Month: March 2011

Categories
Uncategorized

barcodes everywhere!

With the widespread use of smart phones and the availability of cellular data, many businesses have begun integrating QR codes into their set of marketing tools.  These QR codes can contain text, URL, or other data.  Most businesses embed a URL and redirect the customer to a more interactive website.

In Drew McLellan’s post, “Stellar QR code example – WorldPark”, he talks about the usage of this bit of technology in a rather unsuspecting environment.

YouTube Preview Image

The way NYC’s Central Park integrated it is quite interesting.  Even though a lot of people have their cell phones in their hands all the time, they don’t take the time to take a picture of these codes.  But these are strategically placed at “Kodak Picture Moments”.  So now it becomes convenient, and the capture rate of the barcodes greatly increases.

This technology is quite old — it was invented in 1994 by Toyota to scan motor parts.  But it is slowly making its way into North American society.  Here is a timeline of the QR code:

Categories
Uncategorized

starbucks and itunes!

Along with my daily dose of caffeine, I’ve been able to get some free music, often from an artist I’ve never heard before.  These “Picks of the Week” aren’t your typical cobranded products — they’re 3-pronged! To be able to offer a product like this, there must be cooperation between Starbucks, iTunes, and the artist/record company.

And from the success of this partnership, Starbucks has begun to incorporate more of Apple’s products into their offerings.  Here are some of them:

Starbucks + iTunes: a collaborative effort to offer a special “iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store” that can only be accessed when at a Starbucks.

Starbucks Mobile Card App: Through this app, you can pre-order drinks, use it to display your Starbucks Card barcode, or locate the nearest store.  It sure has become popular as it was used by more than 3 million people in 3 months in the US.

I think that this partnership between Starbucks and Apple will be valuable to both firms.  Not only are both firms high recognizable, but they both target the same market.  They target Generation Y-er’s, and that is sensible as they would have the longest customer lifetime value.  Good job, it looks like I’ll be downloading my music from iTunes and getting my grandes from Starbucks for the foreseeable future!

Categories
Uncategorized

buy one get one… free?

It’s that time of the month where all these McDonald “BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE” coupons come out in the mail.  It got me thinking, are these actually such a great deal?

We all love big discounts and great deals whether you’re buying food, clothing, or anything in between.  These types of promotions are definitely an attention grabber — what word in the English language would be more enticing than the word “FREE”?  Businesses use these types of promotions to generate more consumer traffic to their stores.  These promotions are effective because the consumer doesn’t have to do any work to get these deals and they get an opportunity to save money or get a better value for our money.

There are also books of coupons for sale year after year that contain many of these “BOGO Free” coupons.  The big one would be the “Entertainment Books”.

What’s more enticing than “hundreds of 2-for-1 and up to 50% off coupons” then? I think 50% getting these coupons is!

But we must step back and think — Are these coupons actually giving us more value or are they simply causing us to spend unnecessarily just for the sake of “saving money”?

Categories
Uncategorized

your computer’s fingerprint

Following up on my post on Facebook personalizing ads, I present you with fingerprints!

Now, I don’t mean using a fingerprint reader or a scanner to put a your fingerprint on the computer.  I’m talking about the ability for companies be able to identify your computer and be able to build a profile for you.  They can do this because when our internet browsers connect to the internet, they upload a lot of different information (which will make your computer distinct) to whomever.  When companies can build this type of database of profiles, they can personalize their internet ads to match the person.

In Drew Marchand’s post, he talks about one issue this technology can bring — is this invasive or awesome? His opinion on this matter is:

“I’ve read blogs from people that both love this service and hate it. As a marketer, I think it is great. As a consumer, I admit to being a bit nerved at the fact that my likes and searches are fed back to me but in the end, I believe that I will see more relevant ads based on my interests and that my ‘click through’ rate on ads will increase.”

I agree with him.  From a marketing student’s perspective, this will let our promotions reach the target audience more effectively.  From a consumer perspective, the ads that hog up space on the screen will actually relate to me (no more watching the Baby Bullet commercial 10x during my TV shows).

I can’t wait for the day that personalized advertising becomes like this:

Spam prevention powered by Akismet