The gold pot at the end of the rainbow

The British band Radiohead released their last album “In rainbows” in 2007 on their official website allowing users to download it paying the price they think it is worth, from £ 0.00 to £ 99.99.
This has been a revolutionary way of reaching the public, as it avoided any relation with major labels and it directly tackles the problem of illegal music downloads.
The band has always been active and concerned about the environment and politic issues, being appreciated by a large number of their fans. This way of releasing the new album has improved the image of an alternative band that wants to be close to its fans: by a consumer point of view, it means the opportunity of paying a “fair” price and getting the music quickly and, most importantly, legally. Consumers have seen it as a way of “fighting” the system ruled by multinational companies that are seen as making revenues to the detriment of artists and, therefore, consumers themselves.
This is a perfect example of the opportunities that the internet gives to market products or services, as Radiohead afterwards released the album through an independent label, they have been able to match digital sales with hard copies sales. In fact, as said, consumers had the chance to download it legally even for free, but at the same time people had the chance to listen to the product before deciding to buy it.
This has been a very creative marketing strategy; the digital sales of “In rainbows” overtook those of the band’s previous albums altogether (as their previous contract with EMI didn’t include any digital revenue shared with the band), and provided the band with great incomes both from digital sales and from in store sales.
This strategy was successful as it changes the usual marketing mix: the product has been made available in different formats, satisfying each kind of consumers (those who are used to download or those who like to own the CD); the place includes the “old style” stores and the always more developed world of the internet; the price has been the most revolutionized element, as it could be decided by the customer, and this can be included in the promotion, as it stimulated the buzz and the word of mouth, and created a wide interest within the public and the experts on the field.
Therefore, Radiohead have been clever to identify what the public was looking for, the feeling and behaviour consumers have towards the multinational labels (that was clear from the behaviour towards the increasing illegal downloads that results in a slump in music sales), and satisfying this “need” of revolution against the music industry, they could increase their success in terms of both the image and the revenues.

Coventry Universities E-Marketing future

As marketing students at Coventry University, we are going to have a look at our University’s website, trying to evaluate where it is effective and where it could be improved. With an organisation such as a university it is imperative that it is made available on the World Wide Web and provides a good quality of services and information. The website represents the university's facade and image and must make the most of the Internet for its publicity and marketing needs. Points that require attention include: recruitment, facilities, environment, prestige, expression among others. These need to easy to navigate and browse, with a clear layout in order to make it more user friendly. The user profile of the website visitors will need to identify which will include current students and potential students. The website will need to image balancing youth and tradition; it needs to be dynamic, professional in order to increase its trust and trustworthiness aspect of the website. The university will targeting users worldwide, a university's website has a role of the university's facade and so it has to be representative , interactive and accessible from everywhere and at any time, which is where an e-marketing team becomes essential. From the building of the practical IT services to the layout (design, publishing, interaction), keeping the key words in mind: Marketing & Promotion.

We will therefore concentrating on Coventry University’s e-marketing strategy. From first impressions the website appears to have been user friendly designed, with a dominance of the Coventry colour of blue and other bright colours. The layout is clear and embellished with pictures and visible parts creating the feeling of simplicity, facilitation and trustworthiness. Furthermore, the layout tries to get the advantages of new technologies and tendencies such as links to a dedicated channel on YouTube. In addition, the e-marketing team has used ‘funny’ and creative fonts as well as humorous graphics; however the professional aspect has not been forgotten with the dominance of the university logo, the awards achievement and a wide and deep range of links. Users can navigate with relative ease through the university courses, the various faculties and schools, the research domain, the international area which is specifically designed for potential international students, the news and events to be aware of in Coventry university life, the Alumni which is ideal for former students, an overview of the city and its activities and finally through the university itself.

In order to take a more critical perspective of the IT resources available to Coventry University and try and look to the future we are going to focus on one aspect of the website which will aiming to improve the relationship with users by increasing their interest. This can be done by offering the possibility to interact, comment and to get involved in an on-line based community. Therefore the use of tools such has CU My space, CU Second Life, CU Face book and CU YouTube have been integrated to the websites allowing it to part of the global Internet trend, targeting a broad range of users. The users can feel a closer association with university and see it has a real modern educational centre which is beneficial to its image and the reputation. In addition, these kinds of tools give to the university a massive presence on the World Wide Web and a capacity to better reach users on a global scale. These online-based communities allow followers to interact with former and current students and staff, offering more than a simple ‘old fashioned’ e-mail and other formal exchanges.

Furthermore, the webtv feature available allows users to find videos about the fields the University works in, research undertaken, examples of lessons taught at the University and some videos on student life or as it’s known: students ‘slice-of-life’ videos. Users can find videos either by searching for them or a taking more casual approach of looking for related key words which gives the University a possibility to widen the way in which it can be viewed; a student browsing on YouTube for instance might find a video related to the university and consequently be interested in the university and go to visit the web page.
On the channel page, students from all over the world have the opportunity to share comments and suggestion; this is a positive aspect as it gives an image of transparency of the university and its characteristics. Positive comments and feedback make for good publicity but this approach is risky as negative comments might be posted.

It can therefore be said that Coventry University has done a good job of attempting to exploit new technologies and opportunities made available by the Internet. As previously mentioned; the professionalism aspect has not been forgotten and it appears that a greater emphasis has been placed on improving this aspect in the last period. This has done well for the image of the University thus it could be suggested to keep those features updated in the future. The home page is well structured, but in order to give a clear vision about the different faculties that are comprised within the university: direct links in the home pages of the different faculties would improve the navigation of the website. Although it is possible to look for the different courses through the home page, categorising the search first between the various faculties would show a more tidy effect to the users and subsequently making it more user friendly.

Trust and Trustworthiness

The concept of trust embraces two components: trustfulness and trustworthiness. Trustfulness refers to when someone takes a risk to an accord agreed previously that another party may not respect. Trustworthiness is principally related to the possible co-operator, individual or company that will ‘hold its end of the bargain’ or not within an agreement or its infrastructure. Therefore, when trust is not fully respected or is deceived; trustfulness becomes obsolete, which consequently generate a high demand for trustworthiness.

In an economical context (market), trust has an important role when buying goods or services. This trust concerns, on one hand the consumers’ price sensitiveness and on the other hand the product itself. However, influences of trust will vary among individuals according to their personal traits, their cultural backgrounds and social realities effect. Researches in the domain of trust and trustworthiness have exposed the interdependence of both factors and their importance within businesses. In fact the moral aspect of trust has lead to the present legal requirements in trustworthiness. Therefore businesses and especially e-businesses where physical contact is absent; have to highly consider the promotion of trustworthiness rather than trustfulness. Within e-commerce, tools such as “aggregated trustworthiness” are present to maximize this competitive advantage. Tullberg (2008)


Trusworthiness in Websites


Cheung and Lee (2006), state that the use of the internet for purchasing goods and services has enormous potential and has provided consumers with numerous advantages to conventional shopping. However the penetration rate of internet shopping has remained low; citing eMarketer who identified the “general lack of trust in vendor” as a significant factor that is inhibiting its growth.

Urban, Sultan and Qualls were cited in Lauer and Deng (2007) arguing that “Online trust has been viewed as a key differentiator that determines the success or failure of many companies conducting their business over the Internet”. Buttner and Goritz (2008) Support this adding that “trust is deemed crucial in turning visitors into buyers”. Trusted websites are typically those which provide their users with a secure and private online shopping experience and have a good brand image. A tailor of a website needs to take these factors into consideration in order to enhance its trustworthiness; this can be done in the following ways:

First and foremost it can be achieved through its business practices and behaviour regarding customer privacy and data protection. Information privacy policy is believed to enhance online trust (Lauer and Deng 2007). Some organisations believe they own the information that customers release and can therefore exploit it for business purposes; this will lower the level of trustworthiness of the website even if the terms and conditions stated information is the websites property. An organisation chooses to exploit personal information because it provides them with a competitive advantage, therefore it must weigh the immediate gains from harvesting personal information and the long term loss it may cause due to the damaging of its reputation and lack of trust. A website should also make sure it is secure and safe from hackers; if a website was infiltrated by a third party, the security of the website will be questioned and the image will be tainted which in turn will make it less trustworthy. Payment methods offered should be recognised; PayPal is a method of payment that has become increasingly popular and recognised by websites and consumers alike, an unfamiliar payment method will make potential consumers more sceptical about its legitimacy.

The presentation of the website will affect the brand image and therefore affects its trustworthiness; creating a professional looking website in terms of its layout and presentation will help break the psychological barrier that consumers have towards websites and online purchases. A cheap or tacky looking website tends to make people question its security and legitimacy. A study conducted by Chau et al (2007) showed that increasing the level of trust in a website will decrease the level of customer ‘dropouts’ i.e. customers who pull out of a purchasing decision, thus increasing the number of visitors who become buyers.

Genoa Football Club

On its website, the Genoa Cricket and Football Club 1893 boasts being first Italian football club to provide the supporters (either Genoa’s supporters or guests’) with the opportunity to visit the stadium on the day of a home game, have lunch in a special room inside the facility, visit the changing rooms with the players’ jerseys and kits, meet the players and take a walk on the pitch: the “Genoa Experience”.
Supporters pay 180-200 Euros for all this and get also a reserved place in the VIPs’ stand to watch the game. This concept has been very successful indicating that supporters find the website trustworthy.


The layout of the website is well presented and easy to navigate; when accessing the website, users are presented with the option to enter the homepage, the online store, a section to subscribe for a “Genoacard” (credit card), and the online TV. However a large space is reserved to the link to Genoa Experience. Entering this section, it is clear that the club really cares about it: the design is very simple and the details of the offer are clearly listed, first what it is included, and then the prices. This emphasizes the transparency of the potential purchase: a customer knows what he buys and how much he pays and does not have to look for further information about it.

Videos showing previous “experiences” are available, including interviews with people who have participated, this is used by the club to emphasise customer satisfaction and the trustworthiness of the initiative. Strengths of this section of the website, and of the website in general, are the simple design and the clear connection with the club’s official physical store: a physical store is what customers and supporters have been accustomed to, and a clear link with it helps them to trust the website. Browsing this website, supporters get the sensation to be at the centre of the club’s thoughts. The trustworthiness is further validated by the long history of the club (the first in Italy), which makes it a prestigious and is renowned for its relationship with its organized supporters and the town that it represents.

References

Aiken, K. D., Mackoy, R., Liu, B. S.-C., Fetter, R. and Osland, G. (2007) 'Dimensions of Internet Commerce Trust. (Cover Story).' Journal of Internet Commerce 6, (4) 1-25

Buttner, O.B. and Goritz, A.S. (2008) ‘Perceived Trustworthiness of Online Shops’ Journal of Consumer Behaviour 7 (1) 35-50

Chau, P. Y. K., Hu, P. J.-H., Lee, B. L. P. and Au, A. K. K. (2007) 'Examining Customers’ Trust in Online Vendors and Their Dropout Decisions: An Empirical Study.' Electronic Commerce Research & Applications 6, (2) 171-182

Cheng-Hao, C. and Saeedi, M. (2006) 'Building a Trust Model in the Online Market Place.' Journal of Internet Commerce 5, (1) 101

Cheung, C. M. K. and Lee, M. K. O. (2006) 'Understanding Consumer Trust in Internet Shopping: A Multidisciplinary Approach.' Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology 57, (4) 479-492

Chunsik, L. and Jisu, H. (2008) 'Web Site Trust Evaluation as Cognitive Information Processing and the Moderating Role of Involvement and Knowledge.' American Academy of Advertising Conference Proceedings 258-260

Lauer, T. and Deng, X. (2007) 'Building Online Trust through Privacy Practices.' International Journal of Information Security 6, (5) 323-331

Tullberg J. (2008) ‘Trust – The importance of trustfulness versus trustworthiness’ The journal of Socio-Economics 37, 2059-2071

Advertising starting points on online game based communities

This post aims to answer one of our follower's query regarding the last topic:
As the online game communities’ amplitude has been explained within the last post, it is in fact important to come back and specify how and what to use as a starting point in advertising within online games. Companies in charge of online game advertising exist and allow you to obtain an efficient real-time campaign with personal services and generating a fast ROI (Return On Investment). Three basic steps will so consist to:

First, identify the target:
- Ages
- Gender
- Localisation
- Consumer behaviour patent

Second, spot the channel to use:
- MMORPG portals(Massive Multiplayer Online Roll Playing Game)
- Casual game sites
- Browser-based/Web-based games
- Mainstream Games
- Gamer communities


Third, select the type of advertisement:
- In-Game advertisement
- Banner placement (on top gaming websites or game menu)


Recent technologies enable efficient campaigns with intuitive variations: automatic country detection and thus adaptation of the language in relation to the country where the user is originated from, with statistics evaluation: record of registration and passage.

Social communities in today's world

The availability of new communication technologies has contributed to changes in how people form social communities, this is demonstrated by the

declining participation in face-to-face communication (Nie, Hillygus, and Erbring, 2002; Putnam, 2000). 'Online community' encompasses various internet aspects which include auction and market sites, electronic bulletin boards or forums, social networking sites, blogs, gaming communities and shared-interest websites. Wellman et al. (1996) argue that these online communities facilitate “asynchronous, immediate, interactive, low-cost communication, as well as, enabling the formation of interpersonal ties that provide information and social support”.

Online communities which consists of individuals who participate in computer-supported social interaction (Preece, 2000 : 10), allows a medium in which individuals may offer an interpersonal exchange and allow other members to express and access others' opinions, especially in reference to products, services and brands.
Consumer preferences form within communities as individuals exchange opinions about products and services and observe one another’s purchases. Where affluence has spread, essential human needs account for a decreasing proportion of consumers’ purchases, and the social context takes on an increasingly important role in shaping consumer behaviour (Redmond, 2001).

Miller et al. (2009) states that businesses play four roles in online communities which are: “observing and collecting information, hosting or sponsoring communities (by creating and managing Web sites and advertising), providing content to communities (such as music, information, or entertainment) and participating as members of online communities (in peer relationships with other participants)”.

The attention and time spent on social networking websites, not only by teenagers and students but also adults and professionals around the world is constantly increasing. More importantly, the number of users (e.g. 168 Billions users share between Facebook and Myspace in 2007) shows the world penetration and popularity of those websites.

Consequently seen as the unpredicted “newest greatest thing”; social networking websites such as Facebook, Myspace, Ning, Twitter or LinkedIn, are largely use to market companies brands, products or services. Thus, numerous businesses decide to integrate it to their marketing strategy as it is a real, implicit and powerful marketing channel. Possibilities have grown substantially; outcomes and results are potentially very beneficial to an organisation: from advertising, reaching potential customers, launching a product, to simply experiencing them as a “central hub” to keep contact and to be updated within the globalized businesses; the social networking phenomenon still has to be explored.

Different types of websites exist and their use and possibilities vary: Ning for instance offers the possibility to market anything by creating your own social network around a common theme, hobby, industry, etc. Myspace on the other hand is more popular with artists, bands, and musicians to communicate with fans and promote tours, gigs, etc.

Facebook allows you to create you own business profile and business group in order to construct an “opt-in” list of people who can follow and share your interest and your business. This kind of application is really

successful, effective and fast since you can post invitations on your wall, asking all your Facebook friends to join the group. Furthermore, among the hundreds marketing opportunities, Facebook even propose to serve advertisers with higher campaign budgets (above 50 000 USD). These integrated advertising opportunities have been achieved following a Facebook-Microsoft partnership (http://www.insidefacebook.com/2007/12/09/) (Yankee S. 2009).

Consequently “social networking” has become a mainstream marketing channel with a totally transparent target. In fact users’ demographics and centre of interests are made readily available and displayed on profiles and groups. This in turn enables businesses to target specific markets. It is recommend to professionals and organisations to visit resources websites such as http://www.whyfacebook.com/ in order to have a better understanding of why, how and where to navigate and exploit a social networking websites.

As well as the increase in marketing activities among social network websites, online gaming occupies a great part of peoples leisure time. Players are given the chance of participating with other users in a virtual environment in which they can have different experiences that could be satisfactory for them as they feel part of it. This is important because gaming communities can be seen as a very wide catchment area in which a great number of consumers can be reached. Sheu et al. (2009) states that the experienced players have been directly and quickly affected in terms of their consumption, desire and behaviour. An advantage gained by organisations is the opportunity to segment the users; as people who play a certain game tend to share similar characteristics, for example the same passion and interest, therefore it can constitute a niche that can be targeted by certain products.

Furthermore, placing advertisements into the virtual reality can create in the mind of the player a link between the brand and his satisfactory experience. Brands can be linked to games by sponsoring events, places or directly placing a product itself within the game’s environment.

REFERENCES:

Nie NH, Hillygus DS, Erbring L. 2002. Internet use, interpersonal relations and sociability: findings from a detailed time diary study. In The Internet in EverydayLife, Wellman B, Haythornthwaite C (eds). Blackwell Publishers: Malden, MA; 215–244.

Wellman B, Salaff J, Dimitrova D, Garton L, Gulia M, Haythornthwaite C. 1996. Computer networks as social networks. Annual Review of Sociology 22:213–238.

Preece J. 2000. Online Communities: Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability. Wiley: New York.

Redmond WH. 2001. Exploring limits to material desire: the influence of preferences vs. plans on consumptionspending. Journal of Economic Issues 35: 575–590.

Miller K D, Fabian F, Lin S-J. 2009. Strategies for online communities, Strategic Management Journal Strat. Mgmt. J., 30: 305–322 (2009)

Sheu, J.J., Su, Y.H. and Chu, K.T. (2009) ‘Segmenting online game customers – The perspective of experiential marketing’ Experts Systems with Applications 36 (4) 8487-8495

Yankee S. (2009) ‘Marketing with social networking sites’ Event DV 22 (3) 8-8 [online] available from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=7&hid=7&sid=2152b55f-0200-4a10-9cad-173e91faa5cd%40sessionmgr102 [18 March 2009]

Should the PC make way for the mobile internet?

	Thanks to the evolution of technology and the importance of mobile phones to their users; companies and marketers alike are evaluating opportunities to exploit the use of internet marketing and mobile technology with the advantages it brings. The question here is whether consumers are likely to change their PC usage habits and utilise mobile internet
technology. Mobile phones have a unique advantage: due to their portability and convenience they are carried almost permanently by most users and have become a vital tool in their everyday lives. In fact, many users don’t just see it as a practical tool but also as a “status symbol”.

Technological advancements have provided users with a high level of personalization regarding the features of the mobile, allowing an internet experience similar to that of computers in terms of communications, search of information or simply surfing the net. A PC will likely keep its importance in some professionals’ point of views; as architects, engineers or users who need specific programs and software will keep using it.

A factor that can increase the success of the internet accessed by mobile phones, are location-based services, this refers to the unique ability of a portable device to find information related to its geographical position (e.g. the closest restaurant, taxi services, cash machine and so on). In order to better understand this factor, one must understand the means and ease of getting connected to the mobile internet: WIFI technology allows users to connect their devices where a hotspot is available, but the GPRS technology makes the access possible much more widely, which in turn makes the user free from the need to access the internet via a desktop.

Therefore, personalised services such as receiving the result of a football team in real time or the answer to an announcement can grow substantially and influence peoples PC usage habits. Furthermore, with new developments in technology; a mobile phone can be used as an “e-wallet”, allowing the user to make transactions, payments and storing credit card information: an example of this is given by the Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo. Also thinking ahead, Japanese industries are pushing this service to a real storage device concerning a form of personal identification and even airplane tickets (Regan K. 2009).

Another aspect to be analysed is the security; users are sceptical about the security in terms of the handset itself and of their personal data. Users can show concern that in losing their mobile phone they might allow
thieves or other people to have access to some personal data and files. The personalization and security measures with new technology can help overcome this as a mobile phone would be rendered useless if not used by its owner.

Another possible way of accessing the internet is via an interactive digital TV, and the success of this technology and its usage is influenced most of the factors and issues analysed above regarding mobile devices. Accessing the internet through the TV is typically approached on a leisurely perspective rather than a more practical point of view. This would nonetheless have an effect on the use of the PC as people would not need to leave the couch to check their mail or browse the mail; a couch potatoes dream.

However, the TV is also perceived as a less personal tool that can be enjoyed in a group. This raises issues regarding the personalization of the services and features, as it can involve more people browsing the internet together. A possible solution would be to have profiles on the TV such as there is in computers in which the user or users may select a profile in which suits they personal preferences.

Furthermore, the technology at the disposal of this tool requires rather quick access to interact with the services, but the fact that it is based on phone lines when regarding accessing services online makes it slower.

From these brief considerations, we can say that the expansion of internet access through mobile devices is already having great success and is likely to keep growing and may even overtake the use of computers regarding certain services such as online banking or search of quick information. It has to be considered though, that a computer is a vital tool to most people, whether a student, professional or a user of specific software, and it will be continued to be used for purposes such as personalized services, deeper researches, and also leisure.

Companies need to keep an eye on these technological developments as they can provide innovative and profitable channels to reach their customers with their messages in a more continuous way.

REFERENCES:

Regan K., (2009) Japanese Form Mobile Wallet Alliance, ecommercetimes.com

A day in the life of a marketing student