Chapter 18: Sales promotion and personal selling.

Steve Madden is not the type of company that does personal selling.  There are too many costumers and too many products to sell personally.  Sale promotions are something that Steve Madden does very well.  Since the launch of their mobile site the they have really increased sales.  The mobile site offers more details than the desktop site and has a Facebook like button which is sent out to all your friends on Facebook.   On the desktop site they offer things like free shipping when purchasing shoes.  That is a nice incentive because shipping and handling can be quite costly especially when only purchasing one item.  The site also has the "shake your booties" sale which is 30% off selected winter boots.  I myself almost purchased a pair.  With free shipping, 30% off, and chilling weather here who wouldn't want to add to their winter closet.

VAKU
WAS $109.95 NOW $39.95

Steve Madden Also has a warehouse store located in the Lower East Side where they sell last seasons sandals two pair for $20, and last seasons boots two pair for $50.  I often go in there to find two sandals when i have an extra $20  laying around.  In the Stores Steve Madden has these game tickets a few times a year.  The game tickets have scratch off pieces that can reveal anything from 10-50% discount or a free pair of shoes.  This is to bring in costumers because they want to get the free pair of shoes ticket.  Even if they don't get it they leave with a discount they can use then or for a week after they received the ticket.

advertising : chapter 17

Big Head Ad

Teen Vogue

You will never find a Steve Madden Advertisement on the television.  Steve Madden like many other designer lines have ads that are fit for their target market, young fashion savy women.  When Steve Madden first started he hardly ever advertised.  Mostly word of mouth had passed on the line and soon in 1994 small times celebrities like Carmen Electra and Mary J Blige were shopping at the first store in Soho. This boosted the brand name.  After that Steve Madden began to run his "Big Head ads".  These ads were everywhere in the train station, bus stops, and other large deparment stores like Macy's where many people could see. These ads attracted the target perfectly.  Young women everywhere saw these funny ads with pretty funny looking big head girls doing something every girl would love to do in a pair of Steve madden shoes.  The big head ad to the right show a girl in Steve Madden platform sandals running a photo shoot.  The funny looking big head is what attracts the young eye to it automatically.  The Big Head Ads boosted Steve Maddens sales and name.  Bigger Stars began wearing the shoes.  For the fashion industry celebrity endorsements are the biggest way to get your product known.  Once a high end celeb is wearing your shoe tons of adoring fans will want the same shoe or brand.  After the big Head ads public ads are rarely seen.  Now most ads are put in teen fashion Magazines.  You wont ever find one in anything like vogue or the W because those are for older more established women.  But teen vogue ran an ad like this one.

Retail: Chapter 15

Steve Madden of course is a retail shoe store.  I visited the franchise located in Soho between Spring and Prince Street right on Broadway.  I could not help but notice that there was another Steve Madden franchise on the corner directly across the street.  This location is one key to the success that the company has had this year.  I often see Steve Madden stores in the busiest shopping spots.  Soho in particular is the one place that hip trendy fashionistas go to shop.  Twice a year on the first night of seasonal fashion week the most popular stores on Broadway have huge events.  Steve Madden is one of the few stores that throw a large party including a DJ, drinks, finger foods, and big sales.  I go every year and I find that Steve Madden always has one of the biggest turn outs.  The company has many stores in high traffic shopping areas like 34th street, 5th avenue, and even 42nd street.  The company's retail store would be classified as a specialty store because Steve Madden is a shoe designer although they do offer hand bags, sunglasses, and other small accessories (mostly scarves and gloves when I went for the upcoming winter chill)  When entering the store someone greeted me automatically.  While walking around there were several employees that asked whether I needed assistance. I would say that the service was high, not as high as service that you would get at Saks but I could not move around with out someone asking to help me.  The layout of the store is one the best aspects of the store.  The manager said that the window display is changed in someway once a week.  A entirely new display is put up every month.  There is a raised runway in the store making the small space two leveled.  These two level allowed me to see all the shoes over the big crowd that walked in the store.  The speakers played updated pop music and all the seats are a comfortable sparkly purple.  This store in particular holds most of the monthly music events that Steve Madden has begun doing which brings in an even larger crowd.  The prices are pretty moderate but high in comparison to the quality of the shoes.  (Although the styles are great steve madden has some of the most uncomfortably made shoe that I have ever wore)  After purchasing a pair of clearance shoes for $50 the cashier told me I could also purchase things from the recently launched mobile site.  It seems to me that Steve Madden has the prefect retailing strategy, the many times I've been to this store I have never seen it empty.

chapter 6 : consumer decision making

Consumer decision making is a very important part in the marketing mix.  It is important to understand what they consumer wants and what they will do to fulfill that want.  Young women have a certain want.  Their want is to be in style and be fashion forward.  As a result Steve Madden offers a vast line of products to help women fulfill their want to be fashion forward.  Hand bags, shoes for every occasion, sun glasses, accessories like scarfs, gloves, and apparel.  They also understand that young woman like convenience.  all these products offered can make Steve madden a one stop shop for many consumers.  These young woman can be either extremely fashion forward researching new trends in magazines and looking for the new styles.  The steve Madden web site even has a "shop trends" so that woman can see all the styles that are similar to those in the latest fashion magazines.  Other women come to shop to find things of their own personal styles.  These young woman become very satisfied with buying the product offer because of the price and quality.  One would not expect a shoe that cost 100 dollars to last like a jimmy choo shoe would but they find that steve madden shoes are of a lasting quality.  Steve Madden understood that they were not capturing women that were closer to their 30's.  women this age like to be more sophisticated then funky.  Understanding that Steve Madden opened up a new shoe line called Steven by Steve madden.  The name itself seems more sophisticated and upscale.  They have a blog which influences a lot of the people of today.  Many people spend their time making blogs to gain information about current things. The opening of the men line is to attract more male costumers.  Mostly gay males purchase the shoes from Steve Madden because the store is so well known as a woman's shoe store it scares some men from going in. 

Chapter 5 Global Marketing

Steve Madden has expanded its market to this ever advancing technological world. Steve Madden has launched a mobile site that allows you to see the full catalog and make purchases right from your mobile device. This is a big step in global marketing because nowadays you wont see anyone with out a mobile device. From Smart Phones to music players like iPods and portable computers like the iPad everyone has someway to connect to the internet in the palm of their hands. All over the world people are using these things. Now you can walk down the street see a pair of really cute shoes on a person or in a window display at a steve madden store and order them instantly on your iPhone. Steve Madden has also targeted youth around the world as well by launching a music platform that will have a featured famous artist every month. Around the world people are in love with the same celebrities. celebrities are a sure way to get the attention of all youth.