Ch. 15- Marketing Communications

Shea Moisture understands the importance of communicating information about the firm and its products to their target market and the public through different promotion strategies. Through the use of advertisements, the marketing team at Shea Moisture is able to send a given message, aiming to inform, persuade, and/or remind their target market to purchase the goods being promoted. In this day and age, marketing teams from many companies are aware of the more cost effective channels in which they can transmit their message to the public, which is why social media has become one of the most commonly used channel for many. Shea Moisture promotes most of their products with online advertisements. The use of videos to promote items has also been working out for them as well. A company may post a video onto YouTube, Twitter, Facebook to maximize the spread and sharing of that video meant to promote goods, events, or services. Not only is social media a good tool for promotion, but also for attaining feedback on the goods and services companies are selling. Shea Moisture does a fabulous job at interacting with customers on their twitter account, where they can monitor what people are saying about the company and its products with just a single search of their name. This is important because they can aim to fix what ever it is that a customer has complained about online.

Saving money is really important to many people, so people LOVE sales and promotions. But everyone has to love free things. Marketing activities such as sales promotion stimulate consumer purchasing and dealer effectiveness. An example of this is demonstrated in the advertisement above, used for Target stores, which communicates the message that there are products that can be won by a customer if they enter a sweepstake.

The goal of this is to actually sell this product. It is aimed at existing and new customers and is a very affective way of marketing a product, especially if its a new one. 

Ch. 10 - Product Concepts

The main premise of a business is to SELL. SheaMoisture is a company that thrives off of brand loyalty and maintaining relationships with existing customers who love the products and continue to buy specific products. Knowing this, SheaMositure's team made it so that certain products belong to certain lines, depending on the ingredients used, or the particular beauty needs the product works for.
For a long time, the needs of women with curly and kinky hair weren't being fulfilled by the majority of beauty brands. The neglect of these needs amongst generic beauty brands is something that the people at SheaMoisture took notice of. They understood that women came in all shapes and sizes, from different places and cultures, and also have unique responsibilities when it comes to caring for their hair. Taking all of this into account, they introduced a fraction of their haircare and products meant for maintaining beautiful kinky and curly hair.

SheaMoisture's Coconut & Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie is one of the company's most highly rated consumer products. It is part of the Coconut & Hibiscus product line, and caters to women who are looking to enhance or maintain healthy and beautiful curls while avoiding the damage other products that contain chemicals might create.

In this simple advertisement, SheaMoisture showcases the different hair types in which their products might be put to use on. Not only do they display kinky, curly, wavy, and straight hair but they also give the message that being natural is being yourself and promote some of the product lines they sell that can help women achieve that. 

Through the use of product lines, SheaMoisture is able to sell many items at once. A lot of consumers are willing to buy a whole line of products, especially if they've had a good experience with one specific product from that line. They've also been successful at creating new product lines, such as their Men's Shave line, which targeted a whole new set of consumers for the company. Through this, SheaMoisture is able to keep sales coming while catering to the needs of their demographically diverse customers.

Ch. 17 - Personal Selling and Sales Managemnet

Relationship selling is a multistage process that emphasizes personalization and empathy as key ingredients in identifying prospects and developing long-term, satisfied customers. SheaMoisture understands the value of customer relationship management. They strive to build long-term relationships by developing trust over time. Through its online store, sheamoisture.com, "everyone gets love" and can get the latest news, tips, and offers by subscribing for updates with their email address. SheaMoisture is able to make the most of these updates by implementing advertising and sales promotion as well. 

Building customer relationships is crucial for a business that sells standardized products with low value that are easy to understand and has many customers that are geographically dispersed. SheaMoisture is aware of this and, as mentioned in an earlier post, part of the company's success is its ability to build and retain customer loyalty by living up to its promise and also maintaining customer satisfaction. Some ways in which this is done is by interaction with customers on social media. SheaMoisture is big on responding to feedback and comments on social media platforms like Twitter. 

Other than selling from retailers and online, SheaMoisture has also used pop-up shops and launches in order to sell customer favorites or new products. Here, anyone who attends would be able to speak to representatives of the company in order to learn more about certain products, and the company in general. Interaction amongst customers and the company is important in order to maintain a relationship. 

Ch. 16 - Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Promotion

Advertising, public relations, and sales promotion are all tools that communicate a message to consumers that represent a particular brand. Through advertising, SheaMoisture is able to show what they are selling, why people should consider buying it, and where the product can be purchased. The beauty industry is constantly pushing products at consumers through the use of provocative advertisements, but SheaMoisture has a much simpler approach. Through the use of print ads, SheaMoisture is able to demonstrate their brand and promote their wonder products. However, like most cosmetic and beauty companies, SheaMoisture uses a health appeal. This attracts customers who are body conscious or who want to be healthy. This is also a reason they constantly promote their products as organic and natural. 

The advertisement above was made to promote SheaMoisture's new Color Cosmetics. The usage of color was used to make a straight forward, simple ad into one that can catch an eye. This ad, much like many other of SheaMoisture's, would most likely be featured on a magazine. 

Surprisingly, SheaMoisture has yet to release an advertisement of theirs on television. They do however, gain a lot of their promotion from lifestyle and beauty bloggers. 

A marketer must understand the importance of advertising, public relations, and sales promotion in order to perfectly communicate the brand's message and maximize profits.