Guest Speaker 12/7/06

The speaker last Thursday spoke on the subject of Advertising and Search on the internet. According to him there are several reasons why someone uses a search engine: research, entertainment, comparisons, business, purchases, and news. He also discussed strategic elements for a successful site:
1. Establish the objective of the site
2. How you plan on measuring the site's success
3. Identify the audience and market
4. Know your competition
5. Know what your site can offer
6. Be creative and have interesting content
The goals of the site should also be specific, measurable, attainable, and realistic.

The speaker also covered the search engine industry, SEM, and SEM terminology. I think one of the most interesting things he mentioned in regards to SEMs is how Yahoo and Google differ in how they make money on keywords. Yahoo allows companies to purchase top page positions on their search engines based off of the keywords bidded on by large companies. Google on the other hand uses keywords to trigger ads or "sponsored links". Google also rewards relevancy, so basically the more clicks a site receives, the higher they move on the results page.

I also found his discussion on the selection of keywords interesting because he not only mentioned considering the types of words a customer might look for, but also to consider misspelled words. Being a horrible speller myself I know how frustrating that can be. He also suggested entering your chosen keywords into Google to see what pops up in order to see what your site might be grouped with.

As a whole I found this presentation much more interesting than the last, mainly because we covered new material rather than recapping marketing 300. I actually took notes this time! I'm very proud of myself :)

Usability Assignment

From Jakob Nielson's "Alertbox" I selected the article "Screen Resolution and Page Layout," which was posted July 31, 2006. Nielson covers three basic points in his article:

1. Optimize for 1024 X 768 pixel monitors.
2. Do not design solely for a specific monitor size.
3. Use a liquid layout that stretches to the current user's window size.

1024 X 768 was chosen as the optimal size because about 60% of all users employ monitors within this range, while only about 17% use 800 X 600. There are three things to consider at every monitor size: initial visibility, readability, and aesthetics. Another thing to keep in mind is that most users do not like to scroll, so try to keep the needed information within what can be viewed on the screen.

In the author's personal opinion, everyone should own a large screen monitor. He noted that not only are larger screens better to view the web on, but also increase productivity in white collar workers by 5-10%. Unfortunately most web pages are not designed for wider screens, but they are ideal for individuals who work on spread sheets and graphic design. ( I have been telling my family this for a while now and I still don't have one. Boo hoo, poor little graphic designer.)

I agree with the author on all accounts. Currently I am taking a web design class and they teach you all three of Nielson's main points. I also agree that larger screens are better to work on and sooooo much easier on the eyes. This particular article seems to imply that web pages will continue to grow in size in order to accomodate the larger screens that consumers are purchasing. I also believe that websites will continue to become more complex and detailed due to the increased number of pixels available on the screen and also due to the increased speed of internet connections.

Clickz.com

Being a graphic design student I am very interested in advertising and the article I chose from clickz.com reflects this partiality. The title of the article I selected was "Can ARF write the Book on Web Ads?" and was posted November 7. According to Kevin Newcomb, the article's author, the key reason why online advertisment spending is so low is because there is not a current core body of knowledge about the medium. In order to fix this problem, the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) has created a book with an accumulation of online advertising know-how entitled The Online Advertising Playbook. It compiles the knowledge of hundreds of marketers and was reviewed on an ARF board of over 30 advisors. According to Ridgway Hall, ARF's chief strategy officer, the book is important to marketer's in two ways, "It's the first time we as an industry have come together to discuss what we've learned in the past ten years and it will finally establish a core body of knowledge that will give advertisers the confidence to allocate substantial parts of their budgets to the medium." By providing more knowledge about this relatively new media, it is believed that more advertising budgets will be allocated for the web. Tom Lynch, head of marketing integration at ING, is of the opinion that marketing and advertising online is going to have an ever-growing influence and other media is eventually going to begin acting more like the Internet. The day internet media becomes dominant is still far off and Lynch believes that in order to make real progress, the change needs to come from the top (CEO).

The importance of this article to e-commerce is obvious, as the web becomes a more standardized mode of advertisement, websites will begin to gain more profit from having the advertisements posted on their sites. It will also lead to an increase in web purchases and also in higher quality web advertisements.

Guest Speakers

The three things the speakers mentioned that I found most interesting were the growth cycle in relation to the internet, how purchasing a list of names works, and how they felt about direct marketing in regards to mailers.

As all marketing majors and minors know, the growth cycle consists of three phases: growth, maturity, and decline. What I never really considered was how these three phases relate to the internet. I suppose I have a tendency to view the internet as a thing constantly in the growth phase, but this is not necessarily true for all aspects or sites of the internet. For example, although new sites like Utube are still in the growth cycle, Amazon has already reached maturity, and AOL as well as dial-up are on their way out in the decline stage.

Although I am familiar with the idea that companies get lists from other companies to use for mailers, what I did not realize was that there is actually a very profitable business involved in the list market. The speakers mentioned how the rights to use a list work based upon how much you spend and also how to narrow down which lists to use. Practically every company owns some sort of list and owns the rights to it. I wonder how much money someone would pay me for my Christmas card list.

Lastly, I was very disturbed by what the speakers said about direct marketing mailers. They actually had the tenacity to claim that mail advertisements are more important than art. How can anyone say that about something that is considered by most people to be trash and has the lowest impression rate? How can you possibly compare that to something as timeless as an image by Rembrandt or Van Gogh? Even if he was referring more to visual ads being too much like "art", I am still insulted. He then went on to say that mail ads should be 75% copy and 25% graphic. What!!!!!!!!! I don't think so. This is exactly what is wrong with most advertisements. Something needs to catch the consumer's eye to make them even want to consider looking at your piddily advertisement. It is a well known fact that humans are visual beings and reading copy is just too much work for most people. If you give the consumer something visually interesting, they will look at your mailer and then perhaps read just a few short lines of copy that tell them where to find out more information if they are interested, like a web address. Take the iPod ads for example, you can't get much simpler or more visual, but they work with only the word iPod in the corner. We are swiftly moving out of the age of paper where everything had to be written on a mailer in order for the consumer to receive all the information they might need. Now we have the internet, so just a simple web address will do. Don't overdue it. Keep it simple. Keep it visual.

Assignment#2 - experiential assignment

1. For this assignment I chose Maddy by Chinese Laundry.

2. From the reviews posted on the Zappos.com website, I discovered that almost all of the consumers who bought this particular style of shoe were very happy with them. The reviewers claim that the shoes are very comfortable for a high heeled shoe and are even more beautiful in person than on the web sight.

3. Reading the reviews would make me more likely to purchase the shoes because so many consumers were content with the results (21 out of 23 reviews).

4. The advantage of the reviews for the consumer is that they can research the product before purchase to find out if the pros of the product outweigh the cons and whether or not to expect any "surprises". For example, with this particular pair one customer was surprised that the gemstones on the black pair were pink when they appeared brown on the website.

5. The advantage to a website offering consumer reviews is that personal reviews from real people are more effective than most advertising in convincing a customer to purchase a product, especially when selling on-line where the consumer cannot actually touch the product. By allowing consumers to comment on their purchase, the company also conveys confidence in what they are selling.

6. I would also recommend posting customer reviews on sites that sell products from only one brand because I believe good reviews are a good source of advertising, especially on-line, however, if too many reviews come back negative for more than one style in their brand line, I would discontinue the reviews so that the whole brand will not be viewed negatively.

7. I read reviews from other consumers anytime I plan on purchasing books, movies, or electronics (i.e. digital cameras). I read reviews on books and movies because I do not want to waste my precious spare time on something that is not worth the time I spend on it. As for electronic devices, if I plan on spending a good sum of money on something, I want to make sure I am purchasing the product with the best quality.

8. Generally I believe all sites who have confidence in their product or who sell several brands at a time should offer customer reviews. As stated previously, I believe that reviews are an excellent marketing tool to get consumers to purchase new products they would otherwise be unsure of. On the other hand, if a product is already well established or is a consumer product like Hershey's or Coke, then there is really no need for the reviews because they already have a solid fan base.

Assignment #1 - why blog?

Potential business uses for blogs:
1. Promotion of a new product. Blogs are the best form of word-of-mouth advertising.
2. Advertising of products through the mention or images of a product.
3. Provide information regarding product questions.
4. Provide an intimate "friendly" approach to customer concerns.
5. Conduct marketing research through what consumers post on their own blogs regarding products.

Blogs should not feel like traditional marketing because most bloggers blog to avoid the constraints of traditional forums that try to mold and manipulate how they think. However, advertisers should also avoid trying to make their ads pretend to be blogs. Take for example when Mazda attempted to attract the generation Y buyers and sorely failed in the Fortune Magazine article "Why There's No Escaping the Blog" from January 2005. The native bloggers were able to smell an imposter in their midst and Mazda had to pull the campaign.

Blogs are not a fad. They will continue to have an impact on marketing because they allow consumers to say how they feel regarding products in a way that cannot and should not be ignored. If enough bloggers agree on an opinion they can essentially force a company to change the way they are doing business. For example, Kriptonite locks attempted to smooth over the issue of the Bic pen and their U-locks by issuing a bland statement about how newer locks would be better, but they neglected to provide a way to solve the issue with current owners of the locks. The bloggers were outraged at being snubbed. Eventually Kriptonite had to replace all locks for free with a better model costing the company around 10 million dollars. If the Kriptonite company would have suppressed the incident sooner, it may not have cost them nearly as much as it did.

Being a Graphic Design major, I think it would be wonderful if the art department had a blog, especially the graphic design department. Within the blog could be specifications for portfolio review and suggested classes to take that would aid students in getting into the graphic design program and getting jobs once they graduate. They could also have suggestions on how to have a graphic design career and who to talk to when you are stuck on a project. Currently the art department website is very limited and the graphic design page even more so. The full time instructors also have a tendency to be very hard to get a hold of, especially before portfolio review. I believe that a blog with the information mentioned would help in alleviating some of the stress students feel when trying to apply to the program by giving them something tangible to reference.