1.Read the 2 links about discrimination in NYC department stores, located just before this link in the weekly module. Think about the message that Barney's and Macy's are sending to some of its clientele.
2. Next visit site http://www.census.gov/2010census/
3. Then scroll down to the section that says Census Briefs and Reports (lower left).
4. Review the demographic breakdowns there (age, race, gender, etc) and read the related page(s). Note the percentages by demographic for the USA, and keep them in mind while completing the rest of this assignment.
5. Now think about a national retailer or department store chain that has both brick and mortar stores as well as an online presence (website). Do not select Macy's or Barney's. (Also do not select amazon, etsy, cafepress, e-bay, etc!). The store must be one that sells clothing. I am stressing clothing because it is usually modeled by people - and diversity of people is what this discussion is about.
6. Visit the website for the retailer/department store that you have selected. Click through the pages, looking at the clothing and the models being used by the store. You might want to chose a store that does not sell just speciality clothing for a particular age; for exs, Carter's shops just sell children's clothing, so obviously they would not have a variety of ages modeling their line.
7. Keeping in mind the demographic breakdown you noted in step 4, above, does this retailer do an acceptable job of representing various races, ages, gender, etc, as per step 4? Why or why not?
8. Draft an original discussion posting that discusses:
•What did you note on the Census page? At a high level, what do you see as far as diversity in the U.S. goes? (What you include is up to you. This is not a research paper, so a good-sized paragraph is fine, touching on the majority of demographics).
•What retailer/department store did you select? Provide the URL.
•What did you notice about their advertisements or displays of clothing as far as representing the demographics of the U.S.? Describe in a paragraph or two. Include specific URLs if you want us to visit particular pages that support your discussion.
•Advertising is business! This is a business class. So, assume you were the president of the retail/department store you chose, and you received complaints that its ads were missing a complete demographic. Fill in the blanks to the message shown below and send it to the [alleged] President of the company.
• Then, pretend you are the President that received the message. How would you respond to an email that said:
"President Smith, your company is out of touch with your target audience. Your stores do not address a good segment of its buying population. Your web site was geared towards [fill-in the blank] _________ but could also have been geared towards [fill-in the blank] _________ ." (IDENTIFY IT AS THE MESSAGE SENT)
How would you respond? Keep reading:
Skip a line under your summary message from the bullets above, and then respond by saying "Dear Valued Customer, thank you for your email" and follow it with a couple paragraphs where you either a) describe or justify why you did not target that demographic or b) agree and discuss how you might better align with the U.S. demographics in the future. (IDENTIFY AS RESPONSE TO MESSAGE RECEIVED)
Summary: overall 5 to 6 paragraphs to meet this week's discussion