5 Important things I have learned this term

This term has been one where I feel I have learned more about marketing than perhaps any other term in my college career.  This fact I believe, is in no small measure helped by this class, therefore I find it difficult to narrow my list down to only five things that I feel are the most important.  Nevertheless, I will try.  The list, in no particular order is as follows:

1.  Impressions
Impressions is simply how many times an ad is presented to consumers, it is important to note that it is not necessarily how many people see it.  It may be surprising but I had hardly heard this term before this class, I had a vague idea of what it meant but I was by no means confident in my knowledge of it.  I think that an understanding of what impressions are, and how they can be a useful tool is fairly vital to a marketer.  Having the ability to actually quantify roughly how many people you are reaching is very helpful in a profession where so much of the work is often difficult to measure how successful the campaign is.  It is also a useful statistic because it can be applied to nearly every medium that a marketer utilizes.  It can also be useful as a comparison tool.  For example if I was considering two different campaigns I could take the projected impressions and divide by how it would cost me to run the campaign, then I have a simple metric to compare which campaign would probably be more efficient.  It wouldn't be exact, but if one campaign was much more efficient it would probably aid in the decision.

2.The power of organic search
Organic search is simply the results google or any search engine gives me after I search something.  These are in opposition to the ads that appear and to the side of the organic search results.  Before this class I hadn't really thought about how having a good site could provide a free way of getting more customers to view one's site and potentially make purchases.  I of course knew that google had a complicated algorithm that ranks sites so that my search results are optimized but it hadn't occurred to me that it could be an effective and not exactly free but relatively cheap way of getting more traffic to my companies site.  It also has the added benefit of not really being advertising, in the sense that nobody is being directly paid to have it appear at the top, it is at the top by virtue of being genuinely a good site.  This is definitely something that I will keep in mind as I move forward in my marketing career.

3.Message Strategies
Message strategies are essentially the tactic that the ad tries to utilize in prompting you to purchase the product.  There are three types: cognitive, affective, and conative.  These breakdown to essentially: trying to make a rational argument for cognitive, making you feel something and therefore connecting with the brand for affective, and prompting you to purchase the product right at that moment for conative.  I think keeping these strategies in mind when I am working on ad campaigns in the future will be helpful because it will help me to make the right appeal for the product I am attempting to sell.  It will also help me to keep the message consistent with the other aspects of the campaign that I am working on.  For instance if we are attempting to portray in a healthy light it would probably be best to use either a emotional or rational messaging strategy.

4.Google Adwords
Google adwords are the first few results that come back when you search something on google that have a little yellow box that marks it as an ad.  Companies can pay google to place ads in the highlighted areas in the hopes that people will click on them and bring business to their website.

This can be an effective tool in today's world as more and more people are looking for products and solutions on the web.  It is also fairly reasonably priced and it is easy to set any budget on it and still see some results given the budget isn't too minuscule.  Before this class I had no idea how this type of advertising worked and now I feel that I could employ it reasonably effectively, especially after sitting down with it for a week, for a company if they wished me to.

5.  The power of social networks to build brand loyalty and engage customers
Social networks are sites like Facebook and Twitter, given the ubiquity of these sites I will not go into defining them other than to say they are a way of connecting with people of the web in a multitude of ways.  As more and more people are entering the world of social media more and more companies are giving their customers ways of connecting and communicating with them.  In today's interconnected world almost all companies cannot afford to ignore social networks.  Before this class I knew that many companies had social media presences but I was largely ignorant of how they interacted with their customers.  Now however, I have a grasp of how to utilize these networks to build customer loyalty and help retain customers who are unsatisfied with their experiences.  For example, if I was asked in a job interview for a marketing position at a brewery what sites I think they should have a presence on I would have an answer for them.  My answer would probably depend on where they are and their distribution network but I would say Facebook just because of the reach it has and Twitter because of its ability to show customers new and exciting offerings.

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is defined by Merriam-Webster as the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.  When it comes to advertising, I would define it as allowing unknown parties outside the company to contribute to a marketing campaign and create advertisements on their own.

This is a great example of a commercial that was crowdsourced

To me it seems that there are several advantages to crowdsourcing ads.  The most obvious being that they are very cheap.  Where normally a company has to pay for an ad agency to produce an ad with a great deal of expensive equipment and processes, the company only has to pay for some way to reward the winning entry or if they do have to take on some of the costs of production they are surely minimal compared to the big bill from an ad agency.  It seems to me that another another aspect of crowdsourcing that makes it attractive would be the fresh ideas that are brought to the table.  When a company gives the public the opportunity to create an ad, they are opening up the process to such a huge pool of intellect that creativity will surely be in no short supply.  These fresh ideas can propel the ad campaign from a good one to a really great one.  The fact that people know that it was created by someone else who just wanted to do it rather than some big faceless ad agency could also help them to identify more with the brand and pay more attention.

In general I would say that the biggest critics of the new trend of crowdsourcing would be the ad agencies and more specifically the creatives within the ad agencies since companies that choose to crowdsourcing are choosing to do that rather than use the ad agency.  If everyone embraced crowdsourcing than I suspect that a great many ad agencies would find it difficult to stay afloat.  I think specifically it is the creatives within the ad agencies that dislike this trend the most.  I say this because it seems they are saying something along the lines of "I have x number of successful ad campaigns under my belt, I know how to do this well and you shouldn't trust amateurs with your brand because I know better than them what the best way to convey your message is."
Thanks for reading my post on crowdsourcing!

Anti-Smoking Video

In this blog I will be discussing an anti-smoking ad that was launched last year during the MTV video music awards.  Before I get into it though I thought it would be best to show you the video that I will be talking about throughout.

I am going to start off by saying that based off of the message at the end and their past activity Truth the anti-smoking organization at least meant for this ad to combat smoking tobacco particularly cigarettes from big tobacco companies.  I think more specifically they are trying to highlight the way we perceive cigarettes in our society, especially the way they are sometimes portrayed as this sort of mysterious and cool thing to do.  By showing celebrities smoking they are trying to show that we often associate people who are famous with being cool and how they treat cigarettes is irresponsible.  At least, this is what Truth was thinking with this ad.  I think they made a fatal flaw however, when they chose to show us a bunch of images of people who are generally admired doing the very thing that they don't want you to be doing.  If I was against whipped cream and you were a big Johnny Depp fan, it would probably not help my campaign if I showed you pictures of your idol eating whipped cream happily.  In fact, I would argue that it would be more effective as an advertisement for whipped cream.  We see this sort of advertising everyday with a multiplicity of advertisements when companies utilize celebrity spokespeople.  I would go on to ad that not only did they show them smoking but they also highlighted the fact that they weren't getting paid to do it, they were choosing to do it because they liked it.  It seems like this would be in some ways more effective than the average spokesperson advertisement because we all know that the spokesperson is getting paid a good amount of money to do the ad, I doubt many of us think that they really love the product that they are selling.

I kind of doubt Ms. Aniston loves smart water so much she did this for free.

But that is exactly what Truth is highlighting, that big tobacco companies didn't pay them to have pictures with cigarettes, the celebrities chose to smoke because they like to smoke.  

Now I would like to say that I do think that it was good that Truth made a commercial and launched it during the MTV Video Music Awards because that is probably more of a younger crowd and that is who they are trying to reach, however since I don't think that it was a good ad it may have done more harm than good.  Now I would like to highlight one thing that I think they did well, and that is the appeal that they used or rather didn't use.  I think that in general the appeal that makes the most sense or perhaps is the most obvious for anti-smoking would be a fear appeal.  Because of the harming nature of cigarettes, it would be easy to make an ad that would evoke some fear of smoking, but I think it was better that instead they went more for a rational appeal approach for two reasons.  First, there are already SO many fear appeal anti-smoking ads that I think it might have been less effective because we have already seen so many of them.  Secondly, I think that considering the audience they are trying to reach a logical appeal is better so as to avoid coming off as some sort of concerned parent, which may be nice, but the younger adults they are trying to reach tend to have some rebellious qualities that may not resist that approach.  Instead they came off as trying to make them understand and choose for themselves to not smoke.  Overall I think Truth missed the mark on this one because I think they did a poor job of sending the message that they meant to.  I do hope that they are successful in the future and learn from their mistakes however, and that they continue to do their part in ending cigarette addiction.

Blog Two

When a business is considering which social media medium to utilize there are several aspects of the site that should be taken into consideration in order to make a better decision.  First off, it should be mentioned that it is in most cases not wise for a business to try and have a presence on every social media site.  This is true for two reasons in general.  First each social media site is different and it is unlikely that it makes sense for one's business to have a presence on all of them.  Second, it takes time to maintain a effective media presence on a social media site, if a business is spreading itself to thin it will likely accomplish very little.
So what is important when we are deciding what platform to utilize?  I would argue that there are several factors that the business needs to take into consideration.  The first being how many users are they going to be able to reach with any given social media site.  In other words how many people actually have an account with the platform and how many actually use it.  The second factor, which is in general quite linked to the first, is competition.  How "loud" are the other companies and how difficult is it to have your company's voice heard.  For instance, Facebook seems to be the giant when it comes to raw users, far surpassing the competition but that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone should immediately assume it is the best choice.  This is because there is already a high amount of competition on Facebook and it would probably be difficult to achieve much return on investment.
I think another important Aspect that should be considered would be how the users of the site interact with each other and how the users receive the information in general.  It is important to consider this because if the nature of the products or services your company provides do not mesh well with the nature of the site, then your effectiveness will be limited.
Finally I think the most important factor to be considered would be the demographics of the users that actually use the site.  Each social media site is a little different in what kind of people it attracts and how those users interact with it.  It is very important to take these demographic aspects into account when considering a particular site and deciding if it is right for your company.

I will now go through two examples of demographics and what social media platforms I believe would be effective at reaching these groups.  I will also talk a little about the ads I would use to target these demographic groups.

The first group I would like to talk about are artistically inclined younger adults.  Before I get into the other things I said I would like to talk about I would like to clarify the group to which I am referring.  I don't mean to say that I am only talking about people who are professional artists between the ages of 18 and 30.  What I mean are people in that age group who are interested in the arts and consider themselves fans of things of that nature, this includes film buffs, people who listen to music a great deal, amateur photographers and painters, or anybody who just generally is interested in these sorts of things.  I think it would be most effective to use Instagram to reach this group because of the central position of photography and video on this site along with the fact that it is in general a younger crowd than some other platforms.  I would say that because of the artistic nature of the group that I have defined it seems like a high level of artistry would be effective.  This could be through cinematography or music.  I think ads that were more cognitive in their message strategy would do the best.  I also think demonstration or fantasy executions would work well.  An example of a creative and artistic ad would be:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qwA5fUh3hA

Another group that I would like to talk about are first time moms.  These are women who have recently had their first child and may or may not be thinking about a second child, either way they are new to motherhood and are trying to be the best mom they can be.  The social network I would recommend to reach this group would be Pinterest.  I believe Pinterest is ideal because it is predominantly women and because it is already recognized as a good place to find interesting things to do with crafts, DIY and those sorts of things.  Pinterest also has a large amount of healthy recipes and these might draw moms as well.  I think affective would be the best message strategy, specifically emotional advertising.  The best execution framework would probably be slice of life, but I think Authoritative would also be quite effective.

Sources:

http://blog.wishpond.com/post/72672192941/social-media-marketing-which-platform-is-right-for/

https://blog.bufferapp.com/how-to-choose-a-social-network

http://entrepreneurepicenter.com/comparing-social-media-stats/