Monthly Archives: September 2014

Response to Tesco’s Virtual Store?

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A few days ago, I posted an interesting digital marketing campaign from Tesco Homeplus, the “Virtual Subway Store“. The campaign leaded to drastic increase in online sales as well as number of registered members. Although it was successful in temporally increasing awareness and getting attention, it wasn’t enough to change the market trend or boost long term growth.

Because the campaign was so interesting, I decided to surf on the web for another creative marketing campaign in Korea. Surprisingly, I found articles about a marketing campaign that was ran by Korea’s number 1 discount retail store E-mart. Click on this link to view the full version video: Emart Sunny Sale Campaign.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvIJfUySmY0

From research they found out that their sales severely decrease during the lunch time. Despite the fact that E-mart is Korea’s largest discount chain store, they needed to solve their weakness. They came up with a brilliant idea of installing a QR code that can only be activated from 12pm to 1pm by using the sunlight and shadow. Forecasting weather and placing the 3-dimensional QR codes may have been challenging but it was successful; over 12,000 coupons were issued, 58% increase in membership, and 25% increase in sales during lunch time.

Source: http://biz.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/04/08/2012040801667.html

Source: http://biz.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/04/08/2012040801667.html

Similar to Homeplus’ virtual store campaign, this one also had temporal impact to customers. However, what I found this one better is that it actually makes people to try using the QR code.  It turns people’s curiosity into potential purchase of products and increased sale.

Logo of Cheil Marketing Agency

Logo of Cheil Marketing Agency

What really interested me more was the fact that both the Virtual Subway Store campaign from Homeplus and the Shadow QR Code campaign from E-mart was designed by the same agency. Some experts criticize both campaigns as focusing more on getting awards from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. I still think it takes outstanding effort  and creativity to come up with these brilliant ideas and I appreciate their trial of new trend in marketing. At the end of the day, both campaigns achieved to engage people and provide them new experience.

Too “Busy and Tired” for Grocery Shopping??

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This particular tweet on #Sauder464 totally grabbed my attention because this advertising campaign looked super interesting and it took place in my home country. Click on this link to view the full version video: Tesco Homeplus Virtual Subway Store in South Korea (2:30)

Homeplus is a second largest discount store retail chain in Korea that is owned by Tesco. In order to increase market share without adding more stores, they came up with the idea of “let the store come to people“. As a result of the campaign number of new registered members rose by 76% with 130% increase in online sales.

Source: http://cheoneui23.egloos.com/2294404

Source: http://cheoneui23.egloos.com/2294404

Although I truly appreciate their creativity, I think there are some aspects they need to consider. First of all, I thought the use of QR (Quick Response) code was not the best option to engage customers to make purchase. It is virtually dead due to its bothersome process of downloading the app on mobile phones. I mean who really uses QR code anymore??

Secondly, I don’t think they have researched or thought deep enough about the nature of subway stations in Korea. Subways in Korea usually come every 3 to 5 minutes only and most subway stations during rush hours are way too crowded for anyone to even try shopping – losing their target segment. Would you try shopping in such a crowd(refer to the image below) by scanning each product with your phones? NO WAY.

http://www.fnnews.com/news/201308081318308532

http://www.fnnews.com/news/201308081318308532

Also, I believe many people would prefer to buy groceries at the actual point of sale, especially for items that quality varies depending on its freshness (meats, vegetables, fruits, etc). It is not easy to convince customers to buy meat from looking at picture displays.

In the end, I think the campaign was successful in increasing awareness and grabbing people’s attention in short term but not much more than that.

Source: http://www.newstomato.com/RealTime/RealTimeDetail.aspx?no=222928

Source: http://www.newstomato.com/RealTime/RealTimeDetail.aspx?no=222928

I have done more research about this campaign and realized that it actually took place 3 years ago, in 2011, when the use of QR code was probably more active and popular. I also found out that they expended this concept of ‘virtual store’ to some of bus stations a year later but it was not as successful in expanding awareness or sales. Furthermore, according to blog postings about the campaign, the app did not work on Apple devices – lost sale and credibility.

Why Are You Taking This Course?

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That was the very first question we were asked in class. Although COMM464 – Internet Marketing, is not a required course to get my bachelor degree, I felt it was required to become a successful marketer. Currently I am taking charge of social media accounts for a student association and I have come across some challenging moments to deal with public as a representative of a group. It was definitely different than taking care of personal pages. I look forward to learn practical online marketing skills and related useful knowledge.

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Source: http://illuminationconsulting.com/5-methods-e-commerce-websites-sell-products-content-marketing/

Since mid 1990s, the use of Internet among businesses has drastically increased and it became the mainstream channel. Businesses began to invite their customers to their online communities and engage them to get involved in building the brand. However, the massive amount of information flowing on the web sometimes challenge businesses to get full control over the online communities in appropriate manner.

This single photo of an exploding Dell laptop was published on a tech blog and caused Dell to recall over 4 million laptop batteries. Source: https://econsultancy.com/blog/7913-14-epic-social-media-fails#i.jdfwz7um8ec8v3

It only takes one single mistake online to completely destroy a business even if building up positive reputation and relationship with its customers usually takes years. Therefore it is critical for all marketers and entrepreneurs to know proper ways to take advantage of the online communities such as social media.