Week 5 Blog Post 2: Target Market

After changing my mind several times about the type of business I wanted to choose, and a lot of false starts, here it goes:

I have decided to use this assignment to market a non-existent real estate company.  This will be an extension of work that I did last fall in BUS132 (Marketing) at MiraCosta.  This plan markets my services as a real estate listing agent.  The target market is very narrowly defined as:

  Homeowners over the age of 55 living in Rancho Santa Fe

[Note:  In this case, I am marketing my services to potential homeowner-sellers.   To this end, my goal is to obtain a client who will contract with me to list their house for sale.  This is the first step.  Once I have obtained the listing, now I need to market the home to potential home-buyers!  These are two different target markets!  For the purposes of this project, I am going to focus on marketing my services to potential home sellers.]


To this very specific target market mentioned above, I am selling my services as a "downsizing expert".  The reason I chose this target market is because it is an age demographic that I respect and enjoy being around.

The industry and demand trends for this market are as follows:
As of July 2015, 27.6% of the U.S. population is over age 55(1).  A large percentage of this population are homeowners.  Of those age 65 and above, 77.9% own their own homes, of people age 55-64, 74.7% own their own homes (2,3).  Many of these people are maintaining the larger home that this demographic has tended to prefer.  They have not yet downsized from the homes they bought when raising their families (4).  In California, more than 70% of people over the age of 55 have been in the same home since 2000, and over 50% of the people in that age group have not moved in 25 years (5).  As these homeowners retire, many will begin to notice that a large portion of their income is being used to maintain a large home, most of which they are no longer using.  Paying the water bills, heating/cooling bills, and managing pool maintenance, yard maintenance and house cleaning might become overwhelming.  They may become more interested in travel or in living closer to their grandchildren.  They also might be facing health problems and needing more assistance in daily life.  Oftentimes homeowners in this demographic have lost a spouse, and are attempting to manage their large property on their own. This is the point at which they will look to downsize (6).  According to SANDAG, in the Rancho Santa Fe zip codes, 38% of the residents (4,355 people) are currently age 55+ (7).   In addition, 86% of the housing in 92067 and 92091 are detached, single family homes.  With a median sales price of 2.22 Million year-to-date in 2016, most of these homes are large and built on lots over 2 acres in size (8).  These older homeowners, living on large, high maintenance properties are prime candidates for downsizing.  My service will assist the homeowner in making this life change.

Social media is NOT the best or only media to use for this target market. This age demographic tends to respond to more traditional advertising methods (newspaper, direct mail, in-person selling etc.). However, to develop a comprehensive marketing plan, I feel that including social media is critical. I have chosen Facebook as the most important social media channel that I will use because it is the primary social media site frequented by my target demographic (9).  

   (1)       “So How Many Millennials are there in the U.S. Anyway?” Marketingcharts. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Sept., 2016.   
   (2)       “Boomers Retire, and California Trembles” First Tuesday Journal, 26 July 2016. Web.  28 Sept., 2016.                     
   (3)       “Field Guide to Working with Baby Boomers” Realtor. Realtor. Aug. 2015. Web. Aug. 2015, 25 Sept. 2016.
(4) “Analyzing Trends: How Investors Will Profit from Millenials & Baby-Boomers” Real Wealth Network. Real Wealth Network. n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.
(5) Huang, Josie. “Baby Boomers Behind Housing Logjam.” SCPR.org. Southern California Public Radio. 28 April 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.
(6) IBID. First Tuesday Journal.
(7) “Demographics and Socio Economic Estimates U.S. Postal ZIP Code 92067 and 92091” SANDAG. SANDAG, Current Estimates. 24 Feb. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.
(8) “August Statistics Detached Homes” The San Diego Realtor. The San Diego Realtor. Sept. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.
(9) Olenski, Steve “7 Reasons Why Marketing to Baby Boomers is Unique”, Forbes, 5 June 2015, Web. 14 Nov. 2016.

Week 5 Post 1

Set 2:  The Websites of Chili's and Teri Cafe:  A Target Market Comparison

Both of these websites advertise restaurants.  The obvious difference that stands out right away is that Chili's is a large chain restaurant with locations all over the U.S. (and world) and Teri Cafe is a local San Diego restaurant with 2 locations.  The Chili's website is much larger than Teri Cafe's website.  In addition to promoting its food, Chili's is also promoting itself as a great place to work.  You can buy gift cards on Chili's website and you can order your food for pick up from Chili's website.  Teri Cafe has a much smaller website that gives the menus, specials and noodle information.

The most obvious difference in the target markets of these two restaurants is that Teri Cafe's target market live (or are visiting) the San Diego area.  Chili's target market is much larger since there is a Chili's in nearly every larger metropolitan area.  Both restaurants target customers who will be looking to spend up to $20 for an entree, however, both restaurants have entrees in the $7.50-$15.00 range.

The Chili's target market like large restaurants with a wide variety of menu options.  Their target market will also be looking to have alcohol available.  In the Our Story tab, Chili's explains that they want to be the place where you could hang out with friends and have burgers and a beer.  However, this is the only reference to alcohol on their website, so I don't think they are looking to be known as a place to drink.  From the Teri Cafe website, I infer that the target market will be looking for a smaller, more intimate restaurant.  The Teri Cafe target market will be interested in Japanese style food, be it noodle dishes, noodle soup, sushi rolls or rice.  Both restaurants seem to be targeting to families, but Teri Cafe does not offer the traditional American kid foods of chicken tenders, pizza, mac n'cheese, quesadilla etc.

From the overall looks and tones of the websites, Chili's looks like a much busier and noisy restaurant.  The Teri Cafe's website is so dark and subdued that it seems to imply that the restaurant is dark, quiet and more intimate.

I believe there could be a cross-over in the two types of customers.  For example, I would be interested in going to either of these restaurants.  It would just depend on what I was looking to eat that day, what type of atmosphere I wanted, and who was going with me.  If I was going to dinner with my family and we wanted to have a nice enjoyable time together, we would probably choose Teri Cafe.  In this instance, we would be looking to have some noodles or sushi rolls.  These are both foods that we find comforting.  On the other hand, if my son's soccer team was looking to go to dinner after the tournament game, we would choose Chili's.  Chili's can seat large groups and the variety of the menu would serve the large group.

Thank you Nespresso!

I just reviewed their website in Blog post 4, and I don't know if this is a coincidence or not, but I received two sleeves of coffee pods in a personalized  box yesterday...

Thank you Nespresso!

Week 4 Post 2: Websites I Frequent

It's such a beautiful day today!!  We are starting to dry off after the storms this weekend.  So happy to be back on the trails...

The view walking the neighborhood trails

The first website I have been using very frequently lately is:

www.ebay.com

I have been helping a friend sell her horse training equipment so I have been visiting the site daily.

1.  They are effective because their site is so easy to navigate and also because they have created a culture of fair dealing.  By implementing a review system in which both the buyer and the seller get to "rate" each other, they have fostered a place where it is safe to buy and sell almost anything.

2.  Their website is designed to be easy to use.  There is a great deal of information on the site, but it is well-organized, and somehow manages to avoid looking too busy.  They have navigation menus at the top of the screen.  When you are shopping for items, there are tabs on the left side of the screen to help you narrow down your search.

3.  What makes me come back is that it is very easy to go through the sales process, and just as easy on the buying side.  Their "help and contact" link works really well.  I have used this link several times.  What I like best is that if their pre-printed language doesn't help, I can get help from the Ebay community.  I can also click on a link to have one of their customer service agents call me.  I have used this service 3 times.  Each time, the agent called me within 2 minutes!  They were able to help me to my satisfaction each time.

4.  I'm not sure what I would like them to improve.  The great thing about EBay is that they are constantly changing and improving their service!  I have been using it since about 2009, and a great deal has changed.  I do not see any social media widgets on the site.  I had to google to find Ebay's facebook page.  The page has over 9 M likes.  The posts are frequent and most posts have likes and replies.


The next website I use frequently is:

www.nespresso.com

I use this website to order coffee for our Nespresso machine.  

1.  The site is effective because it clearly establishes Nespresso's brand.  From the look of their site, I infer that Nespresso's products are very high quality and the coffee will bring more "luxury" to my life.  I compared the site to Miele's site and Keurig's site (two other espresso makers).  Neither of those brands conveyed as much "luxury" on their websites.  In fact, Miele, which sells very high end espresso makers, has a site that looks very similar to Home Depot's site (functional certainly, but not necessarily super high end).

2.  This website is designed much like the Apple website.  Like Apple, the background and text colors are black and white.  This color scheme makes their products look so beautiful.  The coffee is sold in jewel-tone pods and they look amazing against the background.  The website conveys a feeling of luxury.  The site is really busy, yet it manages to look very clean.

3.  What keeps me coming back is that I love their coffee.  I also like visiting their website.  The ordering process is very simple, and I like to click on the different color coffee pods.

4.  Nespresso includes their social media widgets on the website.  They placed them at the bottom of the home page.  I have noticed that many websites do this, and I'm not sure why.  It seems to me that they should be at the top of the page.

I commented on the following blogs: Gina Schwendel, Priscila Jourdan, Jordyn Getz and Charles Coogan.

Week 4, Post One

My blog post is later than I would have liked.  My son is on vacation from school this week, and we have been working on a building project...

Nick the Builder

So here goes the assignment:

1+2. Choose 2 websites and identify at least three potential problems for visitors. What could be improved and how would it help?

The first website I chose was the Stone Brewing website.  When I landed on the homepage, I was overwhelmed.  There were too many busy images for me to process.  I didn't find the navigation tools I was looking for such as:  Home, About Us, Contact, Visit Us, Shop etc.   The social media links were not on the landing page.

Since I am not familiar with this brewing company, I was expecting some kind of short introduction on the landing page.  I would have liked to see a few sentences saying who they are what kind of beer they brew.  Perhaps if the Logo was slightly smaller they could have included this information under it.  Alternatively, they could make the logo smaller and put it in the upper left hand corner.  This move would give them more room for a short introduction.  The landing page would look much cleaner if there were not images under the text tabs on the right hand margin!  The background image underneath the logo sets a GREAT atmosphere, why not just have textual tabs on the right margin.  Save the images for later pages.  The white text looks great on the background image, keep it simple.

When I clicked on the top right hand tab, I was taken to an image of the Escondido location.  On this page I found some familiar navigation tabs in the upper right hand corner.  Clicking on any of these tabs released a barrage of information, again, too much for me to process!  The Escondido page also had a down arrow tab, which again led me to too much information (three pages of it).  I had a hard time finding a "home" tab when I wanted it.

For me, this site was hard to navigate, and I felt like it was lacking an introduction.  The information was too jumbled.  They need better organization and decreased complexity.

The next website I chose was Headhunter Hairstyling.  When I landed on the homepage, I found it easy to navigate.  The tabs such as Home, About Us, Services, etc. were right there for me to find.  They probably should have put the social media links at the top of the page, rather than making me scroll down to find them.  I also would have like to know their city and state location right away on the landing page.

I didn't like the flashing pictures on the landing page.  Maybe they should save some of the images for other pages or for their FB page.  Maybe the problem is the timing.  I think they flashed through the pictures too quickly.  I liked the images themselves.  They conveyed luxury and pampering, perfect for a salon.

When I clicked between the Home, About Us, Services etc., I noticed that the pages were not consistent.  What I mean is, there was not a unified design theme that tied the pages together.  It looks like they used the same sans-serif font, but that was about all that was similar on the pages.  The colors weren't similar.  The page layouts were different.  I think this detracted from the "look" of the website.  I do not a clear sense of their brand.

3.  Choose 2 websites and identify what they have done right.

First, I chose the Apple website.  The color scheme of the landing page is black and white.  This color scheme really complements their products, and gives the page a very clean look.  This site uses scrolling pictures on the landing page, but for some reason, they aren't as distracting as the scrolling pictures on the Headhunter site.  I think it's the timing and the similarity of the pictures.

The landing page clearly establishes their brand.  This branding is consistent through all the pages.

The navigation tabs are along the top of the screen are very simple.  When I clicked on any of the tabs, I got just a little bit of information.  This sent me clicking for more information, instead of being overwhelmed with too much information.

Does Apple use social media?!  I couldn't find the links.

Next, I looked at the Toyota website.  The predominant color scheme is black, white and red.  It looks very simple and clean.   The site gives a clear product branding.  This website has a LOT of information, but it is well-organized.  Like the Apple website, there are navigation choices at the bottom of the pages as well as the top.  I can find what I need quickly and easily.


4.  How does design, aesthetics and branding impact your reaction to the websites?

Websites are a visual media.  When information is presented in a way that our eyes and brain can make sense of it we feel comfortable and we will spend longer looking at it.  The Apple and Toyota websites are both well-designed, as one would expect of these large, successful companies.  The images convey their brand and stimulate the consumer to want to purchase their products.

When a website design is not well-designed, it turns the consumer off.  The consumer feels confused and unless they are very motivated to stay on the page, they will click away.

Week 3 Second Post: Social Media In San Diego North County Real Estate

I chose to research real estate agents in North County San Diego.

1.  The Lawhead Team:  A husband and wife sales team

2. www.marilynlawhead.com

3. The website has links to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Linkedin.  They also have a blog on their website.  There is a link to sign up for email newsletters.

4+5. Blog: same actual posts as FB and Twitter, last post Feb.11
        Facebook: 300 followers.  The last post was Feb. 11, 2017.  They post frequently with personal    pictures, information about football, real estate articles.
        Twitter: they have 214 followers.  The posts are identical to the Facebook posts.  They post every few days.
        Linkedin: 500 connections.
        Youtube: they have a handful of videos.  Some are more personal such as fishing in Mexico, a sunset from vacation in Mexico.  Then there are a few videos of their home listings.

6. This team is on several social media sites, but the posts are the same.  I'm not sure why they don't do more videos of their home listings.  It might be because they sell so quickly!   Their Zillow profile has reviews.


1.  Laura Barry Luxury Estates

2. www.laurabarryluxuryestates.com

3. The website has a blog link, but no links to social media.  However, I found her on Facebook (300 followers), Youtube, Linkedin and Instagram, and Pinterest.  There is a link to sign up for email newsletters.

4+5.  Blog: last post was in May 2016.
         Facebook: last post was Sept. 2016.  She used to post her open house announcements, listings and awards received.
        Youtube: she posts videos of her listings through a channel called "California Rich", but does not have her own channel.
       Instagram: 280 followers, she posts pictures of her listings.
      Pinterest: she posts pictures of her listings, and pictures of beautiful interiors and properties
She appears to have been much more active on social media in the 2013-2015 timeframe.

6.  She seems most active on Youtube, her current listings all have videos.  It is strange that one has to go searching for her social media posts.  They are not linked to her web page.

1. Team Manion (Heather and Holly Manion)

2. www.teammanion.com

3.The website has a blog link.  The website also has links to Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube and Google+.  There is a link to sign up for email newsletters.

4+5.  Blog: last post was in January of 2016.
     Facebook:  The latest post was Feb. 11, and they appear to post every few days.
     Youtube:  They only have one video on their link, and it is from 2014.  They post their videos on Vimeo, but do not link them to their website.
    Twitter: Last post was in July 2016 and they have 696 followers.
    Google+: they had several posts from 2012-2016, but they haven't posted in about 8 months.

6. They seem to be the most active on Facebook.  They post their listings and open house announcements.  They also post about the real estate market in general and home tips.  Videos of their listings are on Vimeo, but there is no link from their website.

1. Janet Lawless Christ

2. www.ranchosantafe92067.com

3. The website has a blog link and links to Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Linkedin, and Google+.  There is a link to sign up for email newsletters.

4+5.  Blog: latest post Feb. 11, 2017.  Posts are about the local art scene, golf, local restaurants and some political posts.
         Facebook: last post Feb. 11, 2017.  600+ followers.  Posts about local real estate trends, open houses, restaurants, golf events, local businesses.
         Youtube: She posts videos of her listings, local news, local events
         Instagram: 4 followers, posts the same pictures as on her FB page and blog
         Linkedin: has a profile
         Google+: hasn't posted for 6 months, local interest topics

6.  She seems to be most active on Facebook and her blog.  She has videos of her listings posted on Vimeo, but there is no link from her website.

1. The Harwood Group

2. www.theharwoodgrp.com

3. The website has links to Facebook, Youtube and Twitter

4+5. There is no blog.
        Facebook:  They have 139 followers, the last post was in March 2016.  They posted their listings and open houses.
        Youtube: They post their listings
        Twitter: They have 283 followers, the last tweet was in March of 2016.
        Vimeo:  they post their listing videos on Vimeo, but there is no link from their website.

6.  This group has minimal social media presence.  The posts they do are strictly business related pictures and videos of their listings.

The real estate groups that I researched are all large, established real estate sales groups who have been doing business for 20+ years.  On my own, as a comparison, I should look at the social media usage of newer groups.  I was not that impressed with any of the groups social media presence.  When I thought about it though, a house is something that you do not buy that often.  You might be very interested in the housing market when you are looking for a house, but when the purchase is over, you settle back into daily life.  Real estate is not like buying clothing or even art.  Real estate is usually a large purchase made, at the most, every few years.   Maybe real estate doesn't lend itself well to social media.  Perhaps for real estate, the most effective use of social media has not been discovered yet.

In these five businesses, it appears that Facebook is the predominant social media site, although two of the businesses have not posted in 6 months or so.  The businesses had between 100-600 followers.  On any given post, it was very rare to see a comment.  The "likes" on any given post were 5 or less.  The posts that obtained likes and comments were those posts that were more personal in nature.  There must be some way to get followers more involved!  Even the Lawhead group who was disciplined about posting information relevant to home owners such as home maintenance, tax information and market information did not get comments or likes on these posts.

Youtube and Vimeo were popular sites for these real estate groups.  The content was typically a video of the home for sale, although some of the videos were more personal in nature.  The views on the videos ranged from single digits to over 1000 views for certain properties.  Logically, the more affordable properties had more views than the larger, multi-million dollar properties.  Short videos are a great way to advertise real estate.

Although not necessarily considered social media, the real estate websites such as Zillow.com, Realtor.com and Trulia.com had profiles and client reviews of each of the real estate agents in the above groups.  The profiles on these real estate websites have address, phone number, website link and social media links for the agents.  The agent's current listings were also listed on these sites.  These sites come up immediately when a property address is googled.  They have very high SEO.

Most of the real estate groups had Linkedin profiles which establishes the "business" aspect of the position.  A few groups had links to Instagram and Pinterest.  These sites were used to share pictures of the listings and did not seem to be very well-followed.  Some groups had a Twitter account.  Oftentimes, the same posts on FB were also placed on Twitter.

I am interested to read how the other businesses (researched by my classmates) are using social media.  The social media outlets for these high producing real estate groups seemed pretty quiet.  The agents might be putting out content, but the communication seems to be largely one-way.  From the dates of the posts, it looks like the real estate groups tried social media for a few years (2013-2016), but have now given up.  As I reflect on this, maybe I can think of a more creative way to engage the customer.

This week I commented on the following blogs:  Gina Schwendel, Priscila Jourdan and Nicole Blea.

Week 3 Part One: Just stop talking SiriusXM

I've been putting off writing this blog post because I couldn't remember a recent time that I had difficulty communicating with a business.  I had no idea what I was going to write about, but luckily for me, this situation just fell into my lap today.

In December, my husband and I bought a new car.  It came with a free trial of SiriusXM radio.  If you aren't familiar with this service, it is a monthly subscription service that provides many music channels with very specific playlists.  To name a very few examples, they have a station that just plays '70's disco music, one that plays just Elvis' music or one that plays just classical.  They have a station for just about every musical whim, plus they have many "talk radio" stations.  The best part is that there are no commercial interruptions.  The company's goal is that after the free trial, the customer will purchase the monthly subscription.  There is no question that is a great product.

My issue is that the trial is almost over and I have been receiving calls from SiriusXM.  The caller says hello, and then rapidly launches into reading a script.  It is a long script with no pauses for my feedback or questions that I might have.  The first two times they called, I tried to be polite.  I listened.  The script went on and on.  The more they talked, the more I thought that I did not want to have anything to do with this company.   Finally, I just had to say "I'm not interested, thank you".  This morning when they called, I just hung up immediately.

I do not like hanging up on someone, and it got me thinking about how the caller could be more effective. I think if they just called and tried to actually have a genuine conversation with the client they might get more conversions.  Asking the client which station they liked the best, and listening to the client might be more effective than the script.  The reading assignment this week talked about the importance of listening to customers.  I think the marketing department at SiriusXM could benefit from reading that chapter.

I posted on Facebook about the ineffectiveness of these scripted calls.  If anything comes of it, I will add it to my blog.

So far I have commented on the blogs of Michael Phillips, Davina Croft and Terence Williams.  I really enjoyed learning their perspectives on personal vs. business social media.  Its great to hear that some are already using social media to promote business.  I'm looking forward to learning more from the others in my group.

Week 2, Post 1: Overview of Social Media

The evolution (or revolution) of social media seems to be blurring the line between business and personal communications.   The use of social media sites is constantly changing as people find creative methods to get their message to other social media users.  Certain sites may have initially been used for personal communications, but over time have changed to accommodate business uses as well.

Certain social media platforms seem to be more geared toward personal use.  I perceive that social media sites such as Snapchat and Instagram are more personal in nature.  I do not have much experience with these sites, but from what I understand they are used primarily for personal communication.  My teenage son uses these sites with his friends.

Facebook and Youtube certainly began as personal use sites, but over the years have become very important for business as well.  On Youtube, specific personal sites have become businesses themselves gaining many followers and advertising dollars.  Many retailers use Youtube as a way to provide the consumer with product demonstrations.  They also pay non-company youtube users to make short recordings about their products.  In my field, I know that real estate agents advertise videos of their listings on Youtube.    Facebook began as a personal site, but now most every business has a Facebook page.  Twitter is another site that blurs the line between business and personal use.  I  initially heard of Twitter being used for celebrities to communicate to their fans.  It was referred to in joking way that posting on Twitter was called "Tweeting".  This joking implied that the site wasn't to be taken seriously.  Nowadays, it is somewhat more of a serious, business-like site as evidenced by the fact that both the current and the former Presidents of the United States have used it to communicate with the people.

LinkenIn seems to be a social media site that remains almost exclusively business oriented.  I have an account, but I have never used it.  I believe it is exclusively for business contacts.  Google+ might also be more business oriented.  I have an account on the site because I was invited by a real estate agent, but I haven't used the site.