Link to Outside Blog: http://beyond-the-newbie.com/what-is-viral-marketing/

Do you know about viral marketing? It is one of the most applied methods in online marketing because it not only very inexpensive, but also extremely effective. Viral marketing has similarities with word-of-mouth and referral marketing, but is not quite the same. With viral marketing the focus lies more on wide spreading.

For example, Hotmail give away free e-mail addresses and services which attach a simple message that people can get their own free email by signing up at http://www.hotmail.com to each email sent out. People who see the message and sign up are advertising for Hotmail just like tiny waves spreading ever farther from a single pebble dropped into a pond.

As a matter of fact, some viral marketing strategies work better than others, and few works as well as the simple Hotmail.com strategy. What’s important when consider if a viral marketing is successful? I think the company should give away valuable products or services such as free information, free software programs, and free email-services to attract customers’ attention, and their massage should be easy to transfer to others because viruses only spread when they’re easy to transmit.  Moreover, Clever viral marketing plans take advantage of common human motivations. Last but not least, creative viral marketing plans also use others’ resources to get the word out.

Just like customers are allowed to see the layout of cabin when choosing seats for airplane or ship, it should also be available when choosing a hotel room. If you ever stayed in a great hotel but got stuck in a room with a lousy view or near a noisy elevator, there’s now a way to avoid those dud digs. Unlike sites like TripAdvisor that focus on the hotel in general, new website Room 77, offers a hotel room database and search engine for three-star-and-up properties.

So far, the website has more than 425,000 hotels in 16 U.S. cities and London, but the plan is to go global. It’s easy to use: Type in the hotel name, set your room preferences—floor height, view, elevator proximity and connecting/non-connecting. Then it spits out matches fitting your hotel-crashing needs. Click on a suggested room, and the site generates a virtual room-window view using Google Earth and a Google Maps layout of the hotel floor.

A free iPhone app is available as well. It’ll come in handy when you’re at check-in and get a room assignment.

Although you can’t book directly on the site, Room 77 links to the hotel’s reservations engine and has a “request a room” button that offers tips on how to score a specific room. It also will be interactive, eventually allowing guests to rate rooms and submit photography of the spaces.

Clear Channel Airports (CCA), a marketer of airport advertising, has teamed with Mirrus, creator of the Digital Advertising Mirror and the Mirror Image Digital Network, to implement the mirror-based digital signage in select airports across the United States.

When you walk into a washroom in Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, you might be surprised by the high-tech mirror and its innovative idea. Just imagine that when you look into the mirror, what you see is not your smiling face but a large advertising post. After a few seconds, the post will become a small image stay in the corner of the mirror, however, adman have accomplished their purpose that the traveler have received massage from them.

“These displays create unique opportunities for marketers to deliver targeted messages that are highly impactful and relevant to consumers. They’re already driving interest from consistent airport advertisers, as well as opening new categories like pharmaceutical, consumer products, and food and beverage,” commented Toby J. Sturek, President, Clear Channel Airports.

In my opinion, this is an excellent way for marketers to get in touch with their target customers. As a matter of fact, female and male washrooms have automatically separated their target groups. Moreover, the effectiveness of Mirror Image as an advertising medium is superior according to a market research generated by media research agency Millward Brown. The research suggests that consumers remember brands advertised in Mirror Image at a rate of 5X greater than other advertising.

Link to Outside Blog: http://techrice.com/2011/03/08/chinas-top-15-social-networks/

Today, I read an article about the social networking development in China, it shows me the diverse internet user groups and various social networks which have target different customer in China. There is no single social network can be dominant in the market as Facebook in the U.S. This must due to the large population in China and its great dispersion of wealth, as well as people have different purposes.

Renren.com leads China’s surging social-networking market with more than 160 million registered users, according to Analysys International in Beijing. Competitor Kaixin001.com has more than 93 million. Their edge over billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s service: a government that blocks Facebook access. “Our service is basically the same as Facebook’s, in terms of functions and features,” said Donna Li, a general manager at Renren. “We are more tailored to the China market.”Kaixin001.com’s core user base is white-collar workers, which is viewed favorably by advertisers.

For social networks from outside the country to capitalize on the network market in China, it is not easy. Take Facebook as an example, Facebook has a terrible track record with key Asian countries. They haven’t made much of a dent in India, South Korea or Japan, where their share of the local social network audience are in the low single digits. I truly believe that even if China opened its doors to Facebook, or Twitter, they still cannot occupy the biggest portion in China’s network market because Chinese are vested and pretty loyal to their existing social network site, and getting to switch to another social network site is very difficult.

link to: http://article.yeeyan.org/view/204697/175966

Recently I found an article about the advertisement history of Coca-Cola which is is one of the most iconic brands in American history. The story is actually very interesting and inspiring, especially when we are studying the art of marketing. We can see the style of times change from the Coca-Cola post, from Norman Rockwell style paintings, to the simple “It’s the real thing.” in Helvetica, to 3D animated polar bears and holiday scenes. It’s no doubt that the success of this company is closely related to its effective use of advertising.

The first Coca-Cola was sold in 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia, but the company’s first advertisement wasn’t released until 1895. The company’s first print advertisement featured an illustration of a young actress named Hilda Clark, who was also the brand’s spokeswoman. That first advertisement featured Clark in extravagant clothing drinking a Coke next to a sign advertising Coca-Cola for five cents.

The next series of advertisements were targeted at women and depicted how Coca-Cola could help them with everyday life tasks by making them feel more refreshed. Such tag lines as “shop refreshed” and “lunch refreshed” were used to draw in consumers and show how this brand was needed to increase the joy felt when performing daily tasks.

As the brand continued to develop and generate more customers, the advertisements also become more alluring and lengthy. During the 1950s and 1960s, the original advertisement illustrations gave way to photographs of men and women smiling as they enjoyed their Coca-Cola.

During this time of American growth and business competition, this brand’s advertisements depicted how drinking Coca-Cola could provide the breaks that people needed in their day. The ads also urged consumers to brink a Coke to gain the energy needed to push through long day at the office. This is also the time when women’s clothing in Coca-Cola’s advertisements transformed from full-length, elegant gowns to lower cut dresses and even bathing suits.

From the middle days of the brand’s life cycle up until present day, Coca-Cola has addressed a variety of environmental and health issues that speak directly to the concerns of each generation. Themes such as recycling and family time were prominent. Additionally, as consumers became more conscientious about what they consumed, Coca-Cola met this trend with lighter versions of the original beverage and effectively advertised their commitment to health.

As Coca-Cola continues to develop as a brand and creates more products under its iconic name, it will undoubtedly continue finding new ways of speaking to the hearts of American consumers through its advertising. What Coca-Cola has learned through its various marketing campaigns is that companies must understand what is most important to consumers at a particular point in history and then speak to those desires through effective advertising. Other start-up companies can learn a great deal from the advertising history of this brand and re-use their strategies to hopefully increase the popularity of their own businesses.