Ch.15 Marketing Communications

The promotional mix is such an important tool to utilize when trying to build and maintain a company. This mix includes things like advertising, public relations, sales promotion, personal selling and social media. As I stated in a previous post MK did lots and lots of promotion for his brand to get it to its' current status. He used advertising via newspapers, magazines and more importantly by having famous actors, actresses, singers etc wear his products and just mention the brand when doing interviews. He also was a judge on a popular television show called "Project Runway". These avenues were explored to bring awareness to his brand.

To maintain his current status MK (along with most companies) turned to social media to stay relevant. They created a Twitter page when Twitter exploded on the scene. They have 2.81 million followers. They also have a Facebook page which currently has 16.25 million followers and a Instagram page with 4.1 million followers. With social media companies can now reach out and almost "touch" consumers. It has opened an almost direct line of communication where companies can now see and hear responses and feedback from consumers about their products. With the amount of followers MK has, they receive enough information to know when a handbag isn't doing well in the market or which handbags are doing extremely well. As long as social media has a strong hold on everyone, this channel will be one that Michael Kors consistently uses to stay ahead of the game.

Ch.10 Product Concepts

The MK brand has been on the rise for several years. It has worked its way up beating out its top competitor Coach recently. This win over Coach showed that the Michael Kors brand and its brand name now held significant value with it's consumers. With their steady climb, Michael Kors is working overtime to now become a global brand. By opening stores worldwide and establishing partnerships I'm confident they will claim that victory as well.

Michael Kors products serve a personal want and to some it might be a personal need. Their product mix includes accessories(glasses, sunglasses, watches), handbags, footwear and even clothing. There are 3 product lines: Michael Kors which is the runway collection, Michael which is the "lifestyle brand" and Kors with is the high-end collection. The handbag line has about 7 different types of available handbags: cross body, clutches, shoulder bags, totes, satchels and even backpacks. In addition each type of bag has it's own variety to choose from. An example is the Tote bag, within this line you could buy the Jet Set, Marina, Dillian, Izzy, Hamilton, Bedford, Fulton, Eliza etc etc. MK offers many different styles to choose from and they are all great in my opinion! :-)

Ch. 17 Personal Selling and Sales Mgmt

Due to Michael Kors being in the fashion industry and the business of selling to consumers, it is extremely important to know what it takes to sell and how to navigate/manage the selling process to best suit their company's need/purpose. MK uses elements from the traditional personal selling strategy to succeed: selling products(in regards to this blog we will focus on handbags), their sales staff spends large amounts of time with customers giving details and advice about the product(handbags). In addition, their proposals and presentations are based on pricing and product features.

Michael Kors has also applied some of the most common Customer Relationship Management(CRM) applications to not only sell their products but to expand their customer base. They took the time to actually get to "know" their customers and what the market wanted. This allowed MK to create a great campaign management application to showcase their "lifestyle brand" line. By doing so, they were able to retain loyal customers. Being able to keep customers meant they could then introduce them to other MK products. Since this was successful, they also needed to increase their distribution changing their status to a dual distribution (direct and retail marketing channels) company. Creating and continuously maintaining great customer relationships and sales management will ensure that MK stays around for years to come.