Our team has been working on myTRAVEL development this semester long.
The initial idea is just developing an online journal writing platform and make it possible to share to the Facebook and Twitter whatever you write on this website. I bring in this idea to the team, which is firstly inspired by Chanyouji, an established journal sharing platform in China. But a brand new start-up with limit awareness in China. My boyfriend talked with me about the feasibility and growth space for Chanyouji the day before I did final presentation. The fancy user interface and fast journal editing time are absolutely the biggest selling points. But as my boyfriend questioned, how long will it last for a newfangled website to capture loyal customers? The standard template ensures the time-saving function. But what if customers get tired of using just one standard template again and again? In addition, Chanyouji has obvious design leak on its official website.
What we have done in myTRAVEL is to improve Chanyouji, utilizing its advantages and adding more functions to make it more unbeatable. Idea changes during rolling forward.
Market research is important. Collecting feedback from potential customers is critical. Because college students are big chunk of our target customers, we asked feedback from our classmates after mid-term elevator pitch. Mengting pushed us to think more details on developing smart phone app and tablet app. Also Michale gave us some initial ideas of what functions travelers would appreciate on the smart phone app, such as adding voice to photos to let travelers can record and edit their journals on-the-go.
My group members are great as well. Will, always bring in innovative idea and American market/culture education to the rest Chinese group members. Xiaoting, always have strong executive ability and solid marketing knowledge. Kaiyu, always considerate on every tiny things and also a creative girl.
In addition, benefit from the knowledge we learnt from MKT566, we are able to work out a detailed marketing plan concerning both online and offline. The SEO, PPC, CTR, QR code, Key word bid, etc are all the marketing methods I have never considered in my previous class. I heard about them but never dig in. For those classmates who dropped this class and used to think it is similar to IMC class, I would say you made the wrong move. I bet you will reap more than what you expected to.
Of course, myTRAVEL has its own concern. Since it's an imaginary business plan which has limit opportunity to test in the real market. But there is no product perfect in the market. I think I will keep an eye on what Chanyouji will become in Chinese market. Or I can do a similar business plan as what we did for myTRAVEL in MKT566 for Chanyouji. Hope they can accept it ;-)
Very great class, I did really enjoy it and benefit from it~
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
Online marketing ideas for WPI Venture Forum
As prof.Shari mentioned in class, WPI Venture Forum is composed of three important target customers, entrepreneurs, investors and sponsors. I trust the key to market the WPI Venture Forum online is getting exposed to these target customers, which means to increase WPI VF's awareness.
How to access entrepreneurs, investors and sponsors? I have four suggestions.
Firstly, advertise on related platforms. Imagine you were an entrepreneur or an investor, if you wanted to attend an entrepreneur event, such as WPI VF, what will you most likely to do at first? Search online! Searching engine is the most powerful tool to get aware of everything! On one hand, design the WPI VF webpage reasonably to increase the nature ranking result. Such as link the key word right as professor mentioned during last class. On another hand, advertise on effective platforms, such as entrepreneurship network, ePowehouse, and event collector, Eventbrite, to increase WPI VF's awareness.
Secondly, make differentiation. There are considerable different entrepreneur-related events. How can WPI VF different from them? On one hand, WPI VF must give more detailed information on website of each VF event. More information given, more impressive people will have. In addition, WPI VF can advertise its technology academic resource as a key competitive advantage to attract both entrepreneurs and investors who are interested in technology startups. On another hand, provide promotion code to lure customers. When there's so many similar events out there , promotion code is the direct incentive to force purchase.
Thirdly, utilize the power of media. For example, once there was entrepreneur recognized potential investor in WPI VF and made final deal, we can give these material to the media to make news. "Entrepreneur got Investor in WPI VF" is an excellent title. By meantime, WPI VF will be known as awesome place for entrepreneurs to meet investors. The brand awareness will be increased definitely. In addition, we expect the influence of word-of-mouth. Increasing the event quality, WPI VF will hear from customers talking about it.
Lastly, build long-time relationship with attended entrepreneurs, investors and sponsors. Ask every customer to leave their e-mail address during registration and make a mail list. Send them updated event invitation and ask them to forward the invitation to people they know who might interested in. In this way, we widen the circle. In addition, open Facebook, twitter and linked in account to communicate with loyal customers and to provide coming events and updated news of past events to loyal customers.
Another important component of WPI VF prof.Shari mentioned in class is volunteers, which faculty is also a good candidate to cooperate with.
Academy brings in innovation, which is favorable by most entrepreneurs and investors. Add the faculties in WPI VF's mail list so that they can forward to their students for teaching purpose. In this way, students are brought in. Another point to attract students is to send them updated emails of up coming events. As a WPI student, I never received an event informing email form WPI VF. I think it is the worst situation.
Moreover, for most colleges, there is high possibility that students operate the entrepreneur community or something similar. Have them in the connection. It is a good opportunity to cooperate with other colleges.
How to access entrepreneurs, investors and sponsors? I have four suggestions.
Firstly, advertise on related platforms. Imagine you were an entrepreneur or an investor, if you wanted to attend an entrepreneur event, such as WPI VF, what will you most likely to do at first? Search online! Searching engine is the most powerful tool to get aware of everything! On one hand, design the WPI VF webpage reasonably to increase the nature ranking result. Such as link the key word right as professor mentioned during last class. On another hand, advertise on effective platforms, such as entrepreneurship network, ePowehouse, and event collector, Eventbrite, to increase WPI VF's awareness.
Secondly, make differentiation. There are considerable different entrepreneur-related events. How can WPI VF different from them? On one hand, WPI VF must give more detailed information on website of each VF event. More information given, more impressive people will have. In addition, WPI VF can advertise its technology academic resource as a key competitive advantage to attract both entrepreneurs and investors who are interested in technology startups. On another hand, provide promotion code to lure customers. When there's so many similar events out there , promotion code is the direct incentive to force purchase.
Thirdly, utilize the power of media. For example, once there was entrepreneur recognized potential investor in WPI VF and made final deal, we can give these material to the media to make news. "Entrepreneur got Investor in WPI VF" is an excellent title. By meantime, WPI VF will be known as awesome place for entrepreneurs to meet investors. The brand awareness will be increased definitely. In addition, we expect the influence of word-of-mouth. Increasing the event quality, WPI VF will hear from customers talking about it.
Lastly, build long-time relationship with attended entrepreneurs, investors and sponsors. Ask every customer to leave their e-mail address during registration and make a mail list. Send them updated event invitation and ask them to forward the invitation to people they know who might interested in. In this way, we widen the circle. In addition, open Facebook, twitter and linked in account to communicate with loyal customers and to provide coming events and updated news of past events to loyal customers.
Another important component of WPI VF prof.Shari mentioned in class is volunteers, which faculty is also a good candidate to cooperate with.
Academy brings in innovation, which is favorable by most entrepreneurs and investors. Add the faculties in WPI VF's mail list so that they can forward to their students for teaching purpose. In this way, students are brought in. Another point to attract students is to send them updated emails of up coming events. As a WPI student, I never received an event informing email form WPI VF. I think it is the worst situation.
Moreover, for most colleges, there is high possibility that students operate the entrepreneur community or something similar. Have them in the connection. It is a good opportunity to cooperate with other colleges.
Monday, October 22, 2012
My take away from Venture Forum
This is not the first time for me to attend
such a networking event but I still have a lot of thoughts to share. After
attending the venture forum held in WPI two weeks ago, I get three take away from
this great networking event.
Firstly, the real elevator pitch given by
the health care company was great. This is not my first time to see a casual
business proposal in person, but this one is really an integrated and promising
one. The content the elevator pitch covered was comprehensive and pinpoint in
accordance to the Business Model Canvas I have learned. Therefore, it was a
great real experience for me to observe a real elevator pitch, which combined
the principle introduced by professor. Moreover, it gave me more idea of what a
real elevator pitch should be and adopted them in my following presentations of
my own business models both in ETR500 and MKT566. I’m glad to see that the
knowledge I’ve learned in another course can benefit my work and can be adopted
by other business man in real.
Secondly, communication is the key in
networking event. As other networking events do, the Venture Forum gave
considerable time for people to social with others, both during dinner and
break. It was great time to talk to the people you are interested in, which
widen your social networking circle at the same time. However, how can we achieve
this goal and utilize the networking time effectively? The answer is
communication. No one talk to people who do not talk. Therefore, looking at
other’s eyes and say hi is the key process to start with!
Thirdly, clarify your goal before attending
the networking event. I remembered a student asked a question of how to find
the co-founder from technology domain. And two engineers raised their hands.
You will never gain if you do not ask. Moreover, well preparation makes your
time more effectively. You want to seek co-founder? Fund? Or just make more
friends? People with clear goal goes faster.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
My considerations for Ad-supported Internet
After reading the report from IAB, I recalled a saying I read several years before," future market is not based on the computer but the internet".
The economic value of ad-supported internet ecosystem is absolutely huge. The statistics show that ad-supported internet offered 5.1 million jobs, both direct and indirect, and generated $530 billion revenue for America in 2011 alone. That is arresting and developed me two considerations towards the ad-supported internet issue.
My first consideration is how can we get a share of these profits? As we discussed a lot on the topics of how to market online before, I don't want to address this question in the position of a marketer but a student entrepreneur.
Here I want to share my own experience. I attended a networking event titled "1st annual inter-collegiate mixer for entrepreneurship" held by ePowerhouse, a MIT start up providing the online platform for innovative entrepreneurs, on 20, September in Cambridge. Ten student start ups from MIT, BU, Babson, WPI and so on attended this event to be appraised and elected as the most innovative start up. When I go through these student start ups, I noticed that nine of the ten start ups are internet-based social platform or app development. In accordance to the statistics in the report, which indicates Massachusetts ranked fourth as internet firms having highest employment number and consumer service layer accounts the highest employment in ad-supported internet industry, Internet-based firm is really attractive even to the student entrepreneurs in this digital-friendly state. Then how can we business people take a ride with this trend?
Firstly, business idea must be different and on-demand. The value proposition is fatal, thus making a differentiation is necessary. People are no more surprised at novel service offered since the internet makes nothing is impossible. But platforms provides pinpoint on-demand service still make sense. Researching on the customer behavior related to the internet is helpful. In addition, internet is also awesome to serve the niche markets.
Secondly, co-founder is fatal. In the point of most business people, we lack the technology ability. In this circumstance, it is important to seek technological co-founders. As the scenarios I mentioned above, co-founders who are expert in web writing and app developing are best candidates to enter the ad-support internet industry. Otherwise, a ideal business plan without physical technology support to turn it true is meaningless.
Thirdly, marketing matters. Developing a internet-based platform doesn't cost much, either writing a website or developing an app. I view it as a significant factor leading to the prosperity of internet firms. But how to make your platform famous among the strong competition and access to your target customers? If you searched on the Google, you will find the internet is flooded by tons of internet-based business platforms. But I am sure that you never heard most of them before. Are they bad business ideas? I give a doubt. I think most of them didn't do a good job on marketing. E-marketing is important but internet-based companies can not only rely on the internet to promote themselves but combined the activities off-line which are able to reach massive target customers. Especially in the start up step.
My another consideration is that is this arresting phenomenon is a temporary bubble and how is the market prospect?
In accordance to the statistics in the report, ad-supported internet accounts for 3.7 percent of US GDP, which increased from 2.1 percent in 2007. The total employment increase in ad-supported internet industry is 197% from 2007. But I view this industry dependent heavily on the middle-high end market and young generation-oriented market since most service the internet platform offered are not people's basic need but higher needs in the need pyramid. And young generation adopted the internet hobby most. Most internet-based platforms' target customers are young people. I am wondering will the ad-supported internet industry will among the heaviest attacked domains if the economic crisis happened again?
Article: "Economic value of ad-supported internet ecosystem" by IAB
Link: http://www.iab.net/insights_research/industry_data_and_landscape/economicvalue
The economic value of ad-supported internet ecosystem is absolutely huge. The statistics show that ad-supported internet offered 5.1 million jobs, both direct and indirect, and generated $530 billion revenue for America in 2011 alone. That is arresting and developed me two considerations towards the ad-supported internet issue.
My first consideration is how can we get a share of these profits? As we discussed a lot on the topics of how to market online before, I don't want to address this question in the position of a marketer but a student entrepreneur.
Here I want to share my own experience. I attended a networking event titled "1st annual inter-collegiate mixer for entrepreneurship" held by ePowerhouse, a MIT start up providing the online platform for innovative entrepreneurs, on 20, September in Cambridge. Ten student start ups from MIT, BU, Babson, WPI and so on attended this event to be appraised and elected as the most innovative start up. When I go through these student start ups, I noticed that nine of the ten start ups are internet-based social platform or app development. In accordance to the statistics in the report, which indicates Massachusetts ranked fourth as internet firms having highest employment number and consumer service layer accounts the highest employment in ad-supported internet industry, Internet-based firm is really attractive even to the student entrepreneurs in this digital-friendly state. Then how can we business people take a ride with this trend?
Firstly, business idea must be different and on-demand. The value proposition is fatal, thus making a differentiation is necessary. People are no more surprised at novel service offered since the internet makes nothing is impossible. But platforms provides pinpoint on-demand service still make sense. Researching on the customer behavior related to the internet is helpful. In addition, internet is also awesome to serve the niche markets.
Secondly, co-founder is fatal. In the point of most business people, we lack the technology ability. In this circumstance, it is important to seek technological co-founders. As the scenarios I mentioned above, co-founders who are expert in web writing and app developing are best candidates to enter the ad-support internet industry. Otherwise, a ideal business plan without physical technology support to turn it true is meaningless.
Thirdly, marketing matters. Developing a internet-based platform doesn't cost much, either writing a website or developing an app. I view it as a significant factor leading to the prosperity of internet firms. But how to make your platform famous among the strong competition and access to your target customers? If you searched on the Google, you will find the internet is flooded by tons of internet-based business platforms. But I am sure that you never heard most of them before. Are they bad business ideas? I give a doubt. I think most of them didn't do a good job on marketing. E-marketing is important but internet-based companies can not only rely on the internet to promote themselves but combined the activities off-line which are able to reach massive target customers. Especially in the start up step.
My another consideration is that is this arresting phenomenon is a temporary bubble and how is the market prospect?
In accordance to the statistics in the report, ad-supported internet accounts for 3.7 percent of US GDP, which increased from 2.1 percent in 2007. The total employment increase in ad-supported internet industry is 197% from 2007. But I view this industry dependent heavily on the middle-high end market and young generation-oriented market since most service the internet platform offered are not people's basic need but higher needs in the need pyramid. And young generation adopted the internet hobby most. Most internet-based platforms' target customers are young people. I am wondering will the ad-supported internet industry will among the heaviest attacked domains if the economic crisis happened again?
Article: "Economic value of ad-supported internet ecosystem" by IAB
Link: http://www.iab.net/insights_research/industry_data_and_landscape/economicvalue
Thursday, September 27, 2012
QR Code Did it
At first, I do not understand what a QR code is. But if you tell me it is a type of two-dimensional code, I'm clear.
I feel like that I was surrounded by the QR codes after one night when I got up in the morning. I can give this credit to the WeChat, a mobile phone text and voice communication service developed by Tencent, China, and Weibo, Chinese twitter. WeChat developed an advanced service named " My QR Name Card" recently, which means each WeChat user is given an exclusive QR code. Other user can add you as a friend by scanning your QR code instead of typing in tens of characters and search you. The following figure is my WeChat QR name card, which is shared in Weibo.
The most influential tool, which gives "WeChat QR name card" a push, must be Weibo. One day I found that I was flooded by the WeChat QR codes in the Weibo. I followed a lot of "information collectors" and newspaper/magazines in my Weibo and they all started to share their codes. Once you scanned their code, you are agreed to receive their push notifications, which can be deals, coupons, sales reminder, restaurants, hotels, travel information, product introduction, news, comments and they can even do anti-humors!!!
I feel like that I was surrounded by the QR codes after one night when I got up in the morning. I can give this credit to the WeChat, a mobile phone text and voice communication service developed by Tencent, China, and Weibo, Chinese twitter. WeChat developed an advanced service named " My QR Name Card" recently, which means each WeChat user is given an exclusive QR code. Other user can add you as a friend by scanning your QR code instead of typing in tens of characters and search you. The following figure is my WeChat QR name card, which is shared in Weibo.
The most influential tool, which gives "WeChat QR name card" a push, must be Weibo. One day I found that I was flooded by the WeChat QR codes in the Weibo. I followed a lot of "information collectors" and newspaper/magazines in my Weibo and they all started to share their codes. Once you scanned their code, you are agreed to receive their push notifications, which can be deals, coupons, sales reminder, restaurants, hotels, travel information, product introduction, news, comments and they can even do anti-humors!!!
The advantages of QR code adoption in WeChat and Weibo are great for business. Firstly, WeChat takes the advantage of Weibo to reach more customers. Secondly, business users in Weibo utilize WeChat to penetrate the market and build customer loyalty. Thirdly, customers will not feel resistant to the push notifications since they have the authority to opt which they wanna receive from. Fourthly, once the products/deal was purchased by one customer, it is highly probably to be shared with potential customers, leading in purchase generation. It is because the users in WeChat are mostly close friends or relatives. The community-oriented marketing is convincing among friends, peers, relatives and family as we discussed in last post.
Besides the case in WeChat and Weibo, I trust the easy-creation of QR codes is another important factor leading to the QR code success. Subsequently, QR code requires fewer technology support.
I have to stop figuring out the advantages of adopting QR code in WeChat since it'is the work for Nan in her Net Tool project. lol. But the case I explained above is the most emerging change I observed in Chinese social media recently.
Then come back to QR code marketing. Have you considered which industry/customer favor QR codes? I read a great linked article titled "Marketing with QR Codes" (http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/proximity-marketing/marketing-qr-codes/) which mentioned the top 7 applications for QR codes. They are "maps and signage" "coupons and special deals" "In-store drive to web" "how to advice" "after sales care" "direct response mechanic on any advertising" and "e-ticketing". Combining the chart of "Total Audience: Scanned QR code with mobile phone" in the article of "QR code statistics" (shown as below), advertising QR codes printed in magazines/newspapers is the winner. It develops my thought to the "traditional marketing is dead" last week. Is QR code a hope to make the traditional marketing in prints prosperous again? In addition, I am not surprised to see "product packaging" takes the second position since the two-dimensional code starts up with delivery industry to make the process effectively and conveniently. Last, I want to point out the QR code using in e-ticketing is really really great. I used to buy an event ticket on Eventbrite last week just one hour before that event start. I was in a hurry that I had no time to print the ticket out since it was time-consuming for me to find a printer. Therefore, I downloaded the app of Eventbrite. My e-ticket came up after I logged in my account and all I need to do is just present my e-ticket at the entrance of the event! That's kind of cool and convenient thing. Let's suppose that the airport adopt e-flightticket, which I trust the according app has already been created. It will great shorten the waiting time for customers to print the flight tickets in the kiosks and convenient for passengers, who have no baggage to check in, to quit the long line. Moreover, it is more environment friendly since it goes paperless!
However, I have three concerns for the QR code marketing in current situation.
Firstly, there is still relative low customer awareness right now. Even though the QR codes can bring considerable benefits, most customers and companies haven't realized! There is still much work to do with customer education. I think the high exposure as I mentioned in Weibo case is a useful way to create public awareness.
Secondly, almost every QR code needs a reader. Therefore, customers have to download the QR code readers before using a QR code. Some customers may think it is troublesome and quit it. On one hand, customer education is important by educating the customers that the benefits they gonna received are much greater than the tiny inconvenience of downloading the QR code reader. On another hand, it is necessary to develop a standard QR code reader to make one reader can read every QR code.
Thirdly, as prof. Shari mentioned in class, the landing page of a QR code must be accurate. Otherwise, it is meaningless.
As we discussed before that customer behavior is changing that more and more people value their time and value the convenience, I trust it is a critical factor to make the QR code popular. I view the future of QR code is great brilliant and I want to extract an example from the article "why the best online marketing may be headed offline" to prove its feasibility. ( also a great article for you guys to read! http://mashable.com/2010/11/11/online-offline-marketing/) It is the greatest and most interesting result that every product has its QR code on it. And I am sure the marketing world will be shuffled again at that time!!!
"As a final example, imagine discovering that the water dispenser on your home fridge isn’t working. You open the fridge and see the indicator light informing you that your water filter cartridge needs replacing. What do you do? Will you fire up your laptop and type into a Google search box the exact model of your water filter cartridge replacement, then hunt for the best deal online? That’s what I did last year. But with any luck, next time around, a QR code will be printed on the water filter with the prompt: “Scan me to reorder.” Grabbing my phone, I scan the code, pulling up a 15% manufacturer’s discount if I order the cartridge directly. I click to buy, knowing I saved time and money, which I can now spend on more worthwhile activities."
Article: "QR code statistics" by Dave Chaffey
Monday, September 24, 2012
Importance of Peer Influence-based and Community-oriented Marketing
The title of this article, "Marketing is dead", is really arresting but after the completed reading, I feel that the title is only a stunt. Bill Lee, the author, doesn't really mean that the marketing doesn't work any more but promotes another two marketing strategies, peer influence-based and community oriented marketing.
Does these two kinds of marketing strategies matter much today? I vote "yes" on peer influence-based marketing but "no" on community oriented marketing. Here goes my own interpretations.
On one hand, the effect of peer influence-based marketing is incredible especially when combined with internet and social media.
Bill Lee gives two great examples, Mr. Excel of Microsoft "MVP" and National Instruments, to prove the importance of customer influence. I couldn't agree more at this point. It reminds me of the "Nettwerk" case we discussed two weeks ago in MKT566 course. The Nettwerk developed the leaders of genre tribes and offered them the new hit songs or newest information of Nettwerk's artists. The followers of the tribe leaders can access to the information of beloved artists and the tribe leaders can generate prestige among its followers. In this way, Nettwerk creates buzz for its artists in the tribes and helps the tribe leaders built social capital at the same time.
This is a good marketing model but can this model be influential without internet? Definitely it can but I am sure that the influence of peer influence-based marketing will be much weaker. How to reach broad peers? How can more and more peers reach each other quickly and effectively? Which medium is the best to generate discussion and share real time peer experience? What about the convenience for peers to check peer advise? I trust internet and social media are the best answers to these questions.
On another hand, I think these question can be forward to the community-oriented marketing. It is absolutely that buying history and experience from family, friends, relatives, colleagues and classmates matter much in new purchase deciding. But I view the community-oriented marketing can only work well in local physical sales. It is more likely a city-to-city marketing strategy. In another word, community-oriented marketing is a basic component of marketing world which serves small amount of customers.
Moreover, I view marketing on the web information sharing platforms is the trend rather than marketing in the physical community.
To sum up, I view community-oriented marketing is useful to create new purchase from customers who are not viewed as target customers before and peer influence-based marketing is more effective to reach broad potential customers.
Article: "Marketing is Dead" by Bill Lee
Link: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/marketing_is_dead.html
Does these two kinds of marketing strategies matter much today? I vote "yes" on peer influence-based marketing but "no" on community oriented marketing. Here goes my own interpretations.
On one hand, the effect of peer influence-based marketing is incredible especially when combined with internet and social media.
Bill Lee gives two great examples, Mr. Excel of Microsoft "MVP" and National Instruments, to prove the importance of customer influence. I couldn't agree more at this point. It reminds me of the "Nettwerk" case we discussed two weeks ago in MKT566 course. The Nettwerk developed the leaders of genre tribes and offered them the new hit songs or newest information of Nettwerk's artists. The followers of the tribe leaders can access to the information of beloved artists and the tribe leaders can generate prestige among its followers. In this way, Nettwerk creates buzz for its artists in the tribes and helps the tribe leaders built social capital at the same time.
This is a good marketing model but can this model be influential without internet? Definitely it can but I am sure that the influence of peer influence-based marketing will be much weaker. How to reach broad peers? How can more and more peers reach each other quickly and effectively? Which medium is the best to generate discussion and share real time peer experience? What about the convenience for peers to check peer advise? I trust internet and social media are the best answers to these questions.
On another hand, I think these question can be forward to the community-oriented marketing. It is absolutely that buying history and experience from family, friends, relatives, colleagues and classmates matter much in new purchase deciding. But I view the community-oriented marketing can only work well in local physical sales. It is more likely a city-to-city marketing strategy. In another word, community-oriented marketing is a basic component of marketing world which serves small amount of customers.
Moreover, I view marketing on the web information sharing platforms is the trend rather than marketing in the physical community.
To sum up, I view community-oriented marketing is useful to create new purchase from customers who are not viewed as target customers before and peer influence-based marketing is more effective to reach broad potential customers.
Article: "Marketing is Dead" by Bill Lee
Link: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/marketing_is_dead.html
Monday, September 17, 2012
customer behavior changed by online reviews
When you visited a vendor's page of a social website for the first time and saw several pieces customer reviews of a product you have never used before, which said "This product suck" and " I am so regret to buy it", what comes to your mind? I vote "no way" for this product in my life and would broadcast a mouth-to-mouth rumor in my friends circle if they mentioned it. "What? You mean you wanna buy xxx? Quit it! I heard it is terrible from others..."
Come on! Why do you deny the product before you give a try? The answer is online reviews! Considerable factors act on customer's purchase decision and evaluation from existing customers is the most powerful one.
Then where do most customers gather evaluations nowadays? Absolutely Internet!
According to the result of Local Consumer Review Survey, which conducted during January to March in 2012 and gathered 2,862 responses, "approximately 72% of consumers surveyed said that they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations."
Why online reviews speak so loud?
Firstly, online reviews are convincing. Most reviews are written and dispersed by existing or past customers, who have the best persuasion to the new customers.
Secondly, online reviews are neutral. Most customers will give an objective evaluation on specific product according to his/her using experience. In addition, online reviews are written by reviewers voluntarily and do not involve profit between reviewers and readers so that they are neutral and objective.
Thirdly, online reviews do not cost and can be written easily and disperse easily. It doesn't cost money for readers to read nor much time for reviewers to edit. Due to the online reviews depend on the Internet, it can be browsed freely and widely.
To these aspects, vendors should take advantage of utilizing the online reviews. I trust that's why so many vendors' official websites have the category of "Best Sellers".
However, how about the vendors who suffer the disadvantages of online reviews?That is the case Pampers Dry Max faced in the "Attack of the Customers: The Pampers Dry Max Crisis" article.
We can see this case as a successful crisis public relation management. Receiving test from authorized third party (CPSC), inviting leading professions to educate customers (pediatricians), gathering dispassionate opinion leaders and concentrating on the problematic product feedback, Pampers Dry Max did a reasonable crisis PR management after the crisis happened.
But from a marketer's point, can Pampers Dry Max do better and lose less? Probably. I trust the answer can be sought in the social media.
The outrage was stoked by Facebook. P&G's representatives might receive thousands of complain calls everyday but they should pay more attention once the complain occurs in the Internet, especially on the social medias. The unsatisfied and confused Pampers Dry Max customers gathered in the Facebook, which flood the page full of complains and reasonless conclusions . That is a big mess. What if P&G team assigned one representative or leading pediatrician on its Facebook page to solve those just started confusions and complains? Will it upgrade to the conflicts happened later? Will the assumption I described at the very beginning of this post happen to the potential customers who are not clear of the truth?
As online reviews contribute more to people's purchase decisions, vendors must pay more attention to their customer reviews to either take advantages of them or avoid unfavorable influence.
Article: "Attack of the Customers: The Pampers Dry Max Crisis" by Paul.
Link: http://gillin.com/blog/2012/08/attack-of-the-customers-the-pampers-dry-max-crisis/
Come on! Why do you deny the product before you give a try? The answer is online reviews! Considerable factors act on customer's purchase decision and evaluation from existing customers is the most powerful one.
Then where do most customers gather evaluations nowadays? Absolutely Internet!
According to the result of Local Consumer Review Survey, which conducted during January to March in 2012 and gathered 2,862 responses, "approximately 72% of consumers surveyed said that they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations."
Why online reviews speak so loud?
Firstly, online reviews are convincing. Most reviews are written and dispersed by existing or past customers, who have the best persuasion to the new customers.
Secondly, online reviews are neutral. Most customers will give an objective evaluation on specific product according to his/her using experience. In addition, online reviews are written by reviewers voluntarily and do not involve profit between reviewers and readers so that they are neutral and objective.
Thirdly, online reviews do not cost and can be written easily and disperse easily. It doesn't cost money for readers to read nor much time for reviewers to edit. Due to the online reviews depend on the Internet, it can be browsed freely and widely.
To these aspects, vendors should take advantage of utilizing the online reviews. I trust that's why so many vendors' official websites have the category of "Best Sellers".
However, how about the vendors who suffer the disadvantages of online reviews?That is the case Pampers Dry Max faced in the "Attack of the Customers: The Pampers Dry Max Crisis" article.
We can see this case as a successful crisis public relation management. Receiving test from authorized third party (CPSC), inviting leading professions to educate customers (pediatricians), gathering dispassionate opinion leaders and concentrating on the problematic product feedback, Pampers Dry Max did a reasonable crisis PR management after the crisis happened.
But from a marketer's point, can Pampers Dry Max do better and lose less? Probably. I trust the answer can be sought in the social media.
The outrage was stoked by Facebook. P&G's representatives might receive thousands of complain calls everyday but they should pay more attention once the complain occurs in the Internet, especially on the social medias. The unsatisfied and confused Pampers Dry Max customers gathered in the Facebook, which flood the page full of complains and reasonless conclusions . That is a big mess. What if P&G team assigned one representative or leading pediatrician on its Facebook page to solve those just started confusions and complains? Will it upgrade to the conflicts happened later? Will the assumption I described at the very beginning of this post happen to the potential customers who are not clear of the truth?
As online reviews contribute more to people's purchase decisions, vendors must pay more attention to their customer reviews to either take advantages of them or avoid unfavorable influence.
Article: "Attack of the Customers: The Pampers Dry Max Crisis" by Paul.
Link: http://gillin.com/blog/2012/08/attack-of-the-customers-the-pampers-dry-max-crisis/
Monday, September 3, 2012
Is Google making us stupid?
I'm sorry to find myself exhausting by reading such a lengthy article.
It seems that I fit all descriptions of people using web reading mentioned in this article, fidgety, hard to concentrate, no deep reading and lose patience. I asked several classmates. One told me that she lost the desire of reading after noticing the article's length is over 3 screens. Therefore, I am not the only person freaked out by this article ;)
I do not agree with Google is making us stupid but I'm sure the internet-based reading is shifting our demands.
As technology and internet emerges, people adopt more convenient reading format other than traditional books.
Traditional books have advantages compared to e-books. To my perspective, traditional books indeed help people to do deep reading, providing space for mental connection and in-depth thinking. Sometimes a fascinating book makes me eager to finish reading at one time, forgetting eating and sleeping. However, it is hard to find this kind of feeling when I do e-reading. My thought can be dispersed by any other net tool other than Google, such as Facebook or Twitter. I used to refresh them every hour when I sit in front of my computer, which makes my reading not consistently, leading to shallow understanding. Most times when I do e-reading, I jumped from link to link and gave up after 2-4 paragraph scratching if I find I lost the interest to this article. In addition, reading too much reviews and commends by others shapes my mind.
However, I have to admit that an unbeatable advantage of e-reading is that it posed me to sufficient bunches of information, which brings me super convenience and wider updated knowledge. I can access to abundant updated news daily on political, economics, entertainment and whatever. I can do research on whatever I didn't seen before. Moreover, selective reading saves my time and makes my reading more efficiency. Google widen my knowledge coverage. I view myself smarter and more trendy with internet-based reading.
All in all, internet-based reading is the result catering to public's demand. As the speed of the society increases and competition intensifies, people are willing to gather as much information as possible in fastest pace, most convenient format and cheapest cost.
Google is not making us stupid but making us more fidgety and ambitous.
Article: "Is Google making us stupid" by Nicholas Carr
It seems that I fit all descriptions of people using web reading mentioned in this article, fidgety, hard to concentrate, no deep reading and lose patience. I asked several classmates. One told me that she lost the desire of reading after noticing the article's length is over 3 screens. Therefore, I am not the only person freaked out by this article ;)
I do not agree with Google is making us stupid but I'm sure the internet-based reading is shifting our demands.
As technology and internet emerges, people adopt more convenient reading format other than traditional books.
Traditional books have advantages compared to e-books. To my perspective, traditional books indeed help people to do deep reading, providing space for mental connection and in-depth thinking. Sometimes a fascinating book makes me eager to finish reading at one time, forgetting eating and sleeping. However, it is hard to find this kind of feeling when I do e-reading. My thought can be dispersed by any other net tool other than Google, such as Facebook or Twitter. I used to refresh them every hour when I sit in front of my computer, which makes my reading not consistently, leading to shallow understanding. Most times when I do e-reading, I jumped from link to link and gave up after 2-4 paragraph scratching if I find I lost the interest to this article. In addition, reading too much reviews and commends by others shapes my mind.
However, I have to admit that an unbeatable advantage of e-reading is that it posed me to sufficient bunches of information, which brings me super convenience and wider updated knowledge. I can access to abundant updated news daily on political, economics, entertainment and whatever. I can do research on whatever I didn't seen before. Moreover, selective reading saves my time and makes my reading more efficiency. Google widen my knowledge coverage. I view myself smarter and more trendy with internet-based reading.
All in all, internet-based reading is the result catering to public's demand. As the speed of the society increases and competition intensifies, people are willing to gather as much information as possible in fastest pace, most convenient format and cheapest cost.
Google is not making us stupid but making us more fidgety and ambitous.
Article: "Is Google making us stupid" by Nicholas Carr
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/
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