My last post in this year

E-marketing course in Fall term 2011 is over! In this time, I'd like to put my last post here.

It's amazing subject. Personally, I love study Art, but my previous experience I was graduated in Science -related area and I found studying Science is not bad for me.

Now, I know why I like Marketing, because marketing is the combination between Arts and Science. You need creative idea and analysis. I enjoyed study in this class very much. Can't wait to study in Brand management next term :)

The final project is the most difficult part but full of experience. Luckily, my group have two Japanese guy, so they can find out the information in Japan market and analysis the data while the others work on report and presentation slide. I think we all learn a lot from this course, thank you professor!!

See you all again next semester.

Let's remember VALUE

I can't believe it's over already!

eMarketing was a lot of work, but at the same time incredibly challenging, rewarding and educational. Doing work for a real company made the course very exciting and useful for the future. I give my thanks to Professor, my group members and my classmates for an awesome and VALUABLE term.

As my final contribution to the blog, I'd like to share an amazing project creating VALUE, and a very interesting-looking language learning platform. I signed up for the beta already :)

http://youtu.be/-Ht4qiDRZE8

Hamster

Hamster: This lively pet hamster will keep you company throughout the day. Watch him run on his wheel, drink water, and eat the food you feed him by clicking your mouse. Click the center of the wheel to make him get back on it.

eMarketing Class

Hello all,

we concluded eMarketing Class today but as they say, the journey has just begun. see you around campus. otsukaresamadeshita.

Alvin

Future of the Digital River

The eMarketing class is over! I would like to pay my thanks to Prof. Philip Sugai, my class mates and my group members.
After today's presentation for Digital River, i hope that the Digital River finds a stable position in the Japanese market very soon. I hope the Digital River also re-enforce its marketForce to obtain its target in a much better way.


Best Regards,
Amina

I learned many!!!

We will make presentation tomorrow in front of Brent. Our group spent more than 20 hours in study room in this weekend. This project is very tough for us, but I am pleased at our path. I learned many thing through this project.

              To tell the truth, I didn’t like marketing because I have a bad image of marketing like a “high-pressure selling”. However, I learned that marketing doesn't mean just only “sales”. I learned that marketing is not equel to “advertisement”.That is very big harvest for me at IUJ.  I am very happy to attend this class in this term. Thank you, professor Sugai and classmate. I learned many many thing from our class.

        See you tomorrow, everyone!! Good luck!!

Good luck

Good luck everybody in all your presentations to brent tomorrow. I hope we might really help out in making Digital river even more competitive in Japan as it is in North America!!

Digital River and Final Class

Tomorrow will be the presentation day of Digital River project and will be our final class for E-Marketing course. Honestly, Digital River project is a bit tough for me. Information is quite hard to find and most of the data is in Japanese so I have to depend on our Japanese friends for those information. We did have a lot of meeting and it consumed a lot of times and with all the course's final project, it's hard. But finally we are finished and it turned out to be good. I learned about of things from this group project and also from professor's lecture. Thank you :)

One more opponent

We learned push marketing like "Minority Report" is annoying for customers and not effective. We should consider what the value is for customers for marketing.

However, in the real world, there is one more opponent who violate the right way of marketing. It is a sales manager. Sales managers tend to regard marketer's task as making company's logo apear in media as much as possible. So they often claim marketers to do push advertisements, especially in case competitors do so. In addition most of them claim with very loud voice.

I think it is one of marketer's task to persuade them, however, can we, e-marketers, persuade them in calm and proffessional manner?

Marketing Lessons by Hubspot founders

http://vimeo.com/14112146

I can't comment about it.

10 Future Technologies That Already Exist

I still interesting in future technology from last class, let me introduce you more
Just found this interesting video, 10 Future Technologies That Already Exist

1. force field : for military training
2. exoskeletons : increase human ability to carry on heavy things, runs, jumps, effectively
3. Hover car
4. cloaking device
5. Hologram TV
6. Retinal implant
7. wireless power : sent the electricity to device without cable power cable
8. thought controlled robotic
9. Big dog,
10. Printing human organ, a ten times better printing than x-ray

Can you imagine what will happen in 10 years after this?

Stuck in the middle

There are moments I am astonished at what I learn in the class, particularly those technologies that are already around us yet, unknown to IUJ geeks unless they've enrolled in e-marketing. I walk to the dorm thinking, am i just shrinking? Developments have no bounds. I am amazed that I no longer can count how many times I mouthed those videos in class to friends, in chats, and even posted my exhilarated status in FB after the lesson on personalization & privacy. Data mining behind my back? Or, just under my nose? Goosebumps!

Perhaps, too, I testified too much one asked, is e-marketing offered next term? Darn. "Iwww, 2nd years shouldnt ask this," I laughed. I'm happy that one class brings me to the world's phenomena that somehow advance me from the rest. I look at my listeners and I see a bunch of ignorant like I used to be. Hahaha.

Then, the future. This is tricky. There is a present which is yet a long future for the rest of the world. My country. I look back home and see that so much of what I know now is so much for it yet. Siri, for one, is yet on her way to our capital. The flat surface technology will have a long way to go. The roads there are bumpy and dense. We have to cope, yes, but we cannot hurry.

There is a great divide that technology caused in the Philippines. Of course, some have ample and others are empty. Merely a handful own a smartphone. A large population do not even have a backward PC at home. And here I am learning that the far greater privileged can soon smell just about anything through their gadgets. It warps me.

My life in the capital city helps me cope easily. I understand what is happening. I like advancing. Yet, if I need to be a marketer CEO even in Manila, most of the tools and techniques from e-marketing are not present, they are future. And when I finally have them there, in countries like Japan, they shall be past. In developed economies, what I learn in the class is history. Technology eccentrics won't stop.

Meantime, I'm stuck in the middle... 'til i dunno how long.

Kagawa prefecture = Udon prefecture

Recently, local gavarnment and local town have concentrated on their own P.R.

For example, Kagawa prefecture; it is one of the Japanese prefectures which is located in Sikoku area.

The prefecture announced that "Kagawa prefecture" changed name from Kagawa prefecture to "Udon prefecture".
Kagawa prefecture is famous for Udon.

Of course, it is a joke.

But, about New year card for 2012, if you mail it to people who live in Kagawa prefecture, you can use "Udon prefecture" insted of "Kagawa prefecture" in their adress.

Kagawa prefecture and the Ministry of Posts collaborated on this funny project.
I like it.

Finally, please enjoy "Lady Kaga" not Lady Gaga.
It's just CM for Kaga hotspring in Ishikawa prefecture.

http://youtu.be/bdwzd8oEO5M

Productivity Future Vision (2011)

I knew I wanted to show this in class with another option depending on what other classmates had shown. My understanding was wrong that I printed a paper while I would show this on screen after a brief annotation. Or, that I would not need to show anything at all. As soon as classmates begun and realized that my understanding of the homework execution was off, I took a backseat. In case I would miss the chance to show this and say my piece next meeting, here it is for anyone's click. Thank you.

the Future Contained in a Really Small Package

Nanotechnology pertains to ultra-super-micro (i mean REALLY small) objects which can carry out a variety of functions. In the field of emarketing, nanotech can be used for identification, tracking (for LBS), and even determining context (ex. body temp monitoring). The thing with nanotech is it can be worn (embedded in clothes, jewelry, just about anything) or even embedded in the human body (i'm sure they will find a way, or argue that it is safe). nano sized RFID chips will play an important role in this one to transmit the information. for ID, nano-sized devices can be worn for full body scans (a body profile is kept and matched). in a much sci-fi way, we all know that DNA is really truly unique. if safe enough nano devices which can be embedded in the body are invented, then these devices can take a profile of a person's DNA at the point of identification, submit it to a reader which in turn matches it with the person's DNA profile. In the future, it may also be possible to create personalized and unique nanotech devices. if that's the case, i wonder if the term "nano-ID theft"will come to being.

Paypal and PR

Maybe not quite so related to future marketing or "the internet of things," but I saw this article and thought it was relevant to the class.

Basically, a fairly popular website (regretsy.com) decided to start up a toy drive for Christmas season. A Toy Drive is a charity in which people buy toys to later be donated to kids in need. It's understood that most of these kids would probably not be getting any presents for Christmas otherwise.

Everything was going great, until... Paypal decided to shut it down. Their argument was that the "donate" button that the site owner used could only be used by non-profits or a worthy cause, not for charity. Not sure if I understand the difference between a "worthy cause" and "toys for needy kids," but I'm not in charge of Paypal.

This resulted in April Winchell (the person running the charity) having to incur paypal feeds, needing to refund a lot of people, and unable to give monetary donations to the families in need. Paypal also decided to freeze the associated account, meaning April Winchell not only couldn't access the charity money, she also couldn't access her own, personal funds.

Now, whether she actually transgressed against Paypal Terms of Service or not is irrelevant, I believe; she runs a popular website and this story will have been reblogged and retweeted by now. She's an influental member of the community, and her word of mouth will have just brought down Paypal's reputation even more.

In her words:

So to recap:

$ They allowed me to use a donate button, and got a portion of the donations
$ Then made me return the donations, and kept a portion of the fees on the donations
$ They allowed me to use a Buy Now button to sell gifts individually, and got a portion of those sales
$ Then made me return the sales, and kept a portion of the fees on the sales
$ They processed the toy purchases, and made fees on that

They have made a fortune for not doing anything but making me manually return thousands of $2 sales and contributions.

According to some of the comments, Paypal was trying to freeze discussion on this matter on their facebook page. It doesn't seem to be working. And I've seen it mentioned three times already in my twitter and blog feeds, so... I don't think they'll succeed in shutting down discussion. It seems to me like Paypal needs a better PR manager.

Mobile site - new e-marketing trend in the near future.

You are using mobile internet. You are frustrated in view a web page on your cell phone. 

Mobile site is a solution for you.

 

Identity in the Future

One area I would like to discuss with you all today is the Future of Identity.
Here is one site that has been very popular in managing passwords, etc. called LASTPASS .

And here is a link to the Minority Report "Eye Scan" of the future.

Who will manage our identity in the future? Let's Discuss!

Facial recognition technology

Recently, there are facial recognition technologies around life. For example, digital cameras; when we take a picture with digital camera, digital camera detects our faces by using facial recognition technology. The technology adjusts auto focus to our faces. It prevents for out of focus.

Now, the technology is introduced to marketing field. For example, digital signage; it means electric advertisement. Some digital signage systems have facial recognition technology. When people watch the digital signage, the face recognition technology catches the faces and then analyses gender, age, and so on. And then, the signage starts advertisement which is suitable for the watching people.

Another example, some shopping malls set cameras with facial recognition technology at entrance. By using cameras, they can know how many customers come to the shop or how many times specific customers come to shop in a month. Moreover, some shops set cameras each around corners. By using the cameras, the shops can recognize customers’ consumption behaviors. The shops use the data in their marketing strategy.

In future, facial recognition technology will be exploited various marketing field more and more.

Keep Walking!

The ad is about the journey of more than 200 year development of well known alcohol brand - Johnnie Walker. Robert Carlyle - a Scotland famous actor is the story-teller. 

The advertisement is quite long. However, you can understand clearly about the man who walked around the world and the journey of JW development as well as excellent alcohol products that it provides to global customers.

I like JW from the starting of my work. I am a member of  Vietnamese JW club as a result of its wine and its slogan. 

What do you think after watching this trailer?

Do you want to try all kinds of its labels?

Let's try it and feel JW's flavor. I believe you will like it like me.

Hina.

What will you imagine if first you hear : "A Day Made of Glass"?

What will you imagine if first you hear : "A Day Made of Glass? A quick response from me, I imagine the whole part of a house where I will live in made of glass. Well.... it sounds not engage with technology, but I think, at least my answer nearly the reality that is offered by Corning Incorporated , the US world leader in specialty glass and ceramics.

"A Day Made a Gass" is a viral marketing campaign from Corning to realize a vision of futuristic technologies by utilizing a glass as a media interactive surfaces. As a company that makes the bulletproof "Gorilla Glass" in iPhones and iPads, Corning has been fascinating people in the world by its vision (number one on the French video chart, 340,000 facebookshares, 14 thousand + Tweets and over 1000 blog posts ). Corning not sell its product only for nowadays people needs , but also sell for a future that most people dream of.



So, don't be afraid to be obsolete in emarketing for tomorrow ( as my friend mentioned in blog : "Even just cope, not surpass..." :) ), because there will always be innovator2 in the companies that be ready to face fierce competion by creating combination of the products and sophisticated technologies in their marketing strategies with considering to the consumer trends in long term.

Sources :
http://www.corning.com/news_center/features/A_Day_Made_of_Glass.aspx
http://whatworkswhere.com/index.php/2011/global/viral-video-marketing-campaign-corning-a-day-made-of-glass/

Even just cope, not surpass...

When I look at the future of e-marketing, it shivers me that what I may have learned today will actually be  obsolete tomorrow. The competition is fierce and the technology is speedy. How can a one three-month term of theories cope?

Coming eMarketing trend: NFC (near field communications)

Although already mentioned in a previous class, this trend is in my opinion important enough in the near future that I chose to blog about it.

Near field communication (NFC) chips, based on RFID technology, allow instantaneous communication between mobile devices. The difference from RFID is that transactions can be conducted through NFC, and that NFC can be linked with mobile applications. An NFC chip can contain e-money, proofs of membership (for gyms etc.), keys (for hotel rooms etc.), loyalty program points, credit cards, business cards and other data. NFC is also likely to succeed QR codes, since NFC requires only swiping the phone on an NFC tag, no scanning with a camera is needed.

As for security, in principle, NFC is safer than cash since an NFC device can be protected (through a password or biometrically) and locked remotely in case of loss or theft. Unauthorized reading of an NFC transmission can be hindered through SSL technology.

Although the first NFC-enabled phone was introduced as early as 2006, and services such as Mobile Suica in Japan and Hana SK credit card in South Korea have already gained popularity, this technology is yet to go global and yet to show its full potential. I can see 3 reasons to this:

1. NFC chips do not yet have a global standard. In the case of Japan, the most popular NFC service (Mobile Suica) is only available in Japan, and uses Sony's proprietary FELICA chip. The chip is expensive and has not seen diffusion outside Japan. However, there is already an ISO standard for NFC, and many handset manufacturers including Samsung are installing globally standardized NFC chips. With the diffusion of smartphones manufactured by global companies, it is likely that global standard NFC chips will become standard also in Japan.
2. NFC chip in itself is not sufficient for transactions - application software is needed. Until now, mobile carriers have had their own proprietary, regional software which is not globally compatible. One notable candidate for global NFC application software is Google Wallet.
3. Security concerns. It will probably take some time to convince people to use electronic payments in a new way: offline transactions. Technology standards have to include robust security. In the ideal case, NFC will reduce crime as e-money becomes much more difficult to steal than cash and credit card information.

As this technology is already available today in Japan and limited number of other markets (talk about unequal distribution of the future...), and has many useful and convenient applications, I suspect NFC will be the next BIG thing in eMarketing.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_Field_Communication

http://www.advertimes.com/20111202/article42875/

http://www.nfctimes.com/blog/dan-balaban/google-gears-nfc-m-commerce-wallet-war-ahead

Critical issue of privacy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T17XQI_AYNo

My smart phone is spy.

One "Future trend" in eMarketing - Mobile connected devices

The Future of Digital Marketing: Pakistan 2015 - Mobile Connected Devices

“We’re not in the business of keeping the media companies alive, we’re in the business of connecting with consumers”. "Trevor Edwards, the vice president of Nike in October, 2007"

Expect 15% of all advertising in Pakistan to shift to digital, interactive, mobile, social and online video over the next five years.

The Ubiquitous Mobile Eco-system

If you think the Telecom sector is huge right now, wait for a few years. With close to 60 million phones and 90 million SIMs providing the foundation, already without a doubt the next big thing is going to be mobile. You maybe getting tired of hearing about how it’s going to happen, but it is coming and coming soon and it’s going to be not just about phones, it will be an entire ecosystem built around the mobile – any service, anytime, anywhere and on any screen. Bring in location based services, m-commerce and Proximity forms of marketing enabled by a million strong SME sector and it’s a no brainer that mobile-assisted shopping will be integrated into the physical and m-commerce especially will become a necessary part of multi-channel retailing and an important component of Point of Purchase Promotions. With that we can portend the rise of mobile comparison shopping, mobile coupons, mobile affiliates and ever more SMS services. Add in social networks which are being promoted on even the Chinese mobiles, we can easily perceive that social media and social commerce on the mobile device will be a big part of our marketing efforts. For the marketers the challenge in this regard will be even more platform fragmentation.

Statistics on internet penetration and facebook:

Is the facebook future trend in Pakistan? I will answer the class.....

Reference links:

http://umairmohsin.wordpress.com/2010/12/23/the-future-of-digital-marketing-pakistan-2015/

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm

http://www.slideshare.net/pgolding/mobile-20-ubiquitous-connectivity-2680406

The Future of Marketing - Gaming Style

I think we all know about product placement -- when a tv show or movie seems to focus on a product for a bit longer than is natural, with a little bit more detail than people would normally talk about.

But did you know: it's not limited to just TV anymore. A lot of games have already incorporated a type of product placement. The PC game Deus Ex: Human Revolution features game ads during loading screens, as well as some less obvious ads in the in-game newspapers.

Of course, it doesn't stop there. Racing games are ripe for product placement; Sony's "Home" and Microsoft's Xbox Live both feature branded clothing for player avatars. It can extend even further, with non-racing games featuring a certain brand of car for the main character, camera angles innocuously (or obviously) zooming over the logo. Maybe while making a character walk through a shopping mall, well-known brand stores make up the background. With online games, the logos can be constantly updated. A high speed car chase down the highway can have billboard ads that match to the player's IP address. FIFA and other sports games can be sponsored by the same companies that sponsor real-life games. In-game TVs can play commercials -- in fact, the game Alan Wake for the xbox 360 rewards you with "achievement points" for watching such an in-game TV ad.

There are many ways in which advertisers and game developers can come together to sell their brands; the problem is doing so without arousing the ire of the customers. Of course, for every gamer who does complain, there are probably another five or ten who passively took in the product placement without realizing it was there.

And while the core gamers (those who buy the more "hollywood"-esque games) may be a bit more knowledgable about what seems out of place, casual games on facebook or mobile devices may have an even easier time of getting product placement by. A game like cityville could easily tie in-game products to real-life products, like giving the player the option to add a starbucks to their town. It all boils down to finding the right fit.

More and more people are playing games, so I think this is a channel that can't be ignored.

(By the way, for a funny take on TV product placement, click this video clip.)

Want to buy cloth online?Not sure if that beautiful cloth fit you? Here is the solution!

Reference : Reuters

In IUJ, as everyone know, it's a bit difficult to do shopping, especially for clothing.
Many time I look Japan girly shopping website and I really want to buy my coat, pants, etc for winter time, But before I click to pay such a big money... I have to wait and think..

"Is it fits me?"
"My hip is big... I don't know how much it big.. but it's big.... Do I fit with that pant?"

Then I put my risk away, I'm not buy it.

I really glad when i read this new coming technology.
"Fits.me" the virtual fitting room produced by a Germany company, UPcload
it's a new technology that can personalize online shopping user. You go to the website, enter your sizes, then it will show if this cloth is fit you or not.

Here is video for example


This idea is very interesting. If the technology go further, we may able to see our model on internet. Then, when we do online shopping , we can match the shirt, skirt, boot, etc on our virtual model, same as we dress up barbies doll. Then we can decide easily if it's fit our body or not.

I found this video related to this idea :FitNect



If this technology were launched on amezon, I think I'll lost a lot of money for online shopping!!

The Future of E-Marketing

I can see E-Marketing growing even greatly in the coming years as the internet users have proven to be increasing drastically over a few years according to http://www.internetworldstats.com/emarketing.htm thereby making it their lifestyle to almost do everything over internet as they find it convenient to do so.

This behavior has even been facilitated by enabling the use of internet over most of the smart phones.

Since a phone has also proven to be part of most of people’s lives according to http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS23028711. 

They have also seen it as a tool they can use, just to mention a few, as an e-wallet and teleworking, where they can contribute to an important debate while travelling thereby saving the time in waiting for someone until they back in the office or have access to computer to access their e-mails leading to a effective use of time. 

However in E-commerce, this can only grow depending on country by country, as almost all the financial transactions depend on the use of credit cards to do a payment on a product or service. Looking at countries like Malawi where the use of a Credit card is still proven to be a challenge due the economical and the infrastructure limitations, the impact might not be the same, unless there is an alternative way to settle the payments.All in all globally it will definitely continue growing.

The Future: The convenience

In the near future, what customer will value the most is convenience. Because they are very busy, they want to be able to shop from everywhere but still feel like they are in the actual store or shop. They want to be able to see and look around the products and observe them from a remote area.

For example, Augmented reality (AR) is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality. By contrast, virtual reality replaces the real world with a simulated one.

Or you may do not even need the new technology. By using the existing technology like QR code and smartphone, you can do the new way of marketing.

Tesco placed placing virtual displays that feature over 500 of the most popular products carried in their conventional Tesco Homeplus stores. The walls of the subway station are very convenient place for people to do their shopping while waiting for their train. Customers can scan the QR codes using the Homeplus app on their smartphones and get delivered right to their doorstep.

---

What marketer should be concentrate on is content marketing and inbound marketing. Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience - with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

I believed that those existing channels are still essential for e marketing. The website with high CTR, low bounces rate, broad web-presence, niche web-presence and original content will outperform. So e marketers should focus on to provide information that is

• Personalized
• Comprehensive
• Fresh
• Relevant

Search engine optimization: 


• Search engines will remain primary mean of getting information
• People will click on the relevant ads and the PPC costs will remain reasonable
• Fresh content and relevant links will still rule the internet
• Search results will get more personalized and area specific
• Publishers and brands are expected to deliver more personalized, most comprehensive, fresh and relevant content to get indexed in search engines
• Blogging is a way to update your website periodically with fresh and unique content so blogging will help driving visitors to website

Email marketing 


• Integrating social media along with email, for example, Google buzz
• Value -> builds easy to use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately

Social media networking: 


• Social media networking is in its initial stage, it has yet to evolve, and many a things are yet to come
• Future of e marketing is going to be effected mostly by social media networking
• Social networking websites are an effective way to take feedback of product or services

Mobile Marketing

• Nowadays many people are carry handsets capable of rich, mobile commerce providing a rich environment for the convergence of mobility and the website
• Low-cost mobile marketing like mobile websites, mobile email marketing, mobile text messaging, mobile application development and area specific marketing
• Smart phones are opening new channels like SMS, mobile pages, online sales collateral, and virtual couponing or money mobile technology, which will simplify the reach to the targeted audience/ customer