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.