Grinder. Match.com. Dating websites opened up a new etiquette for communication. Within seconds the user can say yes, no, attractive, or not on my level when looking at other user's profiles. These platforms commodified relationships by breaking sexual chemistry down to its most basic level: pure attraction. Let's be honest. The majority of people using these dating platforms are only thinking short term. No one wants to sit down at the family table during Thanksgiving and say, "Oh we met on Tinder. Yeah, I was just swiping through one night and thought to myself 'Yes, this shirtless selfie is a winner. True husband material.'" 

The evolution of dating culture led to changes in attitudes, a greater amount of communication (measured in the number of messages and not the depth of the subject matter), and new vocabulary. The following is a vocabulary lesson for two words used prevalently in today’s modern lexicon (as I understand them).

Ghosting is when a person who has been regularly exchanging messages with another person suddenly cuts all forms of communication. Extreme versions include changing one’s phone number, but typically the one who “ghosts” refuses to respond to texts, calls, or emails without notice or giving a reason for their actions. 

Cushions are relationships that a person keeps on the side in case his or her main relationship falls through. Needing a cushion could stem from the need to appear to be bouncing back from the relationship quicker than the significant other. Another reason for securing a cushion would be the desire to always be looking for something better or the next best thing. The user wants to ensure that they have the best available option on the market.
These platforms have become known as "hookup" apps. However, that doesn't stop certain companies from creating false profiles to advertise their products. Some profiles feature the picture of a famous celebrity and in the bio include a promotion for a product or service. How useful is this method of disruptive advertising? Although I do not have studies to back up my claim, I would say the method do not further a brand's message at all. If anything these false profiles make the brand seem as desperate as people perceive the other users of the app to be. 

The "Privacy" Setting

My generation and on has become so comfortable with media sites that we entrust our secrets to companies that promise to show them, share them, & save them to the internet. It is well known that colleges, organizations, and employers are likely to check in on one's social media accounts before accepting or hiring applicants.

Right now, most children are adept at navigating the ins and outs of a smartphone or smart device before their third birthday, but when I grew up, my mother instilled in me a fear of posting risky pictures or comments on my social media accounts. A fear that I feel she was being responsible by allowing it to take root in my subconscious.

The lesson boiled down to this: "Don't post anything that you wouldn't want your grandmother to see." I laughed at the thought while scrolling through my Facebook feed. My grandmother using social media seemed ridiculous. She doesn't even have WIFI. Spending time on Facebook is now her favorite pastime.

While I still had my impulsive moments, I always had and still currently have an awareness, a voice in the back of my mind, that I think has been lost to the normalization of posting one's entire life on social media.

The introduction of "Privacy" settings on these platforms only further lulled my generation into a false sense of security, and by the time I started applying to college, I learned of various methods to disguise one's digital footprint (well... at least long enough to get in).

Tactics of a Teenager

1. Switch the first letter of your first and last name 

*If you have the same letter for both, choose new letters or proceed to 2.* 

2. Change all accounts to a nickname.

3. Remove all relevant information from your bio.

4. Ensure that every setting is switched to the strictest privacy setting.

5. When in doubt, delete.

This education gave me the insight that there are two types of people willing to post risky material to these platforms and here's the divide: those who aren't fluent enough in technology that they trust the promise of these privacy settings and those who believe they are so fluent that they believe they can outsmart the system.

The latter led to the phenomena in particular that I would like to explore called a "Finsta" account. For those of you who do not know this term, a Finsta (Fake + Instagram) is an additional Instagram account that the user creates in order to post pictures that they definitely would not want their grandmother to see. Usually involving illicit substances, racy activities, or ugly selfies, a Finsta is a seemingly harmless way to accidentally ruin your career. The username is normally a clever contortion of the users name or nickname; the profile picture is either an unidentifiable photo of the user or a random image that the user took or more likely, stole from a quick google search; and the bio portion is filled with an "original" quote or movie reference about regrets and memories or rather lack thereof.

These users think they are safe. These users think their wits exceed that of a techie's, who with just a few keystrokes and minimal information could most likely connect the account to the user. The Finsta almost always follows the users original/ main account, which makes an instant connection to the user's main profile. If the person is very careful, only a few close, trusted friends will follow, and have access to, his or her Finsta account and that can diminish the possibility of the content being released. However, it doesn't eliminate it. One screen shot, one accidental post on the main account, can expose the user to damages.

While I'm skimming over the totality of the issue, the gist of my post is this: the internet is a one-way vault that no singular user has the code to. Watch what you put into it because while you can try and hide it, you can't ever fully get it back.

Breaking from Social Media: A Memoir

"Deactivate your account here."
"Are you sure?"
"We're sorry to see you go."

This year, I took the opportunity to become a Gamma Chi, which means that I disaffiliated from my sorority for the purposes of becoming a recruitment counselor.  The most important part of the job-- anonymity. Anonymity? What does that have to do with anything?
Ultimately, I needed to be unbiased. Every girl's preferences are unique to her own experiences, so the sorority that was the right fit for me might be the wrong one for the new girls. When recruitment week finally arrived, I told my friends good bye and packed my bags to go live in the local Holiday Inn with the other recruitment councilors for the week.
Deleting my social media accounts helped me on two fronts: further removing myself from the active member's side of the process and hiding my affiliation from the hopefuls, more commonly referred to as PNMs or Potential New Members.
Twitter was the first to go. Personally, it was the platform I was least worried about losing. While I pride myself on my quick wits, I don't usually find the necessity to post each quip for the public eye in 140 characters or less. I learned later that once I deactivated my account, it was gone for good. Well... as "gone for good" that the internet can provide.
Facebook was the most difficult to deactivate logistically. I hopped from page to page before finally finding what I was looking for. I also used Facebook as a method to login to third party platforms, so I had to figure out which accounts might be affected by the change. Unlike Twitter, Facebook kindly saved my account information and let me reactivate the account at a later date.
Instagram played by different rules. I was only required to delete the "Bio" section of my profile as long as I set my account to "Private" mode. I could neither like, nor comment on any post, but I still had access to my feed.
In the beginning of recruitment, I didn't know any of the other Gamma Chis. Most of my friends were members of a sorority, so I felt very isolated by my lack of ability to communicate with them. Confined to a hotel room with three strangers, I felt an urge to bury my nose in my phone. I noticed myself killing time through browsing Instagram and relying on the platform like a crutch to fill the awkward silence. While I did branch out and become close with many of my fellow Gamma Chis, I can't stop myself from remembering the connection between that momentary feeling of isolation and the instant urge to connect via social media outlets.
At the end of the week, I felt liberated. I no longer reached for my phone out of need or boredom. Rather, I sought real human connection. And while I am happy to engage in these platforms again, I think I believe I will repeat a digital detox every year. It's important to be able to take a step back and acknowledge the impact social media has on our everyday lives.