Final Project

Internet Marketing Plan - Final Project
NYU - Internet Marketing Strategies

MARKETING MIX

Product
I’m selling turquoise jewelry.
For new customers, I consider a successful outcome of my website visitors to having an easy navigation and ending the process with a purchase. I believe that the most important factor is the person who is navigating in my webpage find the desired information, fun experience or otherwise they may not return. The quality and credibility of the site and the product must be sufficient to return the visitors interest so they will stay/explore the site.
I’m planning to ship my products by UPS and if the price of the jewelry is over than U$100.00, I will provide free shipping for my customer since mostly of my products are mostly light weight.


Price

Once my product will be differentiated from others turquoise jewelry on the internet, my strategy will be adding value of the product. Probably my product price will compete with some higher price competitors, but I always will positioning my product as a high end quality item.
I believe that people who will spend time/money with my products always will be looking for differentiation and quality.

In my site I will introduce new opportunities for my dynamic pricing, for example, new customers could be automatically given discounted purchases for the next purchases.
I plan to accept payment through credit card, paypal or money order . On my webpage I will use the system “one-time purchase” and the customer will have the option to have the purchased history. The strategy will be interesting for wholesale.


Place

Since I have my physical and on line store, I have to separate the “place” in two contexts : for my physical store the aim of place is to maximize the reach of distribution to achieve widespread availability of my products while minimizing the cost of inventory, transport and storage. In an online context, the places also will relate to promotions and partnerships. I believe for my store reach the potential audience besides my own website. I have to be also inside another websites that has the target audience as a feminine sites.

Since my product is really specific and detailed I have to be a seller controlled.
I have two process integrated in one: my physical store located in Albuquerque where I have my local costumers and my online store where I will sell to all states in America.
I want my physical store to be the base for returned merchandise of any product.
My customers, can not find my 100% customized product, elsewhere, once my jewelry is completely exclusive.


Promotion
The promotion that I will use as a strategy will be to inform customers about my product and the key will be communicating the existence of my jewelry to a target market. And for that communication I will need to have in my webpage the concept that the first impression is important. The visitors to my webpage have to be attract to the design of the page, the velocity and the product.


The promotion opportunities that I will use are listed below:

- Word of mouth:

It’s proved that the typical Internet consumer tells 12 other people about his/hers online shopping experience (Opinion Research Corporation International - ORCI - reported on a study amongst US consumers). This will work because I have a product that has extremely high quality

- Online advertising:

I will host my home page in another website. Users can click through a banner advertisement in web pages that is specifically for female audience.

- E- Mail Newsletters

I’m planning use newsletters as a direct marketing to encourage trial and purchases and also for building relationships with costumers online. Since a vast majority of e-mail are spam or viruses, my strategy to make users open my email will be built a data base when someone visits my website and express interest in my product registering and providing their email address although they not buy… Also will exist in my plan send periodic e-mail to support different objective such inform about on sale products or newly launched product, repeat purchases or reaction of customers who no longer visit my webpage.

My business fit in strategic model based in differentiation. Since my product its based in exclusivity. I will provide the most different jewelry that you normally see on the business.



COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

Always scanning of competitor sites always watching what they are doing, look for new companies starting on the internet, studying new theories, new habits, technologies and always be able to change strategy direction.

My principal strategy that I will really focus on be differential from others companies would be the fact that they can customize turquoise jewelry. Would be the first one to launch on the internet.

My differential would be “uniqueness”. I want to have the most creative jewelry, look for the best gems stones available on the marketing and pass the conception that people who buys my product always will have excellent quality. I will provide this “trust” sending together with the jewelry a authenticity certificate of the stone and the material (silver or gold).
I want make my customers happy and having the feeling that they bought a very fine and unique jewelry. For that I also will delivery the jewelry in a really nice package. I want to crate a fidelity with my costumer.

The dynamism of the internet enables new services to be launched and another factors like price and promotion change much more frequently. Based on this, always its possible that new companies launch similar products and try to invade the space. With the Internet, the costumers have more variety to choose than the traditional market. The key differences that have to be watched are always observe new approaches from existing companies, new companies starting on the internet and new technologies, design techniques and costumer support will give a competitive advantage.

I can grow my business using others gem stones besides turquoise. This step I will take when I have already a fidelity of my costumers and knowing already my commitment with quality on the area.

Blue Gem sells a product that demands a lot of creativity , custom made handcraft work. I will always create jewelry with more creativity, watching tendencies, styles, and having excellent artisans.

I will focus on increase costumer loyalty. Starting from costumer satisfaction, I will provide satisfaction with my products and service.


INDUSTRY AND FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

Based on my research on the internet, I found out that during the second half of 2.000, the overall internet population female continued to grow, those earning 30.000,00 and 50.000,00. The number of American adult with Internet access grew from about 88 million to more than 104 million during that period of time. With this number it’s a fact that the internet today is a part of Americans lifestyle. New opportunities, new behavior and a new channel of sell to potential costumers.

One of the most important factor is that I can increase sales at a very high rate without corresponding increase in operating expenses.

Once I have my physical store structured, I will need to start a capital only for construction of my webpage and advertisement strategies. I will try to start with no advertisement on payroll expenses and my structure will be based in my Albuquerque store.

For my initial startup cost will be U$30.000,00 witch 10.0000,00 will be spend to purchase material (Once my product will be customized I don’t have to have a big inventory. I will spend 8.000,00 in a project/ execution of my webpage and 12.000,00 in marketing strategies to make may home page known by my target public.

I believe that after my first year I will start to revert the investment on profits. I’ll be having returning costumers already and start implement other kinds of gems and also plan new strategies to expand worldwide.

I believe that in my first year I can make U$20.000,00 and with perspective to increase 70% in the next 2 years.

Trends within the industry always helps. What is hip today and where the tendency heads to? Believing on changes, I’ll always provide my webpage with abundance of varieties with constant dynamism of offers and different options of styles and tools for the clients to create fashion and also follow fashion.


FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES

I expect my company to grow after I start the e-commerce. Today I can sell just for people who walk-in on my store in Albuquerque, I believe that after I put my product available on the Internet I can reach costumers all over the world.

Some steps and opportunities I see in the future of my business:

- Expand my e-commerce to other countries.
- Start to make jewelry with more gem variety.
- To import and export trends from and to other countries.
- Start to promote on my homepage contests rewarding the most creative artisan.

Week Six Assignment

Competitors website

The home page that I thing is a good competitor is http://www.jegem.com/. They sell besides turquoise, 28 more kinds of gems and they really have a huge variety of jewelery including necklaces, rings, bracelets.

The home page is absolute clean in a white color that possibilities better visualization of the jewelery through the contrast and has also easy navigation. The products also are pretty much detailed with a great quality of pictures. When you start the navigation, they give you the option to start your search pointing what you are looking for, what type of the gem and size
In general, the home page is really satisfactory and I believe that they should do just a few adjustments:
1- They should have the option to choose the shape of the jewelry (oval, hart, cross, square)

2- Even thou, the search box has a good location, I would change to the upper right side of the page where the mostly homepages are placed.

3- They should have the option to choose what kind of material (silver, gold,titanium etc).

4- The biggest mistake that I see on the home page is the pictures. Although they have excellent quality, they show too much pictures of the same product. Every time when you click in one product, appears 4 big pictures of the product in a different positions. I didn't have problem because I have cable conection but not every one does. In this case, takes too long to load the page if the person has a dial up connection. A good solution to optimize the page and still show the detail pictures could be the small photos on the webpage with the enlargement option.

List of keywords

• silver gemstone jewelry
• gemstone rings
• sterling silver gemstone rings
• unique custom jewelry
• silver turquoise jewelry
• custom handcrafted jewelry
• handmade jewelry
• platinum jewelry
• turquoise and silver jewelry
• custom made jewelry
• native american turquoise jewelry
• turquoise ring
• gemstone jewelery
• custom sterling silver
• custom pendants
• design your own ring
• jewelry rings
• silver gemstone rings
• custom jewelry designs
• navajo turquoise jewelry
• custom gemstone jewelry
• turquoise pendant
• handmade gemstone jewelry
• sterling silver turquoise
• turquoise silver
• custom made rings
• custom jewelry store
• custom jewelry designer
• custom rings
• gemstone rings
• custom fine jewelry
• turquoise pendants
• custom jewelry
• customized jewelry
• custom jewelers
• silver turquoise rings
• custom designed jewelry
• custom handmade jewelry
• jewelry turquoise
• gemstones rings
• gemstone jewelry
• sterling silver gemstone jewelry
• custom jewelry design
• jewelry charms
• turquoise and gold jewelry
• turquoise rings
• indian turquoise jewelry
• design your own jewelry
• gem stone jewelry
• turquoise jewellery
• custom jewelry designers
• custom jewelry
• sterling silver jewelry
• turquoise jewelery
• silver turquoise ring

Week Four Assignment

The home page that I chose for my voluntaries surf on the internet was the website www.turquoisetrader.com. This is the top organic search home page that appears when you type the word turquoise jewelry on google. I gave two tasks for my voluntaries. The first one they had to choose one ring size 5 and pretended that they were buying and the second task was to look for a return police. When they started to look for the ring, both of them didn't have any success because when they tried to choose sizes they didn‘t have multiple choices . When they tried again with another ring I could observe that was difficult to see what size was available and my voluntaries had to click the specification of the ring first and than look for the size (later I found out that in 22 models of rings, just 2 of them had the size that I was looking for). I noticed that my two voluntaries wanted give up and one of them asked me if she couldn't choose from another home page. The second task "find for return policy" both of my voluntaries tried first scroll down the page until the end. Since they didn't find anything, both of them returned to the top of the home page. After that, one of my voluntaries went to the right place and clicked on the button "info". When the page opened he had to read a lot of information before getting what he was looking for. My other volunteer tried first on the button "help" (was a link for yahoo small business). He had to come back to the main page and than click the button "info" where the information that he was looking for was inside. My conclusion is that the home page can be improved if they start to use less text and separate more in topics giving the right tools for navigation. They should also include the sizes of the rings together with the picture since most of them doesn't have a lot of different sizes. My last observation is that they should take advantage of the position that they are on google search and make one home page more elaborate and clear.

Week Three Assignment

I found a home page (http://www.fashionjewelryforeveryone.com/) that has a really poor written and a really bad presentation. This is the text that they are using:


Fashionable Handcrafted Custom Jewelry / Non - Handcrafted Custom Jewelry Necklace Set, Necklaces, Earrings, Bracelets, Hip Hop, Hair Accessories, Brooches made of Swarovski Crystals, Genuine Pearls, Sterling Silver 92.5, Semi Precious Stones, Rhinestones, Shells, Tear drop, Cat Eye, Turquoise, Coral, Agate, Carnelian, Millefiori, Lucite, Boho, Fashion Long beads. Buy Wholesale Handcrafted Jewelry made of Swarovski Crystals, Genuine Pearls Jewelry from us per your Color, Style.
We specialize in Handcrafted Custom Jewelry, Non - Handcrafted Custom Jewelry, Custom Bridal Jewelry for all occasions, Wedding, Bridal, Bridesmaid Gifts, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day. We have vast collections of Victorian / Vintage Style, Genuine Pearl Sets, Genuine Crystals, Freshwater Pearl Beaded, Swarovski Crystal Necklaces, Jewelry Sets, Earrings, Bracelets, Chokers.

New Version: We are specialize in Handcrafted Custom Jewelry for all occasions using a big variety of stone and styles. Find the perfectly jewelry for you!

First Assignment

My Blue Gem

Once my company works with customized jewelery, I tried to create a name that the potential client could identify themselves with something unique for them. The purpose of my website is to sell turquoise jewelry and what makes my home page differ from the others is the possibility to the user create their own customised jewelery.

What are opportunities and challenges you see to grow this website?
My store is located in Albuquerque and I have my local clients already. The opportunity that I see on display my virtual store is the possibility to reach people from all over the world. Doesn't matter my geographic location, I can reach anyone who is plugged in .
The challenges that I see is to show a new perspective to buy jewelry online with unique and exclusive design that identifies exclusively each one of our customer .

First Assignment

I started the process comparing prices at Dealtime.com and the best choice was Overstock.com ($23.82)

Reasons that this website works for me:

• The home page was really easy to access and when you search for an item, they have the description of the product which for me is a positive point.
• I like the fact that they show if the item is available in stock (some pages you don't know until you buy it)
• They have the option to pay with Credit card or "Bill me later"
• The registration form was really simple and easy.
• After I bought the book they sent me a email right away informing about my purchase and shipment (1-4 days).
• The process was fast (just one day later they sent me another email confirming that my book was shipped)
• They sent me the track number with shipment information.

Areas where the website fails

• After I finished the process of purchase, one pop-up came out in the screen asking if I wanted fill one survey with the chance to win $25. I filled out and at the end they gave me a "special thank you" for completing the survey with a bonus of 4 magazines signatures for one year free. I choose the magazines and them started something that I particularly don't like: They charge $2.00 per signature (which I don't mind to pay) but, the problem was I had to give again my credit card number (I found out that was another business linked to Overstock). Plus, in a small print was written that I was agreeing to be charged next year for full signature if I didn't call to cancel. In that point I decided not continue.

Ways that it could be improved?

I particularly don't like these special offers where they tell you getting a deal for free and you end up paying for.

I also think that keeping things simple is the best target, I had gave up buying on line in some web sites for been "not simple" or complicating to much the check out.

Security on the on line shopping is also a must on web marketing.

Overstock.com is a very trustful website where I can hardly see how to improve.