The Pros & Cons of QR Codes

This week when presenting my group project Public Service Announcement campaign, which we included a QR code on our print flyers, we received the feedback of "isn't using QR codes dead?". This question made me wondering, are QR codes really ineffective in advertising or are they still viable to be used. I know personally, I see QR codes all over products. There is no limit for where QR codes can be used. 

Pros

• QR Codes are now well-known and simple to use. The audience simply has to take a picture through their app.
• The codes usage can be tracked. You can see how effective you product or ad is. You know how many consumers are scanning and using your codes. 
• Opposite to this is if you only offer a number for your audience to text, you may face some concerns of your audience worrying about charges. Although it is not as common anymore with unlimited phone plans, some people may not want to use their texts. They may also not want to give out their phone number to continue to receive unwanted messages in the future. 

Cons

• Sometimes they just do not work, you need to know your target and sometimes it is a matter of trial and error. 
• People just don't use them, they are easy to use but they may not have the app installed or it is still a reality not all people have smartphones. 
• The codes are misused and put in places where people can not reach them, take the time to use them or even WiFi. 

In my opinion, I can fully see the side of why QR Codes are not quite as popular as they once were. I think there are certainly more creative things which can be done to have more information, or linking on creative ads. I also believe everything goes back to your audience and if there is room to test out and do the proper research, you will find how your audience will be most receptive. For my own group campaign, I believe we could further our creative campaign with augmented reality. In relation to our campaign, this would be an additional feature to utilize and get the audience interacting and looking for more information. 

Print & Media: Are They Different?

This week, I was reading for fun with a fictional book. I came to find out that this book, which may be geared more towards the late teens/early 20's because at the end of most of the chapters, there were hash tags which related to the events of the chapter. This was new and pretty interesting for me to see. The hash tags are attempting to create a community of readers where they can connect on Twitter and even Facebook. It is logical to think that the audience which is loyal to  the author or series, then they are more likely to look up or even tweet with the hash tag. Readers can see what other readers have to say about the chapter and can create a connection through this.

How Do They Differ Anymore?

More and more we are seeing the two forms of media come together, print uses digital to compete to keep up with the times. Social media is growing continuously and can be incorporated in various ways to other media. This use of social media expands my already held knowledge. I have seen hash tags used in magazine ads and different transit ads, but never in a book I have read. SO, my question is, how do the two forms of media differ anymore. They are not separate but melding together in a way. I think it is also important to note that with the changes in technology, the way we read original print media is now different than it once was. 

People have nooks, kindles, tablets, apps and smartphones in which reading is small and portable for on the go reading. We can now  read the newspaper online, magazines and so much more. So where will this lead? We can not even read a book without being reminded of digital media and social media. 

Is Mobile Really A Second Screen?

This week I was reading an article on Bloomberg Business Week about the major increase our society is spending on mobile devices versus watching television. This article shares that on average, a person is spending 2 hours and 48 minutes on their mobile device a day. The distinction is above the time distinction spend watching television now. On average, 177 minutes is spent on a mobile device and 168 minutes watching television. In my opinion, I believe the gap is going to increase between time spent on both technologies. So, is mobile really what marketers call a "second screen'?

Mobile Versus Television

Typically, television is referred to as a first screen in which marketers can reach consumers. Mobile would be called a second screen marketers can reach their consumers with ads and messages. With the large growth seen in time spent on mobile, will it take over the first screen slot. I believe that this distinction will stay the same for consistency sake, but mobile is clearly beating out reaching consumers on the television. With the technological advances we have seen within just the last year or two, watching television or videos on your mobile device is easy and portable. Consumers may start to choose to watch through their smartphones rather than directly through a television. Alternately, I have noticed that if you visit some regular station websites to watch videos, such as CBS or ABC, you must confirm your television provider to receive the videos. I do believe people will continue with television providers for reasons such as this. 

What Should Marketers Do?

As mentioned in prior posts, it is always imperative for marketers to know where their consumers are spending their time. If you as a marketer know your target is spending a significant amount of time on mobile versus television, then advertising more on mobile will be more effective. It is interesting to see how this trend is growing right in front of my eyes. Only a few years ago I personally did not have a smartphone, or even a cell phone in general. Now I look around and practically everyone is on a smartphone...and for a majority of their time. I see how my younger cousins can be glued to their devices even to just play games with each other. This concept is already so different from when I was their age and they were much younger. If marketers are trying to reach consumers my cousins' ages, then mobile will certainly be worth it. 

Bloomberg Article mentioned: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-11-19/we-now-spend-more-time-staring-at-phones-than-tvs

How Adobe is Opening Doors for Marketers

Through a handful of my Marketing courses, including my Marketing Campaign Planning course, we have discussed location-based marketing. Using this type of strategy is helpful in a number of ways for marketers and businesses. Being able to contact consumers in a more personal way based on their geographic locations is quite beneficial. A marketer is able to target their consumers more when they have information about them. This week I came across an interesting announcement made by the Adobe company. 

Adobe & Location-based Marketing

This week I learned that Adobe announced they are making it easier for businesses to reach customers using their business apps. Adobe has made these updates to their mobile services. It will allow for businesses to have in-app ads based on their consumers activities, metrics and even location. This tactic aims at making it more effective for businesses when targeting consumers through apps. 

According to Forbes.com, Adobe is making this push in competition against salesforce.com and is in pursuit of marketing dominance. About  two-thirds of Fortune 50 companies use Adobe's Cloud Services. In co-ordinance with this, Adobe has put out options such as the in-app messages, mobile app management, mobile campaign management, and a new Adobe social app. These types of services are pertinent to consumers today because consumers are more likely to go to a businesses easily accessible apps as opposed to their mobile website. 

How Does This Apply?

Marketers need to know these new options and where their consumers are searching. They should have the ability to access these features to gain success in effectively reaching consumers. It is important marketers keep up with these trends. They will be able to make more personal connections to consumers. These features allow businesses to send push notifications to app consumers when they enter their stores. Location-based marketing and technologies allow businesses to do this. 

References

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/Adobe-All-In-with-Location-Marketing/story.xhtml?story_id=10300CL9W1CP#

http://www.forbes.com/sites/benkepes/2014/11/18/adobe-embraces-location-based-marketing/

Watch Out For Social Media

This week I wanted to discuss the hot topic surrounding allegations against Bill Cosby. As you all may have heard either from Cosby's career, or more recently, he has numerous negative publicity to address concerning sexual assault allegations. When hearing about this topic, I found it very interesting that this issue started to pick up again because of a social media back fire. Those managing Bill Cosby's website (http://billcosby.com/) had created a meme generator for the celebrity. A meme is typically a humorous image with some short blurb on it. The most popular ones tend to go viral and are seen by many. I can assume the meme generator was supposed to be for fans of Cosby and a way to have his fans be engaged. Unfortunately this backfired for the star and brought more heat to him. 

Media Gone Wrong

People out there who saw this generator decided to portray Cosby negatively and use his own troubled situations to be funny. This is far from funny for the star. Memes created by the public have opened up more questions for sexual assault allegations which Cosby has been facing through the years. His team who created the generator had initially promoted tweeting their fun creations to Bill Cosby, which made this whole situation worse because it easily grabbed attention. With the option of social media, especially Twitter, it is so easy to hashtag and search such images or posts. Social media has made it so easy to share information instantly, which can be very bad for situations such as Cosby's'.

What to Do?

http://diymusician.cdbaby.com

Those who manage Cosby and his publicity/online presence have since taken the generator down, which is a great first step. From what I have learned through my courses, there are a few actions to take with these situations. I have specifically learned the three "A's". These are acknowledge, apologize, and act. I believe this could be part of Cosby's rebound to this situation. It does not matter whether the allegations are true or not, he needs to acknowledge what has occurred through social media. His team must apologize for the stir and share that this was of course not the intent. They need to act by taking the generator down and through positive work try to create a better image of Cosby after the meme incident. 

The Big Take Away

The big take away I provide to you all from this situation is this: expect the unexpected. Bill Cosby's team did not intend to create the meme generator for negativity, but it fell under the unexpected. There is always something that can go wrong and not everyone will take what you post the same way. Social media provides many benefits but also creates the possibility for negativity and the ability to falsify information.

To see more on this social media back fire:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-wp-wp-root--bc-cosby15-20141115-story.html

Creating Awareness With Raffles

This past week I attended the Grinspoon, Garvey & Young Entrepreneurship Conference at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield, Massachusetts. The conference was created and has been held annually "to encourage innovative thinking and entrepreneurial acumen in young people." At this event I met other students from local colleges and sat in on two speaker sessions. The speaker session I want to mention is a social media speaker session. I heard three professionals speak and answer questions in regards to social media and business.

Prosperity Candle

One of the topics from this session which sparked my interest was given by Kim Hutt, the Director of Marketing for Prosperity Candle, a company which provides handmade candles and jobs for women rebuilding their lives. During her talk, she discussed what she is doing for the social media of Prosperity Candle. One of the sites they utilized for promoting the brand is called Rafflecopter. Rafflecopter is a site which provides a service of setting up giveaways for your company or product. The slogan of the site is "Rafflecopter is the world's easiest way to run a giveaway." I found this to be an interesting way to easily offer and control a giveaway to your audience. In the image above, it shows Prosperity Candle's recent giveaway, as well as how Rafflecopter works. A company embeds their giveaway address to any or all of their social media. From there, their consumers must share the post in various social media sites in order to increase their chances of winning the giveaway.

When & Why Use Rafflecopter?

Rafflecopter is a great way to have a giveaway in a simple and easy to use format. It is a savvy way to get consumers to share your product and brand through the giveaway. If one consumers shares the giveaway via their numerous social media accounts, many of their followers will see the posts. This process gains awareness and interest into the product and brand. Kim Hutt explained the best time in which her company utilizes Rafflecopter. They tend to have giveaways, such as now, right before holidays. If they increase awareness before big purchasing periods, people will think of their company when going to buy gifts for the Holidays or Mothers' Day, for example. In the consumer pathway, creating awareness is the first stage. It is important to create this awareness for consumers to recognize and know what your brand is. Overall, I find this site to be useful for companies in creating that promotion through social media and initiating that awareness a brand needs.

http://static.squarespace.com

Sites mentioned in this post: https://www.rafflecopter.com/

                                          http://www.prosperitycandle.com/

Country Isn't Just For The South

Keeping on a similar topic from my post last week, I want to discuss how Country music can actually be a boost to your brand. I read an article of Forbes called Country Music Is A Powerful Opportunity For Brands this week and found it to be a pretty interesting idea which relates to my Marketing Course topics. This article discusses how popular and powerful country music can be for your brand. It describes a segment called New Heartland which has consumers who are very brand loyal and family oriented. This idea also stems from the fact that the CMA Awards were the most social show in this year. So who and how can this segment help?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/pauljankowski/2014/10/29/country-music-is-a-powerful-opportunity-for-brands/2/

Music, Loyalty, & Endorsements

In my class, we recently discussed establishing trust and credibility as a source. People are going to trust ads with people they trust and like. Likeability and attractiveness are a big player in message effectiveness. Having a celebrity endorsement certainly can help a brand's advertising. Celebrities people like and view highly are going to have a good affect. This topic relates to Country music because it is such a popular genre with involved fans. This brand suggests creating this likability and trustworthiness by using a Country celebrity. The loyalty of the Country fans will follow into the brand. Of course it is still important to choose a celebrity who embodies aspects you want portrayed for you brand/product. 

Carrie Underwood

http://stocklandmartelblog

One example of a Country singer who I can recognize as being a part of many brands is Carrie Underwood. She is a part of many magazines, commercials and print ads. She has been the face of Olay, Almay, Sketchers, and Vitamin Water. She does these ads and becomes a face of the brand. She has high likeability and attractiveness to consumers. Her face is recognizable and a majority of people will know who she is. 

Musical Desires

This week while watching a show on the Food Network, I saw an experiment regarding food cravings and music. In this experiment, the host had an ice cream truck and conducted the experiment twice. First, he stood in the ice cream truck with a sign for free ice cream and did not play any "ice cream truck" music. As a result, he had a few people approach the truck for the free ice cream within the hour . In the next hour of the experiment, he played the "ice cream truck" music. The host had such a different result, many more people approached the truck for the free ice cream. People were even waiting in line for the ice cream this time around!

http://www.bestcoloringpagesforkids.com/

Why?

The host of the show went into this explanation of how the music is what people associate to ice cream. This music makes people think of and crave ice cream. Ice cream is often associated to summer and happy times for people. Most people also associate the truck's music to their childhood, summer, and as one person on the show said, "running outside to the sound of the truck". The host went into an explanation of how the ice cream is a positive reward to the music. The topic of Pavlov's dog was brought up. For those of you who do not know this experiment, it refers to classical conditioning and how Pavlov conditions a dog to salivate when they hear him ring a bell. The dog does this because every time the bell rang prior, they received a treat. 

Why Should Marketers Care?

When I was watching this show, I instantly thought of marketing and how marketers use music to get their consumers to think and crave their product. In my marketing courses, we have discussed the Pavlov's dog experiment, so I knew that the situation of the ice cream and the ice cream truck music makes sense. Marketers can use music to create that positive reward for their consumers. Consumers will hear a jingle or music and instantly crave the feeling the associate product provides. 

http://downeybeat.com

Open Happiness

The immediate company I thought of when relating a product to music was Coca Cola. A few years ago Coca Cola had a song called "Open Happiness" created by a few different artists. The song incorporates a sound Coca Cola is known for. This sound is typically played in some Coke commercials. They incorporate this associated sound into their song which I actually have from a few years back. This is not exactly the same as the ice cream trucks example, but it is the same basic concept. You hear this song, you associate it with Coke and quite possibly crave a coke. Even if you do not crave a coke, you have the company on your mind. So the lesson is keep sounds and music in mind when creating or viewing ads. 

Check out the Coca-Cola song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTk5dRytUI8

Tell A Story

http://www.google.com

Throughout this semester in my Marketing Campaign Planning & Management course, we have discussed the benefits and goal of telling a story to your consumers. Using a story to capture consumer interest and engagement is important because your message will be more memorable to the consumer. A compelling story will evoke emotions in your consumer and allow your message to come across. On Forbes.com, I found a great article which expresses the value of using storytelling in your advertising.

Why Tell a Story?

This article states that consumers are spending an average of five hours a day consuming posted content via mobile and the social sphere. It is important your story can capture this large amount of time consumers are using to read content. As I have said in past posts, it is important to know your market and to not just sell to them. People are more receptive to ads which do not come off as selling and pushing to buy. Consumers will not receive ads that come off only to sell, which is where a story comes into your ad planning. 

Steps to Take

As I stated, you need to know who you are trying to reach. Once you know who you are targeting, it is best to know what media your target is most utilizing. Is it Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Linked In, or any of the like? After you do your research on your targets, your story telling can be geared in the best way to compel this audience. Your story should include a process, solve a problem your consumers may face which leads them to need your product or service. A good story conveys the process, presents the problem and solves it in a brief period of time. Consumers are more likely to stay focus and interested in an ad which is not too long to lose their interest. The ad must be long enough to convey all of which you need to do. 

Febreze

In my class, we watched the Febreze commercial about what they call "nose blindness" with a woman who can not smell the cat odor she has in her house anymore because she has gone "nose blind". 

Check out this story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j8CSYoCXkI

http://www.google.com

This funny and brief ad shows the problem consumers have and how Febreze solves it. The ad is not focused on just selling the Febreze pet odor spray but it is focused on solving a problem. People will find this commercial humorous but also question if they have gone "nose blind". 

This is the link to the Forbes article referenced above: http://www.forbes.com/sales-marketing/

People to People

http://desismartgrid.com/

Consumers want to hear from other consumers. With the growth of digital media, there has been a growth of engagement online, including with reviews and recommendations. In my past posts, I have discussed word of mouth and viral marketing and the positive effects of both. I want to elaborate on the key importance of how people listen to friends and family or people they trust. A person is more likely to trust a recommendation or negative review from somebody you know as opposed to the company itself.

Utilizing Online for Feedback

Companies have a huge potential for feedback from monitoring recommendation sites. Many consumers are utilizing sites to share their insight on products. Amazon is a great example of consumers (including myself) who use the rating and review sections on products. Companies need to keep track of these recommendations to make improvements and ensure customers are happy with their services. These reviews are also of great importance to other consumers when deciding to purchase. Typically, people are going to use reviews more often when the product considered requires more knowledge and consideration, making it a higher involvement product.

Rating & Reviews from Amazon.com

Consumers tend to trust what they read about products because those writing the reviews do not have much stake or benefit in the company. Companies can greatly miss out by not offering these review functions on places such as their Facebook pages. Companies may not offer these functions because they do not want negative comments, but there will always be other places for unhappy customers to complain. It is smarter for a company to have control over reviews and being able to respond and help resolve customer concerns. 

Touchpoints

https://www.google.com/

It is always important to reach your consumers, but the question this week is how to know what touch point (s) is the most accurate for the audience you are targeting. In case you do not know, a touchpoint is "any point of contact between buyer and seller". Contact between buyer and seller is critical to reaching and selling. The contact needs to be effective because it plays a large role in marketing your message.

Three Inputs

In Antony Young's book, Brand Media Strategy: Integrated Communications Planning in The Digital Era, he shares there are three important inputs used for touch point selection. These inputs are data, consumer insight, and communication needs. This strategy allows defining what is more important in reaching consumers depending on the product/service and the campaign strategy. All aspects of the three are used in determining effectiveness.  The importance of these inputs is integrating different tactics and seeing which work best for your company. 

https://www.google.com

Coca-Cola

A good example to demonstrate differing touch points can be seen through the Coca-Cola Company, one of the numerous companies out there. Coke used their "Share a Coke" campaign this paast year, hitting with one of their touch points. This company uses all sorts of media, TV, music, social media such as Twitter and Facebook. In case you have not seen this yet, the company placed the most popular names for the given area on the bottle, meaning "share a coke with...". I also found an interesting and creative tactic the company has implemented in London, England. At stores, there is a virtual assistant who is supposed to inform and share with customers who come in the store about the company. This example shows there are always different ways to reach consumers, especially with the constant evolution of technology.

For more on this virtual assistant tactic follow the link below:

http://www.retailtouchpoints.com/features/news-briefs/coca-cola-drives-campaign-awareness-with-tensator-virtual-assistant

Don't Just Sell

Active Consideration

http://www.screensaverspcs.co.uk

Getting consumers to purchase is not always the main focus of a company. Increasing participation and what is called "active consideration" is also an important goal which company's should have. A company does not want to come off as too forceful because this usually just pushes consumers away from the message of the company.  Building involvement is a part of creating active consideration. Companies want to reinforce their brand, and create more interactions from both sides of the equation. Having both active consideration and involvement makes it nice for prompting consumers to research and check out the product or service. 

Digital 

The question is what is a good way to increase both these areas? For many companies, digital online searches are the answer. As Young says in his book Brand Media Strategy: Integrated Communications Planing in The Digital Era, "a brand wants to prompt consumers' consideration and research of  the product, possibly by visiting the website or checking out reviews, articles or comparison sites". Young also describes online search as one of the most powerful media to increase active consideration. This is especially true with the increase in digital screens, meaning consumers can instantly research a product via their smart phones. Consumers can easily leave and read reviews on products when considering to purchase. This also means companies need to have easily accessible information to inform customers. It is important to have employees to maintain the internet aspect of the company. This means creating websites which provide ease of information as well as monitoring reviews and questions customers have. In today's world, everything needs to be convenient or people typically will not bother. A company must recognize this and know how to provide the best to their consumers, which in the long run builds the brand and consumer relationships. 

A Good Kind of Viral

http://www.webbythoughts.com

In chapter 6 of Antony Young's book, Brand Media Strategy: Integrated Communications Planning in the Digital Era, he discusses what he calls "The power of free". This chapter touches on how powerful social media and digital messaging can be for a company. Viral marketing, or word of mouth marketing, is an important part of marketing which if used right, can be a big part of spreading a message. With the digital outlets and advanced technology available today, it is so easy to spread messages through the Internet and social media. It does not matter the size of your company, anyone can send and promote their company or message via social media. The Internet gives an instantaneous access and ability to send your message which ever form it may be in. Viral messages can even be in the form of a video, which is shared usually through Youtube. Young touches on "the Youtube effect" in chapter 6 of his book. 

Ice Bucket Challenge

A really great example of a viral message, which happens to include video is of the Ice Bucket Challenge which really took off this past summer. As you may know, this is where all sorts of people from all over the country would take videos of themselves dumping ice water over their heads. They also gave donations for ALS (what the video was spreading awareness for) and call out their friends to take the challenge. People may say this does nothing but really it must have had some sort of impact seeing how viral it actually went. People all over knew about this challenge and it actually got people to become more aware of ALS. 

http://media1.s-nbcnews.com/

Who Trusts Word of Mouth?

Consumers trust other consumers. A similar aspect of word of mouth outside of sharing videos or promoted messages deals with the positive impact of recommendations. People are more likely to believe what a friend shares with them over what a company may say about itself. I know that I tend to take and trust recommendations from friends or family more. How about you? I think the best way for any company to promote word of mouth marketing among their customers is to simply allow feedback. It is best to allow reviews on pages such as Facebook, this way you can maintain the comments but also allow everyone to see the positive reviews. Overall, using the media to your advantage, especially when including customers, is a great step to success. 

Consumer Insight & Brand Media Planning

Working as a Team

In brand media planning, it is important to ensure media planners and communication planners work together for success. A media planner is reaching the right people at the right time, as I discussed in my "Work out With Your Consumers" post. A communications planner is different, they focus on how to influence people. The two need to work together since both roles are important for successfully reaching consumers in the new ways of marketing.

http://www.govdelivery.com

A New & Improved Way to Connect

 As Antony Young writes in his book Brand Media Strategy: Integrated Communications Planning in the Digital Era, "an important part of influencing is to understand how the group you are trying to connect with thinks, behaves and lives their lives." In the old ways of marketing, statistics and numbers on consumers were of high importance. Now though, you may have all of these numbers but does this allow you to connect to consumers any differently than your competitors? Seeing consumers as individuals is beneficial to establishing a relationship of consumer to company. Young also says "To have insight, the communications planner needs to be the consumer's best friend." 

http://www.adweek.com/

Big Lots! Pets & How They Did It

Big Lots! released a comical but highly relatable ad regarding their stock of pet supplies. Big Lots! took on this idea of knowing how most pet owners interact with pets. How many people do you know who treat their pets as people? In their ad, two improv comedians sat down with animals for a 'focus group' on the Big Lots! pet products. They made the ad funny and connect with how these consumers behave in regards to their own pets. I can tell this company was conscious of what they were portraying. I can assume the Big Lots! marketers took their own experiences and knowledge of people with pets as opposed to just using numbers or stats on consumers. 

Check the ad out here:http://www.biglots.com/d/pets

Quick Thinking is Key

Game Changer

Technology and Social Media have been big "game changers" in the marketing world. As from our course reading,  Brand Media Strategy: Integrated Communications Planning in the Digital Era by Antony Young, Google and Facebook "have reshaped mass communications globally and opened up opportunities for marketers to execute more accountable, influential and multidimensional campaigns". It is important for every company and marketer to realize the change and potentials of technology and social media. 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com

The Need for Speed

With the improvements and expansions of the social network and technology, word gets out to your consumers immediately and even in real time. Companies are able to update their consumers about products and events when they want and for less money too. With this being said, companies need to know how to think on their feet in order to respond to big news and unplanned events which they can use to their advantage.

Nissan

One great and most recent examples of a company using popular and influential news is of Nissan's response to the big Royal baby announcement. As most people know, on Monday, September 8, 2014, the Royal family sent out a tweet announcing the Duke and Dutchess of Cambridge are expecting their second child. Just seven minutes later, Nissan tweeted the first Royal baby ad. This announcement was unexpected and yet Nissan still thought quickly and became the first to use this worldwide news to create an ad. Other companies should follow this example and ensure employees are knowledgeable and quick thinkers. 

For more information about the Nissan Ad, follow the link below.

http://creativity-online.com/work/nissan-royal-baby-ad/37078