Shortage of Supply for L.L.Bean Boots

As I am wrapping up my Introduction to Macroeconomics course, I am glad to see that I have actually learned something , let alone be useful for the real world. I am sure every person in this blog either own a pair of the boots or have already seen more than half of the campus wearing them. They are great for the cold, wet, and snowy weather that we have and will continue to experience. They are ideal for the New England weather.

Well, apparently the company has experienced a shortage of supply of the boots after Black Friday. The demand for the boots are so high that people who have ordered them online may have to wait till February to receive their package. This was a really surprising fact for me. Why do people feel that they specifically need L.L.Bean boots for the winter? I mean I have lived in Boston for ten years and I had never heard or seen anyone wear the brand before I came to Smith. While on campus it seems like the brand is part of Smith's culture.

Christmas Advertisement

It is coming soon. Christmas the celebration of love, peace and joy. Or at least that´s what it is supposed to be. This holiday has become the most consumeristic moment of the year; the marketing for this event even starts earlier every year. Everybody prepares gifts for the loved ones and most of the times those gifts are bought in stores. one could for sure say that stores are the busiest during this time of the year. 

Why am I talking about that? Well when I started thinking about what to write about this week I decided to check out christmas commercials. And I found a lot of them! From funny to classic to romantic. The ones which are triggering my mother instincts are probably the most successful. I chose to share one campaign with you, which seems to be the highlight of Great Britain's christmas advertisement. 

John Lewis, a department store with many branches around Great Britain, produces a very compelling and emotional advertisement for the season of giving and caring. They all are made in a very similar way. The background music is enhancing the emotions triggered by the beautiful pictures. Most of the times children are involved and some kind of gift giving. The commercials are very long (around 2 min) and they all do not have any speaking. Only in the end of the commercial the viewer sees the message they want to communicate with there possible costumers. This year it is "Give someone the christmas they´ve been dreaming of". 

In my opinion these commercials are very well made and they work just fine, at least with the female population watching. The company deliberately sells emotions to gain a positive connection of their brand in the consumers mind. I read a couple of the youtube comments below the video and they all seem to be waiting for the commercial every year. This video is not only a advertisement campaign anymore, but it is also a tradition. And isn´t that the biggest success a commercial for a company can have? 

Just Fab - Just Hilarious

My friend has just sent me an advertisement video to cheer me up during Final Exams. Accidentally, this video comes from JustFab - a shoe fashion company I once wrote about. To be honest, JustFab never fails to make me laugh, even so hard that I can fall from the chair.

This advertisement is very silly. First of all, the spokeswoman gave me an impression of fake and cockiness. With an excuse of apology to mail carrier, she purposely shows off her/the company's pride in women's madness when receiving JustFab's packages. While this strategy aims to highlight JustFab's popularity, it actually turns out to annoy me a lot. A woman myself, I have to admit that the women in this advertisement are like animals to me. They are completely insane. No matter how excited and longing you are, I bet that as a human, you will definitely not jump and hit others like that. Those actions reminds me of those of predators when they catch their victims... Even when the advertisement aims to be funny, is not it too much to make fun of its own consumers? Do you want to buy anything from a brand that considers you as animals? NO! Any one, especially women, will feel offended by this advertisement, even if they laugh the first time they see it.

JustFab, I believe you want to sell your products to human beings, not animals. Since you treat your customers as animals, I think I will not ever be your customers. I want to remain my status as a human.

From E-Commerce to M-Commerce

We have talked a lot about how social media affects customer behaviors. Given the fact that people spend so much time browsing Facebook, Twitter, Instagram everyday, the marketers have made great effort to promote their products online. Whatever we have previously searched through search engines or viewed on online shopping website will definitely pop up again on any other webpage. Moreover, since it is shown that people spend a growing amount of time shopping with mobile devices in these years, mobile based advertising platforms/apps such as Atlas have been launched to keep up with this shopping trend.

Here is the latest feedback. During the thanksgiving, according to a data analysis released by IBM, mobile devices accounted for 32.3 percent of sales and 52.1 percent of traffic, which is a 22 percent of jump from last year. So people not only browse more on smartphones but also do shop more on mobile platforms. Moreover, the price of an average order recommended by Facebook reached $109.94, almost 10% higher than Pinterest's.

It’s obvious that M-commerce marketing strategies are dominating the retail sector.  I wonder how the further consumer trend will go

The Ugly Christmas Sweater Suit

Shinesty, a company founded to bring you the most outlandish collection of clothing the world has ever seen," has brought things to an entirely new level with a line of tacky Christmas suits. These suits are guaranteed to make a statement at your next holiday party. If you have a body and face equivalent to a male model you might just pull this suit off. If not? well a statement will be made regardless. 

The good news is that these suits have recently gone on sale. they were once $109, but can now be purchased for $99, so they are a steal! Purchase yours from the link below, and be the talk of the town this Christmas. 

http://shinesty.com/collections/ugly-holiday-sweaters-suits

Stupid Sexism

Sexism is an aspect of life that we must face everyday regardless of who we are; man or woman, and even boy or girl. According to the article be Elise Solé, a seven year old girl, Maggie, found a sign at Tesco advertising a Spiderman toy to solely boys. It read, a "Fun gift for boys", which was displeasing to young Maggie because she likes Spiderman just as much as any boy would. Calling the sign stupid and posing for a picture with a look of discontentment, Maggie made her point clear to the company who removed the sign and apologized for the inconvenience.

Maggie's right. The advertisement is stupid. We are at a day and age now where gender inequality needs to come to an end, for it segregates boys interests from girls interests. This teaches them from a young age that sharing the same interests is abnormal and unusual. I commend Maggie for her awareness and courage to speak up and make her point clear that this is wrong and needs to be changed. Shame on the companies for promoting such a negative outlook on gender inequality to young, impressionable children. It is our responsibility as future parents to instill a proper mindset in our children that gender equality is good and that there is nothing wrong with children of the opposite sex sharing common interests. So to the companies and advertisement agencies, again, shame on you for ingraining poor values in today's children.

Source: Girl Challenges Store to Remove Sexist Sign

Do We Really Need to Update our Closets Every Year?

When I happened upon Hans Eikelboom, a Dutch photographer, and his ongoing photo record of street style that began 20 years ago I had to share it with you all. While he is an interesting person to talk about because of the fun you can have in trying to pronounce his last name, he actually brings to light an interesting take on fashion and marketing through his recently released photo series. For the past 20 years he has acted as the stranger hidden among the crowd that has secretly taken photos of people he sees on the street in Amsterdam, NL. There is a certain uniformity shown in his photos of individuals of all ages and backgrounds wearing very similar outfits throughout the years. They range from men wearing blue jean jackets paired with blue jeans, women wearing jean mini skirts with leggings and a basic top, fur hood coats, to side strapped messenger bags on men. It's interesting that we tend to buy new clothes each year to follow current trends, yet these photos show that while certain pieces do come in and out of fashion each year, such as mom jeans, high top sneakers, and scrunchies, we are still buying the same or similar pieces that we would 20 years ago.