In my opinion, the blackberry and iPhone have revolutionized the world. We no longer have to sit in our homes and search the web – now we can access the most current news and even our bank statements from anywhere at any given time. In doing so, our lives are made much more convenient. I like the sound of that! With my busy schedule, I rarely spend time on my home laptop – I need something that works in my world. Like AT&T says, “AT&T- Your World. Delivered.”
The internet allows us to go green by being paperless and allowing us to pay our bills online. It is easier because once we pay our bills online it automatically goes through, instead of waiting a few days for allowing the mail to get where it needs to go. I pay all of my bills online and it adds to the convenience of the Internet and further entices me to do other things online.
Public relations is an integral part of the IMC mix. “As IMC has evolved during the 1990s, it has developed its own approach to holistic communication. It is not just marketing communication revised with warmed over PR concepts like relationships and stakeholders. Something new and different is growing from the amalgamation of public relations, marketing, advertising, and promotion and this new tree is becoming identifiable as a separate species with its own theories and practices (PR Quarterly).”
According to FlackMe.Com, public relations is, “the act of taking information from the people that have it and giving it to the people that need it, while maintaining a positive image with your intended audience” and IMC is defined as, “a campaign designed to ensure that all communications share message, branding, and ‘feel’. A merge of all advertising, public relations, and marketing efforts.” The previous statements clearly define the role of PR in IMC. Without public relations, and the relationships/brand recognition that it entails, the IMC mix for a company would weaken.
Because IMC is focused on the total corporate or brand image, it is important to turn to public relations for a more global understanding of how impressions are created. Organizational communication factors such as relationships, motivation, and involvement are often addressed by PR programs and PR practitioners may be the people in an organization who are most competent to function as change agents – a critical task in creating and managing IMC programs.
Ethics in emerging media.
Children develop a sense of brands from a very young age. According to NameWire.com, a Swiss study has found that when sufficiently exposed to child-friendly brand jingles, tunes and spoken messages during pregnancy, up to 77% of all newborns not only recognize these brand markers, but develop a brand preference that could last until puberty, and probably into adulthood (final results are not yet available as the project only started two years ago). Furthermore, an astounding 23% of infant participants could indicate at least 9 out of 12 favorite brands using rudimentary hand signals.” According to the Center for a New American Dream, babies as young as six months of age can form mental images of corporate logos and mascots. Brand loyalties can be established as early as age two, and by the time children head off to school most can recognize hundreds of brand logos.
I find myself in the middle of the road on this one. I think everything can be good or bad for you, the key is moderation. The question of ethical marketing on children makes me think of McDonald’s and how they target children. Their legendary “Happy Meal” has been a marketing tool for many years and locks in children whom relay their wants to their parents; thus, McDonald’s is their meal choice! There are many ethical questions that arise when considering fast food promotions. I think everything can be bad for you, the important thing to consider is moderation. Recently, many fast food restaurants have been promoting healthier meals that still come with the same great incentives for children. McDonald’s, for example, offers “apple dippers” instead of fries and milk instead of soda with their meals. I don’t think restaurant managers should be concerned with their promotion tactics because healthy eating habits start from the source, their parents, not commercials. Parents should be educating their children on moderation and healthy substitution or should view places like McDonald’s as a treat and not an everyday meal option. So are children able to differentiate between what is good and bad? Are they merely targets in the marketing world? I think the responsibility lies in those who teach children wrong from right and who monitor their exposure.
There is no faster or more effective way these days to reach new customers than through online marketing.
Navigation could quite possibly me one of the most important aspects of online marketing. Navigation is an essential aspect of a well-designed website. Easy access to the web content even if there are hundreds of pages in the site would save time and energy of the user. Allotment of navigation links and tabs are useful in this regard. Generally navigation links are provided by keeping the tabs either on the top, bottom or bar at the sides of web pages. Sometimes web sites contain multiple sub-directories, in such instances drop down navigation menu of sub-directories can be a good option. Provision of tools that have links to different pages of a website as most, visited, most popular, etc also helps in navigation of the site.
Online shopping is becoming more and more commonplace. It has been predicted that US online shoppers will double to 132 million in the next five years. With today’s hectic schedules, people need a way to save time and shopping online is a way to do this. In a recent study, it was found that 19% of Internet users shop online once per week and this number is expected to continue to grow.
The following are some interesting statistics pertaining to online shopping:
Let’s talk kids and marketing. Consumers or mere victims in an evil plot to sell french fries? McDonald’s targets children as young as the age of 4 with the bright yellow pants of Ronald McDonald.
Kids represent an important demographic to marketers because they have their own purchasing power, they influence their parents’ buying decisions and they’re the adult consumers of the future.
Industry spending on advertising to children has exploded in the past decade, increasing from a mere $100 million in 1990 to more than $2 billion in 2000.Parents today are willing to buy more for their kids because trends such as smaller family size, dual incomes and postponing children until later in life mean that families have more disposable income. As well, guilt can play a role in spending decisions as time-stressed parents substitute material goods for time spent with their kids.
All men are created equal, right? So now it’s time for marketing to catch up with the rest of the world.
Covergirl has launched a new campaign for African American women that features Queen Latifah. This is a really great thing, not only for Covergirl but also for the evolution of marketing.
One Size Doesn’t Fit All
One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to reaching growing ethnic markets. Mass marketing to all segments may not touch key ethnic demographics, and a message and product may need to be positioned differently or reinvented to be compelling and heard by a target demographic.
Retailers need to recognize the cultural differences between ethnic subgroups and the majority population and attempt to reach them through specialized media that appeals to their needs.
Hispanics represent the fastest growing ethnic market, with 21 million consumers, or 8% of the U.S. total of 249.9 million, compared to 6% in 1980. Blacks make up the largest ethnic market, with a population of 31 million, up from 26.7 million in 1980. Asians constitute 8.6 million potential customers, or 3% of total U.S. population, a gain from 2% in 1980.
Potential? I think so!
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are easily accessible for users. Popular sites like CNN use podcasts to give viewers many opportunities not to miss out on current events.
Check it out: http://www.cnn.com/services/podcasting/
“Online shows and podcasts have loyal audiences who pay attention to advertisers who support the shows they regularly listen to or watch,” said Velvet Beard, Podtrac’s Vice President of Products.
A study showed a 73% increase in likelihood to use or buy an advertised product which is an indication of successful targeting, the unique relationship audience members have with the hosts of today’s online shows, and their ability to quickly move audiences from awareness to consideration to purchase. The studies showed that 69% of audience members have a more favorable view of in-show advertisers, which means a tremendous amount of goodwill goes to advertisers of online shows when show selection is intentional and advertising and ad formats are integrated into show formats.”
http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/home_films_evolution_v2.swf
The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty was started after Dove conducted a global study on beauty. The study called, The Real Truth About Beauty: A World Report confirmed a hypothesis that the definition for beauty had narrowed and impossible to attain. Dove found that:
In the United States, the campaign got free advertising space from media coverage on national television shows reaching 30 million daytime television viewers. These shows included The Oprah Winfrey Show, which included the campaign everyday for a week, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Today Show, The View and CNN.
“Evolution” the viral video and the most famous execution of the campaign to date had global impact. The viral has been viewed more than 15 million times online and seen by more than 300 million people globally in various channels of distribution.
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