When was the last time you searched for the keywords “shoes” or “jackets” on google and the next time you visited Facebook or any website with enabled ads for that matter, were you bombarded with heaps of advertisements of sales on exactly either “shoes” or “jackets”?

I can assume with confidence that this happens all the time for you, and as with everyone else.

The sophistication of the apparatus that allows for simultaneous collection and analyzation of consumer behavior online has reached a point of complete ludicrous. The steps to which companies and businesses alike take to ensure that the optimal product is advertised at the optimal time to the optimal target consumer is often unsettling – think an overly obsessive admirer stalking your every action on the internet – but it is not without grounds.

The moment when a customer is most “vulnerable” is the moment when the customer is most susceptible to advertisements and therefore would be more likely to purchase the product. It is based on this idea that companies invest so much into “targeted advertisements” – advertisements that are specifically targeted at individuals. These are not exclusive to online interactions. Rewards cards, free wifi, even your phone number are all used as mediums to track your behavior to plan out that future promotion of a product based on your previous purchases that would most likely spike your interest.

Is the intensive research done secretly on individual consumers a total violation of privacy? Should there be a system in place to give consumers the power to make their own decisions about which ads they would be interested in instead of letting the “data” decide what’s best for them?

I stumbled on a blog by the infamous shark Mark Cuban on the show Shark Tank in which he introduces his thought on one of the ways Facebook could redesign its “Like” to include various meanings. Highlights are a “green like button” that would send a message to the website to send a link to allow for purchasing and a “red like button” that would mean “I only wanted to say I liked it” and show no interest in the product.

If “everything communicates” for businesses, the same slogan holds true for consumers’ presence online, as well as their interactions with companies offline. Cuban’s solution to the excessive research on consumer behavior on Facebook although altruistic, likely will not be implemented as it lets consumers be in control; and most of the time consumers don’t know what’s best for themselves, nor what they really need, when they need it. Companies do. After all, when have numbers been wrong?

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References:

Image: https://i0.wp.com/bridgei2i.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/cross-sell-up-sell-clickstream-analytics.png?resize=1024%2C477

http://khitschicago.cbslocal.com/2017/04/18/for-those-of-you-asking-what-the-hecks-a-unicorn-frappe/

           The essence of business is transient and evolutionary, they operate under the common law of “adapt or die;” the inability to be flexible and change according to circumstance, especially shifts in social trends, will result in inevitable stagnation of the obsolete. Arshdeep Gill’s article “Memes and Marketing” takes note of Gucci’s adaptation to cater to a larger market of young consumers through taking advantage of a modern social trend that is memes.

           The article highlights the brilliance of the company in diverging from the traditional style of marketing and making its advertisements worthwhile,”unique and creative”. Although it was a risk for a high-end brand like Gucci to be deploying this type of meme campaign as it contradicts its value proposition, it was successful in exposing the brand to a new market of otherwise nonchalant young consumers and millennials. The author comments on how usage of a separate medium to communicate the memes to the target audience would have benefited Gucci by minimizing backlash. All of this, to me, is the paradigm of modern marketing: Strategically integrating trends in society in marketing campaigns to appeal to potential markets without disrupting the business’ value proposition and its current consumer base.

           Take Starbucks for example, particularly their “limited frappe” campaigns that include the unicorn frappe in April and more recently the ongoing one which features the zombie frappuccino. The two, respectively, was a culmination of insight into social trends and also the knowledge of upcoming events in which the marketing campaign would be most relevant and thus gain the maximum exposure. The marketing campaign resulted in “the acquisition of new customers,” where multiple Starbucks locations reported seeing customers they had never seen before, but “will most likely be recurring customers in the future” due to the positive experience.

           It is evident that having insight into current social trends was essential for Starbucks’ majestic pulling off of their frappuccino campaigns. The theme of their products and the period in which they sold were all configured deliberately, capitalizing on social trends and insight into the targeted market’s behavior. The most important aspect that made the unicorn frappe as proliferated on social media as it was, was the fact that it was made to be so visually aesthetic, and with the influx of unicorn frappe posts on Instagram and the like, gave, even more, an incentive for others to “join the hype,” especially the younger consumers.

           Gucci and Starbucks are not in any position to “die” anytime soon, however, they are prime examples of how businesses can capitalize on insight into social trends, and how going big and bold is necessary to gain a lead, make headlines, as well as acquire potential customer segments.

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To everyone who is unaware of the term “bitcoin”, brace yourselves as you will most likely be bombarded with headlines of the cryptocurrency soon enough, especially after the recent event of bitcoin hitting yet again, another all-time high of over $5000.

Once deemed as a virtually worthless cryptocurrency, the bitcoin has time over time proved analysts and skeptics alike, of the unpredictability and unstoppability of natural market forces in determining winners and losers in an economy. Created as an alternative to traditional money which inflates over time, bitcoin’s founder Satoshi Nakamoto based the cryptocurrency off of gold, which is in nature, limited and scarce, so instead of losing value over time, it increases in worth as there is always only a set number of bitcoins in circulation – which is at a maximum of 21 million bitcoins. Despite its ever-growing trajectory in value, critics state that bitcoin is in a bubble and it is due to pop like most disruptive technologies do.

However, it is important to take into account the mutability of the modern day economy, how interests and demands shift overnight, and how concepts and ideas unthinkable to ever be successful, proceed to dominate regardless of logic and skepticism. Take the computer for example: during its time of conception, it was simply ludicrous to ever think we would ever need a machine to complete automated calculations. 8 decades later, it now holds an inextricable part in daily life. As bitcoin has the potential to rewire the way how goods are exchanged entirely, – shall it ever reach that point of global proliferation –  it poses a threat to the current systems in place, and thus, is under much pressure from opposing stakeholders such as government and banks.

Bitcoin came to life at a time of societal ignorance of cryptocurrency. As time went by and more investors are bought into the idea of virtual currency, and even more so with the proliferation and education of the concept in society, bitcoin has risen exponentially in value over recent years and is projected to skyrocket even further in the near future. Whether or not Bitcoin will become a major success and money be a thing of the past, or will the predicted bubble that the much sought-after cryptocurrency is in pop to its own destruction, one fact remains constant, and that is the brilliance of the entity that created the bitcoin platform that attempts to redesign the way we buy and sell – it may be the “pain reliever” to a “pain” we never knew existed, we never knew we needed.

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References:

Kollewe, J. (2017, October 12). Bitcoin price soars above $5,000 to record high. Retrieved October 15, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/12/bitcoin-price-5000-cryptocurrency-gold-bubble

Tillier, M. (2017, March 07). Why Is Bitcoin Worth More than Gold? Retrieved October 15, 2017, from http://www.nasdaq.com/article/why-is-bitcoin-worth-more-than-gold-cm757313

Price, R. (2017, May 22). Someone in 2010 bought 2 pizzas with 10,000 bitcoins – which today would be worth $20 million. Retrieved October 15, 2017, from http://uk.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-pizza-day-passes-2000-20-million-2017-5

Insana, R. (2017, September 13). Bitcoin is in a bubble, and here’s how it’s going to crash. Retrieved October 16, 2017, from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/13/bitcoin-is-in-a-bubble-and-heres-how-its-going-to-crash-ron-insana.html

The Five Biggest Threats Facing Bitcoin. (2014, May 27). Retrieved October 16, 2017, from https://www.coindesk.com/five-biggest-threats-facing-bitcoin/

                        All things start small, even Amazon hasn’t always been the retail, logistics, media (and whatever other industries that come to mind) giant it’s known for today. It is the perfect example of how identifying future trends and playing the right moves, in addition to a having a great product, can differentiate a market-dominating company and one that bites the dust as competition gets tough. In Amazon’s case, its vision and strategy were what propelled the company to the success it has today.

                         Even with the book-selling website that it started out as, the long-term vision had always tainted every decision that the company makes. Having the view to dominate the ebook market, Amazon bought ebooks in bulk from publishers and sold them online through their Kindle platform, eating a loss with every sale to keep prices competitive, slowly attracting consumers to use their product and virtually keeping competitors out with their competitive pricing.

                          Amazon eventually dominated the ebook market. Although Amazon took losses in its endeavor to attract consumers to its ebook platform in the short term, it succeeded in gaining control of the overall market in the long term and benefits from the network effect – which is the idea that a product will become more useful as more people use it. This also applies to Amazon as a whole as its enormous user base creates endless opportunities for growth. A larger consumer pool would attract more suppliers, in turn, the increasing diversity of products for sale attracts, even more, consumers to the platform, and, with Amazon’s ventures into other industries, it is evident that its success is largely attributed to its enormous user base.

                            I for one started to buy products from Amazon through recommendations from a friend, after which I recommended the website to other friends, and just imagining the scope at which this process occurs is mind-boggling. Having already acquired a large portion of the market through cutting prices, its consumer base will continue to increase exponentially. Amazon played the long game and disregarded profitability in exchange for market dominance and is now projected to be worth $1 trillion in the near future, it is a testament to the importance that having a long-term vision – being able to predict future trends – and being a first mover has on business scope and success. Amazon’s vision can be applied not only to businesses and industries but also to everyday life. Shall one be insistent on success and getting ahead, a long-term goal and planning accordingly through short-term commitments will inevitably pay off in the end.

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References:

Gershgorn, D., Griswold, A., Murphy, M., Coren, M. J., & Kessler, S. (2017, August 20). What is Amazon, really? Retrieved September 26, 2017, from https://qz.com/1051814/what-is-amazon-really/

Gobry, P. (2010, November 10). Here’s How Amazon Took The Lead In The Billion-Dollar EBook Market — And Why They’ll Dominate. Retrieved September 26, 2017, from http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-billion-dollar-ebook-market-amzn-2010-11#built-the-right-product-for-the-right-audience-2

Kim, E. (2016, December 07). This chart shows how Amazon could become the first $1 trillion company. Retrieved September 27, 2017, from http://www.businessinsider.com/how-amazon-could-become-the-first-1-trillion-business-2016-12

It seems that Uber cannot get enough of the spotlight. When the ride-hailing service is not accumulating press through a viral video starring its own CEO shouting at his Uber driver, or receiving allegations of sexual harassment in it’s offices,  it is scrutinized for employing behavioral economic tactics that capitalize on human tendency to be incentivized by goals. An article released by the New York Times recently brought light to this ethical issue. Although the primary objective of all businesses is to maximize profit, where do we set the line in terms of a business’ authority over the psychology of its workforce?

Uber consists purely of self-employed drivers rather than traditional employees that are committed to the company by obligation. Whether or not an Uber driver decides to work is entirely up to them; which is problematic for the company itself because it cannot guarantee accommodation for passengers on demand. This is why the company has employed gamifying features in their app’s interface to entice drivers to work more. Understanding that people are influenced by goal-seeking, the app not only encourages setting goals, but also gives the drivers notifications about how far off they are from their goals, especially when they are about to log off.

Just like Netflix that automatically queues the next episode of whatever tv show currently being watched at the conclusion of the current one, Uber sends notifications of nearby gigs to drivers even before they reach their primary destination which induces “binge-driving”. Another feature worth mentioning is their rewards system that encourages driver activity through virtual, non-monetary badges. This simulates the effects of video games that compels the player to keep playing more, or in Uber’s case, drivers to drive more.

Although the applications of behavioral economics to workforce management may proliferate in the near future, ethical speculations of the way it secretly manipulates people to act in the interest of the governing business are still present. One such problem that is associated with the way Uber maximizes its drivers’ efficiency is through intensive data collection and behavioral, psychological analysis of drivers that is then used to develop interface functions that takes advantage of the human psychology. Its advantages such as maximizing profits are inarguable, however, it does so by manipulating the driver to unconsciously work harder and longer. A company as large as Uber should especially prioritize its users’ rights and with each new member joining its workforce, there should be a mutual understanding that the company will in no way manipulate its associates into working longer without their knowledge or consent. Any “nudge” to encourage driving, no matter how beneficial to the driver, without acknowledgement, should and always be, out of the question.

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