MK225: Unit 1 Internet Marketing

Discussion Question A:

Introduction.

Discussion Question B:

Chapter 2 describes how multimedia convergence is a promising area of internet development.  Some of the best examples of this are online video games, augmented reality, and apps for mobile devices like the Stella Artois le bar guide (see below)  which combines augmented reality, GPS, photography, social networks and a host of other technologies.  Find an example of multimedia convergence to share with the rest of the class and describe how the digitizing process makes it possible. (youtube is a great place to look for videos of examples as well as an example itself) Make sure you don’t use an example that another student has already used.

Discussion Answer B:

Being a Verizon customer, I recently got an iPhone and I am absolutely in love with it! Without it I am not sure if I would have an example for this question. That being said I have chosen to share the Instagram app. 

The app uses pictures taken with your camera and gives you options to provide different effects to it. Once you have chosen and applied the effects you can title it, geo-tag it, and share with numerous social networks.


Assignment Question:

Define General Purpose Technologies (GPT) that drive marketing changes.  What three characteristics do they have?  What are the three GPTs that form the foundation of internet marketing and how have they driven internet marketing?

Assignment Answer:

A General Purpose Technology (or GPT) that have driven market changes are Google. Google has many application that help individuals and businesses. Google Docs for example has reduced the need for word processing software and disc space. Google has made these documents pervasive by making them accessible in many different ways. Updates to the software and capabilities are occurring constantly. These updates and capabilities has caused other software providers (OpenOffice, Microsoft, Apple) of this software to innovate their offers as well to compete with Google’s free offering.

The three GPTs that form the foundation of internet marketing are the digital revolution, networking and individualization. The digital revolution has driven internet marketing by always evolving technologies such as computers and introducing new ones such as iPods/iPads, and using these technologies to share and communicate in a variety of like audio, video, photography and others. Networking has driven internet marketing by given individuals the ability to share products and services with customers they wouldn’t reach otherwise. Using Facebook as an example, I share a link with my friends that may in turn forward it to their friends and so on, much like word of mouth. Individualization has driven internet marketing by tuning in to the needs of the particular customer. Google and Facebook do this by tracking what sites and keywords you use and direct the advertising to mirror those needs and desires.