Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Learning Reflection: Week 10 eConsumers

This week we learnt about eConsumers. This topic covered a wide variety of information which basically discussed eConsumers in a broad sense. The lecture notes talked about eConsumers but also had two links to videos. The videos were 1800 Flowers and ZDNET interviews Yahoo CIO. These two videos discuss different topics. The 1800 Flowers talked about the use of ordering through mobile devices and the increase of Web 2.0. Whereas the ZDNET interview Yahoo CIO talked about the key elements of social networking.

Brand trust is influences by 8 key elements which are:
· Brand strength
· Privacy
· Security
· Navigation and presentation
· Advice
· Community
· Order fulfilment
· Absence of errors

These elements are the drivers of trust.

We also learnt about the three types of online search behaviours which are:

· The explorer
· The Hunter
· The tracker

The last area was the five stages of onsite information processing which are:

· Exposure
· Attention
· Comprehension and perception
· Yielding and acceptance
· Loyalty

All the areas which we covered about eConsumers relates to most consumers because the internet is becoming more and more popular to buy products. eBay and Amazon have demonstrated how buying on the internet has become simple and non complex.

Week 10: eConsumers

1) In Chaffey (2008) chapter 4 three types of shopper behaviour are identified. These are the tracker, the hunter, and the explorer. What are the characteristics of these customer behaviours and how in particular might you encourage an explorer to purchase online?

When looking at the three types of shopping behaviours which are the tracker, the hunter and the explorer. The characteristics for these shopping behaviours are:

· The tracker- the characteristics of the tracker are that they are consumers who track a product which they go onto the website to look for products “price, availability, delivery times, delivery charges or after sales support” (Chaffey, 2008). This ideally means that a tracker is a consumer who knows what product they want and go searching for it.

· The hunter- is a consumer who knows what type of product they are after (such as an iphone, LCD TV for example) but do not have a specific product in mind (Chaffey, 2008). An example would want to buy a new iphone but know knowing what brand to buy.

· The explorer- is consumers who do not know what specific product they are after. These consumers ideally have defined shopping objectives (Chaffey, 2008).These objectives could be trying to buy a present for a friend. This means the customer wants to buy a present but doesn’t know exactly what to buy.

With the explorer wanting to buy for a purpose but not knowing exactly what to buy the internet might be a good way to purchase. To encourage explorers to purchase online it might be a good idea because the website might have a catalogue such as k-mart of items online to buy. Even eBay is a good way to look for presents because the explorer could look through different items. Eventually online purchases would be a good way for explorers to search because they can search at home and do not have to go anywhere.

2) Given that the main fears about using the Internet are securtity and privacy, what can organisations do to reassure customers?

When conducting any transactions or contracts over the internet, security and privacy becomes a big issue. Organisations have to make some assurance to customers that their details and transactions are safe. A way that organisations can reassure customers that their security and privacy is safe is by having a disclaimer. Websites such as the Commonwealth bank have information about how your details and transactions are secure by having information about security and privacy of the website. Websites have to secure which would reassure the customer. Basically companies/organisations have to assure customers that their information is private. Security and privacy are major issues when using the internet for transactions and details. Mainly businesses which have online websites have to ensure that customer information and details are safe.

3) Onsite information processing can be divided into 5 stages. - 1) Exposure, 2) Attention, 3) Comprehension and perception, 4) yielding and acceptance and the last is 5)loyalty. What do you think is meant by each of these stages?

When discussing the 5 stages of the information processing I have interpreted these stages as:
Exposure: This is when a consumer goes onto a website or store which is ideally the first contact with the website or store (product). An example would be going onto the Commonwealth website which is the first contact with the website without doing anything. The exposure to the website ideally means that the customer sees the website to ideally process what the website is offering.

Attention: This is keeping the consumers attention when in the store or website. An example is when going onto a website such as a restaurant and the layout and colours are eye catching. This keeps the consumers attention because the website is not boring but showing personality and intrigues the consumer.

Comprehension and perception: This could mean the consumer understands the content or product. The customer might have an opinion of the product/website. This the stage where the consumer thinks about and makes an opinion about the website/product.

Yielding and acceptance: This is when the consumer accepts the product and wants to return to the website to purchase the product. The website ideally needs to allow the consumer to be able to process the information and evaluate if they like the website.

Loyalty: lastly loyalty is a big thing with information processing because this means the consumer can become brand loyal meaning they will continuously buy the product. All firms want consumers to be brand loyal with them. Brand loyalty is a major part of marketing because ideally companies want returning customers. Just like the 20/80 rule which means 20% of customers make up 80% of products.

4) How can (online) customer loyalty be improved?

Online customer loyalty can be more difficult than offline loyalty. Online customer loyalty can be improved by companies trying to make customers brand loyal by sending offer and information updates on products which the customer is likely into. The company has to try and make customers loyal by keeping the customer feeling important and wanted. This can be shown through value propositions such as the company’s best clients receiving better rewards to keep the customer feeling special and wanting to continue to be loyal to the brand. For example companies which deliver out the goods/products need to make sure that the delivery time specified reflects the actual time the consumer receives it. Online businesses have to ensure that consumer’s wants and needs have been met. Under promising and over delivering may be a key indicator for more online customer loyalty.

5) It is very cost effective to conduct online market research, but there is also potential for sampling errors. The article extract below shows that 78% of women would rather have a pet than a husband. Do you think this figure is accurate? Give reasons for your answer.

By looking at this extract in my opinion there is defiantly a sampling error. With most of the listeners being female of course the number was going to be significantly high. By looking at the age of the listeners it can be assumed that women between 23-49 would have different views on marriage. For example if 50,000 of the listeners were in their early 20’s there is a huge chance that they do not want to be getting married at that age and would rather a pet than a husband. Whereas women in their 30’s and 40’s would either want to get married or are already married. This all depends on the age of the women voting. The broad range of listeners could be hard to dictate since most majority of the listeners could be in their 20’s which could make up the 78%. This survey is tough to know because the age range of the people who completed the survey may not be a good indicator of the given question. The radio station has a percentage of 87% of listeners being female aged between 23-49.

"An online poll released by DogCatRadio.com, shows more women would rather have a pet than a husband.Of the 103,900 votes cast in a period of seven days, an overwhelming 78% voted for a furry rather than a hairy companion. The poll has a sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.While it's been said that a dog is "Man's best friend", the radio station says that 87% of its listeners are women between the ages of 23-49."

6) As more and more services can be delivered via mobile devices, there is already talk of the post-PC consumer. What impact will this have on marketing?

When looking at services turning more to delivery via mobile devices this would impact marketing by marketers having to think of different ways to market products by mobile devices. This is not a new concept meaning services such as Optus already use mobile marketing. Optus sends out ads and text messages talking about new deals and offers. If other companies started to take this approach then more services and products could be sold because mobile devices are the now. With the introduction of iphones this indicates better technology showing better picture quality for ads to be shown. Marketing can be used through mobiles because most consumers have the internet already on their phones.

7) Watch the 1800 flowers video. If you want to just watch the 2 minutes versions. How does 1800 flowers optimise fresh delivery of flowers in all states of America?

After watching the 1800 flower video the main information I gathered from the video were that:

· 1800 flowers had a Mobile contact so customers could order flowers
· The use of One click technology
· The customer information is already stored
· Web 2.0 technologies
· Social networking
· Using blogs

Basically the video talked about how 1800 flowers optimise fresh delivery of flowers by allowing customers to order via their mobile. This is easy for customers because the device allows them to order flowers and the company already has their information. 1800 flowers use’s one click technology which means that customers can order by a click of a button. This makes the process a lot easier. 1800 Flowers also uses web 2.0 technologies to increase recognition of the brand. 1800 Flowers use social networking and blogs to talk about the business. 1800 Flowers uses different mediums to reach a wide audience of consumers.

8) Watch the Yahoo video (or just the 2 minute version). What are the key elements of a social network that are identified?
After watching the Yahoo video the main key elements of social networks which were identified were:

· Social search
· social interaction
· Sharing information.
· Social contact
· Quality of content

These elements were discussed because this is ideally what has made social networks popular. Web 2.0 has expanded and is used more now than ever before. Social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are popular amongst internet users because of these above elements. The social search is used to find friends who may have an account on these networks. The social interaction such as on Facebook and MySpace can be through commenting another user’s profile/status or by using the chat. Sharing information is like having pictures and videos on the network and tagging friends in pictures so they have the photo as well. Social contact is a big thing with social network sites because it allows people to find old friends whom they may not have been able to get into contact with before. Lastly the quality of the content is a big element of the social network because the users want the site to look good and be easy to use.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Reflection on learning: Week 9: New Media and Brand

This week’s topic was ‘New Media and Brand’. This week we have learnt about customer media habits and how this affects marketing. With the increase of the internet ideally means that consumers are decreasing time spent watching television, radio, newspapers and magazines. With offline marketing not being as affective as once before this causes marketers to market online. This indicates that marketers have to convert many of these mediums to be online friendly to be able to get their message across.

Examples of customer media habits are:
· DVD
· TiVo
· Pay per view
· RSS
· Streaming video

This week also discussed customer controlled media. Customer controlled media ideally is by the customer/user. There are many examples of customer controlled media which are:

· Photo sharing
· Videos
· User content
· Chat rooms
· Social searches

Week 9 also discussed brand and the many areas of brand. Companies strive to have a recognisable brand. Brand equity ideally is when a company wants a competitive advantage. When looking at brand awareness there is two levels which contribute to brand awareness. The two levels are brand recognition and brand recall. Brand recognition is when consumers recognise the brand and are familiar with it. Whereas brand recall is when a customer is thinking of brands recall the brand first. Examples of this are when buying a car most customers think of Holden, Ford, Mazda and Hyundai. Brand image is how consumers think of the brand. Such as Volvo cars are seen as a safe car.

Having brands online can be difficult which means that there has to be interactive brand building. Examples of customer acquisition are:

· PR (Public Relations)
· Offline advertising
· Viral marketing (you tube)
· Online advertising

Reflection on learning- People, Proof and Partnership

This week we learnt about ‘People, Proof and Partnership’. There were many areas which were covered such as Automation. Automation can be described as a way to control a system such as advanced technology.(World net, n.d). This week listed the different processes which are automated such as:

· Email notification
· FAQ
· On site searches
· Virtual assistants

Also discussed how people have to keep things updated whilst listing examples such as:
· Regular updates
· Content ownership
· Publish date displayed

This week also discussed the importance of training people. If the staff were not trained then this can be an issue because the staff would not know what they are doing which leads to issues.
There was also three different types of evidence which was discussed such as:
· Physical evidence
· Offline evidence such as telephone numbers or logos
· Online evidence such as website designs and policies

Processes are also another area which had been introduced as a topic discussing how the processes are used to make transactions or communication with customers.
The process can also go into after the sale such as feedback, upselling and cross selling. This means that even after the sale there is still interaction with the customer.
Lastly there is partnership which is making a marketing partnership or alliances with other companies.

References:
World net.(n.d). World Web search. Retrieved October 11, 2009 from: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=automation

Week 8 lecture

Week 8: People, Proof and Partnerships

Does the 90:10 service/sales rule still hold true?

There are many different ways to interpret the 90/10 rule depending on which context you are looking at it from. When looking at a business the 90/10 rule ideally is when businesses spend 90% on direct marketing and 10% of time on skill development (Buzzle, 2009). Whereas the 90:10 in sales performance is 90% of sales are produced by 10% of the sales team (About.com, 2009). Ideally this does make sense in which when a customer goes to the store not always does the customer get the sales person to help. Whereas when marketing and selling online this would hold semi true in which the customer would go to the online store and purchase products without a sales person. Or the customer could ask for some ‘virtual assistance’. This rule holds true because only 10% probably would come from the sales force aka assistance.

Perhaps you now just want the best deal?

When buying products online ideally you are trying to receive the best deal. When purchasing products online oppose to in store it is a perception that you would receive a better deal. So by marketing and selling online this cuts out the middle man when selling products and makes it more direct. With the 90:10 rule without having a sales person generating most of the sales the customer can look around and receive the best deal (that they perceive to be). Price is a big factor so this ideally motivates customer spending.
You may have virtual friends, so what proof do you want that virtual sales people are real? (?!!?)

What about a virtual lecturer?

Realistically as a consumer I would not know whether or not the virtual sales person was real or not. Things being on the internet lead people to have to assume the sales person is real. The internet can be deceiving in which people can assume people are real because technology is advancing so much that sometime soon we may not have to have real people doing these services on the internet. Although this is just an assumption.

Would you really want to replace me with..?

When thinking about replacing a lecturer with a virtual lecturer there are good points and bad. Ideally having subjects online, students wouldn’t really know whether the lecturer was there or not. Ideally by having online classes students don’t really see or meet with the lecturer. By having a lecturer being virtual this could be a downside if the lecturer was just computer generated and would be limited in certain ways. When discussing with a real lecturer over the internet they can relate and know what you are talking about. But with a generated lecture this could be rather difficult. This could lead to issues but on the other hand it may not.

Finally, how do you manage marketing relationships with virtual partners?

Ideally you would think that the relationship is mostly the same where the relationship is purely online based and all transactions and meetings would consist on an online basis. After looking at how you would manage the marketing relationship there would be an alliance with the other company in this case marketing company. Managing with virtual partners could be seen as the same as partners just online.


References:

· Buzzle.(2009). Small business:90/10 rule. Retrieved October 11, 2009 from:
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/7-11-2006-101933.asp
· About.com(2009). How to beat the 80/20 rule in sales performance. Retrieved October 11, 2009 from: http://marketing.about.com/od/salestraining/a/salesperform.htm