Big Head Skates (BHS)

Marketing Campaign

Final Project

Jessie Hawley

Kaplan University

IT337 Internet Business Fundamentals

Professor Ahmed Banafa

October 28, 2012

Marketing Campaign

  The BHS launch is a great achievement for the many workers that contributed to its success.  The BHS brand is now available; it now needs to grow.  This growth is consistent with the overall goal for BHS: “to be the most recognized name in skateboards and skateboarding accessories”.  The achievement of this goal has to coincide with careful planning and assessed risk.  The first step in this planning process is the to expand the brand name through the expansion of the website.

  This Campaign will include many tools available and highlight options available.  There will be outside services that may offer a great competitive edge; if utilized properly.  The website will be customer friendly and provide a safe, secure, means of shopping.  You find this Campaign informative with a clear plan.  This blog serves as an “index” to the more descriptive steps and procedures.  This will allow for easy access and reference.  The overall Campaign objectives and specifics can be found Google Documents located:

https://docs.google.com/a/student.kaplan.edu/document/d/17PCRV3F4rVctuMi4ZMW6L6wTz7YI_U2UbPYRu24h4JE/edit

  As mentioned earlier, there are several options available to small businesses that provide a specific service to assist.  The sooner a company can establish a relationship, the easier these service providers can grow with the company.  The Software-As-A-Service companies that would be of use include survey monitoring companies, company correspondence software.  The last Service company would be very useful in allowing winners of the deck design contests to sell their products.  Although there are many SAAS companies, the three summarized below would be a great fit for the BHS team! https://docs.google.com/a/student.kaplan.edu/document/d/15O6YanMAcu1pwhkFAP8IRHjxVIkpTY96nT7mKQBr4FM/edit

    When we think of delivering products to the web, let’s show it off!  There are many add-ons available for browsers these days. The FireFox add-on Thumbnail Zoom Plus is a great way to do just that: http://animoto.com/play/mOSYYWmmRuvlLLZJEwH6mQ

    The best thing we can do is prepare for the anticipated growth; a customer relationship management (CRM) service can assist.  The use of a CRM allows a company focused on customer/consumer growth to grow with the company. The biggest concern is for BHS is that we do not lose a customer during any transition or modification of the website, product line, etc.  Explained below is a great option to ensure that none of this ever happens, Sugar CRM:

https://docs.google.com/a/student.kaplan.edu/document/d/1BFY0iKBrQTXI1ByctzxLRFwL4mnuFf-R3xsEH0C76nY/edit

  The items described above are culminated into the following document: https://docs.google.com/a/student.kaplan.edu/document/d/1BFY0iKBrQTXI1ByctzxLRFwL4mnuFf-R3xsEH0C76nY/edit  This provides the Growth Plan utilizing e-mail marketing tools and the tools listed previously.  The tools described are easy to use and the benefits are immeasurable.  Below is a screen shot utilizing the e-mail marketing tool that will keep our customers informed:

https://docs.google.com/a/student.kaplan.edu/presentation/d/1VfJMfQwvsGxzTxIIkgx1tE3knqqrtUTlijBVzBobHmM/edit#slide=id.p

   When the company speaks of modifications, these tools are not limited to just the customer.  The customer is the primary focus for everything we do, but having tools to assist the development of different programs and/or features can be useful.  Outlined below is a Rapid Prototyping Tool called Mock-up Screens. It allows quick development with emphasis on the final product at all times.

https://docs.google.com/a/student.kaplan.edu/presentation/d/1bIYFRO-ZQfKxoUvLgkvRmTTpPkE_MTj5y5NqzXnwmsQ/edit#slide=id.g2480feb0_1_0

  The blog cannot be overlooked.  The blog offers a personal touch that can be viewed by all customers.  With a company that provides products centered on the customer, a blog could be useful.  Here is an example of my blog; something that can be used by sponsored athletes and contest winners. http://bigheadskates.blogspot.com/

  To ensure interoperability with all browsers, it is important to be able to assess changes in each browser. The Adobe Browser Lab is a great place to start: https://browserlab.adobe.com/en-us/index.html

  This lab provides the means for testing any updates and changes in several browsers to include: Internet Explorer, Chrome, FireFox, etc.  This would prove extremely useful in evaluating customer interaction.  Enclosed is case study:

https://docs.google.com/a/student.kaplan.edu/document/d/1Lk_Lx2UkhjX4K9RZLTDP11LFijLlayalYPJbMXBGPQc/edit

  Communication is key for BHS success.  To ensure that the company maintains open communication, we must ensure that it is open and honest.  At no point will BHS compromise privacy for the customer, the following are issues and suggestions that we will even pass to the customer.  BHS will expand our customer base through positive referral and great service.  My thoughts on privacy concerns with cell phones, summarized from a great article:

http://itacademicsblog.blogspot.com/

  The BHS Marketing Campaign is the beginning of making this company the brand it can be.  Only through smart selection of existing products and services can we ensure that our customers are being taken care of.  However, the establishment of new customers is only part of the goal, keeping existing customers coming back is the overall goal.

References

All references are attached to the original work and include:

Capture.  (2012).  iCapture website.  Retrieved on October 1, 2012 from:

http://www.icapture.com/

Constant. (2012).  Constant contact website.  Retrieved September 30, 2012 from:

http://www.constantcontact.com/mainpage.jsp

Gube, Isaac (2010).  How to make remote team calibration work. Retrieved on

September 4, 2012 from: http://sixrevisions.com/project-management/how-to-make

-remote-team-collaboration-work/

Johnson, Steven (2010).  Where good ideas come from.  Retrieved on September 4,
            2012 from: http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_johnson_where_good_ideas_come

Kozakis, Kenneth (2011). Internet business associate, academic student guide,chapter

10.  Tempe, AZ, Certification Partners, LLC.

Lab. (2012).  Adobe browser emulator.  Retrieved on October 28, 2012 from:

https://browserlab.adobe.com/en-us/index.html

Lepa, Marianne (2009).  Choosing a small business crm solution.  Retrieved on September 25,
            2012 from: http://suite101.com/article/choosing-a-small-business-crm-software-solution

-a118097

Mockup. (2012).  Mockup screens website.  Retrieved on October 7, 2012 from:

http://www.mockupscreens.com/index.php?page=GUI-Prototyping-Software

Pinpointe (2012).  Pinpointe website.  Retrieved on Septermber 8, 2012 from:

http://www.pinpointe.com/get-started

Save. (2012).  Save local application description.  Retrieved on October 1, 2012 from:

Sugar. (2012).  Sugar CRM website. Retrieved on September 25, 2012 from: SugarCRM.com

Survey (2012).  Survey monkey website.  Retrieved on September 8, 2012 from:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/pricing/?ut_source=header_from.html

Revenue

  The blog for a company would most likely supliment existing revenue gained through internet and regular sales.  There are, however, opportunities to allow specific companies to advertise on your blog.  The concern would be control over the content; it would make no sense to advertise a competitor's (or potential competitor's) brand on the company blog.  There is opportunity through Ad Sense to customize advertisement space for your blog; the company gets to choose.  

  More profitable and longer-lasting revenue, however, can be gained through hand-picked advertisement through company partnerships.  The Google Analytics allow you to evaluate your revenue and narrow down the source.  These tools would prove useful for establishing a market campaign.

Metrics

  The blog is only a useful tool if you have the metrics to alter, modify, or even delete the blog altogether.  The blog stats for Blogger is called Stats.  This provides an overview of total views, where the user is located, and even the operating system (OS).  These are all useful as BHS attempts to develop and integrate the data into useful marketing.

  The OS was particularly interesting, any development for applications, Website plays a role in compatibility; unnecessary exclusion could alienate potential customers.

  Search engine optimization is critical.  Metadata should be tweaked and modified as new versions of search engines become available.  All this data needs to be monitored continually.

So This is a Blog?

  When considering a blog for a company, we have to look at all the pros and cons to establishing something that will: a) keep the company's reputation in tact b) control our (company) content so that the blog amplifies and does not distract from the goals of the company c) keep it updated so it never contradicts and/or conflicts with company events, ideas, etc.

  Big Head Skates (BHS) is a company that could benefit from posting a blog.  The events that surround BHS require participation, blogging is one way to do that.  The content of the blog needs to be searchable to include images:

  These images require "Text" and "Alt Text" to be searchable and easily identified.  It is this sort of "attention-to-detail" that would be required in maintaining a blog.

  Additionally, the actual content should be searchable through meta-data and a good description.  These are used for search-engine optimization to ensure that the blog is a continuation of the company.  The decision to establish a blog should be sooner rather than later.  The social networking potential that a blog provides can be very useful in establishing a customer base.  Once established, it then can be used to expand the same base.

  The blog should be linked to the company website and have many options to be shared.  A major consideration for establishing and running a blog is to captivate and keep reader attention.  An idea to achieve this is standardized content used for events and guest bloggers that could be sponsored skaters who are at sponsored events, trips, etc.

  The gadgets associated with Google include options for linking, searching the blog, recommending, e-mail distribution, etc.  These features would be ideal platforms to link into presumed existing social networking options available the company.  The use of