Reflective

Throughout my time using this blog I have learnt many things. One of the first with E-marketing is making sure that you provide the most up-to-date resources that you can find. This is shown in the Apple Pay and Virgin Money posts, where keeping up with news is essential for information.

I found that early on into my blog, I was not naturally receiving many page views, and so I posted my blog out onto social media and this drastically improved the situation. This could be shown as an example of online culture, as I am technically 'advertising' out to those who I am friends with on Facebook and those who follow me on Twitter. At first I did not understand the importance of E-marketing, but now I realise that in today's society it is essential for the success of a company, as this is the generation of technology.

I have found that in conjunction with providing up-to-date news, it is also important to provide theory to explain the content of what you are talking about. For instance, In the mobile marketing post, I referenced some important authors such as Rowles 2014, as well as showing some statics of how mobile marketing actually effects the consumer. This shows the reader that I am capable of keeping my posts current as well as factually informative. If I could improve this post, I would go into more defined detail about mobile marketing in today's society, and the future that mobile marketing holds.

Overall, I have learnt that using an example, such as the Virgin group, is important to keep regular page visitors interested in my blog, as well as backing up and research materials with theory. It is important to show a general knowledge of the subject, as well as show a keen interest in what is changing in the world of E-marketing. If I were to improve my blog, I would make posts more current with what is changing day to day by researching more online news sources, and use more links similar to the links I use that are to the Virgin blog and the Virgin group website.

Virgin to join scheme of online and mobile payments

In this weeks news,Virgin Money are teaming up with Monetise to develop the banks mobile and online payment products. (Moore 2014)

Virgin Money CEO Jayne-Anne Gadhia. says “We are excited to be extending our quest for smarter, brighter and better banking solutions with a partner that shares our ambition to bring unique, intuitive and valuable service features to our customers".

This may not be considered to change the face of the company, and as branch networks still matter in banking, mobile banking may completely take over in coming years. (Stephens 2014).

More than 1.6 billion payments were completed using a smartphone or tablet this year according to a study by Juniper Research. First it was Apple Pay, and now Virgin Money, who will be next to follow?

References:

Michael Moore, 5 December 2014, Virgin Money Signs Up Monitise For Mobile And Online Payments, (online) http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/e-marketing/virgin-money-monitise-payments-156967

Peter Stephens, 5 December 2014, Is Monitise Plc’s Partnership With Virgin Money Holdings (UK) PLC A Game Changer?, (online) https://www.fool.co.uk/investing/2014/12/05/is-monitise-plcs-partnership-with-virgin-money-holdings-uk-plc-a-game-changer/

Week 6 - What have Google been up to?

Google might not be so friendly and innocent as you think...

As a company, you do not want to be in Google's bad books. If you have done something out of line, such as tried to manipulate and change the search algorithms. For example, Google penalised the company Interflora, because they paid newspapers to publish adverts that contained links to the website. The action Google took was to completely remove the company from its searches, and not only that, Google also punished the newspapers such as The Boarder Telegraph and The Independent by lowering their page ranks (Baldwin 2013).

The two algorithms that Google use are Panda and Penguin.

Google Panda is designed to penalise the ranking of sites with a poor user experience, like those who have many adverts and games pop up as soon as you enter the site, and to reward those with sites with a friendly user experience with improved rankings. The Penguin punishes companies that purchase links from websites that contain links to other websites, like one huge loop, to try and increase the search engine ranking. (Kyle O'Donnell, 2013)

References:

Caroline Baldwin,  Monday 25 February 2013, Google penalises Interflora and UK newspapers for failing to comply with SEO regulations, (online) http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240178518/Google-penalises-Interflora-and-UK-newspapers-for-failing-to-comply-with-SEO-regulations

 Kyle ODonnell  Friday, July 26, 2013, Google Penguin & Panda: A Simple Explanation, (online) http://www.stlouisdigitalmedia.com/blog/local-seo/google-penguin-panda-a-simple-explanation/

Week 5- Online Culture

In this weeks lectured we talked about online culture.

Social media is everywhere, and the average users spends around 17 minutes per day browsing through Facebook. (Matthew Champion, 2014, http://metro.co.uk).

The topic of search engine optimisation was brought up, and we discussed how Google has changed their algorithms, and has invested more into social media. To go into further detail, Chaffey et al (2009) explores the use of search engines regarding the online market place. These are customer segments; online media consumption, buyer behaviour and the type of content and experiences that searchers are looking for, search intermediaries; main search engines in each country, intermediaries and media sites (explained below), and destination sites; the sites that the marketer is trying to provide visitors to.

Zarrella (2009) shows that there are many different forms of social media, and these come as blogs, microblogs (e.g. Twitter), social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn), media-sharing sites (Youtube, Flickr), social bookmarking and voting sites (Digg, Reddit), review sites (Yelp), forums, and virtual worlds (Second Life). Many companies (search as Virgin) can then infiltrate these popular sites through advertisements to gain customers, seeing as the popularity of social media websites is growing through the generations.

References:

Matthew Champion, Wednesday 29 Jan 2014 (Online), http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/29/find-out-how-much-time-youve-spentwasted-on-facebook-in-the-last-ten-years-4281798/

Dan Zarrella, The Social Media Marketing Book, 2009, "O'Reilly Media Inc"

Chaffey et al, 2009, Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practise, 4th Edition, Prentice Hall.

Week 4 - Mobile Marketing

What is mobile marketing?

The Direct Marketing Association defines mobile marketing as "the process of marketing campaigns delivered via the mobile medium" (cited Richardson 2010, p.6).

There are various different smartphones and tablets that ensure that we 'stay connected wherever we go. Almost all of these will probably have a touch screen, camera, 3G or 4G, so internet access is available whenever.  Rowles (2013) explains how mobile marketing is about understanding the individual and what they want to achieve. Our mobile phones are personal items that we carry with us wherever we go, and it is quite common that whilst on our mobile devices, we have less free time available to browse. This is why the concept of mobile marketing is so important, as it caters for the individual.

Chaffey et al (2009) suggests that mobile phones and tablets are beneficial for mobile marketing because of their ubiquity, reachability and convenience. This is because they can be assessed from anywhere, their users can be reached outside of their home environment, and a power supply or fixed-line connection is not required.

There is good news for mobile marketing recently. Two thirds of consumers have received a text message or mobile alert from a business in the last 6 months. However only 47% have 'liked' a brand on Facebook and 12% have followed a brand on Twitter. (Forbes 2014). 41% of consumers stated that they would be willing to share private and personal details if it meant that they received relevant offers and discounts.

References:

Daniel Rowles, Mobile Marketing: How Mobile Technology is Revolutionizing Marketing, Communications and Advertising , 2013, Kogan Page Publishers

Chaffey et al, 2009, Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practise, 4th Edition, Prentice Hall.

Neil Richardson, A Quick Start Guide to Mobile Marketing: Create a Dynamic Campaign and Improve Your Competitive Advantage, 2010, Kogan Page Publishers

Forbes 12 February 2014, Mobile Marketing: 4 Ways to Keep it Relevant, (Online) http://www.forbes.com/sites/att/2014/12/02/mobile-marketing-4-ways-to-keep-it-relevant/

Week 3 - Digital Marketing

In this weeks lecture we discussed the subject of digital marketing. This includes campaign tools, planning, implementing and monitoring digital marketing.

Chaffey et al (2009) defines digital marketing as "similar to 'electronic marketing', in the sense that both describe the management and execution of marketing using electronic media such as the web, e-mail, interactive TV, IPTV and wireless media in conjunction with digital data about customers' characteristics and behaviour."

Chaffey et al implies that there are 5S's that show digital marketing benefits. These are sell; grow sales, serve; add value, speak; become closer to customers, save; save costs and sizzle; extend the brand online.

How does Virgin utilize digital marketing?

Virgin uses digital marketing primarily through the use of the web, (http://www.virgin.com/), and through emails which is similar to the viral marketing dicussed last week. This is a useful modern approach as Virgin can receive feedback from customers as well as regulate who uses their website and other tools such as interactive TV, and so they monitor their digital marketing.

References

Chaffey et al, 2009, Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practise, 4th Edition, Prentice Hall.

Week 2 -Viral Marketing, who might use it?

In this week's lecture we discussed the concept and importance of viral marketing. Viral marketing can be defined as a marketing message that can be communicated from one person to another, facilitated by different media, such as word of mouth, e-mail or websites. It also implies that rapid transmission of messages is intended. (Chaffey et al, 2009)

One of the most popular and recognisable forms of viral marketing that you and I use is YouTube.

YouTube is very successful viral marketing scheme. We discuss videos we see with our friends and tell them to watch.  These videos rack up millions of hits, and so it is no surprise that television adverts are becoming less popular, and more companies are using YouTube are to advertise rather than in our five minute breaks between programmes (Lieberman, 2014)

There are two main forms of online viral marketing, and these are through passalong-e-mails or discussions within social networks. Virgin can use passalong-e-mails that they send to all of their existing customers as they will have left their contact details when purchasing through Virgin. Virgin can promote new offers and deals with links and attachments within the email. Virgin can also use social network-related viral marketing as a way of interacting with users, whilst promoting their brand. This can be done by buying advertising space, creating a brand space or brand channels that can allow customers to interact with Virgin.

References

Chaffey et al, 2009, Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practise, 4th Edition, Prentice Hall.

 David Lieberman, December 5, 2014, Analyst Michael Nathanson: Digital Media Starting To Eat Television’s Lunch,  http://deadline.com/2014/12/tv-ad-sales-slowing-ratings-decline-digital-media-michael-nathanson-1201295025/

(Image source https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HECa3bAFAYk)

Week 1 - Apple Pay

Apple Pay?

In our first lecture we discussed the new invention of Apple Pay, and how we feel that it could almost lead to world domination.

To pay using this latest method, the user must simply hold their phone next to the contactless reader with their finger on the Touch ID.

How is this payment method more secure?

Apple states that when you add your card to the iPhone, a unique Device Account Number is assigned, encrypted and securely stored in the Secure Element, which is a completely dedicated chip in the phone (Apple Site, 2014).

With the latest iPhone being the iPhone 6, Apple Pay has been announced as the latest and most innovative was of paying. Apple have teamed up with PayPal to completely replace card payments with the swipe of your phone, whilst remaining private and secure. Apple Pay uses the fingerprint reader to do so, which is secure than paying with your everyday credit or debit card. But who has used this method?

Currently, not a single purchase has been made with this new system, but the chief executive of eBay, John Donahoe, believes "The era of digital payment is upon us". This seems to have dismissed any doubts about the arrival of Apple Pay into the market.

In our E-marketing group, we have decided to use the Virgin Group as a research focus and how they effectively use E-marketing.  I will provide a weekly update on any changes and developments they have made. Virgin is a company set up by the famous and reckless Richard Branson, and you can receive more information from the live links to the Virgin website and Virgin blog at the top of the page.

References:

 https://www.apple.com/apple-pay/

 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/01/technology/apple-pay-signals-new-era-at-cash-register.html?_r=0)