The viral marketing that went wrong

The casualwear chain 'Gap' decided to change its decades old logo with a new chic-style logo. The new logo irritated fans, spurring them to complain about it online. "Gap" became a trending topic on Twitter, as design- and branding-savvy Twitterers (as well as those who just like to voice an opinion on everything) proclaimed their distaste for the new logo. In a knee jerk reaction they decided to crowd source the logo through social networking websites. This turned the irritated fans into an online mob, with custom avatars mocking the logo popping up and even a fake Gap Logo Twitter feed, @gaplogo, with a few thousand followers. A set of individuals referring to themselves as "The Randian Preservation Society" went so far as to launch a site called Crap Logo Yourself, in which you could put any text into the style of the new Gap logo, playfully asking, "Why hire an expensive firm to rebrand?"
Gap North America president Marka Hansen said in a statement, "There may be a time to evolve our logo, but if and when that time comes, we'll handle it in a different way," Hansen said, adding that the project was not the right one to offer up to "crowd sourcing."
A week later the gap logo was changed back to the original one.
Guess the retailers didn't estimate the 'gap' between their logo and their customers correctly.

Why So Serious?

In May 2007, 42 Entertainers began a viral marketing campaign utilizing the Dark Knight film's "Why So Serious?" tagline.

A transmedia experiment with over 10 million particpants in over 75 countres that played across hundreds of web pages, interactive games, mobile phones, print, email, real worl events, video and unique collectibles

Honda's Viral Marketing

This is one of the best and famous advertisement in the world and it's the good example viral marketing of Honda to demonstrate their slogan " the power of dreams"

Office 2010 : The Movie

Talking about viral marketing, it is very interesting how people use word-of-mouth or 'Share' information or ads through video sharing website like YouTube. I have just found one example of pretty large, which are over 4 million views!

Whatever will be will be!

This is my favourite Viral Marketing campaign of Thai Life Insurance. They make audience realize that people' life are different, but we can make the best. "Thai Life Insurance saw the value of everylife"

Never say no to Panda...Top 5 Funny Panda Cheese Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6iHCFiSqIw

Viral Marketing in Ukraine

The interesting thing about Viral Marketing is that most companies can't do it properly. If buzz looks fake people won't follow it... Proper Viral Marketing is that one when people don't realize that they participate in marketing campaign. 

My favorite buzz is when Russian cellular company MTS bought Ukrainian company UMC and made rebranding. The new brand was egg on red background. Buzz was that huge that not only in the Internet people was talking about "egg attack" but also outside, websites started to sell t-shirts and tank tops with egg symbols and fun comments.  

Appropriate Marketing

Hello Everyone!

I have accidentally found following ad:

It is definitely fun! BUT, why some things that inappropriate in real life appropriate in marketing?

Viral Marketing From Indonesia

Hi Friends..

Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands, to millions. (source: http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/viral-principles.htm).

Based on explanation about viral marketing, i want to share a video to you, and i hope this video will help you to understand more about viral marketing.

Please check this address:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj29qmLnBiE

Thanks,

Ari Rangkuti

NTT DOCOMO Vision 2020 Culture Symphony

This is the NTT DoCoMo's Vision 2020 Culture Symphony...
Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4jO6mrzk9I

Sesame Street - I love my hair!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enpFde5rgmw

This is a recent music video that Sesame Street created and aired.  A small, black Muppet girl sings about how much she loves her hair.  It immediately went viral.

Misconceptions of beauty can distort how little girls feel about themselves.  People love this song because it celebrates diversity and helps build girls' self-esteem and body image.  It's a positive message and a huge success for Sesame Street.

~Lindsay

Uniqlo Jump by 696 Uniqlo Staff from 27 cities 5 countries

http://www.uniqlo.com/jump/

A Pantene Commercial that Got Viral

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um9KsrH377A

Most viral videos come and go, but this is the only one has made a lasting impression in my memory, that despite the fact more than two years have gone by since the last time I watched it, I can still vividly recall its image.

Anyways, it was a Pantene commercial in Thailand about the story of a deaf and mute girl who learns to play the violin against all odds. However, its popularity reached much beyond just Thailand. In both China and the U.S.'s online communities, which I frequently visit, this touching story created a huge wave of sensation, attracting tens of millions of viewers.

From a marketing perspective, some people have questioned its relevancy for Pantene's product line. However, if we look beyond just the immediate impact on product sales, it is clear that this campaign successfully conveyed a message regarding Pantene's brand value and the corporate social responsibility efforts by its owner Procter & Gamble.

Please enjoy. It can change your life.

Animaton in TVC

Recently, many companies use animation in their TVC. Comfort brand is one of them. Comfort uses a series of TVC animation to draw attention from the public with a consistant 3D animator characters. The audience feels relaxing seeing these characters after when they are exhausted with many ads a day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfLiyOPuuKw&feature=related

Thanks,

Viral campaigns in Politics

For those that don't know the current political situation in Spain . In www.e-criteri.cat this is how we, Catalans, struggle to maintain the Catalan nation alive.

What about having windows in Catalan?

Cheer Beer, Plz lol.

Well, nothing to say much, lean backward and enjoy!! (600,000views)

Evian Roller Babies international version

It is said that a virus population can explode in a few short generations.What does a virus have to do with marketing? Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands, to millions.Please click a sample video of Viral marketing.

Marketing of Apple

Do you know the true meaning of marketing? Marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in goods or services. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments.It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and creates value for their customers and for themselves. I think that marketing of apple is amazing. Of course, both products and CEO Steve jobs are excellent. Because of they continue to create new market and needs such as iPod, iPhone and iPad. I strongly feel that we can learn many things from Apple, In addition, I continue to check apple's tendency.

My Favorite Viral Marketing Campaign

Perhaps one of the most memoriable viral marketing campaign I remembered is the one created by Jib Jab for the Obama Election campaign, it was so popular at that time even news channels like CNN and BBC are all showing it on their news programs.



But what most people do not know is that Jib Jab actually also creating many other similar mini episodes of animation that helps to create viral effects for election candidates, such as "Governator" Arnold Schwarznegger in this video among many others.

Once again, it just show the power on the Internet when it comes to marketing.

The other web that makes me leaning forward besides facebook

Besides facebook, the only web page which makes me leaning forward to participate is the online stock trading platform that I visit everyday. Over there, you can not only actively make a stock price search, you can also create your own portfolio and conduct simple technical analysis.

Next the main screen are ads placed by other stock brokers like Deutsche Bank. I believe the business model of this web is pretty similar to that of MedNet's, of which its main source of income is generated by the number of visitors clicking on the ad, or simply "impressions".

I enclose the link for your reference.

http://www.aastocks.com/en/default.aspx?

The most pupolar Viral Marketing campaign in Japan

Softbank's developed its long-term viral campaigns that began in 2007.
Due to increbility of family composition, tricky plots and strong messages about its services, it brought big boom and helps Softbank expand its share of the cellphone carrier market rapidly.
The number of titles has been over hundreds and that number is still going up.
Its continuity is also very impressive as well.
Here is iPhone version.

Viral Indonesia (Indonesia Travel)

World's Highest Dancefloor

One of the recent youtube videos that created a buzz in the Philippines shows flight attendants of low-cost carrier, Cebu Pacific, doing the pre-takeoff safety presentation to the tune of Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. As of this writing, this video has been viewed over 9 million times. It has been widely talked about and featured both by local and foreign media such as USA TODAY, CNN, and Fox News.

There is a debate however, questioning whether this seemingly amateur video was really candid or well-planned by Cebu Pacific itself. Some believe that it was planned because the video started recording even before the presentation began. In addition to this, some say that the airline was just seeking publicity for its pending $580M IPO. Cebu Pacific's Vice President for Marketing denies this but says, "The timing, though, is impeccable".

Interesting video post or marketing scheme?

Online retail and sales tax

In this interesting article from New York Times, it explains how internet companies like Amazon.com avoid paying sales tax since it is not physically located in that state. This gives it a significant advantage over traditional brick and mortar stores.

Another interesting trick that Amazon uses is creating subsidiaries that are treated separately for tax matters, a legal technique called "entity isolation". The subsidiary that developed the Kindle is in California, but because it doesn't sell the Kindle directly to customers, Amazon's legal position is that it isn't required to collect sales taxes in California.

Click here for a similar case study on walmart.com

viral video or alien invasion?

There have been many online videos recently about UFOs hovering over New York. A quick search will reveal several such videos. Here is a news report. And here are several more videos.

Well, there is also a movie soon to be released called "Skyline" which is described as follows:

In the sci-fi thriller Skyline, strange lights descend on the city of Los Angeles, drawing people outside like moths to a flame where an extraterrestrial force threatens to swallow the entire human population off the face of the Earth.

- IAmRogue.com

Sounds familiar...

The coincidence can't be ignored. Although the movie makers have not official come out and admitted to the hoax, its it fairly obvious that this low budget movie used this cost saving technique to create buzz on the Internet.

What are your thoughts? Here is the movie trailer for your enjoyment.

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing and viral advertising, (buzzwords), refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of virus or computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.[1] Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages.

PS3 & Wii value proposition

Do you know PS3 and Wii? PS3, Play Station3 is produced by Sony and Wii is produced by Nintendo.

PS3’ value proposition is that people can play the video game possessing the highest quality image and sound. Moreover, they can watch Blu-ray disk. On the other hand, Wii’s value position is that all human beings can be very easy to play the video game with attractive wireless controller. In fact, PS3’s specification is much better than Wii; however, the sales volume of Wii is much higher than PS3’s volume. Why? Nintendo succeeded in creating new markets, that is to say, young women and elderly people started to play video game.

Around 30 years ago, Nintendo concentrated on selling just playing cards; however, now, Nintendo is the No.1 player in home video game markets. Please watch below. This is a Nintendo’s first video game CM and origin of Japanese video game!! Sorry, this CM is only Japanese...




This CM is saying that changing from just watching TV to playing TV!

The true cost of electronic payment cards

Recently Octopus Rewards Limited(Maker of recharageable smart card in Hong Kong) has been under scrutiny for violating privacy principles. They collected customers' personal data through Octopus cards and sold them for profit while customers were unaware of it.

Here's a movie about the Octopus cards:




Here's news clip of the scandal:


Despite its popularity, customers used Octopus cards and its rewards program without finding out its true costs. Now that Hong Kong government and its people are aware of the scandal, it will be interesting to see if Octopus's value proposition still holds after customers find out its true cost. What do you think?

Fedex commercial

It's my most favorite viral marketing commercial by Fedex, and it's been a hot topic in about 2 years ago when it's launched. I copy the english version here.

JS - Officially Missing You - Tamia (cover)

Speaking of Viral Marketing, the perfect combination that comes to my mind is online social media and
word of mouth. Everything starts from the internet!!

Not only companies wanting to sell their products or services use this marketing method, but also
artists wanting to promote themselves and their latest hits seems to be using this viral marketing as
a main channel to connect with their audiences.

The most basic and famous way is to upload your video clips, sometimes called viral clips, to youtube.
Here, I have an example of Korean-Australian twins, who want to be duo singer. Their names are
Janice and Sonia. I have been following their works for almost a year now because my friend, who
is their biggest fan told me so (it is a power of word-of-mouth).

A few years ago, only handful amount of people know them. Today is a whole different story.
As they continue uploading their video clips, together with the power of word-of-mouth, one of their video clips hits 5 millions views on youtube and they were able to hold a successful concert in LA (May 2010.)

For them, it proves that "Viral Marketing" does work!!!

Will it blend?

I've seen this guy try to blend everything in the world with his product, blendtec, for a long time.



I understand clearly how strong and effective his product is but...
1. Do we really blend those stuffs, which are difficult to blend, he showed us at home?
2. It costs around $400!!, crazy!! Anyway 10 million views!
(Check for youtube "Will it blend?" to see a lot more things blend, enjoy!!)

A different value proposition: Dove Evolution

An example of turning the tables around radically to introduce a completely different concept.

Dove launches this campaign targeted at the "normal woman", changing the definition of "beauty" in the process, and asserting that real beauty lies with every woman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

4Ps Become 5Ps

Before this class to day October 22, 2010, I read back module E-Marketing session 1. According material in session 1 we learn about 4 Ps ( From the seller’s Perspective). The 4Ps consist of products, price, place, and promotion. Base on my experience in banking industries, process maybe so important, a lot of our customers do not care so much about pricing. For example; bid bond, if a company apply bid bond for tender a project, they need bid bond as soon as possible, some time they need only one hour. In the other hand banking officer must be careful to create bid bond both procedure and type. I ever conducted a small survey for several big company to know what important they need. The result of survey shows that process is more important than price, place and promotion.

A truely identified value proposition for customer!

Dear friends,
Can u guess the link below is for what type of company advertisement? Perhaps u r right, a famous Cell phone company, Bangla Link advertisement. In the last 3-4 years an explosive growth has taken place in this sector in Bangladesh. Cellphone influenced the life of people and the company rightly identified the value for the customers and how they can be benefited. In this advertisement, there are two sequence: Before Cellphone and after cellphone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gifzMjGv2Q
The company truly identified the value for the customer such as fishermen, businessmen, women and the theme was the same "days have been changed completely"

Customer Satisfaction

Marketing is the delivery of customer satisfaction at a profit. People have almost unlimited wants but limited resources. Thus, they want to choose products that provide the most value and satisfaction for their money. However, to satisfy customer is not easy at all. I would like to share this following funny advertising video clip. It is not only a creative idea of advertising but also a lesson for us to keep in mind the notion of “putting the customer at the top of the organizational chart.” (Even our customer is ... a panda :))

Best Advertisement and Great lesson to everyone :

Millionaires Before They Turned 25

Related to our discussion about value, our professor in e-Marketing said "anything that we purchase must solve problem of the customer" and I want to prove it in reality world. Yahoo provide a good news at October 21, 2010. Yahoo introduce several young entrepreneurs success to run their business in younger age.

After we read this article, we can make assumption that you don't need years of experience to make your business big as long as you know about "Value".

Here people become millionaires before they turned 25:

1. Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, Now he's a 26-year-old
2. Michael Dell, Age now: 45 Title/Company: Founder & CEO, Dell Computers Made his first million by age: 19
3. Catherine Cook, Age now: 20 Title/Company: Founder, myyearbook.com, Made her first million by age: 18
4. Sean Belnick, Age now: 23 Title/Company: Founder, BizChair.com, Made his first million by age: 16
5. Juliette Brindak, Title/Company: Cofounder/CEO, MissOandFriends.com, Made her first million by age: 19
6. Matt Mickiewicz, Title/Companies: Founder, Sitepoint, 99 Designs & Flippa, Made his first million by age: 22
7. David Hauser & Siamak Taghaddos,

   Age now: 28 and 29, respectively,

   Titles/Company: Co-founder (Hauser, right);

   Co-

   founder, CEO (Taghaddos, left) -- Grasshopper Group,

   Made their first million by ages: 24 and 25, respectively

The interesting point from all people above, Matt Mickiewicz give a good advice for young entrepreneurs:

"People who say it takes money to make money are using the worst excuse ever. . . Create massive value for others by providing a solution where no other "

I hope this news make believe that what our Professor said was happened in real business.

If you want to see more about this news, you can visit:

http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/slideshows/slideshow_pop.html?nm=YoungMillionaires

Have a nice class..

Ari Rangkuti

Will you buy a new Macbook Air?

Apple revealed its new product lines for Macbook Air recently. Thinner, more powerful and more eco-friendly ones. Even though Apple says so, it still uses Intel Core 2 Duo processors, outdated compares to the i3, i5 and i7 series.
But people still want to get new Macbook Air in their hands if they have some bucks in their pockets. I am not the exception too. :)

Links are here...
http://www.apple.com/macbookair/
http://www.apple.com/jp/macbookair/

BB vs Angry Whopper

This was the most popular viral campaign during the last few months. This clip has been shared through all social networks; facebook, twitter which has more than 1 million views. The first clip was launched before the second part 1-2 weeks. Plz watch the first clip.



After the first clip was shared, Thai people were discussing if what the professor did was appropriated or not, the clip was real or fake. And ya 1 million views. Now clip 2



What do u think? (I'll reveal the conclusion of this viral campaign if it is successful or not later, maybe this week or week 4 becoz we'll have a class lecture about viral marketing on week 4)

Value beyond product?

I think some company carries out a campaign that has more value beyond the product itself. In this not-so-perfect-world, they were trying to contribute to society and touch the heart of the costumers with their campaign. To illustrate this theory I can give you some sample of product campaign.

1. Shiseido saw that Japanese women started to lose their identity. They colored their hair, tanned their skinned, tried to be like “foreigner” and look far from being an Asian especially Japanese woman. Shiseido launched Tsubaki shampoo and try to remind Japanese women that they are beautiful as they are. In each campaign they try to prove that being Japanese is beautiful.

2. Mastercard “Priceless” campaign with their slogan “There are something that money can’t buy. For something else use Mastercard”. The purpose of the campaign is to position MasterCard as a friendly credit card company as respond to the public's worry that everything is being commoditized and that people are becoming too materialistic as they see everything in terms of money.

I actually still have more samples, but it will be too long if we discussed here. Anyway, this is just my thought. So what do you think?

Consumer Perception on Bluetooth-Enabled Advertising

Recently I came across an interesting study on the relatively unexplored Bluetooth-enabled advertising aspect of using mobile devices as communication media to consumers:

Leek, Sheena and Christodoulides, George "Next-Generation Mobile Marketing: How Young Consumers React to Biuetooth-Enabied Advertising", Journal or Advertising Reserach, March 2009

Through a survey conducted in the U.K., the authors conclude that majority of the consumers were willing to accept this form of advertising, they needed both to be in control of the frequency with which they receive messages and also to be reassured that the medium could ensure privacy and security. The research further indicated that peers influence the acceptance of Bluetooth-driven advertising. (See table below for survey results. )


More importantly, the authors outlines the value proposed by bluetooth-enabled advertising in comparision to other mobile communication technology as follows:

Since personalized content is the key for successful mobile communication, Bluetooth mobile technology offers marketers a unique opportunity to reach people in location-specific areas with rich content but without the cost and complexity of the mobile networks' SMS and MMS technology. Any user of a Bluetooth-enabled mobile device can instantly receive such rich content as video, graphics, text, sound, ringtones, wallpaper, and software.

New Gorillas in the Mist?

Could it be true that today's marketers are heavily borrowing from Anthropology's methodological toolbox?

• As a lover of Anthropology (I even received my bachelors degree in the subject), I admit that I am both pleased and flabbergasted if market researchers are driving harder towards participant observation and ethnographic research.
• I love this idea because it means there might be a perfect job out there for me afterall.
• But I am a skeptic. In my experience, my majoring in Anthropology usually inspires a laugh or possibly a blank stare from people.  In scientific research and in business, I have found that Anthropology's qualitative methods receive little respect.  That's part of the reason I returned to business school!

http://www.inc.com/magazine/19980701/964.html

• What is the appropriate mix of research methods?
• When the marketing researcher/ethnographer puts her suit and high heels back on and returns to the office, how did she present her findings in a convincing way?  How do marketers translate their findings into business language that their CFOs and CEOs will understand?

Electronic money of Japan

Do you know situation of Electronic money in Japan? For instance, there are many varieties such as Edy, Suica, QUICPay, nanaco, waon and so on. How about you feeling, convenience? Are there convenient? Maybe, There are very convenience when we go to shopping. However, I guess that electronic money is inconvenience in order for many varieties. For example, when we get train, we have to use Suica, and when we want to buy something, we must use Edy, QUIPay, nanaco, waon and so on. Therefore, we have to take many electronic money. We, consumer hope unification, I guess that it is true "value". what do you think about it?

More on Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)

Do you know what actually does CAGR measure? CARG is the compund rate of growth/return that your base number will grow at a steady rate across the specific time horizon.

In other words, it is roughly an average rate that takes time value of money into consideration (coz it's compound, not simple) and smooths out all the ups and downs (as it's an average rate).

One practical tips to you guys on using CAGR would be it's not useable when your data exists a negative number! Imagine intuitively, what will be the growth rate for this year if last year's growth is negative?

Airlines Commercial Ads

Airlines business is one of the most competitive business, which has been trying to use many tactics to promote their services to attract customers. Each places its value into the advertisement in order to draw in target customers.
The first example is ads by United Airlines with its slogan, 'It's time to fly'.

The second example is ads by American Airlines (AA) with its slogan, ' We know why we fly', which tries to emphasize on the importance of family and home.

The last example is ads by Air France with its slogan, 'One of the best places on earth', which simulates the seating on the airplane as nice beach chairs next to the beautiful pool.

Denim Therapy

I found a fun article about creative strategies for marketing “Denim Therapy”: a service that repairs jeans. Presented are four creative approaches you could take to this novel business: creating a blog buzz, using humor, using celebrity associations, or by going green.

In my opinion, using blogs is a great way to spread goodwill toward new products. The Internet is now at the forefront of fashion and culture, and it makes sense to market new trends and clothing products on popular fashion blogs.

Which choice do you think would work best for this business?

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100301/how-to-revamp-your-marketing-plan.html

Business Plan and Excecutive Summary

It is better to know what executive summary is, and it connects to a business plan.

An executive summary is an overview. The purpose of an executive summary is to summarize the key points of a document clearly for its readers, saving them time and preparing them for the upcoming content.

In business, the most common use of an executive summary is as part of a business plan. The executive summary in a business plan serves the same purposes as an executive summary in any other document; in a business plan, an executive summary also has to entice the reader to read the rest of the business plan.

For this reason, the executive summary is often called the most important part of the business plan. If it doesn't do what it’s supposed to do, the business plan will be set aside unread. We should learn this for practically.

How simulation test help the market research?

I am thinking when a company conducts marketing research for one existing product by different methods such as customer interview, survey, etc. Each method shows different result. How we can combine those results to come up with the final one? Can simulation test help in this method? When we use different parameters for simulation, how can we extract the result from the market search to test the simulation?

Hereunder is the diagram supporting the simulation but I don`t know how effective it is for market research?


Thanks,

Little Felica Chip and Value Proposition

A FeliCa is a contactless small IC chip.Its technology is wireless self-powered.When FeliCa is embedded in some Mobile Phones and Smart cards, it supports many benefit features such as multi-application, flexible access, high speed secure transaction and etc. For example,DoCoMO Phone and Suica Card.The first FeliCa-equipped DoCoMo Phones grew up in sales from 5,000(trial market) to 1.3 million during 6 months.This case may be related with Value Proposition.Pls click and enjoy above vedios.

http://www.sony.net/Products/felica/mov/index.html

Coca Cola and Pepsi

Overlapping value proposition happens whenever more than 2 companies claiming the same thing in the same market and neutralizing their products in the market on their attribute.

Coca Cola and Pepsi are one of overlapping value proposition's examples that occur in soft drink market. Both of Coca Cola and Pepsi produce the similar product that have the same taste, look and price. Because of this, an important factor that can differentiate them separately is marketing such as product placement campaigns, branded entertainment, branded awareness; etc.

And this link shows the way how Coca Cola and Pepsi compete each other by using marketing;
http://abduzeedo.com/branding-slogan-wars-between-coke-and-pepsi

Asahi Breweries, LTD.

Asahi Breweries, LTD., beverage and frozen food industry adopted interesting marketing strategy. Initially, they classified all drinks’ markets into several categories, such as tea markets, can shouchu markets and so on. According to Asahi, if Asahi acquired No.1 share of very small market, people would memorize Asahi’s name as No.1 player. That is to say, their brand value could dramatically increase. At last, Asahi could defeat against competitors in the profitable markets, beer markets. Now, Asahi is the No.1 play in Japanese beer markets.

I agree with Asahi’s marketing stragegy because Japanese customers tend to choose famous industry’s products.

Is it a great finding? A mysterious ranking in Alexa

I've checked every "top-site by country" in Alexa.
Yes, my favorite Kakaku.com is at 24 th, just 3 ranks behind giant Facebook in Japan.
It is interesting because the rankings are almost reasonable.... except a particular country.

That is South Korea. In top 10 ranking, there are 3 Chinese company; Baidu, QQ and Taobao.
I asked my Korean classmate whether it is correct. He said it's impossible because general Korean public people don' t read Chinese language at all.
http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/KR
The population of South Korea is 48million, and it is believed 1 million Chinese people are living in Korea. If the data was correct, the cyber space in Korea has been trespassed by someone else...

Test Drive the new Outlander from your dorm room

Mitsubishi is launching an all new model of one of its best selling Outlander series called "Outlander Sport 4x4" . Mitsubishi has used rigged outlanders to allow its customers to test drive this SUV live over the internet. Participants of Mitsubishi Live Drive will be given control over the 148 horse power SUV as they steer it around a closed course in California using only their keyboards at a maximum speed of 30 mph. Mitsubishi is the first car manufacturer in the world to launch a video game-style real-time test drive for the prospective owners. GTA and NFS gaming addicts did u hear this?

a horror film?

When I first saw this advertisement in cinema, I thought it's a trailer of horror film. I think it's a very good advertisement, which may relate to the topic of customers' value proposition.

Apple Ranked No. 1 in Tech Support, Customer Loyalty

As we already know that Apple is at best in almost everything they do.

Every time we think about high-technology equipment, I believe that Apple is the first, or at least the second, brand that comes to our mind.

iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac Computer and other several well-known products and applications from Apple have been highly recognized in the world's market.

However, Apple is not just being good in making profits from their incredibly amazing products, they are also ranked as the No.1 company

who has the best Customer Loyalty.


Apple Ranked No. 1 in Tech Support, Customer Loyalty


If you access the link provided above, you would find an interesting article about Apple and their Customer Loyalty together with

other rankings that Apple has acquired the No.1 spot.


According to the article, I think Apple has successfully built their strong customer base. By executing their marketing plan derived from

value of customer, Apple will only keep having larger number of customers and earning higher profits.

Value Proposition

There are some articles of interest concerning marketing and business in the following link.I read the one written by the author,Louis Columbus.His opinion highlights the important points  to build the three value propositions: "All the benefits","Points of difference" and "Resonating focus"  by the way of substitute system and process.In addition,he mentions an good example of Resonating focus that shows selling one of cloud computing components,SaaS(Storage-as-a-service).


(http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/49412.html)

Mechanical Post Card

Yesterday I found in the Internet website of some guy named Brad Litwin (http://www.mechanicards.com/), he produces and sells very interesting post cards... mechanical post cards

Idea is interesting, but who are the potential customers? And the most important, what is the value proposition?

-Oleg

DTAC - Believe in Adequacy

From the e-Marketing class today, we were brain storming about DTAC is telling people to put down their phones. Actually, 4-5 years ago, DTAC did sth similar to the one I've shown you. Plz take a look!



Some useful background: Cheap voice call was very booming in Thailand 4-5 years ago, we could make a voice call unlimited by paying one fix lumsum. Now, BB and Iphone take place, we can text as much as we want by paying one fix lumsum, so people stops using voice calling.

PS: At the end, it says "use your mobile phone adequately" in other words, "don't use it too much"

When the Old Meets the New - E-Marketing for A Historical Era

I am an avid fan of the Sengoku Era (戦国時代), a historical period in ancient Japan (1467 - 1615). The Sengoku period has been used as the setting for a myriad of books, films, anime, and video games, thus considered as an integral part of the Japanese popluar cutlure today, and also plays a significant role in foreign perceptions of the Japanese history.

Naturally, there are many commercial websites promoting Sengoku goods, mainly souvenirs or other related products. Among the many that I have seen, Sengoku Dama (http://www.sengokudama.com/) seems to be the best-run from a marketing standpoint. Compared to other similar e-marketing efforts, Sengoku Dama differentiates itself by elevating from simple web distributor of products to become a cultural advocate aimed at promoting awareness for the Era.

For instance, the website publishes extensive online contents on the history itself, while also provideing information about various Sengoku-related events such as exhibitions and lectures (sometimes organized by the company) around Japan aimed at educating people about the history. In addition, it provides planning and consultancy service to localities that want to promote their connections to the era as means for increasing tourism, thus expanding its customer base beyond just Sengoku fans.

Value Proposition Model

Hi Yanchu this is interesting. But I don't think it gets to the heart of the matter like the Resonating Focus Value Proposition does. Where is the competitive value versus the competition here? Maybe I am just missing it.

This is an excellent picture though, and I look forward to discussing it in class with everyone.

MIT Media Lab project now in Bangladesh as www.cellbazaar.com

I would like to tell you about a country of wonder, Bangladesh! Having a small land area, the most densely populated country has got many problems but has tremendous opportunity, potentiality and success. Like others one of the success history is CellBazaar: www.cellbazaar.com. The project was initiated in the MIT Media Lab and now in Bangladesh. This is a sole patent on user-generated market information in Bangladesh which is Buying, Selling, Classifieds, and market information via mobile phone to 15 million Grameenphone subscribers. It Works on SMS, WAP and Web platforms.

What is it?

CellBazaar is a virtual marketplace that allows buyers and sellers to connect with one another and buy and sell goods and services using their mobile phones. CellBazaar enables entrepreneurs and small businesses in Bangladesh to start and grow operations in a market that wouldn't otherwise be available in their local community, thereby creating jobs, stimulating the economy, and delivering products and services that improve the lives of millions of poor people.

The CellBazaar marketplace is available to more than 25 million people in Bangladesh, including farmers that use the service to sell their harvest at fair market prices and struggling students that find and connect with tutors. CellBazaar received the GSMA Global Mobile Award 2008, in the category of "Best Use of Mobile for Social & Economic Development" Manthan Award 2008 and many more. Please visit: http://corp.cellbazaar.com/awards.html

CellBazaar enables entrepreneurs and small businesses to provide products and services to millions of people in Bangladesh through a mobile phone-based electronic marketplace.

Investors:

Omidyar Network was the investor for this project. Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunity for people to improve their lives. They invest in and help scale innovative organizations to catalyze economic, social, and political change.

eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and wife Pam established Omidyar Network based on their conviction that every person has the power to make a difference. Their work enables people to discover that power, improve their own lives, and make lasting contributions to their communities.

Kindle and Amazon's Marketing Practice

I love my kindle for the following reasons.
1. It is very light. Only 8.5 ounces, weighs less than a paperback.
2. It is very specialized for ebook reading.
3. It has very long battery life. It can last one month (four weeks) with single charging.

When Apple introduced iPad product line last year, people said that the Kindle will disappear as it is underdog to iPad in term of abundant cool features. But the Amazon differentiates its Kindle product line by creating distinct points of difference in which users want to pay great attention and value. Nowadays, the Kindle has a great competitive advantage of being the most precious ebook reader for its fans.

Reference:
http://www.amazon.com/kindle

Dear my beloved friend,

I am Ari Rangkuti From Indonesia, i want to introduce a nice article about "Marketing on the Internet" written by Pallab Paul and published in Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 13 no. 4 1996.

This article is nice reading to support us to have a good understanding about how marketing and Internet is a nice combination. This article provides us history of internet and how internet support marketing field. The author argues that utilizing the Internet as a marketing tool is something that businesses today must consider. On the other hand the Internet has many risks associated with its use, but it also has many benefits that may outweigh the threats.

Have a nice reading friend, i hope this article can help you guys..

Ari Rangkuti

Student ID : 2B02A3

Difference Between Spam and Email Marketing?

As I know, E-mail marketing (on the Internet) is now very popular with companies. E-mail marketing is reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic. Then I think about my mail box, nearly 50% of my emails everyday is spam (as I thought), then I never access them. Then now, I wonder myself, is there any e-mail marketing that I carelessly categorized them as spam. As one normal customer, how can I differentiate between Spam and Email Marketing? For my case, if I don't understand the difference, my e-mail is most likely spam. Both email marketing and email spam are basically advertisements or messages that people would like to convey with others. Both are common on the internet and are often received by users with an email address. However, what draws the line between the two? Am I right to think that spam and email marketing are the same, the difference is just only that spam is the terminology used by the recipients; E-mail Marketing is an expression used by the senders?

To satisfy my curiosity, I read some websites and found one that may be also useful for you to answer this question. Please click this link to find some good information on email marketing that may give you more details on the differences.

http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/definition/Learn-IT-How-Spam-Affects-Email-Marketing-Campaigns

Vinny Lingham 'eMarketing Channels'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMzB2ihQ7Ko

Vinny Lingham is a successful E-Marketer, especially in the area of Search Engine marketing. As the CEO of Yola.com, Mr. Lingham runs a successful, start-up business venture. As we are taking E-Marketing class, I recommend you to watch this clip. He is a very good example of E-Marketer, and he may give some inspiration or some business idea to you.

Disconnect to Connect

This is not really directly related to this week topic. However, regarding general idea about this e-marketing class and today's globalization, technology plays a big role both in this e-marketing class and practical business life out there. Now take a seat and spend 1.30 mins to enjoy this clip, see what you think.

Some says technology make life easy and connect people together, and even make this world smaller. Are we really connected? Althought, these technology, internet, web, iPad, 3G, and etc are useful and cool stuff. In business terms, it helps reduce cost, bring more customers. Sometimes, it blind our eye, and we might wanna put all these down on the table and go back to basic, consider what really matters. I'm saying everything has pros and cons. For technology, you're using it or it's using you. What do u think?

How one website creats value —— Alibaba.com

Alibaba founded in 1999, is the world’s largest online business-to-business trading platform for small businesses.

Founded in Hangzhou in eastern China, Alibaba.com has three marketplaces. The company’s English language international marketplace (www.alibaba.com) serves to bring together importers and exporters from more than 240 countries and regions. The China marketplace (www.1688.com) is developed for domestic business-to-business trade in China. It also has a Japanese marketplace (www.alibaba.co.jp), which is focused on facilitating trade to and from Japan through an associated company.

Generally speaking, Alibaba originally looked like a huge exhibition on Internet, thousands of suppiers put their information on that platform, making easier access for buyers of far distance. At that first stage, Alibaba servered as a platform of trading information exchange. Later, Alibaba developed other service such as payment solution, third-party ganrantee,etc, which  supports each part of the trade, thus facilitates trade.

Alibaba's success rooted on its first move in the market of  E-commerce. As the early bird of that market, it has developed other service and build up own brand name.  I believe it is much difficult for later competiters who intent to copy Alibaba's route to success.

Old Marketing No Longer Working in Canada?

http://www.copyblogger.com/blame-canada/

    The link above is an interesting article talking about how Canadian customers moved their preference away from old school marketing.
   
    Inbound marketing vs. outbound marketing is surely an interesting topic that would come up from many people's mind after reading the Hubspot case. Making cold cold is one of the example of the conventional outbound marketing. I remember the unpleasant experience of back in the old days when I was being cold called endlessly in the beautiful Sunday morning by the telemarkers like newpapers, life insurance, or credit card companies...etc. Seemingly the conventional outbound marketing practice does not work anymore in Canada because no Canadian likes to be bothered when they are enjoying the leisure time with family and friends...etc. And no one wants an undesired morning call during the weekends.
   
    The author pointed out that the marketers cannot simply make Canadian customers to buy their products by the conventional marketing strategies. A more pursuative and convincing marketing approach must be developed.
   
    In the past few years the new "inbound marketing" method has become a hot topic among the Canadian marketers and business owners. Inbound marketers think to make cold calls is not wise at all. Rather than to cold call to yell at Canadian customers, Canadian customers like to hear or see good reasons why they should buy from you contributed to the society and others through the media and internet. They now tend to be more careful when making the buying decision. They want to know if you are contributing to the environment or to the society, or if you are co-creating the value with them. Customers want to see how much you care and contribute, not how assertive and pushy you rise your tone when you are marketing your product. If that's the case, word-of-mouth or inbound marketing might be more effective to get customers' resonation.

    However, since the "inbound marketing idea" is what Hubspot is selling, Hubspot is facing the problems that other outbound marketers have. It does not mean that outbound or old school marketing don't work anymore. In fact, each business, product or service has different need of different marketing methods, an in-depth analysis of the business is required when deciding what kind of marketing method is use, which means we need the "customized marketing strategy based on the individual needs of every business."

Random CVP discussion

This is a very interesting addition to the idea of CVP. Online Value propositions must match though with overall Value Propositions. Let's discuss in class.

Indian Premier League and Youtube

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional cricket league created and promoted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and backed by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

With a brand value currently estimated in excess of US$4.1bn (1), IPL is one of the largest sporting leagues in the world. Featuring international cricketing stars playing 59 matches over a 44 day tournament, its compelling combination of sporting action and Bollywood glamor has captured the imagination of Indian and international audiences alike.

India has a huge expatriate population living across different countries. Although many don't have access to cable television because of being constantly on the move, almost everybody has access to the internet due to most being part of the software industry. IPL organizers wanting to target this segment saw Internet as the best way to reach them. Also the fact that IPL has players from almost all cricketing nations across the world, internet seemed the perfect way for multi national companies to increase their brand visibility globally. Thus the IPL organizers in collaboration with Youtube broadcasted the entire 2010 tournament live on Youtube, a first for any sporting event.

The results? A staggering response from the fans. By the end of the tournament, YouTube was reporting 55.7 million channel views and 31.7 million Video on Demand views. With over 93,000 subscribers, the channel was rated as the "#1 Most Subscribed Channel (All Time) - India"(2). Fans from over 200 countries watched IPL 2010 on YouTube – India had the most views, with the United States in second place.

Sources:
(1) http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/media/entertainment-/entertainment/IPL-brand-value-doubles-to-413-billion-Brand-Finance/articleshow/5713065.cms
(2) http://www.youtube.com/user/IPL