I’d like you to share your social media usage.After reading the materials this week and learning about how ads are used in promotion and social media. Identify the ads you now receive, what type of ads they are, and what do you think of the practice of targeting you. Please share detail examples and pull in what you’ve learned in your text.
CHAPTER 15
THE INTERNET: DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Perhaps the most intriguing of all media—at least to students—are the Internet and digital media— particularly social media. Since the inception of the World Wide Web, the Internet has created quite a stir in Marketing. Likewise, in the advertising and promotions area, the Internet has been hyped as the “be all and end all” for communications, the end of traditional media as a means of communications and even as a replacement for all brick and mortar stores.
DEFINING AND UNDERSTANDING THE INTERNET
The growth and relevance of the Internet begins the chapter. In addition, insight into the rapid adoption of the Internet is presented.
WEB OBJECTIVES
Objectives sought in using the Internet include communications and sales objectives, as well as the development and maintenance of the website.
A. Developing and Maintaining a Website—The Website is the home of the information the company wishes to provide over the Internet. Exhibit 15-1 provides an example of how even a small company can develop an effective website.
B. Communications Objectives—the Internet and digital can be used in an attempt to attain a number of communications objectives. These include:
1.Generating interest 2.Creating awareness 3.Disseminating information 4.Creating an image 5.Stimulating trial 6.Creating a strong brand 7.Create buzz
8.Gain consideration
C. e-Commerce—the transaction of sales over the Internet has been given the designation of e- commerce. This sales objective is applicable to both the consumer and business to business markets.
THE INTERNET AND INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
The role of the Internet in the IMC program is discussed. The Internet both supports and is supported by an IMC program. A distinction between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 is introduced.
A. Advertising—a variety of forms of advertising on the Internet are available
1. Banner ads—the most common form of advertising
2. Sponsorships—both regular and content sponsorships are available
3. Pop-ups/pop-unders—small message boxes that appear on ones screen
4. Interstitials—ads that appear on the screen while content is downloading
5. Paid search—ads are placed near the content searched for, and the advertiser pays only when the consumer clicks on their ad.
6. Behavioral Targeting—targeting consumers with ads based on their website surfing behaviors.
7. Contextual ads—ads placed to take advantage of the surrounding content of the site
8. Rich Media—a broad range of interactive digital media that exhibit dynamic motion and employing features such as video, audio, and animation.
9. Additional Forms—rapidly growing new forms of advertising include rich media ads, expandable ads, etc..
A discussion as to who uses Web 2.0 and why is presented. Strategies that take advantage of the interactive capabilities of the internet include:
10. Social Networks—sites that allow the user to share information with others within their network. The big four (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+ are discussed.
11. Additional social media such as Instagram, Pinterest and Linked-In are presented.
12. Podcasting—a medium that uses the Internet to distribute radio-like files for downloading onto iPod or MP3 players.
13. RSS—Really Simple Syndication is a specification that uses SML to organize and distribute web based content in a standard format.
14. Blog—a web-based publication consisting of articles, writings, opinions, etc. of an individual or organization to be distributed to others.
15. Others—augmented reality, and QR codes are discussed.
Sales Promotions— sweepstakes, contests and other forms of sales promotions are commonly used on the Internet. In addition, a number of companies are now offering online coupons.
Personal Selling—the Internet has a number of ways of being combined with personal selling. Many business to business companies are using the net to prospect for new customers, qualify potential customers and provide product information. Others have used it effectively to assist the sales force, by removing many of the more mundane tasks such as reordering, etc. Consumer markets have used the internet to stimulate trial, provide information and assist personal selling through e-mails, samples, and the like.
Public Relations—as discussed in this chapter and chapter 17, the Internet has become a very valuable tool for disseminating public relations information, and achieving pr objectives.
Direct Marketing—early on many considered the Internet to be a direct marketing medium. The broader perspective notes that a number of direct media are employed with and for the Internet.
16. Direct mail
17. Infomercials
18. e-Commerce
19. Home Shopping Channels
INTERNET METRICS
The Internet has used its own methods for measuring effectiveness as well as some traditional methods. In an attempt to respond to criticisms and to adopt a standard basis for measurement, the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) created voluntary guidelines for Internet metrics. More traditional methods of measurement are now being adopted including recall and retention measures, surveys, tracking and sales measures.
A. Audience Measures and Measures of Effectiveness
• Internet Specific Measures—pages 521-522 (Figure 15-7 and Figure 15-8) show some of the more commonly employed Internet and social media specific measures employed.
• Traditional Measures—some of the same measures employed in traditional media such as recall and retention have been used.
• Recall and retention—more traditional in nature, these measures are now being offered by companies like Ipsos-ASI and others.
• Surveys—conducted through traditional methods as well as online, these surveys track attitudes toward the site, responses to e-mails, etc.
• Sales—the primary measure employed for e-commerce sites
• Tracking—another traditional measure, tracking is employed to gather information
regarding rand awareness, recall, message association and purchase intent.
B. Sources of Measurement Data—a number of sources of measurement data are discussed in the chapter. As the reader will note, some of these are providers of traditional information as well.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE INTERNET , DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Advantages of the Internet include:
a. Targeting
b. Message tailoring
c. Interactive capabilities
d. Information access
e. Sales potential
f. Creativity
g. Exposure
h. Speed
i. Complement to the IMC program
Disadvantages of the Internet include:
a. Measurement problems
b. Clutter
c. Potential for deception
d. Privacy
e. Irritation
