eMarketing

Advantage of social media: TOP OF THE MIND! Let’s explore!

Facebook is large but doesn’t focus on business, linkedin is more about networking. The mareking has a need for a social media platform for B2B, and WHO can build the perfect fit one?

Evian’s ad: cost-effective way? I like it!

Ceavitity is key for marketing! How can you play with sun? How can you creatively use free resouces around you? How can you market without maketing budget?

Article Review – The global grid

Summary: The global economy is becoming increasing interconnected and innovative businesses are harnessing the power of the network.

Part 1: Over the past two decades

The global grid – globalization and digital technology have combined together to create vast, complex networks that weave themselves through every economic and social activity. This global grid enables large scale transactions in an instant. Case in point: only one in ten US dollars in circulation today is a physical note – the kind you can hold in your hand or put in your wallet. The other nine are virtual. Based on efficient online transaction, there are another two trends. Firstly, as trillions of large and small transactions synchronize together, the recent economic downturn implies many seemingly diverse markets can plunge at once. Secondly, new global trade links can be clicked quickly once there are mutual benefits. For example, the trade flow between China and African have been growing 30% annually, creating robust commercial networks that barely existed a years ago. Similarly, Asia has supplanted North America and Europe as the Middle East’s largest trading partner.

As for the marketing implication, I began to question is it better to change the name of marketing department to e-marketing department to emphasize the dominant importance of internet marketing. The most important e-marketing job is to find the clients through INTERNET no matter where they are as with the internet access, the whole world is displaying on everyone’s computer. Even you are serving the local market or the person next to your door, you are competing with global suppliers, and more and more times that geographic advantage is less important.

Part 2: Every company is now a global company – and the most innovative ones are building the global grid into their DNA

How to understand this? Skype is the best example. It ranks now as the world’s largest carrier of transactional telephone calls. Think about that Skype only establish seven years ago, its innovative business grows by harnessing the interlocking power of these new grid. If a company can’t be as robust as Skype, it can still have the chance to compete with large companies, thanks to the information grid. Even individual can sell to customers around the world via sales platform such as eBay of Alibaba.

As for the marketing implication, internet savvy will be mandatory skill for marketing person. If you don’t understand internet, it is impossible to understand the global market. Also, I think internet based creative marketing ideas are the most practical and effective way for companies to grasp big global sales opportunities. My other thought is as eMarketing made it possible to calculate the potential marketing effect (e.g. click times), eMarketing outsourcing might be an excellent and cost-effective solution for company just as same as finance and IT outsourcing.  

Part 3: Your customer is tweeting – how will you answer?

The technologies (mobile, internet access) change consumer behavior. For example, Americans now spend 30% more time reading thanks to the explosion of text messaging, e-mail, and social networking. What is more, these readers also write. More than 15 million Americans now post online product review every week. So aside from recommendations by friends, US buyers now rate online user reviews as the top influencer of their buyer decision. However, the opposite impact is product problems can become global issue overnight.

I think one of the marketing implications here is the urgency for eMarketing control. For example, Carrefour’s once negative remarks made by French politicians promoting an overnight boycott of is Chinese stores in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In such situation, speed and agility in crafting a response can make a big difference between successful crisis control and enormous economic harm.

Part 4: Imagine the power of four billion connected minds – are you prepared for the innovation about to be unleashed?

The spread of mobile and broadband will multiply these challenges and opportunities. The global grid’s interconnectedness can bring volatility as well as stability to the marketplace. For example, stock traders in San Paulo were no more immune to the financial crisis than their counterparts in New York were.

I think for marketing people, it is critical to understand what they can control (e.g. new market opportunity) and what is out of the control (e.g. global economic down). It is always difficult to see your position when you are in process of the history. When in the winter (e.g. marketing crisis, economic downturn), besides thinking survive, it is better to think how to thrive in the next coming spring. 

Part 5: A world where not just everyone but also everything is connected opens up radically new possibilities.

Global grid is also connected by technology advanced objects (e.g. sensors, routers, cameras, etc) and this phenomenon is just getting started. For example, John Deere tractors now deploy GPS guidance system to apply fertilizers to cropland precisely, reducing farmers’ cost and increasing annual yields. The Dutch start-up TomTom has created systems of “smart” traffic lights that improve traffic flows. 

I think with the robust technology, some firms require less market force as good products sell by themselves. Also, buyers will find seller with these “choke-point” technologies through internet immediately. But for marketing in most ordinary companies, it is better to keep eyes on these new technologies especially related to their own fields and understand your market competitors first.

Part 6: Expect bumpy ride – a connected world will be a volatile world

For example, the next few years in particular may well be bumpy as a massive deleveraging process rolls through many Western economies. The eurozone will prove especially tumultuous as structural imbalances get worked out between savers, such as Germany, and debt-laden countries, such as Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain. So, it is important for business to gain better understanding of the full range of areas where disruptions could emerge by scanning the horizon for potential shocks. Don’t ignore it.

I think generally speaking, marketing competition has fundamentally moved to internet stage. And this is the solid reason for me to choose eMarketing subject in Sauder Business School.