Comments on a Classmates Post.

I recently read a posting from Ben Gruber's blog about an article he read on the Devaluation of Online Advertising. I thought his choice of article was very interesting, as well as being extremely pertinent to the subject matter we discuss in class. Ben discussed his opinion on this article, written by Dorian Sweet, and I must say I agree with his points. The idea that media consumption has become more of an addiction than a choice for most people is such a perfect portrayal of the current state we are in. It is a simple fact that those people who have become accustomed to computer access on a daily basis would feel a sense of disconnect with out it. I personally remember not having Internet for a few days because Comcast was changing my cable plan and I felt somewhat lost not being able to check my email or talk to people online so I knew everything that was happening.

As far as the essentials for online advertisers, Sweet has created a list of four essentials: keep a close eye on what your customer is doing online, make sure to track your ads, to trust and use the information you get from tracking the ads, and to remain creative. I believe all these are important points to ensure success in online advertising. Ben makes special mention of creativity of ads to be probably the most important. I must agree with him that from a consumer attention standpoint, creativity is the key factor. After all, consumers are bogged down and overwhelmed by tons of online ads every single day. This fact suggests they have seen pretty much everything, so it is important for advertisers to think outside of the box and make their ad stand out among all the competition. I do however also agree that Sweet's other points should not be taken lightly. Attention, gained by creativity, is obviously important because without gaining the consumer's attention one has nothing. Yet in order to maintain a long lasting advertising campaign online involves receiving and analyzing data about one's ads and how the customer base is responding to them. Overall, an excellent article by Dorian Sweet and a great blog posting by Ben Gruber.

Reflection from required blogs list.

I recently read an article on the Diva Marketing blog that focused on how good relationships should impact the bottom line. It references two other authors Rajesh and Geoff Livingston that have blogged about the subject of customer relationships. I really like how the article addresses this important issue because very often in this extremely competitive market, people seem to get extremely hung up on the concept of price. Do not get me wrong, I strongly know that price is important, however it good customer service should not be sacrificed just to save a couple pennies.

It is important for businesses to look at the lifetime value of a customer and therefore create a maintain a very good relationship to ensure they can benefit from all this value. Although this process may take longer, it is worth it in the end and results in a win-win for all sides. Even one customer was quoted in the article stating how in the long run the relationship with a business will save one more than just a lower price for right now. It was very refreshing to see many people heavily entrenched in the marketing world address what I believe to be a very important issue.

Wikipedia Edit for Forever 21

I recently edited my watched Wikipedia article on Forever 21. In one of my previous edits I focused on adding a particular section talking about the website that they recently implemented catching up with the new technological times. Well, I have been frequently checking this website (yes mostly for personal use) but I recently recognized a new link/section for Heritage 1981, one of the stores in the Forever 21 Chain. I decided to edit regarding this new information because it is very indicative of the expansion and effort they are putting into their website.

These changes show how most companies are realizing the importance of a website as an amazing marketing tool. Expanding and enhancing the current website will only draw more people into this wonderful marketing tool as well as make this medium a place where they would like to do their shopping. It is amazing to see the changes that have been made in the few short weeks that I have been watching this article,and in particular - its website. Once again, a link to the Wikipedia article: Forever 21

New Wiki Edit

I recently edited my Wikipedia article on Febreze, a popular de-odorizing agent. My edit was about the actual product packaging, and how on every bottle there is a Good Housekeeping logo that is a limited warranty for consumers to get a refund or replacement for a defective product. Although we tend to get used to these warranties that appear on many different products, we must realize their importance.

Warranties and logos such as this one reinforce the confidence a producer has in their product. After all, if a product was not effective the cost of upholding these warranties would be egregious thereby strongly suggesting confidence in a product. This warranty also allows for the inevitable bad lemon or defective product that can occur in the mass production of any product. From a marketing perspective, these warranties are an important element of a product that can positively affect a consumer's feeling about a particular product or product line. It shows a company's desire to take responsibility for any defect and truly helps a company's image. Here is a link: Febreze

Wikipedia Edit PoSt

I recently edited one of the Wikipedia articles regarding the issue of Study Abroad. As I have stated before, this issue is such a large and important topic, especially for college students that make up the majority of study abroad participants. In the article, there is a section on the neccesary steps that one must go through to study abroad, including obtaining a passport and other neccesary documents. All of these requirements are true, yet I believe there are also other "neccesary" steps that should be included in the pre-study abroad departure.

I am taking my lead from the University of Delaware, my current school and home, through which I studied abroad. One of their common practices is for students to go through mandatory orientations that address different issues that they will/might face while abroad. These orientations include possible medical issues because obviously health is of key importance, but also cultural issues which can be just as important. At many of these orientations former students who have studied abroad speak of their experiences and offer some of the best perspectives to those planning to study abroad in the near future. I believe this detail is important for other study abroad programs who might considering implementing such orientation programs.

From a marketing prospective, I believe the existence and publication detailing these orientaitonprograms would prove very beneficial to possible study abroad participants that are somewhat hesitant about the whole process in general. Here is a link to my edit: New Study Abroad Edit

Wiki Post

I am writing about my most recent attempt to publish an article on Wikipedia about the Biolage haircare company. My reasoning is still the same based on my previous post about this great new haircare company that I believe the Wikipedia community should know about.
Seeing as how my first attempt was unsuccessful, this edit not only reiterates most of the same important information, but I paid more attention to referencing of this valid information. Valid information is a big concern for the Wikipedia community because after all this website is used as a resource by many with a desire to obtain verified information. So here is my new "edit" for a creation of Biolage. Biolage

Class Aftermath Posting

One very popular topic that was discussed this week was search engine optimization, and how exactly one can go about acheiveing this goal. On Monday we had one of the founders of SEO by the Sea come in to talk about this growing lucrative business.

Basically anyone who has used an internet search engine for attaining some type of information can tell you the importance of any particular company/website's ranking. After all, let's be honest, no one is going onto the 10th page still looking for the right answer. Instead they will just change the search. Because of this fact, companies have 2 goals of making sure they come up high on the list for appropriate keywords as well as making sure they know the right keywords to be listed underneath.

One important fact we learned in this class is that the amount of links coming in and out of a website is an important factor in changing/improving one's ranking. This factor explains why sites such as Wikipedia rank very high for searches because of the multitude of outgoing links.
As a marketing major, I have to see the importance of the Internet and SEO is one of the best free marketing tools a business could ever get. After all a user has to be able to find your business, and find out about it so that they can become a possible customer.

One interesting site I found is SEO Chat which is a site which allows people to interact and talk about different search optimization strategies. This area is huge and bound to keep on growing and be a hot topic for years to come.