week 14 discussion and assignments

Assignment part A

• The URL of the Landing Page
• What are their value propositions?
• What are their calls to action (e.g., visit us today, call now, follow us on Twitter)?
• What demographic are they trying appeal to? Are they doing a good job of that?
• Is it obvious and clear what they want visitors to do to convert?

The landing page I chose is the page linked in an email from the Vitamin Shoppe, where I hold a rewards card and often hear about various promotions. The URL is https://www.vitaminshoppe.com/b/performix/N-cp99sc?sourceType=em&source=RI20180501_Performix_V1&utm_medium=email&utm_source=VSB&utm_campaign=20180501_Performix_V1&smtrctid=5304227375&userid=9909860848&mi_u=5304227375&mi_ecmp=20180501_Performix_V1. Their value proposition is a seasonal clearance on Performix supplements, with discounts up to 75%. The call to action is "shop Performix now", and each featured item on the page has different promotional stickers on the picture - free shipping, 50% off, etc. They are trying to appeal to young adults who are interested in fitness and maybe looking to try a new brand of supplements, and as a member of this demographic I certainly consider their methods to be effective. I receive similar emails frequently, and fulfill all my fitness supplement needs by shopping sales at the Vitamin Shoppe. Their landing page shows clearly how to sort results and order supplements, and I would certainly consider it very effective.

Assignment part B

Spark page for the UMaine Women's Rugby Team: https://spark.adobe.com/page/x38xc7PVJ2NJx/

Discussion:

1. 

A)    How does the supply chain look like?

A web traversing the world

B)  What are the major players in the supply chain network (value web/value chain)? Why?

China, Indonesia

C)     Where are the primary actors from?

Southeast Asia, Western Europe, North America

2. Refer to one of the following articles and explain how SNA were used to help managers/marketers understand the complexity of the supply chain (minimum 100 words).

A web was formed with junctions for each physician. Lines between physicians represent relationships, and specialists are highlighted in certain colors. The larger the dot on the diagram, the more influential a certain physician is in terms of prescribing. Physicians are clustered, but some clusters have bridges between them. Marketers can use maps like this to see which physicians have an influence on each other's prescribing habits, which physicians hold the most sway, and more.

3. Evaluate Retailing Web Sites.

Go to the four retail web sites and shop for a product. For example, if I were shopping for a pair of jeans, I would try to find similar jeans at four different retailers. I might view Victoria’s Secret, GAP, J. Crew, Levi because they all offer about the same quality and target similar markets. Choose any two based on your own heuristics.

Answer the following questions:

a) Identify the retailers you chose

I searched, RugbyImports, Amazon.com, World Rugby Shop, and Ruggers Rugby Supply for scrum caps.

b) Compare the retail offerings of the product you were shopping for one of the following attributes: a. product quality b. price c. suggestive selling d. website features (e.g., social media integration, customer reviews)  e. design of website f. ease of website use (e.g., response time)

On Ruggers, no results were returned when I searched for scrum caps, rather I had to manually sort through the "protective headwear" category. World Rugby Shop had a wide variety of results for a "scrum cap" search, all of them being quality items. Rugby Imports had comparable search results to World Rugby Shop, however the website was less clean and attractive. Amazon.com returned the greatest number of results, with 118 available options, however some of these were headbands rather than full caps, or didn't meet World Rugby specifications for safe headwear.

c) Which one of these sites would you use? Why?

I would choose to shop from World Rugby Shop. I feel confident that I will find the product I need at a reasonable cost and that it will meet World Rugby specifications and be an enjoyable shopping experience.