A Little Introduction...

Hi there and welcome to my blog!  This is just a little introduction about me and my blog so you can get a little idea of who I am and what I am doing.  So, hi, my name is Alex Brown, I am 19 years old and currently a second year at North East Scotland College (NESCOL) studying Advertising and PR.  This blog has been created as part of my course and will be used to write about my industrial investigation, as well as topics that are relevant to my HND course.  Hopefully it will give you a little insight as to how I am getting on with my investigation as well as what my course involves.

My industrial investigation has been set to find out how have companies adapted their promotional mix to accommodate the digital revolution?  Throughout this investigation, as well as this blog, I will be looking into how companies have had to change themselves to stay with the times through using platforms such as social media and the use of online shopping.  With the rise of social media and companies having their own websites it will be interesting to find out just how much companies have had to change themselves to keep consumers interested in them and buying their products.

My main focus on this blog will be to look at different companies and investigate how they have changed and now use their promotional mix to interact with their customers.  The promotional mix involves advertising, public relations (PR), sales promotion, direct marketing and personal selling and I want to find out just how much these factors of the mix have had to change in recent times.  Many clothing stores, such as Topshop and River Island, have all changed the way they promote and sell their products because more and more people like to buy things online.  With the rise of online shops, such as ASOS and Missguided, there is now even more competition for walk-in stores so they have had to accommodate this and update themselves to keep up with the competition.

This blog and my industrial investigation will also factor in which way consumers prefer to buy their products from.  Is it online or in store?  Or is it both?  I want to find out why people prefer to buy from either in store or online and what they find appealing about their chosen method.  I want to make use of interviews and focus groups to find out how people feel about the way we shop nowadays and if this new way of buying products online is a good or bad thing for them.

Well that is all for now.  I hope this first post gave you a little insight into what I’ll be investigating and hopefully you’ll want to read more of my posts in the future.  If you have any comments or questions, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment on any of my posts with your thoughts and opinions – I would love to hear what you think. 

Thanks for reading and keep an eye out for posts in the near future!