23Mar
To piggy back on the previous post regarding customer review sites, the ability for consumers around the world (who don’t even know each other) to communicate back and forth about the same product is a very, VERY powerful development in the world of business and marketing. As easily as it can contribute to the success of a business, it can just as easily destroy it. The best example for free marketing that had an influence on me is the site misticriver.net. One industry I like to follow closely is the digital audio player market: aka, DAP, or mp3 player market. Misticriver was essentially a fan site about iriver, a korean based digital audio player company. The site posts articles regularly about the developments of the brand as well as a very active message board. Here, I learned more about iriver products as well as other DAPs. I came to understand why ipod was not the the strongest player on the market by many measures and how other “no-name” products were the best purchase.
The best part of this site is that people could say whatever they wanted without the moderation of a company that was just trying to protect its image. Sometimes people would praise iriver, other times bash it. To me, this was the purest way to get information on products and the industry as a whole. Unfortunataly for iriver, they never took advantage of the huge community that was misticriver and failed to develop their products with the growing trends and wants of the market. For a company that used to produce the strongest player available, they now fall down in the ranks.
23Mar
Many people have called the era we are living in today as the “age of information.” Thanks to the internet, the amount of useful (as well as plenty of useless) information is at our fingertips. I think there are a lot of ways to interpret information and the internet. For one, if I wanted to know more about the history of Volkswagen, I would be overwhelmed with useful information. More so, if I wanted to buy a VW, I could find all the customer review information I need. To me, this is one of the most powerful uses of the internet. Competition in business is so important because of how it benefits the customer. If three companies want the highest market share, they need to give the customer what they want more than the other two companies. The internet has essentially put everything in a glass house for the whole world to see and discuss. Clever advertising can only get you so far now. We now have the ability to hear voices from thousands of people who have used what we want to buy. In my search to buy a new car, I spent maybe 5% of the time on vw.com and the other 95% on customer review sites such as edmunds.com.
The internet has made it nearly impossible to hide behind flashy products and clever marketing. Without a doubt, it will (and already hsa) change business forever. In the end, we the consumers, are the winners.
09Mar
In regards to wikipedia, I’ve heard everything that it’s unreliable to it’s more accurate than the encyclopedia britanica. Classes like this one encourage its use, other’s don’t even allow it as a source. The main controversy is whether or not you can trust its information. This article discusses measures that are being considered that would likely make the website more accurate, but possibly deter user contributions.
28Feb
I thought this article out of the Wall Street Journal was interesting. The article is discussing Yahoo’s success with its new Ad-Ranking Tool. According to the article, “web surfers are clicking on Yahoo Inc. search-related advertisements with increasing frequency following the introduction of a new ad-ranking system.” This new system “determines ad placement based on an assessment of quality that includes the ad’s click-through rates and other factors as well as its bid price, rather than bid price alone.” This technique has been so successful that independent research has shown consumers are more often clicking on Yahoo ads instead of the “natural” results of their search. According to a company spokesperson, the system, called Panama, is still in its early stages and more tweaking needs to be done. Its technique for filtering advertisements is very similar to the method used by Google.
I thought it was interesting to read something like this and not have it pertain exclusively to Google.
Friend Me On Facebook!
Follow Me On Twitter!
Recent Comments