Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

The retail department store industry has been in decline for years. Online shopping has become increasingly popular, and this was happening even before the pandemic. Department stores made the mistake years ago of focusing on expansion instead of improving their presence online. In this paper, I make recommendations to help retail department stores make more sales online, as well as get more shoppers back in their brick-and-mortar locations. There needs to be a new target customer that is much younger than the previous. Department stores need put money and time into building their social media platforms. These stores should be looking for several e-commerce brands to incorporate into their stores online, but more importantly in their brick-and-mortar locations. To grow bigger faster, department stores should start to consider using trusted third-party sellers like their biggest competitor Amazon does. Many younger people choose to shop from sustainable and socially responsible brands. Department stores should put in their best efforts to make sure they are caring about these things, not only to help make a change but to also increase their popularity among consumers. It is critical that large retail department stores use several influencers to promote their store and products among all forms of social media. This has become one of the most inexpensive and effective ways to increase sales. Finally, department stores should consider trying livestream shopping as a way to connect with their customers and sell more product. I have covered several ways that department stores can start to expand their business and begin to grow again. I believe these recommendations can transform the retail department store into possible something even more successful than it was before.

Especially during the current COVID-19 pandemic and age of social unrest in the United States, there has been an increasing need for comfort, yet the idea of comfort is quite vague and rarely elaborated upon. To simplify the idea of comfort and communicate the ideas around it effectively, I am defining comfort as a subset of escapism in which a person escapes to reduce or alleviate feelings of grief or distress. As companies rush to comfort their customers in this current state of uncertainty, marketers are pressed to identify people’s insecurities and comfort them without coming off as insensitive or trite. Current comfort marketing focuses on inspiring nostalgia in its customers, having them recall previous positive experiences or feelings to comfort them. Nostalgic marketing techniques may ease mild grief in some cases, but using them to alleviate severe distress probably will not be as effective, and has contributed to several seemingly out-of-touch “COVID-19 era” commercials.<br/>When addressing comfort, marketers should understand the type and hierarchy of comfort that they are catering to. Not all comforts are equal, in that some comforts make us feel better than others and some do not comfort us at all. A better understanding of how and why comforts change among different individuals, and possibly being able to predict the comfort preference based on a product or service, will help marketers market their goods and services more effectively. By diversifying and specializing comfort marketing using this hierarchical method, marketers will be able to more significantly reach their customers during “uncertain times.”

In the United States gambling regulations have been loosening considerably over the past several years. Many states have legalized sports betting either at physical locations or through mobile apps. With the legalizations have come an influx of marketing efforts by all the large gambling companies. These marketing efforts raise serious ethical and legal questions, as groups of vulnerable people such as minors are being frequently exposed to sports betting and other online gaming. The sports gambling industry was worth 76.75 billion dollars in 2021 and is rapidly growing with a growth rate of 10% year over year (Grand View Research). Given how lucrative sports betting has been even in its relative infancy the major players in the field are attacking potential markets fiercely, flooding TV, websites, and social media with advertisements. Every major sports league has been quick to partner with the large sports betting corporations and air numerous advertisements during every nationally televised game. Mainstream exposure such as this is what makes these tactics so controversial. While these advertisements may not be as clearly problematic as previously outlawed tactics which preyed on the young and vulnerable in the alcohol and tobacco industry, they share many of the same troubling elements. For these reasons we find it important to examine the effects of current marketing practices used within the gambling industry. It is critical to begin these examinations now as every day that passes potentially harmful practices become increasingly commonplace and would be tougher to reverse or alter.

Social media has shifted the fashion industry to a new norm of fast fashion. This study examines the impact of social media marketing tactics utilized by the fashion industry, to determine the long-lasting effects on the environment. Primarily, research was conducted through a literature review to analyze the history of the fashion industry, as well as the shift to fast fashion, which encompasses microtrends, overproduction, overconsumption, and product utilization. Later, the literature review analyzes the environmental impact pertaining to each part of the product life cycle. Finally, two surveys were created and distributed to Arizona State University students in the W.P. Carey School of Business to further understand consumer behavior, opinions, and prominent purchase factors present in their decisions. The data interpretation from both surveys correlates to the research findings in the literature review, connecting the idea of low consumer value for ethical sustainability in purchasing habits, in addition to the level that student purchase habits are influenced by social media in respondents aged 18-24. This research provides the basis for needed legislation and corporate initiative, to alleviate the environment from the hazardous consequences of the fast fashion market.