EXTRA CREDIT:

From the webcast I listened to on the American Marketing Association website, I learned the ten rules on how to target today’s customer on the internet. The speaker spoke about how the age of consumer empowerment brings new challenges. The customer is now more technical savvy due to many technical advances. The ten steps described in the webcast are as follows:

1) Recognize Challenge—One should know more about SPAM Blockers and the percentage of people on the Do Not Call List. Many messages are simply not reaching their targets. In fact, it was said that 15% of messages do not reach their target market.
2) Get Permission & Give Customers What They Want, CONTROL—For example, allow for advocacy groups and chances for consumers to voice opinions.
3) Cast Many Lines & Don’t Limit Ways to Find Customers—For example, have checkboxes to send information on enrollment forms or ask if there is interest in a newsletter.
4) Relevance, Relevance, Relevance—Personalized messages are relevant messages. 67% of consumers say they will respond to an e-mail if it is “relevant information.”
5) Capture the Right Amount of Information—One must know the audience in order to deliver a compelling message. Know as much personal information as quickly as possible. Be careful though not to go too far. You may scare the prospect. Use the “drip, drip, drip” method and take your time if you need to.
6) Pay Attention to Privacy Concerns & Trust
7) Convert “Prospects” into “Customers”.
8) Keep It Clean—Use an in-house list and keep it up-to-date for maximum impact. The list is extremely valuable and one must maintain it. Rented lists will never work as well as the in-house list.
9) Measure to Measure—Metrics do matter. Track everything, especially conversion rates. Many companies fail to do this.
10) Don’t Stop Now—Deepen the relationship with the customer and built the trust!

BLOG #6:

Article

I think that Nissan’s media campaign for the new 2007 Sentra is brilliant. If the company is aiming to target a youthful crowd, then they know how. Today’s youth are not only internet savvy, but they constantly referring to the internet for information and entertainment. The blog for their seven day advertisement did both. Many companies know that internet promotion is growing, but with concerns for a youthful market, Nissan has the competitive advantage this time. I like how the article said that they were inviting the target market and not interrupting them like most promotional ads on the internet. By doing this, Nissan is breaking the clutter in internet marketing and promotion. Internet users are constantly bombarded each day with pop-up ads and banners. As a result, consumers look past the ads and are not concerned with what is really being advertised and what message is being sent.

Nissan also went the route of endorsing a comedic celebrity. Having Marc Horowitz living in a car for seven days and allowing him to blog about his experience is definitely entertainment for today’s society. Celebrity endorsers may either help or hurt the image a company is trying to portray. In this case, it helped Nissan.

I think the car manufacturing company did fabulous marketing research about their product and brand image. Without this, they would not be as successful. They hit the nail on the head when referring to the Sentra as a “deal” car. No young adult ever wishes for a Sentra for his or her first choice. The car is accepted as being handed down for free or it being purchased at a cheap price. With the new and improved updates like bluetooth and positive brand image through internet promotion, Nissan’s sales should be improving from the younger, more hip generations.

BLOG #5:

Article

I chose this article because I feel like it relates closely to my second blog about Amazon entering into the market for downloadable entertainment. There is a market today for downloading music and movies on the internet, and Napster has been taking advantage of in the United States for years in the past. Now the company, with Tower Records, is taking advantage of the second biggest market, Japan. However, since they are not a first mover in the country, there are many competitors such as Apple that have a similar approach to the downloading market.

As far as the merge with Tower Records and Napster Japan is concerned, I think that the promotion of entertainment on the internet is a great idea. The fixed fees with unlimited downloads that Napster offers, might allow people with less of a discretionary income to help support their favorite artists. Apple, their competitor, has a per song rate and charges their customers for each individual song and album that is downloaded off the site. If Napster supporters want this option, it is available to them as well. The main advantage Apple may have however, is their high brand recognition and the relation of the name with their well-know product, the IPOD. On the contrary, I think that with Tower Records behind Napster, they will be successful. Napster has the unique option too of downloading music tones to your cell phone. Apple has not yet introduced this idea to their market. This may be their competitive advantage.

Downloading has always been available to consumers. It is an amazing attribute to promoting products and services on the internet. Not only are companies like Napster, Apple, and Amazon offering downloadable services, but in today’s society companies are offering anywhere from downloadable movie and airline tickets for a fee, to free coupons. The world today demands convenience in the marketplace. The ability to download may be the best thing that has happened to cyberspace.

BLOG #4:

Article

I find this article very interesting. I think it is amusing that Wikipedia is getting fingers pointed at them for being a well-known and trusted free online encyclopedia source. From my past experience with the website, I know that Wikipedia is an excellent tool. I would have never guessed that they could be secretly promoting themselves. I feel as if they always mind their own business and are only known through Google searches. I would have never classified them as promoters of the internet until reading this article.

Wikipedia, I believe, is telling the truth when they say that they are not using donated funds to promote their website. The dotcom company supported their stance by stating that they do not need the promotion because they are already “too popular” of an internet site. They are right. They are not a part of the dotcom busts that we discussed in class this week. Not only is the use of Wikipedia free, but their competitive advantage is that they are constantly updating their information for the public’s use. They do not only use words that you can find in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, but the trendiest words used in today’s society. I think this is why Click Z assumed what they did. It is not uncommon Wikipedia is up-to-date on the latest business slang that was in a posted article.

I also find it very clever how the author of this article asked if Wikipedia had a secret admirer that was giving them free promotion. Maybe they do and maybe it is done without any thought. Maybe Wikipedia has become such a trustworthy source that is known to give top quality, up-to-date information. Right now, no one knows.

BLOG #3:

Article

I think that this idea of promoting and selling postage through the internet is brilliant. I am surprised that the idea was not implemented sooner. I think that through technology, the reality of an online mail center will be accepted. This new concept is convenient for the busy, average American consumer, or like the article said, “people who sell goods via e-bay.” Many enterprises that use the internet, like mentioned in Chapter 3 of our text book, could certainly benefit from this too.

Post offices are busy these days with endless lines. No one has the desire, time, or patience to wait all day in the post office to send their college student a care-package. Buying postage online allows you to avoid these frustrating steps, which in turn makes the consumers and enterprises satisfied. In the article, the postage company said they wanted to promote and sell postage online in order to meet the demands of customers. To me, that is what marketing and promotion is. Marketing is knowing your target market, finding out what it is that they want, implementing it, and then promoting it.

I feel as though this idea will be a booming success. I see rapid growth with the promotion of postage through the internet. People may be more willing to send items through the U.S. Postal Service now. You do not need stamps on hand or twenty minutes of free time to send a Birthday gift to your Grandmother in Florida, or need stamps to send a letter to your pen-pal in Italy. At the touch of a mouse, postage will be in your hands. Through promoting postage through the internet, there is opportunity for development and growth. Who is to say that in five years post offices will completely vanish and you could be in charge?

BLOG #2:

Article




Amazon, known as being an online store that could ship your purchases right to your door, has now announced that they would also be selling downloadable movies and television episodes. The new idea has been called Amazon Unbox. Since Amazon is already a well promoted company, the new product being marketed on the popular website may be a success. “Amazon's move into the online media business reflects huge growth in the demand for digital entertainment,” said the author. He/She is right. A good percentage of Amazon’s sales are in music and movies. Amazon now, is taking it to the next level competitively and strategically. Downloading some of these episodes or movies on a customer’s personal computer could lead into the customer purchasing the hardcopy of the disc for their television. As a result, the increase in purchases will boost the bottom line. I am certain that the idea of downloading entertainment to a personal computer is not a new concept. Many competing companies, such as Apple, offer similar services. Based on their success as the competition, Amazon can safely assume that there is a target market for this avenue of entertainment.

Amazon’s name is not the only thing being promoted on the internet through this new product, but new releases, like Lost Season 2, are as well. This downloading craze is another way Hollywood can get its name out, while allowing consumers to have less risk as to whether or not they will enjoy it. Consumers in the entertainment world want to be able to conveniently sample something, before purchasing. Also, downloading these movies may be quicker and more convenient than running to the local Blockbuster on a Saturday night!

INTRODUCTION
Hello, my name is Maria Boulden. I am a senior at the University of Delaware studying Business Administration with a concentration in both Management and Marketing and with a minor in International Business. I am hoping to be a business owner some day, but this semester I am taking a course titled Information Technology Applications in Marketing. As a requirement for the course, we were asked to maintain a blog. The topics for the blogs were left up to our control. The topic I chose for my blog is Promotion in Internet Marketing. Each week, for 6 weeks, my assignment is to find an article, post it on the blog, and then comment on it. Here is my first assignment:

BLOG #1

Article

Since this is my first experience as a blogger, I chose to do my first entry about blogging and how it can positively effect the promotion of a new or existing product. In the article by Tessa Wergert, it is said that promotional blogging has grown. She even mentions the future of blogging, vlogs. Vlogs are video blogs that can help in the promotion of a product or idea. Promotional blogging is now going to the next level and the bloggers are ready for it.

I feel that marketers now understand that the blogosphere is playing a big role in consumer perceptions. The reach for a specific or wide range target market is there in the world of blogging and people are open and willing to listen. Using blogs and vlogs to introduce a product, service, or a motion picture film, like King-Kong in this case, will cause an incredible amount of buzz. From there, bloggers will take the ball and run with it. Everyday people may go to the King Kong vlog and see what the cast is up to next according to their diaries. People who feel like they are a part of the production process and saw the step by step making of the film, probably would be more inclined to go see the movie when it hit the theaters, bring a friend along, and pay $8.00 for the ticket on opening night. Vlog marketers even made King-Kong parody to advertise Lee Jeans starring a beautiful, giant female. It was an internet success

Before taking this class, I did not know what blogging was. I only saw it in a negative light based on only what I have heard about it from others. Now I know and understand that blogging is more then just being a consumer and voicing your opinion, but it is promoting. It can be promoting yourself, your ideas, or your product.