Nice website, but can everyone use it? December 10, 2008

So many websites out there are amazing. They have remarkable functionality and design. Extra focus has been given to ensuring the very best copy is integrated with engaging graphics and photos. But, after all this is incorporated into your website, what good is it if a portion of the population cannot use it? I’m not talking about web standards, which ensure that users from a variety of browsers can access your site. Instead, I’m talking about accessibility for those with disabilities.

For approximately six years, I worked in marketing for an agency that served people with mental retardation and developmental disabilities. Although many of the people served by our organization were severely disabled, it was chilling to know how many other people there are which also deal with disabilities. Estimates show that 54 million or 20.6% people in the United States live with some level of disability. Twenty-six million Americans have a severe disability (Joni & Friends, 2008). Computers open up many doors for people with disabilities. And, people with disabilities are an untapped revenue resource for all types of companies.

Accessibility on websites can come in many forms. Most focus on serving the needs of people with hearing or visual disabilities. Although legislation has been introduced to set guideline for these needs, there are several recommendations that web designers have collected on their own…

• Make sure all important content is text-based format. Many message embedded into graphic are not readable through accessibility software.
• Make sure images have alt tags. Alt tags describe what the image is allowing individuals with visual impairments the ability to access a description of the image.
• Test your site in black and white. People with color blindness should be ale to recognize text and hyperlinks without color.

Web designers must recognize that this is not a special effort needed for a minute group of online users. Millions of users will benefit from these accommodations, and in return the accessibility will work to build positive brand image of the company and expand sales and awareness. As Tim Berners-Lee of Web Accessibility Initiative stated, “The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect,” (Durand, August 22, 2004).

References

Durand, Leslie (August 22, 2004) Accessibility: Is your website causing you to loose potential clients? Retrieved on December 10, 2008 from http://ezinearticles.com/?id=909.

Joni & Friends (2008) Disability Information and Statistics. Retrieved on December 10, 2008 from http://www.joniandfriends.org/disability_stats.php.

Minority marketing: target locally December 2, 2008

Minority groups in America represent billions, if not, trillions of dollars of business. And, many brands are scrambling to find the very best ways to speak, sell and interact with these minority groups. It seems overwhelming, though, to know how and where to turn.

Hispanics and African-Americans are considered the largest minority groups, and although their presence online is still limited, it’s growing exponentially with specific wants and needs. Then there are Asian-Americans who can be broken into hundreds of different sub-groups with specific interests of their own. There are dedicated print products focused on this minority, but focus is many times too broad for the subgroups’ specific interests.

So as a marketer, do you try to speak to the broader audience of these minority groups, or do you target your message for specific regions or groups that represent the greatest potential? Jones Lang LaSalle company of California looked at the makeup of its immediate local community and recognized the large population of Philippino residents. They responded by targeting Philippino retailer Bench to join their development at a local mall, thus attracting hundreds fo thousands of consumers which had virtually been untapped before that time (Misonzhnik, November 2008).

Wal-Mart has dedicated portions of its Western stores located in cities with large Hispanic populations to authentic Mexican food and ingredients. Wal-Mart marketing has been targeted to these populations with a strong Hispanic focus, as well (Misonzhnik, November 2008).

What is our lesson learned? Big or small, we must first know our local consumer base. Who are they? What are their specific interests? If you don’t know what their interest are, then simply ask. Once those minority groups have been identified and their interests recognized, marketers must learn from them how to best market and communicate with them. In other words, research, research and then just when you think you’re there; research some more.

These are ever evolving and growing groups with changing interests. Just as their tastes for brands may change, so does their way of finding those brands. The marketing mix must take on a whole new focus when advertising to minority groups and ultimately must be done on a very local and precise level in order to effectively connect the brand with the consumers.

References

Misonzhnik, Elaine (November 2008) American Melting Pot. Retrieved on December 2, 2008 from http://web.ebscohost.com.www.libproxy.wvu.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=4&hid=6&sid=e05c9136-d67e-4f1e-bfae-f7eef597bbca%40SRCSM1.

Differentiation & reaching the audience through short films November 25, 2008

This week in class we discussed the concept of short films used as marketing tools. Short films really received recognition due to a few highly successful films that not only raised awareness of the brand, but raised awareness to the marketing vehicle.

Short films are effective because they are different. They are unlike much of the marketing that consumers are faced with day after day. Consumers expect print and radio and television and certain types of internet marketing, but they don’t expect short films. Head of operations for Al Jenaibi International Automobiles Johnny Oommen explained, “Print is cluttered, television is cluttered, so what are the other mediums for you to choose from? What BMW did was very innovative, though at that time a lot of people must have wondered why they were spending outrageous amounts of money on online films,” (ApexStuff, n.d.).

Short films introduced a new layer to certain brands – entertainment. BMW, for example, is best known for luxury, class and speed. When I think BMW, I do not think about popping some popcorn and sitting back for a great show. BMW’s series of blockbuster short films, though, peeled back yet another layer in this complex brand.

The BMW short films were directed by such names as Ang Lee and Guy Ritchie, and starred celebrities like Clive Owen and Madonna. Millions were spent to produce these films, yet not a single one ever made it to the television screen or theater. They all lived quietly online at the BMW website. Sorry, they weren’t so quite. Its estimated that the films received more than 100 million views and were honored with a number of awards for their quality and effectiveness (Motor Trend, October, 13, 2005).

But why, some marketers may ask? BMW recognized its need to reach a younger audience. Reaching that younger audience couldn’t be through what some would consider the typical way to communicate with the hip young crowd though. An appearance on TRL wasn’t going to cut it for this brand. Instead, the internet was really the only solution to this problem. Tied together with the differentiation of the media vehicle, BMW and many other brands have now hit the sweet spot for many upwardly mobile young consumers.

References

ApexStuff (n.d.) Using Emerging Mediums. Retrieved on November 25, 2008 from http://www.apexstuff.com/bt/200705/adopinion.asp.

Motor Trend (October, 13, 2005) “The Hire” Film Series By BMW to End. Retrieved on November 25, 2008 from http://www.motortrend.com/auto_news/112_news051015_bmw_the_hire/index.html.

Crowdsourcing put to the test November 10, 2008

I always love when things come together. The stars aligned this week and I’ve been able to put real life application to a concept we’ve been analyzing in class – crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing was defined Jeff Howe of WIRED Magazine as “the act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call,” (Ramos, August 18, 2008)

Our newspaper has been struggling of how to peek consumers’ interests related to the Sunday paper. We don’t have issues with daily circulation, but the Sunday product was losing readers. Most newspaper see the opposite. We decided on a crowdsourcing concept for a campaign. ‘What is your Sunday?’ was a concept we developed that would depict how normal people incorporate the Sunday paper into their average day. Photo were taken of people lying in bed reading the paper, clipping coupons, reading at a café, etc. Each ad and billboard included a website URL www.whatisyoursunday.com encouraging consumers to submit their own photos of Sunday.

We applied the rules of crowdsourcing:

• Be focused
• Get your filters right
• Tap the right crowd
• Build a community into social networks
• Feed, feed, feed (Ramos, August 18, 2008)

I don’t expect tremendous results from the online photo submissions. But, what I do hope is that we can begin to warm up the community to this type of concept. It’s interactive. It’s ownership of marketing. It’s awesome. I hope they are as excited about it as I am!

References

Ramos, James (August 18, 2008) Lesson 3: Creating Buzz: Viral Marketing, Crowdsourcing & Blogs. Retrieved on November 10, 2008 from https://ecampus.wvu.edu/webct/urw/lc5116001.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct.

Social networking makes ‘word of mouth’ effective again October 26, 2008

Social networking is one area of the online world that I have yet to enter and yet to understand. One thing that became abundantly clear from discussions this week in class, though, is that I am in the minority.

Its interesting to me that the classmates pointed out the effectiveness of social networking is based on the notion of ‘word of mouth.’ Most traditional marketers would shudder at the idea of relying on ‘word of mouth’ to raise awareness or market a product. When I hear ‘word of mouth’ advertising, I think of a small town five-and-dime store who’s curmudgeon owner believes that advertising is silly and all he needs is good old ‘word of mouth’ to sustain and grow his business.

At first, this notion that social networking is ‘word of mouth’ seems to be a throwback to an older style of marketing. All that is old becomes new again, though. First, social networking can provide marketers with ‘word of mouth’ opportunities in online conversations. Those conversations aren’t happening at the water cooler or on the street corner like the good old days. These are conversations happening on a much larger scale. How large? This year in June alone, more than 132 million people visited Facebook and more than 117.5 million visit MySpace (Synovate, August 2008).

So my misconceptions about social networking came from the notion that these sites offered no purpose for marketers. I go to msnbc.com for news. I go to ebay.com to shop. I go to youtube.com for videos. Social networks didn’t provide me, at face value, any specific purpose. So why visit? Daniel Nations of About.com offered the very best explanation. He said, “Think of e-mail as a P.O. box on the web. A P.O. box is a very handy way of receiving letters from people, but you aren’t going to invite people to your P.O. box to look at your family photo albums. You are going to invite them over to your home” (2008).

For obvious reasons, many businesses are intrigued by this idea. The next step is learning how businesses and specifically marketers can get involved in this forum. Just as consumers rely on ‘word of mouth’ recommendations for product recommendations or advice from friends and family, social networking sites expand that group and offered endless options for marketers to inject their own information to millions of consumers. LinkedIn.com is one example of social networking being used as a key marketing communications tool. The website is a social networking site dedicated to connecting colleagues and classmates, job and business opportunity information, and share industry advice (LinkedIn.com, 2008).

Ironically, from this week’s discussion, the idea that chat rooms are the least effective form of emerging media surprised me. Aren’t chat rooms and social networking sites very similar? They provide an online conversation with others. They also rely, to an extent, on ‘word of mouth’ as a form of marketing. CompuServe and AOL were some of the first to provide chat rooms. Both designed the function as a social networking center. Eventually, these early chat rooms evloved to instant messaging and now, the social networking sites we know today, like FaceBook (Feydakin.com, 2008).  It seems that chat rooms still have their place in the world of online social networking, and shouldn’t be discounted in light of other networking options.

Chat rooms or social networking sites, regardless, I admit it. Social networking is more than just socializing. It has purpose. It has large scale. And, I’ve been convinced that it is one key element of a comprehensive marketing communications plan.

References

Feydakin.com (2008) The history of chat part one. Retreived on October 26, 2008 from http://www.feydakin.com/.

LinkedIn.com (2008) What is LinkedIn.com? Retrieved on October 26, 2008 from http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=what_is_linkedin&trk=hb_what.

Nations, Daniel (2008) Why Get Involved With Online Social Networking? Retrieved on October 26, 2008 from http://webtrends.about.com/od/socialnetworking/a/socialnetwork-y.htm

Synovate (August 2008) Social Networking Myths and Facts. Retrieved on October 26, 2008 from http://www.synovate.com/insights/infact/issues/200808/.