What Are The Opportunities and Challenges Marketers Face with Mobile Marketing?

November 21, 2007 at 3:59 am · Filed under WEEK 11

“You can’t approach mobile like the Internet or other media,” said Mandel. It’s a personal device. Some of the best ad campaigns offer utility in the form of a useful application or some kind of entertainment such as video or a game, she said. Both utility and entertainment were included in a campaign for DHL created by Mandel and her team at Ogilvy earlier this year.

Marketing using mobile devices is very new.  It is very hard to predict how mobile users will react to advertising on their personal device.  Users will not want to be bombarded with messages each day especially when they have no interest in the product or service that the company wishes to offer.  One drawback to advertisers looking into mobile: Carriers don’t provide data that metrics-minded advertisers crave to target messaging. Data include demographic and psychographic information, location, and other useful information.However, there is a huge benefit for marketers using mobile as a vehicle to consumers. “Most people have their cell phones on them all the time, so if they’re if watching TV or reading a magazine and they see an invitation that says they can use their mobile phone to enter a contest or to enter a vote, they don’t have to move – they can respond to that call to action right where they’re sitting.” Globally, there are 2.5 billion cell phones in use, up a half billion in 12 months, according to Wireless Intelligence. (CBC) The key to mobile advertising is to let the customer be involved and engaged similar to web advertising. Imagine you’re watching a music video on your mobile device and at the end of the video you have the opportunity, through a single click experience, to buy the artist’s T-shirts, CDs, live tracks not available through any other media, or event posters. Last year, Molson used MyThum technology to issue concert “tickets” by SMS. Ticket recipients get a bar code on their mobile phones, which are then scanned when they get to the theatre.

In addition “As the technology for hand-held devices has advanced, more and more people have traded in their traditional cell phones for gadgets such as smart phones and PDAs,” said Jeffrey Glueck, chief marketing officer for Travelocity. “Whether it’s changing a flight or adding a rental car to their booking, mobile.travelocity.com gives travelers options for managing their trip while they’re on-the-go.” Coupled with increased marketing for online banking, retail banking customers are looking ahead to where the two technologies meet: mobile banking.

“Probably the most important medium for advertising in the 21st century is going to be the cell phone — not print media, not billboards”.  Although mobile advertising is not very big right now, marketers take this into consideration for the future. One of the main concerns with mobile marketing is that the user has to pay for incoming and outgoing messages. If companies can eliminate this barrier by paying the bill themselves then it will open up enormous opportunities. Cell phone users in Singapore can now get free e-mail access, thanks to the development efforts of St. John’s-based Consilient, a developer of “push” e-mail, multimedia and advertising solutions for mobile phones.  If marketers in North America can follow Singapore, it will open up a huge doorway for companies to reach their target market.

References  

ClickZ: The iPhone and Local Search Marketing                                                                           http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3626458 

ClickZ: Mobile Advertising 101: Tips for Beginners                                                                               http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3627376 

ClickZ: Music Gone Mobile                                                                                                                  http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3624661                                                                                      

The Globe and Mail Technology: Target audiences give text messaging the thumbs uphttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070920.wsrfastmythum20/BNStory/Technology/ 

The Globe and Mail: Pushing the Mobile Envelope http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/content/subscribe?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2FLAC.20070911.TQ7PG5_2%2FTPStory%2F%3Fquery%3Dmarketing%2Busing%2Bsms&ord=25085713&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true

CBC: Companies discover marketing power of text messaging                                              http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2006/09/25/text-messaging.html

Business Wire: Travelocity Launches New Service for Mobile Devices             http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20071114005168&newsLang=en 

CNN Money: Diebold Reveals Branch of the Future Updates at Retail Delivery 2007Company presents mobile banking technology at concept room                                                                 http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/CLW05814112007-1.htm 

 

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Should Marketers be allowed to Advertise to Kids in 3-D worlds?

November 14, 2007 at 7:03 am · Filed under WEEK 10

Virtual worlds targeted at children are a relatively new market, but one that’s growing quickly. Researchers expect that more than half of kids online will belong to a virtual world within four years–more than double the current figures.

Kids are spending more time online than ever before. Social networking sites for children are growing fast – and they are attracting attention from big media companies and concerned adults, says Matthew Wall. Parents are very concerned because its very difficult to monitor how their child interacts online.  Unlike TV where certain shows are rated and can easily be blocked, the internet is extremely hard to control. But concern is growing about the way some of these sites are marketing themselves to young children. Webkinz may be advertising-free, but it is nonetheless relentlessly commercial in its approach.

“There is a lot of interest in the Webkinz business model as it is one of the first to combine the real and virtual worlds so effectively.Offering real toys reinforced by a virtual world of games is a brilliant way to enhance a brand and build up a continual relationship with it. That they can do this without resorting to advertising, as many free-to-play games sites have to do, is impressive.” It will be difficult for young kids to realize that they are being advertised to. A lot of them will just think that they are playing one of the latest games without even realizing that they are being marketed too.

“This is a very powerful medium for marketing because it involves this huge engagement. It’s more powerful than a sugar cereal commercial,” said Bob Bowers, CEO of Numedeon, whose Whyville members spend about three and a half hours a month on the virtual world. He added: “Therefore there need to be standards”. The internet is much more effective because it’s a lean forward medium rather than a lean back medium like what were used to in TV ads.

How effective will online advertising be? For example, both Gaia Online and Whyville worked with Toyota on a Scion car promotion. After launching a virtual car ownership promotion “In the first three hours we had 29,000 Gaia users getting a car and showing it off to their friends,” according to Craig Sherman, CEO of Gaia Online. Businesses are going to be investing a substancial amount of money into future online advertising. Research firm Parks Associates expects that advertisers will spend $150 million in virtual worlds by 2012, up 10 times the spending in 2006. Though still a relatively small amount, it excludes marketers spending on their own virtual worlds, like BarbieGirls.com.

As marketers become more creative and adapt to new methods it will be increasingly difficult for consumers to know when they are being advertised to. Consumers are so saturated with advertisments that most of us block them out. However, the future success of advertising will depend on consumers not knowong that they are being advertised to. Children need more protection online as unscrupulous advertisers switch from TV to the internet. Children can easiliy be manipulated by advertising because they are unaware that they are being advertised too. 

References

Click Z: Virtual Worlds Aren’t Just for Reaching Adults Anymore                                                                     http://www.clickz.com/3626340

CNET News: Are kids ready for advertising in virtual worlds?  

http://www.news.com/Are-kids-ready-for-ads-in-virtual-worlds/2009-1024_3-6213661.html?tag=nefd.pop

The Guardian: Online marketers aim for the kids                          http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/17/advertising

The Guardian: Virtual worlds for kids take off                         http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/aug/09/digitalmedia.web20

 

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Marketers will be Very Successful if They Achieve Viral Marketing Through Face book!

November 8, 2007 at 6:35 am · Filed under WEEK 9

Face book Inc. announced a new advertising system that allows marketers to target their messages based on the interests of the social-networking site’s millions of users, confirming weeks of speculation.

Advertising on face book will be extremely challenging for marketers.  It has raised many concerns with users as their profiles contain a lot of personal information. Although, marketers are able to personalize ads with the amount of information that is available to them, people do not want to be disrupted with advertisements while using this site. “The biggest thing marketers should learn about social networks is how to be part of the experience instead of disruptive,” said Melanie Deitch, director of marketing at Facebook. Deitch tells companies to go back to the drawing board if they want flashing ads or other forms of intrusive advertising.

How are companies going to achieve this on facebook? Facebook doesn’t allow companies to brand their own web pages. Instead, companies are setting up and sponsoring groups. The benefits of joining these groups range from discounts on products to chances to meet celebrities. Others run contests or provide free content, like music or desktop wallpaper. Apple Computer, for example, sponsors the Apple Students group, which offers deals on Apple products and has more than 471,000 members. Victoria’s Secret’s Pink sleep and loungewear group has more than 210,000 members companies are coming up with new approaches. If users are opting in to the sponsored sites then it is not annoying or distruptive to them.  Marketers have to become increaslingly creative for it to be worth while for the user to visit the sponsored site.

The key to marketing success on social websites is to get users involved. “When people engage your page on Facebook, that’s going to spread information about your brand virally through the social graph,” Zuckerberg said. “It becomes a trusted referral.”  A marketing phenomenon that encourages people to pass along a marketing message in such a way that it spreads like a virus. It includes compulsive reading, listening or viewing.  It can be text, image, video or sound.  It is so amazing that people have the urge to share with others.  The internet is the ideal place for viral marketing because of the network effect (Class Lecture). 

Young people know when their online social worlds are being invaded by advertisers, but social networks are starting to become viable branding avenues for companies that understand user participation is what makes them tick.  If marketers can create an ad or a campaign that is truly remarkable they will be highly successful on face book. 

References  

Cnet Newa: Facebook Ads make a flashy debut in NewYork                                                                                           http://www.news.com/the-social/8301-13577_3-9811932-36.html 

The Wall Street Journal: Face book rolls out behavioral ad system              http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119437737843484207.html?mod=googlenews_wsj  

Wired: Big Biz Buddies up with Gen Y.                                                                   http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2006/12/72311    

 

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Advertising on the Web No Longer has to be Intrusive to the Consumer!

November 1, 2007 at 10:58 pm · Filed under WEEK 8

Consumers complain more about web advertising than any other forms of advertising. 

Advertisers learned that being intrusive to the web user is very ineffective. Users got annoyed and downloaded software to prevent pop up blockers and to control spam. They realized the most effective way to reach the consumers is to pull them in, rather than push ads out to them.  The web provides a highly targeted receptive audience.  Web advertising can be interactive, and therefore by definition more engaging (Lecture Notes).  

The Winston-Salem-based company said in a news release that its technology should be welcomed by users because it “is a completely opt-in ad experience” that is less intrusive than traditional forms of online advertising. GETImperative’s technology allows people to identify products they see in some form of media, and follow links to be able to purchase those products themselves. CEO Rick Harrison said that makes for a more seamless viewing experience for the audience, which is better for advertisers who don’t want their messages tuned out. This makes a more positive experience for the internet users, rather than a negative on, like before.  If the user is having a good experience the ad will be much more effective for both the user and the advertiser.   

The fastest growing form of advertising on the web is Rich Media. Rich-media ads are the flamboyant video or animated promotions that frequently superimpose themselves on the screens of viewers who visit content sites. “Rich media is about creating a more positive brand image”.  Rich media is a form of entertainment to the consumer, rather than a traditional ad.  If the consumer can tell that it’s advertising, then it didn’t work (Class Notes).   

E-Marketer projects U.S spending on online video advertising will rise to $4.3 billionin 2011, from $410 million last year. Online video ads will be delivered with an accuracy never dreamed possible with broadcast video. Think of the power and value when media planners can say, “Your Dove Beauty Bar commercial will only be shown to profiled or registered users of a portal, say MSN or Yahoo. We can guarantee it will be seen only by women above the age of 24, and they’ll see all three of your ads in sequence. Furthermore, we’ll guarantee how many ads will actually be viewed not just broadcast.” Broadcast TV, which relies on ratings, will never be able to make a similar guarantee to advertisers.

Advertising on the web can be extremely powerful and effective.  It allows marketers to reach the target market in a more interactive way than any other medium.  By entertaining the consumer rather than selling to them, users will not only view the advertisement but become highly involved in the experience.  With so much information available on the web, marketers are able to offer a much more personalized experience.  

References  

ClickZ:The Rise of Online Video Ads                                                                                             http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3627030 

The Business Journal: GET Interactive launches new advertising technology http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/stories/2007/10/01/daily19.html 

Wired: Flashy, Targeted Ads Fuel Boom                                                          http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2004/04/63251

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Click Fraud is Costing E-commerce Businesses Millions of Dollars!

October 26, 2007 at 10:08 pm · Filed under Week 7

If your sales and marketing costs don’t add up, or seem suspicious, it could be that you are one of the many victums of click fraud. 

What is Click Fraud? Click fraud is when a human, automated script or computer program clicks on a paid asvertisment for a fraudualent or non-legitiamte purpose. The purpose is to artificially raise a competiors marketing costs and publisher’s income from Adsense (Lecture Notes).

This is a major concern to web businesses because a large amount of their marketing budget might be wasted on fraudulent clicks. In addition, it is almost impossible to measure success of the ad or campaign if there are fraudelent clicks. 

Fraudulent traffic accounted for 28.1% of all ad hits on such networks during the third quarter of 2007, compared to 25.6% for the second quarter of this year, and 21.9% for the first three months of the calendar, Click Forensics contends. Outside of North American countries, click fraud is most likely to originate from France (4.2%), China, (4.1%) or Germany (3.7%). Moreover, “with the Canadian market about two to three years behind the U.S, click fraud maybe be more prevalent in the Canadian market.

It is obviously an issue that should be dealt with better by search engine sites.  Even though search engines can make a profit from fraudulaent clicks, as it drives more traffic to their sites.  Web businesses might become frustrated if nothing is done about this.  If there is a search engine that can closely monitor fraudulent action, this will attract more e-commerce businesses.  If firms can trust that their ads are being clicked on by ligitimate consumers, than it could be more wothwhile for them to spend more advertising dollars. 

What is being done? Google is testing a new advertising model to deal with click fraud: cost-per-action ads. Advertisers don’t pay unless the customer performs a certain action: buys a product, fills out a survey, whatever. Further more, to combat the negative publicity, last week Google launched its Ad Traffic Quality Resource Center, which intends to provide advertisers with information on click fraud.

Google has started to realize that something has to be done.  A large portion of their profit comes from businesses advertising on their sites. However, if this issue is not effectivley dealt with then google could lose out on future e-commerce business ad dollars. It is only a matter of time before another search engine company comes out with the technology to effectivley deal with this problem and then could potentially steal business away from google.

References

 Biz Report ClickForensics: Click fraud reaches 16%http://www.bizreport.com/2007/10/clickforensics_click_fraud_reaches_16.html 

Click Forensics: Experts say issue of click fraud not improving Google disputes the results published. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9043542&intsrc=news_ts_head

Globe and Mail: Fighting click fraud: Is it really down for the count? http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070822.wgtclick23/BNStory/PersonalTech/

Wired: Google’s Click Fraud Crackdown  http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2006/07/71370                                                                                                                                 

 

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If e-commerce businesses are not careful they could lose their search spot for good.

October 18, 2007 at 1:11 am · Filed under Week 6

“If a SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or ’throwaway’ domains, your site could be removed entirely from Google’s index.”

The online search rankings are becoming increasingly more competitive than ever before.  Businesses count on top rankings in order to attract consumers. There are some businesses that will do whatever it takes to climb to the top of the search lists. One study concluded that sites that appear on the first page of results attract six times the traffic they did before landing there and earn double the sales. With this in mind its very easy to see why businesses are tempted to use black hat methods.

Google and other search engine companies now employ a team of expert web detectives to flush out and defeat the Black Hat optimizers. A Black Hat optimizer is paid thousands of dollars to optimize your website and had little or short lived results.  Initially this method can bring the search rating up and draw in more users. However, businesses are constantly making changes and improvements to their websites, so there are no guarantees to the websites success over time. In addition, the site could be removed from the search results if the business is abusing the system. 

With many companies frustrated with wasted budgets and poor results from optimization, we are seeing a trend to the natural and pure side of Internet marketing. We refer to this as organic or natural optimization . Instead, they’re fine-tuning their sites so that they appear in ordinary search results. In addition to being free, these links are often more effective than paid ads, because some users pay more attention to them. Top ranking organic search results are definitely more effective then paid search results. The organic search results appear right under the search bar where the user typed in the item they wish to search. 

The paid search results show up on the right hand side in a column on their own. It is very important that e-commerce businesses spend time instead of money to research organic methods.  In the long run, trying to cheat the system is not worthwhile.  If businesses learn how to properly use the organic search methods, they will be much further ahead.

References

Wired: Google the bottom line

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2005/02/66485 

American Chronicle: Companies use Optimized Online Media for the Most effective Search Engine Marketing, SEM, SEO & ROI. http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=40294 

Investors Business Daily: Internet and Technology. Search Engine Optimization: Skip the Ads, Get the Clicks http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=17&issue=20071010  

German BMW Banned from Google                                                                                                          http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2006-02-04-n60.html  

Pew Internet: Reports online activity and pursuits                                                    http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/132/report_display.asp 

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ARE WEB COMMUNITIES THE FUTURE OF E-COMMMERCE?

October 11, 2007 at 11:29 pm · Filed under Week 5

Building a web community will be the way of the future for internet sites. 

What is a web community?

Community is the relationships between users that encourages stickiness and loyalty. Community can create attractive content for free and they can make the user feel that they are valued by the firm. Community can satisfy needs not otherwise able to be satisfied individually finding people through tools are message boards, customer reviews, chat sessions, member’s areas (Class Lecture). One of the best examples of a web community today is face book.   

The Way of the Future  

Web communities are becoming increasingly popular among internet users.  Almost every user is involved with a community. Internet users belong to communities to build relationships and connect with other people. Face book is one of the fastest growing social networks today. Communities are a tool for users to discuss interests, concerns and discussions. This is a great way for e-commerce businesses to connect with their consumers. Businesses now have an opportunity to build a relationship with their customers, which was once very hard to do over the internet. Dell used the platform to create Dell IdeaStorm, launched last February to interact with customers and solicit ideas about products. According to Swensrud, the computer manufacturer was soon inundated with suggestions to return to offering the Linux operating system with its machines. As a result, Dell decided to offer machines pre-installed with Ubuntu Linux on some consumer desktop and notebook machines.

Web communities create oppourtunties for businesses and find solutions for customers. “We want to be that trusted resource for small business owners, to help them grow their business and be with them when they grow,” Mark Hogan, Bank of America’s president of small business banking told the AP. “And we want to help them anyway we can to make that process easier for them.”  By solving cutomers problems this will increase customer satisfaction.  Furthermore is will help the company identify problems before they happen. If something occurs the firm is immediatly notified through the site, rather than a few months down the road when sales have declined.

Now eBay is creating online community with their new My Neighborhoods feature. eBay wants to facilitate more interaction between buyers and sellers. There are more than 600 neighborhoods already.

This is a smart way to add more user-generated content instead of just ecommerce to the site. It also gives the community more reasons to stay on the site. If people are spending more time on the site it will increase stickiness, which will lead to more sales.

References  

Marketing Pilgram

http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/10/ebay-builds-social-networking-into-site.html 

The ClickZ Network: Dell Sales force

http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3627070 

Web Pro News: Bank of America Launches Social Network

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/10/10/bank-of-america-launches-social-network

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KNOWING YOUR E-CUSTOMER CAN MEAN THE DIFFERNCE BETWEEN FAILURE AND SUCCESS!

October 2, 2007 at 11:24 pm · Filed under Week 4

The biggest mistake firms make when designing a website is thinking that the visual design is more important than the informational design. (Class Lecture)  

Graphics are an important part of the website, however if it lacks content than the website is useless.  There are many components that make up a good website. To make a good web design you must be able to think like your customer, understand their needs and build an attractive and interactive web presence.

Think like Your Customers You must put yourself in the customers’ position.  “Whenever you’re doing anything electronically in terms of messaging or marketing, always get into the mindset of the audience you’re trying to target,” he said. Think about who your customers are. Are they young web savvy educated individuals or are they older, more traditional and slower to adapt to new technology. If you’re targeting the younger generation you should make your website more flashy and appealing. However, if you’re targeting the older baby boomer generation, then a clear, simple, easy to use website would be better suited. “Failure to understand what constitutes an effective website will result in dissatisfaction from both the business and user perspective”. Understand Your Customers Needs  

Understanding users and their information needs are critical elements in the success of a website. “If users are not satisfied, cannot complete a task or are frustrated by their experience, the next website is only a click away.”

Attractive and Interactive Web Presence It also important to develop a lively and attractive web presence, Mr. Patrick said, and to update it often. “You want to have an active and ongoing online discussion with your customers and suppliers,” This is very important for an e-commerce business because people do not get the same interactive experience as would by going into a physical store.  It is very difficult to build a relationship with someone browsing your website. Allowing the customers to post blogs on the web site will increase sales and customer satisfaction.  This is a great way to get direct feedback from the customer and allow the firm to make any necessary changes and or improvements of their product or service.

Firms need to carefully consider all aspects of a good web design because it can make the difference between a successful and unsuccessful business.    

Resources 

A paper for the Small Enterprise Association of Australia and New Zealand 16^th annual Conference: The Importance of Information Design for Small Business Websites

http://www.cecc.com.au/programs/resource_manager/accounts/seaanz_papers/63BentleyTheimportanceofwebdesignfinal.pdf

 

The Frederick News Post: Internet Marketing Secrets  

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/business/display.htm?StoryID=65245

 

The New York Times: Strategies to Succeed Online

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/business/smallbusiness/26brand.html?em&ex=1190952000&en=5bd90c957be2ba58&ei=5087%0A

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