Marketing Communications

At Live Life Aloha we will leverage social media and word of mouth for the vast majority of our marketing using platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, and LinkedIn. We will share links and make announcements via regular tweets. We will post updates and encourage group discussions on our Facebook page. We will use our blog to share information and promote our Live Life Aloha brand. We will also useour LinkedIn profile to connect with other organizations and business to expand our network.

Although it is free to use the basic features of these social media sites, we will eventually incur costs when it comes to other forms of advertising and promotion activities. Elements of marketing communication include advertising (newspaper, radio, television, mailing), public relations, direct marketing/database marketing, sales promotion/sponsorship exhibits, personal selling, and websites.  

Twitter: Implementation Plan

       Twitter will enable Live Life Aloha to instantly share and gather information.  With Twitter we can build and improve our relationships with members, organizations, and businesses. It is an effective social media tool that is quick and easy to use. It also provides users with real-time communication and customer service. Through our Twitter account, we can stay connected to our followers by listening and responding to them. This is a great way to promote our business and to increase public awareness of obesity in Hawaii.

       Our @livelifealoha account will provide our members with a place to connect with others and share information on health, nutrition and fitness. For example, our followers can view current updates, upcoming events/classes, and links to relevant recipes, videos, and articles. On a daily
basis our employees will read, write and share messages of up to 140 characters. One of our objectives is to have 500 followers on 08/31/11.

       Twitter offers many resources to help promote our @livelifealoha account. We will add either a “Follow us on Twitter” button or embed a widget on each of our sites. We will also add a Tweet button on our sites, which will let people share content on Twitter.

       In addition, for a fee we can reach a broader audience by advertising on Twitter through promoted Tweets, trends, and accounts. With Twitter, companies can gain insight into both paid and unpaid activity by using advertiser analytics.  

Moving Forward

I apologize for not posting three objectives for our company. However, I wasn’t sure on how specific we had to make our goals and I was confused with where our business was actually headed. I also wasn’t sure about our funding goals. I didn’t want to just make up a random amount of money to get from advertising revenue. It’s hard to create those type of goals without knowing what our actual budget is and how much money we need to survive. However, I’m glad we got to clarify a lot of things during our Skype meeting this morning. I think it’s a great idea to focus more on the Wellness Center at the college. Now that I have a much clearer understanding of our business, I will be able to create objectives. Here's an outline of the tasks we discussed during the meeting.

·        Daniela – create a universal Gmail account, Facebook page, and Twitter account.

·        Bob, Brandy, & Shawna – do research on WordPress and Google Sites and decide which one would be better for our business.

·        Bevin – create a universal Blogger page for our business.

In addition, we will all need to create clearer objectives and a stronger strategic plan (segmentation, targeting, differentiation, and positioning). Our next Skype meeting will be held on Sunday, March 13^th at 11:00 am. Thanks everyone for a productive meeting!

Group Project Task #3

Today, February 20th, our group had another meeting on Skype. For about an hour we talked more about our business and the 4 p's and SWOT analysis assignment we had. Another topic we discussed was what our company's main focus should be. Before our meeting ended, we decided on our next assignment and set a date for our next meeting. Our third task is to blog about three objectives/goals that we want to accomplish. Our next Skype meeting is on Sunday, March 6th at 11:00 am.

PHBM - Live Life Aloha

4 P’s:

Product:

We offer information and services that will help lead to obesity reduction in Hawaii.

Price:

We provide our customers with access to free information online. Although our website is offered at no cost to users, we earn revenue through other sources. Our company utilizes a combination of revenue models, which include advertising, transaction fees, sales, and affiliate models.

Place:

 Our headquarters are located in Hawaii, which is where our main focus target market lives. Existing and potential customers can easily access our website. We provide convenience to users as they can receive information about health and our services anywhere they have access to the internet.

Promotion:

Our main focus is to attract users through our website. In addition to online marketing, we will advertise locally in the state of Hawaii and use word of mouth to help promote our business. We could have a referral program as an incentive to get more people interested in our business. For example, we could offer rewards to customers who refer people to certain fitness classes, programs, etc.

SWOT ANALYSIS:

Strengths:

·         Access to lots of low cost resources (information on the Web)

·         A team of highly motivated students who want to succeed. Each of the team members has their own perspectives and knowledge that they can offer. Together we can come up with new ideas that will help our business thrive.

·         We have members who know how to design a website.

·         We all have received education in marketing courses.

·         Our existing network of people in Hawaii.

Weaknesses:

·         Experience in the industry. We are not experts in the field of obesity reduction and don’t know everything there is to know about running a successful online business. However, as our business continues to grow, so will each of the team members. We will use the knowledge and experience from interactions and feedback from users to help our company improve.

Opportunities:

·         The market for living healthier lifestyles is increasing. More people are becoming concerned with nutrition and exercise. With the health risks and issues associated with obesity, more people are becoming health conscious and looking for ways to become healthy and live longer.

·         The technology available will be very beneficial in helping our business develop and succeed. We can use improvements and advances in technology to reach more customers.

Threats:

·         Competition from many other available online sites and local companies.

·         A lot of people are resistant to change.

·         Keeping up with consumer demands and the surrounding economy. We also need to keep our information updated and maintain our site on a daily basis.

Week 5

     On February 6th, the Public Health Behavior Modification (PHBM) team had their first Skype meeting. We completed and turned in our first team assignment, which was to write a description of two fitness classes and find a recipe for the website.
     Now we're in the 5th week of class and still have a lot ahead of us. In addition to weekly class assignments, we have our second team assignment due on Friday, February 18th. Our tasks are to complete a SWOT analysis and describe the 4 P's of our company. On Sunday, February 20th, we will have another Skype meeting.

First Assignment

One of our tasks to complete for our first MKT 400 assignment was to establish a blog. Throughout this course I will post various blogs about my assignments and my progress.