The readings and material from this week provided a broader variety than any of the previous weeks. The introduction piece in The Numerati was interesting because it brought to the forefront what many know is going on behind the scenes. That is, in this digital world, our every move is being tracked. Before digital technology took hold, marketing was more difficult because consumer preferences were not as readily available and traceable. Now that everyone interacts in this new world of technology, there is a seemingly endless supply of data that can be collected on us, our preferences, and our habits. This information can be harnessed for the benefit of a wide variety of marketing opportunities. I personally have been well aware of the fact that my activities online have created a consumer profile of myself, but I do not feel threatened by it or feel that my privacy has been invaded. While I choose to make my information available online, I do so knowing that 100% of my activity online can be tracked. This is simply the reality of living in a high tech world, and I believe the consumers are often better off for it by having better access to the products and services that we actually want to have. If a marketer has easier access to reach me with offers on products and services that I actually want (based on my profile), both sides win.
On the other hand, I was not aware just how much advertising data was being transmitted by my smartphone. Intuitively it makes sense that if I surf the internet on my phone instead of at home, there is no difference in the amount of data that becomes available to advertisers. However, the GPS functionality leading to targeted advertising was not something I had thought of. Silly me, but I thought I was using my GPS to help with directions and to find places to shop or eat based on where I currently am. However, it makes perfect sense for this to be a prime advertising opportunity. If I am looking for a place to eat, and happen to be just down the street from a local restaurant, it is a great opportunity for their advertisement to pop up on a Yelp search or other similar GPS-enabled application.
The History of the Internet podcast was quite an interesting run through of all the background on the internet that I did not previously know. Most notably, my friends and I have always had fun with the idea of Al Gore inventing the internet, so it was funny to hear Frank dispel that myth in the podcast. In addition, my friends often discuss what the next advances in technology will be, so it was interesting to hear about the future internet predictions in the podcast. Most of us are well aware that the leading internet communication device in the future will be a mobile product rather than traditional PC’s. However, the discussion about the blurring line between physical and virtual reality was quite interesting. Already you have social networks online, second life software, and various other ways that people live their lives on the internet. I am interested to see how this will further evolve in the future as virtual reality continues to move into our physical world.
Finally, I wanted to touch on the brand engagement report. We have studied a lot in this course about how various companies engage with their consumers, including on Twitter and other Web 2.0 outfits. However, the companies that I have spent time researching for this class (Johnson and Johnson and Motorola) have not been the best at engaging their customers. Therefore, it was interesting to read case studies of what some of the leaders in brand engagement are doing to promote themselves. Not surprisingly, brands like Starbucks, Google, and Amazon were near the top in brand engagement. However, I was surprised to see companies like Thomson Reuters, SAP, and Accenture doing so well. These are brands that you traditionally associate with being leaders in their respective fields, but not brands that you would put in the same class as consumer brands like Starbucks. However, SAP, for example, has an extensive blogging network and utilizes social media aggressively. Therefore, just because it is a brand that everyday consumers do not come into contact regularly, significant brand awareness can still be created by leveraging Web 2.0 capabilities.
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