Week 6

Week 6 Questions

1) When talking about Yahoo auctions, what did Seth Godin mean by 'billion dollar decisions do not have anything to do with technology'?

Their marketing wins involved word of mouth marketing,

2) What has story telling got to do with cat food?

Consumers purchase the product because the believe the message about how the cat must like the taste. But do we really know that?

3) Explain the concept of funnel marketing, and how would 'flipping the funnel' help the marketing of a product?

That people want to be on top and will do anything to do that. Once at the top that is when people can affect how the product is being marketed to the consumer.

4) What does the term 'remarkable' mean in the context of purple cows?

It means that the cow is always changing to adapt and this is remarkable.

As e-Marketers we all want 'happy surfers'. Godin talks about the fashion/permission complex. He lists four parts to the fashion/complex.

They are -

1) Make it (the message) worth listening to

2) Tell it to the people who want to hear

3) Tell their friends

4) Get permission to tell about your next fashion.

The complex states that marketing need to do something amazing, something out of the ordinary ,something that will really change the way a consumer will look at the marketer and how their product is advertised to the market.

Blogs and twitter has now become the new fashion, since twitter burst onto the internet scene every man and his dog jumped on the bandwagon just to become part of the craze. Celebrities, sports stars and even news readers have their followers on this site and to some people will watch their every word like it was their last on earth. Politics has jumped on to with both leaders looking to become prime minister are using twitter to announce developments and throwing down their propaganda to their loyal followers.

Week 5

New idea Distribution models

-Affiliation: Affiliation programmes can turn consumers into sales people.

-Disintermediation: This is removing the middleman to deal direct with customers instead of through agents, distributors and wholesalers.

-Reintermediation: this is the emergence of new types of middlemen who are brokers such as Bizrate, who unite buyers with sellers.

-Peer to peer service: Music swapping services such as Napster and Nutella opened up an entirely new approach to music distribution with both supplier and middlemen.

-Infomediation: A related concept where middlemen hold data or information to benefit customers and suppliers.

-Channel confluence: This has occurred where distribution channels state to offer the same deal to the end customer.

10 Promotion Tools that can be used online

advertising - Interactive display ads, pay per click search advertising

selling - Virtual sales staff and chat and affiliate marketing

sales promotion - incentives, rewards, online loyalty schemes

PR - online editorial, ezines, newsletters, social networks,.links and virals

Sponsorship - sponsoring an online event, site or service

direct mail - opt out email using e newsletters and e blats plus web response

exhibitions - virtual exhibitions and whitepaper distribution

merchandizing - promotional ad seving on retail sites, personalised recommendations and e-alerts

packaging - virtual tours, real packaging is displayed online

word of mouth - viral, affilate marketing, email a friend, links

Winner of the Grand Prix

Monopoly Street

Client: Hasbro

It used Global advertising to attract attention. They then took their product to the next level partnering with google and making their maps authentic with google maps as to make it a real world experience. Also exhibitions for younger people was used to attract more people in.

Winner of the best Business to Business Campaign

SAGE Taxation Personalised URL

Client: Sage Accounts Division

Things used were Sales promotions, Word of Mouth, Selling and also PR was used very well

Week 4

Week 4 Questions

1) A decrease in prices is inevitable in an online marketing environment. Do you agree or disagree?

I agree that it is mostly inevitable but it all depends on what market the product is in.

This is due to price transparency, customer knowledge of the product increases which will make them look for the product at the best price. This will in turn cause the products to drop durastically in price as to compete, standardisation becomes a factor here. While this then becomes a good result for the consumer as they now have low prices coming from across many different companies and the ability to pick and chose from whom they choose is becoming bigger than ever, companies feel the pinch as profits diminish as the ability to effectively compete in the market becomes harder.

Price reduction can also be good for the business as they will attract more customers and increase sales with consumers looking for a good quality product at a competitive price. Innovation is now becoming more important than ever as being the market leader is harder to achieve these days. Competition will increase also due to this.

2) Disintermediation will ultimately lead to channel conflict. Discuss.

There are 4 steps involved in a purchase. The first 'place' as it is known as in the process is Place of purchase. This first place involves being categorised as one of 5 sites

-seller controlled sites

-seller orientated sites

-neutral sites

-seller orientated sites

-seller controlled sites

Place 2 has 3 processes in it. A. Distintermediation which is the removal of an intermediary, or middleman, from a transaction or communication. B, Reintermeditation which is the emergence of new types of middlemen who act as brokers, who unite buyers and sellers, and C. Countermediation which is the creation of a new intermediary inside an established company.

Place 3 is Channel Conflicts. This occurs when a significant threat arises from the introduction of an internet channel is that while disintermediation gives the opportunity for a company to sell direct and increase profitability on products, it can also threaten existing distribution arrangements with existing partners.

The channel conflicts may be dependent on:

1. A communication channel only

2. A distribution channel to intermediaries

3. A direct sales channel to customers

4. Any combination of the above

the fourth place is that of virtual organisations

does disintermediation cause channel conflict. The answer is up to the individual but personally I think it contributes. A establsihed company may be looking at expanding into the web but while costs are cut the usual ways of operation may be disturbed and thesefore operations may be pushed inwards and conflict may occur due to this.

3) What are the five elements of promotion and what are some examples of combining online/offline promotion?

Online promotion uses communication via the internet. It may take the form of links from other sites, banner adverts or targeted emails messages. Offline promotion uses traditional media such as tv or newspaper advertising and word of mouth to promote a companys web site

1. Advertising - Interactive display ads, pay per click search advertising

2. Selling - Affiliate marketing and chat and virtual sales staff

3. Sales Promotion- Incentives, rewardsm online loyalty schemes

4. Public Relations- Online editorial, e-zines, newsletters, social networds, links and virals

5. Direct Marketing- exhibitions, word of mouth, virtual tours, sponsoring, events, sites