2006-09-07T18:28:00.000-07:00

Assignment's Due 11/9

Brand democratization is the increasing trend amongst businesses wishing to enhance their position on the internet. Since the internet is a tool seeing as leveling the playing field for businesses and consumers alike it’s only fitting that businesses would integrate consumers into their marketing mix more directly now.

The article discusses many companies who are using consumers to make their ads ironically enough. Converse set up a short film contest using the winning submissions to be featured in their online and TV spots. Mercedes featured ad spots with photos sent in online by consumers with their own Mercedes. Mazda had an online contest to see what consumers interpreted their slogan “Zoom-zoom-zoom” as. Audi had 3 AFI filmmaker’s film short documentaries on their stunning new Audi A3’s revolutionary compact design.

This has grown out of a stronger customer and corporation bond then ever before. Blogs facilitate helping consumers out with information and advanced online technical support are the reason why.

For new companies too like Internet Television network Music Plus they are having a contest for student films which the winners will have their works publicized on the network itself.

Media buyers still have a role in this new marketing only now they will be working with strategists and planners to execute these campaigns. The article recommends that the marketers focus on their customer’s passion for their product. So the customers submitting need to be rewarded to make it feel their efforts were worthwhile.

This article was interesting as there really is a growing shift in marketing away from solely the marketers to the consumers themselves. This method signals a new era for internet marketing and all marketing in general. It is a fast growing way to get brand recognition and support directly from the people who support it by submitting some aspect of themselves to the product or service.

http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3524906

The article was about Email Newsletters and newsfeeds and some recent studies on them. It explains that first email newsletter’s ability to subscribe has gone up 25% which is great and it shows email newsletter’s are still important to the bottom line and are getting easier to subscribe too. The scary thing is that customers only on average read about 19% of the newsletter with as many as 35% just scanning a very small part of it. The introduction paragraph on newsletters was for the most part skipped over entirely by customers.

The information flood has increased many more people are being very choosey about only having the most vital newsletters delivered to their box. Users are often found to trade off newsletters of a similar subject against each other with much ease.

Managing email has become very routine for many consumers as they know now how to organize as opposed to a few years ago. Now there is an average of 3 email accounts for each user. Each email account could probably be set up for different purposes; business emails or personal emails. A percentage even set up an email account for probable spam mail which is necessary for signing up for things online. Due to an increase in email space subscribers of newsletters are archiving them more which is good and bad. The good means it makes email newsletters more lasting and relevant, the bad is it contributes to the information overload of a user. There are still problems with html vs. txt newsletters that need to be cleaned up for users.

RSS news feeds are the new wave in newsletters enabling someone to go to one site to read all their news feeds. Many think this is the next thing but a lot of users find it bothersome to have to go to a site to read their news rather then receiving email about it.

I think this article is very relevant to where internet marketing is going discussing email, newsletters, and the way we manage information in the data age. I agree with the fear of an information overload due to the extreme ease it is on one hand to get information on the web. I think that RSS news feeds will be the dominant news reader as soon as it’s integrated like an email tool where it is easier to get to. I know I scan information on the web and I agree that we have zero attention spans on the web, so the article shows how important it is to get the information we want across very clearly and concisely digitally.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/newsletters.html

Assignment Due 11/2
Three Things I learned from the in-class guest speakers:
1)Word of mouth is often started by the companies themselves.
2)Many free trial sites like "Reality Foreclosure Tracker" have a rate of 50% of people who check it out end up subscribing.
3)Although hard to get the customer on the line, Direct Selling through the phone has a relatively high response rate of 20%

Assignment Due 9/14
3) Potential uses for business through blogging:
-Free publicity for new product if the product is discussed on a blog
-Information about a product creates a buzz before the initial press-release
-An easy way to reach your customers and discuss troublesome issues before they get too widespread
-Flaws in products may be brought to attention very quickly and publicly
-A great chance to talk to new and old customers
-Research groups can go to popular bloggers with themed blogs like music and find out whats the hippest thing out at the moment
-Can enable a new product to gain attention very quickly
-Can sell things directly from Blogs
-For news organizations blogs can be updated very frequently, much faster than traditional print media
-Puts a face on a faceless company, for instance Microsoft. This gives customers more of an positive attitude of a company
-Brings issues to the light that traditionally would not have been.
-If enough discussion is on a blog, the topic of discussion would be nearly forced basically to talk about the accusations
-Incorrect things talked about in the mainstream media would be brought to light on an unfiltered blogger's site
-Blog postings are usually more truthful as they are not subject to being editorized by someone whom disagrees with the writers opinion.
-can sell adspace on your blog
-can be created and maintained so cheapely that a profit is bound to be made
-blog readers contain passionate and influential people vital to a companys success

4) Blogs should be more personal to the readers as traditional marketing and advertising has been to the widest possible audience possible. With blogs usually the smarter and hipper people will be reading them which means the advertising through blogs should be smart and information based more son then a simple ad on TV. Blogs are seen as more personal to readers too as they have to log on to a certain site to read it rather than just catching an ad on TV. Being a more personal medium not subject to editorilization, if someone at your favorite entertainment review blog likes a movie you can be more assured they actually do and they are not being payed to sway their opinion.

5) Blogs are not a fad, rather the next step in marketing and advertising. A great way to get new product information out fast. Also feedback is gotten quickly, so companies don't have that delayed reaction as it is with print-media ads. Also a vital tool in connecting the audience to your companies wavelength.

6) I would like my major's department of English start a blog. It would be a good way to show going-ons on campus and book-signings and such in the area. Also a good way to connect students together with the same interest in English as their major. Blogs are the best for a web-based community and I think it's just the thing that is needed for our school's departments.

Assignment Due 9/21

1) I picked Saucony Originals Jazz Original Black/White for this assignment.
2) I found out from reading the reviews that the shoe lasts a long time. I also found that the shoe is comfortable and springy right away, no need to "break it in" as reviewers mentioned. Many also enjoy this, the classic "original" saucony style to the newer ones.
3) It would make me more likely to buy the shoe as the vast majority of the reviews were positive. And if what people think about the shoe for the most part matches my initial impression of it, for me it is worth bying.
4) The advantages of people reading reviews of shoes before they buy it, is that they will make a better decision on whether the shoe is quality from hearing what people have said about the shoes after they bought it.
5) The advantage to offering reviews on the site is that many are hesitant about buying shoes before hand not knowing how the shoe will feel or last. Here is an open forum where consumers can discuss their purchases and although there are bad reviews about the shoes, there are alot of good reviews for shoes as well. So most likely there won't be returns because the customer knows more what shoe will fit them.
6) Sites like Kencole which only offer their shoe to sell probably shouldn't put negative reviews. This is because the success of their company relies on their shoe only and the customer will not want the shoe if it has negative reviews. The difference with zappos is if a customer sees a negative review of a shoe they can just buy another one from their site.
7) I sometimes scour the web before I plunk my hard earned cash down on an item. I may check out horrordvds.com before i pick up a horror dvd, or pitchforkmedia.com before i pick up a music cd. It is worth it to read reviews from actual consumers whom you can trust on to review the item accurately. Otherwise you will only read the products press releases' which are only designed to sell the product and not be accurate.
8) I think the site is a seller of a lot of a kind of item they should have reviews on the site because if a customer does not like a review they will find something better on the site to buy. A company itself should not put bad reviews because their success only relies on that product, so if anything good reviews only should be on that site.

mkt