I recently read Una Vuckovic’s blog about McDonalds plans to offer free Wi-Fi in their fast food restaurants. I definitely agree with this decisions and can see why McDonalds were attracted to the idea. It will help to entice more consumers particularly the technology savvy millennials, since the majority of us are glued to our cell phones for most of the day and free internet access is always a welcome perk from stores and restaurants. However I can’t help but feel like McDonalds are running behind on the times with this feature. Starbucks have offered free Wi-Fi in their coffee bars around the world for over a year now and an overwhelming majority of food servers and coffee bars have jumped on the trend before McDonalds e.g. Burger King, KFC and Pret-A-Manger who all offer free Wi-Fi. Frankly a large number of retail stores in general offer free Wi-Fi as standard without any major advertising for the service. This is bound to reduce the scale of the impact that McDonalds is hoping to achieve with this announcement since it’s not exactly a ground breaking or unique offering. Really McDonalds should have taken advantage of this feature a long time ago.

I recently read Henry Fung’s blog about Target’s plans to change its store to better fit the Canadian culture. Firstly I think this is a very appropriate strategy for Target to implement since I have now heard countess repetitions of; “We’re not American we’re Canadian.” I’ve been quite surprised about the clear distinction many Americans and Canadians draw between their cultures. I then started thinking about the culture differences I have noticed compared to what I’m used to in England. Though originally skeptical I soon realised I could make a list a page long. For me this further emphasised the importance of reviewing the appropriateness of marketing strategies when considering expanding internationally. No consumer wants to buy from a company who doesn’t understand their culture and consequently their true needs and wants.

Just for fun, here’s some of the most prominent differences I have noticed:

-Price labelling. The fact that Canadian and American shops only display prices before tax has to be one of the most annoying marketing tactics I’ve ever come across.

-Starbuck’s apparent aversion to non-take-out cups as well as the assumption that I want whipped cream on top of my drink. Maybe I enjoy wrapping my hands round a warm ceramic mug and I don’t want extra cream I just forgot to mention it because I’m so used to English baristas giving me the option when I order.

-Ikea meatballs. So the only reason I really go to Ikea in England is for meatballs and Daim bar cake in the restaurant. I went to Ikea in Seattle before the start of term, the meatballs were terrible and there was no Daim bar cake. Devastating.

-You can turn right on a red light. What?!

-French translations on everything. Least its letting me practice my very rusty French.

-Sarcasm. In England sarcasm is par for the course. Canada doesn’t seem to grasp this concept to the same extent, which has lead to several bewildered and occasionally offended looks from my new Canadian friends.

-Accents, obviously the English accent is very different to American or Canadian and I must say I miss the rough Northern accent of a Mancunian.

(Disclaimer: I love Canada especially Vancouver and these differences are only adding to my amazing experience!)

This week I decided to use my blog to explore Breast Cancer Care’s new efforts to raise awareness and funding for the disease. As part of Breast Cancer Awareness month the charity are taking over Euston train station in London, England and placing nine large digital screens on the walls of the station which will display live feeds of updates on subjects including news headlines, weather, horoscopes and trending topics. The screens will intermittently display the message of “You can check a million and one things all the time.  Make one of them your breasts.” I thought this was a very effective way to both raise awareness of the charity and also aid in efforts to identify breast cancer in its earliest stages, significantly increasing the chances of recovery.

From personal experience I know that Euston station is one the busiest places in England. A constant hub of activity, which will allow the charity to reach such a wide target market from professionals travelling to their next meeting to young adults meeting at a cafe in the station to university students on their way to lectures. The station sees thousands of users from all age groups pass through every day.

Having chosen such an opportunistic location the charity have also managed to plan a marketing activity that will attract maximum viewing, by allowing commuters to easily view the information they seek out practically everyday and then by consequence the viewer will also be shown Breast Cancer Care’s message. I think Breast Cancer Care are displaying a well planned and evaluated marketing strategy with this campaign and for such an important cause, I hope the results are as effective as the planning!

After recently reading Vicki Waschkowski’s blog about the dangers of Procrastination (see link included) I was left partially with a sense of guilt, as procrastination was exactly what led me to the blog, a feeble attempt to avoid finishing off my latest Accounting Assessment. But I also started to think about the time many consumers, particularly teenagers and young adults spend on the art of procrastination. Thanks to the Internet, from updating your status on Facebook to being the first to “discover” Justin Bieber on YouTube, there are endless possibilities to allow users to escape from their daily routine for hours on end.

It would be wise for companies to use this and seek advantage from the ever-growing number of online visitors.

The Internet has enabled marketers to more easily enter either specific or mass markets. Through research into the sites most used by particular segments of consumers whilst surfing the web, companies can customise the online channels they use to most effectively reach their target markets. An obvious example here would be companies aiming their products at young adults advertising on social media sites, since 48% of 18-34 year olds check their Facebook before they even get out of bed in the morning. That’s a lot of consumers who could potentially see your company’s advert seconds after waking up every morning.

Whilst I am in no way encouraging students to go online instead of completing their work (our university years have the potential to shape our entire future remember) I do take comfort in knowing I am not alone – the average American teenager spends 31hours online every week compared to the average of 4hours per week they spend doing homework.

If a company can take advantage of the huge Internet craze it could provide great rewards in future sales and awareness of products. With over 1 billion different users surfing the Internet each month, chances are someone in your target market is going to see your online advertisement.

Vicki Waschkowski’s blog:

 http://www.canadianmarketingblog.com/archives/2011/09/procrastination.html

Earlier this month Facebook rolled out a wave of new updates and changes to the way the social media network operates. “Improvements” included a new option to subscribe to other users accounts allowing their public updates to appear in your newsfeed without having to be friends with the person or organization. This new feature could allow organizations to easily increase their online marketing capabilities. The feature could be utilised as a quick new way to alert existing consumers to new products or offers and also a way to draw in new consumers.

Another new addition to Facebook was the “Ticker” a miniaturised second news-feed on the right hand side of the Facebook window. With this feature users can view live news feed regardless of what area of Facebook they are using, basically allowing you to Facebook while you Facebook. (I’ll admit I have found the ticker quite useful this past week) This feature will enable organizations to constantly stay in touch with Facebook users compared to updates only appearing on a single home page, as was previously the case. Included in the Ticker feature is an “App Ticker” which places application adverts and updates into the Ticker feed, another ploy to increase Facebook’s marketing capabilities?

I don’t have a problem with Facebook adverts, after all a free social network such as Facebook relies on attracting advertising campaigns for income and the last thing anyone wants is to have to pay for a Facebook account. But flooding the site with several new ways for advertisers to reach consumers is highly unlikely to sit well with the majority of Facebook users. Facebook needs to start to listen more carefully to what its users want from the site. I mean how much longer do we have to campaign for a dislike button….

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