Social Listening

I did my research on The Home Depot. This brand is a very large franchise and has stores around the world. Several people worship the brand and their employees, but much like any franchise, there are stores and employees that are criticized and bring the company's to brand down. I have worked for two different Home Depots and have never looked into how they reach out to customers.

Home Depot employees are required to wear an apron that shows the Home Depot values. There are eight of them including excellent customer service, building strong relationships, entrepreneurship spirit, respect for all people, creating shareholder value, doing the right thing, giving back and taking care of our people.



Three things that stood out to me during my research on the Home Depot is how mad some customers were when things did not arrive in perfect condition which was interesting because I know the customers are welcome to look inside the box and make sure everything looks good before they sign off on it and the Home Depot also has a 90-day return on items. The second thing I noticed was praise from customers explaining how helpful the employees as compared to the competitors. Thirdly, I found that depending on the store there were very different reactions to the company.

The Home Depot is a home retail store. They sell not only the physical house improvements, but the idea of a home. Home Depot wants to be the stop shop for anything needed to help build this idea of a home. Plumbing, electricity, lumber, garden, hardware and appliances are the large sections in their stores.

The Home Depot is not necessarily a Purple Cow anymore as there are several home retail stores such as Lowes. Home Depot is the largest in the United States however so the most competitive. They use Tv commercials, personal selling, sales promotions, public relations and direct selling with contractors. Tv commercials is what tends to be the advertising most used. The Home Depot also guarantees the lowest prices just like Walmart if there is proof that a competitor has a lower price they will match it and beat it by 10%.

The Home Depot is great at responding to customers online to show that they are concerned about how they were treated or their concerns. I believe this is the best way for large companies to show that they care. As someone looking through the comments seeing negative comments can be really hard and give a negative feeling on the company, but when you see the company admit their failure to meet their core values and try to fix the situation, it shows how much they care.





During this research, I learned Home Depot does an old fashioned type of marketing simply because they believe it works. I also learned that customer service is their main type of marketing as the word of mouth is really what keeps the customer base.

Marketing in the News

People are blind to commercials today, and they are not working the way they used to. Growing up we would be watching our favorite football team and as soon as it cuts to a commercial in less than 10 seconds we would be catching up on another football game that was going on. It is easy to avoid watching commercials. 

TV programs have understood this more and more the past few years. There are programs you can now rewind and skip forward. People do not want to watch the 5 minutes in advertisements they just want to get back to watching their show.

Streaming has made it easier to avoid commercials such as Netflix that does not show any commercials and allows customers to even skip intros and credits. So what does marketing have planned to catch people's attention?

According to You See Pepsi, I See Coke: New Tricks for Product Placement a New York Times article marketing has ideas on how to put this into shows people watch. They want to change what is shown during the show to fit the person watching it. For example, your favorite show you and your friends watch may have different background advertising. As the cop car speeds past a billboard for one person it may show alcohol if the person watching is up late at night or a coffee brand if someone is watching the show in the morning. 

This may sound weird or creepy, but this technology already exists its the reason why you go to buy something online or are talking about the product with friends it constantly pops up for days after. “Through digital video services like Hulu and YouTube, companies are already able to target viewers based on information about their ages, their locations, where they like to shop and other details.”
Stephan Beringer who is the chief executive at Mirriad which is a virtual product placement company says the type of marketing could start within a year. This type of advertising would be set up for streaming services and not on TV programs. The idea of using this technology is to have people watching a show not realize that it is an annoying advertisement.

This product placement in shows is ideal for streaming services as it allows them to work with companies that are trying to advertise because it allows the customer to watch the show without being interrupted by commercials.

Introduction

Hello my name is Halee. I am a sophomore with junior standings attending both Oregon State and Linn Benton Community College. I transferred from Central Oregon Community College in the fall of 2019. I am majoring in accountancy. I enrolled into this Marketing class because it is one of my business degree prerequisites. I chose to take it at Linn Benton because it fit into my schedule better. I am interested in learning how fast marketing changes over the years and how to be successful in it. I am also excited to see what it has done and will continue to do for the business world. Outside of college I am very social (I know it is weird for an accountant.) I love spending time with my family and friends and being outside.