bears. beets. battlestar gallactica.

I don’t watch a lot of TV for the most part. I usually try to catch “The Hills” on MTV on Monday nights (quality reality television right there) and “The Office” on Thursday nights. I got into The Office in the beginning of this past summer, after I borrowed seasons one and two from a friend and finished them in one and a half days. Needless to say, I was hooked and couldn’t wait for season 4 to begin. (I watched season 3 online through various websites since the DVDs weren’t out yet.) Anyways, the show is absolutely hilarious. It’s very smart and well written, and a few of my friends who are already out in the working world say that it’s very relatable.

The show is about this mid-sized paper distribution company, Dunder Mifflin. The manager of the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch, Michael Scott, is kind of dumb in a funny way and ignorant about many issues. What makes him so great though is how much he cares about the people in his office and his customers. Because Dunder Mifflin is a smaller company, its prices on paper are considerably higher than those of its competitors such as Staples. Michael tries to sell his company on customer experience and customer service, two areas that are harder for the bigger companies to implement on a personal level. In a recent episode, Michael decided to personally deliver gift baskets to all their customers who recently left Dunder Mifflin for a bigger company in order to try to win them back. Also in this episode, a website for the company was about to be launched, which Michael opposed because he – not realizing that people preferred the convenience and speed of ordering online – thought that the website took away from Dunder Mifflin’s approachability and made the company less personal.

Throughout the episode, Michael went to the heads of the companies who left Dunder Mifflin and gave them each a gift basket telling them that there were no hard feelings, but to remember the personal experiences they had with Dunder Mifflin. He was met with pretty much the same response from each executive, which was mostly just a weird look and awkward thank you as they all told him their company would most likely not go back to Dunder Mifflin. This episode, while hilarious, made me kind of sad.

These days, business is being geared more towards customers, doing whatever they need, and making the experience as personal as possible. Everything is done to make the customer experience better. That’s why it’s sad watching Michael Scott trying to connect with all of this clients and then getting rejected time and time again. He is trying to be more personal but at the end of the day, his job is to sell paper. It might not be as important for him to be so friendly with all of his clients, though it is honorable, as much as it is for him to offer the lowest price possible.

Of course, the show doesn’t get too serious, and it’s hard to really feel bad for Michael because he gets so frustrated that none of his clients are returning that he pitches a fit at the last company he goes to and yells for them to return his gift basket and refuses to move from their couch until they do so.

Bottom line is this show is great, and at the same time I’ve learned a few things about business in a sort of off-hand, weird way.


Also, the title of this entry probably makes absolutely no sense unless you watch the office... I actually have no personal interest in bears, beets or battlestar gallactica.

Zappos!

I have never really been a fan of online shopping. Don’t get me wrong, I love browsing and can spend literally hours on end looking at website after website of clothes, shoes, electronics and whatever else it is that is available to purchase online, but I’ve rarely actually purchased something off the Internet. I always wonder about the quality of the product or – especially if it’s clothing or shoes – what it looks like on or how it will fit. Then of course there’s the issue of giving credit card information and all that good stuff, but for some (irrational) reason that bothers me less than the thought that I could receive clothing that doesn’t fit right or isn’t how it looked in the pictures online.

Very few websites give me any incentive to purchase anything off of them and usually I’ll just look up what I want online and then go to the actual store to try it on and then buy it. That is, until I found zappos.com. Zappos.com sells hundreds of brands of clothes and shoes. The website shows a detailed, clear picture of each product as well as product details. For example for shoes it will show the shoe in every color it comes in, along with how tall they are, what they are made of and how much they weigh. The best part of it is that Zappos offers free overnight shipping. It’s absolutely amazing. And if the product is not what you expected, you can ship it back for free too. I think the fact that the consumer can get what she wants right away for no extra charge is what made me fall in love with Zappos. The company really made me trust it just because I knew that I could get what I wanted right away and I if didn’t like it, I could return it just as quickly. I felt like it was safe to shop online with them. The experience was great. I just ordered a pair of shoes, my first purchase from the website, and they came in today. The fact that the shoes came on time, looked exactly like the picture and fit perfectly just cemented my good opinion of Zappos.

Not only does Zappos do a great job with customer experience, but it also knows how target their market segment. The website has bright colors to draw the consumer’s attention to new products or popular items. The navigation buttons on the top are big and easy to see, the search box is right next to them and everything on site is written in big, easy to read font. For women who like to shop online and may not be good with computers, this site is great and very easy to use. Just in case a consumer does get confused, Zappos offers a 24/7 customer service number for anyone who might need help with the site or has questions about a product. It also has a “price protection” policy where Zappos will give a 110% refund to any consumer who bought a product off of Zappos but found the same item at a different store for a cheaper price. It doesn’t get much better than that. The website knows exactly what women want when it comes to online shopping: easy browsing, convenience, fast shipping and a sense of confidence in the company. I really believe anyone who has purchased a product from Zappos will not hesitate in returning to the website in the future and buying from it again. The experience at Zappos was, for me at least, different from any previous online shopping incident I’ve ever experienced. Not only have I told my friends about this wonderful website (I was also referred to this website by a friend) but I will have no problems buying from it again.

speedo vs. nike swim

I’ve been swimming competitively since I was about eight years old. Growing up with the sport, I’ve seen it evolve from world records breaking to changes in swimsuit design. The brand most commonly thought of with competitive swimwear is Speedo, and I’ve worn my fair share of Speedo suits. Nike, however, has entered the competitive swimwear market and is establishing itself as a serious contender to chip away at Speedo’s share of the market. What I’m really interested in researching is how Nike’s marketing and customer service is different from Speedo’s and what Speedo is going to do (if anything) about Nike’s competition.

As an athlete on the University of Texas Women’s Swimming & Diving Team I have been sponsored by both Speedo and Nike. My freshman and sophomore years the team was sponsored by Speedo. Then we had a coaching change, and our new head coach decided to switch our team to Nike. When it comes to athletic apparel, it’s obvious that Nike does a pretty good job. Our warm ups, shoes and workout clothing are all made for serious athletes, not to mention they are very cute (apparently something girls are concerned with even when working out). When it comes to fast swimming, however, the company has its work cut out for them. Speedo has been doing the research and developing the cutting edge, faster swimsuits that reduce drag for years and years. Nike though has responded quickly coming out with a new suit this year to compete with Speedo’s fastest suit yet, the FSPro.

What’s interesting to me is how these two companies deal with their customers. Both sponsor Olympic athletes, specifically swimmers. Two athletes on the Men’s Swim Team, Aaron Peirsol and Brendan Hansen, are sponsored by Nike. Both are world record holders and Olympic gold medalists. Three swimmers at Texas are sponsored by Speedo: Ian Crocker, Neil Walker and Kirsty Coventry. All three are Olympic gold medalists, Ian and Neil are world record holders and Kirsty is one tenth of a second off of being the best 200 backstroker in history. Obviously these are big time athletes these two companies are sponsoring, not to mention they are also sponsoring the swim team in general (women’s team is Nike, men’s is Speedo).

Speedo, however, doesn’t seem to care much about its consumers. Kirsty hasn’t been paid since 2005. Since then she’s won multiple World Championships and come close to breaking the world record in 3 different events. That doesn’t seem like the way to treat a top client. The company was just as unresponsive with the women’s swim team, which is why we switched to Nike. The only reason the men are still with Speedo is because Eddie Reese (one of the best swim coaches in the world) doesn’t care enough about sponsorships to switch over, but he hasn’t been treated any better. The thing in the swimming world is it’s not very big. Everyone knows everyone, so if Speedo is not treating the best swimmers in the world and one of the top universities in the country (a huge part of its target market) well, how does it expect to keep its business going? Especially with a successful, established company like Nike out to get them?

The article I found talks about Speedo’s marketing strategy, which seems to be based mostly off of reputation. The company gets high profile Olympic athletes to do technique clinics and give motivational speeches as well as talk about how innovative the Speedo suits are. It depends heavily on using well-known athletes to promote its suits. It also says the company is trying to expand its market by developing beach-sports related products.

The only concern I have with this topic is that there might not be much information available when it comes to Speedo’s and Nike Swim’s marketing campaigns. Speedo isn’t a widely talked about company and Nike Swim is definitely not Nike’s most prominent division. It is a very interesting topic to me though so I hope to find enough about both companies to make this my report.

article citation:

Conti, Samantha. "SPEEDO'S MARKETING STRATEGY: FROM BOTTOM TO TOP." WWD (July 18, 2003): 14B. General OneFile. Gale. 3 Oct. 2007 .