As digital technology is continuously progressing over time, it is still important for companies to have both digital media marketing and traditional media marketing. Most importantly companies need to have a strong IMC plan, which integrates all promotional tools, so that they work together in harmony.

Couter and Sarkis discuss the importance of deciding which marketing platform is the best form, such as digital and traditional, for a successful marketing campaign. It is very interesting as both forms have advantages and disadvantages of their own. Creating something like a TV ad could take some time to produce, whereas a social media posts can be done in no time. Companies also need to consider the costs associated between the two methods.

Have you ever heard of Chatime? Im sure you have. There are 3 stores located in Melbourne Central alone. Today, I will discuss their marketing strategy.

Chatime was founded in 2005 in Taiwan and has been so successful they have opened stores all over the world, by effectively using traditional and digital marketing tools to target consumers. Do you think Chatimes success is due to their IMC plan or their drinks are just really good? I personally think that a well thought out IMC plan significantly contributes to success, as good marketing draws consumer’s attention to the brand, which results in them becoming potential customers.

Chatime integrates digital as well as traditional marketing through their social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. On social media they posts about new drinks, competitions and promotions, whereas in store they have traditional posters and sample drinks to draw in customers. Chatimes IMC plan allows them to successfully send the same message across all their social platforms, as well as in-stores, such as the poster advertisements.

      

Brent Barnhart mentions some top tips for having a better social media presence such as:

• Having personality. It is important that brands engage with followers and let consumers know about your brand on a more personal level. Chatime has shown consumers that they are also a company that is not faceless. They often post pictures and videos that are humorous and relatable, which coerces consumers to engage with them.

They also did a competition a while ago offering a year’s worth of free drinks to the winner. The competition blew up and people were tagging their friends, which brought a lot of traffic to their FB page.

• Optimize accounts for engagement. Chatime draws traffic to their social platforms by linking them on different platforms.

 

Angelina Concialdi also discusses why consistency is key.

• It is essential that companies keep everything on social media consistent, in order to clearly define their brand across all channels. It is evident that Chatime is consistent across all their social platforms. When they post about a promotion, they make sure that it is also posted on other platforms. Their logo, theme and colors are also kept the same.

 

Chatime also constantly update their social platforms, and create new content (fun competitions, giveaways, relatable posts), and stay active, which allows consumers to engage with them.

Do you think companies can be successful without an IMC plan? Please comment your thoughts below, I would love to read about it!

Would you be able to survive without a mobile phone for a day? If you feel uncomfortable without your phone, you’re not alone.

Mobile phones have become a necessity for most people in today’s world, and without it people can feel as though they’re literally naked. According to a survey from Bank of America 34% of people said they’d feel naked without it, while 13% said they didn’t think they could last an hour.

With this information it is hard for businesses to ignore the fact that they can use it to better their business. Mobile marketing is now extremely important due to the amount of people who use smart phones, tablets, and smart watches.

Above is an interesting table of Kaplan’s article If you love something, let it go mobile.

• Businesses and firms usually initiate the push communication
• Whereas, the consumer initiates the pull communication.

 

So, how do businesses use mobile marketing to target their sought out customers?

Referring to Kaplan’s article regarding the victim’s category, an example of this would be: Location based marketing.

This includes businesses sending information such as text messages to people when they’re in or near a certain geographic location. It relies on smartphones that allow users to access rich Internet features and GPS. 75% of marketers agree that it is a crucial role for their business, however getting customer permission can be difficult.

 

The stranger’s category in Kaplan’s table refers to mobile advertisements that appear in a mobile app.

This usually occurs when people are using an app, and it can be in the form of a video, picture or game. People are able to click out of it immediately or after a short ad. This can be quite frustrating when you’re using an app and ads keep popping up.

 

The Patrons category involves consumers willingly giving permission and their information to businesses, to contact them. I am a patron myself and find it very useful when I am alerted about flash sales and discount deals, from businesses that I love.

 

Groupies are people who opt to receive information however they do not provide their information to the business, therefore the business send their ads without knowing who is the recipient.

QR codes are an array of black and white squares, used for urls and other information for reading by cameras on a smartphone. E.g. link to a website or promotion by businesses.

Snapchat adopted this feature in 2015, making it easier and quicker for users to add each other. 158m people use Snapchat everyday, and you’re probably one of them. Have you used this feature yet?

However, with all that being said, everything comes with disadvantages.

Disadvantages of Mobile Marketing include:

Diversity of platforms

• Mobile devices come in a vary of shapes and sizes
• Screen sizes are not constant
• All phones come with different operating systems and browsers
• Creating a campaign that is compatible for all devices will be difficult

 

Privacy issues

• Savvy mobile marketers need to understand that users want their privacy
• Businesses need to provide clear instructions for users to opt out of marketing communications that they do not want

Mobile users may feel anxiety due to the transparency of how data is collected, but it is difficult for marketers to discard this procedure, because it increases the accuracy of their targeting. Do you ever worry about how your information could be misused?

 

Overall, I personally think that mobile marketing provides many advantages for businesses. It is evident in the statistics above; that a very large portion of our generation uses these devices, and it is a great way for businesses to target them.

What do you think? Is mobile marketing worth employing?

Please comment your thoughts below for further discussion!

When things go viral now it is a lot different to how it was before we had access to the Internet. News and gossip would have spread most likely through word of mouth or television, and it would have been within a smaller proximity. Now, with just a few clicks of a button, news can spread just overnight to people all over the world.

After reviewing the 6 principles of (Jonah Berger’s, 2013) STEPPS framework, I was able to understand why people share things online, and what influences them to share. I was intrigued, therefore decided to look further into this topic.

 

I came across an interesting video of Kevin Allocca on Ted Talks, as he discusses the three reasons why content becomes viral. He stated that tastemakers, communities of participation and unexpectedness are the reason behind this phenomenon, and how an ordinary person like you or me, could become famous by Saturday.

Tastemakers such as someone with a large following, brings new and interesting content to a larger audience, which results in more exposure for that content. A group of tastemakers or an individual can take a point of view, and share it with a larger audience, which results in accelerating the viral process.

Participation of individuals and groups also contributes to viral content as the more people share, the more viral the content becomes. A reason why people participate may be because they feel included, and apart of the content. The Nyan cat is a great example of participation, as it was just a joke in the beginning, but turned into a viral video, as edited versions of the cat made everyone feel included, therefore more inclined to share.

         

Unexpectedness is another reason why content becomes viral, and could be due to a million reasons. However, due to the fact that content is uploaded to the Internet, every second of the day, creators who make unique content, are able to shine more amongst others.

Viral content can also be applied to businesses to increase sales, traffic to site, and eWOM etc. According to (Ho, 2010), viral marketing typically starts with the marketer creating some form of electronic content such as a video or a mini-site, the aim of which is usually brand building.

The good

Doves campaign for real beauty in 2003 is a good example of viral content. The campaign included six ordinary women of different backgrounds, in their underwear. It was a ground breaking advertisement using ‘real women’ complete with curves, and normal length legs, and within a month sales of the Dove range of firming creams had doubled, it increased sales by 700% (The Guardian, 2004). Relating this example to (Jonah Berger’s, 2012) framework, the principle that may contribute to this is social currency, emotion, public, and stories.

The bad

SeaWorld is an example of a company who has been negatively affected by viral content. A documentary called ‘Blackfish’ by CNN tarnished SeaWorld’s public image, as it revealed their unfair treatment on Orca whales. The company’s stock plummeted 33%, and revenue fell 1.5% to $405.2 million last quarter (Market Watch, 2014). (Jonah Berger’s, 2013) principles for this example could be triggers, emotion, public, and practical value.

Going viral can help an individual and brand in many ways if done right, as it can lead to an increase in exposure and awareness. If done the wrong way, it can cause a lot of harm. However, many people argue that bad publicity is still good publicity, as according to (Stanford Business, 201) it can increase sales when a product or company is relatively unknown, simply because it stimulates product awareness.

Have you ever shared something viral? If you don’t mind me asking, what was your reason behind it?

Feel free to comment below for discussion.

 

Firstly, what is social media? ‘’It is defined as a group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technical foundations of web 2.0, and allows creation and exchange of user generated content’’ (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010, pp. 61).

There are a ton of reasons why people use it, and also why some people avoid it. For myself personally, I think social media is essential in today’s society, and I use it to keep in touch with family and friends as ‘’social media is a communication mechanism and allows users to communicate with thousands, and perhaps billions, of individuals all over the world’’ (Williams et al 2012).

With social media just being so easily accessible, it is used at least more than 5 times a day. Social media is more frequently used by the younger generation, females in particular, and decreases with age (Yellow Social Media Consumer Report 2018).

The seven common themes that were found for why people use social media are (Whiting and Williams 2013):

• Social interaction
• Information seeking
• Pass time
• Entertainment
• Relaxation
• Communicatory utility; and
• Convenience utility

Social media is not only being widely used by individuals, but businesses have also benefitted from the use of social media platforms. Businesses who ‘’successfully make contact with consumers via social media is predicted to show great returns for marketers in the coming years’’ (Okazaki et al 2007) Social media has become so big that businesses are ‘reducing expenditure in print advertising to fund for social media advertising with Facebook being the most common used platform (Yellow Social Media Business Report 2018).

The top 5 most popular and frequently used social media platforms according to (Yellow Social Media Consumer Report 2018) are Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.

 

‘’Why do people not use it?’’

The main reasons why people don’t use social media is simply due to the fact that they don’t have an interest for it, security/privacy reasons and because it is time consuming/lack of time (Yellow Social Media Consumer Report 2018).

Do you use social media?  If not, why? Feel free to discuss below.

 

 

Social media has become one the most effective tools for individuals, as well as businesses of all sizes, to reach their prospected customers. With the availability of popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, it would be a waste not to use these amazing tools, to promote products and services. The Internet is constantly advancing, and will become a huge market for businesses.

 

After analysing the Sensis report, it was obvious that social media has an immense impact, on people and their everyday lives. ‘84% of Australians access it daily, with 35% using it up to five times a day’ (Sensis 2017 pp 6). The report also stated that consumers were mostly interested in discounts (54%), and Giveaways (48%) from brands (Sensis 2017 pp 38). This was very interesting so I decided to find out why that was the case.

According to (Time Business 2013) companies were successful when giving away products because:

• Consumers felt obligated to purchase more due to the reciprocity principle
• Paying more for it later when given for free
• Perceive getting more as superior to a discount
• Consumers talk more about freebies

With this information businesses could incorporate more ‘discounts and giveaways’ into their advertisements and campaigns to boost their exposure and sales.

I came across an interesting video of RyersonU on TED Talks. He states that the most important, and powerful principle for businesses is engagement, which can only be done through social media. It allows businesses to engage with their target audience in a friendly manner, in a very effective way. It is a direct and quicker link to consumers, and more powerful than traditional marketing approaches. He proves that this method works, as he applied it to his own business, and saw great success.

Why is Digital Marketing so successful?

• Reach local target audience, as well as international
• Real time results
• Social media allows businesses to gain consumer insights (Wiley Online Library 2011)

Why is Digital marketing different than Traditional Marketing?

• Engage customers in the online social locations where they naturally spend time (Social Media Marketing 2010)
• Traditional marketing was about delivering a message, whereas digital marketing is about building relationships with target audience (Springer Link 2008)
• Data and results are easily recorded and stored
• Cost effective compared to traditional marketing
• Target younger demographic through social media (Sensis 2017)