Unit 1: MK225 Internet Marketing (Assignment Question)

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?

Please submit your work in an attached MS Word document and include your first initial, last name as part of the file.

Assignment Answer:

A General Purpose Technology (or GPT) that has been instrumental in driving market changes in Google. Google has a virtual toolbox of different applications that compete with almost every market and business out there. They are the top search engine in the world which drives changes from Yahoo! and Microsoft's Bing.

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.

APA

Hanson, W. & Kalyanam K. (2007). Internet Marketing & E-Commerce. Mason, OH: Thompson Higher Learning.

A New Term Begins. FALL 2011.

After the past couple of terms, which have not been a picnic...
It is time for a new beginning, which is good I needed to reboot of sorts.

Retaking Internet Marketing.
Long story short... I have to get at least a B.

Wish me luck.

Week 11: MK225 Internet Marketing

Discussion Question:

“All sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” 

-Arthur C. Clarke

Identify 2 ways you expect information technologies to change in the next 10 to 20 years. Be sure to think broadly and creatively. For each idea, also discuss what opportunities/challenges it raises for marketers.

Discussion Answer:

With technology updating itself everyday, it is difficult to determine how Information Technologies (IT) would actually change in the next 10-20 years. That being said, the first way IT would be different in the future is the speed and availability of information. I believe at some point we can sit down at any computer and get our the information we need off of our computer. The second way I could see the IT changing would be more, if not most books being strictly digital. Book reading devices are all the rage now and with bookstores closing and newspapers folding it is merely a case of becoming mainstream.

Assignment: Question:

Customer complaints have been around as long as there have been customers. In the pre-Internet era, customer complaints were generally kept between the customer and the business. Complaints could be spread via word-of-mouth, but the reach of the complaint was minimal. In today's environment, customers have many more options to get their complaints voiced to the larger public. For an example of a complaint on the Internet, go to YouTube.com. Search for the "Open Letter to Apple" video (LINK). There are many other complaint videos on this site. How would you as a marketer address this type of situation? Should this type of complaint be addressed? What is a strategy you could use?


Assignment Answer:
As a marketer I would address a customer complaint posted via YouTube by first contacting the individual directly to further investigate their complaint beyond the content of the video. I believe issues like this should be addressed because they are a customer who has an audience and by responding could effect the way his followers interact with our product. The strategy I would use would be to urge the individual to post a follow-up video giving the resolution we provided to them. If they do not do so, we would release a written or video response on the video’s YouTube page. 

Week 9: MK225 Internet Marketing

Discussion Question:

Choose an industry, then identify and describe two examples of potential channel conflict that could arise in that market due to creation of a direct online sales channel. For each example, identify how the business could resolve or respond to the conflict.

Discussion Answer:
For this exercise, I have chosen to explore the potential channel conflicts when purchasing Apple products online as opposed to purchasing brick and mortar. Online purchasing from Apple is generally simple. They are usually in stock of all colors and sizes. Brick and mortar (Apple retail or others) purchasing has the potential for stock issues and uninformed employees.

Assignment Question:

In this Unit, we learn about the international online marketplace. For this assignment, you will complete a course in Skillsoft called "Competitive Strategies for a Global Marketplace." This course is designed to help you better understand online retailing. 

Assignment Answer:

Score: 15/20

Week 7: MK225 Internet Marketing (Communities)

Reading:

Chapter 10-11

Discussion Question:

Many people participate in social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace, as well as other online communities such as blogs. As a marketer, how would you advise firms seeking to interact with those communities and why that approach? What preference, if any, do you think people give to purchase recommendations that come from within those communities? How trustworthy do you think people consider other members of those communities to be? You will need information from our textbook and perhaps other sources to answer this question well.

Discussion Answer:

As a marketer,  I would advise firms seeking to interact with social network and blogging communities by instructing them to keep their content current (multiple times a day, if possible), creative (using multiple resources to provide many unique points of view) and credible (professions in your industry or similar). I fee that this approach will be the most engaging to most audiences and customers, by keep the content up to date and interesting should keep them interested and coming back (hopefully, daily) for more information. In the blogger community, I feel that the majority of them are trustworthy and sharing their experience as stay at home mom and the products or services they use and how well they work for her. Social network communities are tougher to gauge.

Assignment Question:

You are in charge of a new product launch. In a one page summary, identify five steps you would take as a marketer to develop early feedback using online resources. You should identify the potential benefit of each method, and explain how it could increase flexibility around the design process.

Assignment Answer:

I have been put in charge of launching a new product for our company. I have formatted an online strategy to get early feedback from our current and potential customer base through social media and other online resources. 


Facebook has more than 500 million active users with more than 250 million active users accessing it through their mobile devices. The potential benefit is the ability to access a large number of people at no cost. 


Twitter has more than 175 million registered. Like facebook this service is free and has the ability to reach a lot of people quickly and get instant feedback. Additionally, you can track how your message is through the use of hashtags (#). Formspring is a free online service that allows business and individuals to ask and answer questions. The potential benefit of this method would be the ability to a a very specific and direct question to users and potential users of the product. The customer would also be able to post the same type of questions to us.


Tumblr is a free online blogging service where you can post text, photos,quotes, links, music and video via your browser, phone, desktop, email and more. On the paying end of things, we could advertise via web banner and email blasts to increase exposure to the new product.

Week 4: MK 225 Internet Marketing

Discussion Question:

Select a popular content (news, information) website and identify all of the potential revenue sources that exist on the site. You should identify any forms of sponsorship and banner advertising. You should also address whether the site employs keyword or commission advertising strategies and whether the site has any unique online revenue from a product or service that could not otherwise exist. Choose a website that another student in this class hasn't already posted about for this unit.

Discussion Answer:

I selected the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com) for the purpose of this discussion question. The site seems to use multiple avenue when it comes to their advertising. On some pages, there are multiple ads from the same company (sponsored), while their are single ads for different companies (commission). All or most products (fashion clothing, services, etc.) advertised on Huffington Post can and likely do exist elsewhere online.

Assignment Question:

Go to a news web site such as CNN's or MSN's sites. Explore the site. Walk through the possible closed loop marketing steps for various advertisers on the site. In a one page summary, assess how many revenue sources you can identify on each site. You should be looking not only for obvious sources such as banner advertising, but also try to determine whether the site has sponsorship revenue, keyword advertising or potential commission revenues. Next, click through some of the obvious revenue sources – a banner ad is a good starting point. Are you directed to the product home page, or to another promotional site? Are you asked to register with the site? What other methods might exist for tracking the customer contact but are not evident?

Assignment Answer:

I selected the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com) for the purpose of this assignment question.

To start off, the way Huffington Post presents their advertising is not invasive. There is a advertising banner on the top of each page (except the home page) above the header that promotes a product or service that may have a connection with the content presented via keyword advertising.

As I move down the page, the next example of advertising I see, is a featured link to AOL Music, Engadget, MovieFone, or TechCrunch, depending on the page. These sites are all from AOL, so I would assume they are all sponsored advertising links.

The next advertising spot on the Huffington Post website is a square banner on the right side of the website, under the main headline photo. Much like the like the header advertisement promotes products that may have a connection to the content. On the home page, the ads are for very general product though like Living Social, automobiles, insurance and hotels.

The final advertising spot that I located on the page is about farther down the page on the left side that is the same size as the other square advertisement and has the same or similar content as the the other square advertisement.

When I click on the ads, the majority of them connect directly to the websites, except for the insurance ads offering quotes. These insurance links bring you to a form to fill out your information. 

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.