Numbers go low...

With the development of Web 2.0 brands are no longer in control over their audience, especially when using social media platforms. Following that, audience are no longer passive, but in opposition, they actively discuss personal anecdotes associated with brands and products within social network sites. So how does a brand keep track of what their consumers and the general public are saying about them?

One positive point about brands using the Internet as a media form is that they can trace their audience’s words within different websites, whether these are blogs, forums, social networking sites or even on random websites! In contrary, there is no way of tracing word of mouth in the real world, unless all brands place microphones on their consumers or actively follow them around waiting for them to speak… Okay, we all know that’s not an option. One brand, which has experienced the influence and pressure of social media is North Face. Briefly, last year, although North Face had a presence online, they were very inactive with their audience. They had 8627 facebook fans and 1087 twitter followers, which is really not a lot for a brand with such a popular brand name, and further to that they rarely communicated with their followers. To their advantage, on April 2009 a blog post was entered, named Social Media Smackdown: Mtn Hardwear vs. The North Face, which helped the brand realise the downfall of their online existence and signalled them to take immediate action. 12 months down the line they achieved 150,000 facebook fans and 10,000 twitter followers, through change in online presence.

Advice from The North Face:

To qualify as social media the experience must allow users to share, participate, connect or contribute in a way that facilitates conversation or contributes to shared content.

Looking at North Face as a case study, social media acted as a light bulb to the brand, as it enabled it to easily acknowledged that its popularity and online reputation was unattractive to the consumers, leading to loss amongst the online world.


Due to the popularity of the online sphere nowadays, it is important for brands to get involved in the right way. As mentioned previously and as shown from the North Face case study, a brand can determine its performance amongst its target market from different online sites, which works to an advantage for them, as they can use the comments online to improve their faults. Therefore, it is vital for companies to have online representatives, whose jobs are to browse for online material concerning the brand and aim to perfect it! 

The power to define and control a brand is shifting from corporations and institutions to individuals and communities. 

The bottom line is that consumers have too much power nowadays and companies absolutely need to keep the consumers satisfied! Although there is no accurate way of measuring the result of marketing campaigns in the real world, the online sphere is different, as companies can get accurate statistics on the various sectors they are involved in!

Beyond the Cup.. The Nescafe Plan!

Ethics are becoming a huge responsibility for companies involved in the social media world nowadays, as consumers are looking to be truthful and honest to. As hard as it is to win consumers’ trust and loyalty in the real world, it is 10 times as hard to win their trust within the online sphere. The reason being that consumers hear hundreds of stories about people being scummed on the Internet and obviously no one wants to fall within that trap. It’s almost as if companies have to prove themselves and show consumers that ethics are very important to them, in order to win their devoted attention and time.

As green ethics and environmental concerns are one of the most popular topics on the planet, it is ideal for brands to form campaigns, or even add a section on their website, about green issues. Of course, not just any company can do that! A global brand, which has achieved this very well is Nescafe. Nescafe developed a campaign called ‘Beyond the cup, the Nescafe plan’. Briefly, the idea of it is to show their customers how pure their coffee is and how respectful it is towards the environment. 

“The first important thing that you need to realise as a business owner is that when you join a social network you are joining a community”, states Michael Craig on his article on Ethical Issues in Advertising with Social Media Marketing. Nescafe are backing the previous quote, as they are forming a campaign that’s definitely an issue of concern to their target audience, which shows that the brand is sympathising towards the audience’s concerns and supporting them by verifying that the brand is ‘good’ to the environment as well as its farmers. From a personal view, this campaign has helped Nescafe with its online presence, as their target audience is of older age they needed to create a buzz online, which would be of popular discussion point amongst their consumers. Forming a concern of ethical matters to their consumers, such as protecting the environment and sustainability, is a way to get the audience involved within the social media, without disturbing their privacy and bombarding them with forced emails, which is one thing consumers don’t want! Michael Craig quotes, “as any community in real life, your business has a place in the community but should not invade one’s privacy. If you are pushy in your marketing campaign, you will fail in your Internet business”. Instead, Nescafe give their consumers the opportunity to sign up online, which is also a great way of measuring the success of their campaign amongst their target audience!

Nescafe seem to be ticking all the online media boxes, with keeping their website up to date and posting articles regarding their ‘beyond the cup’ campaign, keeping their audience informed and updated. So, if you are a little curious or interested to see what Nescafe do beyond the cup, check out their website on their sustainability page http://www.nescafe.com/sustainability-uk/Pages/default.aspx !

"But Twitter said so..."

It is unreal how much social networking sites have grown, to the point where consumers believe what they hear online. Because people mostly interact with ‘friends’ and ‘friends of friends’, there is a small amount of trust there already, which is how social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, have become dominant in influencing people. Henry Stern, senior security researcher for Cisco in Canada, quotes “there is an excess of trust in social networking”.

About a week ago, someone posted on Twitter how Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan had passed away. That became a ‘hot topic’ on Twitter, which led to people talking about it and passing on the rumor, basing it on what they read on Twitter. Fortunately for the actor, his official online network retweeted, “Jackie is alive and well. He did not suffer a heart attack and die, as was reported on many social networking sites and in online news reports”. Due to the amount of time people, and especially the young generation, spend online, a trusted relationship has been formed between the consumer and the site, which leads them to believe what they read on the particular site without feeling the need to search into the topic further for reassurance. The chart below shows how much online consumers trust each of the information sources. Social networking sites are on 43%, which is relevantly high. Perhaps the online sphere has lead people to be more open into trusting sources.

Just to prove how influential social networking sites can be, the Jackie Chan rumor is all over Google, so when you start typing Jackie Chan into the search box, the first thing that comes under his name is ‘Jackie Chan dead’ followed by ‘Jackie Chan died’.

 

The online public sphere is a sector that keeps unstoppably expanding with fast rates. As the Internet, and especially with the development on Web 2.0, is such a big part of people’s lives now in all aspects, from social to work, it will be interesting to see how the online generation evolves over the next 10 years. 

Online targeted consumers

How many of you are in favour of Internet shopping? I definitely have my hand raised! It’s easy, time consuming and you don’t need to be dressed up for it. However, although if owning a credit card it is convenient to shop over the net, have you ever thought about who has access to your personal information?

Quoting from a journal on Online privacy, today digital technology makes it possible for personal information as public as a consumer’s name and address or as private as social security or credit card identification number to be gathered and shared around the world in the blink of an eye. I’m going to be using Amazon as my prime example in this week’s blog, as I can personally relate to it. So the main items I ever buy off Amazon are books and DVD’s. There will be odd occasions where I may look at other categories, like video games or iPod accessories. Amazon, as a seller, uses my personal information to send me emails on recommendations and promotions on DVDs and books every week. To make this even creepier, the emails on book recommendations are all related to my university course, which is Advertising and Marketing. An article on consumer’s privacy (Why should consumers surrender privacy?) quotes, one of the reasons Amazon.com is so successful is that it makes great use of online behavioural data by offering customers product recommendations based on what they—and others who viewed the same item—have purchased. The site creates a shopping experience tailored to the individual, which is invaluable.

By targeting every consumer to such a personal level, they create a relationship with the consumer, as the site knows exactly what they are interested in. This gradually forms a trusted relationship, which is what makes the consumer return to the Amazon website. It makes you feel as if they are one of your close friends that know you too well.

Having said that, has advertising become easier, in the sense that it is more precisely targeting consumers? Nowadays, brands that have Internet shopping can track most of the consumer’s personal details and use it in advantage to their research purposes. I’m sure you have noticed how when you sign up for something there are certain details that are marked with star signs and MUST be filled in. It’s like marketers don’t even need to go out and do research anymore; everything is just brought to them through the Internet. That’s the magic of online shopping, to the benefit of the companies.

Is the consumer his own product?

So here’s a little story. After a long day of working you are looking forward to going home and playing your xbox console, in order to relax and escape from your busy life. You enter your home and the controllers are nowhere to be found. You are going crazy. Where on earth had you put the controllers and now it is impossible to play without these magic objects that control your TV? But hold on, you are an xbox360 kinetics owner. You don’t need any controllers; you ARE the controller!

Ever since video games were invented, it has been inevitable to ignore their popularity and fast innovation. The first home video game console was released in 1972, so just under 40 years technology moved from simple-controller based consoles to no-controller-needed-at-all consoles! Pretty impressive if you ask me. However, the point I will make today follows, is technology innovating towards making the consumer his own product?

I’m sure all of you have by now heard the new xbox360 kinetics, where the consumer is the controller of the console. No additional accessories are needed, just the box and yourself. The xbox is able to recognise the player by natural user interface using gestures and spoken commands. Take a look at the link below.

What is kinect?

By making the audience the controller of the game, they are involving them within the digital technology by adding a literal meaning into interactivity. Quoting from an abstract from ‘Design Driven Innovation’, game consoles were considered entertainment gadgets for children who ere great at moving their thumbs; they offered a passive immersion in a visual world. Moving from that, what game consoles have aimed to do is to make the consumer more active towards the product, inserting an element of physical entertainment. Game console companies took a shot on radical innovation with the ‘disappearance’ of controllers and getting the consumer involved.

Although a great majority of consumers find this fascinating, I think it is working towards making the consumer lazier and less sociable. For example, the kinect home exercise.. Is it really worth running on the spot, pretending to exercise when you can go run outside and possibly socialise with friends while doing it? The consumer becomes drawn to the product because of the endless choices of interactive tasks included. If you like animals don’t pretend to stroke and play with an interactive one; go buy a pet!

Of course there are plus points to the innovative technology, such as it kills boredom to a greater extent than normal consoles do and it is more physically interactive in cases of bad weather. And even though it is aiming to make the consumer more active, I believe it is making the consumer more passive, in the sense that it is subconsciously pulling them into believing that they are part of the technology themselves.

Google AdWords

With the huge success that Google has been facing over the past few years, it is logical for companies to want to get involved with the most popular search engine. For those who are unfamiliar with what Google AdWords does, here’s a quick explanation. Google AdWords enables organizations to place their adverts on the right hand side of the Google search page, so that when an audience member types into the search bar specific words that are relevant to the organization’s purposes, their website link comes on the side. Through this, Google have managed to reach an advertising revenue of $28.2 billion in the year of 2010.

From a personal view, Google AdWords is a great way of companies to put themselves out there and into the digital world. Google has been facing a tremendous rise in popularity and usage by Internet users and is by far the most popular search engine. It has even prompted the English speaking population to come up with the phrase “Google it”, meaning ‘search it’. Additionally, Mintel's research shows that Internet users pay nearly twice as much attention to ads via search engines such as Google compared to social networks. Apart from the new preference of online media due to popularity, the recession and economic factors are another reason why companies choose to advertise online. Businesses look at a way that will reach their target market quickly and effectively. The following graph presents figures on the total online advertising between the years of 2001 and 2009.

 After familiarising myself with the purpose of Google AdWords, I had a little browse on Google search to see what would come up on the side. At first I typed in the word ‘cars’ and links to car websites, such as Volvo, Nissan and Mitsubishi came up. Subsequently, I typed in ‘bags’ and links to websites such as M&S and Amazon came up. 

Having observed that, I noticed how the big brand names don’t come up. This could be because smaller brands need to spend more money to get noticed and drive traffic to their website more than bigger brands would. And advertising through Google is definitely a guaranteed way to get attention from their intended audience! As mentioned in my previous blog, Interactivity; New Digital Bible, online advertising is a way for organisations to track their audience’s interactivity with the brand. So, if a company is hesitant as to whether they should advertise on Google AdWords, they could have a trial period where at the end of it they can see how successful it was and decide on whether they want to extend it or end it.

On the downside, speaking from personal experience, Google is very often used as just a quick search by the audience, which means that a lot of consumers don’t pay attention to the right hand side ads. That being said, Google AdWords is not suitable for all audiences, which is something companies must consider before working with Google. 

Mobile Dependence

It can be agreed that one of the world’s greatest discoveries is mobile phones. And why is it so great? It enables the user to communicate with anyone, anytime, anywhere. Quoted from a journal on macromarketing, today there are more than three billion mobile subscribers throughout the world, and this figure is expected to double by the end of 2011 (Global Information Inc. 2006; World Cellular Information Service 2008). The product itself has been on constant innovation since it first came out in 1977 and it creates a huge need for every consumer to always upgrade to own its latest form.

I think it is fair to say that most mobile phone users become dependent on their handheld device, due to the amount of time they spend on it. This dependence has increased recently, with the release of smart phones, as they facilitate the user to stay connected online at all times. And without a doubt I am one of the victims. Speaking from personal experience, my mobile phone is always used as a getaway resort. That meaning that it enables me to stay in contact with all my friends and family at any given time of the day, which is what makes the tiny device so special. Being a blackberry owner myself I can turn to my phone at times of boredom, loneliness and emergency. An advantage of smart phones is that it comes in major use at times of emergency, or as seen in the following advert, in times of personal emergency.

Tesco Ad

Tesco have released an application that can be downloaded for free on iphones/nokia/windows phones, allowing the user to scan a product’s bar code and add it to their online shopping. This application can totally define the literal meaning of ‘mobility’ on the phone as a consumer might just be walking in the street and be scanning bar codes without being anywhere near a supermarket. Many users have found this app useful, however, complains have been starting to form as the update of the new app is not working (Tesco Groceries Ad Reviews). Even though applications like the Tesco Groceries App make a consumer’s life practically a lot easier, a further question regarding the digital world is raised; is digital ruining the real world and contact amongst human beings.

I would say that this question is most likely to initiate from the older generation, who is more used to the traditional way of communicating. Majority of studies suggest that younger consumers tend to be more open minded and receptive toward technological innovations (Dickerson and Gentry 1983; Gatignon and Robertson 1991; Rogers 1995). Quoting that, I find younger generation too focused on mobile phone technology as, mentioned previously, they become dependent on their handheld device almost forming a sign of addiction. Many of you would have noticed when walking in public youngsters between the ages of 12 to 16 interacting on their phones, even though they would be with a group of friends. Are mobile devices starting to isolate the individual to the point where they can’t socialise?

Having said that, I personally wouldn’t think to give up my mobile phone for anything, but I can make a distinction between being social and starting to be isolated because of a rectangular box because if randomly one day technology was to become disappear I would want to be able to survive!!

Interactivity; New Digital Bible

With the rapid growth of the Internet nowadays companies are almost forced to follow and keep up with web 2.0, using it as their strict bible. Consumers have become lazier than ever, with expectations to find everything on the internet. And if coming across a brand or product that provides limited information they are left unhappy, fact! Therefore, companies are under a lot of pressure to keep up with technology and trace the way their audience think and act. Which leads to interactivity. Although consumers are becoming lazy and use the web as their getaway and easy access to consumer goods, they always want something more than just browsing a boring challenge-less website. This is where interactivity is becoming a ‘MUST’ in catching the consumer’s eye and maintaining interest towards the brand. 

Looking at Hoffman & Novak’s (1996) model of new interactivity, there is a constant link between the consumer and the firm. This way the firm is able to receive feedback from consumers. Using a medium such as the Internet the firm can keep track of the consumer’s thoughts and actions, working towards improving what they find ‘wrong’ with the brand and looking to reform a positive attitude. Consequently, a firm must construct their web page in a way that it is easy to explore and use. Hoffman et al (1996) suggest that the primary antecedent of the flow experience in the Web is that the consumer's skills and perceived challenges of using the web must be congruent and above a critical threshold. Surely a very complex web page would not be driving traffic towards it, reducing the chances of the general public visiting that site and defeating the whole purpose of interactivity!

French Connection New Online Activities

The above link is an accurate example of the process and intentions of a firm digitally engaging with their audience. French Connection are becoming more interactive with their new strategy of getting their consumers to rate their products and share their views with peers, claiming it will help to reduce returns. A further reasoning to their new approach is to track their consumers’ thoughts on their goods. The company are planning to expand their digital interaction further by encouraging their audience to upload product videos provoking digital engagement with the brand and wider audience. I think this is a clever and interesting way for a company, such as French Connection, to get their audience’s views shared across. Moreover, their method can work as market research as well, when they are planning to produce a new campaign, or maybe they could even form a campaign based on their audience’s thoughts!

Businesses and Facebook

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/8292744/Facebook-Places-UK-Deals-Starbucks-O2-and-Yo-Sushi-sign-up.html

An uprising way for businesses to monitor their customers is the new facebook app, which detects whereabouts a user is when logging into the site via their mobile phones. Popularity in the application has major businesses, such as o2, Starbucks and Yo! Sushi joining. High successful businesses, such as the ones mentioned previously, benefit a lot from using social networking sites such as facebook, especially if they are aiming to reach the young generation. Showing common interest with their consumers and creating an interactive way to communicate with them builds on brand awareness and brand perception. At the end of the day, business or consumer, who wants to fall behind the trend?

Included in the article, businesses using this application are rewarding their customers for joining and committing to them. This is a great way of creating loyalty and trust between the brand and the consumer, and lets be realistic, if there is a prize involved you are more likely to join!

Social media is an element that, we can almost say, controls our lives nowadays. With facts such as ‘people spending over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook’, you know that is one trend you don’t want to be isolated from!! Social media is rapidly rising globally and seems to be the most effective way for a business to reach its audience faster than ever. So, if you keep hearing about businesses competing over facebook popularity, don’t be surprised!