Monday, November 29, 2010

New Spirit in Juicy Couture Stores

      

         Erin Fetherston is Juicy Coutures' new guest designer.She is from California but she works and designes her own collection in New York.Also Juicy Couture is a California based brand.Juicy Couture provides people girlly stuff, casual and laid-back.On the other hand Erin Fetherston is known her tailored cocktail dresses.This two brands Juicy Couture and Fetherston is blended and produced hyper-feminine vibe.
       "I felt that my own design aesthetic and Juicy Couture's had a good amount in common in terms of having a fun-loving, feminine spirit," said Fetherston, sitting down recently at Juicy Couture's headquarters in Arleta. "And I loved the idea of coming home a little bit through this project."said Fetherston to Emili Visilind Los Angeles Times.
   Fetherson was choosen because of her " fashion knowledge and experience, her California roots and her induvisual sense of style.
    As we know velour is significant material for Juicy Couture, but Fetherston changed that idea she used silk and other materials.
      "Casual, chic elegance perfectly complementing the Juicy Couture heritage," is how Huber described Fetherston's initial collection.(Los Angeles Times)

      Just yesterday I mentioned about that Juicy Couture should also sell more feminine and sexy apparels.When I saw that new on the internet I surprised.In 2010, the founders of Juicy Couture who are Gela Nash and Pamela stop designing for Juicy Couture.In 2010, new owners of Juicy Couture needed to invent new things.They have to get rid of their stale styles, so recently they hired American Eagles' head designer and New York based popular and successful designer Erin Fetherston.Juicy Couture is going through innovation.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Today is Cyber Monday!!!

    Cyber Monday is a marketing term for the Monday right after Black Friday and Thanksgiving in the USA.Cyber Monday is a new trend and It released almost 5 years ago.Cyber Monday is same as Black Friday but just one difference; it is online shopping.Retailers realized that in Cyber Monday their sales are increased.Now Cyber Monday is 2nd spending day in America.
    Don't forget to check online shops like ebay.com,amazon.com etc.

Week 14-Developing and Managing Product

     My company Juicy Couture releases new products to their product mix every season.They usually add to the existing product line.For example for holiday season Juicy Couture added to their collection " Velvet & Polka Dots" Collection.In Polka Dots collection they released bags,t-shirts, wallets, socks and many other things.They expended their product line.



      Idea Generation is important point for owners.Ideas can come from customer. Merchandisers usually make survey to improve quality of service and to get their consumer's ideas.Also It is important to get employees ideas because all the day they deal with costumers and employees know what costumers are looking for.Also It is important to see what competitors are selling.It is good way to get an idea form competitors.For exapmle Juicy Couture was working with same designers for a long time, but timeafter time they realized that Juicy Couture style stales.They kicked out the previous designer and now they work with Juicy Coutures' opponent brand's designer which is American Eagle's head designer.There are also bunch of people all sit together and make brainstorming.Brainstorming is very efficient way to produce new things.

       
        Juicy Couture also released a new line to their product mix.They released new men's denims and men's section to Juicy Couture stores.It didnt really work well because they couldnt use good commercials to introduce it to consumers.
    Also globalization is really important issue for selling products.I all the time see tourist with Juicy Couture shopping bags on their hands.Juicy Couture all the time sells girlly staffs to the world but I believe they need innovation.On the other side they should sell sexy clothes with that way they might get more attention from others.And it will mke them more succesful in global business.

           I think I am late adopter.First I see the product and I wait the same product line almost a year than I buy.For exapmle first 2 years ago I saw the Hunter rain boats.I loved them but all the time I thought they will be out of fashion.In 2010 I realized that It is still famous and popular so I got for my self a pair.



Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!!!


    4th Thursday of every November we call a day named Turkey Day.It is harvesting festival and the best thing about it is that whole family members come together and eat Turkey.Also we thank to God what he gave to us.
    Happy Thanksgiving everybody...

Monday, November 22, 2010

Week-13 Customer Relationship Management CONTUNIE

   As it mentions in our book about Amazon.com's improving customer service,I want to talk about Ebay.I am an Ebay user.Almost every week I shop from Ebay and Related to chapter 18 sales promotion Ebay gives me many coupons and deals and free shipment offers.Also whenever I open the Ebay page, It shows me what I checked last on Ebay.After I purchase they ask me to leave a comment and feedback.If I have any problem or trouble they believe that all the time customer is right.I love Ebay personal selling skills.It is directly related to customer relationship management.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Week 13- Customer Relationship Management

       Today I will talk about customer relationship management, but there is a difference from my other plog posts.Today I will talk about my experience through different companies which are Delta and Ebay.

        I registered to Delta Skymiles to get free and favourable flights .I am traveling alot either international and domestic.When I registered for skymiles, they asked me bucnh of unrelated questions.Where do you live? What is your hobbies?What kind of music do you listen?What is your ethnicity?Where do you like to travel? etc. Then almost eveyday they send me e-mails mostly about reasonable international flights.they start to sell me e-mails to earn miles but the intresting thing is, there are several companies and products they are all arranged and each of them gives me different amount of miles.After I read chapter 21 I realized that Delta sells our information to other web sites.When I click to X company,It asks me many questions like demographics,lifestyle and behavioral questions like "When did you purchase your last car?, Where do you want to go most?"These ate all customer-centric actions.Later on from different companies I got varity of e-mails.Delta Airlines collect my database to serve me better service.Delta also uses the identfying their best cusotmer technique.For example I flied Turkey twice, so now they usually send me good deals on Turkey flights.Also Delta uses retainig loyal customer technique.They usually e-mail, if you purchase round-trip tickets for your family at the same time (about 5 people) you can get 2 nights free room in any Hayatt Hotels.This technique gets peoples' attention.




Thursday, November 18, 2010

Fake Brands related to Chapter 10

Mercedes C vs Geely Merrie 300



Daewoo Matiz vs Chery QQ



Opel (Vauxhall) Frontera vs Landwind



Honda CRV vs Laibao SRV




Neoplan Starliner vs Zonda A9



Rolls-Royce Phantom vs Hongqi HQD



Smart vs Chinese Smart



Toyota Prado vs Dadi Shuttle



Nissan XTrail vs Greatwall Sing



BMW 7 vs BYD F6



BMW 7 vs BYD F6 Logo



Toyota Logo vs Geely Logo



BallStar instead of AllStar



Abcids instead of Adidas



PAMA instead of PUMA



PolyStation instead of PlayStation



FTZA instead of FILA



NIRE instead of NIKE



FUMA ("to smoke" in spanish) instead of PUMA



SONIA instead of SONY



         I was surfing on the internet and I found these ridiculous photos.I suprised that how seriously growing imitation industries.China is the leader of imitation factories.All logos and trademarks are so similar to real ones, even sometime it is hard to distinguish.Some smart people use the brand loyalty to other companys'.
   I want to give an example from my country Turkey.It is too expensive to buy a pair of Puma snickers in Turkey, but everybody wants to be fashionable and even young generation wants to show of their counterparts.It is very easy to find a pair of knockoff Puma snickers on the Turkey streets.Nobody can distinguish the differences between real one and the fake one, but there is one difference between them "quality."It is obvious that If the smugglars are catch by police, they have to pay really high penalties.
    Also another  example is from Korea.I have been Korea once and suprised by the view.They sell the $2000 LV bag just for $40.And sellers were acting totally cool and even they had big stalls on the streets.I really wanted to get one of these bags, but later on I learned that If I were caught by a police officer with a fake handbag on my suitcase, they have the right to put me jail.
     It is just so sad people are buying these knockoff products and smugglars keep selling it.We should respect to the real hand work and I believe "quantity does not count, but quality counts."

Monday, November 15, 2010

Week 12- Integrated Marketing Communication

      If we consider about my company Juicy Couture,their promotional mix is advertising; they never use traditional advertising,Juicy couture sends many of their track-suits free to celebrities.Public Relations; they support a non-propit foundation for children.For competitive advantage they give excellent service in their boutique and sell hight quality product which you can wear over and over.For communication, Juicy Couture uses slogans.They create new slogans for every collections.For exapmle; " Have a Juicy Day." and  "Let Them Eat Couture." They believe that it is the best way to persuade customers.Juicy Couture does not use interpersonal and mass communication.Juicy Couture mostly uses computer for message transmission.Web has big impact of communication.When Juicy Couture created at first, I really don't have any idea where they put their advertisements because Juicy Couture mostly uses internet advertising.Juicy Couture has its own web page where you can see new products.Also they have an facebook account where they put important event and new opened places.



When people buy Juicy Couture bags, they make complex buying decision because they want this colorful,fancy expensive Juicy Couture bag.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

"Fiat" Welcome to America!!!

Fiat's New Uphill Climb in the U.S.
With the 500 subcompact, it makes an auspicious return to the States—but it's a crowded market

By Tim Higgins
BW Magazine

Sam Germana, a lawyer who bought his first Fiat in 1982, still has fond memories of la dolce vita behind the wheel of his Italian import. So he jumped at the chance to plop down $500 to reserve a special first-edition version of the 500, the tiny car Fiat hopes will make a big splash as the brand returns to the U.S. market this winter. Germana, who lives on New York's Long Island and commutes to New Jersey for work, has driven the European version and figures it will be perfect for his daily commute. "The Fiat is put together like a Toyota (TM), it is really solid," Germana says of his test drive. "It was a blast to drive."

Fiat hopes there are many more customers who fondly recall the sporty Fiat image of bygone days—and are willing to forget reliability problems that plagued the automaker (some owners said its name stood for Fix It Again, Tony) before it pulled out of the U.S. market in 1983.

The Fiat 500 subcompact, known as the Cinquecento in Italy, has already sold 500,000 units since 2007 in other parts of the world. Its U.S. starting price is expected to be about $15,000. Fiat hopes to sell 50,000 of the tiny fuel misers in its first year in the U.S. (no mileage rating has been determined yet), mostly in urban areas where traffic and scant parking make small cars attractive.

The Fiat brand's return to North America comes about 18 months after the Turin-based automaker gained control of Chrysler Group. The U.S. company's infrastructure is key to the effort: The 500 will be built at a Chrysler factory near Mexico City, starting in December, and it tapped existing Chrysler dealers to open new Fiat showrooms.

Chrysler has hired a marketing executive from Volkswagen, Laura J. Soave, a first-generation Italian American, to help translate the feeling of the Fiat brand to U.S. car buyers. Soave, who has a picture of herself visiting Italy as a small child, standing atop a Fiat, has been working on a grassroots marketing campaign to build support among longtime Fiat fans. She showed up in July in Asheville, N.C., for an annual gathering of Fiat-Lancia Unlimited, which claims to be the largest Fiat enthusiast group in North America. She's since donated a Fiat 500 to the National Italian American Foundation for a fundraiser.

Chrysler declined to make Soave available for an interview in advance of the Los Angeles Auto Show later this month, where the Fiat 500's U.S. version will be displayed. Two people familiar with her efforts say she'll concentrate on developing "experiential" marketing of the car, mostly in showrooms through high-service selling that focuses on adding options to let buyers personalize their cars. Rather than broad advertising pitches, they say she's likely to use social media and other grassroots approaches to target likely buyers and lure them into showrooms for individual treatment. "My ultimate goal would be not to spend one dollar in traditional advertising," says Phil Bivens, a Tacoma (Wash.) dealer who will open a Fiat store.

Fiat faces plenty of obstacles, analysts say. The small car is being introduced into a market crowded with competitors, including the new Ford (F) Fiesta and General Motors' upcoming Chevrolet Spark. While researcher IHS Automotive (IHS) predicts the U.S. subcompact market will grow 150 percent to more than 1 million by the end of 2015, IHS analyst Rebecca Lindland cautions that the growth is being pushed not by consumer demand, but by automakers' beliefs that small cars will become more popular. "Everyone is tooled up for this, and everyone is all excited about consumers buying small cars—except consumers," Lindland says.

European competitors such as Daimler's Smart and BMW's Mini small cars have seen sales fall lately. Smart sales have plunged 61 percent so far this year from the year-earlier period. Mini sales are down 1.6 percent, according to researcher Autodata.

Fiat decided to eschew selling Fiat vehicles next to Chrysler's Ram pickups and Jeep SUVs and now must quickly and smoothly open about 165 showrooms. "You had to get into a building, a separate establishment" for a Fiat dealership, where somebody could come in and truly feel like they were at an Apple (AAPL) store, says Fred M. Diaz, Chrysler's lead sales executive. Adds Tacoma dealer Bivens: "The Italian style and design and fashion will all play a clear role in who we hire and how we train them and how they communicate. It will not be a traditional car dealership experience."

The bottom line: A quarter-century after it pulled out of the U.S. market, Fiat is back with a small car built and sold with the help of its partner, Chrysler.


     My marketing professor Evans mailed me that article.I want  to write a comment and analyze the article.This article copied from Bm Magazine which was written by Tim Higgins.

   First of all my father works in Fiat Turkey.He has been working in this company for over 20 years.Everyday I hear his speeches about cars even sometimes we argue about car models and their efficiency.Fiat is very popular car in Turkey.It is cheap,safe and it provides gas efficiency.In  Italy, they just use Fiat cars.There are many Fiat cars which provide safety to people.
   
   In recent years,Toyota and GM had recalling for their car.Toyota had many accidents and many people died or went jail because of Toyotas' sticky pedal problem.GM also recalled many cars because of their new technological invent on the cars which can cause fire.Yes, It caused fires some cars, but luckly nobody got hurt.
   
   Now Fiat goes thorough American business.It is great new to see some Fiat cars on the streets.The streets with Fiat 500 will be more likely Turkey and It will remind me my lovely country.Also another reason America needs new cars because American people don't trust Toyota and GM anymore.This tiny Fiat car, Fiat 500 will make many people's life easier.It is a tiny little car which is good for us.We live in New York, and everybody knows that parking is a big problem.Fiat 500 will make parking easy and give new taste and image to Americans.We need to change sometimes.

   Fiat is growing and let's support it...





Greatest Italian car Fiat 500