Month: November 2014

QuiBids is an online auction website that allows you to bid on products. People have been buying items for a largely discounted price, such as a Michael Kors bags for $14.96 or and ipad for $54.03! How QuiBid works is that it charges every user $0.60 for every bid that is placed. All bidders need to pay $0.60 per bid, regardless of if they win the bid or not. Bidding takes place for 5 minutes only. Level of intensity is high. Excitement is there. Winning your prized possession is almost like winning a gamble. And if you win, you’ll likely be telling all your friends about the extraordinary deal you got on your new item. That’s a plus for QuiBids.

If you lose, consumers on QuiBid might have that remorse. It’s almost like when you lose your first bet at the casino and you tell yourself, “that’s the last time I am ever going to gamble!” QuiBid has a strategy to tackle this. If you lose your bet, you have the option to purchase the item for the listed price for minus the money you spent on betting in the auction! This puts the consumers at no-loss. After all, the best strategies are the ones that put both parties at a win-win situation.

Since this sounds so great… why haven’t I heard about QuiBids? Speaking from my personal opinion, I would not purchase from QuiBids for a few reasons:

I am not an impulsive shopper. I like to shop online when I know exactly what I want to purchase. QuiBids is not exactly a platform for that, as you can only find specific items that they happen to have in stock on there. Groupon, Social Shopper etc. never worked well for me, as these are platforms for impulsive shoppers to take advantage of time-sensitive deals! Great deals but not ideal for non-impulsive shoppers like myself.

I am a lazy online shopper. Judging strictly by the brand image of QuiBids, it is not convincingly reliable. I read a lot of articles and people search on google “Is QuiBids a scam?” Even if it isn’t, it’s a red flag for me because I am a lazy consumer who doesn’t want to research more into detail whether a company’s e-commerce is reliable to not. I would rather pay (a lot) more and purchase my item from the brand’s website.

One of the articles that I read online indicated that retail stores were unhappy with QuiBid. However, QuiBid seems fairly new still. It will be interesting to see how the company grows and to see other companies with this business proposition emerge!

Since I recently purchased a new iPhone, I was researching a little about the tips and tricks about the new iOS 8. 

Overall, many features provide integration benefits for apple users.  With the new iOS 8, you can read texts and answer calls from your mac, iPad or phone. You can turn on an instant hotspot for your Mac when you’re stuck in a place without Wi-Fi. You can connect your iPhone to your Apple TV, and the list goes on.

Imagine reading an article on during your commute to home on public transit. You’re in the middle of the article and your stop is coming up in 20 seconds.You can simply resume to your article where you left off at the comfort of your home when you turn on your desktop computer. You will not have to scramble through hyperlinks to find the article you want to finish reading.

One of the most apparently features that I believe will change digital marketers is the ability for iPhone users to quickly switch devices with handoff. This means that you are able to sync your incomplete/ongoing activities that you have on your phone and resume your activities on your mac. This includes browser tabs and e-mails.

One of the topics that we touched on in class for digital marketers was the importance of optimization on different mobile devices. Since readers are less likely to click through from mobile devices, this feature may have the ability to increase click through rates if consumers get into the habit of transferring mobile content to desktop.

Hootsuite’s video launch of “Mean Tweets: A Hootsuite Dashboard Update”. The theme is based around the idea of Jimmy Kimmel’s “Celebrities Read Mean Tweets” segments.

I think this video launch goes beyond the announcement of Hootsuite’s new user interface. Sure, it is celebrating and showcasing the exciting sleek new design with pride, but the video also nicely portrays what the Hootsuite’s brand represents. It is innovative, engaging and connects. There is a powerful message behind this video. The raw and explicit content portrays the realism of social media channels – unfiltered thoughts, which often includes negativity and bashing. The video shows that Hootsuite users are empowered to speak their raw thoughts, and Hootsuite staff are listening.

This is exactly how digital marketers should be using Hootsuite as a tool- a tool to listen to the brand’s audience, consumers, and/or potential market. Hootsuite is setting a good example by reacting.

24 People Who Shouldn’t be Allowed on Tinder

I would assume that according to this post, there are a lot of people who are “trolls” on tinder, and just as many people who are annoyed with these users. Although I am not a tinder user, judging by the 4.6k shares on this article, I believe this article resonates with quite a few tinder users. Moreover, I have quite a few friends who share their tinder experiences with me.

I have one friend who swipes right on every single individual just to see who they’re matched with (conducting market research on the type of girls who are attracted to him – how clever!). I have several friends who chats with individuals they are matched with just to kill time when there is no intent for following up with a date. I also have a handful of friends who are genuinely interested in the services that Tinder originally is create for.

Following up on this, Tinder will soon be launching new premium paid features. As mentioned in the article, many tinder users “hack” the service for other purposes such as promoting their instagram accounts or to get local recommendations when travelling. Tinder is listening to the voices of users who are interested in these “hacks” to add premium paid features for the app. However, how will the tinder users who are genuinely interested in the matchmaking services react if there are all these users on Tinder that are there for different purposes? It may dilute the population of people who are truly interested in finding a potential partner.

Tinder is already well branded as a matchmaking service. I think if there are additional premium services added that does not align with the brand, it may be harmful. Companies need to be very careful when launching new product lines or new features.

I am quite interested in seeing what kind of new premium paid features Tinder will execute and what will result from it!