Archive for category Articles in english
Google is launching Google Profiles … A Facebook killer ?
Posted by Frederic Nuyts in Articles in english on April 22, 2009
Typing your name into a search engine is a great way to find out what the Internet thinks of you–at least until the first page of results shines a spotlight on that embarrassing episode from your misspent youth. Now Google, though, is offering people who share their profile information with the search giant more control over how they appear in its results.
Google has a complicated algorithm for determining which Web sites show at the top of its search results, presenting the top 10 picks on its results page. But in what amounts to an admission that this doesn’t fully satisfy all the needs of people searching for a specific name, Google now will show a separate 11th result–a special “onebox” that presents links to people with a particular name and links to their Google profiles.
Google “is giving people more of an opportunity to have greater presence and to surface the most relevant content about themselves in a way they have some say about,” said Joe Kraus, director of product management in Google’s apps group.
To illustrate the utility of the feature, Kraus brings up the example of Brian Jones. If you happen to share the name of the Rolling Stone’s deceased founding guitarist, you don’t have much opportunity to show up high on Google’s search results for that name. That changes with the new people-search feature, he said, though it doesn’t affect the regular search results above.
There’s a quid pro quo, though. To appear in Google’s special people-search results you must set up a Google profile. The more information you include on your profile, the better your odds that your profile will appear among the four names that can appear in the special result, Kraus said.
At least for now, Google profiles are a collection of information you are willing to share publicly–photos, interests, Web sites about yourself. Through integration with your Gmail contacts, which lets you identify people you trust and share contact information with them, Google’s profiles are gradually becoming a deeper reflection of ties called the social graph.
Kraus wouldn’t comment on how the profile page fits into Google’s social strategy, though he did say in general that Google’s strategy in general focuses “not on how you make any one site more social, but how you make the entire Web more social.”
One thing is sure, though: spotlighting profiles this directly in search results, given Google’s immense search clout and people’s concern about their self-image, extends much greater power to the profiles site.
To lend even more prominence, Google is beginning a “Google Me” promotion in which people who search for “me” will get an opportunity to see their profile or sign up for one.
Article by Stephen Shankland on CNET.com
Susan Boyle biggest reality TV star ever ?
Posted by Frederic Nuyts in Articles in english on April 19, 2009
Singer Susan is poised to become the biggest reality TV star EVER after cracking America in just one week. She has won rave reviews with her performances for US chat-show royalty Oprah Winfrey and Larry King.
Millions have logged on to YouTube to watch her stunning performances. She has been praised by Hollywood stars like Ghost beauty Demi Moore. She is being courted by top film producers. And her face now adorns showbiz merchandise around the world.
Brits like Cheryl Cole’s Girls Aloud, Will Young, Leona Lewis, Paul Potts and Jade Goody all became massive US stars through reality TV – but none of them did it so quickly.
Experts predict Susan will make a million by Christmas and her concerts will be the hottest ticket in town And record mogul Simon Cowell reckons an album by her would go straight to No1 in the US charts.
An industry insider said: “She’s an absolute phenomenon”.
“Who would ever have predicted a quiet 48-year-old woman with ordinary looks from West Lothian would become one of the biggest stars ever? “She has captured everyone’s hearts – and she’s going to be unstoppable.”
Make our gay day…
Susan was all of a twitter last night after learning she’s a global gay icon – even though she’s straight.
She is being invited to star in this year’s San Francisco Gay Pride festival, which attracts 1.5million people.
But the devout Catholic said: “They think I’m gay? Oh no – I’m not gay. It’s very nice of them but, oh my!”
Article Sarah Jellema, People.co.uk
World’s best job ? Add sex, scandal for web marketing dream
Posted by Frederic Nuyts in Articles in english on April 2, 2009
SYDNEY (Article by Reuters) – Tropical island. Eleven competitors. Osama bin Laden. Porn scandal. Prize? Best job in the world.
This is not a reality TV show, but a contest playing for real in Australia’s Queensland state in an advertising campaign that highlights how more firms are tapping the power of social media such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, for marketing.
Tourism Queensland hit on a winner with a global campaign to lure visitors to the Great Barrier Reef by asking people to submit online video applications for the “best job in the world” – caretaker of a tropical island for six months.
As news of the job advert on www.islandreefjob.com spread, 34,684 people from more than 200 countries submitted 60-second video applications, which everyone could see, for the $150,000 position on Hamilton Island.
“It was just a great idea that captures everyone’s imagination as they’re sitting in a dreary office and it’s raining outside,” said Australian marketing analyst Tim Burrowes, editor of media and marketing website Mumbrella.
“It was already very PR and publicity-friendly but because of all the promotion through videos and file sharing in social media the idea exploded into something much bigger.”
Along the way Tourism Queenland, a government body, received a hoax application from Osama bin Laden, and admitted it concocted the story of a woman in a YouTube video who tattooed an advert for the Great Barrier Reef on her arm to win the position.
AGEISM, PORN, PUBLICITY
Tourism Queensland narrowed the list down to 50 applicants from 22 countries with one failed applicant, Canadian “baby boomer” Mandy Spottiswoode, accusing Tourism Queensland of ageism and only picking bikini babes or guys with washboard stomachs.
Tourism Queensland’s investigation into claims that a finalist, Russian marine biologist Julia Yalovitsyna, was linked to a porn scandal kept the news flowing. She was barred from the contest, which reserved the right to exclude anyone found to have engaged in “inappropriate, illegal or immoral behavior.”
This Friday the list of candidates gets cut back to 11, including one wildcard entry voted online as the campaign’s website tracks the contestants, like a reality TV show.
The finalists will take their places on Hamilton Island with the winner to be announced on May 6 and starting work on July 1.
Queensland Tourism Minister Desley Boyle said the worldwide response to the A$1.7 million marketing campaign had been phenomenal, generating more than $70 million in publicity value.
“The campaign has largely relied on public relations and social networking activity,” she said in a statement.
Burrowes said “the best job in the world,” designed by Australian agency CumminsNitro, would be held up as a case study of a successful social media campaign.
Another winner is a U.S. campaign by Doritos in which people send in video adverts for the corn chips, with the winning ad shown during the Super Bowl, U.S. TV’s most-watched event of the year, and carrying a $1 million prize.
But even though increasing numbers of companies are trying to use the social media to promote their products, Burrowes said traditional media advertising still played a key role.
“If you’re a marketing director with a big brand and big budget you need to reach a lot of people quickly which means traditional media but you also have to now find a way to interact with social media. The best way is a combination,” he said.
Article by Belinda Goldsmith, Reuters.com
Online marketing can attract international customers
Posted by Frederic Nuyts in Articles in english on March 29, 2009
Search engine optimisation (SEO) and internet marketing can allow companies to expand their reach and attract overseas customers, it has been suggested.
In an article for BusinessZone, Chris Barling chief executive of ecommerce solutions supplier Actinic, said any firm with an internet presence automatically has access to a worldwide market.
SEO services and internet marketing campaigns can help them to reach this market and bring overseas visitors to their websites.
“The internet is a brilliant global communications medium, so its potential impact in the area of international trade is huge,” Mr Barling stated.
He advised companies to focus on their status as UK-based businesses in their marketing campaigns, as the UK has an “excellent” reputation for global trade.
And he also recommended that firms advertise their compliance with various legal and tax regulations to further enhance their credibility as a worldwide supplier.
Research carried out by the Internet Advertising Bureau recently revealed that spending on internet marketing grew by 21 per cent year-on-year between January and June 2008.
Article by ClickTrough
Retail marketing : Got the message ?
Posted by Frederic Nuyts in Articles in english on March 27, 2009
Recession and the rise of multichannel mean times are changing, and retailers’ marketing messages must respond or stores risk losing out
How are retail marketing chiefs adapting to the downturn? And how is their role changing as multichannel retail grows in importance?
These were two of the big questions asked at last week’s Retail Week Marketing Directors dinner, hosted by Yahoo!. Facilitated by Tesco.com marketing director Ian Crook, fellow participants included Debenhams, Mothercare, 99p Stores and Disney.
One thing’s for certain: creating marketing campaigns for consumers who have a totally different mindset to that of a year ago is no straightforward task. As 99p Stores commercial director Hussein Lalani said: “Adapting to the downturn is a challenge because we need to be fluid. Everyone has to be very alert to any changes in direction in order to respond to customers’ needs.”
Ultimately, the group agreed that marketing in the present economic climate requires retail teams to think differently about how to use low-cost or free channels to talk to customers. And this is why online has perhaps never been more crucial. Yahoo! category retail director Nicola Ibberson said: “Retailers are realising the power of it and are realising how to use it to benefit their brands in so many different ways. It enables retailers to do so much more in terms of customer engagement, and it can totally enhance the customer experience.”
She added that online marketing channels provide a cost-effective, highly accountable and highly targeted form of communication. All those at the event agreed it is a vital medium whether their customers use retail websites, stores or both. Debenhams marketing director Ali Jones said: “Customers shouldn’t be siloed.”
Inevitably, consumer behaviour is changing, and the issue of how to adapt marketing campaigns accordingly is crucial. Lalani said: “Shoppers are becoming more selective. We’re clearly a value retailer, but we’re having to push that message even harder.”
Tesco has already revealed how customers are doing more frequent but smaller shopping trips. But while this doesn’t lend itself to online grocery shopping because of the delivery charges, some shoppers are turning to the web more because it enables them to be strict with themselves about what they buy and avoid impulse purchases.
Notably, though, Debenhams’ strong sales for its Designers and enhanced own-label ranges suggest price is not the only factor that matters to consumers. Some members of the panel agreed that what was described as “the disposable culture”, where the durability of products ceases to be an issue as long as they are cheap, is now on the wane. Jones said: “It’s about a combination of price, quality and design is extremely important so you give customers the best value for money on the high street. It’s not necessarily the cheapest ranges that are the best-selling ranges.”
The group also agreed that aspirational marketing is out – ads now need to show exactly what benefit a product brings, as demonstrated by the Apple iPhone, the ads for which clearly focus on the product’s numerous functions.
Looking ahead, retailers are starting to explore the opportunities social networking presents, allowing them to build closer relationships with customers. Yahoo! Europe vice-president of marketing Kristof Fahy pointed to Mothercare’s Gurgle.com as an example of how retailers are using social networking to benefit their brand. “You can use your websites not just to showcase products but to showcase information. Mothercare have created an invaluable tool for customers that they could only do online.”
However, the feeling around the table was that while social networking does present opportunities, particularly to brands catering for a younger demographic, generally it is something consumers use to escape from corporate messages, and that attempting to exploit it will be challenging.
Today’s customer is an ever more demanding one. Shoppers are less loyal to brands than they ever have been and so retailers are having to work increasingly hard to attract and retain them.
Communicating with customers and understanding their needs will require a detailed and complex understanding of their individual likes and needs. It is a huge challenge, but one that retailers such as Tesco, through its Clubcard loyalty scheme, are showing is possible to meet. And as Jones concluded: “It’s a challenge but it’s also an opportunity.”
Article RetailWeek
What’s your post-recession marketing plan ?
Posted by Frederic Nuyts in Articles in english on March 23, 2009
To be ready for the rebound companies need to target three key elements: the who, the when, and the how. The economic downturn has many small business marketers stampeding the exits, slashing budgets and cutting prices.
Though understandable, and rational, this full-on retreat is in most cases occurring too late.
Planning for a storm is far more effective than looking for an umbrella when you’re already wet.
The point is not that too little planning was done in the run-up to the recession, which hit everyone harder than expected. The point is to avoid the same mistake in reverse.
It’s time to start planning now for the end of the recession.
“But we’re just getting used to the new normal,” many business owners may say. Exactly.
Because so many entrepreneurs and SMBs will be focused on manoeuvring through 2009, this is an excellent time to craft a 12-to 24-month get-out-front-of-competitors marketing strategy.
There are many components to any marketing strategy.
For a post-recession marketing plan, three pieces really matter: who, when, and how.
Understanding customers (the who) and the changes in their behaviour is the first step.
This assessment will tell you how to position your products or services, but not the timing (the when) of your market bounce back.
So sorting out where you sit in the economic pecking order comes next.
Finally, getting products and services to market may change. So projecting channel dynamics (the how of retail, distribution, Web and so on) a year or two from now is also a key elements of the overall strategy.
Understand changes in customer behaviour
Solid marketing strategies start with answers to customer needs and wants, that is, customer behaviour rather than demographics (“I’m just tired and frustrated, and I’m making a decision not easily predicted by my age, sex and income”).
To plan for a rebound, small business marketers have to understand which behaviours have changed, and why.
Getting a handle on the motivations behind the changes allows for creative responses, now and later.
More importantly, marketers have to assess which changes are likely temporary, versus those which are liable to be more permanent.
The clues needed to make this call tend tobe grouped into selection and habit buckets.
A behavioural change tied to selection, such as opting for a less-expensive hotel, is probably temporary. A habit change, such as buying groceries rather than dining out four nights a week, is more likely to be lasting. If such changes were true, boutique hoteliers could plan to weather the storm and grocers could beef up (pun definitely intended) for a strong market, post-recession.
It’s no good to simply look at generic consumer or business-to-business purchase data. Customer behaviour needs to put under the microscope in the context of the company and industry in question. But owners have to intimately know their own customers, and what has changed, inside out. There are many ways to get these insights, but they all start with conversations.
Savvy marketers are constantly engaging customers in discussions about products and services, and about themselves: their pain points and what would make them happy. Some walk the aisles and talk to customers at random.
Others build panels of folks they re-engage often. Many rely on traditional market research. The tools matter less than getting on with it.
Understand the pecking order
Planning to meet customers on their terms is one thing. Timing it correctly is another altogether. The world economy will not bounce back all at once, everywhere.
Trying to predict the timing of the return of consumer confidence is a bit like filling out your Final Four pool sheet: if you have been paying attention and do some research you’ll do okay, but you’ll never nail it exactly. Some economists predict late 2009, others 2011 or beyond.
The reality is probably somewhere in between. So, more effective is to sort out which geographies and market spaces are likely to come back, and in what order. It’s debatable whether regions hit first will also bounce back first, or will suffer for longer based on shoddier economic fundamentals to begin with.
Let’s leave that debate to others and focus on products and services.
In recessions, goods and services are inclined to follow a model like accounting’s LIFO (last-in, first-out). The last things a customer lets go of are the first he or she spends money on again when the economy turns around.
It’s straightforward. I call this, ELISE:
The first things customers stop spending money on in down periods are true Extravagances, from vacation homes to expensive art.
The next to disappear are Luxuries such as sports cars and designer bags.
Then go Indulgences such as $5 coffee and nights out at bars and restaurants.
These are followed by Services: house cleaning, mobile-phone plans.
The last casualties are Essentials, such as gasoline and mortgage payments.
Determining where their offerings register on the ELISE scale is key for SMBs trying to time market comebacks. Underwear and socks will sell again sooner than titanium and casino hotel rooms. But often it will not be cut and dried.
Seeking out external, maybe unconventional, perspectives on order and timing is crucial. Business owners should be having conversations with professionals they have never talked to before – economists, analysts at banks and rating agencies, government policy makers, and social workers, to name a few.
No one person will be right, but a collective point of view will really help.
Understand changing channel dynamics
U.S. businesses that were counting on Circuit City to deliver a big chunk of their 2009 numbers must be scratching their heads (or scratching out their eyes) right now.
For a product company, channel partners – such as retailers and wholesalers – are the sometimes forgotten or ignored, but often most important customer. Services are not immune here either, because many rely on partners.
Planning for a rebound means making a determination of what the channel landscape will look like in a year or two.
Some retail banners (clothing) will go under, as will some value-added resellers (computer equipment). And some websites will shut down (consumer electronics e-stores, for example). It’s inevitable. Surprise doesn’t have to be.
Companies need to be right on top of channel partners, working with them to eliminate inefficiencies. This closer relationship will also double as a way to help figure out whether the retailer/reseller is strong or weak, in no danger, or likely going away.
A question every small business owner is asking now is: “Should we plan to hire a sales force and go direct-to-market when this is all over?” The answer will depend on individual circumstances.
A direct model offers many benefits, such as control over brand representation and relationships formed with end-users, but it’s not a slam dunk. It can be costly and logistically challenging, and channel partners often help in small ways entrepreneurs never hear about (clearing goods through customs, for example).
But if there is doubt about the viability of the channel partner post-recession, making alternate plans now is a smart move.
Speaking regularly with distributors and retailers (or even forming a channel partner council with set meetings) and interviewing industry association representatives is a good way to stay on top of the health of the folks you count on to put your goods on store shelves, or to sell your services.
The recession is here. It will end. Start preparing now to take full advantage when it does.
Article by Mark Healy on TheGlobeAndMail.com
Mobile marketing should offer benefits to consumers
Posted by Frederic Nuyts in Articles in english on March 19, 2009
Mobile marketing campaigns are most likely to be effective if they result if they offer something to consumers, analysts have stated.
According to the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), mobile coupons are a “prime example” of this, as they offer very real benefits to recipients.
The organisation was speaking after Juniper Research predicted that the redemption value of mobile coupons will go up by a third over the next year.
Indeed, the organisation was praised for helping to build a “clearer picture” of how mobile marketing is likely to develop over the next few years.
Peter Johnson, spokesperson for the MMA, commented: “Considering that mobile coupons offer much better redemption rates and are more cost-effective, they represent a win-win approach for innovative retailers.”
He added that coupons combine relevance with immediate and tangible value for consumers.
The Mobile Marketing Association recently predicted that mobile phones would account for a “significant” amount of overall advertising spending within the next five years.
Article by Michael Grady, Velti.com
Marketing firms evolving to match media changes
Posted by Frederic Nuyts in Articles in english on March 16, 2009
Branding, interactive plans added to roster of services to reach varied audiences. There was no one collective direction of revenues — up or down — for New Orleans-area marketing and advertising firms in 2008. Some experienced increases whereas others felt the pinch, but evolving media trends, compounded by the stagnant economy, are forcing calibration within the industry.
Just as the newspaper industry is having to come to terms with emerging media and its effect on the business, advertisers and marketers are finding a progression in how they service customers and defining precisely what type of marketing to provide.
Although the move to becoming more of a product development or brand strategy marketing agency predated the nation’s economic woes, it is even more imperative for clients and their advertisers to embrace that concept, said Trumpet LLC CEO Robbie Vitrano.
Once upon a time, before the days of DVR and TiVo, the Internet and most recently Web sites such as hulu.com that re-broadcast television shows, the marketing model was fairly simple: pose an interruption to regular broadcasting or reading, catch consumers’ attention and effectively “sell” the product. A consumer would watch “Cheers” or “Seinfeld,” be interrupted by an ad and maybe sold.
But as newspapers struggle to redefine their advertising component and traditional television ads are being viewed less and less — all compounded by the national economy — many advertisers are in readjustment mode.
“As a whole, the industry is scrambling to react to massive changes in audience fragmentation and the media environment,” Vitrano said. “It is likely that the old model of an ad agency based on media mark-ups will be very much a relic within the next 10 years.”
Media mark-ups, Vitrano said, refers to taking the net cost of media such as television or newspaper ad space and adding a mark-up to cover the agency fee. Marketers often still apply mark-ups to production of printing, photography, television production, etc., he said.
Some primary problems with that model, Vitrano said, are agencies were given a sort of blank check that probably was seldom abused, but the temptation existed. Most damning is that few agencies really were prepared to make strong recommendations on a course of action, Vitrano said.
Trumpet is part of a smaller group of agencies that have moved into what Vitrano calls “the most important marketing function” of product development — brand strategy. Branding, at its core, is about making a product or company recognizable.
“We’re also attracting and helping to securitize investment by way of providing these services,” Vitrano said. “Trumpet applies its resources to taking an often-times undisciplined start up and helping to define the most compelling value proposition, define the shape and size of the market — opportunity and actual dollars — then designing and executing the go-to market strategy.”
Some advertisers say the industry changes are not so revolutionary. Mark Mayer, president and CEO of Peter A. Mayer Advertising Inc., said though there is increased audience fragmentation and branding is more important than ever, these changes are nothing new.
“Audience fragmentation has been a media trend for at least the last 30 years,” Mayer said. “It began with the growth of specialty magazines and the decline of large, mass circulation magazines. Then it moved to broadcast with the decline of the major networks and the consequent explosion of cable networks and ‘narrow-casting.’ Now we see it in media fragmentation, with the Internet eroding other media’s share of people’s time.”
Advertising will adapt as it always has to serve as the crucial link between marketers and their markets, Mayer said.
“For us, it means integrating online and offline for all clients, all campaigns. That’s why our interactive department grew over 60 percent last year, even though our agency top-line revenue was flat.”
Berning Marketing LLC President Robert Berning differs from his peers, saying he has had greater success expanding his focus by marrying the production side of his business with the marketing side, making his firm “a one-stop shop.”
“The health of the company does not depend on any one revenue stream,” Berning said. “In order to grow, we had to offer myriad services. If we had sequestered our services to the production area, we wouldn’t have seen growth like we have in the last five years.”•
Article by Jaime Guillet, New Orleans City Business
Firms urged to embrace social networks for marketing
Posted by Frederic Nuyts in Articles in english on March 12, 2009
Failure to take on social media could damage business, say experts. Experts speaking at the Social Networking World Forum in London this week warned that delaying the implementation of a social networks marketing strategy could be damaging to business.
Dirk Singer, co-founder of brand marketing firm Cow PR, said that the longer that marketing managers leave it to take on social media, the tougher it will be to form an effective strategy.
“I may be preaching to the converted, but you may have internal clients who may be a bit more apprehensive. There’s a lot of recognition of the space, but not a lot of immediacy,” he said.
Businesses that delay deployments risk being met with cyber squatters when they finally launch into the social network space, according to Singer, who pointed to a number of examples to illustrate his point.
Sainsbury’s Twitter account is unlikely to be an official profile page for the retailer, since the location given is ‘In ur fridge’ and there has been only one update since July 2007.
South West Trains’ Twitter account, meanwhile, reads ‘Not actually anything to do with SWT. Just a spiteful commuter playing around’. The page documents hiccups and delays in the train provider’s service.
Singer also said that a Flickr account with the user ID name Starbucks shows celebrations taking place in Italy, while the user ID name Starbuckscoffee is dedicated to a Red Cross fanatic.
Twitter and other social media sites are normally good at helping firms resolve such issues, but Singer maintained that companies should go into social media “by choice and then you can form your own parameters”.
He also highlighted the cost savings companies can realise from marketing on social networks rather than through traditional routes. “When times are tough people stick to what they know, and firms keep asking me why now when budgets are tight,” he said.
Singer added that a company with a £100,000 marketing budget can either spend it on two spots on ITV, or employ a “gold standard” social network strategy.
While debate raged at the Social Networking World Forum on whether the much publicised Skittles homepage revamp at the beginning of March was short-sighted, Singer suggested that the move was “incredibly brave”. Skittles was rewarded with 4,000 mentions in the news following the launch, including in The Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal.
The homepage revamp involved Skittles changing its traditional homepage to become an online portal of feeds from Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.
Andrew Weinrich, chief executive of mobile dating site Meetmoi, agreed that Skittles was on the mark with its revamp because the type of social networking strategy companies should employ depends on their industry.
“I love silly promotions for candy, but there is a big difference between a candy manufacturer arranging its site around social media and a bank doing so,” he explained.
However, Sanjay Dholakia, chief marketing officer of Lithium Technologies, which builds and operates social networks for enterprises, described the move as reckless and warned that social networking strategies need to be thought out in detail.
Dholakia was likely to have been referring to Skittles having to change its landing page shortly after the launch from a Twitter feed to a Wikipedia entry because of negative Skittles comments being so visible to web surfers.
Article by Rosalie Marshall, VNUnet.com
Businesses urged to ‘study’ when using direct mail marketing
Posted by Frederic Nuyts in Articles in english on March 11, 2009
Firms will only succeed when using direct mail if they study the format, an expert has claimed.
According to Drayton Bird of Drayton Bird Associates and a contributor to blog Marketing Donut, companies will only learn what works best in the format by fully understanding it.
He explained that the area where growing businesses are most likely to go wrong with such promotions is by not actively creating messages that will sell.
“They should start by communicating simply to their best source of revenue: customers and enquirers. Don’t go out to the whole wide world,” he added.
“Only do what works best and keep fine-tuning to ensure continuous improvement. Personalise everything as much as possible.”
Mr Bird’s advice on direct mail has come after Royal Mail officially launched its new resource for the industry.
The Mail Media Centre website includes examples of ways businesses can improve the creative content of their direct marketing, as well as how they can maximise return on investment and take advantage of the latest research.
Article AdFero Ltd. on BusinessStrata.com