UnME current media consists of television advertising, magazine print advertising, radio advertising, a corporate website, online banner and display advertising and “key word” advertising. The positive about the current media plan is that it integrates a variety of media to reach its target market of women 12-24. The negative is that the current media plan is based on one-way communication while the media habits of its target market are changing rapidly. Its traditional media plan might not be effective to capture its target market because the television audiences are declining and newspapers and magazines were losing readers. Also, most of the teenagers and young adults are active users of social media. However, the social media is absent in its current media plan. According to exibit 7, 60% of teenagers and 68% of young adults use social networking sites daily or more frequently. And those teenagers are young adults are mostly UnME’s target consumers.

Before discussing the numerous advantages and disadvantages of Web 2.0, we want to first introduce Web 2.0 and what’s it’s advances compared to Web 1.0. Web 1.0 is basically a one-way communication where firm deliver their message for customers to read. It utilized top-down information distribution where firm is the major player in publish content and control the information. However, Web 2.0 had emerged and changed information distribution to a two-way distribution where online users become contributors instead of meager viewers. It switched from top-down information distribution model to more democratized bottom-up model. Also, Web 2.0 allowed consumers to correspond and spread ideas with each other rather than receiving the information from a the company.
Advantages of Web 2.0: Companies are one of the heaviest users of Web 2.0 who are also enjoying benefits such as increased knowledge sharing and more effective marketing. These benefits often have a significant effect on their business, UnME Jeans was no different. Web 2.0 could help them reach a huge community of their potential customers, it gives them a chance to communicate their value to customers and improve their brand awareness. For example, because of its target market are women aged from 12 to 24, one way to increase brand recognition by using Web 2.0 is to open up a UnME Jeans virtual store on Zwinktopia. Zwinktopia users are girls aged from 13 to 24 and the site is primarily focused on fashion and music, which perfectly fit UnME’s target market. After launch their virtual store on Zwinktopia, UnME could focus on develop its online marketing strategy including more innovative products and services. This approach could end up offering UnME more effective marketing, better access to knowledge, lower cost of doing business and higher revenues in the long run. By utilizing Web 2.0, UnME can reach out to their customers more effectively, they are able to deliver message to them, to have a conversation with them and eventually to deliver more value to them.
Disadvantages of Web 2.0: Because most of business like UnME are so comfortable with their one-way conversation with customer in Web 1.0. The fact that Web 2.0 had bring customer into the conversation and made them co-creators and disseminators results in company’s lack of control of their brand presentation. Instead of a one-way conversation, Web 2.0 incorporates a two-way conversation, which enables consumers in control of the brand message therefore it is not always possible to control where their brand appears to their customers. Additionally, investing in social media is expensive and it is difficult to measure result; “social media is ahead of the capacity of the advertisers to take advantage of it. Real spend has been held hostage by that lack of analytics and what we’ve been relegated to is fighting for experimental budgets that don’t require clear proof of value”. Moreover, The Internet world unlike the real world is constantly changing and pretty much unpredictably, social media like Zwinktopia, Facebook and YouTube would be risky for UnME Jeans to invest money for development specific creative executives in. The ever-changing environment results in lack of ability in leverage over the long term.Therefore investing in Web 2.0 can be risky.

There are two options that provide for an effective joint approach for integrating social media into the communications plan. Given that the internet and social media in particular, are designed for consumers to conduct a conversation with brands and marketers rather than have companies “talk at” them, YouTube and Facebook both offer rich opportunities for digital consumer interface. It is no secret that women, especially teen girls, love to display and talk about their clothing. YouTube would offer an exciting and user-friendly platform for teen girls to show-off their UnMe Jeans products and generate dialogue with other girls about the brand. Allowing teen girls to upload videos of themselves on the UnMe YouTube channel would fundamentally promote the four core Web 2.0 cultural values of consumer co-creation, social affiliation, digital self-expression, and sharing. Facebook also offers a similar and equally effective user-friendly platform. By creating a brand profile page that would feature a fictional character, women can engage in the fashion dialogue they so often crave for, and, much like YouTube, have a constant brand conversation with their peers. The fictional character would personify the brand and make UnMe Jeans highly relatable to its target market. This also speaks to Web 2.0’s core values. Deploying both a YouTube channel and a Facebook Brand Profile page would be an effective approach to integrating social media into UnMe Jeans’ communications strategy.