How Customer-Focused is Your Website? Stalking the Narcissistic Web.

One day a dinner party, I met this beautiful girl, the first time I saw her I thought she was very interesting and quite intelligent. So with a bit of courage I approached to her and we start talking. At the beginning she seemed to be very intelligent with a good sense of humor, I thought that she was wonderful. But five minutes later the awful truth was revealed, even though she was pretty, her conversation was only about one thing, about her. The conversation was so egocentric, only focused in what she liked and she did not, that disappointed, I said to her that I needed to go, and basically I left. This could be happening to your website. Maybe you are wondering, Why to my website? Well good websites need to solve needs, and basically show some of the customer services features that the company is offering to their potential and current clients. A website dedicated to talk only about the company, about their products and how good they are in what they do without taking into consideration what customers are looking for, and what they need, is not a good website. Want to know if your website is a bit egocentric? Take 5 minutes, visit your webpage (if you have one, if not, go to another one and judge it yourself) Pretend that you are a regular customer, write down in a piece of paper 4 or 5 concerns related to a certain product. Navigate the site for a few minutes. Did the website solve your concerns? Or it was only focused in what they do without bearing in mind the concerns of the client? Is your website being a bit narcissistic?

Painting: "Narcissus" by Caravaggio, circa 1597-1599. Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome, Italy.

Continue reading “How Customer-Focused is Your Website?
Stalking the Narcissistic Web”

Source: http://www.marketingtoday.com/emarketing/0305/narcissistic_web.htm

SocialVibe and How to Build Your User Base with Social Network Applications

Looking for interesting news or Articles to post on my blog, I found one, an interview on Marketing Sherpa named “How to Build Your User Base with Social Network Applications”. It is quite interesting because it contains tips of how to achieve growth in a short time and also some about how to hone your strategy, and some examples that can help you to succeed with your social network site. But one thing that really caught my attention that was mentioned in the article was SocialVibe. Created by Jon Marchese, SocialVibe is a website where basically you can get sponsored by your favorite brand on your social profile while earning points for the reward of your choice. These sponsors pay for the impressions served, while the charity association gets a portion of the revenues. The rewards or “Perks” are obtained by earning points for every impression that a SocialVibe Badge have. It is worth mentioning that the SocialVibe Badge is quite important, having a nice one means that you can get sponsored. Sweet deal, Don’t you think? Winning prizes doing almost nothing. Reader, give it a try, sign in and join SocialVibe, it's free. If you gather some points and it is your lucky day, you can get a brand new iPod Touch or a flat screen television.  

To go to Social Vibe.com: http://www.socialvibe.com/

To read Marketing Sherpa’s Article “How to Build Your User Base with Social Network Applications” (Remember that Marketing Sherpa’s Articles have open access only for seven days, if you cannot read it, send me an email and I’ll email you a copy).

Source: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=31115

McDonald's Opens Virtual Store to Promote Value Meals in China

Let's be honest, when we are in a hurry and we are hungry, most of the times we have two options, either wait or buy later and eat some fast food, that most of the times it'sa McDonald's meal, which is not the healthiest option. McDonald's is in every country, sometime in the most convenient places, this kind of food is one the best options specially when you are traveling. Situation: Lets say you are hungry and this is the only place that you know what the hell are you going to eat, especially in countries like China. Talking about China, McDonalds (MD) is worried because people are returning or current clients to traditional Chinese-style fast-food options like rice and noodles and decreasing its consumption of Hamburgers and fries. Since this and the introduction of the Super Value Meals (More food for less money), McDonald's is launching a campaign in association with Taobao (the Chinese version ebay.com).

Dynamics is simple, auction high-priced electronic products. But the thing, this is not like a normal bid, the objetive is that the auctioners have to take down the price of the article and the one who makes the last bidder reaching the price of a Super Value Meal ($16.5 RMB) gets the article. In other words this is a reverse-format auction. Some of the articles are Cell phones, Digital Cameras, Laptops, among others. With this technique Taobao is demonstrating that e-business is showing its strengths: high efficiency and low cost. Give it a try, the only requirement is to know Mandarin.  

To go to McDonald’s Taobao auction site: http://mcd.taobao.com

Continue reading: McDonald's Opens Virtual Store to Promote Value Meals in China

Source: http://adage.com/globalnews/article?article_id=135274

New Colors In The Rainbow

I have to tell you guys, I actually don’t like Skittles, I don’t really like how they taste, I think it’s a very American candy (considering that I’m Mexican and there, the market offers hundreds and hundreds of choices with awesome flavors), but one thing I really like is the campaign they recently launched. If you visit Skittles.com you will see that they don’t have a “regular” website, where, you enter and it shows the clients what they offer, the products, the classic product experience offered by several candy companies, and the classic blog, where they can post whatever they want to say. Skittles decided to create something completely new and creative, stealing some ideas of ideas from the ad agency Modernista! When you access to Skittles.com, it appears a widget that basically guides the visitors to some outside media social sites, if you click on Chatter, you’re taken to twitter, if you click on Friends, you’re taken to Facebook, or if you click on products, it will take you to wikipedia, which is good if you want to learn more about the product. With this mix, they are basically creating a giant conversation with their clients. Give it a look; Do you think that is a good idea? Do consumers have too much control, or perhaps still, not enough? Don’t be shy and post your comments!

To visit the Skittles website: http://www.skittles.com

Wanna read more about Skittles campaign?

MediaPost Article: Skittles Settles on Wikipedia For Brand's Home Page

Source: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=101628

Adage Article: What's Next After Skittles.com?

Source: http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=134995

Are luxury brands making a run for online experiences?

One day I was on my way to watch a movie in my best friend’s car. She likes to read magazines like Harper Baazar and Cosmopolitan, that day she had Vogue. I began to leaf through the magazine, and I found some ads of a lot of brands, especially luxury brands, some of them, seemed to be telling a story and some others only captivating a moment without telling a story or expressing a very deep message. 

For many years luxury brands had advertise their products on a paper format, in places such as magazines, catalogues or newspapers, with this, fashion makers are trying to send a message or tell a story only using a printed sheet of paper. Nowadays this is changing, brands are trying to offer more content and interaction with the brand by using online resources, and with these, offer experiences that a magazine would never be able to.

Brands like YSL and Tod’s are using this kind of resources in order to interact with their customers.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Tod’s "Pashmy Dreams": http://www.tods.com/todstv.html?region=eu&lang=en&detail=43

YSL 24 hours campaign for the 24 hours collection.

With this kind of resources, brands can go further in terms of telling a story, the only thing thing is that they need to be creative in order to offer that real brand experience that they are trying to sell.

Marketer, Do you think this is a good idea? Do you believe this is the right way to reach your customers and interact with them? Do you think that their reputation (luxury brands) is at risk for using this type of tools

Contnue reading: Are luxury brands making a run for online experiences?

Source: http://www.culture-buzz.com/blog/Luxury-Brands-and-Communication-2071.html

For soccer lovers: Sporting Portugal.

For many people, soccer is one of the most exiting sports in the entire world, events like Eurocup and World Cup demosntrate this. Viral marketing is a marketing technique that use pre-existing social newtorks in order to increase awareness and with these, raise sales, or whatever the company is trying to do. But, What this has to do with soccer? How do they relate? And the most important question, How can you mix Viral Marketing and Soccer? Well, is not simple, but not impossible. Sporting Portugal, a Portuguese soccer team, launched a viral campaign in 2007, the main objetive was to increase awareness among the fans and potential fans of the team. The task was easy, create a campaign in order to attract more people and encourage game attendance and drive season ticket sales. Want to know more? Go ahead and give a look to the video, you might come up with something like this and be the next Paulo Bento.

If you want to read more about "Sporting Portugal" 

http://www.culture-buzz.com/blog/Viral-Marketing-for-Sporting-Portugal-1437.html

TrialPay: Works for People With More Time Than Money

Recession is chasing us and the last thing we want to do is spend money.  People love free stuff, especially when they don’t have a lot of cash.  Nowadays this is a reality, websites give away free stuff without people pay a penny for this. TrialPay, offer these kind of services. This is how it works, lets say that you want to go to the movies, you enter to the website and it gives you the option to get the tickets for free, or in other words, paid for them in an indirect way; the only condition is to either answer a questionnaire or try or accept a trial offer of another company. Good deal, don’t you think?  In exchange for answering a survey you can get a free movie ticket or a large pizza from Papa John’s. This won’t change your buying habits, but can help you save some money and acquire products you try not to buy because of the economical situation in which we find ourselves today. Marketer, give it a try, invest in gifts or “free trials” for potential customers using other company’s online networks, maybe they would discover your company and you would be able position yourself in their minds as the company that gives free stuff.

Continue Reading  “TrialPay: Works for People With More Time Than Money”

Source: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/66341.html