#SmealWeeklyRecap featuring Melissa Gonzalez, '99 Finance
Thank you to my network for keeping me updated on the business world, sharing career insights, and their successes. Below are some of the articles collected from alumni and other business resources. All articles can be viewed at this link. The topics recently posted on were retail, holidays, social media and marketing. As you know, our intern, Lawrence Qiu as well as the students in the dean's office, Julie Hetrick and Taylor Zerbe play a key role in organizing the information and researching companies.
Featured Alumni: Melissa Gonzalez (’99 Finance and Spanish), CEO/Founder of the Lionesque Group and Co-Founder of RS POP Shops & the Market
A former Wall Street executive, Melissa is the founder of The Lionesque Group, a firm of award winning retail strategists and pop up architects? who have conceived and produced more than 150 retail experiences in major cities across the United States. In 2017, she also launched Field-Test, an interactive RFID tracking platform for physical retail that empowers consumers to truly connect the online and offline worlds while giving brands real-time transparency into store performance. She graduated from Penn State University with degrees in finance and Spanish, and was actively involved with and held leadership positions in organizations including Student Government, Latino Caucus and Women in Business, for which she was also a co-founding member. Wanting to explore her creative spirit, Melissa left her career in finance and embarked on launching her company in the fall of 2009. She reflects on her work in her book, "The Pop-Up Paradigm: How Brands Can Build Human Connections in a Digital Age." Melissa is also a regular contributor on ABC LA Radio, Yahoo Finance and Advertising Week 360. Melissa's advice on career paths: never underestimate what you can learn from the experiences you are having today, especially in how they may inform opportunities in the future. Embrace networking because who you know is an invaluable asset, and stay open minded about embracing the notion there is always something more to learn. Success is gained not only in knowing our strengths but also in understanding our weaknesses and setting goals that guide us to continue to grow and evolve.
Topics for the week!
Retail: As suggested this week, for news about retail, you should follow Melissa Gonzalez. view her webinar titled, The Pop-Up Paradigm: How Brands Build Human Connections in a Digital Age! Also mentioned this week, Macy's is getting into the second hand retailer business as well as JCPenney who is partnering with a company called ThredUp. This article by The Wall Street journal says that, "Consumers’ love affair with a good deal is evident in the rise of thrift shopping, which is on track to overtake sales of fast fashion at the likes of Zara and H&M within a decade." The New York Times reports that Forever 21's bankruptcy signals a shift in consumer trends. "Forever 21’s bankruptcy puts a spotlight on the widening chasm between America’s lower-quality malls, which are losing customers and anchor tenants, and its top shopping centers, which continue to draw foot traffic." As far as the new mega malls, one writer for Business Insider said that she visited the grand opening of one in New Jersey and found it eerily empty, that was back in October.
Holidays: I hope your business prepared early for the holidays as the time to start according to most articles is directly after the back to school rush! Companies like Walmart, JCPenney, Sears and Kmart all started on Thanksgiving day. Target didn't waiting for Black Friday to prepare and began huge discounts according to this article in Inc. As predicted in past years, Cyber Monday is causing the distinction of Black Friday. More and more Black Friday is drawing online shoppers as well. This article in JCK reported that Black Friday sales at brick-and-mortar stores dropped 6.2% from 2018 but rose 2.3% on Thanksgiving Day, according to ShopperTrak data. This makes sense as more retailers have opened stores on Thanksgiving. CNBC reported that according to data from Adobe Analytics, Cyber Monday online sales hit a record of $9.4 billion which was boosted by late-night spending. Retailers are still crunching those final numbers. Other articles offered suggestions on gift ideas for people who work from home and for your frequent flyers!
Social Media: In this post we discussed younger generations who desire a career as a social media influencer. This article by Bizwomen supports the fact that 1 in 4 GenZ women typically learn about new products via influencers. This Harvard student amassed 265,000 subscribers in one year by sharing videos on topics like how to get into the prestigious university and what her day is like. She fully supports herself financially through the money she earns on line. Other popular social media news is that Jennifer Aniston joined Instagram and broke a Guinness World Record. Wired reported that in the middle of November, Instagram started testing hiding likes. If you are looking ahead, TikTok hit 1.5 billion downloads and is still outperforming Instagram according to Business Insider, despite reports that the Chinese-owned company could be a threat to data privacy especially after their acquisition of U.S. video-sharing platform Musical.ly. TikTok has also started wading into online shopping by letting some users add links to shopping sites.
Marketing: Do you feel pulled to ads that touch your emotion? Have you every been horrified but not been able to turn away from adds featuring malnourished dogs and children? I have definitely given donations as those really pull at my heart strings. The New York Times is expanding its emotion-based ad targeting after seeing these ads outperform regular ads on their site. Vox reported that this is a must for those wanting to reach women. Sky and Comcast teamed up to produce an ad on the return of ET which brings a lot of nostalgia that we baby boomers would really be drawn to. Companies like White Claw are surging in popularity by not being shortsighted and marketing to a post-gender world. Their products are as popular with men as they are with women. This article in Forbes stresses that companies need a multicultural marketing strategy developed by people who understand the new demographic paradigm of America. Lastly, here is an insightful article by Hootsuite summarizing everything you need to know about Gen Zs!
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Fall 2019 - One more LIVE webinar on Wednesday at Noon EST.
How Companies are Using Data to Create the Next Generation of Supply Chains - Presented by Steve Tracey, Smeal's Executive Director of the Center for Supply Chain Research? and Penn State Executive Programs, and Professor of Practice - December 11
Save the dates for Winter/Spring 2020!
How to Lead in a Dynamic Multi-Generational Workplace: Framing a Strategic Vision and Interpersonal Influence Strategies - with Smeal's Dr. Andy Gufstason - January 22, 2020
Smeal Tax Update 2020 - with Smeal's Professor of Practice and experienced tax consultant Edward Jenkins - February 5, 2020
Strategic Commitment to an Ethical Culture - with Smeal's Drs. Michelle and Jamey Darnell - February 19, 2020
Business Architecture: Strategy Execution’s Secret Weapon - with Smeal's Dr. Brian Cameron, April 22, 2020