Final Project- Situation or SWOT Analysis

Final Project- Situation or SWOT Analysis

Since the Sweet Nightmares is a new brand. And it will be hard to put it up in line shops when we start. In another words, we will be focusing on online first. It will be mainly an online business at a start.

SWOT analysis (Sweet Nightmares and Online business):

Strengths: Sweet, Cheap, Global reach of business, Purchase price will be less than off line shops, Low cost to maintain the website, Easy to keep in touch with customers by emails, sms, and etc. in order to build a great relationships

Weaknesses: Causes health problems (come on, it is chocolate…), Difficult to manufacture (because our product is a box of chocolates which they all look the same, to reach that goal, we will place order on manufacturers to fit our need), Lack of shop brand recognition (Do you order chocolates from eBay?), Take time to build trusts with customers

Opportunities: target on 16 to 45 age group of customers or the “Generation Y as the "Net Generation," internet users in their twenties do not dominate every aspect of online life. Generation X is the most likely group to bank, shop and look for health information online.” (Sydney Jones, March 12, 2012, http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1093/generations-online), Use SEO to reduce advertising costs

Threats: “Threats are unfavorable external factors or trends that may present challenges to performance” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, print page 55), let put it into simple words: there are other many online websites, which sell chocolates.

Those above conclude all the SWOT analysis. We will be going online since it is cheaper to maintain so we can offer cheaper prices on the chocolates. But we have to do special orders to the chocolate manufacturers (but it is our selling point!). Sweet Nightmares will focus on the Gen Y, the net generation. However, we are not the first one to come up with that idea but we will be the best one!

Final Project- Objectives

Final Project- Objectives

“The company needs to turn its mission into detailed supporting objectives for each level of management” (ARMSTRONG, KOTLER, Marketing An Introduction, chapter 2, page 7.). Even though now we have our mission statement: We bring happiness to everyone in the world by giving sweet surprises, but how do we accomplish our goal?

First objective: Bring it out to the world.

There is only one way and simple way to do so: open online store. The business will focus on online sell. Online means lower prices for customers. Online means lower cost to maintain. We can build great customer relationships by online chat, sms, emails, and etc. The strategy which will be using is the Pull Strategy. It is “a promotion strategy that calls for spending a lot on advertising and consumer promotion to induce final consumers to buy the product, creating a demand vacuum that “pulls” the product through the channel” (ARMSTRONG, KOTLER, Marketing An Introduction, chapter 12, page 16). Instead of line shop, the money will mostly use on advertising.

Second objective: Giving sweet surprises.

Let just sum up the product in one sentence: Sweet Nightmares is a box of chocolates which has ten same looking but different tastes chocolates. In order to reach that goal, we will place special order on manufacturers to fit our needs. We will keep our costs low and our qualities high to offer the best online chocolates shopping experience.

Final Project- Business Mission Statement

Business Mission Statement: We bring happiness to everyone in the world by giving sweet surprises.

“Mission statements should be market oriented and defined in terms of satisfying basic customer needs. Products and technologies eventually become outdated, but basic market needs may last forever.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, print page 40) Yes, my product is just chocolate. However, chocolate always brings happiness into peoples’ lives. My product is not just a chocolate or a kind of chocolate; it is a box of chocolates. What is so special about that box of chocolate? One good reason is that: it will give surprises! In a box of ten chocolates, each of them has a different taste and they all look the same. It might be dark chocolate or it might be pepper chocolate! You will never know until you taste it. “Mission statements should be meaningful and specific yet motivating.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, print page 40) It is meaningful because it wants to bring happiness to everyone. It is specific because it states that it will do it by giving sweet surprises…or chocolates. And it is motivating! Who doesn’t want happiness?

When you buy our chocolates, you buy happiness and surprises.

Week 8 EOC: Creative Content

Chi Huynh

http://chicreator.com/bus121/ 

Website (primary) or Poster

Webpage- will make about one single web page to promote the product

Home Page (index)-

1.)  Logo: create and design the logo

2.)  countdown slider: fake product launch day

3.)  Tag lines: Surprises/ Sweet Nightmares/ Love and Hate/ Haven and Hell; The Taste of Surprises(in logo)

4.)  Product photos/images- small thumbnails to show product and box designs 

Contact Us/ FAQs Page-

1.)  Fake contact form

2.)  FAQs section- what is Sweet Nightmares? What should I buy it? Would that be a great gift?

3.)  Phone number and online chat- have questions? Ask them now

Style of the site: dark, pink, clean

The overall mission of the website or the creative content is to promote the product as a specialty product. “Specialty products are consumer products and services with unique characteristics or brand identification for which a significant group of buyers is willing to make a special purchase effort.” (Marketing An Introduction, Armstrong/Kotler, print page 211.) What you are buying is not a box of chocolates, it is fun and surprise.

 

Estimated work hours- *with stock images + without the distraction of Facebook

Hand coded: 4~5 + hours 

Week 7 EOC: The Taste of Surprises

Week 7 EOC: The Taste of Surprises

Surprises/ Sweet Nightmares/ Love and Hate/ Haven and Hell

“Do you know how do I feel about you?”

“Taste me.”

Inside of a box of ten chocolates, each of them looks the same but has different tastes. It may have dark chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, orange chocolate, pepper chocolate, and so much more. The combination is completely random. And you will never know which one you will get.

Do you have someone that you hate and love at the same time? If you have kids, you might understand. Well, parents are top on the list too. So you want to give them something that is so special and full of surprises. And the Sweet Nightmares is for you.

It is not just a chocolate. It is a box of chocolates. Each of them looks exactly the same. However, here is the fun part: they all have different tastes. No two of them will taste the same. And if you think they are all sweet and full of love, then you are wrong.

The Sweet Nightmares offers you the experience that no other box of chocolates can give you. It gives you love, hate, sweet, bitter, and so much more. And it is the perfect gift for every situation. Of course, it tastes so much better when you share it. You can tell what kind of chocolates from the faces of your friends, family, and love ones.

Sweet Nightmares has the element of surprise that no other can provide. Love life, love surprise, love Sweet Nightmares.

Week 6 EOC: ME X 3

Week 6 EOC: ME X 3

1.)  Ipage (web hosting service)

I use this product to host most of my websites. I also use to test new thing i.e. testing out PHP pages, new HTML5 and CSS3 pages, and some javascript files. As a web designer, I have to have a hosting service. Beside, I use it sometime as my dropbox or the cloud server to store my files.

2.)  Patriot Xporter XT Boost 8GB Flash Drive/ CORSAIR Flash Voyager 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive/ dropbox

Well, you just cannot trust the internet all the time. That is why I always have a usb flash drive with me on the time. I use it to save my project, school works, and etc. Dropbox is good because everything is in the cloud; however, sometime, the cloud goes down or there is no internet (that happened a few times before).

3.)  The Web Designer's Idea Book: The Ultimate Guide To Themes, Trends & Styles In Website Design (Web Designer's Idea Book: The Latest Themes, Trends & Styles in Website Design)

It is where most of my ideas and inspirations come from. It is a book all about web design. It has all the best-designed web sites. It gives inspiration by color, design style, type, theme, and layout… so much more! If you are a web designer, you have to get this book.

Week 5 EOC: Social Networks and Job Hunting

What is the perfect job candidate? I mean beside you want to know what skills they have or what college they go to, don’t you want to know what kind of person they are? Maybe you are saying that is why interview is for but social networks can surely get a better understanding of that person. One best way to know a person is to know their friends. I did not mean to you have to stalk that person. Just go on to their Facebook site and see their photos and comments. “Some workplace studies suggest that almost 40% of employers have used Facebook and other social networking sites to gather information on job candidates. In cases where they have found negative information, more than 80% of employers consider it when making hiring decisions.” (HR Library, http://www.gneil.com/library/Using-Facebook-for-Hiring) Wow, 40% is a high number. But is it legal to do that?

Issues we are facing more than that, which including invasion of privacy, false information, and etc. For the employers, they will want to know what kind of person you are either on duty or off duty. What is the lesson learned here? Do not post your photos that you don’t want your employers and your mom to see on your Facebook.

More facts: About 45% of the companies are screening social sites for potential hires. While only 18% of the employers found that positive, but 35% found that negative.

Source of the facts: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/04/new-infographic-shows-how-companies-target-unemployed_n_918816.html