AOL is reinventing itself and asserting its individuality in every possible way. First came the news of AOL becoming independent internet entity and the makeover began with redesigning of logo. Now the next revelation is that AOL will go lowercase and become ‘aol.’, pronounced as ‘aol dot’, so it won’t be an acronym anymore but will leave room for extension such as ‘aol.music’. And what is the marketing strategy and campaign plan to compete with giants like Google and Yahoo? According to AOL CEO Armstrong its marketing and advertising funds are minimal and the brand campaign is going to be very inexpensive affair.

It was in news that AOL had taken help of Leo Burnett for tweaking new brand image. AOL is indeed treading on unbeaten path with a different marketing strategy which is perfectly in place. They are investing in product and services which will speak loads about the brand and spread the word. They want to attract millions of net users with their versatility, product features, interesting sites and services. I guess this makes sense. In the online world it is enough to create a ‘buzz’ and the word spreads like wildfire. And the real worth of brand is determined by its product and not by catchy campaigns. Moreover in the times of recession there is no point in spending on packaging what can be spent on content!

Via PaidContent

The official news on the roadmap of 2009 for Android were published, and they contradict the initial buzz: the mobile operating system not only got 2, but three updatings up to 2010, each one with a more eccentric dessert name of than the previous.

After the version Cupcake, arrived the Donut version. And finally, the Eclair version and, the next updating will be called of Flan.

The association between the updatings and the chosen desserts can seem as something random, but they are not. However, nothing impedes that the people can start to imagine other names for future updatings, like Android Petit Gateau, or Android Amaretto Sorbet, or Android Pudim. It is better I stop speaking of desserts that I am beginning to be hunger.

The fact of the names seemingly follow the alphabetical order contributes only (Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Flan – C, D, and, F) for led us to belive in the Android evolution, unless the updating corresponding to the letter G is gelatine…

The interesting is that to commemorate each release, gigantic desserts are exhibited side by side. Already an enormous and an intimidatingly cupcake large donut exists, and now, a gigantic eclair. As the time passing, who knows Google goes gets to enter in Guinnesss Book for having created the largest demonstration of gigantic desserts in open sky, or as a wicked friend mine would say, a museum to attract fat people.

Via: TechCrunch.

Technorati is known as a blog-ranking online machinery. It is what is known best as – a surveyor of the entire forest, noticing which of the trees are the most stalwart. ‘CEO Richard Jalichandra has done an impressive job building a vertical content network and advertising network.’ Traffic is said to be around 3 million unique hits a month.

However, the popularity-rating blog catalog (with such features as “Rising blog posts by attention,” “Rising news stories by attention,” “What’s Popular,” and “Top 100 Blogs”) seems to have lost some of its “authority” itself. Critics blame such culprits as declining market share, many software bugs, downtime, and an unclear strategy for the future.

Things are changing at Technorati. The company now wants to directly compete with the same blogs that it tracks. In other words, the forest now wants to be a tree. It is now hiring bloggers and wants to be a blog itself. It has announced that it is entering into the next phase of its evolution: original content. The new feature is slated to debut this October.

Well, it is a free enterprise world out there. Market competition is the name of the game. Technorati may very well transform from a blog community to a writers’ community. After all, it has a commendable followers base to take advantage of. That’s certainly a clear strategy for the future that its critics are looking for.

Image

Via Venture Chronicles/thenextweb.com

Competitive intelligence, also called competitor analysis, is a process where information is collected, studied, evaluated, and eventually used for purposes of modern-day marketing planning for a product, service, or company. It is a vital component of marketing planning that is meant to determine the risks and opportunities in marketing. By knowing the market environment of a product, service, or company, the marketing planners can better map out a most suitable direction amidst market competition.

Information is vital in competitive intelligence. This information abounds in the market. A keen marketing organization will have its ear to the ground and know the market like the back of its hand. The aspects of observation and surveillance, just like in any intelligence undertaking, should also be present in competitive intelligence.

The dynamic marketing organization will have informants on the ground that can do surveillance on the company’s competitors, old and emerging. Information is also available through the various media. A pro-active marketing organization will keep it ears and eyes open to any movement, behavior, and activity within the market it plays.

Raw information is useless without the proper processing of it. A marketing organization can gather all the information it can but without processing it into useful intelligence, that wealth of information can be rendered useless. The processing of information, especially regarding newly emerging competitors, should undergo thorough evaluation and analysis. The analysis should be used in planning an effective marketing strategy, and ultimately executing the plan, to keep the company ahead of its competitors, both old and emerging ones.

Image

With recession around the corner, many marketers are having a tough time convincing the consumers to spend like before. Retailing sector shows a grim picture and so is the overall scenario with increase in the number of pink slip handouts. What’s the common way to beat the recession? Cut down on the marketing expenditure, Cut costs in new product development, decrease advertisement spends, to name a few.

Can you imagine that high end brands are out on sale with 50 percent discounts. Slashing prices of exclusive brands is rather a wrong approach to get the customers to your showroom in the first place. Marketing experts believe that it takes as long as seven years to recover and create a brand value in the minds of the customers. Simple logic! Would you ever buy a Louis Vuitton product again at a full price if you incidentally picked the same at a discounted rate on a prior occasion?

The strategy of the hour is not to bring down the brand value that is developed over the years. Rather, create value for your brands. Add more value to a product purchase by combining more products as a part of the purchase deal. You can really capture a market segment that could bring you revenue in all seasons. Loyal customer base can be made and retained. Recession could be the time where the marketers can tread the path many dare not to take. Invest on your brand, increase brand awareness and induce strategies for better brand recognition. Take a chance, and your business and your brand will shine!

Apple made history by launching iPhone 3G which was long awaited. Apple captured the European markets, US markets and witnessed a great beginning worldwide. India seems to be way behind the league, and a subsequent disappointment has set in at last.

India, was never the priority market for Apple and hence, the company chose to ship only 100,000 phones by December 2009. The coveted phone hasn’t been showing great sales figures either. Clearly, Apple didn’t keep its hope too high. Sources claim that only 50,000 phones were shipped during the launch in August 2008, out of which the proud owners of 8 GB iPhone 3G is a surprising number of 11,000 people only.

Analysts believe that Apple has played their cards really wrong in the fastest growing economy, and the second largest economy in terms of growth of the telecom industry. By underplaying the Indian economy with its ever-increasing purchasing power, Apple lost a big opportunity to sell its blockbuster product and also in laying a stronger foundation for its other brands as well.

The steep pricing of iPhone 3G is only one of the obvious reasons that led to the poor sales figure. Business analysts, experts and even Apple’s rivals in India feel that the main reason for the failure of iPhone 3G was due to its flawed sales and distribution and also the poor methods of communication and ineffective advertisement campaigns. Availability of the iPhone 3G only at the service provider’s outlet and inexperience in the complex Indian retail environment only added to their woes. The next question in your mind would be, did the existence of Apple iPhone 3G really need to be communicated? Lets face it, the iPhone 3G targets the niche market, which consists of the educated lot, and hence, they would know about the famous phone. But the fact remains, that phone was not communicated to the market as a lifestyle product that would enthuse the potential customers more like the way the advertisements campaigns did in USA and other companies.

A couple of hoardings in some corners and television commercials for a few weeks definitely were not aggressive enough as marketing tactics. Also the phone was expected to be priced $199 in the Indian markets. The telecom industry depends mostly on prepaid connections in India, so the service providers which also happen to be license holders like Vodafone Essar Ltd and Bharti Airtel Ltd couldn’t subsidize the cost and to recover the same priced it at a whopping Rs.31000.

With tough competition from Nokia’s N96, Samsung and RIM with their own versions of the iPhone, and Google Inc. with its Android ready to side with the competitors, Apple flagship model has to tread its each step very carefully. Effective communication, sales and distribution techniques could be the key to its success and also sustenance in the Indian shores.

Via: LiveMint

Companies and their marketing firms can now use new brain scan technology to study ad response and buying trends of potential customers to improve their marketing strategy. California based research firms Neilson and NeuroFocus have already launched this service in Japan.

Marketing researchers have studied the impact of advertising on masses in the past. But using brain scan response to improve advertising campaigns and marketing strategy may not be good idea. It’ll take away all the fizz, thrill and creativity from the world of advertising. Is there any need for such desperate effort to make an impact and brainwash customers?

The main focus of advertising and marketing should be on quality of product/service, pricing and the need of target customers. But then going by present trends, marketing is all about grabbing the attention and winning customers. Hence the need to understand and manipulate human brain.

Will it work? Is it all that easy to understand and manipulate a human mind? Will research firms manage to sell their idea of brain scan and new technology to marketing firms and companies? Welcome to the new techno-savvy world of marketing and advertising!

Via Gizmodo/Japantoday