Introduction
Recent decades have witnessed an upsurge in mobile telecommunication, which young consumers tend to embrace than any other form of conventional electronic media. Such transformations in mobile technologies where wireless networks operate have made a significant change in the manner in which companies are advertising and marketing their products to consumers (Friesner, 2014).
Market research has shown that a massive number of young consumers are easily available on Internet platforms, especially within the trending social networks that youths seem to desire. Hence, modern fashion industry companies should not undermine the power of mobile marketing (Roca‐Sales, 2009). As an independent consultant hired to assist in decision-making for Old Navy’s new promotion strategy, this memo would assist in providing an objective opinion regarding the use of online videos instead of television as a promotion strategy.
Market Choice of Young Adult Males
Marketing communication is paramount to the connection of companies with reliable and potential buyers, who are significant in building the market reputation of a firm. According to Friedrich, Gröne, Hölbling, and Peterson (2008), marketing trends generally seem to shift from analog systems to digital platforms in the broadcasting of products to consumers.
To monetize the consumer relationship and make a reasonable approach to the market, marketers have understood the manner in which technology is shaping communication in the realm of business-marketing (Tyler, 2002). The Old Navy promotion technique that focuses on communicating with young males through mobile marketing hinges on four major assumptions about mobile technology. The greatest notions revolving around mobile marketing, among the youths, are its potency on effective customer access, customer insight, privatized customer dialogue, and customer emotional attachment to the technology.
It was sensible for the Old Navy to consider mobile marketing on the premise that mobile technology offers effective accessibility to consumers. The mobile technology offers a series of communication platforms through various channels that include constant access to online portal platforms, messaging services, and voice calls (Tyler, 2002).
Most juveniles seem attracted to the features of mobile phones, given the cost-effectiveness of owning and operating phones. Phones that also allow consumers to enjoy the portability advantage support youths to access the Internet platforms easily than other channels of communication (Friesner, 2014). Mobile phone channels that most youths possess provide companies with easy access to consumer data, including movement patterns, communication behavior, social patterns, and demographics.
Mobile marketing as a promotional technique must have targeted young males due to the feature of the privatized dialogue that most youths seem to embrace. According to Kazakoff (2014), phones are small, but they are powerful communication gadgets whose real-time function, updated content, visual properties, and audio features have remained tailored to personal demands and secrecy.
As distinctly a personal device tailored to the privacy interests of prime users, the youths seem to enjoy this form of mobile confidentiality in communication. A significant consideration is the aspect of customer emotions in which youths have shown considerable treasure for their mobile gadgets (Tyler, 2002). For the youth, a modern mobile phone, such as a smartphone, is considered a strong lifestyle statement that youths adore. The above four features of mobile phones presented Old Navy with a unique opportunity to spread their communication to the male youths.
Presumptions behind Choosing Mobile Media
Old Navy opted to use mobile media communication through an online video streaming approach than television broadcasting services to reach young adult males as the targeted population. The assumption that the Old Navy campaign program presumed regarding the use of online videos is that the youths are trendy, they have different watching priorities, they love secretive viewing, and they like regular and instant information updates (Comstock, Gulati, & Liguori, 2010).
On preferring mobile media to television, Old Navy assumed that contemporary youths are trendy and fashion-driven towards consuming modern technologies. This means that youths would rather associate with mobile media as a source of information rather than viewing the traditional televisions (Ohannessian, Boyd, & Kirsh, 2014). Old Navy might have also assumed that youths have different viewing priorities in entertainment. Internet-enabled phones provide youths with opportunities to choose what to view.
Old Navy also assumed that youths have a tendency to enjoy secretive viewing than open viewing. Youths would typically consider watching videos through their Internet-enabled phones tailored for individual use rather than watching televisions or use big screen computers that co-workers, families, and friends use for viewing (Ohannessian et al., 2014).
Their use and viewing interests match with the unique capabilities that mobile phones offer to the young generation of Internet consumers. Old Navy assumed that the new mobile technology had influenced the viewing behavior of younger Internet users, who have currently shown a relentless preference for the Internet-enabled mobile phones. Roca‐Sales (2009) postulates that youth would rather enjoy the portability and easy accessibility of phones with small viewing windows than big-screen smart televisions and computers so long as they seem trendy in the market of youngsters.
Validity of the Assumptions Regarding Viewing Habits
Youths are a restless people, who traverse cities, travel to the countryside, and take regular outings. Since laptops are increasing becoming insecure and inconvenient as portable networked gadgets, the multitasking ability of phones is appealing to the youth. A study done the United States on the use of mobile telecommunication among the youth population has indicated that approximately 78% of youths possess phones, 47% of those with phones have smartphones, while one out of every four teens in America have portable computers like tablets (Comstock et al., 2010). Such trends reveal the preference and the fondness of youths towards the advanced mobile phones, which seems to be a strong lifestyle assertion to the youth population.
The youths also spend their time to peruse the newspapers or watch television shows directly from their mobile phone gadgets. The notion that youths love secretive Internet, which the small gadgets like phones and tablets access, seem to indisputable as millions of the young Internet users afford the Internet. In the United States, youths seem to spend approximately two to four hours of their daytime in browsing through the Internet using their mobile phones and less than an hour on televisions (Friedrich et al., 2008).
They often enjoy the privacy of playing video games, watching YouTube videos, video clips, music videos and enjoying animation features. Given the fact that television has remained dominated by the conventional broadcasting techniques, where viewers can only enjoy viewing scheduled programs with little control over proceedings, youth opt for mobile phone videos that allow privacy and self-service.
Perceptions about Choice of Mobile Media Promotion Approach
Perhaps the best marketing decision that Old Navy has proposed is the use of mobile media communication as a means of communicating about fashion products and services to highly trendy youths. A significant number of the American youths remain unemployed as they are still searching for opportunities in that they are ready to offer charitable services to the nation (Bondad-Brown, Rice, & Pearce, 2012).
A vast majority of this population has reasonable time to find fashion, read trending stories, and even spend full days interacting socially with people through the Internet platforms. Roca‐Sales (2009) claims that millions youth spend ample time to browse websites, watch videos, share activities, listen to music, read newspapers, and comment on developing stories on major social media platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube.
With the increasing popularity and demand of social media as effective communication tools that youths adore, businesses tend to shift their focus from the traditional television and radio as promotional elements. Old Navy is among the fashion companies that are on the right track towards realizing the new opportunities that mobile technology offers in communication and advertising.
To recommend, online videos are powerful tools for communicating with youths, but developing an independent marketing website to run the videos is more vital. Secondly, the marketers should understand the basic features that make videos attractive to be able to attract the trendy youth populations. Such approaches would help to win a majority population of youths, who admire dressing fashionably or developing their careers in the fashion and design industry.
Conclusion
The fashion industry is one of the vastly growing trades, although consumer preference, purchasing power, and consumption behaviors of consumers are unpredictable. Marketing is not an option in this industry, but a mandatory practice that is capable of reasonably transforming the activities of the business. Using easily accessible marketing media platforms such as the Internet-enabled mobile phones to access the youth population that seems more stylish nowadays is a worthwhile idea. For Old Navy to market its products and services effectively to the youth male population that also embraces fashion, considering online video as a promotional technique through mobile media is a reasonable approach given that millions of the youth population uses the Internet to share activities, communicate, and watch videos.
References
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