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In this modern age, companies have many opportunities to reach out to the public to provide information about their products or services through the marketing process. According to Jørgensen (2018), marketing refers to a functional field in a company that relates to the activities of creating, interacting, distributing, and offering goods or services to consumers. Marketing concepts consist of five sections started with four first phases that concentrates on producing something meaningful for customers, while the fifth step seeks to gain something that's beneficial from customers (Armstrong & Kotler, 2015, P.6). According to Grönroos (2004), the marketing process will help marketer gather the consumers’ data which will determine customer desires. Marketers must determine their marketing cycle which consumers are represented by segmentation of the market and marketer must aim their goods to these consumers. The marketing process is responsible for controlling the overall marketing strategy (American Marketing Association, 2008). Therefore, this essay will analyse how marketing is applied to a company called Happy Socks.

Happy Socks is a company that offers fashionable socks and apparel to ladies, men and babies which was established in Sweden in the year of 2008 by Mikael Söderlindh and Viktor Tell (Drummond, 2017). This company applied all marketing elements to ease Happy Socks company to get an image of the brand that could attract attention from customers. Moreover, those elements are used to improve its goods and services as well. Happy Socks maintains the production process and the quality of the products to meet customers satisfaction (Niche Brand, n.d.). As Kumar & Reinartz (2016) stated that marketers must measure and maintain the value of customers in the business and include this aspect in the marketing decisions in real-time. In return, customers give value to the company through several forms of involvement. This exchange or involvement process is an extension to relations between the marketing industry and the target customers in the longer term, aiming on developing the business (Bowden, 2009). Therefore, it is obvious that Happy Socks distribute value for consumers so that they can gain loyalty, confidence and productivity on its products.

Happy Socks company produces various colours and patterns on the products in order to give out many choices to the customers. According Slater (2016), the founders of Happy Socks named the company with a simple and unique name to be remembered, taken from the main products which are socks and happy. This is based on their beliefs that a simple object can spread happiness, so they used ordinary and colourful objects to spread a little happiness around the world. This statement is supported by Carter (2011) that Happy Socks focuses on

designs of the products and combines them to the trendy fashion at the same time, culture, and happiness.

Therefore, Happy Socks can offer limited edition products on certain

occasions. For instance, Happy Socks did a collaboration with one of the famous cartoons on Nickelodeon-SpongeBob SquarePants since 7 of April 2020 in purpose of the patterns can be designed for all ages and it always becomes the happiness character and colours to everyone (License Global, 2020). Moreover, Happy Socks changes the theme or design of the product every month. Based on the survey, the theme of Athletic is in January, Valentine’s in February, International Women’s Day in March, Earth day in April, and so on (Wong, n.d.). This strategy increases the brand image of Happy Socks while offering customers with numerous design variations based on the monthly theme.

Happy Socks used the element of place on marketing mix to spread its products widely and simplify the customers’ action in purchasing the products. As Lacombe (2020) pointed out that the brand Happy Socks is available through concept stores, at selected retailers, and online in more than 95 countries. This way keep the customer closer and spread happiness as its name states (Howland, 2018). According to Bell (2018), the founders of Happy Socks think that future brand growth depends on the expansion of the shop although retail has variety challenges such as layoffs and closures to major bankruptcies nowadays. Moreover, Happy Socks’ founder pointed that those retail challenges make it easy for Happy Sock to secure location because Happy Socks only need small place for the retail size. Thus, it can bring a huge opportunity for the company to develop well. Furthermore, certain advantages can be gained from expanding a new shop to bring clients, possible business partners and the media to the company (Poretsky, n.d.). Hence, this element of marketing is applied well to improve and develop Happy Sock goods and services.

Consumers give more attention to Happy Socks because Happy Socks has been using promotional strategies for unique promotion and advertising to spread the products widely around the world. As Message In a Bottle (2019) pointed out that Happy Socks company applied unique methods to reach the customers. For instance, the company used social media marketing to advertise the products such as Instagram, Google, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube and Facebook to reach out the customers (Reuters, 2019; Message In a Bottle, 2019). These ways allow publics to remain connected to Happy Socks because when a new product is launched, they are able to gain the latest information. Happy Socks could receive the latest 1 Step

consumer feedback and response to consumer inquiries directly through direct and digital marketing. In addition to the online shopping experience, Happy Socks has created its own website for its customers. Happy Socks can reach its young generation target market easily with these platforms, because they are able to buy products from Happy Socks everywhere and every time. Besides, Happy Socks offers such a good service to the customer. This can be seen that they create a bot on the social media and its website to assist the customers to choose the products based on their preferences. Hence, it will create a high level of customer satisfaction. Therefore, those are the reasons why Happy Socks can develop faster because the founders saw their business model clearly and how an amazing and dynamic concept would be a catalyst for growth.

Moreover, Happy Socks has partnered with a number of famous celebrities to market its products through advertisement. For instance, Happy Socks has co-operated with Pedro Pascal, known as an actor from a famous movie Game of Throne and Narcos, to promote the unisex collection in holiday season in 2018 (Kühnl, 2018). Happy Socks released new designs for its 10th anniversary in 2018 that involved a recording with a famous singer, Wiz Khalifa and The Beatles series to celebrate the 50th anniversary for Yellow Submarine movie. Another example, In April 2019 Happy Socks collaborate with David Hasselhoff and released a short film enabling men and women to enjoy swimming and summer accessories in colour, called ‘The Hoff's Day Off’ in order to promote its new item which is full-swimwear for spring/summer collection (DeAcetis, 2019). Hence, consumers are motivated to purchase Happy Socks products when they saw their admired celebrities are wearing Happy Socks products. Although advertising by prominent figures is expensive, Happy Socks’ sales are effective to increase.

Furthermore, Happy Socks applied sales promotion to encourage new customers to buy their products. For instance, Happy Socks provided a 10% discount when entering email address on the website for first online purchase. Besides that, Happy Socks has brought its target market closer to younger generation because Happy Socks will give 20% off for student plus free shipping (Happy Socks, 2020). The promotion will encourage customers to buy more, as they tend, when purchased during this period, to receive additional benefits like savings. In addition, Happy Socks cooperates with other e-commerce store such as Amazon although Happy Socks has its own website. This is another strategy to promote the products widely 2 Step

because it is obvious that Amazon can help to increase the sale since Amazon is the second highest net worth e-commerce in the world. At this technological advancement period, Happy Socks was able to promote their products more easily on the target market for the younger generation with the presence of an online store. Today the younger generation spends more time surfing the internet and prefers shopping online because it is more flexible and convenient. Therefore, Happy Socks' sales can be boosting through an e-commerce platform from its targeted market. In order to attract new consumers, Happy Socks will hold a special event every month and give away that involve customers to share photos of themselves wearing the products of Happy Socks or like the post on its social media in order to build its brand loyalty under product strategy. As demonstrated, in February 2019, Happy Socks hold a give-away by clicking like for the Happy Socks’ post on Facebook and tell what they love about Happy Socks (Facebook for Business, 2018). In return, customers will get some special prizes such as some pairs of socks and so on. This involvement from the customers is an exchange process that will strengthen the relations between the marketing industry and the target customers in the longer term. This will allow Happy Socks to attract more customers and build their reputation for high quality, unique and branded products.

In conclusion, consumers demand a higher value since they anticipate seeking greater benefits from a purchased product, in particular products that price higher than others. Therefore, companies need to analyse all aspects of marketing that will help them improve rather than become a destructive weapon for their business. Happy Socks applied its marketing well in terms of the product, place, and promotion of marketing mix that help them to reach the costumer value. Hence, it helps them to create a long-term relationship with customer. Although a good and reliable product is produced, for continued growth, many areas need improvement. The improvement is essential to satisfied customers and good business result in this modern age.

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Happy Socks. (2020). Happy Socks - Funky Colorful Socks For Men, Women & Kids. Buy Cool Design Socks Online! Retrieved from https://www.happysocks.com/gl/? gclid=CjwKCAjwp-X0BRAFEiwAheRuiSAjkwbG5X12ex3iFXsl4V4KCDod4ph8Z8oCZMlY2OgZc3rB2VHyxoCI8QQAvD_ BwE Howland, D. (2018, May 8). Happy Socks to open 30 more stores. The Retail Dive. Retrieved from https://www.retaildive.com/news/happy-socks-to-open-30-more-stores/523029/ Jørgensen, S. (2018). Marketing. In Handbook of Dynamic Game Theory, 865-905. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-44374-4_22 Kühnl, S. (2018, November 13). Video: Pedro Pascal dances for Happy Socks. The Sportswear International. Retrieved from https://www.sportswearinternational.com/videos/stories/Video-Pedro-Pascal-dances-for-Happy-Socks-14403 Kumar, V., & Reinartz, W. (2016). Creating enduring customer value. Journal of Marketing. 80(6), 36–68. doi: 10.1509/jm.15.0414 Lacombe, G. (2020, February 10). Happy Socks to open second-largest store in NYC. The Fashion Network. Retrieved from https://us.fashionnetwork.com/news/Happy-socksto-open-second-largest-store-in-nyc,1184587.html License Global. (2020, April 8). Happy Socks Debuts ‘Spongebob SquarePants’ Collection. The License Global. Retrieved from https://www.licenseglobal.com/footwear/happysocks-debuts-spongebob-squarepants-collection Message In a Bottle. (2019, February 1). Happy Socks, the brand that makes your feet trendy. The Message In a Bottle. Retrieved from https://message-inabottle.com/en/happysocks-trendy-socks/ Niche Brand. (n.d). Happy Socks Provides With The Best and Happiest Produtcs Around Niche Brand. Retrieved from https://nichebrand.com/happysocks Poretsky, S. (n.d.). The Advantages of Opening a New Store in a New Market Area | Chron.com. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-openingnew-store-new-market-area-19283.html Reuters. (2019). Creative, quick-fire and sassy conversations – a new way to drive sales for Happy Socks. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/sponsored/article/a-new-wayto-drive-sales-for-Happy-Socks Slater, J. (2016, February 22). Sock Happy. The Marketing Sage. Retrieved from http://www.themarketingsage.com/sock-happy/ 5 Step

Wong, X. (n.d.). Social Media on Happy Socks Marketing Campaign. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/23803682/Social_Media_on_Happy_Socks_Marketing_Ca mpaign

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