Listening to Brands: Morphe Cosmetics

        Today I'll be talking about the brand Morphe. This is a very popular cosmetics/makeup brand. I chose this brand because I personally find their products to be very high quality. Morphe Cosmetics is known for it's high quality beauty products which are sold at affordable prices and for their collaborations with other cosmetic companies and gurus.

        Morphe's About The Brand page makes a strong claim that they are "A beauty brand created for the creators. For the dreamers. For those looking for killer makeup without killing their wallet." 
        Morphe is well known and many people on twitter speak very highly of them. Here are three example taken from twitter:

        I had also noticed was a post, just today from a former employee of Morphe Cosmetics shown in the image below:

        Some of the products that Morphe sell/promote are eye shadow pallets, foundations, lipsticks, setting sprays and so much more! 

        Morphe has a very loyal customer base that often promote the companies products. Because of the companies large social media presents and it's collaborations with popular youtuber's/beauty gurus the brands is very well known in the beauty industry. Just upon searching "morphe" into twitter, thousands of posts just from today appeared. Morphe has a huge loyal customer base that constantly promote the brand. There are thousands of posts with customers excitedly posting images of their Morphe products that they had just received. 

        The true challenges that the Brand faces are the employee reviews and that this company is known to steal ideas/concepts from other, smaller beauty companies. Many reviews, on Indeed.com, of the work environment at Morphe claim that it is a toxic work environment. Morphe lacks a good company culture, which can in the long run, put them in a bad position. The other issue that Morphe faces is that they have often stolen pallet concepts from other cosmetic companies. 

        Morphe has not acknowledged the issues of a bad company culture. This is something I believe will seriously set them back in the long run. As word spreads further about the bad company culture, they may lose loyal customers to cosmetic companies with better brand images. Morphe has also not acknowledged the claims against them for copying other companies concepts/ideas. Personally I think this is a good decision because the claims did not have enough proof to back them. 

        If I were the manager of the company, I would put more focus and resources into improving the company culture. Instead of responding to customers, I think the company would do better by reviewing who is designing the pallets, acknowledging that the pallets have many similarities, and try to find a way to prevent it from happening again.

        This assignment has given me further insight to how social media can impact the image of a company. I also feel that I've learned important social media can be for a company in the cosmetic industry. 

The article I chose is Starbucks moves away from the ‘drumbeat of promotions’ to build longer term relationships with customers. I chose this article because I thought it was interesting that Starbucks is changing their promotional activity. It seems that marketing tactics are changing more and more these days. The article explains that Starbucks admitted that the brand has focused on a “drumbeat of promotional offerings” that did not lead to sustained growth. Its new marketing plan will focus on targeted offers personalized to individual customers. They plan to focus on innovation in both their products and their marketing activities, and an unwavering focus on the customer experience in our stores. Starbucks value proposition revolves around their mantra “Creating a culture of warmth and belonging, where everyone is welcome. Acting with courage, challenging the status quo and finding new ways to grow our company and each other.”

Starbucks has decided to make changes to their goals for promotions. As quoted from the article, Matthew Ryan, global chief strategy officer at Starbucks, said “it’s part of an ongoing shift in our marketing, from a short-term ‘one and done’ focus to a sustained platform, ongoing relationship focus with our customers.” Starbucks is recreating the strategy they use to reach their customers and target market. Starbucks is acknowledging the faults in their stream of promotional offerings which may not appeal to all customers and have not been bringing in the results they expected. Starbucks is changing how they promote to their customers. They are making their promotions more personalized for each customer. This is new and very different from how Starbucks had previously made promotions. If I were the brand manager, I would absolutely go down the path they are taking. The previous Starbucks promotion for happy hour didn’t appeal to many customers because of the drink options. Because of that, they were not getting the results they wanted. Doing personalized promotions will definitely appeal to a broader group of customers.

Through this article and assignment, I have learned that marketing strategies do not always succeed and revising the strategies is always an option.

https://www.marketingweek.com/starbucks-drumbeat-promotions/
https://www.starbucks.com/

Hi guys! My name is LuzElena Anzures-Perez, kinda long, I know. I am a sophomore at Oregon State University dual enrolled at LBCC. Currently in life, I am just beginning, I am still searching for what I want out of life. I am taking BA223 as a course required for my major. In fact my major is Marketing, so it's actually the introduction class for my major. In this class and in my major I think I am most interested in learning about the psychology of marketing and about different market groups. Outside of school I'm passionate about living my life happily with my family and friends. I am also passionate about learning more about the world I live in, such as culture and the wonders of nature.