Music in the Cloud

With the music industry in serious trouble, there are some interesting developments in using the 'cloud' as a vehicle for a new business model

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Apple has led the shift with iTunes as a successful music business. Now Amazon and Google are two big players that are offering a 'music in the cloud' service. However a new player has emerged with a variation of the cloud service to challenge the three big players. Spotify as been operating in Europe and has now launched in the USA. Spotify's big claim over the others is the offer of free music.

Explore the following websites:

http://www.apple.com/icloud/

http://www.apple.com/itunes/

http://music.google.com/about/

http://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/b?ie=UTF8&node=163856011

http://www.spotify.com/int/

Watch the following video:

http://youtu.be/ZrNhKcxBbZo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gng29RIhIl8

Read the news:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/piracy-fears-cloud-apple-launch/story-e6frg6nf-1226071294051

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/world/online-jukebox-spotify-valued-at-1bn/story-e6frg90o-1226009844746

http://www.news.com.au/technology/first-amazon-now-google-takes-music-to-the-cloud/story-e6frfro0-1226053947338

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/disciplines/digital/apple-set-to-unveil-cloud-music-service/3026936.article

Q1. What are some of the differences between the 'music in the cloud' offerings?

Q2. How can Spotify offer free music?

Q3. How do these services avoid the risk of 'piracy'?

They Know Where You Are and What You Like

Mobile phones and other mobile devices have the ability to determine the geographical position of the device at any time. As well, this position can be sent to somebody else via the internet. If this 'somebody' else is an advertiser or marketer then interesting opportunities for marketing arise.

Smartphones could soon reveal a person's every move

February 21, 2011

The Age - Julian Lee

"The ability to combine a person's location at any given time with which websites or mobile applications they have visited on their smartphone's browser is opening a new world of possibilities for marketers. Within the next year, half the mobile phones in use will be smartphones such as Apple's iPhone or Samsung's Galaxy, embedded with technology that can pinpoint your position to within a metre."

The director of mobile advertising at Google, Michael Slinger, says: ''Location will be one of the cornerstones of mobile advertising. Merging local businesses with mobile [advertising] is very, very important for us.''

Q1. What are the privacy issues?

Q2. What value is geo-positioning to the consumer?

Q3. Describe one way a business could use geo-positioning for marketing.

Viral Advertising

This method of advertising is a popular way for organisations to promote themselves, their products or services. This can range from consumer products (Guinness) to self-parodies and political promotions.

The comments for this post are examples of viral advertising from students in the Graduate Certificate of Marketing at Holmesglen.

All very interesting and great examples of viral advertising! And one from me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4&feature=PlayList&p=31A99892D5AF7ED9&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA&feature=related

Q1. - How many views for each?

Q2. What are some common features of successful viral advertisments?

Mobile Marketing

Marketing reach and targeting are being augmented by mobile marketing. Mobile marketing is connecting with consumers via mobile media. The technology allows reaching specified consumers via SMS, smartphones and bluetooth.

Q1. What is the potential for marketing using mobile technology?

Q2. How effective do you think it could be?

Q3. What limitations or drawbacks can you identify?

Techtarget has a dedicated web site:

searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com

A definition provided is:

- What is mobile marketing?

Mobile marketing is promotional activity designed for delivery to cell phones, smart phones and other handheld devices, usually as a component of a multi-channel campaign.

Some mobile marketing is similar to advertising delivered over other electronic channels such as text, graphic and voice messages. SMS messaging is currently the most common delivery channel for mobile marketing. Search engine marketing is the second-most common channel, followed by display-based campaigns.

The expanding capabilities of mobile devices also enable new types of interactive marketing. New mobile marketing channels include:

• location-based service (LBS), which involves detecting the area the user is connecting from (geolocation) and sending marketing messages for businesses in that area.
• augmented reality mobile campaigns, which overlay the user's phone display with location-specific information about businesses and products.
• 2D barcodes, which are barcodes that scan vertically as well as horizontally to include much more information. A mobile user can scan barcodes in the environment to access associated information.
• GPS messaging, which involves location-specific messages that the user picks up when he comes into range.

The Kelsey Group, a marketing research company, predicted that the mobile advertising industry would grow from to $3.1 billion in 2013, up from $160 million in 2008. The firm also predicts that mobile search marketing will account for 73% of mobile marketing by 2013, up from 24% in 2008, and that SMS-based campaigns would shrink to 9%, down from 63% in 2008. Display-based campaigns are expected to stay relatively steady, up to 18% from 13%.

Who Owns 'Total'?

In another fight over branding, Colgate is suing Chattem and Johnson & Johnson for trademark infringement over the word “Total” in Chattem’s branding of Act mouthwash as well as using the same concept in its TV advertisements.

From bNET
"Chattem made many public statements, indicating that it was aware of the value of Colgate-Palmolive’s TOTAL Brands, that it saw “great potential for bringing the Total concept … into the mouthwash category,” and that its plan was to launch a mouthwash trading off the unique concept and goodwill of TOTAL."

Q1. Why is branding important?

Q2. What is the value of a brand name?

Q3. Does Colgate have a case?

The Property Market On-line

In the last year or so there has been a quiet revolution in advertising real estate. While real estate agencies took advantage of an on-line presence early on, it wasn't until the media giants entered the on-line advertising business that real estate advertising took off on-line.

www.realestate.com.au (REA Group - News Corp)

www.domain.com.au (Farifax)

http://maps.google.com.au/help/maps/realestate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpSoAue9bf0

The core problem is that the operators of the property web sites pay Google for advertising and keyword paid searches. But Google has now launched its own service that aggregates all the other property listings on Google Maps.

From The Age 27/07/09

"Google has 92 per cent of the search advertising market and this year is expected to book revenues close to $1 billion."

"Google is moving from being a search engine to a portal. Instead of sending you to other websites — which have paid money to be there on its listings — it is now serving up the end data itself.

"That then raises the question: why would you need to go to the other sites and why would they then pay Google money [for search keywords]. Google has opened up a Pandora's box of questions."

Q1. What are the marketing issues here?

Q2. How will the emerging on-line advertising affect the property market?

Q3. Who are the key players in this market?

Neural Marketing

- Neuromarketing is the study of how people's brains respond to advertising and other brand-related messages by scientifically monitoring brainwave activity, eye-tracking and skin response.

Forget about demographics, psychographics, benefits and values driving consumer behaviour! We can now get straight to the very core - your brain. With MRI scans we can tell how people respond to advertising by mapping which part of the brain is stimulated.

posted nov. 9, 2004

"But some companies are taking the practice several steps further, commissioning their own fMRI studies à la Montague's test. In a study of men's reactions to cars, Daimler-Chrysler has found that sportier models activate the brain's reward centers -- the same areas that light up in response to alcohol and drugs -- as well as activating the area in the brain that recognizes faces, which may explain people's tendency to anthropomorphize their cars."

Google: This Is Your Brain On Advertising

by Mark Walsh, Thursday, October 23, 2008, 11:03 PM

"Now Google is applying "neuromarketing" to video advertising. In a study released Thursday, Google and MediaVest used NeuroFocus findings to show that overlay ads appearing in YouTube videos grab consumers' attention and boost brand awareness.

YouTube-owner Google has championed overlay ads--which appear in the lower third of video screens--as a less intrusive alternative to pre-roll ads."

Investigate Neurofocus

Watch a CNN news report

Q1. Are there any ethical issues with neural marketing?

Q2. How effective do you think neural marketing could be?

Q3. What is the relationship to Behavioural Targetting?

Behavioural Targeting Advertising

Just when you think it is safe for a dip into cyber space, Google has announced a new service that 'profiles' your web surfing behaviour and delivers targeted ads to web sites that you visit.

These are called 'Ads Preferences' by Google.  You can edit them to specify your interests and you can opt out if you do  not want your web surfing behaviour tracked and categorised. Microsoft has already put in place its own consumer behaviour profiling based on Hotmail user browsing patterns.  While Google and Microsoft have been relatively open about their bhavioural targeting, less ethical operators install cookies on your computer (spyware)  that also track your browsing and use that informaton to deliver targeted ads and emails to you.

There are significant privacy concerns and ethical issues!

Ars Technica: Google's new behavioral ads already raising privacy worries

Ars Technica:  Microsoft behavioral advertising technology goes global

Google Ads Preferences: Make the ads you see on the web more interesting

Google Blog: Making Ads More Interesting

BBC: Google serves up behavioural ads

Microsoft: Behavioural targeting gives Vauxhall a higher gear

PC World: Google's Behavioral Ad Targeting: How to Reclaim Control

Opt Out Options from PC World:

Network Advertising Initiative's Opt-Out Tool

Google's ad system has its own opt-out page here

Yahoo's targeting program lets you say "no thanks"here

Q1. Is this a privacy issue that can produce a consumer backlash?

Q2. What are the ethical issues in relation to marketing?

Q3. Is 'behavioural targeting' an effective marketing strategy?

Save the Net Campaign

GetUp is a political lobby group that uses the internet to communicate with its members to define campaigns and also uses the internet to promote its campaigns.

GetUp has collected signatures for petitions and also money to make TV and printed media ads.  It has now launched an internet advertising campaign.  Below is the ad and a link to how it appears on a web site that is hosting the ad.

http://www.news.com.au/breakingnews/

GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. 

 www.getup.org.au. 

Q1. What is the cost of such a campaign?

Q2. What demographic would it appeal to?

Q3. Is this ethical?

Coffee in Facebook

Starbucks, the coffee shop chain has a Facebook site.

http://en-gb.facebook.com/Starbucks

Starbucks is promoting a 'community volunteering' campaign and has raised money for a 'World Aids Day'.  The Starbucks Facebook page has over a million 'fans'

Q1. What benefits does Starbucks seek from being on a social networking site?

Q2. What does Starbucks use to engage 'fans'

Q3. What is the image that Starbucks is promoting?  

Q4. What are the risks?

Brand Power

Milward Brown (brand marketing and investment) has released a report on the 'Top 100 Most Powerful Brands'. This makes interesting reading, given that the determination of 'brand value' seem arbitrary and contentious. The report defines how brand value is determined, but it still is rather mysterious.

10 Most Powerful Brands
_____________________BRAND VALUE__ BRAND
_________________________($M) ______CHANGE

1 Google.............................. 86,057... 30%
2 GE (General Electric) ........71,379 ...15%
3 Microsoft .........................70,887 ...29%
4 Coca-Cola (*) ...................58,208 ...17%
5 China Mobile ....................57,225 ...39%
6 IBM ..................................55,335 ...65%
7 Apple ................................55,206 ..123%
8 McDonald’s ......................49,499 ...49%
9 Nokia ...............................43,975 ...39%
10 Marlboro ........................37,324 ...-5%

Source: Millward Brown Optimor (including data from
brandz, Datamonitor, and Bloomberg)
*The brand value for Coca-Cola includes the values of both
Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Diets and Lites

Some observations:

1. Google has emerged as the most valuable brand, with a brand value of $86 billion, ahead of Microsoft (in third place with a brand value of $71 billion)
2. Both Apple and Blackberry had the largest increases.
3. The technology sector accounted for 28 of the top 100 brands, and collectively reflected more than half of the total brand value of the top 100
4. Emerging markets in China and Russia have brands in the top 100, with a prediction that India and Brazil brands may hit the top 100 soon.
5. Share investment in the Top 100 Most Powerful Brands return a five fold increase in share market performance against the S&P 500.

Why Do Businesses Need Social Networking?

What business value is there in social networking? There is an enthusiastic push from many marketing commentators that businesses should take advantage of opportunities to use social networking on the web. So what can a business use social networking for?

Inside CRM, on on-line journal has published a list of 50 social networking web sites, with comments on their possible uses for a business. Some appear to offer business value, others may not. What do you think?

1. Is there real marketing value in social networking web sites?
2. Which social networking web sites appear to be the best for marketing?
3. What other social networking web sites could be of business value?

In case the article from Inside CRM is not available there is a copy of the article on our Market Wiz Web site

Web 2.0 Can Be Dangerous...

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, December 17, 2007:

Summary:
AJAX, rich Internet UIs, mashups, communities, and user-generated content often add more complexity than they're worth. They also divert design resources and prove (once again) that what's hyped is rarely what's most profitable.

... dangerous for your profits, that is. If you focus on over-hyped technology developments, you risk diverting resources from the high-ROI design issues that really matter to your users — and to your profits.

This is the start of an interesting post from Jacob Nielsen, a leading expert in usability. He provides some sound advice on the use of Web 2.0 features in web sites and some warnings on overuse and losing sight of the purpose of the web site.

Q1. How can social networking contribute to the "bottom line" of profitability?
Q2. Why is Facebook the "Iron Chef" of internet?
Q3. What is wrong with an "advertising funded model for business"?

Where The Bloody Hell Are You?

'Bloody hell' campaign nets $2.1b: Tourism Aust

ABC News 7 Sep. 2007

The figures also show New South Wales remains the most popular state to visit [File photo]. (Getty Images: Todd Warshaw)

Tourism Australia says its controversial international advertising campaign has paid off, pulling in $2.1 billion more to Australia in the last financial year.

Its figures have shown the 'Where the bloody hell are you?' campaign has made the biggest impact with Korean visitors, who are now bringing $976 million into the country every year.

Visitor numbers from China and the United Kingdom have also increased.

http://www.tourism.australia.com/home.asp

Second Take on Second Life

Life isn't what it is hyped to be in Second Life. In Wired magazine Frank Rose wrote an interesting article:
How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life
Frank Rose 24.07.07
Wired

Some excerpts:

"Then there's the question of what people do when they get there. Once you put in several hours flailing around learning how to function in Second Life, there isn't much to do. That may explain why more than 85 percent of the avatars created have been abandoned. Linden's in-world traffic tally, which factors in both the number of visitors and time spent, shows that the big draws for those who do return are free money and kinky sex. On a random day in June, the most popular location was Money Island (where Linden dollars, the official currency, are given away gratis), with a score of 136,000. Sexy Beach, one of several regions that offer virtual sex shops, dancing, and no-strings hookups, came in at 133,000. The Sears store on IBM's Innovation Island had a traffic score of 281; Coke's Virtual Thirst pavilion, a mere 27."

"You need to know how to buy up keywords to maximize search returns, how to make the most of recommendation engines, how to use the viral potential of Web video, how to monitor what's being said in blogs and message boards, how not to blow it by trying to be deceptive. Building a corporate pavilion in Second Life doesn't require any of these things. It's simple and it's obvious."

1. What is the attraction of Second Life?
2. What are the marketers trying to do in Second Life?
3. How are they getting it wrong?
4. What marketing strategies could be better suited to Second Life?

Viral Advertising

Here are some examples of attempts at viral advertising by large enterprises:

reversa - side effects
http://www.seemoresideeffects.ca/

McDonald's NameIt Burger
http://www.nameitburger.com.au

1. In what way are they 'viral'?
2. Who is the target audience?
3. How effective is this?
4. What are the global issues for each?
5. What other promotional strategies do they use?

Behavioral Targeting

We know what you clicked last night
The Age June 20, 2007 - 2:55PM Reuters

"Personal identity has taken on a new meaning in the digital age, where basic facts like your name, address or age are far less important to some people than the collected records of what you were looking at online.

Technologies for monitoring and interpreting internet habits as a predictor of future behavior cropped up at the start of this century, but only now are gaining momentum as the newest gold mine for websites and their advertisers. Known as behavioral targeting, the premise is to follow the sites you visit and build a picture of what products may interest you, then deliver related advertising in time for you to choose your purchase."

This article explores new methods for targeting consumers based on their internet habits. With many people having a public internet presence with blogs, websites, myspace, facebook and other social networking web sites, a great deal of personal data is exposed. While this gives marketers some interesting opportunities, there are ethical and privacy issues.

Latest article:
Every click you make, they'll be watching you

1. How effective do you think this web tracking technology is?

2. From a marketing perspective, what are the ethical issues?

3. From a consumer's perspective, what would be their concerns?

Death of Newspapers

Paul Gillin has written an essay and started a blog on the death of newspapers:

"I've started a new blog, Newspaper Death Watch, to monitor and comment upon the disintegration of the American metropolitan daily newspaper industry. If you keep an eye on this blog, you know that I have strong opinions about this topic. I believe that the collapse of this American institution will be stunningly swift and broad, with perhaps no more than a dozen major metros surviving until 2030. There's more detail in this essay."


1. Why are newspapers popular?
2. How can newspapers deal with the threat of the internet?
3. What are the implications for 'freedom of speech'?

The Mobile Web Is Here!!!!

Access to the internet has traditionally been through some sort of cable. Access via satellite is possible if you carry around a satellite dish! Wireless LANS now provide a wireless access within a short range to an internet modem or other wireless receiver that then connects via a cable. If you were clever enough you could connect a laptop to a mobile phone via a modem and use the mobile phone network for a slow and costly wireless internet access.

Recently true wireless, mobile internet access has become available via the mobile phone network that support high speed broadband. The major telecos provide a wireless adaptor that can plug into a laptop USB port and connect you at relatively high speed to the internet (at a higher cost than fixed line connection). One provider is :Telstra Bigpond

But wait there is more! The mobile phone can now connect directly to the internet and provide web browsing, email and most other internet services. This provided via the new 3G network.

A simple problem is that a mobile phone does not have the screen size or keyboard of laptop computer. This is a real marketing challenge!

Meg Tsiamis in her blog Dipping Into The Blogpond has provided a listing of web sites that are designed for mobile phone web browsing. Check out these two from her listing (remember that they are designed to appear in a mobile phone screen) :

http://mobile.tradingpost.com.au/
http://carsguide.mobi

1. How does the iPhone and similar devices attempt to overcome the design limitations?
2. What is the issue for SMEs to provide mobile internet access to their web sites?
3. What are the issues and impact on marketing using mobile internet?

Tourism Australia In Global Online Push

Tourism Australia in global online push
James Livesley
Tourism Australia has relaunched its Australia.com website to spearhead a new marketing strategy that puts digital at the heart of its global push.
The site, which took more than a year to develop, will become a central gateway where tourists will be able to access visitor information from all of the individual state tourism sites.This is the first time a site has been developed as a joint initiative between Tourism Australia and the eight state and territory tourism organisations.At its launch this week, Tourism Australia managing director Geoff Buckley described the site as "the primary call to action for all of Tourism Australia's global marketing activities".However, B&T understands that the original intention for Australia.com was that it would be developed as an end-to-end website for all visitors and they would be serviced completely without leaving the site. Instead, the end result has seen the site become a gateway to the individual states and territories.For more on this story see the latest edition of B&T (1 June).
1 June 2007

Source: http://www.bandt.com.au/news/22/0C04D222.asp