We learned in the special lecture class that video game commercials show little to no game play at all. This happens more often when sequels are being released. It is hard to show actual game play or any other new features the new game brings in a short 30 second commercial. However I believe the commercials are like this because the games will speak for themselves. The following commercial is for Starcraft 2 but was only aired in Korea. Starcraft is huge in Korea, they have television channels dedicated for this video game and professional gamers are super stars there. Professional Starcraft players in Korea are similar to professional basketball players in North America in star power and money receive from sponsorships. The following commercial would make absolutely no sense to the majority of the population in North America but in Korea the people would understand it’s a commercial for Starcraft by the first ‘Yes’ in the video. The only voice used in the video is from the actual game itself and the commercial is showing a very big part of Starcraft game play. Dark Templar harassment done in real life but just as annoying in game. (Dark Templar harassment is when a stealth unit named Dark Templar’s kills your army or workers when you have no detection, very annoying.)
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010)
The marketing campaign behind the newest installment in the Need for Speed franchise, featuring a new and improved version of Hot Pursuit, features two characters from the Entourage HBO series. The commercial follows the current trend of video game advertising by showing minimal footage and leaving the consumer thinking, but not particularly about the graphics or game play. As opposed to the current trends, the Need for Speed commercial focuses on a niche demographic within the gaming industry. This commercial features Jerry Ferrara and Kevin Dillon, but depicting them as their popular Entourage characters Turtle and Johnny “Drama” Chase, respectively. So the target viewer of the commercial would first have to be interested in video games, second racing game, and the third, draws on fans of Entourage. Although the commercial depicts popular characters, the dialogue is entertaining and funny regardless of that fact. The commercial does give a taste of the game play at the very end, only for a short time. Similar genre games in the industry like Gran Turismo, used a humorous commercial approach as well; rather Forza would lean towards game play and graphics as a selling point.
In the trailer debut of Cataclysm, Blizzard decided to advertise the game differently from when they first premiered their original World of Warcraft. Blizzard did this because they were trying to get the attention of more potential players. For the third expansion’s trailer, with WoW already having a huge fan base they didn’t need to show the game play of the game. Instead, they had the trailer show Deathwing the Destroyer, being released and causing a massive worldwide catastrophe. How they try to get players attention is by introducing the new races of Worgen for the Alliance and Goblin for the Horde.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
TWELVE DAYS OF EXAM-CRAM
OK, on the countdown to exams and Christmas, the Great Growling Tropical Tigers have decided to take a detour for our final post. So, here’s a little jingle for you:
On the first day of exam cram,
My true love sent to me
A basket full of games for my new wii
On the second day of exam cram,
My true love sent to me
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
On the third day of exam cram,
My true love sent to me
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
On the fourth day of exam cram,My true love sent to me
Four movie tickets
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
On the fifth day of exam cram,My true love sent to me
Five Pots of Gold (chocolate)
Four movie tickets
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
On the sixth day of exam cram,
My true love sent to me
Six bouts of panic
Five Pots of Gold (chocolate)
Four movie tickets
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
On the seventh day of exam cram,My true love sent to me
Seven stressful study sessions
Six bouts of panic
Five Pots of Gold (chocolate)
Four movie tickets
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
On the first day of exam cram,
My true love sent to me
A basket full of games for my new wii
On the second day of exam cram,
My true love sent to me
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
On the third day of exam cram,
My true love sent to me
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
On the fourth day of exam cram,My true love sent to me
Four movie tickets
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
On the fifth day of exam cram,My true love sent to me
Five Pots of Gold (chocolate)
Four movie tickets
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
On the sixth day of exam cram,
My true love sent to me
Six bouts of panic
Five Pots of Gold (chocolate)
Four movie tickets
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
On the seventh day of exam cram,My true love sent to me
Seven stressful study sessions
Six bouts of panic
Five Pots of Gold (chocolate)
Four movie tickets
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
On the eighth day of exam cram,My true love sent to me
Eight hours of tutoring
Seven stressful study sessions
Six bouts of panic
Five Pots of Gold (chocolate)
Four movie tickets
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
On the ninth day of exam cram,My true love sent to me
Nine mental breakdowns
Eight hours of tutoring
Seven stressful study sessions
Six bouts of panic
Five Pots of Gold (chocolate)
Four movie tickets
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
Eight hours of tutoring
Seven stressful study sessions
Six bouts of panic
Five Pots of Gold (chocolate)
Four movie tickets
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
On the ninth day of exam cram,My true love sent to me
Nine mental breakdowns
Eight hours of tutoring
Seven stressful study sessions
Six bouts of panic
Five Pots of Gold (chocolate)
Four movie tickets
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
On the tenth day of exam cram,My true love sent to me
Ten pounds a-gaining
Nine mental breakdowns
Eight hours of tutoring
Seven stressful study sessions
Six bouts of panic
Five Pots of Gold (chocolate)
Four movie tickets
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
On the eleventh day of exam cram,My true love sent to me
Eleven tissue boxes (cough/sneeze/boohoo)
Ten pounds a-gaining
Nine mental breakdowns
Eight hours of tutoring
Seven stressful study sessions
Six bouts of panic
Five Pots of Gold (chocolate)
Four movie tickets
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
Ten pounds a-gaining
Nine mental breakdowns
Eight hours of tutoring
Seven stressful study sessions
Six bouts of panic
Five Pots of Gold (chocolate)
Four movie tickets
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
On the eleventh day of exam cram,My true love sent to me
Eleven tissue boxes (cough/sneeze/boohoo)
Ten pounds a-gaining
Nine mental breakdowns
Eight hours of tutoring
Seven stressful study sessions
Six bouts of panic
Five Pots of Gold (chocolate)
Four movie tickets
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
On the twelfth day of exam cram,My true love sent to me
Twelve ibuprophen
Eleven tissue boxes (cough/sneeze/boohoo)
Ten pounds a-gaining
Nine mental breakdowns
Eight hours of tutoring
Seven stressful study sessions
Six bouts of panic
Five Pots of Gold (chocolate)
Four movie tickets
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
Twelve ibuprophen
Eleven tissue boxes (cough/sneeze/boohoo)
Ten pounds a-gaining
Nine mental breakdowns
Eight hours of tutoring
Seven stressful study sessions
Six bouts of panic
Five Pots of Gold (chocolate)
Four movie tickets
Three Thirsty Moose Beers
Two tickets to the Timberwolves
And a basket full of games for my new wii
Good Luck and Happy Holidays from the Tropical Tigers!!
That's All Folks!
The Minty Moose encourages future students to raise their concerns. If you don’t ask you won’t know the answer. Our experience in Comm 346 has been very enjoyable, yet informative and we have been able to apply knowledge learned to our daily lives. We strongly recommend the class to anyone interested in current business practices, as the internet continues to become more of an integral part of everyday life.
Keep your head up and your stick on the ice! – Jeff, Peter, Josh, Alexander
UNBC Commerce....whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?
The Question?
What is missing from the Commerce program at UNBC?
Currently, UNBC offers the very general areas of specifications (sounds like an oxymoron) for the undergraduate Commerce program. For those that are not familiar with it, here they are:
It is realized that incorporating these certified designations in a BComm is close or is impossible. But, what about specializations such as transportation and logistics, or real estate. Some might say real estate is so closely related to finance, that it can be considered the same degree. However, at UNBC, what differentiates a marketing degree from a finance degree? Five courses, given that one degree is already completed. Don't believe me? Here's enlightenment. So even if there's a specialization of a specialization, the Monkey Chicklets think that's just the thing to do.
Adding more onto the real estate part, what extra courses might be needed? Also, one thing that needs to be added in, is that the foundations are all completed in the first and second year (following program requirements); therefore, all specialization occurs in the latter part of the degree. So, the extra courses might be about the following:
Transportation and logistics: "The flow of goods, information and money throughout an organization. It encompasses aspects of Finance, Marketing, and Accounting while giving you a broad picture of companies’ operations. You will learn about the efficiency and effectiveness of various transportation alternatives, warehousing and distribution, supply chain management and performance and inventory measurement techniques." This is taken from the UBC's website, but at UNBC, we are only briefly introduced to logistics in Comm 251 and Comm 350.
This is just something to think about. Taking information from other universities, York offers 16 BComm degrees, UoA offers an exceptional 17 BComm degrees, and Guelph has 9. All of these universities offer the six programs that UNBC offers; the difference is the specialization of specialization degrees (retailing, tourism, hotel related). With all this said, although we realize that it might be difficult for UNBC to gather the necessary resources, UNBC should push for higher specializations in their programs.
What is one business CLASS missing from the BComm program at UNBC?
Business Writing. How many times have different teachers demanded different formatting, or just didn't demand any formatting at all. UNBC needs a format that's constant within the business program. MLA style, Chicago style, New York Style, Toronto Style.....blaaaah. We made up the last two styles, but who knows. We have all felt the annoyance, and frustration at term papers. Losing 10% or more for a simple formatting mistake because your previous teacher told you one thing, but the current teacher wanted another.
What is missing from the Commerce program at UNBC?
Currently, UNBC offers the very general areas of specifications (sounds like an oxymoron) for the undergraduate Commerce program. For those that are not familiar with it, here they are:
- Accounting
- Finance
- General Business
- Human Resources
- International Business
- Marketing
It is realized that incorporating these certified designations in a BComm is close or is impossible. But, what about specializations such as transportation and logistics, or real estate. Some might say real estate is so closely related to finance, that it can be considered the same degree. However, at UNBC, what differentiates a marketing degree from a finance degree? Five courses, given that one degree is already completed. Don't believe me? Here's enlightenment. So even if there's a specialization of a specialization, the Monkey Chicklets think that's just the thing to do.
Adding more onto the real estate part, what extra courses might be needed? Also, one thing that needs to be added in, is that the foundations are all completed in the first and second year (following program requirements); therefore, all specialization occurs in the latter part of the degree. So, the extra courses might be about the following:
- Urban Land Economics
- Real Estate Investment
Transportation and logistics: "The flow of goods, information and money throughout an organization. It encompasses aspects of Finance, Marketing, and Accounting while giving you a broad picture of companies’ operations. You will learn about the efficiency and effectiveness of various transportation alternatives, warehousing and distribution, supply chain management and performance and inventory measurement techniques." This is taken from the UBC's website, but at UNBC, we are only briefly introduced to logistics in Comm 251 and Comm 350.
This is just something to think about. Taking information from other universities, York offers 16 BComm degrees, UoA offers an exceptional 17 BComm degrees, and Guelph has 9. All of these universities offer the six programs that UNBC offers; the difference is the specialization of specialization degrees (retailing, tourism, hotel related). With all this said, although we realize that it might be difficult for UNBC to gather the necessary resources, UNBC should push for higher specializations in their programs.
What is one business CLASS missing from the BComm program at UNBC?
Business Writing. How many times have different teachers demanded different formatting, or just didn't demand any formatting at all. UNBC needs a format that's constant within the business program. MLA style, Chicago style, New York Style, Toronto Style.....blaaaah. We made up the last two styles, but who knows. We have all felt the annoyance, and frustration at term papers. Losing 10% or more for a simple formatting mistake because your previous teacher told you one thing, but the current teacher wanted another.
Internet Marketing vs Traditional Marketing
As we finish our last class of Comm 346 we would like make a comparison between tradition marketing and internet marketing. One of the biggest things we take away from this course is the power of internet marketing. Traditional marketing practices involve investment in several different mediums (Tv, magazine, radio.. etc) without really knowing which medium is producing a return on your investment. However, with internet marketing it is a lot easier to pinpoint exactly what is working and generating revenue and what is not. Through tools like Google analytics the internet marketer can find out marketing effectiveness and insights into website traffic. This allows internet marketers to target specific markets and understand their market better. Dan from PG listings showed us this with a real life example of his business.
With traditional marketing, the place aspect is very important and often a hurdle. For example with traditional marketing mediums if you were to purchase a billboard in Vancouver the only people who would receive the message are those in Vancouver, passing by that billboard. With internet marketing, creating a website or an advertisement allows for anyone around the world to view your advertisement. The internet is a universal platform, goods can be sold to several markets instead of being geographically confined. A drawback of this is the competition is much more fierce and the internet marketer must be on their toes, ready to adapt to the ever changing environment.
With internet marketing, price is much more relevant. Consumers have access to all competitors prices and are able to easily and quickly evaluate the product. Traditionally brick and mortar companies could rely on geographic location to attract customers but on the internet this isn’t the case, making price much more important. Essentially, what the internet does is create a much more efficient marketplace by removing several obstacles such as geographic location and customer uncertainty. Customer uncertainty is greatly lowered by online communities and the wealth of customer reviews and information. The drawback of this is the company has a lot less room for error as any slip up will spread extremely fast.
With traditional marketing, the place aspect is very important and often a hurdle. For example with traditional marketing mediums if you were to purchase a billboard in Vancouver the only people who would receive the message are those in Vancouver, passing by that billboard. With internet marketing, creating a website or an advertisement allows for anyone around the world to view your advertisement. The internet is a universal platform, goods can be sold to several markets instead of being geographically confined. A drawback of this is the competition is much more fierce and the internet marketer must be on their toes, ready to adapt to the ever changing environment.
With internet marketing, price is much more relevant. Consumers have access to all competitors prices and are able to easily and quickly evaluate the product. Traditionally brick and mortar companies could rely on geographic location to attract customers but on the internet this isn’t the case, making price much more important. Essentially, what the internet does is create a much more efficient marketplace by removing several obstacles such as geographic location and customer uncertainty. Customer uncertainty is greatly lowered by online communities and the wealth of customer reviews and information. The drawback of this is the company has a lot less room for error as any slip up will spread extremely fast.
Throughout this course we have really learned the power of internet marketing. Not only is it benefital for online business but also for businesses in general. We highly recommend this course for future commerce students.
Final Exam preview
Given that students will be able to consult the text, but not do other research, the complexity of questions is going to be scaled back. The final is intended to be less intense than the midterm and take less time. Students will still be given a choice between multiple questions to answer, and they will look something like this:
Your company is releasing a major new product. Explain how you would promote it with A) an email campaign or B) an ARG. Explain why your choice would be suitable. To the product.
ARG? What? Don't panic, I'll be covering it in the lecture today.
Now, you can answer option A (email) or B (ARG), or both, and have both answers count toward your total answers.
Your company is releasing a major new product. Explain how you would promote it with A) an email campaign or B) an ARG. Explain why your choice would be suitable. To the product.
ARG? What? Don't panic, I'll be covering it in the lecture today.
Now, you can answer option A (email) or B (ARG), or both, and have both answers count toward your total answers.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Class Content: Study material... Bazinga!
As stated in the textbook an iBrand is “an individual's Internet personal connections with its own positioning and brand equity”. iBranding is a new innovative tool that enables the customer to create a connection both online and offline. (Reinventing Interactive and Direct Marketing)
p. 179
"One way to help consumers build their iBrands as producers is to give them the right raw materials. Just as manufacturers need a supply chain, consumer iBrands require raw materials to spark the motivation to create."
Just as a manufacturing company relies on raw materials to create and distribute products to customers; iBranding is analogous in that customers need to be equipped with the necessary tools (raw materials) to produce products that are their own. These tools are located online where a unique product that displays individuality can be created.
A popular example of this would be the website used by Nike, called NIKEiD. This website allows customers to customize shoes in a creative and fashionable way. A wide range of products are available with multiple colour choices for all panels of the shoe, and to truly create a unique shoe it is possible to add characters and writing on select spots of the shoe.
Another example would be the ability to customize desktop and laptop computers online and purchase them directly on the site to be shipped to your home. Dell is a leader in this market and has also expanded with the acquisition of Alienware. Alienware is popular for its sleek design and high performance capabilities. They have extended the customization from the internal components to the colour of the keyboard lights or the case lights.
iBranding is a shift from the conventional paradigm of creating a product, and advertising it to a particular market; to giving consumers to the option to design a completely unique product to purchase from that company.
p.181
"Others will attempt to contribute to the ongoing digital conversation - only to become the victim of their heritage of poor service as Web 2.0 consumers build their iBrands by tearing down those products and service companies that disappoint."
The combination of E-commerce and Web 2.0 has developed a new form of internet marketing and the development of the online conversation. The Web 2.0 consumers are those who contribute to online forums by leaving comments, posting YouTube videos reviewing products, Facebook pages, general discussion boards reviewing products, and many more. Consumers with numbers can be a loud voice for or against particular iBrands.
Online services provided by companies, in attempt to create an iBrand, run the risk of immediate criticism by the common web surfer. Consumers who are not instantly thrilled, will take advantage of being behind a computer screen in the comfort of their home to write about their experiences online for others to views.
It is those that surpass the the expectations that survive to develop an iBrand, those such as customizable clothing (NIKEiD) and computer (Dell) websites.
p. 181
"There is a big social media payoff in today's Internet dependent world: Offline experiences have become a gold mine of raw material that consumers draw upon in producing online content that adds value to their iBrand equity and, at the same time, to our own."
If a business has great costumer service or great products, this can lead to consumers to add value to the brand online. Information travels fast on the internet, when a consumer were to say how great or bad their experience was online thousands of people will read this. Its consumers sharing their experience and if they are good chances are others will try it.
p. 185
"The 'friendships' with iBrands you want to develop are not as numerous as you might think. Even if you have a large, loyal online community following your brand, you may not have many at all who are actually dedicated consumer iBrands."
The relationship with consumers and the brand follows under a 90-9-1 principle. If you have a million people following your brand 90 percent of them are lurkers who just observe and don’t contribute to the brand. 9 percent are editors who modify or add content but rarely create them. 1 percent of users are creators who are responsible for create new content, these are the dedicated consumers.
p. 188
"[Marketing agencies] must develop programs that maximize how the client's entire enterprise contributes to the value and growth of its consumers' iBrand equity."
In particular, what does "consumers' iBrand equity" refer to?
p. 188
"[Marketing agencies] must develop programs that maximize how the client's entire enterprise contributes to the value and growth of its consumers' iBrand equity."
In particular, what does "consumers' iBrand equity" refer to?
Consumers iBrand equity refers to the measurement of existing loyal customers that are influencing new consumers to join the market sphere of the company. how this is done is usually
through word-of-mouth advertising. the brand equity can be measured through impact on sales, transaction count, new orders, product movement, retail traffic etc.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
The Results Are In!
We are pleased to announce that the results are in. Thank you to all who participated in our survey and answered honestly without bias. We were very pleased to see that our sample size was 46. We would like to share these results with you all. Please click here to view the poll results. The password is terry (thanks Kelly).
We would really appreciate your analysis on these results. We would like to share our final conclusion including our own analysis next week! \
Tropical Tigers are on the prowl for UNBC Alumni
The Tropical Tigers are on the prowl to find out why it is important to become a member of the UNBC Alumni Association when you graduate. We’ve spent some time with two UNBC Alumni Association members to get the ‘dirt’ on what they do, and why UNBC graduates need to consider them a valuable resource.
So, the Alumni Association is responsible for alumni relations, and their goal is to provide services to alumni for connectivity, relationship building and staying connected with UNBC. And, let’s be realistic – there may be some potential fundraising kick-back’s in the future. They provide monthly speaker series where you can attend and hear from past graduates on various topics. They have a homecoming event every year that offers fun for days; which, this past year included a tapas and jazz night, golf tournament, alumni basketball game and pub night. They also host a family Christmas party.
They offer discounted rates if you want to be a member of the Northern Sports Center, and a ‘special package’ for anyone who likes to attend the Timberwolves sporting events. Lifelong email, inter-library loans and access to the career center to post & access jobs. A University Degree can become more valuable the more you connect with the powerhouses of the community. They even have Chapters outside of Prince George. That provides alumni from out of town an opportunity to become a UNBC Ambassador. What does that mean? When UNBC is ‘coming to town’ or hosting an event of any kind, you get to assist them with promotion and participate as an Alumni and Ambassador. Talk about connections!
But don’t worry, they aren’t going to spam you every five minutes – it’s not in their mandate. The information is relevant and they offer lots of opportunities to get out and do something worthwhile. Prowl around on their website at www.unbc.ca/alumni/.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Become an active member of the UNBC Alumni Association when you graduate!
So, the Alumni Association is responsible for alumni relations, and their goal is to provide services to alumni for connectivity, relationship building and staying connected with UNBC. And, let’s be realistic – there may be some potential fundraising kick-back’s in the future. They provide monthly speaker series where you can attend and hear from past graduates on various topics. They have a homecoming event every year that offers fun for days; which, this past year included a tapas and jazz night, golf tournament, alumni basketball game and pub night. They also host a family Christmas party.
They offer discounted rates if you want to be a member of the Northern Sports Center, and a ‘special package’ for anyone who likes to attend the Timberwolves sporting events. Lifelong email, inter-library loans and access to the career center to post & access jobs. A University Degree can become more valuable the more you connect with the powerhouses of the community. They even have Chapters outside of Prince George. That provides alumni from out of town an opportunity to become a UNBC Ambassador. What does that mean? When UNBC is ‘coming to town’ or hosting an event of any kind, you get to assist them with promotion and participate as an Alumni and Ambassador. Talk about connections!
But don’t worry, they aren’t going to spam you every five minutes – it’s not in their mandate. The information is relevant and they offer lots of opportunities to get out and do something worthwhile. Prowl around on their website at www.unbc.ca/alumni/.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Become an active member of the UNBC Alumni Association when you graduate!
Notes on Chapter 12
For today's "course content" contribution, I'm asking team Cinnamon Goose to look at chapter 12: "iBrands: The New Face of the Consumer."
Here are some notable passages:
p. 179
"One way to help consumers build their iBrands as producers is to give them the right raw materials. Just as manufacturers need a supply chain, consumer iBrands require raw materials to spark the motivation to create."
p. 181
"There is a big social media payoff in today's Internet dependent world: Offline experiences have become a gold mine of raw material that consumers draw upon in producing online content that adds value to their iBrand equity and, at the same time, to our own."
p.181
"Others will attempt to contribute to the ongoing digital conversation - only to become the victim of their heritage of poor service as Web 2.0 consumers build their iBrands by tearing down those products and service companies that disappoint."
p. 185
"The 'friendships' with iBrands you want to develop are not as numerous as you might think. Even if you have a large, loyal online community following your brand, you may not have many at all who are actually dedicated consumer iBrands."
p. 188
"[Marketing agencies] must develop programs that maximize how the client's entire enterprise contributes to the value and growth of its consumers' iBrand equity."
In particular, what does "consumers' iBrand equity" refer to?
Here are some notable passages:
p. 179
"One way to help consumers build their iBrands as producers is to give them the right raw materials. Just as manufacturers need a supply chain, consumer iBrands require raw materials to spark the motivation to create."
p. 181
"There is a big social media payoff in today's Internet dependent world: Offline experiences have become a gold mine of raw material that consumers draw upon in producing online content that adds value to their iBrand equity and, at the same time, to our own."
p.181
"Others will attempt to contribute to the ongoing digital conversation - only to become the victim of their heritage of poor service as Web 2.0 consumers build their iBrands by tearing down those products and service companies that disappoint."
p. 185
"The 'friendships' with iBrands you want to develop are not as numerous as you might think. Even if you have a large, loyal online community following your brand, you may not have many at all who are actually dedicated consumer iBrands."
p. 188
"[Marketing agencies] must develop programs that maximize how the client's entire enterprise contributes to the value and growth of its consumers' iBrand equity."
In particular, what does "consumers' iBrand equity" refer to?
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Preview for Special Lecture on the Business of Videogames
A Tale of Two Trailers
As we head into the final staging area before Christmas chaos, game studios are pumping out the goods. Last week, Call of Duty: Black Ops dropped and provided additional distractions from school work (the class chatter for my COMM 240 course today was dominated by it). At midnight on December 7th, a mere 3 hours after the final for this class ends, Blizzard Entertainment's third expansion for World of Warcraft goes live. While World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will have me pasted to my monitor for most of December (for academic reasons, of course), I'd like to direct your attention to a shrewd marketing move that Blizzard pulled to hype / protect the previous expansion, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, in 2008.
In August 2008, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning and World of Warcraft had a cinematic trailer showdown. To provide some context, Warhammer is developed by Mythic Entertainment, which is owned by Electronic Arts. EA is one of the two biggest players in the game industry. In other words, it owns almost half of everything that matters. For example, it owns Harmonix (and therefore RockBand) and Bioware (the Edmonton studio responsible for Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Knights of the Republic) and just recently sold its stake in UbiSoft (Assassin's Creed, Tom Clancy, Prince of Persia). EA is also well known for its EA Sports franchise.
Blizzard Entertainment is owned by Activision, which is the other biggest name in gaming and owns the other almost half of everything that matters, including Guitar Hero and Call of Duty. With an established franchise and over 12 million subscribers, World of Warcraft was a big time cash cow for Activision. It was also a pretty obvious target for newcomers to measure themselves against and try to take down.
Something that have to understand about the video game industry is that gamers only have room for one game of a particular type in their lives. If you are a hardcore WoW player, you don't have time for other MMO games. If you are a hardcore Halo fan, you don't have a lot of time for Call of Duty or Team Fortress. If you have gotten really good at EA Sports' NHL 2011, why would you start from scratch on 2K Games' NHL 2k11 instead of continuing to hone your skills. If you have an enormous library of downloaded RockBand songs, there is little incentive to start over in Guitar Hero. Furthermore, games are social. People want to play games with their friends. By extension, network effects apply, simply meaning that the network becomes better as more people use it: in online games, players rely on one another in order to accomplish cooperative tasks, so having more people around makes that process easier. These factors contribute to the fanaticism in the videogame market. Gamers defend their favorite brands and attack other brands viciously and irrationally. It is simply a reflection of the buying behavior characteristic of that market.
Back to the topic at hand, World of Warcraft was a big target, with a critical mass of loyal fans (avid players) shelling out millions of dollars per month in subscription fees. While other games from the prey WoW era held onto MMO niche populations and eeked out some manner of profitability, it was understood that if a studio wanted to make a big MMO, it had to be a killer. It had to dethrone Blizzard's monstrosity. It had to take WoW's players away, because nobody was going to share those gamers.
Mythic had its ducks in a row. Age of Reckoning was built on the Warhammer franchise, which represents decades of fantasy gaming. Just as WoW brought players up into the MMO genre from their franchise of Warcraft strategy games, Warhammer would bring its loyal followers into the realm of massively multiplayer online (subscription) gaming. Mythic was backed by EA to boot, so it carried big name support.
To top it off, they put good effort into an engaging cinematic trailer, which was released to the Internet on August 19th, 2008.
Now here's something else that you have to understand about the game industry: trailers are a big deal. First of all, they are different than movie trailers because while a movie trailer gives some samples of a film, a modern game trailer does something else entirely. Since it cannot effectively demonstrate game play (the audience is just watching instead of playing) it tells a story, or conveys a mood. Many modern game trailers use a vignette, a short impressionistic story to tell something about the game's setting or characters. This method gives viewers an ideological or stylistic idea of what a character is about since it cannot provide a deep understanding of game mechanics. In that way, they are much like toy commercials that provide a sleek, animated dramatization of the toy instead of simply showing children playing with it. In short, the trailer engages the imagination.
Again, this method contributes to hype and fanaticism. The Warhammer trailer was well crafted, well promoted, and gave an overview of characters in a coherent scene. It was quite long, because it had to demonstrate a large selection of characters and took its time in doing so. The Internets ate it up. Gamers and bloggers and reviewers imagined what it would be like to play their chosen favorite character type and hashed out how cool it would be cast fireballs and command monsters. Warhammer was exciting and new versus the drudgery of the familiar World of Warcraft. Warhammer was coming out soon: soon enough to get excited about but far enough away to build up some anticipation. Meanwhile, WoW had an expansion on the way but that was a long time away. Like three or four months.
The pre-orders spooled up. Finally, someone had built a WoW killer.
On August 20th, ONE DAY after the Warhammer trailer, Blizzard Entertainment did this:
This is not the kind of thing you make over night. Blizzard had their trailer ready to go, anticipating EA's move. Knowing how important trailers are for engaging the imagination and building hype, Blizzard held back to make sure that their promotion was not overshadowed by the competitor's. Furthermore, it didn't need to accomplish the same task as EA / Mythic's. The 12 million subscribers in question were keenly aware of Blizzard's existing game and characters. They didn't have to sit through a long montage of character introductions. Instead, Blizzard could get by with something purely stylistic: a slow, chilling vignette that oozes style (as much style as a nerdy fantasy game can give).
This example illustrates the aggressiveness of promotion in the games industry, and the importance of trying to overwhelm the competition with HYPE!
Not Your Normal Game Trailer
Blizzard has adopted a distinct style of trailer. The promotional cinematics are slow paced, and more concerned with setting a mood than with showcasing game-play. Since WoW, Diablo and Starcraft are established franchises, Blizzard can get away with very pretty, finely crafted trailers that have nothing to do with game-play. The transition from "character introduction" trailers to the more artsy "mood" trailer can be seen in the progression from the WoW original cinematic, through the two expansion packs: Burning Crusade (below) and Wrath of the Lich King. (above)
World of Warcraft Original Cinematic Trailer
World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Trailer
Bungie's Halo series trailers have become even more "artsy" than Blizzard's. Again, the game play differences in each installment in the series would be poorly communicated through a passive video. Instead, the trailers work very hard at establishing mood, story and style. Check out the plethora of commercials and trailers in the progression from introducing a new game franchise to positioning it and reminding gamers about its next installment.
Halo 1
Halo 2
Halo 3 (Diorama video)
Halo 3 ("Landfall" live action short film, kind of long")
Halo 3 ODST ("We are ODST" live action commercial)
Halo Reach ("Birth of a Spartan" live action commercial)
Halo Reach ("Deliver Hope" trailer)
As we head into the final staging area before Christmas chaos, game studios are pumping out the goods. Last week, Call of Duty: Black Ops dropped and provided additional distractions from school work (the class chatter for my COMM 240 course today was dominated by it). At midnight on December 7th, a mere 3 hours after the final for this class ends, Blizzard Entertainment's third expansion for World of Warcraft goes live. While World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will have me pasted to my monitor for most of December (for academic reasons, of course), I'd like to direct your attention to a shrewd marketing move that Blizzard pulled to hype / protect the previous expansion, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, in 2008.
In August 2008, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning and World of Warcraft had a cinematic trailer showdown. To provide some context, Warhammer is developed by Mythic Entertainment, which is owned by Electronic Arts. EA is one of the two biggest players in the game industry. In other words, it owns almost half of everything that matters. For example, it owns Harmonix (and therefore RockBand) and Bioware (the Edmonton studio responsible for Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Knights of the Republic) and just recently sold its stake in UbiSoft (Assassin's Creed, Tom Clancy, Prince of Persia). EA is also well known for its EA Sports franchise.
Blizzard Entertainment is owned by Activision, which is the other biggest name in gaming and owns the other almost half of everything that matters, including Guitar Hero and Call of Duty. With an established franchise and over 12 million subscribers, World of Warcraft was a big time cash cow for Activision. It was also a pretty obvious target for newcomers to measure themselves against and try to take down.
Something that have to understand about the video game industry is that gamers only have room for one game of a particular type in their lives. If you are a hardcore WoW player, you don't have time for other MMO games. If you are a hardcore Halo fan, you don't have a lot of time for Call of Duty or Team Fortress. If you have gotten really good at EA Sports' NHL 2011, why would you start from scratch on 2K Games' NHL 2k11 instead of continuing to hone your skills. If you have an enormous library of downloaded RockBand songs, there is little incentive to start over in Guitar Hero. Furthermore, games are social. People want to play games with their friends. By extension, network effects apply, simply meaning that the network becomes better as more people use it: in online games, players rely on one another in order to accomplish cooperative tasks, so having more people around makes that process easier. These factors contribute to the fanaticism in the videogame market. Gamers defend their favorite brands and attack other brands viciously and irrationally. It is simply a reflection of the buying behavior characteristic of that market.
Back to the topic at hand, World of Warcraft was a big target, with a critical mass of loyal fans (avid players) shelling out millions of dollars per month in subscription fees. While other games from the prey WoW era held onto MMO niche populations and eeked out some manner of profitability, it was understood that if a studio wanted to make a big MMO, it had to be a killer. It had to dethrone Blizzard's monstrosity. It had to take WoW's players away, because nobody was going to share those gamers.
Mythic had its ducks in a row. Age of Reckoning was built on the Warhammer franchise, which represents decades of fantasy gaming. Just as WoW brought players up into the MMO genre from their franchise of Warcraft strategy games, Warhammer would bring its loyal followers into the realm of massively multiplayer online (subscription) gaming. Mythic was backed by EA to boot, so it carried big name support.
To top it off, they put good effort into an engaging cinematic trailer, which was released to the Internet on August 19th, 2008.
Now here's something else that you have to understand about the game industry: trailers are a big deal. First of all, they are different than movie trailers because while a movie trailer gives some samples of a film, a modern game trailer does something else entirely. Since it cannot effectively demonstrate game play (the audience is just watching instead of playing) it tells a story, or conveys a mood. Many modern game trailers use a vignette, a short impressionistic story to tell something about the game's setting or characters. This method gives viewers an ideological or stylistic idea of what a character is about since it cannot provide a deep understanding of game mechanics. In that way, they are much like toy commercials that provide a sleek, animated dramatization of the toy instead of simply showing children playing with it. In short, the trailer engages the imagination.
Again, this method contributes to hype and fanaticism. The Warhammer trailer was well crafted, well promoted, and gave an overview of characters in a coherent scene. It was quite long, because it had to demonstrate a large selection of characters and took its time in doing so. The Internets ate it up. Gamers and bloggers and reviewers imagined what it would be like to play their chosen favorite character type and hashed out how cool it would be cast fireballs and command monsters. Warhammer was exciting and new versus the drudgery of the familiar World of Warcraft. Warhammer was coming out soon: soon enough to get excited about but far enough away to build up some anticipation. Meanwhile, WoW had an expansion on the way but that was a long time away. Like three or four months.
The pre-orders spooled up. Finally, someone had built a WoW killer.
On August 20th, ONE DAY after the Warhammer trailer, Blizzard Entertainment did this:
This is not the kind of thing you make over night. Blizzard had their trailer ready to go, anticipating EA's move. Knowing how important trailers are for engaging the imagination and building hype, Blizzard held back to make sure that their promotion was not overshadowed by the competitor's. Furthermore, it didn't need to accomplish the same task as EA / Mythic's. The 12 million subscribers in question were keenly aware of Blizzard's existing game and characters. They didn't have to sit through a long montage of character introductions. Instead, Blizzard could get by with something purely stylistic: a slow, chilling vignette that oozes style (as much style as a nerdy fantasy game can give).
This example illustrates the aggressiveness of promotion in the games industry, and the importance of trying to overwhelm the competition with HYPE!
Not Your Normal Game Trailer
Blizzard has adopted a distinct style of trailer. The promotional cinematics are slow paced, and more concerned with setting a mood than with showcasing game-play. Since WoW, Diablo and Starcraft are established franchises, Blizzard can get away with very pretty, finely crafted trailers that have nothing to do with game-play. The transition from "character introduction" trailers to the more artsy "mood" trailer can be seen in the progression from the WoW original cinematic, through the two expansion packs: Burning Crusade (below) and Wrath of the Lich King. (above)
World of Warcraft Original Cinematic Trailer
World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Trailer
Bungie's Halo series trailers have become even more "artsy" than Blizzard's. Again, the game play differences in each installment in the series would be poorly communicated through a passive video. Instead, the trailers work very hard at establishing mood, story and style. Check out the plethora of commercials and trailers in the progression from introducing a new game franchise to positioning it and reminding gamers about its next installment.
Halo 1
Halo 2
Halo 3 (Diorama video)
Halo 3 ("Landfall" live action short film, kind of long")
Halo 3 ODST ("We are ODST" live action commercial)
Halo Reach ("Birth of a Spartan" live action commercial)
Halo Reach ("Deliver Hope" trailer)
Midterm 2
Answer THREE of the four questions below in 2 – 4 well written paragraphs each. For each question, you will be given a passage from the textbook to provide content and get you started; however, you are not limited to using that excerpt alone. You are free to support your ideas with other parts of the textbook or research that you can find during the exam session. This is an open book exam. You are allowed to use the Internet and you can even leave the room to find any materials or information you may need in your answer. The questions are very broad, but don't panic. Collect your thoughts. You have three hours to answer three questions.
Each question is weighted equally, and this exam represents 20% of your final grade.
Put your responses in a Word document with your name and student number at the top. Title it “COMM 346 Midterm [your name]” and email it to the instructor: stanyerm@unbc.ca
Option 1: Starting a Conversation
“We are truly living in a multi-million-channel media universe, but in no way does it resemble the top down, broadcast dominated environment we accessed while growing up. It is a media landscape marked by infinite choice and infinite noise. The brands that garner the most attention are not the ones whose ads travel down fiber optics to captivate a loyal viewing audience, but the ones whose stories travel from consumer to consumer … Marketing communication as we know it – from direct mail and print, to television and, yes, digital advertising online as well – represented the status quo. It is media-dependent, generally one way, and increasingly falls short in an interconnected Web 2.0 environment. Sure, now and then a campaign rises above the clutter to drive awareness, get people talking, and generate desired results, but the impact is fleeting. As soon as the campaign ends … there is a disconnect. What was the call to action, if any? What has been done to start an ongoing conversation?
“Marketers superficially experiment with a laundry list of new tools – they set up their Twitter accounts, create Facebook fan pages, upload branded videos to YouTube, and launch corporate blogs. They are quick to chase the latest shiny “next thing” and just as quick to abandon it when another new thing comes along. At the end of the day, they've managed to check a number of boxes on their innovation checklist, while the grounds keep shifting under them. [P 155-157]
What does UNBC, or if you like, some component of the University (a club, the School of Business, Alumni Association, etc.) do to start a conversation? If you were a marketer for the University what initiatives would you take to “start a conversation?” How would you measure your success?
Option 2: E-mail Marketing
One of the most important parts of Search Engine Optimization is securing quality back-links – links to your own site from other, well ranked sites. When you start out, though, you will have to promote the site by telling other people on your own. Let's pretend that you are in charge of promoting the class blog.
Your first task is to choose a website that you think should link to our own. Explain why you are choosing that particular site.
Then, craft a carefully worded message you would use as an email to the author / administrator / webmaster for your target site. You can choose to showcase the entire site, or make a particular article the feature of the message. Keep in mind, you are hoping to eventually get a link from your target site.
The following guide for email marketing is taken from the course textbook:
“Always put new content in context before the user hits 'delete.' If your e-mail readers have no context for the message they are reading, your message equity is at risk. In other words, if you send an e-mail to Joe with fresh content and no mental notes for him to refer to (reminders of prior conversations, links, and so on) and Joe scrolls through the e-mail on his BlackBerry while boarding a train, your message equity has dropped to 33 percent or less.
"Conversely, if your message has associated notes (content callouts, links, or other information), you stand a much higher change of having your message resonate and be responded to by Joe.
“Link the e-mail's benefits to the reader's long-term goals. If your e-mail does not clearly and concisely state why the message will help the readers achieve their long-term goals and fulfill future needs, it is at high risk of having low comprehension. A good example might be, “Save this message for when you need to...”
"Creating language that is clear and concise, and conveys how your reader will benefit in the long run will pay off many times over.
“Leverage attention nodes. An attention node is some type of formatting in the e-mail that clearly grabs the reader's attention. In marketing messages, this is most commonly done with a callout box, action tag/button, or other imagery. In text for personal e-mail, attention nodes can be any creative use of spacing or character keys that helps clearly drive where the attention needs to placed. For example, you can use three asterisks (***) to signify importance." [P 148-149]
Option 3: Collaboration and decision making
“[eBay and Amazon] produce high volume and repeated transactions through interactive store fronts. Of the many things these companies do right, one of the most important is facilitating human judgment and decision making – a discipline in psychology that explains the underpinnings of making choices and taking action.
"One of the most interesting findings in human decision making is that people like to make decisions collaboratively. That is, they prefer making decisions with other people instead of by themselves … By permitting interactive collaboration, brands like eBay and Amazon keep customers moving toward their purchase decision. When the design of interactive storefronts parallels our natural decision making process, the e-commerce brand becomes the central source of decision-making input instead of a peripheral, transactional player. By playing a central role in the decision-making process, brands such as eBay and Amazon help us easily decide to repeatedly do business with them.” [P 130]
This passage deals with collaboration and decision making. Your task is to outline the decision making steps that prospective students take when choosing a university. What sites might they use in that process? Are those sites collaborative? How could a University take advantage of consumers' attraction to collaborative decision making?
Option 4: Make mine mobile Recall experiences you have had at colleges and universities that were frustrating, or procedures that were inefficient. This event could be anything, from registering for courses to buying a sandwich. How could the University or businesses operating therein make better use of mobile devices? Think about ways that mobile marketing or services could create reciprocal value: how could both the provider and consumer benefit? Here are some ideas to get you started:
“The mobile phone of today can be a light weight dedicated device for making and receiving hone calls or for performing rudimentary data service, such as accessing the Internet or sending text messages. On the other hand the mobile phone can be a full-featured, multipurpose, high-bandwidth, networked, multimodal, interactive information, communication and commerce tool. The former is commonly referred to as a traditional, or featured, mobile phone, and the latter is referred to as a smart phone.
"There is a third class of mobile device emerging – the dedicated terminal, such as the Apple iPod Touch, Sony PSP, net-book, and Amazon Kindle – which also needs to be kept in mind by the marketer. Each of these devices has some form of wireless connectivity, either WiFi or an embedded wireless broadband access card as in the case of the Kindle, that can support interactive marketing.” [P 98]
“Many consider the mobile channel as one big generic pipe, but this view is a misinformed generalization...the following is a brief definition of each path:
[P115-116]
“Mobile marketing has been used to successfully engage consumers at every stage of the customer life cycle. Marketers can use mobile marketing to:
What's missing from the Commerce course line-up at UNBC? Describe a topic (theoretical or applied) that you would like to see covered in ONE WEEK of classes? Give me a brief description of why you think it is interesting or important.
Each question is weighted equally, and this exam represents 20% of your final grade.
Put your responses in a Word document with your name and student number at the top. Title it “COMM 346 Midterm [your name]” and email it to the instructor: stanyerm@unbc.ca
Option 1: Starting a Conversation
“We are truly living in a multi-million-channel media universe, but in no way does it resemble the top down, broadcast dominated environment we accessed while growing up. It is a media landscape marked by infinite choice and infinite noise. The brands that garner the most attention are not the ones whose ads travel down fiber optics to captivate a loyal viewing audience, but the ones whose stories travel from consumer to consumer … Marketing communication as we know it – from direct mail and print, to television and, yes, digital advertising online as well – represented the status quo. It is media-dependent, generally one way, and increasingly falls short in an interconnected Web 2.0 environment. Sure, now and then a campaign rises above the clutter to drive awareness, get people talking, and generate desired results, but the impact is fleeting. As soon as the campaign ends … there is a disconnect. What was the call to action, if any? What has been done to start an ongoing conversation?
“Marketers superficially experiment with a laundry list of new tools – they set up their Twitter accounts, create Facebook fan pages, upload branded videos to YouTube, and launch corporate blogs. They are quick to chase the latest shiny “next thing” and just as quick to abandon it when another new thing comes along. At the end of the day, they've managed to check a number of boxes on their innovation checklist, while the grounds keep shifting under them. [P 155-157]
What does UNBC, or if you like, some component of the University (a club, the School of Business, Alumni Association, etc.) do to start a conversation? If you were a marketer for the University what initiatives would you take to “start a conversation?” How would you measure your success?
Option 2: E-mail Marketing
One of the most important parts of Search Engine Optimization is securing quality back-links – links to your own site from other, well ranked sites. When you start out, though, you will have to promote the site by telling other people on your own. Let's pretend that you are in charge of promoting the class blog.
Your first task is to choose a website that you think should link to our own. Explain why you are choosing that particular site.
Then, craft a carefully worded message you would use as an email to the author / administrator / webmaster for your target site. You can choose to showcase the entire site, or make a particular article the feature of the message. Keep in mind, you are hoping to eventually get a link from your target site.
The following guide for email marketing is taken from the course textbook:
“Always put new content in context before the user hits 'delete.' If your e-mail readers have no context for the message they are reading, your message equity is at risk. In other words, if you send an e-mail to Joe with fresh content and no mental notes for him to refer to (reminders of prior conversations, links, and so on) and Joe scrolls through the e-mail on his BlackBerry while boarding a train, your message equity has dropped to 33 percent or less.
"Conversely, if your message has associated notes (content callouts, links, or other information), you stand a much higher change of having your message resonate and be responded to by Joe.
“Link the e-mail's benefits to the reader's long-term goals. If your e-mail does not clearly and concisely state why the message will help the readers achieve their long-term goals and fulfill future needs, it is at high risk of having low comprehension. A good example might be, “Save this message for when you need to...”
"Creating language that is clear and concise, and conveys how your reader will benefit in the long run will pay off many times over.
“Leverage attention nodes. An attention node is some type of formatting in the e-mail that clearly grabs the reader's attention. In marketing messages, this is most commonly done with a callout box, action tag/button, or other imagery. In text for personal e-mail, attention nodes can be any creative use of spacing or character keys that helps clearly drive where the attention needs to placed. For example, you can use three asterisks (***) to signify importance." [P 148-149]
Option 3: Collaboration and decision making
“[eBay and Amazon] produce high volume and repeated transactions through interactive store fronts. Of the many things these companies do right, one of the most important is facilitating human judgment and decision making – a discipline in psychology that explains the underpinnings of making choices and taking action.
"One of the most interesting findings in human decision making is that people like to make decisions collaboratively. That is, they prefer making decisions with other people instead of by themselves … By permitting interactive collaboration, brands like eBay and Amazon keep customers moving toward their purchase decision. When the design of interactive storefronts parallels our natural decision making process, the e-commerce brand becomes the central source of decision-making input instead of a peripheral, transactional player. By playing a central role in the decision-making process, brands such as eBay and Amazon help us easily decide to repeatedly do business with them.” [P 130]
This passage deals with collaboration and decision making. Your task is to outline the decision making steps that prospective students take when choosing a university. What sites might they use in that process? Are those sites collaborative? How could a University take advantage of consumers' attraction to collaborative decision making?
Option 4: Make mine mobile Recall experiences you have had at colleges and universities that were frustrating, or procedures that were inefficient. This event could be anything, from registering for courses to buying a sandwich. How could the University or businesses operating therein make better use of mobile devices? Think about ways that mobile marketing or services could create reciprocal value: how could both the provider and consumer benefit? Here are some ideas to get you started:
“The mobile phone of today can be a light weight dedicated device for making and receiving hone calls or for performing rudimentary data service, such as accessing the Internet or sending text messages. On the other hand the mobile phone can be a full-featured, multipurpose, high-bandwidth, networked, multimodal, interactive information, communication and commerce tool. The former is commonly referred to as a traditional, or featured, mobile phone, and the latter is referred to as a smart phone.
"There is a third class of mobile device emerging – the dedicated terminal, such as the Apple iPod Touch, Sony PSP, net-book, and Amazon Kindle – which also needs to be kept in mind by the marketer. Each of these devices has some form of wireless connectivity, either WiFi or an embedded wireless broadband access card as in the case of the Kindle, that can support interactive marketing.” [P 98]
“Many consider the mobile channel as one big generic pipe, but this view is a misinformed generalization...the following is a brief definition of each path:
- SMS refers to short message service. This is also commonly known as text messaging, and is composed of an alphanumeric message consisting of 160 characters or less.
- MMS refers to multimedia messaging service … digital content, such as videos, pictures, and audio content via the mobile channel.
- E-mail refers to the delivery of email content through the mobile channel
- Voice refers to the voice channel of the phone.
- Internet refers to the ability of the mobile device to connect to the Internet for a widerange of data-enabled services, including the mobile Web, applications, content services like streaming video.
- Mobile Web refers to the experience of browsing the Internet via the mobile phone
- Bluetooth refers to the short-range Bluetooth radio channel, typically used to connect the phone with a wireless headset and related periphery devices, but it can also be used to deliver content to the mobile phone.
- Applications refer to software utilities and services downloaded to the mobile phone.”
[P115-116]
“Mobile marketing has been used to successfully engage consumers at every stage of the customer life cycle. Marketers can use mobile marketing to:
- Acquire new customers
- Increase and reward customer loyalty
- Generate brand awareness
- Monetize content
- Provide convenient, interactive customer service
- Drive attendance to live events and retail
- Promote products and services, often through couponing, sweepstakes and other promotions
- Create viral customer-to-customer brand reinforcement
- Facilitate cause-related marketing” [P 116]
What's missing from the Commerce course line-up at UNBC? Describe a topic (theoretical or applied) that you would like to see covered in ONE WEEK of classes? Give me a brief description of why you think it is interesting or important.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Midterm 2 Teaser
Fun Fact: This midterm draws from chapters 7-11 of the textbook.
Hey gang. Here is some info on the midterm next week. As discussed previously, it will be much more conceptual and idea driven than the previous midterm, in which we simply dealt with a lot of terminology to get us going. I haven't received any emails to protest my lifting the computer / book / iPod ban, so this test will be refreshingly open book (open Internet, etc.). You can even leave and go to the library if you need to. You can go take a picture of something to include in your answer if it supports your case (but if you take pictures of people, remember, you need to use a consent form).
The midterm will be much like one of our work sessions in the lab, except that I will be providing more direct material to work from. The test will include four written-answer questions that apply to A) the Textbook and B) business / marketing concerns at UNBC. I will provide some material from the textbook and ask you to apply it to an appropriate institution within the University (a club, organization, department, promotional campaign, etc.).
Here's what I'm looking for in your answers: 2 to 4 paragraphs per question, demonstrating an understanding of course content (for example, the provided passage from the text book), research (finding out what that club, organization etc. does), and insight; making recommendations, instead of only describing a situation, is a good way of demonstrating insight.
You will have the full three hours to complete the midterm. During that time you may take breaks as necessary. You CAN leave the room. You CAN even talk to each other: Don't waste time having "covert" text / IM conversations. Since I'm giving you "ill-defined problems," with no Internet restrictions, information sharing is not a concern.
If tests appear to have nearly identical responses, we will need to have a talk about academic dishonesty. Otherwise, this is a conceptual, applied, idea driven written test similar to those that you would find in many Arts courses.
Answers will be prepared in a Word document, complete with URLs of any sites you are referring to. You can attach images, videos or any other documents as you see relevant to your answers. All files will be emailed to me or mailed via Blackboard.
If you have any questions, email me or post them here.
Hey gang. Here is some info on the midterm next week. As discussed previously, it will be much more conceptual and idea driven than the previous midterm, in which we simply dealt with a lot of terminology to get us going. I haven't received any emails to protest my lifting the computer / book / iPod ban, so this test will be refreshingly open book (open Internet, etc.). You can even leave and go to the library if you need to. You can go take a picture of something to include in your answer if it supports your case (but if you take pictures of people, remember, you need to use a consent form).
The midterm will be much like one of our work sessions in the lab, except that I will be providing more direct material to work from. The test will include four written-answer questions that apply to A) the Textbook and B) business / marketing concerns at UNBC. I will provide some material from the textbook and ask you to apply it to an appropriate institution within the University (a club, organization, department, promotional campaign, etc.).
Here's what I'm looking for in your answers: 2 to 4 paragraphs per question, demonstrating an understanding of course content (for example, the provided passage from the text book), research (finding out what that club, organization etc. does), and insight; making recommendations, instead of only describing a situation, is a good way of demonstrating insight.
You will have the full three hours to complete the midterm. During that time you may take breaks as necessary. You CAN leave the room. You CAN even talk to each other: Don't waste time having "covert" text / IM conversations. Since I'm giving you "ill-defined problems," with no Internet restrictions, information sharing is not a concern.
If tests appear to have nearly identical responses, we will need to have a talk about academic dishonesty. Otherwise, this is a conceptual, applied, idea driven written test similar to those that you would find in many Arts courses.
Answers will be prepared in a Word document, complete with URLs of any sites you are referring to. You can attach images, videos or any other documents as you see relevant to your answers. All files will be emailed to me or mailed via Blackboard.
If you have any questions, email me or post them here.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Polls: Not Just For Peelers...
Over the past three weeks there have been several different tactics used in order to drive traffic to this Blog. This week we are attempting another avenue in which traffic can be driven, and in this case feedback is given on the spot. In order to continue our analysis and provide detailed recommendations to the UNBC Commerce Student Society we feel that a poll will be extremely useful. Please help us out by sharing this post/poll with your friends to ensure that we reach everyone in cyberspace who would be interested in our endeavor. In the next three weeks, other aspects such as audio and visual clips will be utilized to again, help increase traffic flow and search results.
Please take 90 seconds out of your day and fill out the following questionnaire:
Minty Moose CSS Awareness Survey
You must be 18 or older to take part. By clicking through the above link you consent to participate. Please take note that there is no compensation for participating in this questionnaire, and that no personal information is collected. Responses are completely anonymous and stored on Canadian servers. If you have any questions, please email the course instructor, Michael Stanyer: stanyerm@unbc.ca
Class Content: Textbook Quotations, Challenge Accepted
"By establishing your cyberworld credibility in advance and earning the respect of savvy Web-oriented consumers who are well versed in the conversational lifestyle online, you gain profitable allegiance whether or not a crisis situation ever arises." p. 158
This is saying that if you were to earn the respect of and get a good reputation online from other consumers, down the road if anything were to occur you have their respect.
"While near-term ROI is not out of the question, your focus should remain squarely on long-term ROR (return on relationship)." p. 162
Return on Investment is important, but your main focus should remain on long term return on relationship because customer loyalty in the long run is more important than the investment you put in.
"In the end, our goal could be simply stated: Grow the customer base and its spending level while minimizing the cost to motivate actions to make it happen." p. 170
This statement is saying our goal is to maximize customer base, which is mainly made up of returning costumers and at the same time try to minimize the cost of trying to do so.
"We looked at buying patterns, types of products initially purchased compared to what was bought later, the favored channels, the interval between purchases, and a firmographic description of the consumer." p. 171
Firmographic – allow marketing researchers to determine what segments exist in the overall population, and also to help create a picture of characteristics the consumer has. These can later be used to help develop a marketing plan.
"Thanks to the emergence of newer social platforms like Twitter, life-streaming tools like FriendFeed, Posterous, and Tumblr, and video-streaming services like Ustream and Justin.tv - online conversations can now take place in real time." p. 161 Identify some of the lesser known applications mentioned here, or in our Sociable menu on the blog, and give a quick summary of what they do.
FriendFeed allows your friends to share, discover and discuss photos, videos, music or interesting things your family or friends find.
Posterous is a simple blogging platform for people to share their thoughts, photos, videos and other blogs they find quick and easily.
Tumblr is a microblogging platform that focuses on being very simple to use.
Ustream and Justin.tv are both platforms meant for individuals to broadcast live videos for the public to see.
Reddit is a social news site for registered users to post links. Registered users vote for the post that makes it to the main page or down vote the links causing them to fall.
"If the Web is the centre of the universe and customers are using it to outmaneuver competitors, aren't human beings on the telephone dispensable?" p. 174
This statement is basically saying that we don’t need salespeople anymore because of how popular the web is now. Why do we need salespeople if they can find our product online by themselves. Humans are not dispensable. Communication and service is important for business to business and dedicated people do it the best. The marketing environment is changing but the need for basic human needs have not changed.
"Marketers should heed the fact that a single consumer response to a call to action (i.e., an ad hoc response), does not denote permission for ongoing interaction." p. 101
Marketers need clear permission to keep going with their interaction. Marketers can get permission by using text or phone channel to make an offer with a call to action.
"Mobile marketing is not an end unto itself, but rather an extraordinary versatile new tool put at your command by extraordinary advances in technology." p. 103
Mobile marketing can be referred to in various forms and is defined as: “the use of the mobile medium as a means of marketing communication” (Karjaluoto Heikki and Leppäniemi Matti, “Factors influencing consumers’ willingness to accept mobile advertising: a conceptual model”, Int. J Mobile Communications, Vol 3, No. 3, 2005, p. 198.) However for the purposes related to internet marketing, the term relates to the use of mobile devices (cell phones) as a marketing tool. The textbook defends the end of mobile marketing and in turn states that used in the right way can greatly benefit a company as a marketing tool. Mobile marketing as a method iDirect and iBranding strategies can be very effective. The ability to send a text message directly from your company to a potential can be a valuable asset. Other considerations include figuring in how many people use mobile devices; of those users, which send/receive regular SMS texts and MMS (multimedia); and also those who access the internet and use applications.
Important considerations in mobile marketing:
Clearly defined target demographic
Product desirability
Expectations of company (goals)
However it is also considered a controversial form of marketing. The impacts of neglecting the above factors could lead to spam mobile marketing issues which ultimately are ineffective and a waste of time/money. Other issues include privacy; how are the numbers being collected and what content is being sent.
Though used properly, mobile marketing directed at specific audiences who are interested in the product, could result in increasing revenue and customer base.
"One of the most interesting findings in human decision making is that people like to make decisions collaboratively." p. 130
In terms of decision making, it is noticeable that humans tend to look to each other for opinions or experiences with a similar purchase/product. Clear examples of this are large purchases such as a house or cars. In relation to internet marketing, it refers to reviews of products on websites and social networking sites.
Virtually any product can be found online in any price range and consumers now-a-days tend to collaborate to ensure a quality/comfortable transaction. Good examples of this are on online marketplaces such as eBay or Amazon. EBay’s feedback function offers consumers a way to research the seller and see if the accuracy of the item description and the shipping speed. Sites such as Amazon allow users to post reviews of the product and their purchase experience.
Another example of collaboration is social networking sites, ex. Facebook. Nearly anything can be posted on Facebook as a group and anyone can post comments on the wall and anyone can view these.
Lastly online videos are a powerful tool where people gather to discuss products. Notable examples are YouTube and podcasts. Podcasts are particular to the Apple brand and iPod users. This method has gathered strength recently and is creating a large and dedicated following from Apple users. YouTube is strongest when the person posting the video has credibility (measured by views/subscribers). Again users can post comments to where people gather to gain knowledge.
The ability seek out information online is considerably one of the strongest tools in online shopping today. It isn’t dedicated to online shopping, however. Products that are bought traditionally (offline) can be sought out online to gain insight into the products. Collaboration is a strong tool and is prominently used today.
This is saying that if you were to earn the respect of and get a good reputation online from other consumers, down the road if anything were to occur you have their respect.
"While near-term ROI is not out of the question, your focus should remain squarely on long-term ROR (return on relationship)." p. 162
Return on Investment is important, but your main focus should remain on long term return on relationship because customer loyalty in the long run is more important than the investment you put in.
"In the end, our goal could be simply stated: Grow the customer base and its spending level while minimizing the cost to motivate actions to make it happen." p. 170
This statement is saying our goal is to maximize customer base, which is mainly made up of returning costumers and at the same time try to minimize the cost of trying to do so.
"We looked at buying patterns, types of products initially purchased compared to what was bought later, the favored channels, the interval between purchases, and a firmographic description of the consumer." p. 171
Firmographic – allow marketing researchers to determine what segments exist in the overall population, and also to help create a picture of characteristics the consumer has. These can later be used to help develop a marketing plan.
"Thanks to the emergence of newer social platforms like Twitter, life-streaming tools like FriendFeed, Posterous, and Tumblr, and video-streaming services like Ustream and Justin.tv - online conversations can now take place in real time." p. 161 Identify some of the lesser known applications mentioned here, or in our Sociable menu on the blog, and give a quick summary of what they do.
FriendFeed allows your friends to share, discover and discuss photos, videos, music or interesting things your family or friends find.
Posterous is a simple blogging platform for people to share their thoughts, photos, videos and other blogs they find quick and easily.
Tumblr is a microblogging platform that focuses on being very simple to use.
Ustream and Justin.tv are both platforms meant for individuals to broadcast live videos for the public to see.
Reddit is a social news site for registered users to post links. Registered users vote for the post that makes it to the main page or down vote the links causing them to fall.
"If the Web is the centre of the universe and customers are using it to outmaneuver competitors, aren't human beings on the telephone dispensable?" p. 174
This statement is basically saying that we don’t need salespeople anymore because of how popular the web is now. Why do we need salespeople if they can find our product online by themselves. Humans are not dispensable. Communication and service is important for business to business and dedicated people do it the best. The marketing environment is changing but the need for basic human needs have not changed.
"Marketers should heed the fact that a single consumer response to a call to action (i.e., an ad hoc response), does not denote permission for ongoing interaction." p. 101
Marketers need clear permission to keep going with their interaction. Marketers can get permission by using text or phone channel to make an offer with a call to action.
"Mobile marketing is not an end unto itself, but rather an extraordinary versatile new tool put at your command by extraordinary advances in technology." p. 103
Mobile marketing can be referred to in various forms and is defined as: “the use of the mobile medium as a means of marketing communication” (Karjaluoto Heikki and Leppäniemi Matti, “Factors influencing consumers’ willingness to accept mobile advertising: a conceptual model”, Int. J Mobile Communications, Vol 3, No. 3, 2005, p. 198.) However for the purposes related to internet marketing, the term relates to the use of mobile devices (cell phones) as a marketing tool. The textbook defends the end of mobile marketing and in turn states that used in the right way can greatly benefit a company as a marketing tool. Mobile marketing as a method iDirect and iBranding strategies can be very effective. The ability to send a text message directly from your company to a potential can be a valuable asset. Other considerations include figuring in how many people use mobile devices; of those users, which send/receive regular SMS texts and MMS (multimedia); and also those who access the internet and use applications.
Important considerations in mobile marketing:
Clearly defined target demographic
Product desirability
Expectations of company (goals)
However it is also considered a controversial form of marketing. The impacts of neglecting the above factors could lead to spam mobile marketing issues which ultimately are ineffective and a waste of time/money. Other issues include privacy; how are the numbers being collected and what content is being sent.
Though used properly, mobile marketing directed at specific audiences who are interested in the product, could result in increasing revenue and customer base.
"One of the most interesting findings in human decision making is that people like to make decisions collaboratively." p. 130
In terms of decision making, it is noticeable that humans tend to look to each other for opinions or experiences with a similar purchase/product. Clear examples of this are large purchases such as a house or cars. In relation to internet marketing, it refers to reviews of products on websites and social networking sites.
Virtually any product can be found online in any price range and consumers now-a-days tend to collaborate to ensure a quality/comfortable transaction. Good examples of this are on online marketplaces such as eBay or Amazon. EBay’s feedback function offers consumers a way to research the seller and see if the accuracy of the item description and the shipping speed. Sites such as Amazon allow users to post reviews of the product and their purchase experience.
Another example of collaboration is social networking sites, ex. Facebook. Nearly anything can be posted on Facebook as a group and anyone can post comments on the wall and anyone can view these.
Lastly online videos are a powerful tool where people gather to discuss products. Notable examples are YouTube and podcasts. Podcasts are particular to the Apple brand and iPod users. This method has gathered strength recently and is creating a large and dedicated following from Apple users. YouTube is strongest when the person posting the video has credibility (measured by views/subscribers). Again users can post comments to where people gather to gain knowledge.
The ability seek out information online is considerably one of the strongest tools in online shopping today. It isn’t dedicated to online shopping, however. Products that are bought traditionally (offline) can be sought out online to gain insight into the products. Collaboration is a strong tool and is prominently used today.
Canadian Universities with Facebook
Clearly some universities in Canada need to work on their marketing promotion using social networks (Facebook, Twitter...). UNBC has a student population of 4,177 students, and has over 3,331 likes on Facebook. What does this translate to? That's a 79.70% like ratio. That's a huge success. Could this be mainly due to the latest marketing scheme, the G4G? Of course we realize that liking these pages on Facebook is open to the cyber population, but we do not have the tools to generate the most accurate data. How does UNBC compare to other Universities? Here are some statistics. The numbers are from the Facebook university pages, and Wikipedia. No matter what professors say, Wikipedia is a good source of information.
UNI POP LIKES %
UNBC 4,177 3,331 79.7%
Queens 21,607 3,476 16.04%
UoT 45,009 7,139 15.86%
UBC 46,475 5,550 11.94%
Uvic 16,475 1,260 7.65%
York 50,686 3,346 6.6%
UoA 33,415 1,871 5.6%
SFU 32,940 1,831 5.55%
Social Networks are one of the cheapest ways to market your product (in this case Universities) online. Compared to much more prestigious (relatively) universities UNBC dominates in the percentage of the student population liking their university. Why?? because of simple marketing ploys used by the knowledgeable business students and faculty at UNBC, such as the G4G, where contestants were forced to “like” UNBC in order to participate in the contest.
However, this is all on the cyberspace. Many of the people in Vancouver have never heard of UNBC, let alone Prince George. Just because UNBC is having a high percentage, perhaps there are more marketing schemes to do. Marketing is a very useful concept, in which awareness can be raised through various mediums. The Monkey Chicklets believe that UNBC did a damn good job in marketing the G4G through Facebook to raise the percentage so high.
Good Job, UNBC'ers for liking UNBC (and lurkers).
UNI POP LIKES %
UNBC 4,177 3,331 79.7%
Queens 21,607 3,476 16.04%
UoT 45,009 7,139 15.86%
UBC 46,475 5,550 11.94%
Uvic 16,475 1,260 7.65%
York 50,686 3,346 6.6%
UoA 33,415 1,871 5.6%
SFU 32,940 1,831 5.55%
Social Networks are one of the cheapest ways to market your product (in this case Universities) online. Compared to much more prestigious (relatively) universities UNBC dominates in the percentage of the student population liking their university. Why?? because of simple marketing ploys used by the knowledgeable business students and faculty at UNBC, such as the G4G, where contestants were forced to “like” UNBC in order to participate in the contest.
However, this is all on the cyberspace. Many of the people in Vancouver have never heard of UNBC, let alone Prince George. Just because UNBC is having a high percentage, perhaps there are more marketing schemes to do. Marketing is a very useful concept, in which awareness can be raised through various mediums. The Monkey Chicklets believe that UNBC did a damn good job in marketing the G4G through Facebook to raise the percentage so high.
Good Job, UNBC'ers for liking UNBC (and lurkers).
Facebook as a Search Engine Optimization Tool.
Linking through Facebook on individual profiles or statuses does not help SEO in terms of link building. This is because personal profiles are not index able by search engines because they are hidden behind your login. However, group and event pages (assuming they are not closed) are an exception as they are not hidden behind a login and therefore are able to be crawled by search engine. In our case (Serious Business at UNBC), this has been the UNBC JDC West Facebook page. Unfortunately this still does not help the page rank as it does not supply a proper back link. But why?
What Facebook is good at doing for internet marketers is generating a lot of traffic for the site. Over 90% of our traffic has come from Facebook so it has certainly done a good job. SEO is not a hard science and there are conflicting opinions as to if traffic improves page rank, but one piece of evidence that supports traffics impact is the fact that 10 minutes after the beginning of class, our rank had moved up 2 positions without any new content being added or changed. This could be due to the influx of visits by our internet marketing class. Another benefit of Facebook is the awareness it can create for the site, this can then translate into link building as people link your blog to their actual site or blog if they find the information interesting.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)