International Advertising

International Advertising  

International advertising has been a very fascinating subject to me for years, because of the great amount of traveling I've done in my lifetime. I love going to a new country and seeing the different types of advertisements that companies that advertise in the U.S have in that country. I remember going to Europe as a kid and seeing the toys that were in the happy meals and then going to the Unites States and seeing the difference in toys and meals offered. That's how my fascination with observing different countries advertisement started. 

What exactly is International advertising? As you probably have guessed already, it is advertising for target audiences of a specific country or region. "Advertising differs from country to country in terms of how they perceive or interpret symbols or stimuli, respond to humor or emotional appeals, as well as in levels of literacy and languages spoken (Douglas, and Craig)." 

When companies advertise, they have the decision to either make it a global or regional advertisement.

Global / International Advertising

Global advertising could be seen as a communication process for different cultures that are unique in styles, culture and values. "International advertising is also a major force that both reflects social values, and propagates certain values worldwide (Douglas, and  Craig)." The negative side of global advertising is that many sayings in one language can sound odd or inappropriate in another. An example was when the famous slogan "Got Milk?" of the American Dairy Association went to Mexico and literally translated the slogan to "Are You Lactating?". This is also an example of symbols, a symbol that represents one thing does not represent the same thing in another country. In America the color green is associated with safety and red is associated as cautious and danger. In China on the other hand, Red is associated with happiness, primarily because its used in positive settings such as weddings, and green is associated as danger and cautious. Being aware of these differences in symbols and styles is essential as an effective communication tool (including advertisements).
"A global campaign offers a number of advantages. In the first place, it can be an important means of building a strong and coherent global image for the firm and/or its products worldwide. Use of the same image in different countries builds familiarity and generates synergies across world markets. It allows utilization of good ideas and creative talent (both of which are scarce commodities) on a worldwide basis ( Douglas, and Craig)."

Regional/ Local Advertising 

 Regional and Local advertising is when a company advertises to a targeted group of customers, culture, country, etc..
I believe this form of advertising is more efficient for companies promoting products that could be tailored to the customers liking such as a fad food chain. There are many fast food chains that promote the same products completely differently in other countries or even completely change the product for the country's taste and style. An example of this is McDonald which changes their burgers and meal options to the country's preferences. In India, McDonald does not sell beef, their burgers are mainly vegan with different flavors that would accommodate the customers in India.   

Works Cited 

Douglas, Susan, and Samuel Craig. "International Advertising." Section5.2.Article31 Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://people.stern.nyu.edu/sdouglas/rpubs/intad.html>.

Online Privacy, is there such a thing?

The Internet has brought the world closer together. Now we can feel closer to our friends and relatives that are half way across the world. With Facebook statuses telling us what they're doing, check-ins telling us exactly where they are, Instagram pictures showing us what they're eating and Twitter telling us what they're thinking, the only thing that seems to be missing is an app to taste the food in the picture. In a negative aspect, this information could be shared with the wrong type of people, such as hackers, identity thieves, stalkers, kidnappers and robbers.

Social Media and Privacy

There have been instances that people have lost their jobs, gotten robbed and even lose their Olympic medal because of  online sharing, but were all of these instances preventable? YES they were . A lot of people complain about privacy on the internet (more specifically social media) but never really stop and think that the main source of their information online is coming from none other than themselves. You are in control of certain information that goes online. If you are going to share online, you can do so in a safer way. Facebook has the option to make statuses, albums, etc.. either private or public and your Instagram and Twitter account can be set to private, meaning that anyone who wants to "follow" you must send a request for your approval. Of course there is still the possibility of hackers and thieves getting their hands (or eyes) on your information, but that possibility decreases with stricter privacy setting options.

I personally believe that if you're engaging in online activities, especially social media sites, you should act as if all the information you provide online is there for the world to see. But is there such a thing as social media without sharing? isn't that the whole point of social media? to be more connected with friends and family? There would be no social media if it wasn't for sharing private information, that's the whole point, so does that mean that you can't be actively using a social media site and have privacy at the same time? no I think it means you should be more careful about what you do publish online. If you've put it online, it will be online forever, published and written in stone, even if you delete it, its perpetually in cyberworld. Here are some tips on being active online while protecting your online reputation and privacy  from Princeton University:

1	Remember, what you post online becomes public information—it is no longer under your control.
2	Be strategic about what you share with the world—consider the long term.
3	Think before you post—today’s rant, practical joke, or flame may come back to haunt you.
4	Think before you pose—your private video, photo or Snapchat may go public.
5	Regularly review your contacts, circles, friends and followers—they may not be your BFFs.
6	Understand your privacy settings and terms of service—service providers often change them.
7	Monitor your name online—Google yourself and set alerts to avoid surprises.
8	Protect your online reputation and create your personal brand—your future will thank you.

Our government and online privacy

In 2012, the government attempted to regulate online privacy issues. Lawmakers and global stakeholders all attempted to place policies regulating the Internet .
In January of 2012, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), were presented to congress and everyone seemed to freak out. The bills were created to regulate copyright infringement online, but the bill was so broad, it would've gave the government too much control on internet censoring. States on the other hand are trying to do what the government couldn't do.
Ibelieve that there should be some sort of government or state intervention when it comes to online privacy, because the fourth amendment does not apply to the virtual world. Even the government doesn't seem to be giving us enough privacy online. In the non-virtual world, the government does not have the right to search or seize papers from your house without a warrant, but they are able and allowed to read any information you've stored in the Internet "cloud".

The Internet is getting more and more complicated by the second and privacy issues are just going to get as complicated. Hopefully, the government could add online privacy to our fourth amendment rights.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." Fourth Amendment, U.S. Constitution 

 Articles to tickle your brain

 "Managing Your Online Reputation: Great 8." (2013)  Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <http://www.princeton.edu/dataprivacy/top-10-privacy-tips/>.

Sullivan, Bob. "Online Privacy fears are real ." NBC News . (2013) Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3078835/#.UnXZIhDjWHg> 

Miyazaki, A. (2013). “Is ‘Online Privacy’ the Ultimate Oxymoron?” E-Marketing for Sensible Folk <http://www.sensibleemarketing.com/2013/10/is-online-privacy-ultimate-oxymoron.html> 

Magid, Larry . "What Are SOPA and PIPA And Why All The Fuss?." Forbes . 18 01 2012  Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/2012/01/18/what-are-sopa-and-pipa-and-why-all-the-fuss/>

Walton, Zach . "Can States Do A Better Job Of Protecting Online Privacy?." WebProNews. 07 03 2013 Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <http://www.webpronews.com/can-states-do-a-better-job-of-protecting-online-privacy-2013-03>.

From Popular to Irrelevant

To Evolve is to stay Relevant

  Myspace was founded in 2003 and was one of the top visited sites in the world, and at a point in 2006, their site views actually surpassed Google's. They had 100Million users in 2006 and was valued at over 10Billion dollars. So what exactly happened to Myspace? with such amazing statistics in 2006, what could have possibly gone wrong?

In the year of 2006 I was a freshmen in high school, my life consisted of school, friends and Myspace. Now seven years later, I don't even remember my password, or even the email I used for my account. How does this website that consumed my life be so irrelevant to me right now? well, I (and everyone else) outgrew Myspace. I believe that Myspace lost their users because of their lack of innovation. Myspace constantly stayed the same. They rarely updated their designs, look, and features, which are all of the necessary things to keep a social network exciting and most important current. After their dramatic downfall, Myspace has tried to reinvent themselves from social networking site to entertainment networking site. Their site is now focused on the music/entertainment industry, where professional and amateur artists can showcase their talent. This 'reinvention' did not help Myspace get back in the competition, take a look at their stats on Alexa:

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 Unlike Myspace, facebook is evolving and is staying as up-to-date as possible with the fast changing technological devices. They even came out with a phone! (It was a major FLOP but hey I give them credit for thinking outside the box)  I believe that Facebook is taking a smarter approach than Myspace did. Facebook is constantly finding new ways to stay relevant to what's going on in the internet world. When "apps" came out for smart phones and tablets, Facebook created an app for profiles and for messaging, when skype usage became more popular, they integrated skype video calls allowing users to make skype calls on facebook, and also integrated the use of hasthags ( originally from twitter). Besides staying up-to-date with technological devices, Facebook has also broadened their audience from college students, to young kids and adults. They started out as a college social network, where only college students who had a valid university email address were able to use the site, and now anyone, and a great percentage of the population of the world, uses it.

Maybe there will come a time when Facebook will go through a downfall (I honestly think it's inevitable with the fast changing social and electronic world), but I don't think that it will happen within the next five years. Facebook has become a part of a lot of peoples' lives, and even though I don't use it as much as I used to, I still find myself going back to it at least twice a week to check on friends and family from around the world.

  “Look around you. Everything changes. Everything on this earth is in a continuous state of evolving, refining, improving, adapting, enhancing…changing. You were not put on this earth to remain stagnant.”
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

This blog is in response to Anthony Miyazaki's blog "Will Twitter, LinkedIn, and Tumblr Really Matter Five Years from Now?"

Sources: 

Western Journalism, . "There’s no more room: the decline of MySpace." Web. <http://westernjournalism.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/theres-no-more-room-the-decline-of-myspace/>.

 Web. <http://www.internetworldstats.com/facebook.htm >.

 

E-Marketing and the Buying Decision Process

 E-Marketing Influence on the buying process 

 

The use of social media has altered the buying process and has given customers many different outlets to research goods. 

Before the Internet and social media exploded, the buying process was simpler and more straight forward. Businesses would advertise and reach their customers by TV commercials, newspapers, radios or magazines. Now that social media is pretty much a part of everyone's daily lives, it has changed the way people buy products. Choices are broader and feedback is greater. 

Feedback:

Whether you are buying a product or looking for a service, social media has made it easier for customers to buy smarter and more efficient. With websites (and apps) such as Yelp and Facebook, and product reviews on websites or even videos on YouTube, customers now have many opinions and recommendations from experts, friends and customers from around the world.  Customers can also compare prices and products easier with the help of apps such as AmazonPriceCheck or RedLaser, where you can scan a product's barcode and see reviews, ratings and cheaper prices offered in different locations.

 

How E-Marketing has affected my buying process: 

When I explore new restaurants (Which I love doing) I almost always look at reviews on Yelp to see what previous customers' experiences were and what recommendations they have when it comes to price, food quality and experience.  I have discovered many amazing private restaurants that I would most likely have never known of, or considered experiencing if it wasn't for online reviews. 

Another example would be YouTube reviews on products such as electronics. Since the iPhone 5S recently came out, I wanted to see the comparisons between the iPhone 5 and the new iPhone 5s. I went to YouTube to look at reviews (and parodies) on the new phone and confirmed my decision on not buying the new phone. (It's pretty much the same phone in my opinion). 

The buying process:

Ex: 

1. Customers become aware of something they need, want or a problem they would like to solve. 

• Taking public transportation is a hassle, I need/ want my own car.  

2. Research-  Learning how to satisfy their need, solve their problems and look for potential alternatives. 

• Get advice and suggestions from friends on what type of car to buy.
• Research alternatives to buying a car (bicycle, car pooling or taxi).
• Looking online for car reviews and car quotes.
• Alternative evaluation: Compare products, choices and options.

3. Make a decision- Narrow down choices/ make a decision. 

• Decide to buy a car.
• Narrow down car dealers to visit/ potentially purchase from.
• Wisely pick a car after much advice, research and consideration.  

How social media marketing influenced consumer choice: 

Instead of making it easier to narrow down choices, choices are constantly being revised and expanded. Social media information are constantly altering our decision process because we are constantly hearing new opinions and facts on the product/ service. 

 At least one step in the buying process is done through some sort of app or online source. 

According to a Google research on holiday shopping,

• 51% of customers visited the store and purchased at the store

• 45% researched online, then purchased online

• 35% researched online, then went to a store to purchase

• 21% researched online, checked out products in the store, then went

          back online to purchase

• and 14% visited the store first, then purchased the products online.

 

 

 

Sources 

Chandra, Steele The 10 Best Shopping Apps to Compare Prices PCMag.com November2012, http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/290959/the-10-best-shopping-apps-to-compare-prices


David Court, Dave Elzinga, Susan Mulder, and Ole Jørgen Vetvik June 2009 , http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/the_consumer_decision_journey
 
Google/OTX U.S.,February 2011, http://www.gstatic.com/ads/research/en/2011_Google_Post_Holiday.pdf
 

Interactive Marketing- Why businesses should take advantage of social media outlets

 Interactive Marketing

Interactive marketing attracts and engages customers, gathers data, keeps customers coming back and makes the relationship between business and customers more personal.
What is interactive marketing? Exactly what it implies. It is the interactivity between companies and their customers. Unlike traditional marketing that just places ads on TVs, radios and print, interactive marketing reaches its current customers and potential customers through social media websites such as Facebook, twitter and even the new social media Instagram. Through interactive marketing, companies can enhance their service or product delivery, engage customers to become advocates for their company/ brand and help customers and businesses interact with each other unlike traditional marketing outlets.

 PROS

 Engage and Interact

In this social media generation, it is crucial for a business to be actively involved in social media and to keep customers interested and engaged. According to Remi Carlioz, senior head of digital at puma, he states that "It is undoubtedly necessary to find and engage with this demographic where they digitally reside, rather than relentlessly, always trying to usher them back to a brand’s owned platform. Brands are too self-centered and must boldly act on the desire that the consumer possesses the desire to transparently experience and interact with a brand online." Examples of ways that businesses have been doing this are through Quick Response codes (commonly known as QR codes) that give customers options to scan a code on their smart devices to receive discounts and/ or special messages from the company. In 2011, Nike launched a campaign in Austria, Germany and Switzerland to promote their "Vapor Flash" jacket, a completely reflective running jacket. They named the campaign "catch the flash" where they had 50 Nike runners "The Flash Runners" with the numbers 1through50 on the back of their jackets running around a town for 90mins. The task was for Nike customers and enthusiasts to take a picture of as many runners wearing the Vapor Flash jackets. The winner of the Flash campaign received a ten thousand Euro platinum bar. Nike benefited from this campaign by receiving an immense amount of  publicity on hundreds of blogs, news stations and social media websites. The $350 jacket (yes that's $350 dollars for a running jacket) completely sold out within hours of being available for purchase.


Customer Service: Here are some facts I found on why customer service in social media is crucial to keeping customers happy, coming back and engaged in your brand/company.

Crisis Communication- Listen, Engage and Respond

Through social media, companies could better handle crisis response to their customers quicker than before.This is a positive thing for the company because it gives them an easier and faster way on clarifying issues, complaints or company crisis.

  
CONS

Consumer interactivity is not always a love affair between costumers and businesses. When customers experience a bad service or product from a company, they are now most likely going to complain on the company's social website for the whole world to see. Customers are now publicly airing out company's dirty laundry, and we all know bad news usually gains more momentum quicker than good news. A great example of customers' public complaints is one of a carribean airline named LIAT. LIAT is an airline that many Americans, unless traveling in the carribean, might have never heard of. This summer, a customer who experienced horrible service from the airline, published their sarcastic complaint letter in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) newspaper. The letter went viral to millions within a month and a half when Richard Branson, the king and founder of Virgin Airlines, found the letter hilarious and posted it on his blog of 3million followers. The letter was definitely not good publicity for LIAT, comments on the blog ridiculed the airline, dissecting every negative aspect of the airline. Some customers ridiculed the company's name saying that LIAT stood for "Leave Island Anytime" or "Luggage In Another Terminal". So what can businesses do to turn this negative into a positive? Understand what they're doing wrong, what their customers are expecting and change their business for the better. Any feedback should be seen as good feedback.                 

Another Negative aspect of interactivity is that it is harder to reach out to all of your customers. Many, if not the majority, of comments on social websites get replied by companies leading customers to a FAQ page or getting a computer generated response. The sense of having a personal relationship with the company could get lost. Although free, interactive marketing on social medias take a lot of time and dedication to maintain a strong audience (Time is Money!).


With the amount of users social media draws in from around the world, all businesses should become more involved in social media outlets to engage customers, have a better company image and to help their business thrive. With 850million active facebook users, 175million daily tweets and the billions of Google users its only smart for a company to become involved in the social media scene.

What other outlets, besides the ones I've mentioned, do you guys think businesses should utilize in interactive marketing?

 

Jessica Decatrel

Interesting articles, videos and facts that will tickle your brain:
 Branson, Richard (2013), "How to Write a Complaint Letter", Virgin (June 10), https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/how-to-write-a-complaint-letter

Grenoble, Ryan (2013), "LIAT, Caribbean Airline, Receives Hilarious Complaint Letter From Passenger Arthur Hicks", Huffington Post (July 1), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/01/liat-complaint-letter-arthur-hicks-branson_n_3529385.html

Honigman, Brian (2012), "100 Fascinating Social Media Statistics and Figures From 2012", Huffington Post (November 29), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-honigman/100-fascinating-social-me_b_2185281.html

Schnitzer, Erika (2012), "The Modern Brand’s Biggest Challenges", Digiday (August 13), http://digiday.com/brands/the-modern-brands-biggest-challenges/

 Vong,Katherine (2012), "3 Key Advantages of Interactive Marketing Campaigns", TrendReports (August 27), http://www.trendreports.com/article/interactive-marketing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g98nDUg7yxU
http://blog.getambassador.com/social-customer-service-infographic/