To Accept or Not Accept??

Is there a better way to do some free advertising and reach millions around the world than on the Internet? Nope. For now, it seems like the best option. Online social media is on the rise today and businesses have noticed and are taking action to become part of this networking frenzy. After reading this article, we see 25 common social media mistakes businesses make when e marketing.

Making the decision to create a business web page or a blog so that your customers can follow you, is sometimes a challenge for businesses. Knowing when/where to draw the line of privacy and getting too friendly too fast, can cause you more than your customers, it can get you sued. When one of your customers accepts to “be your friend” on Facebook for example, it can be confusing as to what you’re allowed to do. Facebook can be a great tool to use when trying to find out what your customers like and what their interests are. It’s like a window into the customer’s world in which you can explore and observe customer. Not to mention all the exposure you get in each friend you gain. All of their friends get to see your ad on their friend’s page and they most likely will click on it to see, increasing your exposure.

In this article, the author mentions that social media can aid in better customer service, making customers feel important and valued. On the other hand, I think that social media can hurt a business with the lack of human contact. Some clients like the human interaction and will miss that. Businesses have to find a balance in which they communicate with the customer over the Internet, the phone, or in person. I’m sure that eventually business that deal with their customers face to face make their customers feel valuable.

For now, I don’t think that company’s need to devote as much time as those teens claim to dedicate to their social networks. The reason they spend so much time is because at that age, you want to keep up with your friends. Teenagers used to talk on the phone for hours before the Internet came along. They just need to stay in contact with each other at all times. Businesses don’t need to communicate to that extent, the task of keeping the page fresh can be easily delegated to the Marketing, PR, or HR department.  

I personally think that businesses should make an effort to keep up with the social media and make themselves visible in it, but not try to overtake it. The hard part would be finding the balance between the two. They have to understand that the friends acquired in the company’s facebook account, are for business purposes only and the way they interact with them, can make them or break them. Social media should act as a tool for inviting customers only and keeping all communication professional.

 

Mind Games

Today’s technology is allowing us to predict the consumer’s thoughts by letting marketing researchers know what and if they consumer likes or dislikes and more importantly, if they will make a purchase or not. In the article “Is my brain making me buy things I don’t need?” Julia Layton, describes how MRI machines are used to measure the “pleasure center” to see if the consumer likes the product, and the insula (which is the opposite of the pleasure center) of the brain.  The insula is what marketing researches would be interested in testing because it would let them know if the consumer is going to purchase the product. If marketers knew exactly what the consumer wants, then there’s no need to market undesired, un profitable products.
  



There is an ethical side to neuromarketing, no matter how bad marketers want it to be, neuromarketing cannot influence or manipulate your thoughts. If neuromarketing is as effective as researchers claim, then what will happen to the privacy of our thoughts? Will this be something that companies start to depend on for other than marketing purposes? I think that neuromarketing can be a great advancement in marketing but only if used correctly and doesn't abuse our privacy and  human rights.

Car Sales Cry Over Gadget Demand Increase

Buying a car is not a priority for many young Americans today, for many, it may be at the bottom of a gadget filled list. As mentioned in the article posted by the professor, all the networks available make it easier for people to stay in touch and connected, reducing their need to travel places. This causes an obvious sales drop in car sales.

The current economic situation is the real factor to blame when it comes to low car sales versus electronic gadgets. Airplanes, cruise ships, and hotels are a onetime expense unlike buying a car that requires you making high monthly payments for a couple of years, even if they all have made adjustments and are adapting to the new needs and wants from Generation Y. Airlines, cruise ships, and hotels now offer services like free Wi-Fi. Cars now claim to leave a smaller carbon footprint, like the Ford Fiesta with attractive features like a considerably low price, high mph, and better for the environment, all these features are still not attracting young consumer’s interests. Young adults are trying to find ways to cut cost, stay healthy, and be environmentally cautious. Walking, riding a bike, taking the bus, or carpooling with friends to get to campus and work made it to top 3 on the Surviving the Economy: 10 Easy Ways to Save Money Right Now

On the other hand, the sales of iPads, iPhones, and other electronic gadgets, continues to increase not only from the purchases of the Generation Y, but also from all generations. Therefore, it might be the car industry trying to find more excuses for not meeting their sales.

The Government of the Future

As technology and dependency to use the internet increases, it was only a matter of time before the use of government services was used along with the internet. The efficient processing of the vast amount of information collect, stored, and disseminated online is rapidly growing. One of the earliest of these "E-Government" successes is Benefits.gov it provides citizens with easy online access to government benefit and assistance programs. Prior to this site, citizens seeking government benefit information had no choice but to search through a complicated and confusing maze of web pages, often unsuccessfully.

With Benefits.gov, you can successfully apply for government benefits by filling online. This is very convenient for busy people that don’t have time to deal with these matters that usually needs to be taken care of during office hours. Others might feel a little more apprehensive about sharing personal information over the internet. Physically meeting in person with a government representative personally makes me feel more secure about the transaction. The lack of face-to-face interaction between government agencies and the people they serve makes it difficult for the government to assure that the identity of the person performing the transaction is authentic.

The future looks bright for the E-Government services. The younger generation is used to using technology for many things. As this generation keeps getting older, many services will begin to switch over to online services in order to meet the generation’s knowledge of technology and the use of it. In addition, as the years pass, people’s peace of mind will shift as it did when online shopping first emerged.

"I Always Feel Like, Somebody's Watching Me...."

With technology and crime on the rise these days, it was only a matter of time before a company combined the two to make it work to their advantage. Internet Eyes, a company in the UK, has found the way to hire people to watch shoppers with surveillance cameras in stores to watch shoppers from the comfort of their home.

I have mixed feelings about the way it violates people's privacy. Many retail stores worldwide already have surveillance cameras in their store as a loss prevention tool. Shoppers know this and they have come to terms with it. As long as the surveillance cameras aren't placed in the store's restrooms or fitting rooms, people know their every move is recorded by surveillance cameras. 

Internet Eyes has made it more effective because most surveillance videos are viewed after the crime has been committed. Many times crimes go undetected because the surveillance videos are not being used properly. (i.e. Don’t have a tape, are not recording at all times, etc…)

I think that this system already exists here in the United States. It’s just that we haven’t gotten as carried away as the UK and adopt their  ”dataveillance” system. The problem with that is that it would eventually work its way to that point. By trying to be too careful and watchful over people , you can also be putting them at risk. What would happen if your dataveillance falls into the wrong hands? Would be just as bad as or worse than having your identity stole here in the US?

The article in Britain is 'surveillance society'  a report shows the UK to be “the most surveilled country.” Their dataveillance records your every little move, your mobile phone triangulation, credit card transactions, satellites, phone tapping, keystroke programmes, even your mobile phone cameras to name a few.

The craziest part, as shown in US and UK have become "endemic" surveillance societies.The US and UK’s are shown to be in the same category when it comes to their privacy and “endemic surveillance" right along with Russia, and China.

8-Year Old Teacher

It’s funny how some companies learn valuable lessons like, “How to listen to your customers?” Boeing is learning a couple of important rules from this list on customer service; the ironic part is their teacher.

Harry Winsor, an 8-year old boy from Boulder, CO. has an airplane fascination and inspires to be an airplane designer when he grows up. After mailing one of his many airplane drawings to Boeing, his dad, John Winsor was shocked when he received their reply to Harry’s drawing. Torn, he blogged and Twittered about his hard decision of whether to tell Harry about the letter, or just throw it away.

As CEO of the ad agency Victors & Spoils, he is aware of the amount of people that would see his blog, but I don’t think he imagined how powerful his blog and tweets would be. Word-of-mouth, is very successful in getting your message across. Negative word-of-mouth has indirect effects that are extremely damaging to any company’s image. Cecilia Alvarez, a Consumer Behavior Professor at the Florida International University in Miami, explains in class lectures that,

“Studies indicate that an upset customer will tell between 10 to 20 other people (direct effect). The same studies indicate that these people will tell an average of 5 others each (indirect effect).”

This explains the attention Boeing’s inconsiderate response has raised in the media. Sadly, I think that this is a big reason why Boeing decided to invite the Winsor family for a VIP tour of their plant. Because they recognized the amount and speed of negative word-of-mouth customers were exposed to are tremendously dangerous to their company image.

It’s crazy how the employees at Boeing, with their high degrees, tittles, experience, and knowledge, didn’t have the common sense to see that the mailed in airplane design was clearly from an inspired child. They should have personalized the response letter to be age appropriate and sensible. Including some inspirational words and/or free gifts to keep the child inspired and motivated. Keeping the child’s feelings in mind should have been priority in their response.

Boeing is doing the right thing by understanding that they were wrong and trying to fix it. (Great example of Step #6 in the, “How to Listen to Your Customers?” link). Customer satisfaction is correlated with being profitable. If Boeing plans to stay in business for many years to come, it is in their best interest to listen to their customers and keep them happy. No matter how old they are. Hopefully this incident will teach Boeing as well as many other companies to train and develop their employees to better listen to their customers.

I don’t think that Boeing’s response will cause airlines to boycott their plane designs as a cause of the negative word-of-mouth. The issue was not life threatening, and Boeing is currently addressing the issue and correcting it. If my child wanted to mail his drawing in to a company in hopes to have it become their next design, I would definitely do it. I want to encourage my son to dream and be creative. Hopefully, this lesson is learned by all other companies, and they will start training their employees to be more customer service friendly.