WEEK 7A: 7 BUSINESSES LIKED BY PROVECE DECOR

Businesses liked by Provence Decor:


My target market consists of Interior designers (or any other profession related to Home Decoration) and customers (mostly women - 35 and older) with good financial situation who have interest and means to redecorate their homes with high end European products. 

1- Crudo by Pascal Lorange (https://www.facebook.com/crudobypascallorange/)

2- Fabrison's French Creperie and Cafe (https://www.facebook.com/Fabrisons.Creperie/)

The other businesses are either Interior Design Companies, Interior Design Magazines and Interior Design Blogs.
3- Interior Design Ideas for Home Decor

https://www.facebook.com/InteriorDesign4/

4- Interior Design Magazine
https://www.facebook.com/InteriorDesignMagazine/

5- Diane Designs and Associates
https://www.facebook.com/dianedesignsassociates/

6- Hooked on Houses Blog
https://www.facebook.com/hookedonhousesblog/

7- Sherry Anne Interiors
https://www.facebook.com/Sherry-Anne-Interiors-296802036132/?ref=br_rs

Learning how to use other business Facebook Pages to promote your own is a great marketing strategy.
I believe all those companies I chose to "like", either have customers that might be interested in our products or the company itself might be interested in our products to offer their customers when they decorate their homes. Liking these companies will expose my business to their followers and by engaging on their posts as Provence Decor, I might get some connections as well. 

"Feature Likes" allows me to select the companies I want to show being connected to and also allows me to hide the ones I want to be connected for strategic reasons but don't want my competitors to know about. 

WEEK 6B: POST REACH & POST ENGAGEMENT

This is my first time creating a Business page and exploring Facebook.
I've had a personal page for a while but only to keep in touch with family and friends and I never though Facebook could become so complex and confusing when trying to use it professionally. With so many things to learn (different tools, definitions, performance graphics) it can get overwhelming but also exciting when you discover all the new possibilities available to improve your business.

For this assignment I have read some articles and blogs to understand the difference between Post Reach and Post Engagement, the importance of them and how this information can improve my business.

Post Reach: When you post something on your page, it will reach a certain amount of people and Post Reach will measure how many people have seen your post (how many people have received your post on their Newsfeed).

Post Engagement: When you post something on your page, it will reach a certain amount of people and some of those people will view, click, comment, like or share your post. Post engagement will measure how many people have taken some action on your post.

Knowing the difference is important because you might think that your posts are doing really well when it reaches a lot of people (when your "Reach" number is high) but actually nobody is interested in what you have been posting and they are not engaging (your "Engagement" number is low).
It is important to reach a great amount of people, but it is also important to see if potential customers are interested in what you have been posting because if not many people are engaging, you won't get much business.
If your "Reach" number is high and your "Engagement" number is low, you need to change your approach on your posts or your business won't succeed.

The Insight helps you understand how your page is doing according to what you have been posting by showing results on the "Action on Page", "Page Views", "Page Likes", "Reach" and "Post Engagements". For each post it will also show the amount of people it reached, how many post clicks, reactions, comments and shares it had. With this information you can observe and understand your potential customers likes and dislikes and take some important Marketing decisions to decide what you should focus on and what you should avoid to accomplish your goal and have a successful business.

WEEK 6A: FACEBOOK PAGE FOR PROVENCE DECOR

The URL for Provence Decor Facebook Page is:

https://www.facebook.com/provencedecorUSA/

WEEK 5B: PROVENCE DECOR

Provence Decor is specialized in selling French tablecloths, napkins, runners, dishtowels and unique gifts from all over Europe. With this business we are trying to offer the US market a whole variety of unique, high end and excellent quality European products that can't be easily found in most regular stores.

So far we have been selling directly to the public at Home/Garden Shows and to some wholesale accounts. Last year (as my E-Commerce final project), I created my website: www.provencedecor.com which I am still improving and trying to reach customers on the web.

After many years of selling this product direct to the public, I have learned that my target market consists of Interior designers (or any other profession related to Home Decoration) and customers (mostly women - 35 and older) with good financial situation who have interest and means to redecorate their homes with high end European products. These customers are normally very social, like to entertain, love to change their home decoration on each different season of the year. They are also well educated, most of them have been to Europe and appreciate the history and tradition of those products. Through all those years, I have learned how to look for the right events to sell in areas where my target market is and now I am looking forward to learning how to reach the same market through Social Media.

WEEK 5A: COMPANIES TARGET MARKET

For this assignment I chose Chili's and Teri Cafe. They are both really nice restaurants serving completely different kinds of foods. Chili's is a big chain with locations around the country and Teri's Cafe is a small restaurant with two locations in  Oceanside, San Diego.

Chili's is a Mexican Restaurant with an American touch (with the Burgers, Crispers, Ribs, etc). It tries to reach people of all ages, ethnicity and education. It has an affordable menu so young people and big families can go and enjoy.

Teri's Cafe is an Asian Restaurant with a mix of Teriyaki / Sushi Menu. It tries to reach people that like Asian Cuisine and of course, the Asian crowd. It also has an affordable menu so anyone can enjoy. For this kind of food I think age and ethnicity is restricted.

There is a big difference on their websites, Chili's has a very dynamic website with great videos, professional pictures and lots of contents about their company. It is very engaging and user friendly. Colors are simple and happy, offering great contrast. When you start browsing their MENU the pictures are so perfect that make you want to try everything on it. When you go to "OUR STORY" link, you connect with them through their stories and pictures. They have an awesome approach on their website where they show great value for family and community.

Teri's Cafe has a simple and direct website. It is a nice website and also user friendly but not so engaging as Chili's. It is very straight forward and they don't offer much content about themselves or their company making it hard to connect. They basically use few links to show what they offer and to get you directly to the information you are looking for.

In conclusion, Chili's and Teri's Cafe are very different restaurants with very different approaches. They both reach to people of all income but different age, personality and lifestyle. The food they offer are completely different and since Chili's is trying to reach customers all over the Country and Teri's Cafe is trying to attract local customers, their crossover would be minimum.

WEEK 4B: WEBSITES FREQUENTLY USED

The blogs I commented on:
Croft_Davina
Getz_Jordyn
Phillips_Michael

The websites I use the most are Amazon and Netflix:

www.amazon.com
Amazon is a website that has achieved every goal any website wants achieve.
Its design and marketing are amazing. It is simple, professional, user friendly, easy to navigate, easy to find what you are looking for and most of all “really easy to buy from” (now with just one click!).
They have an infinite amount of content that will keep any consumer interested and navigating for hours. You can basically find anything you are looking for.
The reviews help consumers make their choices and avoid getting bad products.
The fast and most of the time FREE Shipping makes the purchase very convenient. The marketing is awesome, it keeps track of everything you have viewed in the past and makes suggestions of what might interest you based on your searches.
Due to all of that combined, most likely Amazon will achieve their ultimate goal: a SALE! Users will end up buying something and coming back for more!
Amazon is a website I go to all the time. I find anything I want, I love having the reviews to check how good the products are, I trust their service and with the convenience of having a fast FREE shipping I end up buying from Amazon all the time.
I can’t really find anything I would improve on Amazon website.

www.netflix.com
Netflix was the first website to make every Movie and TV Shows Lover’s dream come true.
With just one click, in few seconds you can be watching your favorite movie or show.  
Besides streaming on your TV, now you can also download most of the movies/shows to your device and watch them any time (which is great specially on a flight).
Their website is beautifully designed with great professional pictures.
It is very simple to navigate and very easy to find what you are looking for.
They have a great marketing system of promoting New Releases, most watched movies and shows. It is great how they make suggestions based on what you have watched before and keep records of what you have already watched or where you left off on a movie/show.
Netflix is a website I’ve been using for a long time. Everything I could think about on how they could improve their website in the past, they have already done and it works great.
I can’t really find anything I would improve on Netflix website.

WEEK 4A: AESTHETIC, DESIGN AND BRANDING

The two websites I chose to identify the problems for visitors are:
Penny Juice and Spot Metering.

WWW.PENNYJUICE.COM

1) It is a very poorly designed website. I would be surprised if they get any sales from it. The Home Page doesn't explain at all what the Website is all about.
It should have more content explaining what they are trying to sell.
Improvement: They should put on their Home Page more information about the company and the product they are trying to sell. Offering more information would make consumers interested and willing to navigate further.

2) Very confusing. Too much going on at the same time.
The HTML version is already too much, when you click on the FLASH version you can barely stay on the page. Contrast may be a good thing to catch consumer's attention but they went way overboard with all the flashy colors, it hurts the eyes.
I also don't like the font they chose and how the text is so close together, there are no spaces between paragraphs.
When I look at their pages, I don't even feel like reading them.
Improvement: They should definitely reduce the amount of colors, use more elegant and subtle colors. Choose a better font and give more space between paragraphs to make it easier to read and less confusing.

3) There aren't many links, very hard to navigate.
Improvement: They should add links to the Home Page and all other pages so we can navigate better between them and find what we need.

WWW.SPOTMETERING.COM

1) It is also a very poorly designed website. It is not visually appealing at all.
It is very busy, with very poor choice of colors and fonts. The flash feature on top of the Home Page is totally unnecessary and disturbing. The links on top are also really unattractive.

The mixed bright colors fonts against the black background and the way they mix all kinds of different font types and sizes is really annoying. You don't feel like reading anything at all.
For photographers that normally have good eyes for pictures and colors they will probably get shocked and run away from that site in an instant.
Improvement: I would start designing that website from zero and choose everything different. I would start looking for a nicer Page Layout that is clear and professional. I would change the background, font colors and types and remove all those flash features.

2) The whole page is very confusing, not user friendly at all. In this website they used way too much content on the Home Page having to scroll down for a long time to find something. It's important to have content but also organize that  content in a way that doesn't get confusing for consumers so they don't get lost and frustrated.
Improvement: I would organize the content of this website in a more structured way so users can find the information they need in a easy and logical way.

3) The way this website was designed does not promote credibility. The branding is very weak and doesn't give users the trust they need to use that product. I don't think I would trust to buy a product from a site like that. When the website doesn't look appealing and professional you wonder if the business is serious and professional as well.
Improvement: After working on the aesthetics of the website I would concentrate on branding that product in a more professional and appealing way so consumers feel like they need to have that product.

The two websites I chose to identify what they have done right are:
Toyota and Apple

WWW.TOYOTA.COM
This company is a no brainer. They probably have the best team working on their website to make it have all the good qualities a website need to be successful.
Aesthetic and branding are awesome: great pictures, great colors. The contrast is just right to catch consumer's attention without being flashy. This website is very effective because it uses aesthetic and branding just right to appeal the target audience.
This website is definitely user friendly. Links are clear and the content is very organized.
Buying a car is a big decision and this website has all the qualities to show consumers that they are very professional and you can trust the company as well as their product.

WWW.APPLE.COM
Just like Toyota Apple also has a great team behind their website design to make it just right. Aesthetic is simple but very elegant, neutral colors and beautiful pictures to makes consumers want to have their product. This website also uses aesthetic and branding in the perfect way to attract its audience.
Website is user friendly, links are clear, content is well distributed within its links making it very easy to find what you are looking for.

Although Toyota keeps their Social Media very active through Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram, I couldn't find where Apple keeps up with Social Media. I found a Newsroom where they post News about their products and other events but no Social Media. They probably don't feel the need to keep up with Social Media since their product is so well established around the world.

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

The visual impact is the first impression consumers get from your website, so it has to be visually appealing. It needs to have professional and good looking pictures that are relevant to the website as well as nice backgrounds, fonts and colors. Then it needs structure. A website needs to be easy to understand and navigate. If the content is not presented in a logic and organized way, consumers will get lost, frustrated and they will leave.
And of course it needs interesting and relevant content.
What makes consumers want to visit, stay and come back later to your website is the product and/or information you have to offer. On your website you need to offer something consumers want, need and/or are interested at.
All those features mentioned above are crucial to the success of your website. If you fail to offer that, most likely you will have a hard time keeping your online business.