Social Media

Many of us are getting sucked into the Facebook/ Twitter gossip; this could be a good thing for marketers.  According to the article, The Continued Rise of Blogging, Social networks and blogs will continue to increase; by 2014 they predict that 60% of internet users will blog at least monthly. Consumers now have more communication tools at their fingertips than they did a few years ago.  Blogs are becoming an important influence in the mainstream media.  It is predicted in the near future that blogs will become one of the media channels.  Twitter and Facebook are helping consumers express themselves online.  As a consumer you are going to take into consideration what your friends are saying about a product or service and you are able to comment on their thoughts.  Marketers are using this media to advertise and offer an incentives for promoting their product online; cash, coupons even free products.

Jeep

Jeep.com does a great job on being informational, engaging in customer interactivity, offering personalization and customization on their website.  This will help create value for the customer. The more marketers learn about their customers will help them develop more focused strategies and targeted promotional efforts. Jeep.com also grabs the readers’ attention and makes reason for the visitor to return.  On the site you are able to customize your own Jeep by filtering; price, MPG, Horsepower, seats & towing capacity.  You are also able to search vehicle purchasing incentives by zip code; on the same page they list out the dealers in that zip code.

Jeep.com also offers quick access to news links and current Jeep events.  They also offer a nice page for owners “Why Should You Create an Account?”

• Add/Verify your Owner Profile
• View and print your vehicle's service history
• View your vehicle's Owner/Warranty manuals & user guides

• Request/manage newsletter emails
• Find specific help with your vehicle
• Schedule service at your local dealer
• Find offers on parts & vehicle service

Who wouldn’t set up an account? 

Twitter

The history of the internet has gone from an unknown to a mass market phenomenon. The use and behaviors have several important implications for marketers. (Roberts 113)

According to the online article, Tweeter’s new advertising opportunities, Twitter will let marketers target people based on the companies and brands they follow.  Suggesting ads you might be interested in is the next logical step.  They are also looking into some real-time advertising where marketers can quickly customize, create and target ads based on the trend of the moment.

The possibilities are endless when using the internet to market, what will they come up with next?

Google it

Google is a phenomenal landing page, when you are in need of some information you no longer search for it, you “Google” it.  Google.com is simple, uncluttered, precise and lacks all the advertising pop ups.  Google advertises tactfully and does it without invasive advertising.  Google has become a trusted site that is a very powerful search engine that brings you the most real and relevant information.  Google has a bunch of business tools for companies to interface with Google.  For example; St Scholastica you now access your email through a Google server.  While other companies are looking into having Google the search engine of their company intranet.

Twins website review

My first impression of this site is that it is very busy and cluttered with a ton of advertisement; Chevrolet, Toyota, Evony, mlbtv, blackberry etc. A video of Ben Revere’s life story starts without you clicking on it, I found this very annoying. Every couple of minutes the video would play all by itself. Once I clicked on another link the speed to the next link was fairly quick but I had a hard time finding my way back to the home page.

Besides that it does have a lot of helpful information at your fingertips, schedules and replays of previous games, target field information, when the next game is and you can even find restaurant advertisement/deals that are close to target field; buy a $50 gift card for half price.

Online shopping 2010 holiday season

Online retail sales amounted to 143.2 billion in 2005 (Roberts, 5). What will it be this holiday season 2010? The internet continues to evolve and retailers need to look at the drivers of the internet economy. According to the online article, What Retailers Need to Know About Online Holiday Shopping, our economy poses some challenges this holiday season. According to emarketer.com; a survey was conducted in July 2010 by BIGresearch and it revealed that consumers plan to use the internet to save money on holiday gifts this year. They will do more comparison shopping and researching on the internet before buying online or in stores.
Consumers are:


• 64% spending less on everyone
• 42% only buying gifts on sale
• 36% doing more comparison shopping
• 22% doing more research online before buying in store
• 21.6% doing more shopping online


The markets that are created in this electronic world are about convenience and communities of interest (Roberts,18). Managers will need to use strategic planning along with the value chain concepts to be successful this holiday season. Retailers should stay up to date with changes and pricing taking place on popular search engines like Google.  Retailers will need to think about what they price promote and the timing of promotion.  Electronics will be in high demand.