Week 5 Post 2: Target Market for My Business

In this business called Money Mailer, the target market is so broad, which makes my business very appealing. We target any type of local businesses out there. Out top 10 categories include restaurants, home improvement, automotive, beauty, entertainment, dentistry, pets, etc. Our perfect customer is a local business owner who has many businesses in many different territories. That's that is the case because they can purchase many zones that we can mail to.  

week 5 Post 1: Defining your target market

Subway:

From my perspective on the website, I can clearly see that Subway is trying to appeal to customers that are trying to eat healthy. They have various pictures of the sandwiches that they portray are full of healthy choices. Also on the bottom of the website I can see that it shows a man holding fresh produce. Through this picture they want to show that they have fresh quality produce and healthy choices. They even have a nutrition section on the top for people who want to dive into that. In the "About us" section it emphasizes how they are one of the biggest sandwich companies the in world. It also talks again about how their products are fresh. It has a section in there that talk about how it helps the community and cares about the environment.


Hungry Bear: 

After seeing the Hungry Bear website, they have a similar direction in the target market in that they emphasize that their products are fresh. The Hungry Bear shows how big their sandwiches are as they have a slogan, that if you eat on of their sandwiches you will not be left hungry. They have many photos and videos on their website on their sandwiches to entice customers. I could not find their "about me" section.

Differences: 

The main difference I saw about these two sandwich companies was that one really hangs it hat on the nutrition side of eating a sandwich, as it has a nutrition section on the top bar. Hungry Bear on the other hand makes sure that the customer knows how big their sandwiches are. Another difference is the overall feel of the website. Subway has green and yellow and their colors and makes the website feel a little more happy and customer friendly. Hungry Bear has more of a dark look to it and has a bear as their logo. It has more of the "Texas BBQ" feel to it. Both of these businesses definitely have a crossover because they serve the same type of product and they both emphasize how fresh their product is.

Week 2 Part 1: Social Media Platofrms

One would think that the only use for social media is for people who want to connect with friends and family. In today's world this is not the case. Certain apps and social media platforms have been utilized specifically for business purposes. Some are used more for personal reasons and some more for business. The next few paragraphs will discuss which ones I believe are used for personal and business.   

For me, the social media platforms that are used for personal use are Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. I've noticed from being on those apps that not much ads and marketing are shown on them. Instagram does have marketing on them, but not as much as others such as Facebook. Instagram for me is more of a personal  platform for pictures and stories. Twitter especially is a personal social media platform because you just post about how you are feeling or experiencing. Although it can be used for the "word of mouth" marketing as well. Snapchat is a personal use platform because it just shows short pictures of things that you take pictures of throughout your day. 

The social media platform that can be used for business are Facebook, Yelp, , etc. These are definitely platforms used for business. Facebook, there always ads on the side on in your news fed that encourage you to purchase something. Not only that, but Facebook also knows your interests by the things that you like and therefore, uses that to market things you like. Yelp is definitely a business platform because its an app where people can say good or bad things about a business or service. People read these reviews to help them make a decision on if they will go there.

In reality, social media platforms are all used for both personal and business purposes, just some more than others. Marketing has taken over social media because they know that people are on social media everyday. Social Media has been one of the most used things in our world today. Businesses and marketers understand this and have taken advantage by posting their products or services to people who have interest in their stuff. Businesses know how to track what you like online and what are your interests to know who to target. 

Week 4 Post 2: Aesthetics, Design and Branding

https://www.espn.com/

https://www.amazon.com/


The two websites that I chose to discuss about in my post are ESPN and Amazon. These websites are effective because they understand what customers want to see when they visit the website. ESPN is effective because of its proximity and alignment. Everything is well-spaced out as it has the main headline with a picture in the middle. It has the scores of current games being played on top and the sub headlines on the side. It also has the component of hierarchy where it shows the most important news that is currently going on. Amazon is great because it is also well aligned. The products are aligned very well and is categorized good. Its Easy of use because it has a search bar right on top where you can search whatever you would like to purchase.

What makes me come back again is that as I mentioned in the previous paragraph it is very easy to use. I can easily search what I am looking for whenever I want. Of course another reason I keep coming back is that these are websites that deals with my interest. I love sports so I always want to be updated with the most recent information. I keep coming back to Amazon because it is the most convenient way of buying things.

For me there is definitely one thing that need to be improved on ESPN. That would be to lessen the information on the page. I understand that in sports there are so many games and news tat needs to be addressed, but they should put more links on there instead of trying to fit everything on one page. On Amazon I believe they should add more appealing colors to it. On the current page it only has blue and white the rest of the way. If they add color it would make it more appealing to the eye.

Week 4 Post 1: Aethetics Design and Branding

http://gatesnfences.com/

Problems:

1. Proximity
2. Typography
3. Alignment

I Choose this website about gates and fences because I did not like the look of its website. The very first thing I saw that was wrong with it was it's proximity. They can improve by putting less information on there and spreading everything out so it is more legible. Another problem I saw about the website was the Alignment. Since everything seems all over the place, there were parts on the page where the pictures were aligned with text that did not relate at all. This make it difficult for the reader to know what is going on. The last problem I saw was its typography. They used very small print all over the page combined with a lot of text. This makes the text very hard to read.


http://www.roverp6cars.com/

Problems

1. Repetition
2. Contrast
3. Navigation

The problem with this website is that it uses repetition too much on the side of the website. It shows the same car about 50 times. It does not come easy on the eye for visitors. The second problem was that the Contrast was not very good. The color of the website was not good as it only used two colors. They should add more colors to it. Navigation was also a problem because of where was everything was placed. The content seemed all over the place.


https://www.headhunterhairstyling.com/

THE GOOD:

1. Contrast
2. Easy of Use
3. Proximity

The contrast of color is great on the website because it is very easy on the eyes. The second thing I loved about it was the website was very easy to use. There was only a few things to click on there, which is good. The last thing I appreciated was the proximity. Everything was so well spaced out and user-friendly.

https://www.toyota.com/

THE GOOD:

1. Easy of Use
2. Contrast
3. Alignment

The Toyota website was great because it was almost perfect. Just like the hair styling website it was very easy to use as everything was so accessible. The color contrast was great as it was very easy on the eyes. The alignment of everything was great. All the categories were all aligned up on top as well as on the bottom.

Week 3 Part 2: Examples of 5 Businesses

1. 24 Hour Fitness

URL:

 https://www.24hourfitness.com/?adb_id=PPC_ADB_ACQ_022018_JS190220ACQ&s_kwcid=AL!6388!10!72430394788066!72430579756958&ef_id=XQlgVgAAALP_KV39:20190907181340:s

- https://www.facebook.com/24HourFitness (Used frequently) (Last post: 9/7/19)
- https://www.instagram.com/24HourFitness/ (Used Frequently) (Last Post: 9/7/19)
- https://twitter.com/24HourFitness  (Used Less Frequently) (Last Post: 8/23/19)
-  https://www.youtube.com/24HourFitnessInc (Not Frequent) (Last Post: 1 Year ago)

Analysis on 24 Hour Fitness:

24 hour Fitness for the most part is very active on social media. They are definitely using their social media well since they have a ton of followers. They are very active on Facebook, Instagram posting alomst everyday. Twitter is still active but not that much. They do not use YouTube that often because the last post was a year ago.

2. Planet Fitness

URL:

https://www.planetfitness.com/gyms/?msclkid=004c683360f31dbca238354098d2733c&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=PF_National_Evergreen_Brand_RMK_New&utm_term=planet%20fitness&utm_content=PF_General_Exact_Step1&gclid=COjUuuisv-QCFcFegQod490O8Q&gclsrc=ds

- https://www.facebook.com/planetfitness (Used Frequently) (Last Post: 9/7/19)
- https://twitter.com/PlanetFitness (Used Frequently) (Last Post: 9/6/19)
- https://www.instagram.com/planetfitness/ (Used a little less Frequently) (Last Post: 9/3/19)
- https://www.youtube.com/user/planetfitnessnh (Not Frequent) (Last Post: 1 Year Ago)

Analysis on Planet Fitness:

Planet Fitness had the same exact pattern as 24 Hour Fitness where they are very active on Facebook, and Instagram, slightly on Twitter and not very frequent on YouTube.

3. Crunch Fitness

URL:

https://www.crunch.com/

- https://www.facebook.com/CRUNCH/ (Somewhat Frequent) (Last Post: 9/3/19)
- https://www.instagram.com/crunchgym/ (Used frequently) (Last Post: 9/8/19
- https://twitter.com/crunchgym/ (Frequently) (Last Post: 9/6/19)
- https://www.youtube.com/crunch (Frequently) (Last Post: 9/1/19)

Analysis On Crunch Fitness:

Crunch Fitness the same exact social media links as the previous two gyms, although the activity is different. 24 Hour fitness and Planet Fitness were posting on FB and IG everyday, while Crunch posts every few days but post on YouTube every couple weeks.

4. Fitness 19

- Fitness 19 apparently did not have a website. They only had a website for the specific store locations and those did not have any social media attached to it.

5. Chuze Fitness

URL: https://chuzefitness.com/

- https://www.facebook.com/ChuzeFitness/ (Used frequently) (Last Post: 9/8/19)
- https://www.instagram.com/chuzefitness/ (Used frequently) (Last Post: 9/8/19)
- https://twitter.com/chuzefitness/ (Somewhat frequently) (Last Post: 9/3/19)
- https://www.youtube.com/user/TheChuzeFitness/ (Not frequent at all) (Last Post: 5 Years ago)
- https://www.pinterest.com/chuzefitness/ (Not Sure) (Not sure)

Analysis on Chuze Fitness:

Chuze Fitness is very active on the accounts of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Seems like they have no interest to continue posting on YouTube since they only posted 5 years ago. I wasn't able to check Pinterest because I do not have an account and I'm not sure how it works.

What Have I Discovered from my Research:

I chose to research on Fitness Clubs because I love to go to the gym almost everyday so it is something of my interest. Fitness clubs in general are places that the community loves. Just like me, many people go to the gym almost everyday because it becomes a passion and something that we all enjoy. This leads to it's clients following the fitness club on social media.

From the research that I have discovered, pretty much every fitness gym is very active on social media. For whatever reason, Fitness 19 did not have a website for me to check. Everyone was very active on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as they posted almost everyday. I think they must be active on these apps because those apps are the most used by people. I noticed that only Chuze had pinterest, which was very interesting. Most Fitness clubs were not active on YouTube, except for Crunch fitness.    

Week 3 Part 1: Personal Expierience Communicating with a Business

I remember when I had to communicate with a mailing business called "LBC". I remember this incident because it was a crucial time when I had to get my transcripts in time to register school. They gace me a hard time reaching them because nobody knew where my package was. They kept transferring my calls to different people trying to figure out what happened to my package. Sometimes they wouldn't even answer at all.

Social media is a great way for businesses to get more contact from their customers. It provides another way for customers to reach out to a business for certain problems. In today's world some people would even prefer to communicate through social media rather than through the phone. I personally have never tried to communicate with a business through social media because I prefer to talk to them over the phone.

As mentioned in our previous blog, social media serves as a great platform for customers and clients to express their feelings towards a business. There can be both negative and positive comments. Those are apps such as yelp. If I was a business owner myself I would welcome all comments. If it was a negative comment I would not fight back and use it as a way to improve my business and not make the same mistake. If the customer was wrong I would simply explain our side and what went wrong and leave it at that. All positive comments would of course receive a thank you and I would always ask them for more feedback to improve my business.

My experience with communicating with a business is usually a positive one because of the many ways that I can talk to them. It can be through Facebook, Email, Instagram and through the phone. The only negative part is sometimes when it is a busy business the will keep you on hold for a long tim and keep transferring you to other people resulting in a lot of stress and lost time.