My comments about “Good Music, Crappy Clothes”

I was looking over the posts of my classmates when I saw a blog’s title that captured my attention. This bloger started talking in the introduction about how much he disliked this shop, Urban Outfitters, which I happen to like very much and have hang out there a few times since I got to Austin in January.

In the blog our classmate talks about how the appropriate environment can change totally the perception one has about a business. In this case particularly, he shares with us the way how the music they putted as background in this store made him thinking on actually buying in it when otherwise, before this experience, he would never had made a purchase in it.

I think this topic is really interesting because it’s actually an aspect of the brand image or store experience that us, as customers, don’t directly think about when we go into a store but indirectly makes us build a strong relationship with the brand.  Personally, I noticed this aspect once when I was randomly shopping with a friend and we got into this decorative hippy-looking store because she was looking for decorative stuff for her apartment. I didn’t liked those kind of stores but the music enforced my experience in that shop so much that now I use any excuse to go into it.

About the comments my classmate makes about this “experience”, he says he doesn’t like the clothes they have in it but loves the music they put. Of course I can’t say that’s not right as it’s his personal opinion, but in this shop, Urban Outfitters, they put the kind of music that fits perfectly with the style they want to project: Pop culture underground style. So what might happen, and as the writer specifies in the blog, they just have build up wrongly the brand image. I agree with him about the lack of value the workers there actually add. The feelings customers have from direct contact with salespeople are a strong part to have in mind when we think about the shopping experience.

Anyway, we both agree on how a right choice for music in a store is going to attract the customers they want to target, build a brand image, position themselves in the market and finally (but not least important) increase the traffic of potential consumers and increase their sales. Actually he says it in the blog, he would had never shopped in there before because he had adamant feelings about the people that purchased there, but from now on he will get into the store every now and then what eventually will make him do some shopping there and who knows if someday he will find himself being a regular shopper at that store.

Then we have the business music industry. These companies, Imagesound being one of them, have found a really good answer to the need of pull through the customer experience. They have a huge market in front of them as apart from retail stores they can offer their service to any business where being in a waiting room is part of the experience. Who hasn’t waited at the dentist, bank, and hairdresser or even in the supermarket line forever listening this horrible music? It is true that it’s more difficult to be accurate on about which environment to create in a dentist than in a cloth store to make it appropriate for their customers, but is also true that this experience can be improved.

In conclusion, I think the blog about “Good Music, Crappy Clothes” shows really interesting insights to think about. As marketers we must have this in mind when we try to create the ideal costumer experience and are targeting a segment in any market.

 

 

Buzz Marketing (Semi-extended Outline)

My goal in this outline is to define a clear structure of the final paper I will write about Marketing Word of Mouth (Buzz Marketing). I wont get into depth of each point but I will express the concerns I can have about the final project. This structure could be sensitive to changes if I think it is convenient while I write the final paper.

1.     Introduction

a.     The need of not conventional ways of marketing

In today’s world, consumers are saturated with publicity, and spots, and there is so much information they can reach that there is sometimes some skepticism created around the conventional ways of marketing. This is when buzz marketing appears. The key factor that involves this technique is simple: TRUST. This is the sensation transmitted when someone close to us gives us the opinion they have about a product.

This is why in buzz marketing the relations between people, users and consumers are not just important but also necessary. Furthermore this is the main way of communication and transmission of information.

b.     What is Buzz Marketing?

The Buzz Marketing is a technique based on the rumor extension or the exchange of information from a person to another one. This information is usually recommendations and also general information someone can give us but in a more informal way than in the communication media or traditional marketing. The Marketing Word of Mouth is normally referred to spoken communication, but Internet dialogs, like blogs, chats or e-mails are also sometimes included

c.     Why is Buzz Marketing so effective?

There are different studies that indicate the importance that have the recommendations of family members, friends or experts when a consumer is thinking of buying a product or service.

2.     Body

a.     Spreading the Buzz

The success of a Buzz Marketing Campaign depends on two main factors:

                                               i.     Its just necessary a credible and simple idea to provide consumers a reason to talk about your product or service

                                             ii.     Find the adequate spreading media to start it and extend the buzz quickly

To create a buzz, marketers have to find prospects capable of starting a chain reaction and that they feel comfortable talking about to product and the company. Then, they have to boost “interested opinions” with “alternative” media and using the right language. Finally, providing a “flow of information” between influential persons and potential consumers is also a key factor.

b.     The incompatibility of Buzz Marketing with other Marketing Techniques

Obviously Buzz Marketing has an effect that is that it can’t work without the dispensing of other strategies or marketing techniques. This is why in some countries companies pay people to talk or spread the information.

This is where technology comes into the field as it also has importance in this communication or marketing techniques. Today, bloggers are getting more and more significance when they talk about a product or give their opinion about it. As we have already said, the Internet is the main actual way of transmitting information.

c.     Buzz Marketing among college students

I still have to do more research about this point. Anyway, college students are a specific and wide segment that have many points in common (regardless of their diversity) and are the best target for this technique. We have to have in the top of our minds that college students are the segment of the population that are more into innovation and (usually) also have a wider social activity among their group of friends, known people, or class mates, sharing opinions and concerns which is the fastest way of using this technique.

In this point I have some concerns about how much specific information I can get and if I should try testing this technique spreading a buzz.

d.     Examples of Buzz Marketing techniques

In the paper I will put some examples of companies using buzz marketing or publicity campaigns that have focused in this technique. I will also share some links to interesting posts or podcasts of authors as Mark Hughes talking about the topic.

3.     Conclusion

a.     An old technique that marketers now are taking advantage of

Buzz Marketing is a communication technique that does not come from a new concept. In a natural way has always been manifested as an exchange of opinions or recommendations among consumers and know marketing experts are taking advantage of them to develop elaborated messages to achieve a wider diffusion and publicity of their products.

b.     What I have learned from this study

                                               i.     Learning about the technique itself

                                             ii.     The advantages marketers can take from them

                                            iii.     How to best apply it among college life

My concern in this point is if I will really learn the best way of taking advantage of this technique and use it among college students. My really concern actually is if I will stay among the ways students already use the word of mouth or I will really understand the best way to spread the buzz.

c.     Application to Customers Insights

How understanding this technique and especially among the college students can offer a deeper understanding of customer insights and how can marketers use this to improve the customer experience. In this way also how companies can use this information to build a better brand image and awareness. 

Spain and the US: Differences in the Electoral Campaigns

The topic I’m going to talk about in this blog is the differences there are in the approach to voters on the electoral campaigns in Spain and the US. The two last chapters of the movie The Persuaders talked about how marketing influences the campaigns and that facet made me think about how different it is in Spain so I decided to make some research in the topic.

The first point we must have in mind is that in Spain people where more concern about how was the last American Campaign going since the economical situation we are living in the last times. There where a lot of expectations about it and I remembered an article about Pablo Pardo, a Spanish journalist of El Mundo (one of the most redden newspapers in Spain) who talked about why USA electoral campaigns are so spectacular comparing with Spain. Well, the answer is triple:

·      In the US politicians have to convince people to register in the electoral register and vote, while in Spain voters only have to go the day of the elections and vote,

·      In Spain is not that important for voters the image of who is elected but all the team it follows, and here an image and message is created involving one candidate, and

·      The electoral fight in the US is made in a huge country where the elected candidate usually wins by a minimum advantage.

What happens is that in Spain, the political party’s tend to copy the electoral marketing of the US but only in the form and not in the content. They put videos in YouTube or send text messages to voters, but this are not used to mobilize people. After thinking about it, the reasons of these differences are always come to the same point; cultural differences so differences to approach the insights of the potential voters.

Here in the US, the electoral campaigns post their electoral program in the internet and then try to be more generic repeating six or eight key messages once and again. In the latest example we can see how Obama repeated this six messages using “change” as reference and with a clear message: “Yes, we can”. In the other hand we have the Spanish style, where there are more politics interests for the history of the different regions of Spain. Instead of being or democrats or republicans, there are more political party’s to support although there are the two main ones where about the 80% of the population vote in the general elections.

This is why the candidates have to try to capture that minority attention what makes the difference on the end. The two main parties, with their message and program, target two differentiated segments. Anyhow they can’t make such a strong image around them because they also have to attract the attention of other minority segments that are not their potential voters and are trying to decide which party to support depending on the changes in their program and possible alliances with the minor existent parties. They give to the content of the program a much bigger significance than the one they give to how to say it.

Getting to a conclusion, there are many cultural differences that make it different to approach the insights of the population. Differences in communications, that is how they use television or internet; differences in the content of the program and how to segment the population; and finally, there is a big difference that I haven’t gone into depth but is really significant that is the money collected for the campaign. The length of the campaigns and the high investment they have to make in them makes that the money spent in the US looks like an astronomic quantity comparing it to the amount spent by the Spanish campaigns.