…More on Mobile
I love mobile marketing because it arms even the small businesses with an opportunity at additional sales using the same techniques as the big fish- and in any location- not just within big cities, but small cities, too. This can be utilized by using location based advertising or social media with GPS technologies giving users a more customized web experience that they desire. There are so many different ways to get involved in mobile marketing including SMS, MMS, Bluetooth, and Applications using technology like GPS to give the most relevant information.
SMS/MMS – Text Messaging
I recently wrote about the traffic that texting is getting by teens. The statistics are irrefutable! About half or over half of teens feel that their social life would be worsened without their cell phones, their cell phones improve their life and that cell phones are the key to their social life.
Teens demand to communicate on their cell phones and texting is the preferred choice.
Mobile marketing is more than just marketing
Apps make more money because iTunes makes it easier for consumers to pay. Similar to Amazon’s one-click check-out, iTunes is a virtual wallet used by 125 million consumers. But a mobile website can’t integrate with iTunes billing — you need an app for that: Although mobile apps (especially paid apps) tend to be a higher revenue option, it hardly allows for a viral product or message. Despite all of the hype about apps, consumers use the mobile web just as much as apps. Consider that building a mobile web first would allow users on any application—iPhone, Android, RIM and Palm—to be able to access your site in a manner that is smooth for the consumer. If the consumer can’t reach your website with ease, on the run, they certainly won’t share it and they won’t return either. This has a great potential of a loss of reputation, visitors, and potentially even a sale.
A company’s marketing and business strategy must include at least a future in mobile capabilities, including a mobile website, in order to maximize within online marketing.
At what point are we successful?
On May 15, 2010, I graduated from Northwood University with my Bachelor degree with a double major in Advertising and Marketing, Management. I successfully completed my degree; something I have been working on for the past three years—or maybe you could argue—my whole life. Yes, I feel accomplished and proud, don’t get me wrong, but I feel far from successful like I thought I might feel at this point.
What is Success?
This led me to wonder what exactly “success” is and at what point have we reached success? As defined by the Webster dictionary, success is a favorable or desired outcome. As defined by humans and fate; we may not ever be successful in our own minds or have reached success in our lives.
Steve Medincea on Success
When I was in London, I visited a company called PRISM, an affiliate of JWT, a global advertising agency, one of the biggest in the world. Steve Medincea is the founder of PRISM and I had the honor of listening to him speak to our class and the ability to pick his brain on advertising, business, and success. Many students implied on the level of his success as they asked questions regarding how he reached this point. He showed gratification and honor that we felt that way about his accomplishments but he made a point to make it clear that he did not feelsuccessful. He had so much more on his “bucket list” that he needed to do before he even came close to consider himself successful.
In our eyes, Steve was at a level of success that we could only dream about. He founded a company in advertising with one of the largest companies in the world. He works and lives in one of the best cities we had ever been to. He had earned awards that we had only read about. He’s worked with companies that we study every day… And yet, he still does not yet consider himself successful.
Will Smith on Success
Will Smith was featured on Oprah shortly after I contemplated the theory and philosophy of success. I was inspired by many of his values and his philosophy on life. He mentioned how he is still stuck in the mindset of a poor man even after 20 years of financial success. Clearly, he does not see wealth as a sign of success. Later he touched on his beliefs of success by saying, “to be successful is to overcome death.” His philosophy of success is a level that many do not consider, including me. I have yet to truly understand this, but I have thought about it every day since, and how it impacts my views on success.
It is hard to say what will make me successful in my eyes throughout my life. Will my job define that? Will my family relationships define that? Will my experiences, knowledge, and network define that?
For me, it is a combination of all and the quality of my relationship with those things that will define success.
Your goal as an internet marketer.
A lot of people tend to struggle with the value of social media for businesses, especially if they’re not really social marketers, they’re business people. I saw a great example today of exactly what business want to see as they begin to interact with consumers through social media. I’ve removed the names to protect privacy.
Two years ago, nobody would have ever posted on the internet their mid-afternoon snack choice. Today we do and we’re sharing with hundreds and maybe thousands of friends and followers. Tomorrow we will tag that image and post not only to our followers and people who we know, but we’ll share with our brand’s followers and those that we don’t know.
The influence users have over purchasing choices while using social media has been documented many times over. If this doesn’t convince you, I’m not sure what will work… and in that case, you probably will struggle to compete in a complicated market place.
As we come together, how will we move apart?
I was reading Unleashing the Ideavirus by Seth Godin
As the world comes together on the internet, content grows drastically. We’ve only been in this era for a short period of time but we are already bombarded with more information than any of our previous generations could fathom.
Many see a future where the internet connects the world and the people all become a unified “hive” as Seth would put it. But after reading about Seth’s “ideavirus” and the need to infect specific “hives,” I beg to differ. He clearly states that there is no way to infect everybody even if your product could impact everybody.
So as we enter an era with unlimited content, we have learned to aggregate content in a way that is focused to only our needs. As marketers, it is unbelievably essential to understand this. As our world starts to evolve electronically, everyone will be segmented into hives. Marketers will have more success by focusing on hives and understanding the targeted hive instead of the traditional mass media.
The Puzzle Piece Fits Perfectly!
I had coffee with an old friend from high school this weekend and started talking about my upcoming graduation and career plans. I explained to her what I wanted to do including SEO, digital marketing, Facebook, Twitter… and her face went blank! Of course this was a foreign language to a Sociology major!
This wasn’t the first time this has happened to me so I quickly gave her my mini description but found myself going into the business strategies of the companies that I wanted to work for and the pros and cons of the digital strategy of the companies that I’m considering and this- and that- and… I realized at that moment how important this work is to me. I realized the passion I had for digital marketing was very real. I know I’m making the right career path and I can’t wait to start.
It is an amazing feeling for that to just click like it did. Since my time at CareerEco, I knew I loved the work I was doing so much, that I honestly didn’t think of doing anything else. After that conversation this weekend, I know I will do anything in my power to get “there.”
Get a new business plan! Don’t just block others’!
In the past century, we’ve seen some great new technology that allows others to maximize their use and efficiency of certain products and services. Consumers love this technology, and it tends to become a great hit. Manufacturers and suppliers of the old processes, products, and services really don’t like this new technology. It’s called the process of destructive technology.
We’ve seen examples of this happening over and over. Many times, the companies of the old products try to persuade government or the new technology owner to limit the use or ability of the new technology just so the old guys can stay in business.
A good leader will learn to respond to this new challenge, they’ll change their business plan, and they’ll come up with something better. Things like destructive technology and competition keep innovation pumping and consumers buying.
In recent years, we’ve seen a couple of great examples of destructive technology: Netflix & the Kindle
Netflix
Netflix is interesting because they’re just putting a new process on something that was already well established: renting movies. Of course, the movie publishers don’t like Netflix’s new strategy and their ability to stream movies online. Warner Brothers (WB) has taken steps in 2009 to reach an agreement with Netflix so that they can only rent WB movies 28 days after they are available elsewhere on DVD.
Essentially, WB is leveraging their power to potentially damage Netflix market share because Netflix came up with an innovative new way to get people what they want in the most efficient way possible– and people love it. WB should reevaluate their business strategy to shift how money is made if this is damaging their profits instead of forcing other corporations to work in a way that WB feels is acceptable to their profits.
You may have seen my recent post or have read in the news about Kindle’s recent fiasco. They were in a “price war” at the end of January and for the beginning portion of February over the price of their e-books. Amazon has built their Kindle brand by keeping bestsellers at $9.99. Beginning with publishing giant, Macmillan, Amazon was forced to raise their prices to up to $14.99 matching the rival iPad’s announcement on average book prices on their e-reader platform.
In economics, the first thing we learned was that price depends on supply and demand. When it comes to electronic products, supply is virtually unlimited! So the price depends on what the demand is… some more basic economics say that when a buyer is shopping for two identical products, they will tend to purchase the cheaper version, leaving competition in the hands of the manufactures in creating a competitive advantage for their product.
How do you get a competitive advantage if the PUBLISHER is influencing it all?! The publishers’ competitive advantage lies in the quality of their books and writers! If they aren’t making the profits, adjust the business plan of the affected company, not the ones who already have a successful one!
We create the box we’re trying to think out of.
I have 2 philosophies that I go by. My classic philosophy is to ask “why?” I do this for a couple of reasons:
- To understand how and why others do things in order to expand my horizons.
- To challenge others to understand why they’re doing things and to ask others step out of line to potentially make processes better.
My most recent philosophy is based on “why” and adds on to it a little more. It’s almost a visual thought process for me. When I hit a brick wall, I picture the problem to be inside a box. I ask myself, “What are the lines or obstructions that are keeping this problem or situation contained?” I ask, are they rules? Are they processes? I think of my first philosophy and maybe ask why they exist? Do they really serve a function anymore? And if not, I find a way to lighten the intensity of that line in the box and find a way around them.
We create the box that we’re trying to think out of. When that brick wall approaches us, how will we get around it? Who or what is blocking the success of what we are trying to do? Why? What resources do I have that I can use to bypass it? When Professor Rummel first mentioned this in my Marketing Management course, I knew she was right, but I didn’t realize how many different situations this applied in. I use this philosophy every single day when I run into a problem or negative situation. If we all used this philosophy, think of how much more efficient we could make the things we do for the next person or next time around.
Lessons over the ocean…
I returned from my trip on Sunday a little jet lagged and very renewed. I know, you’re thinking that is impossible, but I must interject my friend, it’s very possible. In London, I sat in a conference room with 30 of my classmates listening to Steve Madincea talk about his experiences, as a fellow Michigander, starting an international business in London.
I was incredibly enlightened and slightly intimidated by his courage to continue to tackle the massive feat of starting a company, literally on his wife’s credit card, in a country foreign to him. On top of that, he can continue to succeed in his industry and refuses to take a step down and coast through life. He constantly pushes against the grain to be the best and keep his team performing at their best.
I learned many valuable lessons in that short hour with Steve. The one lesson that I know I can and will apply in any aspect of my life, personal or professional, is to be open-minded. While we journeyed London, we shouldn’t notice that they drive on the wrong side of the road, we should notice that it is different and then find out why. (Back before there were cars, the folks of the UK would pass someone on the left side of the road or path because most were right-handed and could carry their sword in defense).
This is important internationally when working with many cultures. This is also important as a job-seeker looking to potentially adapt to a different corporate cultures. No matter where this skill is used, it is essential. As I continued on to Paris, I was sure to keep this idea in practice and I have certainly brought it home with me. It is good practice for all business people whether the work is local or international. It keeps our attitudes in check and helps adaptation and keeps good business with all types of people and cultures.
Google does Olympics like nobody has done them before!
You can’t tell me this isn’t this coolest thing you’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen a world-class event so interactive before- and who did it first? Google of course. Google Maps is sporting this great new link to check out the Olympics for yourself!
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