The Little Market: Shop for a Good Cause!

Finally, an ex-MTV reality B-lister is actually contributing to society. The one and only Lauren Conrad,

from MTV’s Laguna Beach and The Hills, has been using used her stardom to be on the rise within the fashion industry. Lauren created her first fashion line, LC Lauren Conrad, that’s exclusively sold at Kohl’s, she successfully launching her newest Paper Crown line in 2011, she teamed up with BlueAvocado to launch XO(eco)  and her latest endeavor, The Little Market is a shopping experience like no other.

Lauren Conrad and her best friend/business partner Hannah Skvarla, traveled the world together and found artisans in developing countries such as Bolivia, India, Mexico, Nepal, and Peru. The Little Market is a community where these artisan’s designs and handmade products can be showcased and sold to a broader market than they have access to. The goal that The Little Market is attempting to achieve is to combat poverty, empower communities and create social justice. So if you want to shop for a good cause, check out The Little Market 🙂

FREE Spotify Premium– Get it Now! Legal Case #5: Email Marketing

A free what!? (The offer)

Spotify launched an amazing offer in early November where users are able to download a free 60 day trial of Spotify Premium. Recently, that offer has been reduced to a free 30 day trial of Premium, but I still say that’s better than no trial at all! Spotify has 3 different levels of their radio available: Free, Unlimited and Premium. Every user starts with the Free version which means instant, free music with advertisements (played in between songs) to your laptop or desktop. You can create playlists and star music that you like and that you want to hear again (but only from a laptop or desktop) You cannot access your playlists or starred music on a mobile device. With mobile, the free app allows you to play Spotify radio (which is where you don’t choose specific songs to hear–it becomes more like Pandora.) A user may upgrade to Spotify’s Unlimited version which costs $4.99/month and is the same thing as the free version but without advertisements. And then there’s Spotify’s Premium version which costs $9.99/month and you can listen to all your playlists, starred music lists on all your devices, there are no advertisements. For both Unlimited and Premium, you can decide to end your upgrade whenever you like, there’s no commitment which is pretty nice and considerate of Spotify.

How do you get this awesome deal? (content of the e-mail)

I got an e-mail from Spotify radio in late October that was titled “Redeem your free 60 days of Premium now!” Spotify then personalized their message/ad by addressing me directly, reading “Hi Monica, can we tempt you back with 2 free months of Premium? This is our best offer ever and it’s on for a limited time…you’ll need to redeem by Sunday, November 3rd.” Then it went on to list all the benefits I would get by upgrading. This offer is available for any and all who use or simply know about Spotfiy but this offer was exclusively advertised to Spotfiy users who are already on Spotify’s e-mail list serve (to get on their list serve, you simply create a Spotfiy account.)

Why launch this awesome deal? (Spotfiy’s target audience & effectiveness of offer/strategy)

This offer most likely done for measurability, to increase revenue, to have and keep Spotify users in the know of the latest news and to actually get their trial used by already established users. I think this offer was a great promotion for Spotify to do as they do have competitors (Pandora, 8tracks… etc) who are not offering free trial upgrades at the moment. This offer was not only targeting their current users but also targeting more/new users who may not know the exact differences between Spotify and their competitors.  When curious, potential users visit spotify.com, scroll down, they are able to see the 3 different levels of Spotify radio and how there is a promotion for a free trial of Premium. If anything, this offer is effect as it definitely acts as an incentive for unsure radio deciders to go with Spotify.  Spotify will also most likely accomplish one of their goals of generating more revenue. The users that do upgrade their accounts with the free trial of Premium have to keep in mind that once their 30 (or 60) free days are up, they are responsible for canceling their Premium upgrades or else they will be billed $9.99 per month until they do so. And Spotify has to know that there will always be those users who aren’t good at keeping track of their free days.

Spot on with Spotify: Legal Case #4 Pricing Strategies

Spotify’s current tagline is “Soundtrack your Life” which is exactly what Spotify allows their users to do. Spotify lets users pick and choose which songs they want to listen to, users can create playlists that play specific songs and most importantly, Spotify gives you the ability and access to discover new music.  With a focus on streaming music depending on what you’re in the mood for, Spotify’s service is completely free (which is the best part in my opinion.)  You may ask, since Spotify is a company that provides it’s music service for no charge, how in the world do they make revenue?  The answer: it relies on Freemium & Advertising; (Anderson’s taxonomy) Freemium is which is when free services, like Spotify, make revenue by offering upgraded versions of their service. Spotify has two different upgraded versions: Unlimited and Premium.  So with the free version, you have ads and can’t access your Spotify playlists and collections from any device. The Unlimited version costs $4.99/month where you basically pay for a free account without advertisements.  And the Premium version is $9.99/month where you can access your whole account from any device you use and there are no advertisements.  Spotify is able to maintain their services to be offered for free because they heavily rely on advertisements.  Every free user has to listen to an advertisement before they can continue listening to their music.

I find that Spotify’s strategy of being a Freemium site and using advertising to make revenue is a very smart and good idea that is a success.  It’s strategy is effective because users are definitely attracted to the fact that this music service site is free and they’ll be more likely to listen or at least hear an advertisement in order to get back to their music. Users, advertisers and Spotify all end up happy.  Spotify is only more attractive to users because it’s so accessible (they are able to play on any device) and they make it so easy to find new music.  The best part about Spotify is that they don’t overdo their ads. As some of their competition does, Pandora comes to mind. Spotify plays about 15-30 second ads while Pandora will play almost a whole minute of ads.  Spotify does have competition (as any successful company should, in my opinion) Pandora and 8tracks are the two I came up with.  Both are similiar to Spotify as they both rely on being a Freemium service and the use of advertising.  8 tracks attracts different kinds of users as 8tracks focuses specifically on what genre of music you’re in the mood for and actually allow users to upload and share their own mixes and music. Pandora focuses on listening to an artist, song or genre you’re in the mood for and they’ll match you with similar artists, songs or genres to the one you originally wanted. All three apps attract different users but essentially, they are all the same services and are all very successful.

 

Talk of the Town

As you all know, (if you don’t, you definitely live under a rock) there has recently been an extreme amount of buzz about pop singer, Miley Cyrus. Daughter of one-hit-wonder country singer, Billy Ray Cyrus.  She has had continuous controversies, rumors and criticism going on about her in the media. Whether Miley has been accused of being an attention hog, a good (Disney) girl gone bad, or a straight up crazy, I am personally more concerned with what Miley is marketing (knowingly or unknowingly) through her songs, controversial lyrics and music videos these days. As of today, September 15 2013, Miley’s “We Can’t Stop” music video reached 196,017,735 views on YouTube. I wouldn’t be surprised if by tomorrow, the video reaches 200,000,000 online views.

Media reports are claiming that the chorus (and the catchy part) of “We Can’t Stop”

“So la da di da di, we like to party
Dancing with Miley
Doing whatever we want”

isn’t what everyone (…every mom) is hoping to hear. This song was originally written for Rihanna who has sung about illegal drugs in previous songs (“Palms rise to the universe, as we moonshine and molly–feel the warmth, we’ll never die. We’re like diamonds in the sky”–Diamonds) so now that Miley has the song, it has been said that the song was originally written to be,

“So la da di da di, we like to party
Dancing with molly
Doing whatever we want”

“Molly” and “Miley” are pretty damn close. And Miley is doing a good job making it seem like her and her friends are on something throughout the video.  Watching the music video, you witness life size teddy bears being used as backpacks, various product placement, people eating bread stuffed with money, a skull covered with french fries, fake fingers being cut with a Pepto Bismol-like substance squirting out as blood– those are just a few of the many bizarre, random and quite eccentric items in the video.  And some awkward nudity, butt slapping and fake twerking moments occur. All the things that can arguably encourage some sort of ecstasy use.

Even if Miley wasn’t singing “molly”, her lyrics,

“And everyone in line in the bathroom
Trying to get a line in the bathroom
We all so turned up here
Getting turned up, yeah, yeah”

only makes me question what “line” are they all trying to get in the bathroom? And what is making them all “so turned up?”

The views that Miley’s videos receive aren’t all from 21+ year olds, she obviously has a younger audience watching.  This younger audience would be the youngins who grew up with Miley, looked up to her and who listen to all the music that she produces.  Miley has to be aware of these young fans she has as she used to market herself as a personable “normal teenager” on her popular (and also criticized) YouTube channel which is long gone by now.  Her having a YouTube channel made her accessible and reached out to her fans of all ages by making videos that encouraged the idea that she’s just as silly and normal as any of them.  But it is possible that all these young girls may want to get “turned up” as well and maybe be curious about dancing with molly.

I’m all for change and understand that making a statement can be important, getting noticed and trying to get rid of an old image can seem like priority for Miley but I just don’t think she is going about it in the right way.

What the Forever21? Case #2 Ethical and Legal Issues

Every designer deserves credit for the authentic work that they create. It is understood that well known brands and famous designer items do not come cheap. Their brands themselves are heavily advertised and featured in media that the general public is exposed to, yet more than half of the general public cannot afford pieces from designer collections. Having these authentic designer pieces not be so accessible to the general public, creates a sort of exclusiveness which causes the brands to be more sought after, lusted after and overall admired by the masses.  For example, brands like, Hermès, Alexander McQueen, Christian Louboutin, and Cartier do a great job with keeping their customers interested, upscale and they always give off the feeling of exclusivity.  They also keep some of their most famous products a secret just for their most loyal customers.

With all that said, it isn’t much of a surprise that unoriginal companies who strive to make a buck, decided to steal designs from these exclusive, upscale and original brands. The Daily Dot and The Jezebel both explain the copyright infringement issues that Forever21 is constantly committing. The bad part about this case is that a lot of Forever21 customers are aware that Forever21 is having these issue but are continuing to shop there.  The even worse part about this case is that there are a lot of Forever21 customers who aren’t aware of this infringement copyright and are still unknowingly shopping there. Diane von Furstenberg, Betsey Johnson, Feral Childe, and Phillip Lim were just a few of the reported designers that had been ripped off by Forever21.

The interesting thing is that Forever21 continues to win their legal battles with these high-end designers. How? Because Forever21 has a big incentive to settle.  Forever21 has settled more than 50 times in its 27 years of business. To settle, that typically includes a, ” non-admission of guilt, financial compensation to the designer whose work was copied, and a confidentiality agreement.” Consumers would never necessarily find out this scandalous information unless they seek the information themselves as there is some sort of confidentiality for the brands or designers to keep quiet. This is how I think they (shadily) stay in business.

Forever21 isn’t the only “bad guy” out there. Topshop, H+M as well as Zara have also all been accused for copyright infringement. When will this cycle end? Perhaps when consumers realize how these companies are not original and that every purchase they make, they’re basically wearing stolen designs. I think changing this cycle is just a matter of having consumers realize how their purchases from stores like Forever21 actually hurt the concept of fashion and effects the real artists who deserve credit for their original ideas.

Fantasy Fashion Week

New York Fashion Week and Fantasy Football leagues are probably two of the most anticipated events of the year that give both men and women anxiety and excitement to look forward to.  The expectation to succeed in pairing new gold Mui Muis with that new taupe colored Alexander Wang dress is as exceedingly high as it is attempting to think like Terry Bradshaw and strategically put together the perfect football team to take the win. swaggernewyork.com  took it upon themselves to create a fun mixture of the two. They collaborated with Italian designer, Michele Moricci, to create their ever so clever Fantasy Fashion Week. Featured, are favorite cartoon characters such as Lisa Simpson, Beavis and Butthead, Angelica Pickles and a couple others.  The characters all wear clothes of designers that will be hosting shows during New York Fashion Week.  Swagger New York’s choices of cartoon characters and fashion designers definitely appeal to various audiences: anyone who grew up during the 90s, are interested in TV, fashion, New York Fashion Week and/or Fantasy Football. I found this article to be refreshing and a fun glance into New York Fashion Week while I also agreed with the depiction of fashion choices each cartoon character was wearing.  Fashion-wise, I felt most connected with Sailor Moon‘s outfit; she sported a Rodarte loose light pink trench coat over a beautiful Rodarte deep yellow/matte gold cutout dress and paired it all off with light yellow platforms.  A rather daring outfit to be walking around town, casually drinking coffee, but it’s definitely New York Fashion Week-worthy.