11/28/12

Down to the Final Stretch of the Term!

It’s the last week of the term and it feels bittersweet how all of courses are winding down; gratified at all of the new knowledge I’ve gained, yet worried and stressed about the upcoming finals. In addition, recently finishing off all of the final projects has definitely taken away some of my sleeping time. I’ve noticed that my caffeine intake has increased (partially due to the fact that every other person on campus is carrying Starbucks’ famous red cup). Starting off the holiday season early with their Christmas themed marketing strategies, Starbucks has surely captured attention through its packaging promotions and of course, the red cup challenge.

iPhone Screenshot 1

Worrying about my coffee drinking habits, I made use of an app, Caffeine Zone that was introduced to me while I learned about the Nanny App trend in one of my earlier posts regarding September trends from Trendwatcher’s blog. After trying out the free app, I I’ve become more conscious of my caffeine intake. Before reaching for my mug, I can “ask” the app to evaluate my intended choice. First I enter in whether I will drink coffee or tea, then I choose my predicted consumption speed, the time I will consume the beverage, and then the data will be inputted in my graph. As you can see from the screenshot on the left, the green area is the optimal level of caffeine. Because I previously entered in my personal details, the app analyzes my optimal amount of caffeine for my goal sleep time, and will notify me if my consumption choice will cause me to have inadequate rest.

In response to my classmates Darren and Benedicta‘s  discussion that a “fat tax” may be a good way to reduce consumption of unhealthy junk food in their posts, I wonder if a caffeine tax would be beneficial to consumers as well. Raising awareness about managing our caffeine intake would definitely help students who may turn to rely on coffee to get through more studying. I believe that a balanced sleep schedule is just as important for success.

I recommend everyone to try out this free app, Caffeine Zone!

Wish you all the best luck on your final exams~ 🙂

11/10/12

Unethical Marketing Strategy: Search Engine Oprtimization

Search engines are like online malls. Businesses rely on the search engine to provide selling grounds and bring consumer traffic; striving to be the biggest and most attractive store in the search engine “mall”.

The issue of unethical search engine marketing strategies is driven by companies’ aim to optimize a website, improve its search engine rankings, and appear in the first 10 listings which drives customer traffic and builds a significant online presence. The issue is exacerbated since it takes tremendous effort of search engine consultants and a long time frame to successfully improve and sustain the rankings.

Recently, retailer JCPenney’s website has been flagged by Google for using unethical marketing techniques for its search engine channel. As explained by an article regarding this dilemma, services to improve search engine rankings fall into two camps: white hats and black hats. The “white hats” essentially optimize a website by following rules laid out by search engines, while “black hats” propel a website’s rankings often using methods going against requirements of search engines. Google claimed that black-hat techniques were used to fool Google into thinking the JCPenney website was relevant for a large number of search terms.

Parties involved in this issue are search engine providers, retailers, their competitors, and most importantly consumers. Search engines are faced with the difficulty of maintaining the effectiveness of their service when companies such as JCPenney are rigging search engines in order to appear in the top 10 search results. This sabotages the purpose of the search tool and also negatively affects consumers of the search engine because they cannot find relevant products and information. Insufficient monitoring causes consumers of search engines to lose trust in them and may use the search engine less and look for alternatives. Competitors may get pushed down the list of search results, causing decreased website hits, a smaller online presence, thus results in less sales for the company.

In fact, I feel that “black hat” methods won’t truly help a retailer in the end. Even though “black hat” retailers may reap rewards from the paid links that increase exposure of their brand name, increased sales won’t be sustained if consumers are mislead and the product does not match truly the key words of their search. Consumers will be considerably dissatisfied and have negative feelings toward the company due with the amount of effort and time spent into searching for a product just to find out in the end it was not what they were looking for.

In JCPenney’s example, Google responded by completely wiping them off the first page of search results for most terms as penalization. This is a huge setback for the retailer and significantly ruins their company’s image. Because one of the main purposes of a search engine and retailers is to provide benefits to consumers, in guiding JCPenney’s approach to fixing the situation, the retailer must focus on reestablishing itself as a “white hat” by cooperating with rules laid out by search engines and third parties trusted by consumers could be used to closely monitor the procedures for consumers sake.

10/28/12

Virtual Shopping in Canada?

While reading the blogs of my fellow classmates, I came across one article that particularly sparked my interest. This article was written by Demi, who introduced us to the concept of Virtual Supermarkets which was launched at Seonreung subway station in South Korea by Tesco Homeplus in early 2011.

 

Looking ahead in the class prep instructions, I know that we will soon be learning about the place/distribution “P” of the marketing mix. When learning about virtual shopping, my mind immediately made the connection with this “P”. Companies such as Homeplus that are investing in providing consumers with convenience of “shopping wherever they go,” are focusing on the distribution of their products. Using the appeal of simply scanning codes with people’s smartphones to have products delivered to people’s door step right after they arrive home is certainly an attractive benefit to customers. Through Tesco’s goal of “blending into consumers’ lives” and  turning their customers’ ” waiting time into shopping time,” they have become one of the top companies in the online market.

Although Demi’s link to the video of how the Tesco Homeplus virutal shop works was quite informative, I was curious to find out when I would potentially have the chance to try virtual shopping. After searching on the web, I found that Well.ca and P&G actually partnered up just this past April to bring virtual shopping to downtown Toronto. Unfortunately, the trial only occurred for a month. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to try shopping at our skytrain stations right here in Vancouver some time soon!

 

10/15/12

The Power of We: Blog Action Day

Today October 15, 2012 is Blog Action Day where almost 2,000 bloggers from 108 countries have registered to take part in celebrating The Power of We by writing a blog post about making a positive difference in the world, either for their own communities or for people they will never meet half way around the world. This celebration definitely targets the worldwide internet users market. It is also an excellent way to promote causes you support and spread the world connected by the simple hashtag #powerofwe.

 

I would like to dedicate my blog post to an important event coming to Vancouver October 18 (this Thursday!) : WE DAY. Since I was young I have always enjoyed volunteering and contributing to the community. Through these activities, I have definitely learned that the potential of young people is infintie. As a person who aims high in hope to motivate others to do the same, I am strongly in support of organizations who enpower young people to reach their goals, which is why WE DAY is meaningful to me!

 

This annual event links together two organizations centered on empowering young people, Free The Children and Me to We, “to realize their shared goal of enabling young people to make the world a better place.” We Day goes from province to province each year to put on a show that consists of talented performers and motivational speakers. This year in Vancouver, the performer and speaker list includes Demi Lovato, Desmond Tutu, Magic Johnson, Holly Branson, Justice Sinclair, Craig & Marc Kielburger, Molly Burke, OneRepublic, Robin Wiszowaty, Shawn Desman, Spencer West. In fact, there is a “We Day Dance”!


P.S. WE Day will be streamed online at 9:30 PT @ http://www.muchmusic.com/events/weday/#vacouver

09/29/12

September Trends in Review!

Wow can you believe it’s going to be October in 2 days?! Wow, this term sure has gone by fast!

As September comes to an end, I came across an interesting article on Trendwatching’s blog that sums up “Consumer and business trends that will yield you some profitable innovations”  of this past month.

The article introduces twelve  ‘mini’ consumer and business trends including:

Although I feel like I could go on and on about all of the fascinating products, apps, and more described in the article, I felt that the trend which intrigued me the most and gave me the strongest impression with its catchy name was “One Touch Wonder.” I was able to relate to the need of the related inventions immediately because as a busy student, time seems to always a scarce resource. Having the opportunity to order water and pizza with a handy touch of a button on my fridge is very attractive to me. I guess the inventors created the product with a very good understanding of the lifestyle of its potential customers in mind.

Another trend I specifically want to talk about are the “Nanny Apps” and products of the “24/7 Feedback” trend. I wonder if the products are actually practical and whether the fad will last. As a health and nutrition freak myself, I support how the creators have the intention to improve consumers’ health. Yet, if my prediction is correct, as a hot new trend, at the beginning users may follow the instructions and use the app frequently as directed, however after prolonged use they could become detached to the app and therefore rebound back to their original negative health habits. From my past experience of using the “Calorie Count” app, I found it a bit of a hassle to have to constantly update the records and stopped using the app. Maybe these apps would be more effective if the companies can make these products naturally become a habit that is sustained of users. Nonetheless, I am interested in testing out the LUMOback, SuperBetter, Color Frame, Caffeine Zone. Stay tuned for my feedback about these apps!

After learning about the trend of TASKSUMERS (consumers who make money from carrying out small tasks, for other individuals or corporations) I am definitely considering becoming a Tasksumer through the “FOAP” app since I love taking pictures. What a wonderful way to earn some side money while doing something I enjoy!

 

I’m looking forward to finding out what the hottest consumer trends are in October. If you have read about the twelve trends as well, I would love to hear what your opinions are. Everybody, feel free to comment/post about these trends or any other trends you would like to mention! 🙂

Source: www.trendwatching.com. One of the world’s leading trend firms, trendwatching.com sends out its free, monthly Trend Briefings to more than 160,000 subscribers worldwide.

09/12/12

The “World’s Most Valuable Company” Makes an Announcement Today

Today, the long awaited “Iphone 5,” was officially released. I remember that rumors about the new device started becoming widely common in the middle of 2011, when everyone was expecting the October 2011 announcement to be the Iphone 5. To many people’s dismay (including myself), last year the Iphone 5 was not born, and instead the 4S became its temporary replacement. Because at the time I was using a fairly old phone and was in need of a smartphone, along with many others, I ended my wait and bought the 4S. Was this all a part of their marketing scheme?

From my perspective, Apple has somewhat mastered tailoring marketing techniques to appeal to its target market. Fans of Apple or the “world’s most valuable company” as described by BrandChannel, can never seem to get enough and are always striving to have the newest product. Members of the Apple cult anticipate for products long before they are released. Having customers wait for products and product knowledge of things they desire to own is smart marketing strategy used by Apple by attracting customers based on their curiosity and addiction to be the first to own the newest products. Word of mouth spreads quickly when people are discussing their opinions and guessing what the new product will be like. This is advantageous to Apple since word of mouth is a vitally costless promotion method. Perhaps, sometimes the rumors or “leaked” designs released periodically are in fact spread out by internal employees in order to maintain the buzz.

Since people have been waiting for so long for the Iphone 5, I wonder if the reason driving the craze over ordering the Iphone 5 is due to the new features or whether the impatient fans have been sucked into the marketing trap of Apple.

Lineup for release of Ipad 2 in early 2012, What will the line look like for Iphone5?