Cornerstone Day School Analysis

By: Nairooz Alshumrani and Ghofran Batterjee

About the School

            “Cornerstone Day School is a private therapeutic school for students in grades 5-12 with major emotional and psychiatric problems. It is also the only school in New Jersey that is academically accredited by the Middle States Association and NIPSA, and clinically licensed by the NJ Division of Mental Health to provide mental health services.” (1)

Cornerstone Day School Marketing Campaign

Since we do not have enough data, such as how the school is doing and how many visitors and clicks they have, to come up with a solid behavioral marketing campaign, we analyzed it with a more general approach and came up with innovative ideas that will improve the school’s performance.

After analyzing Cornerstone Day School’s website, we found out that there are things on the website and the online marketing strategy that needed to be changed or updated. Starting with the website, which had almost all the elements to be perfect but we suggest the following:

1-    The website has the same image in every category at the navigation bar, so we recommend replacing this image with new and genuine pictures that will make consumers, who are the parents of children with special needs, more attached to the school.

2-    The website has the address of the school, which is good, but we suggest that the school adds a map for its location because in Google Maps there are two locations for Cornerstone Day School, and that is confusing!

3-    The school’s Parents Newsletter have not been updated since December 2016, so it needs to be updated more frequently!

4-    Lastly, the school needs to add social media icons such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook on their home page.

The last point actually takes us to the next thing that needs to be changed which is the online marketing strategy. We have noticed that the school is only using emails to be connected with parents and it does not have any other connection through media channels.

With the immense of numerous platforms of digital media, depending on only one source of connection is not enough for any institution or business to be well-known due to the massive number of competitors. Therefore, our major objective of the online marketing strategy for the Cornerstone Day School is to increase awareness and word of mouth so the school can reach as many parents as possible. For that, we suggest that the Cornerstone Day School should use native advertising, affiliate marketing and have more participation in social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Since we are in the era of speed and technology, almost everyone is involved in at least one platform of social media on the internet. Parents of children with special needs, such as eating disorders, will definitely go online and search for specific topics concerning their beloved ones. Therefore, a specialized school such as Cornerstone Day School can use two ways to target those parents.

·      The first way is using native advertising by sponsoring a written article in a famous newspaper or magazine online to achieve click through, so that parents can land on the home page of the school, read and collect more information about the various sections in it.

·       The second way is using affiliate marketing where the school can track customers using the Affiliate tracking software and Affiliates can send targeted traffic (parents who are ready to register their children in the school) to the school’s website.

·      In addition, many people rely on social media channels for news these days, why not benefit from it? The school should have accounts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and should be active on those platforms by posting updated posts, blogs and photo of delighted children during an indoor (participating in an art class) or an outdoor activity (playing basketball) to reach parent’s emotions.

By modifying Cornerstone Day School’s website and following the above steps of online marketing campaign, the school will definitely increase its revenue and the number of people who are interested in special schools.

What is beauty?

Who can describe beauty? What does it mean? What is the real definition of the word? How can you tell if that woman is beautiful or not? Some might see her as a beauty queen while others may not. In terms of the universal standards of beauty, people argue that there are no metrics for beauty due to the differences among cultures. With media all around, women have found themselves surrounded by photos of thin celebrities with fine skin and free of impurities. Regrettably, those pictures are not real and had been modified to attract as many people as possible. Unfortunately, many people believe in those fake advertisements, especially women, and start comparing themselves with these fabricated photos while putting their bodies and skin under unfair comparison and experiences. 

Dove is a well-known beauty company that was established back in 1930. It sells various choices of products concerning men and women’s beauty by focusing on the consumer’s needs rather than the product. In the past few years, the company realized that by going down the same path as other beauty supply companies, it would benefit neither Dove nor it’s consumers. For that reason, it managed to change the company’s strategy to embrace all types of women in every community no matter what their skin colors is, their age differences, their ethnicity or their body shape and figure. In a study that was conducted by their PR agency, Edelman, the results were unpleasant. It showed that only 2% of 3,000 women in 10 different countries considered themselves beautiful. That’s why one of the most modern and successful marketing campaigns and most talked about is the Dove campaign for real beauty, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/21/dove-real-beauty-campaign-turns-10_n_4575940.html. It revealed how women really think of themselves in a tacky way instead of looking at the bright side and see their natural beauty and what differentiate them from others. This video became one of the most watched videos of all times on YouTube due to its message. In this campaign, Dove’s strategy was to increase consumer awareness by sending a key message to women on how to focus more on their normal beauty.

Dove’s vision is simply about being confident with your look and be positive about it. They are trying to raise women’s self-esteem by showing them that beauty should be a source of confidence, not an anxiety. They have three main campaigns that started back in 2004, one of them is the Dove self-esteem project, another is the education about self-esteem in young people, and finally, partnerships. This demonstrates that the company is concerned with the consumer, not just the products and revenue, which makes a connection between the brand and the consumer. To read more about Dove’s vision, products or even stories, visit https://www.dove.com/us/en/stories/about-dove/our-vision.html.

For every company that has the main objective of selling products and claim the material return, the marketing mix is essential. Starting with the product (1), Dove has accomplished having a large variety of choices including shampoo’s, conditioners, creams, lotions and other beauty products for both genders, male and female. For the price strategy (2), Dove is suitable for almost anybody due to its value based pricing, promotional pricing, and penetration pricing. Place (3), Dove has distribution channels such as supermarkets, pharmacies and hypermarts and indirect marketing channels. (4) for promotion, Dove’s advertising strategy is commercials and advertisement. To conclude, Dove has differentiated itself than other companies in the same field by focusing on several modern strategies with new ideas that match the market. That definitely supported the company to have a huge audience in a very competitive market.

https://www.pinterest.com/gbatterjee/doves-real-beauty-campaign/

 Blog Assignment 2

The Urban Cultivator      

The Urban Cultivator (UC) is the chosen product for this assignment. It is an indoor garden (mini hydroponic system) for the kitchen.

1)    The layout of the website:

·      The layout of the page is simple and it is easy to find information that guides you step by step through the website to find the suitable information needed.

·      Their mascot, which is located in the middle top of the page next to the name, is a green leave inside a building, the leaf usually is a symbol of natural spirits, a source of organic food and maybe energy. Having the leaf inside the building demonstrates growth, fertility, and indoor planting.

·      Their target audience is residents, famous hotels such as the Four Seasons, and large business companies like Google.

·      The headers are straight forward with clear titles to guide the visitor to more important information, and the footer has basic information on how to contact them and what channels on social media they are currently using and active on.  

·      With a simple click, you can travel to other pages and gather beneficial information or proceed to buy some of their products such as seeds, supplies or accessories.

·      White spaces are available on the main page instead of organizing the web page with multiple passages, it makes it easier to read rather than just listing a bunch of information.

·      The section up the fold contains the visual picture of the Urban Cultivator and basic information about it. The general perspective of the page gives you comfort and serenity due to the consistency between colors and space.

·      The message and vision of the UC team are focused and clear on the web page.

·      Keywords such as healthy, organic, natural are repeated on the page to ensure their message.

2)    My point of view:

·      The UC is easy to find through search engines.

·      Because of the direct, friendly and trustworthy tone of voice on the website, they make the picture of having a healthy balanced lifestyle seem simple by implanting indoor, harvesting just seconds before arranging the table.

·      As a Spokesperson, only the founders are appearing to talk about the UC. I believe that if a well-known celebrity like Oprah Winfrey talked about the UC in one of her magazines or hosted the founders on her show, it would be a major change point in the UC sales and awareness.  

·      Facebook and Instagram posts are up to date and YouTube videos are more into details.

·      What I get from their web is that you don’t have to be enthusiastic about gardening to buy their product. Their goal is clearly to make people eat better food that is packed with nutrition and full of flavors with simple easy steps.

·      The website distinguished findability, accessibility, usability, and credibility.

·      The team responds quickly on Facebook, Twitter and the main site to any additional questions.

Conducting a SWOT analysis on the web page:

v Strengths:

o   They are going global and visiting several different countries.

o   The machine comes in two sizes, the residential which is suitable for the family, and the commercial for hotels and restaurants.

o   It comes with a 3-year warranty.

o   They have posts on news websites and magazines.

o   Contacting the team of the UC is easy through the official site, Facebook, and twitter.

v Weaknesses:

o   Shortage of traditional marketing ways such as television. This means only people who are willing to look for the UC will find it rather than being spread widely through traditional marketing ways to attract more audience.

o   The price is high compared to other indoor garden systems.

v Opportunities:

o   Invest in a smartphone application to control the device from distance.

o   Translating the main website into international languages like Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin and Urdu.

o   Start a partnership with a local supply home store such as Home Depot.

v Threats:

o   The indoor garden system is expanding and changing fast. There are several other brands that defy the UC in Europe and New Zeeland.

Whole Foods

Whole Foods is a supermarket brand that is a world leader in natural organic food with more than 400 stores in the United States, Canada, and The United Kingdom. For Whole Foods content on social media, I checked their Facebook page, Twitter account, their main website and their channel on YouTube. Here is what was found:

·      Who is the target audience?    

Their target audience is diverse and multicultural, men and women (parents) between the age of 30 and 50, who are educated to a degree level. They are work professionals with the mid-to-high level of income, living in cities or suburban. They are also more conscious about healthy foods, fitness and sustainability issues compared to others.  On Whole Foods YouTube channel, they have 68,500 subscribers, updated recipes, and videos of easy prepared meals and snacks. On Facebook, they are very responsive to messages and offer several languages to read their public posts such as Dutch, French, Spanish and Portuguese, besides English for sure. They even had a recent event celebrating (Earth Day). On Instagram, they have about 2.1 million followers and a large number of photos that makes you feel hungry by just looking at them. Finally, on Pinterest, they have vegetarian recipes and other activities besides cooking like DIY weddings.                                   

                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                  

·      How is the brand using content to focus their message?

The brand knows what the target audience needs and provides it through multiple methods, such as premium customer service through all social media channels, being active and responding instantly to and complaint or question, using colorful photos of fruits and vegetables on their sight that inspires nutritious and freshness to grab attention and to serve the biggest number of consumers, several languages are provided on the website so that the content can be translated in no time.

·      What is the message?

Their message is to spread awareness and make more people conscious about how easy it is to embrace a healthy lifestyle that makes the whole family healthy, eat nutritious organic food and high-quality natural recipes that have an exceptional flavor and at the same time, save the environment and sustainability. All that lets them contribute to social development and grow the business ethically.  

·      What is the action the brand wants the individual to do?

The brand wants to encourage the customer to visit their markets that are all over the country, and have a well-rounded experience and eventually buy natural organic food. In addition, they want people to be more concerned about sustainability and environment.

·      Why is the content effective?

Their content is effective due to the high-quality products, the quick response, their ability to understand costumers needs, the connection they accomplished with their target audience and their crystal-clear mission.

·      Do the various pieces of content work together (i.e. synergistic) to build the brand persona? Or is the content fragmented and unfocused on any one particular audience or thought?

Yes, from my point of view, all pieces of content on different social media channels have the same objective and work together to accomplish building the brand persona by grabbing the attention of their target in different ways such as recipes, short videos, and beautiful viewed images of fresh colorful food.

                                                       

·      By checking several channels and accounts of Whole Foods, I found out that their team is working actively on multiple social media channels in order to satisfy the costumers and build a strong connection with them. They managed to do so on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and lastly, Pinterest. They are updated on tweets, posts, blogs and continuously placing pictures, recipes, do it yourself (DIY)and more.

The Early Years of Whole Foods

Whole Foods was found back in 1980 by the founders John Mackey and Renee Lawson Hardy, Craig Weller and Mark Skiles, the owners of Clarksville Natural Grocery. John was a college dropout twenty-five-year-old and his partner Renee was only twenty-one-year-old. They borrowed some money from family and friends so that they can open a small natural store in Austin, Texas that was called the Safer Way. They started with only 19 workers. At that time, there were no more than 6 natural food supermarkets in the United States. Within two years, Safer Way engaged with Clarksville Natural Grocery. The outcome of that was the birth of Whole Foods on September 20, 1980. At 10,500 square feet and a staff of 19, this store was quite large in comparison to the standard health food store of that time.

My analysis:

Whole Foods has accomplished having loyal customers by keeping their promise and resuming what they offer. In my opinion, one of their major strength points is having these loyal consumers and they should do anything they can to keep them and attract more. They also have their markets build in the great location to reach their target audience and already have a great connection with them. On the other hand, one of their weaknesses is their high prices when compared to others. Due to that, people are decreasing their demand and pulling away and switching to other stores that offer similar products. That is one of the problems and threats Whole Foods is facing. To resolve that, they might offer seasonal sales or reward points when purchasing eco-friendly products to encourage such activities. A way of expanding the business and have more customers is going globally. Opening stores in Europe is an idea to grow and have an opportunity to develop. Another simpler method of opportunities they have is to create special events such as family organic day since they are concerned about the environment. Cooking classes always snatch women’s attention, especially moms. 

            To conclude, what makes Whole Foods special is their commitment to serve only natural organic food and products. Even though the prices are higher, still, people are purchasing continually because, in the first place, it is for premium high-class consumers. By offering nutritious food, gluten free and eco-friendly products, Whole Foods managed to specialize the brand and serve conscious well-educated individuals and families that are concerned about what they eat and what they serve their children. With a company that started so small, it's outstanding how they significantly transformed into one of the biggest supermarkets in the country.