List of Search Engines

Home , Access2Research, AfreecaTV, Billboard bicycle, Bing Health, Bing Shopping, BTDigg

A blog network is a group of blogs that are connected to each other in a network. A blog network can either be a group of loosely connected blogs, or a group of blogs that are owned by the same company. The purpose of such a network is usually to promote the other blogs in the same network and therefore increase the advertising revenue generated from online advertising on the blogs.[1] List of search engines

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For knowing popular web search engines see, see Most popular Internet search engines.

This is a list of search engines, including web search engines, selection-based search engines, metasearch engines, desktop search tools, and web portals and vertical market websites that have a search facility for online databases. Contents

 1 By content/topic o 1.1 General o 1.2 P2P search engines o 1.3 Metasearch engines o 1.4 Geographically limited scope o 1.5 Semantic o 1.6 Accountancy o 1.7 Business o 1.8 Computers o 1.9 Enterprise o 1.10 Fashion o 1.11 Food/Recipes o 1.12 Genealogy o 1.13 Mobile/Handheld o 1.14 Job o 1.15 Legal o 1.16 Medical o 1.17 News o 1.18 People o 1.19 Real estate / property o 1.20 Television o 1.21 Video Games  2 By information type o 2.1 Forum o 2.2 Blog o 2.3 Multimedia o 2.4 Source code o 2.5 BitTorrent o 2.6 Email o 2.7 Maps o 2.8 Price o 2.9 Question and answer . 2.9.1 Human answers . 2.9.2 Automatic answers o 2.10 Natural language  3 By model o 3.1 Privacy search engines o 3.2 Open source search engines o 3.3 Semantic browsing engines o 3.4 Social search engines o 3.5 Visual search engines o 3.6 Search appliances o 3.7 Desktop search engines o 3.8 Usenet  4 Based on o 4.1 Google o 4.2 Yahoo! o 4.3 Bing o 4.4 Ask.com  5 Defunct or acquired search engines  6 See also  7 References  8 External links By content/topic

General

Name Language

Baidu Chinese, Japanese

Bing Multilingual

Blekko English

DuckDuckGo Multilingual

Exalead Multilingual

Gigablast English

Google Multilingual

Munax Multilingual

Qwant Multilingual

Sogou Chinese

Soso.com Chinese

Yahoo! Multilingual Name Language

Yandex Multilingual

Youdao Chinese

P2P search engines

Name Language

FAROO English

Seeks (Open Source) English YaCy (Free and fully decentralized) Multilingual

Metasearch engines

See also: Metasearch engine Name Language

Blingo English

Yippy (formerly Clusty) English

DeeperWeb English

Dogpile English

Excite English

Harvester42

HotBot English

Info.com English Ixquick (StartPage) Multilingual Kayak and SideStep Multilingual

Mamma

Metacrawler English

Mobissimo Multilingual

Otalo English

PCH Search and Win

WebCrawler English

Geographically limited scope

Name Language Country

Accoona Chinese, English China, United States

Ansearch English Australia, United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand

Biglobe Japanese Japan

Daum Korean Korea Name Language Country

Egerin Kurdish Kurdistan

Goo Japanese Japan

Guruji.com India

Leit.is Iceland

Maktoob Arab World

Miner.hu Hungary

Najdi.si Slovenia

Naver Korean Korea

Onkosh Arab World

Rambler Russia

Rediff India

SAPO Portugal, Angola, Cabo Verde, Mozambique

Search.ch Switzerland

Sesam Norway, Sweden

Seznam Czech Republic

Walla! Israel

Yandex.ru Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan

ZipLocal Canada/United States

Semantic

See also: Semantic search Search Engine Description Speciality Name Sophia Search Specialises in auto-tagging of content search engine

Limited for semantic search and discovery True Knowledge Specialises in knowledge base and answer engine (now Evi)[1] semantic search Semantic web search engine for food,

Yummly food related cooking and recipes Semantic web ontologies. Indexes

Swoogle Searching over 10,000 ontologies over 4 million semantic web documents.

Accountancy

 IFACnet

Business  Business.com  Getit Infoservices Private Limited  GenieKnows (United States and Canada)  GlobalSpec  Nexis (Lexis Nexis)  Thomasnet (United States)  Justdial

Computers

 Shodan (website)

Enterprise

See also: Desktop search

Desktop search engines listed on a light purple background are no longer in active development.

Name Platform Remarks License IDOL Enterprise Desktop Search, HP Proprietary,

Autonomy Windows Autonomy Universal Search.[2] commercial A mix of the Open source desktop search tool for Linux X11/MIT License

Beagle Linux based on Lucene. Unmaintained since and the Apache 2009. License Copernic

Desktop Windows Free for home use

Search Open source desktop search tool for Eclipse Public

DocFetcher Cross-platform Windows and Linux, based on Apache

License Lucene dtSearch Proprietary (30 day

Windows

Desktop trial) Find files and folders by name instantly on

Everything Windows Freeware NTFS volumes Integrates with the main Google search Google Linux, Mac OS, engine page. 5.9 Release now supports x64 Freeware

Desktop Windows systems. As of September 14, 2011, Google has discontinued this product. GNOME Open Source desktop search tool for

Linux GPL

Storage Unix/Linux InSight

Desktop Windows Metadata-based search utility Freeware

Search ISYS Search Proprietary (14 day

Windows ISYS:desktop search software.

Software trial) [3]

Locate32 Windows Graphical port of Unix's locate & updatedb BSD License

Lookeen Windows Outlook Search Tool, with integrated Proprietary (14 day Name Platform Remarks License Desktop Search trial)

Open Source desktop search tool for [4]

Meta Tracker Linux, Unix GPL v2 Unix/Linux

Open Source desktop search tool for [5]

Recoll Linux, Unix GPL Unix/Linux Found in Apple Mac OS X "Tiger" and

Spotlight Mac OS Proprietary later OS X releases. Linux, Unix, Cross-platform open source desktop search [6]

Strigi Solaris, Mac OS LGPL v2 engine X and Windows Terrier Linux, Mac OS, Desktop search for Windows, Mac OS X

Search MPL Unix (Tiger), Unix/Linux.

Engine Freeware and

Tropes Zoom Windows Semantic Search Engine. commercial

Unity Dash Linux Part of Ubuntu Desktop. GPL v3 Part of Windows Vista and later OSs. Available as Windows Desktop Search for Windows

Windows Windows XP and Server 2003. Does not Proprietary

Search support indexing UNC paths on x64 systems. X1 Desktop Major desktop search product along with Proprietary (14 day

Windows [7]

Search Copernic Desktop Search. trial)

Usenet

 Google Groups (formerly Deja News) Based on

Google

 AOL Search  CompuServe Search  Groovle  MySpace Search  Mystery Seeker  Netscape  Ripple

Yahoo!  Ecocho  Everyclick (formerly based on Ask.com)  Forestle (an ecologically motivated site supporting sustainable rain forests - formerly based on Google)  GoodSearch  Rectifi

Bing

 A9.com  Alexa Internet  Ciao!  Facebook  Ms. Dewey  Yahoo! Search  Egerin

Ask.com

 Hakia (semantic search)  iWon  Lycos  Teoma Defunct or acquired search engines

 AlltheWeb  AltaVista (acquired by Yahoo! in 2003, shut down in 2013)  Brainboost (Public engine no longer exists, acquired by Answers, Inc.)  BRS/Search (now OpenText Livelink ECM Discovery Server)  Btjunkie  Cuil  ChunkIt! (now "yolink!") (Public engine no longer exists)  Direct Hit Technologies (acquired by Ask Jeeves in January, 2000)  Google Answers  IBM STAIRS  Infoseek  Inktomi  Kartoo  LeapFish (Public engine no longer exists)  Lotus Magellan  MetaLib (Public engine no longer exists)  mozDex (No longer exists)  Myriad Search (No longer exists)  Overture.com (formerly GoTo.com, now Yahoo! Search Marketing)  PubSub  RetrievalWare (acquired by Fast Search & Transfer and now owned by Microsoft)  Scroogle (Google Scraper)  Singingfish  Speechbot  Sphere  Tafiti  Volunia [8]  Wikia Search (defunct)  WiseNut  World Wide Web Worm

List of Search engines

Alexa Traffic Estimated Unique Site Domain Rank Monthly Visitors [1]

Google https://www.google.com 1 1,100,000,000 [2][3]

Baidu http://www.baidu.com/ 5 564,000,000 [4]

Yahoo http://www.search.yahoo.com/ 4 350,000,000 [5]

Bing http://www.bing.com/ 24 300,000,000 Amplitude-shift

[6] http://www.ask.com/ 28 245,000,000 keying [7]

DuckDuckGo https://duckduckgo.com/ 842 NA [8] wolframalpha http://www.wolframalpha.com/ 1,968 NA [9] blekko http://blekko.com/ 1,749 NA [10]

IconFinder https://www.iconfinder.com/ 2,028 NA [11] yandex https://www.yandex.ru/ 20 NA

References List of educational video websites

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of notable websites which provide access to educational films as one of their primary functions.

Name Discipline(s) Description Access Cost 0 License Provider(s) Educational

60second Recap Literature Free ? 60secondcap videos Multidisciplinar Lectures from

Academic Earth Free ? Academic Earth y universities Educational courses with lectures, quizzes and exams provided by universities Multidisciplinar for free.

Coursera Free ? Coursera y Certificates are provided by the respective university on successful completion of a course Educational courses with lectures, Multidisciplinar quizzes and

EdX Free ? EdX y exams provided by universities for free. Multidisciplinar Academic Free/Subscriptio

FORA.tv ? FORA.tv y videos n Institution with a history Multidisciplinar of "free public

Gresham College Free ? Gresham College y lectures" hosts many online.[1][2] Grovo.com produces 1- minute videos Internet, Online covering the Tools, Social latest changes Media, Cloud to apps and Free/Subscriptio

Grovo ? Grovo Computing, online tools n Mobile Apps, like and other area's Facebook, Evernote, and Google Apps. Each lesson Name Discipline(s) Description Access Cost 0 License Provider(s) includes a multiple choice quiz, downloadable PDF and time-synced transcript. Free (requires Multidisciplinar Lectures from iTunesU iTunes ? Apple Inc. y universities software) Creative Commons Multidisciplinar

Khan Academy Video lessons Free Attribution- Khan Academy y NonCommercial -ShareAlike[3] Videos Multidisciplinar reviewed by Free/Subscriptio

Lesson Planet ? Lesson Planet y credentialed n academics Multidisciplinar

MIT World Videos Free ? MIT y Educational television station with an Internet University of Multidisciplinar presence was

ResearchChannel Free ? Washington y funded by the (former) University of Washington until 2010. (defunct) Royal Society for Royal Society for the encouragement the encouragement Multidisciplinar Videos from of Arts, Free ? of Arts, y RSA events Manufactures & Manufactures &

Commerce Commerce Multidisciplinar Free/Subscriptio

SchoolTube Videos ? SchoolTube y n A global, science- oriented multimedia Multidisciplinar

ScienceStage portal that Free ? ScienceStage y specializes in online video streaming. Aims to Name Discipline(s) Description Access Cost 0 License Provider(s) support communicatio n between scientists, scholars, researchers in industry, and professionals Multidisciplinar Academic

TeacherTube Free ? TeacherTube y videos Video emphasize Multidisciplinar teaching Free/Subscriptio

Teaching Channel ? Teaching Channel y, Education practices in a n variety of topics Brings together Creative TED (Technology, leaders in Commons Multidisciplinar

Entertainment, various fields. Free Attribution– TED (conference) y

Design) Presentations NonCommercial

are limited to –NonDerivative 20 minutes. Multidisciplinar Videos and University of

UCTV Free ?

y Podcasts California Award- winning free and open VideoLectures.NE Multidisciplinar VideoLectures.NE access Free ?

T y T educational video lectures repository Videos Multidisciplinar uploaded by

YouTube EDU Free ? YouTube y accredited universities List of video hosting services

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from List of video hosting websites) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and

removed. (September 2014) Video hosting services are websites or software which allow users to distribute their video clips. Other kinds of websites such as file hosting services, image hosting services and social network services might support video sharing as an enhancement to their primary mission, but in general they are not listed here. Many services have options for private sharing and other publication options. Video hosting services can be classified into several categories, among them: user generated video sharing websites, video sharing platform / white label providers and web based video editing. Websites that are solely search engines and do not host their video content (such as Singingfish) are not included. Some services may charge a fee, but most are available for free. Some websites offer commercialization features, such as partnership programs and the ability for users to offer pay-per-view for their videos. Contents

 1 User generated o 1.1 Notable examples  2 White-label providers  3 Enterprise providers  4 Open source  5 Web-based video editing  6 See also  7 References User generated

User generated sites mostly offer free services whereby users can upload video clips and share them with the masses. Many sites place restrictions on the file size, duration, subject matter and format of the uploaded video file. Many sites do not allow inappropriate content though each site makes judgment calls on what qualifies as inappropriate content, usually via its Terms of Service information. Some sites provide access control to adult material where the user must verify that they are of adult age. Some sites screen all their content before it is published and others approve first and use community features to filter out inappropriate content "after-the-fact."

Notable examples

Notable video hosting services Location of Hoster Available Language Notes main server

56.com Yes Chinese China

United

Archive.org Yes States Republic

AfreecaTV Yes Korean of Korea

Blip.tv Yes United

Notable video hosting services Location of Hoster Available Language Notes main server States United

BlogTV No States United

Break.com Yes States United

Buzznet Yes States United

Comedy.com Yes States United 43,765 videos as of 4

Commons.wikimedia.org Yes 287 languages States May 2014[1] United

Crackle Yes States United

DaCast Yes English States

Dailymotion Yes France

EngageMedia Yes Germany

United

ExpoTV Yes States United

Facebook Yes video since 2007 States United

Flickr Yes video since 2008 States

Fotki Yes Estonia

United

Frequency Yes States United

Funnyordie.com Yes States

Funshion Yes Chinese China

United

GodTube Yes formerly Tangle.com States United

Hulu Yes States

islamictube Yes UAE

United

Lafango Yes States Notable video hosting services Location of Hoster Available Language Notes main server

LeTV Yes Chinese China

United

Liveleak Yes States United

Mefeedia Yes States United

Metacafe Yes States United

Mevio No States United

Myspace Yes States

MyVideo Yes Germany

MUZU.TV Yes Ireland

Nico Nico Douga Yes Japanese Japan

United

OneWorldTV Yes States United

Openfilm Yes States United

Panopto Yes States United

Photobucket Yes States United

Pixorial No States

Rediff Yes English, Indian Australia

United

ReelTime.com Yes States

RuTube Yes Russian Russia

Sapo Videos Yes Portuguese Portugal

United

SchoolTube Yes States

ScienceStage Yes Germany

Sevenload No Germany

United

SmugMug Yes States Notable video hosting services Location of Hoster Available Language Notes main server

Tape.tv Yes Ireland only music videos

Trilulilu Yes Romanian Romania

United

TroopTube Yes States

Tudou Yes Chinese China

United

Tune Yes English States Over 1 million

TV UOL Yes Portuguese(Brazilian) Brazil videos(January 2014)

Vbox7 Yes Bulgarian Bulgaria

United

Veoh Yes States United Enterprise video

Viddler Yes States hosting United

Videojug Yes States United

Videolog Yes Portuguese States United

Vidoosh Yes States United

Vidyard Yes States United

Vimeo Yes Privacy controls States United

Vuze Yes States United

Vzaar Yes States

Wildscreen.tv Yes Germany

United

Wistia Yes States United

Yahoo! Video No Kingdom

Youku Yes Chinese China

YouTube Yes United Largest and most

Notable video hosting services Location of Hoster Available Language Notes main server States popular Pornographic websites Hoster Available Language Notes

Redtube Yes

Xvideos Yes

Pornhub Yes

Offline Websites Hoster Available Language Notes

HD share No Focus on HD videos

MaYoMo No

Revver No

Rambler Vision No Russian

White-label providers

White-label providers sell the technology to various parties that allow them to create the services of the aforementioned "User Generated Video Sharing" websites with the client's brand. Just as Akamai and other companies host and manage video/image/audio for many companies, these white-labels "host video content". Many of these companies also offer their own user-generated video sharing website both for commercial purposes and to show off their platform. Websites in this category include:

 DaCast  Dailymotion Cloud  HD share Enterprise providers

Listed here are video hosting providers exclusively serving businesses wanting to share video content internally with employees or externally with customers, partners, or prospects. Features may include limiting access to authenticated users, tracking of user actions, integration with single sign-on services and a lack of the advertisements normally present on public sites. Among sites in this category are:

 Brightcove  DaCast  Dailymotion Cloud  Kewego  MediaCore  MetaCDN  Ooyala  thePlatform  Ustream  ViaStreaming  Viddler  Kaltura  Cambridge Imaging Open source

 GNU MediaGoblin (software)  Kaltura  Plumi (software to create video sharing site) Web-based video editing

Web based video editing sites generally offer the "user generated video sharing" website in addition to some form of editing application. Some of these applications simply allow the user to crop a video into a smaller clip. Other services have invested much time and effort into replicating the same functionality that has previously only been available via Windows Movie Maker, iMovie and other client-side applications that run outside of a web page. Some of these applications are based in AJAX and others in Flash. Some of these websites may additionally offer downloadable editors, however this is not a desktop- but a web-based video editor list. Websites in this category include:

 Animoto  Clesh  FORscene  Jaycut (No longer available for PC)  Magisto  Pixorial  YouTube

This is a list of online databases accessible via the Internet. Contents

 1 A - B  2 C - F  3 G - I  4 J - N  5 O - S  6 T - Z  7 See also  8 References A - B

 Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields  Acronym Finder  Aeiou Encyclopedia  African American Registry  Airdisaster.com  Airiti Inc  Airliners.net  All Media Guide  Allgame  Allmovie  Allmusic  American National Corpus  Amiga Games Database  Animal Diversity Web  Animal Genome Size Database  Arachne (archaeological database)  ArchINFORM  Archive site  ArtCyclopedia

 Bank of English  Beilstein database  BiblioPage.com  Bibliotek.dk  Big Cartoon DataBase  Big Comic Book DataBase  Bioinformatic Harvester  BoardGameGeek C - F

 CAMPUS (database)  Caspio  Catholic-Hierarchy.org  CellarTracker  ChEBI  Chemical Abstracts Service  Chessgames.com  China Pollution Map Database  CIDOB Foundation  Cinema and Science  CiteSeer  Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies  Comic book price guide  Comics Buyer's Guide  Credo Reference  Croatian National Corpus  Current Biography

 DBLP  DIALOG  Dictionary of Canadian Biography

 Earth Human STR Allele Frequencies Database  EMBASE  Encyclopedia Astronautica  Encyclopedia Mythica  English Short Title Catalogue  Entrez  Everyone's a Critic

 Factiva  Facts on File  Fashion Model Directory  Filmarchives online  Find a Grave  FINDbase (the Frequency of INherited Disorders database)  FishBase  Flags of the World  Flora Europaea G - I G

 Gallica  GameRankings  GeneNetwork  GEO-LEO  Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke  GetCITED  Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names  Golm Metabolome Database  Google  Grand Comics Database

 Hoover's  HotPads.com

 INDUCKS  IBISWorld  Incunabula Short Title Catalogue  IndexMaster  Indian Railways Fan Club  Inorganic Crystal Structure Database  Interment.net  International Directory of Philosophy  Internet Archive  The Internet Book Database  The Internet Book Database of Fiction  Internet Broadway Database  Internet Movie Database  Internet Movie Firearms Database  Internet Off-Broadway Database  Internet Public Library  Internet Speculative Fiction Database  Internet Theatre Database  ISBNdb.com J - N

 JibJab K

 Kdo byl kdo  Killer List of Videogames

 Lesson Planet  LexisNexis  The Literary Encyclopedia

 Maven Semantic Healthcare Database  MedlinePlus  Metacritic  Metropolitan Travel Survey Archive  MICAD  Mindat.org  MobyGames  Movie Review Query Engine  MovieTome  MSDSonline

 Names Database  NEO CANDO  Newsknowledge  Nichigai WHO  NNDB  NoorderSoft Waterways Database O - S

 On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences  Open Source Vulnerability Database

 Paradisec  PHI-base  Philosophy Research Index  Plant DNA C-values Database  Plants for a Future  Price guide  ProQuest  Proteomics Identifications Database  Psephos  PsycINFO  PubChem  Public Radio Fan  PubMed Central

Q R

 RedLightGreen  Roud Folk Song Index

 Scots Law Times  SeatGuru  Sherdog  Sing365.com  SmealSearch  Svenskt Diplomatarium T - Z

 TCM Movie Database  Textfiles.com  Tocsearch  TOSEC  The Simpsons Archive  Transterm  TV.com

 Uchronia: The Alternate History List  Ultimate Guitar Archive

 VET-Bib  Virtuoso Universal Server  Vastari

 Web of Science  Who's Who (UK)  WinCustomize  Wind ENergy Data & Information (WENDI) Gateway  Wikipedia  World Biographical Information System Online  WorldCat  WorldWide Molecular Matrix

 Zabasearch.com  Zillow  ZINC database List of open access journals

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from List of open-access journals) This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: List is supposed to contain selected particularly notable journals but, in fact, many that are of marginal notability only.. Please help improve this article if you

can. (December 2011) This article is outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly

available information. (December 2014) This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it. Main article: Open access journal Main category: Open access journals

This is a list of open-access journals, by field. The list contains selected, particularly notable journals with at least some free content, available through all forms of open access, including delayed open access, and hybrid open access. It only includes individual journals, not collections or indexing services. Contents

 1 Astronomy  2 Agriculture  3 Biology  4 Computer science  5 Chemistry  6 Dance  7 Educational technology  8 Engineering  9 Environmental studies  10 Finance  11 General science  12 Higher education  13 Materials science  14 Mathematics  15 Music theory  16 Nutrition  17 Medicine  18 Pharmaceutical sciences  19 Philosophy  20 Physics  21 Political science  22 Social science  23 Humanities and other journals  24 See also  25 External links o 25.1 Multidisciplinary lists of open-access journals o 25.2 Subject-specific lists of open-access journals . 25.2.1 Physical sciences . 25.2.2 Social Sciences . 25.2.3 Applied sciences . 25.2.4 Other Astronomy

 Journal of the Korean Astronomical Society Agriculture

 Open Access Journal of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Biology

 Cell Reports  Check List  eLife  F1000Research  International Journal of Biological Sciences  Oncotarget  Open Biology  PeerJ  PLOS Biology  PLOS Computational Biology  PLOS Genetics  ZooKeys Computer science

 Computational Linguistics (journal)  INFOCOMP Journal of Computer Science  JOT: Journal of Object Technology  Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research  Journal of Formalized Reasoning  Journal of Machine Learning Research  Journal of Statistical Software  Logical Methods in Computer Science  Theory of Computing (journal) Chemistry

 Arkivoc  Molecules  Organic Syntheses Dance

 Contact Quarterly Educational technology

 Australasian Journal of Educational Technology  Educational Technology & Society  International Journal of Educational Technology Engineering

 Advances in Production Engineering & Management Environmental studies

 Conservation and Society  Ecology and Society  Environmental Health Perspectives  Environmental Research Letters Finance

 The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance General science

 PLOS ONE Higher education

 Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement Materials science

 Materials Today  Science and Technology of Advanced Materials Mathematics

 Ars Mathematica Contemporanea  Electronic Journal of Combinatorics  Electronic Journal of Probability  Electronic Journal of Statistics Music theory

 Gamut: The Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic Nutrition

 Journal of Nutrition Medicine

 Annals of Saudi Medicine  Bangladesh Journal of Pharmacology  Biomedical Imaging and Intervention Journal  BMC Medicine  British Medical Journal  British Columbia Medical Journal  Canadian Medical Association Journal  F1000Research  International Journal of Medical Sciences  Journal of Postgraduate Medicine  The New England Journal of Medicine  PeerJ  PLOS Medicine  PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases  PLOS Pathogens Pharmaceutical sciences

 Scientia Pharmaceutica Philosophy

 Philosophers' Imprint  Journal of Ethics & Social Philosophy Physics

 New Journal of Physics  Physical Review X Political science

 European Political Economy Review  Central European Journal of International and Security Studies  Caucasian Review of International Affairs  Journal of Politics & Society  Michigan Journal of Political Science  International Socialism journal Social science

 Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation  Journal of Political Ecology  Journal of Pan African Studies  Journal of World-Systems Research Humanities and other journals

 Anamesa  The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus  continent  First Monday  GHLL  Digital Humanities Quarterly  Culture Machine  Journal of Evolution and Technology  Studia Humaniora Tartuensia See also

 arXiv  Directory of Open Access Journals  Geoscience e-Journals  List of scientific journals  List of health care journals  PlanetMath  SciELO External links

 Directory of Open Access Journals  JURN Directory (arts and humanities)

Multidisciplinary lists of open-access journals

 Die Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek (English version) (EZB)  J-STAGE – Japanese journals; not all content is open access  Genamics JournalSeek  Journals4Free - Journals4Free is a directory of full or partial open-access journals (i.e., with an embargo period). Results may be limited to titles included in PubMed, Scopus, and ISI databases.  LivRe!  JURN directory (arts & humanities ejournals)  Open Access Journals Search Engine (OAJSE)  Revistas CSIC, Scientific Journals published by CSIC, Spain  University of Nevada Collection of Free Electronic Journals  Directory of Open Access Journals  African Journals OnLine (AJOL) - A portal for electronic journals from African countries; not all content is open access.  Hrčak - Hrčak: Portal of scientific journals of Croatia; along with scientific and technical journals; this resource includes humanities journals.  PANDORA - PANDORA, Australia's Web Archive, is a growing collection of Australian online publications, established initially by the National Library of Australia in 1996, including open-access journals.  Hong Kong Journals Online - Hong Kong Journals Online (HKJO) is a full-text image database providing access to selected academic and professional journals, both in English and Chinese, published in Hong Kong.  SciELO - SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online is a collection of open-access journals and a model for cooperative electronic publishing of scientific journals on the Internet - especially for developing countries.  Arastirmax - Arastirmax Scientific Publication Index Journal List (especially Turkish Journals)

Subject-specific lists of open-access journals

Physical sciences

 Alphabetical list of Open Access Journals in Ecology and closely related topics  ABC-Chemistry: Directory of Free Journals in Chemistry

Social Sciences

 Alphabetical list of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies  Alphabetical list of Open Access Journals in East Asian Studies  Alphabetical list of Open Access Journals in Judaism Studies  Alphabetical list of Open Access Journals in Middle Eastern Studies  Alphabetical list of Open Access Journals in Theology

Applied sciences

 Open Access Journals in the Field of Education (American Education Research Association)  FreeMedicalJournals (FreeMedicaljournals lists health open-access journals and journals with open access after an embargo period)

Other

 Perspectivia.net  List of questionable, scholarly open-access journals - predatory open-access publishing- related list by Jeffrey Beall

[hide]

 v  t  e Open access

 Gratis ("free to read")  Gratis versus libre  Subscription business model Concepts  Paywall  Academic journal  Scientific journal

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 Internet-related lists  Open access journals  Lists of academic journals Search engine marketing From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Part of a series on

Internet marketing

 Search engine optimization  Social media marketing  Email marketing  Referral marketing  Content marketing  Native advertising

Search engine marketing  Pay per click  Cost per impression  Search analytics  Web analytics

Display advertising  Contextual advertising  Behavioral targeting

Affiliate marketing  Cost per action  Revenue sharing

Mobile advertising

 v  t  e

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) through optimization and advertising.[1] SEM may use search engine optimization (SEO), which adjusts or rewrites website content to achieve a higher ranking in search engine results pages, or use pay per click (PPC) listings.[2] Contents

 1 Market  2 History  3 Methods and metrics  4 Paid inclusion  5 Comparison with SEO  6 Ethical questions  7 Examples  8 See also  9 References Market

In 2012, North American advertisers spent US$19.51 billion on search engine marketing. The largest search engine marketing (SEM) vendors were Google AdWords, Bing Ads,[3] and Baidu. As of 2006, SEM was growing much faster than traditional advertising and even other channels of online marketing.[4] Managing search campaigns is either done directly with the SEM vendor or through an SEM tool provider. It may also be self-serve or through an advertising agency. History

As the number of sites on the Web increased in the mid-to-late 1990s, search engines started appearing to help people find information quickly. Search engines developed business models to finance their services, such as pay per click programs offered by Open Text[5] in 1996 and then Goto.com[6] in 1998. Goto.com later changed its name[7] to Overture in 2001, was purchased by Yahoo! in 2003, and now offers paid search opportunities for advertisers through Yahoo! Search Marketing. Google also began to offer advertisements on search results pages in 2000 through the Google AdWords program. By 2007, pay-per-click programs proved to be primary moneymakers[8] for search engines. In a market dominated by Google, in 2009 Yahoo! and Microsoft announced the intention to forge an alliance. The Yahoo! & Microsoft Search Alliance eventually received approval from regulators in the US and Europe in February 2010.[9]

Search engine optimization consultants expanded their offerings to help businesses learn about and use the advertising opportunities offered by search engines, and new agencies focusing primarily upon marketing and advertising through search engines emerged. The term "Search Engine Marketing" was proposed by Danny Sullivan in 2001[10] to cover the spectrum of activities involved in performing SEO, managing paid listings at the search engines, submitting sites to directories, and developing online marketing strategies for businesses, organizations, and individuals. Methods and metrics There are four categories of methods and metrics used to optimize websites through search engine marketing.[11]

1. Keyword research and analysis involves three "steps": ensuring the site can be indexed in the search engines, finding the most relevant and popular keywords for the site and its products, and using those keywords on the site in a way that will generate and convert traffic. A follow-on effect of keyword analysis and research is the search perception impact.[12] Search perception impact describes the identified impact of a brand's search results on consumer perception, including title and meta tags, site indexing, and keyword focus. As online searching is often the first step for potential consumers/customers, the search perception impact shapes the brand impression for each individual. 2. Website saturation and popularity, or how much presence a website has on search engines, can be analyzed through the number of pages of the site that are indexed on search engines (saturation) and how many backlinks the site has (popularity). It requires pages to contain keywords people are looking for and ensure that they rank high enough in search engine rankings. Most search engines include some form of link popularity in their ranking algorithms. The following are major tools measuring various aspects of saturation and link popularity: Link Popularity, Top 10 Google Analysis, and Marketleap's Link Popularity and Search Engine Saturation. 3. Back end tools, including Web analytic tools and HTML validators, provide data on a website and its visitors and allow the success of a website to be measured. They range from simple traffic counters to tools that work with log files and to more sophisticated tools that are based on page tagging (putting JavaScript or an image on a page to track actions). These tools can deliver conversion-related information. There are three major tools used by EBSCO: (a) log file analyzing tool: WebTrends by NetiQ; (b) tag-based analytic tool: WebSideStory's Hitbox; and (c) transaction-based tool: TeaLeaf RealiTea. Validators check the invisible parts of websites, highlighting potential problems and many usability issues and ensuring websites meet W3C code standards. Try to use more than one HTML validator or spider simulator because each one tests, highlights, and reports on slightly different aspects of your website. 4. Whois tools reveal the owners of various websites, and can provide valuable information relating to copyright and trademark issues. Paid inclusion

Paid inclusion involves a search engine company charging fees for the inclusion of a website in their results pages. Also known as sponsored listings, paid inclusion products are provided by most search engine companies either in the main results area, or as a separately identified advertising area.

The fee structure is both a filter against superfluous submissions and a revenue generator. Typically, the fee covers an annual subscription for one webpage, which will automatically be catalogued on a regular basis. However, some companies are experimenting with non- subscription based fee structures where purchased listings are displayed permanently. A per-click fee may also apply. Each search engine is different. Some sites allow only paid inclusion, although these have had little success. More frequently, many search engines, like Yahoo!,[13] mix paid inclusion (per-page and per-click fee) with results from web crawling. Others, like Google (and as of 2006, Ask.com[14][15]), do not let webmasters pay to be in their search engine listing (advertisements are shown separately and labeled as such).

Some detractors of paid inclusion allege that it causes searches to return results based more on the economic standing of the interests of a web site, and less on the relevancy of that site to end- users.

Often the line between pay per click advertising and paid inclusion is debatable. Some have lobbied for any paid listings to be labeled as an advertisement, while defenders insist they are not actually ads since the webmasters do not control the content of the listing, its ranking, or even whether it is shown to any users. Another advantage of paid inclusion is that it allows site owners to specify particular schedules for crawling pages. In the general case, one has no control as to when their page will be crawled or added to a search engine index. Paid inclusion proves to be particularly useful for cases where pages are dynamically generated and frequently modified.

Paid inclusion is a search engine marketing method in itself, but also a tool of search engine optimization, since experts and firms can test out different approaches to improving ranking and see the results often within a couple of days, instead of waiting weeks or months. Knowledge gained this way can be used to optimize other web pages, without paying the search engine company. Comparison with SEO

SEM is the wider discipline that incorporates SEO. SEM includes both paid search results (using tools like Google Adwords or Bing Ads, formerly known as Microsoft adCenter) and organic search results (SEO). SEM uses paid advertising with AdWords or Bing Ads, pay per click (particularly beneficial for local providers as it enables potential consumers to contact a company directly with one click), article submissions, advertising and making sure SEO has been done. A keyword analysis is performed for both SEO and SEM, but not necessarily at the same time. SEM and SEO both need to be monitored and updated frequently to reflect evolving best practices.

In some contexts, the term SEM is used exclusively to mean pay per click advertising,[2] particularly in the commercial advertising and marketing communities which have a vested interest in this narrow definition. Such usage excludes the wider search marketing community that is engaged in other forms of SEM such as search engine optimization and search retargeting.

Another part of SEM is social media marketing (SMM). SMM is a type of marketing that involves exploiting social media to influence consumers that one company‘s products and/or services are valuable.[16] Some of the latest theoretical advances include search engine marketing management (SEMM). SEMM relates to activities including SEO but focuses on return on investment (ROI) management instead of relevant traffic building (as is the case of mainstream SEO). SEMM also integrates organic SEO, trying to achieve top ranking without using paid means to achieve it, and pay per click SEO. For example, some of the attention is placed on the web page layout design and how content and information is displayed to the website visitor. SEO & SEM are two pillars of one marketing job and they both run side by side to produce much better results than focusing on only one pillar. Ethical questions

Paid search advertising has not been without controversy, and the issue of how search engines present advertising on their search result pages has been the target of a series of studies and reports[17][18][19] by Consumer Reports WebWatch. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also issued a letter[20] in 2002 about the importance of disclosure of paid advertising on search engines, in response to a complaint from Commercial Alert, a consumer advocacy group with ties to Ralph Nader.

Another ethical controversy associated with search marketing has been the issue of trademark infringement. The debate as to whether third parties should have the right to bid on their competitors' brand names has been underway for years. In 2009 Google changed their policy, which formerly prohibited these tactics, allowing 3rd parties to bid on branded terms as long as their landing page in fact provides information on the trademarked term.[21] Though the policy has been changed this continues to be a source of heated debate.[22]

On April 24, 2012 many started to see that Google has started to penalize companies that are buying links for the purpose of passing off the rank. The Google Update was called Penguin. Since then, there has been several different [23]Penguin / Panda updates rolled out by Google. SEM has, however, nothing to do with link buying and focuses on organic SEO and PPC management. As of October 20th, 2014 Google has released three official revisions of their Pengiun Update. Examples

AdWords is recognized as a web-based advertising utensil since it adopts keywords which can deliver adverts explicitly to web users looking for information in respect to a certain product or service. This project is highly practical for advertisers as the project hinges on cost per click (CPC) pricing, thus the payment of the service only applies if their advert has been clicked on. SEM companies have embarked on AdWords projects as a way to publicize their SEM and SEO services. This promotion has helped their business elaborate, offering added value to consumers who endeavor to employ AdWords for promoting their products and services. One of the most successful approaches to the strategy of this project was to focus on making sure that PPC advertising funds were prudently invested. Moreover, SEM companies have described AdWords as a fine practical tool for increasing a consumer‘s investment earnings on Internet advertising. The use of conversion tracking and Google Analytics tools was deemed to be practical for presenting to clients the performance of their canvas from click to conversion. AdWords project has enabled SEM companies to train their clients on the utensil and delivers better performance to the canvass. The assistance of AdWord canvass could contribute to the huge success in the growth of web traffic for a number of its consumer‘s websites, by as much as 250% in only nine months.[24] Another way search engine marketing is managed is by contextual advertising. Here marketers place ads on other sites or portals that carry information relevant to their products so that the ads jump into the circle of vision of browsers who are seeking information from those sites. A successful SEM plan is the approach to capture the relationships amongst information searchers, businesses, and search engines. Search engines were not important to some industries in the past, but over the past years the use of search engines for accessing information has become vital to increase business opportunities.[25] The use of SEM strategic tools for businesses such as tourism can attract potential consumers to view their products, but it could also pose various challenges.[25] These challenges could be the competition that companies face amongst their industry and other sources of information that could draw the attention of online consumers.[25] To assist the combat of challenges, the main objective for businesses applying SEM is to improve and maintain their ranking as high as possible on SERPs so that they can gain visibility. Therefore search engines are adjusting and developing algorithms and the shifting criteria by which web pages are ranked sequentially to combat against search engine misuse and spamming, and to supply the most relevant information to searchers.[25] This could enhance the relationship amongst information searchers, businesses, and search engines by understanding the strategies of marketing to attract business. See also

 Internet marketing  Dynamic keyword insertion  Search engine reputation management  Search engine optimization  Web marketing

Search engines with SEM programs

 Google  Yahoo!  Bing  Ask.com  Soso.com - China  Baidu - China  Seznam.cz - Czech Republic  Yandex - Russia  Rambler - Russia  Timway - Hong Kong  Onkosh - Arabic search - Middle East  Aýna - Arabic search - Middle East and North Africa  Leit.is - Iceland  justdial.com - India References 1. "The State of Search Engine Marketing 2006". Search Engine Land. February 8, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-07. 2. "Does SEM = SEO + CPC Still Add Up?". searchengineland.com. Retrieved 2010-03-05. 3. "Yahoo! Microsoft Alliance". Microsoft. Feb 18, 2012. Retrieved 2010-02-18. 4. Elliott, Stuart (March 14, 2006). "More Agencies Investing in Marketing With a Click". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-06-07. 5. "Engine sells results, draws fire". news.cnet.com. June 21, 1996. Retrieved 2007-06-09. 6. "GoTo Sells Positions". searchenginewatch.com. March 3, 1998. Retrieved 2007-06-09. 7. "GoTo gambles with new name". news.cnet.com. September 10, 2001. Retrieved 2007- 06-09. 8. Jansen, B. J. (May 2007). "The Comparative Effectiveness of Sponsored and Nonsponsored Links for Web E-commerce Queries" (PDF). ACM Transactions on the Web,. Retrieved 2007-06-09. 9. "Microsoft-Yahoo Deal Gets Green Light". informationweek.com. February 18, 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-15. 10. "Does SEM = SEO + CPC Still Add Up?". searchengineland.com. March 4, 2010. Retrieved 2013-10-06. 11. Otis, Rebecca (November 2013). "Use These Tools for Smart Digital Marketing". Digital Third Coast. Retrieved 2014-01-20. 12. "Search Perception Impact". Retrieved 27 March 2014. 13. Zawodny, Jeremy (2004-03-01). "Defending Paid Inclusions". 14. Ulbrich, Chris (2004-07-06). "Paid Inclusion Losing Charm?". Wired News. 15. "FAQ #18: How do I register my site/URL with Ask so that it will be indexed?". Ask.com. Retrieved 2008-12-19. 16. Susan Ward (2011). "Social Media Marketing". About.com. Retrieved 2011-04-22. 17. "False Oracles: Consumer Reaction to Learning the Truth About How Search Engines Work (Abstract)". consumerwebwatch.org. June 30, 2003. Retrieved 2007-06-09. 18. "Searching for Disclosure: How Search Engines Alert Consumers to the Presence of Advertising in Search Results". consumerwebwatch.org. November 8, 2004. Retrieved 2007-06-09. 19. "Still in Search of Disclosure: Re-evaluating How Search Engines Explain the Presence of Advertising in Search Results". consumerwebwatch.org. June 9, 2005. Retrieved 2007- 06-09. 20. "Re: Complaint Requesting Investigation of Various Internet Search Engine Companies for Paid Placement or (Pay per click)". ftc.gov. June 22, 2002. Retrieved 2007-06-09. 21. "Update to U.S. ad text trademark policy". adwords.blogspot.com. May 14, 2009. Retrieved 2010-07-15. 22. Rosso, Mark; Jansen, Bernard (Jim) (August 2010), "Brand Names as Keywords in Sponsored Search Advertising", Communications of the Association for Information Systems 27 (1): 81–98 23. "Google Penguin Update". Jennifer Rodino. April 24, 2012.Penguin 24. "Google Adwords Case Study". AccuraCast. 2007. Retrieved 2011-03-30. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help) 25. Zheng Xiang, Bing Pan, Rob Law, and Daniel R. Fesenmaier (June 7, 2010). "Assessing the Visibility of Destination Marketing Organizations in Google: A Case Study of Convention and Visitor Bureau Websites in the United States". Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing. Retrieved 2011-04-22. Social media marketing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [hide]This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This article is written like a personal reflection or opinion essay that states the Wikipedia editor's particular feelings about a topic, rather than the opinions

of experts. (June 2010) This article appears to be written like an advertisement. (August 2013)

Part of a series on

Internet marketing

 Search engine optimization  Social media marketing  Email marketing  Referral marketing  Content marketing  Native advertising

Search engine marketing  Pay per click  Cost per impression  Search analytics  Web analytics

Display advertising  Contextual advertising  Behavioral targeting

Affiliate marketing  Cost per action  Revenue sharing

Mobile advertising

 v  t  e

Social media marketing is the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites.[1]

Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it across their social networks. The resulting electronic word of mouth (eWoM) refers to any statement consumers share via the Internet (e.g., web sites, social networks, instant messages, news feeds) about an event, product, service, brand or company.[2] When the underlying message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it appears to come from a trusted, third-party source, as opposed to the brand or company itself,[3] this form of marketing results in earned media rather than paid media.[4] Contents

 1 Social media platforms o 1.1 Social networking websites o 1.2 Mobile phones  2 Approaches o 2.1 The passive approach o 2.2 The active approach  3 Engagement  4 Campaigns o 4.1 Betty White o 4.2 2008 US presidential election o 4.3 Local businesses o 4.4 Kony 2012 o 4.5 Nike #MakeItCount o 4.6 Lay's-Do Us a Flavor  5 Purposes and Tactics o 5.1 Twitter o 5.2 Facebook o 5.3 Google+ o 5.4 LinkedIn o 5.5 Yelp o 5.6 Foursquare o 5.7 Instagram o 5.8 YouTube o 5.9 Social Bookmarking Sites o 5.10 Blogs o 5.11 Tumblr . 5.11.1 Ad formats[60] . 5.11.2 Advertising Campaign on Tumblr  6 Marketing techniques o 6.1 Targeting, COBRAs, and eWOM  7 Tools  8 Implications on traditional advertising o 8.1 Minimizing use o 8.2 Leaks o 8.3 Social media marketing mishaps o 8.4 Ethics of Social Media Marketing  9 Metrics for Social Media Marketing o 9.1 Channel Reports o 9.2 Return on Investment Data o 9.3 Customer response rates o 9.4 Reach and virality  10 See also  11 References  12 External links Social media platforms

Social networking websites

Social networking websites allow individuals to interact with one another and build relationships. When companies join these social channels, consumers can interact with them directly. That interaction can be more personal to users than traditional methods of outbound marketing & advertising.[5]

Social networking sites act as word of mouth. Social networking sites and blogs allow followers to ―retweet‖ or ―repost‖ comments made by others about a product being promoted. By repeating the message, the user's connections are able to see the message, therefore reaching more people. Because the information about the product is being put out there and is getting repeated, more traffic is brought to the product/company.[5]

Through social networking sites, companies can interact with individual followers. This personal interaction can instill a feeling of loyalty into followers and potential customers. Also, by choosing whom to follow on these sites, products can reach a very narrow target audience.[5]

Social networking sites also include a vast amount of information about what products and services prospective clients might be interested in. Through the use of new Semantic Analysis technologies, marketers can detect buying signals, such as content shared by people and questions posted online. Understanding of buying signals can help sales people target relevant prospects and marketers run micro-targeted campaigns.

In order to integrate Social Networks within their marketing strategies, companies have to develop a marketing model. In [6] a marketing model (SNeM2S) based on Social Networks is provided. The model includes the following steps:

 selection of potential Social Networks to use;  definition of a financial plan;  definition of organisational structures to manage the Social Network in the market;  selection of target;  promotion of products and services;  performance measures

Social Networking is used by 76% of businesses today. Business retailers have seen 133% increases in their revenues from social media marketing.[7]

Mobile phones

Mobile phone usage has also become beneficial for social media marketing. Today, most cell phones have social networking capabilities: individuals are notified of any happenings on social networking sites through their cell phones, in real-time. This constant connection to social networking sites means products and companies can constantly remind and update followers about their capabilities, uses, importance, etc. Because cell phones are connected to social networking sites, advertisements are always in sight. Also many companies are now putting QR codes along with products for individuals to access the company website or online services with their smart-phones. Approaches

The passive approach

Social media can be a useful source of market information. Blogs, content communities and forums are common nowadays where individuals share their reviews and recommendations of brands, products and services. As a result, social media has become an inexpensive source of market intelligence which can be used by marketers to track problems and market opportunities. For example, the internet erupted with videos and pictures of iPhone 6 bend test which showed that the coveted phone would bend merely by hand. The so-called ―bendgate‖ controversy[8] created confusion amongst customers who had waited months for the launch of the latest rendition of the iPhone. However apple promptly issued a statement saying that the problem was extremely rare and that the company had taken several steps to make the mobile device robust. Unlike traditional market research methods such as surveys, focus groups and data mining which are time consuming and costly, marketers can now utilize social media to obtain ‗live‘ information about consumer behavior. This can be extremely useful in a highly dynamic market structure in which we now live in. The active approach

Social media can be used as a public relations and direct marketing tool. There are several examples of firms initiating some form of online dialog with the public to foster relations with customers. Business executives like Jonathan Swartz, President and CEO of Sun Microsystems, Steve Jobs CEO of Apple Computers, and McDonalds Vice President Bob Langert post regularly in their CEO blogs, encouraging customers to interact and freely express their feelings, ideas, suggestions or remarks. Narendra Modi current prime minister of India ranks only second after President Barack Obama in number of fans on his official Facebook page at 21.8 million and counting.[9]Modi employed social media platforms to circumvent traditional media channels to reach out to the young and urban population of India which is estimated to be 200 million. His appeal was further buttressed by the recent crowd turnout at Madison square garden.[10] Engagement

In the context of the social web, engagement means that customers and stakeholders are participants rather than viewers. Social media in business allows anyone and everyone to express and share an opinion or an idea somewhere along the business‘s path to market. Each participating customer becomes part of the marketing department, as other customers read their comments or reviews. The engagement process is then fundamental to successful social media marketing.[11]

With the advent of social media marketing it has become increasingly important to gain customer interest which can eventually be translated into buying behavior. New online marketing concepts of engagement and loyalty have emerged which aim to build customer participation and reputation. [12]

Engagement in social media for the purpose of your social media strategy is divided into two parts:

1. Proactive posting of both new content and conversations, as well as the sharing of content and information from others

2. Reactive conversations with social media users responding to those who reach out to your social media profiles through commenting or messaging[13]

Traditional media is limited to one way interaction with customers or ‗push and tell‘ where only specific information is given to the customer without any mechanism to obtain customer feedback. On the other hand, social media is participative where customer are able to share their views on brands, products and services. Traditional media gives the control of message to the marketer whereas social media shifts the balance to the consumer. Campaigns

Betty White Social networking sites can have a large impact on the outcome of events. In 2010, a Facebook campaign surfaced in the form of a petition. Users virtually signed a petition asking NBC Universal to have actress Betty White host Saturday Night Live.[14][15] Once signed, users forwarded the petition to all of their followers. The petition went viral and on May 8, 2010, Betty White hosted SNL.[16]

2008 US presidential election

The 2008 US presidential campaign had a huge presence on social networking sites. Barack Obama, a Democratic candidate for US President, used Twitter and Facebook to differentiate his campaign. His social networking profile pages were constantly being updated and interacting with followers. The use of social networking sites gave Barack Obama‘s campaign access to e- mail addresses, as posted on social network profile pages. This allowed the Democratic Party to launch e-mail campaigns asking for votes and campaign donations.

Local businesses

Small businesses also use social networking sites as a promotional technique. Businesses can follow individuals social networking site uses in the local area and advertise specials and deals. These can be exclusive and in the form of ―get a free drink with a copy of this tweet‖. This type of message encourages other locals to follow the business on the sites in order to obtain the promotional deal. In the process, the business is getting seen and promoting itself (brand visibility).

Kony 2012

A short film released on March 5, 2012, by humanitarian group Invisible Children, Inc. This 29 minute video aimed at making Joseph Kony, an International Criminal Court fugitive, famous worldwide in order to have support for his arrest by December 2012; the time when the campaign ends.[17] The video went viral within the first six days after its launch, reaching 100 million views on both YouTube and Vimeo.[18] According to research done by Visible Measures, the Kony 2012 short film became the fastest growing video campaign, and most viral video, to reach 100 million views in 6 days followed by Susan Boyle performance on Britain‘s Got Talent that reached 70 million views in 6 days.[19][20]

Nike #MakeItCount

In early 2012, Nike introduced its Make It Count social media campaign. The campaign kickoff began YouTubers Casey Neistat and Max Joseph launching a YouTube video, where they traveled 34,000 miles to visit 16 cities in 13 countries. They promoted the #makeitcount hashtag, which millions of consumers shared via Twitter and Instagram by uploading photos and sending tweets.[21] The #MakeItCount YouTube video went viral and Nike saw an 18% increase in profit in 2012, the year this product was released.

Lay's-Do Us a Flavor In 2012, Lays created a social media campaign that allowed fans to create their own flavor for a $1 million prize for whatever flavor was voted the best. After 3.8 million submissions from fans who participated, the top three choices were Cheesy Garlic Bread, Chicken & Waffles, and Sriracha. The fans were now able to purchase the three flavors in stores then cast their vote on Facebook or Twitter for the best flavor. Lays gained a 12% increase in sales during the contest. Garlic Cheesy Bread was eventually named the winner of the contest.[22] Purposes and Tactics

One of the main purposes in employing Social Media in marketing is as a communications tool that makes the companies accessible to those interested in their product and make them visible to those who have no knowledge of their products.[23] These companies use social media to create buzz, learn from and target customers. It's the only form of marketing that can finger consumers at each and every stage of the consumer decision journey.[24] Marketing through social media has other benefits as well. Of the top 10 factors that correlate with a strong Google organic search, seven are social media dependent. This means that if brands are less or non active on social media, they tend to show up less on Google searches.[25] While platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+ have a larger amount of monthly users, The visual media sharing based mobile platforms however, garner a higher interaction rate in comparison and have registered the fastest growth and have changed the ways in which consumers engage with brand content. Instagram has an interaction rate of 1.46% with an average of 130 million users monthly as opposed to Twitter which has a .03% interaction rate with an average of 210 million monthly users.[25] Unlike traditional media that are often cost-prohibitive to many companies, a social media strategy does not require astronomical budgeting.[26] To this end, companies make use of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram in order to reach audiences much wider than through the use of traditional print/TV/radio advertisements alone at a fraction of the cost, as most social networking sites can be used at no cost. This has changed the ways that companies approach interact with customers, as a substantial percentage of consumer interactions are now being carried out over online platforms with much higher visibility. Customers can now post reviews of products and services, rate customer service and ask questions or voice concerns directly to companies through social media platforms. Thus social media marketing is also used by businesses in order to build relationships of trust with consumers.[27] To this aim, companies may also hire personnel to specifically handle these social media interactions, who usually report under the title of Online community managers. Handling these interactions in a satisfactory manner can result in an increase of consumer trust. To both this aim and to fix the public's perception of a company, 3 steps are taken in order to address consumer concerns, identifying the extent of the social chatter, engaging the influencers to help, and developing a proportional response.[28]

Twitter

Twitter allows companies to promote their products in short messages limited to 140 characters which appear on followers‘ home pages. Messages can link to the product‘s website, Facebook profile, photos, videos, etc.[29]

Facebook Facebook pages are far more detailed than Twitter accounts. They allow a product to provide videos, photos, and longer descriptions, and testimonials as other followers can comment on the product pages for others to see. Facebook can link back to the product‘s Twitter page as well as send out event reminders.

A study from 2011 attributed 84% of "engagement" or clicks to Likes that link back to Facebook advertising.[30] By 2014 Facebook had restricted the content published from businesses' and brands' pages. Adjustments in Facebook algorithms have reduced the audience for non-paying business pages (that have at least 500,000 "Likes") from 16 percent in 2012 down to 2 percent in February 2014.[31] [32][33]

Google+

Google+, in addition to providing pages and some features of Facebook, is also able to integrate with the Google search engine. Other Google products are also integrated, such as Google Adwords and Google Maps. With the development of Google Personalized Search and other location-based search services, Google+ allows for targeted advertising methods, navigation services, and other forms of location-based marketing and promotion. Google+ can also be beneficial for other digital marketing campaigns, as well as social media marketing. Google+ authorship was known to have a significant benefit on a website's search engine optimisation, before the relationship was removed by Google. Google+ is one of the fastest growing social media networks and can benefit almost any business.

LinkedIn, a professional business-related networking site, allows companies to create professional profiles for themselves as well as their business to network and meet others.[34] Through the use of widgets, members can promote their various social networking activities, such as Twitter stream or blog entries of their product pages, onto their LinkedIn profile page.[35] LinkedIn provides its members the opportunity to generate sales leads and business partners.[36] Members can use ―Company Pages‖ similar to Facebook pages to create an area that will allow business owners to promote their products or services and be able to interact with their customers.[37][38] Due to spread of spam mail sent to job seeker, leading companies prefer to use LinkedIn for employee's recruitment instead using different job portals. Additionally, companies have voiced a preference for the amount of information that can be gleaned from LinkedIn profile, versus a limited email.[39]

Yelp

Yelp consists of a comprehensive online index of business profiles. Businesses are searchable by location, similar to Yellow Pages. The website is operational in seven different countries, including the United States and Canada. Business account holders are allowed to create, share, and edit business profiles. They may post information such as the business location, contact information, pictures, and service information. The website further allows individuals to write, post reviews about businesses and rate them on a five-point scale. Messaging and talk features are further made available for general members of the website, serving to guide thoughts and opinions.[40]

Foursquare

Foursquare is a location based social networking website, where users can check into locations via a Swarm app on their smartphones. Foursquare allows businesses to create a page or create a new/claim an existing venue.[41] A good marketing strategy for businesses to increase foot traffic or retain loyal customers includes offering incentives such as discounts or free food/beverages for people checking into their location.[42]

Instagram

In May 2014, Instagram had over 200 million users. The user engagement rate of Instagram was 15 times higher than of Facebook and 25 times higher than that of Twitter.[43] According to Scott Galloway, the founder of L2 and a professor of marketing at New York University‘s Stern School of Business, latest studies estimate that 93 percent of prestige brands have an active presence on Instagram and include it in their marketing mix.[44] When it comes to brands and businesses, Instagram's goal is to help companies to reach their respective audiences through captivating imagery in a rich, visual environment.[45] Moreover, Instagram provides a platform where user and company can communicate publicly and directly, making itself an ideal platform for companies to connect with their current and potential customers.[46]

Many brands are now heavily using this mobile app to boost their visual marketing strategy. Instagram can be used to gain the necessary momentum needed to capture the attention of the market segment that has an interest in the product offering or services.[47] As Instagram is supported by Apple and android system, it can be easily accessed by smart phone users. Moreover, it can be accessed by Internet as well. Thus, the marketers see it as a potential platform to expand their brands exposure to the public, especially the younger target group. On top of this, marketers do not only use social media for traditional Internet advertising, but they also encourage users to create attention for a certain brand. This generally create an opportunity for greater brand exposure.[48] Furthermore, marketers are also using the platform to drive social shopping and inspire people to collect and share pictures of their favorite products. Many big names have already jumped on board: Starbucks, MTV, Nike, Marc Jacobs, Red Bull are a few examples of multinationals that adopted the mobile photo app early.

Instagram has proven itself a powerful platform for marketers to reach their customers and prospects through sharing pictures and brief messages. According to a study by Simply Measured, 71 percent of the world‘s largest brands are now using Instagram as a marketing channel.[49] For companies, Instagram can be used as a tool to connect and communicate with current and potential customers. The company can present a more personal picture of their brand, and by doing so the company conveys a better and true picture of itself. The idea of Instagram pictures lies on on-the-go, a sense that the event is happening right now, and that adds another layer to the personal and accurate picture of the company. Another option Instagram provides the opportunity for companies to reflect a true picture of the brand through the perspective of the customers, for instance, using the user-generated contents thought the hashtags encouragement.[50] Other than the filters and hashtags functions, the Instagram‘s 15-second videos and the recently added ability to send private messages between users have opened new opportunities for brands to connect with customers in a new extent, further promoting effective marketing on Instagram.

YouTube

YouTube is another popular avenue; advertisements are done in a way to suit the target audience. The type of language used in the commercials and the ideas used to promote the product reflect the audience's style and taste.

Also, the ads on this platform are usually in sync with the content of the video requested, this is another advantage YouTube brings for advertisers. Certain ads are presented with certain videos since the content is relevant. Promotional opportunities such as sponsoring a video is also possible on YouTube, "for example, a user who searches for a YouTube video on dog training may be presented with a sponsored video from a dog toy company in results along with other videos."[51] YouTube also enable publishers to earn money through its YouTube Partner Program.

Social Bookmarking Sites

Websites such as Delicious, Digg, Slashdot and Reddit are popular social bookmarking sites used in social media promotion. Each of these sites is dedicated to the collection, curation, and organization of links to other websites. This process is crowdsourced, allowing members to sort and prioritize links by relevance and general category. Due to the large user bases of these websites, any link from one of them to another, smaller website usually results in a flash crowd. In addition to user generated promotion, these sites also offer advertisements within individual user communities and categories.[52] Because ads can be placed in designated communities with a very specific target audience and demographic, they have far greater potential for traffic generation than ads selected simply through cookie and browser history.[53] Additionally, some of these websites have also implemented measures to make ads more relevant to users by allowing users to vote on which ones will be shown on pages they frequent.[54] The ability to redirect large volumes of web traffic and target specific, relevant audiences makes social bookmarking sites a valuable asset for social media marketers.

Blogs

Platforms like LinkedIn create an environment for companies and clients to connect online.[55] Companies that recognize the need for information, originality, and accessibility employ blogs to make their products popular and unique, and ultimately reach out to consumers who are privy to social media.[56]

Blogs allow a product or company to provide longer descriptions of products or services, can include testimonials and can link to and from other social network and blog pages. Blogs can be updated frequently and are promotional techniques for keeping customers, and also for acquiring followers and subscribers who can then be directed to social network pages. Online communities can enable a business to reach the clients of other businesses using the platform. To allow firms to measure their standing in the corporate world, sites like Glassdoor enable employees to place evaluations of their companies.[55] Some businesses opt out of integrating social media platforms into their traditional marketing regimen. There are also specific corporate standards that apply when interacting online.[55] To maintain an advantage in a business-consumer relationship, businesses have to be aware of four key assets that consumers maintain: information, involvement, community, and control.[57]

Tumblr

Tumblr first launched ad products on May 29, 2012.[58] Rather than relying on simple banner ads, Tumblr requires advertisers to create a Tumblr blog so the content of those blogs can be featured through the site.[59] In one year, four native ad formats were created on web and mobile, and had more than 100 brands advertising on Tumblr with 500 cumulative sponsored posts.

Ad formats[60]

 Sponsored Mobile Post – Advertisements (Advertisers‘ blog posts) will show up on user‘s Dashboard when the user is on a mobile device such as smartphones and tablets, allowing them to like, reblog, and share the sponsored post.  Sponsored Web Post – ―Largest in-stream ad unit on the web‖ that catches the users‘ attention when looking at their Dashboard through their computer or laptop. It also allows the viewers to like, reblog, and share it.  Sponsored Radar – Radar picks up exceptional posts from the whole Tumblr community based on their originality and creativity. It is placed on the right side next to the Dashboard, and it typically earns 120 million daily impressions. Sponsored radar allows advertisers to place their posts there to have an opportunity to earn new followers, Reblogs, and Likes.  Sponsored Spotlight – Spotlight is a directory of some of the popular blogs throughout the community and a place where users can find new blogs to follow. Advertisers can choose one category out of fifty categories that they can have their blog listed on there.

These posts can be one or more of the following: images, photo sets, animated GIFs, video, audio, and text posts. For the users to differentiate the promoted posts to the regular users‘ posts, the promoted posts have a dollar symbol on the corner. On May 6, 2014 Tumblr announced customization and theming on mobile apps for brands to advertise.[61]

Advertising Campaign on Tumblr

 Disney/Pixar’s Monsters University:Created a tumblr account, MUGrumblr, saying that the account is maintained by a ‗Monstropolis transplant‘ and ‗self-diagnosed coffee addict‘ who is currently a sophomore at Monsters University.[62] A ―student‖ from Monsters University uploaded memes, animated GIFs, and Instagram-like photos that are related to the movie.  Apple’s iPhone 5c: Created a tumblr page, labeling it ―Every color has a story‖ with the website name: ―ISee5c‖. As soon as you visit the website, the page is covered with different colors representing the iPhone 5c phone colors and case colors. When you click on one of the colored section, a 15 second video plays a song and ―showcases the dots featured on the rear of the iPhone 5c official cases and on the iOS 7 dynamic wallpapers...‖,[63] concluding with words that are related to the video‘s theme. Marketing techniques

Targeting, COBRAs, and eWOM

Social media marketing involves the use of social networks, COBRAs and eWOM to successfully advertise online. Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter provide advertisers with information about the likes and dislikes of their consumers.[51] This technique is crucial, as it provides the businesses with a ―target audience‖.[51] With social networks, information relevant to the user‘s likes is available to businesses; who then advertise accordingly.

Consumer‘s online brand related activities (COBRAs) is another method used by advertisers to promote their products. Activities such as uploading a picture of your ―new Converse sneakers to Facebook[64]‖ is an example of a COBRA.[64] Another technique for social media marketing is electronic word of mouth (eWOM).[64] Electronic recommendations and appraisals are a convenient manner to have a product promoted via ―consumer-to-consumer interactions[64]‖.[64] An example of eWOM would be an online hotel review;[65] the hotel company can have two possible outcomes based on their service. A good service would result in a positive review which gets the hotel free advertising via social media, however a poor service will result in a negative consumer review which can potentially harm the company's reputation. Tools

Besides research tools, various companies provide specialized platforms and tools for social media marketing:[66]

 Social media measurement  Social network aggregation  Social bookmarking  Social analytics  Automation  Social media  Blog marketing  Validation  Brand ambassador Implications on traditional advertising

Minimizing use Traditional advertising techniques include print and television advertising. The Internet has already overtaken television as the largest advertising market.[67] Websites often include banner or pop-up ads. Social networking sites don‘t always have ads. In exchange, products have entire pages and are able to interact with users. Television commercials often end with a spokesperson asking viewers to check out the product website for more information. Print ads are also starting to include QR codes on them. These QR codes can be scanned by cell phones and computers, sending viewers to the product website. Advertising is beginning to move viewers from the traditional outlets to the electronic ones.[citation needed]

Leaks

Internet and social networking leaks are one of the issues facing traditional advertising. Video and print ads are often leaked to the world via the Internet earlier than they are scheduled to premiere. Social networking sites allow those leaks to go viral, and be seen by many users more quickly. Time difference is also a problem facing traditional advertisers. When social events occur and are broadcast on television, there is often a time delay between airings on the east coast and west coast of the United States. Social networking sites have become a hub of comment and interaction concerning the event. This allows individuals watching the event on the west coast (time-delayed) to know the outcome before it airs. The 2011 Grammy Awards highlighted this problem. Viewers on the west coast learned who won different awards based on comments made on social networking sites by individuals watching live on the east coast.[68] Since viewers knew who won already, many tuned out and ratings were lower. All the advertisement and promotion put into the event was lost because viewers didn‘t have a reason to watch. [according to whom?]

Social media marketing mishaps

Social media marketing provides organizations with a way to connect with their customers. However, organizations must protect their information as well as closely watch comments and concerns on the social media they use. A flash poll done on 1225 IT executives from 33 countries revealed that social media mishaps caused organizations a combined $4.3 million in damages in 2010.[69] The top three social media incidents an organization faced during the previous year included employees sharing too much information in public forums, loss or exposure of confidential information, and increased exposure to litigation.[69] Due to the viral nature of the internet, a mistake by a single employee has in some cases shown to result in devastating consequences for organizations.

An example of a social media mishap includes designer Kenneth Cole's Twitter mishap in 2011. When Kenneth Cole tweeted, "Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at [Kenneth Cole's website]".[70] This reference to the 2011 Egyptian Revolution drew objection from the public; it was widely objected to on the Internet.[70] Kenneth Cole realized his mistake shortly after and responded with a statement apologizing for the tweet.[71] In 2012 during Hurricane Sandy, Gap sent out a tweet to its followers telling them to stay safe but encouraged them to shop online and offered free shipping.[72] The tweet was deemed insensitive and Gap eventually took it down and apologized.[73]

Numerous additional online marketing mishap examples exist. Examples include a YouTube video of a Domino's Pizza employee violating health code standards, which went viral on the internet and later resulted in felony charges against two employees.[69][74] A Twitter hashtag posted by McDonald's in 2012 attracting attention due to numerous complaints and negative events customers experienced at the chain store; and a 2011 tweet posted by a Chrysler Group employee that no one in Detroit knows how to drive.[75] When the Link REIT opened a Facebook page to recommend old-style restaurants, the page was flooded by furious comments criticising the REIT for having forced a lot of restaurants and stores to shut down; it had to terminate its campaign early amid further deterioration of its corporate image.[76]

Ethics of Social Media Marketing

The code of ethics that is affiliated with traditional marketing can also be applied to social media, however with social media being so personal and international, there is another list of complications and challenges that comes along with being ethical online. With the invention of social media, the marketer no longer has to focus solely on the basic demographics and psychographics given from television and magazines, but now they can see what consumers like to hear from advertisers, how they engage online, and what their needs and wants are.[77] The general concept of being ethical while marking on social network sites is to be honest with the intentions of the campaign, avoid false advertising, be aware of user privacy conditions (which means not using consumers' private information for gain),respect the dignity of persons in the shared online community, and claim responsibility of any mistakes or mishaps that are results of your marketing campaign.[78] Most social network marketers use websites like Facebook and MySpace to try to drive traffic to another website.[79] While it is ethical to use social networking websites to spread a message to people who are genuinely interested, many people game the system with auto-friend adding programs and spam messages and bulletins. Social networking websites are becoming wise to these practices, however, and are effectively weeding out and banning offenders.

In addition, social media platforms have become extremely aware of their users and collect information about their viewers to connect with them in various ways. Social-networking web site Facebook Inc. is quietly working on a new advertising system that would let marketers target users with ads based on the massive amounts of information people reveal on the site about themselves [80] This may be an unethical or ethical feature to some individuals. Some people may react negatively because they believe it is an invasion of privacy. On the other hand, some individuals may enjoy this feature because their social network recognizes their interests and sends them particular advertisements pertaining to those interests. Consumers like to network with people who have interests and desires that are similar to their own [81] Individuals who agree to have their social media profile public, should be aware that advertisers have the ability to take information that interests them to be able to send them information and advertisements to boost their sales. Managers invest in social media to foster relationships and interact with customers [82] This is an ethical way for managers to send messages about their advertisements and products to their consumers. Metrics for Social Media Marketing

Channel Reports

This involves tracking the volume of visits, leads and customers each individual social channel is generating. Google analytics [83] is a new tool that allows marketers to see how effective their social media efforts or ‗social activities‘ have been. Furthermore, websites such as HubSpot Partner and IMPACT branding help you to choose social media channels most suitable for your business.

Return on Investment Data

The end goal of any marketing effort is to generate sales. Although social media is a useful marketing tool, it is often difficult to quantify to what extent it is contributing to profit. ROI can be measured by comparing marketing analytic value to contact database or CRM and connect marketing efforts directly to sales activity.

Customer response rates

Several customers are turning towards social media to express their appreciation or frustration with brands, product or services. Therefore marketers can measure the frequency of which customers are discussing their brand and judge how effective their SMM strategies are.

Reach and virality

Popular social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks can provide marketers with a hard number of how large their audience is nevertheless a large audience may not always translate into a large sales volumes. Therefore an effective SMM cannot be measured by a large audience but rather by vigorous audience activity such as social shares, retweets etc.[84] See also

 Social media optimization  Marketing  Internet marketing  Integrated marketing communications  Web 2.0  Visual marketing References Email marketing

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Part of a series on

Internet marketing

 Search engine optimization  Social media marketing  Email marketing  Referral marketing  Content marketing  Native advertising

Search engine marketing  Pay per click  Cost per impression  Search analytics  Web analytics

Display advertising  Contextual advertising  Behavioral targeting

Affiliate marketing  Cost per action  Revenue sharing

Mobile advertising

 v  t  e

Email marketing is directly marketing a commercial message to a group of people using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It usually involves using email to send ads, request business, or solicit sales or donations, and is meant to build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness. Email marketing can be done to either sold lists or a current customer database. Broadly, the term is usually used to refer to sending email messages with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers, to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business, acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately, and adding advertisements to email messages sent by other companies to their customers.

The Madison Logic company posted global data in April 2014 that claimed 122 billion emails are sent every hour.[1] Contents

 1 Types of email marketing o 1.1 Transactional emails o 1.2 Direct emails  2 Comparison to traditional mail o 2.1 Advantages o 2.2 Disadvantages  3 Opt-in email advertising  4 Legal requirements o 4.1 Canada o 4.2 European Union (E.U.) o 4.3 United States (U.S.)  5 See also  6 References Types of email marketing

Email marketing can be carried out through different types of emails:

Transactional emails

Transactional emails are usually triggered based on a customer‘s action with a company. To be qualified as transactional or relationship messages, these communications' primary purpose must be "to facilitate, complete, or confirm a commercial transactions that the recipient has previously agreed to enter into with the sender", along with a few other narrow definitions of transactional messaging. [2] Triggered transactional messages include dropped basket messages, password reset emails, purchase or order confirmation emails, order status emails, reorder emails and email receipts.

The primary purpose of a transactional email is to convey information regarding the action that triggered it. But, due to its high open rates (51.3% compared to 36.6% for email newsletters), transactional emails are an opportunity to engage customers: to introduce or extend the email relationship with customers or subscribers, to anticipate and answer questions or to cross-sell or up-sell products or services.[3][unreliable source?]

Many email newsletter software vendors offer transactional email support, which gives companies the ability to include promotional messages within the body of transactional emails. There are also software vendors that offer specialized transactional email marketing services, which include providing targeted and personalized transactional email messages and running specific marketing campaigns (such as customer referral programs).

Direct emails

Direct email or interruption based marketing involves sending an email solely to communicate a promotional message (for example, an announcement of a special offer or a catalog of products). Companies usually collect a list of customer or prospect email addresses to send direct promotional messages to, or they can also rent a list of email addresses from service companies, but safe mail marketing is also used. Comparison to traditional mail

There are both advantages and disadvantages to using email marketing in comparison to traditional advertising mail.

Advantages

Email marketing (on the Internet) is popular with companies for several reasons:

 An exact return on investment can be tracked ("track to basket") and has proven to be high when done properly. Email marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic.[4]  Email marketing is significantly cheaper and faster than traditional mail, mainly because of high cost and time required in a traditional mail campaign for producing the artwork, printing, addressing and mailing.  Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of email subscribers who have opted in (i.e., consented) to receive email communications on subjects of interest to them.  Almost half of American Internet users check or send email on a typical day,[5] with email blasts that are delivered between 1 am and 5 am local time outperforming those sent at other times in open and click rates.[6][7]  Email is popular with digital marketers, rising an estimated 15% in 2009 to £292 m in the UK.[8]  If compared to standard email, direct email marketing produces higher response rate and higher average order value for e-commerce businesses.[9]

Disadvantages

A report issued by the email services company Return Path, as of mid-2008 email deliverability is still an issue for legitimate marketers. According to the report, legitimate email servers averaged a delivery rate of 56%; twenty percent of the messages were rejected, and eight percent were filtered.[10]

Companies considering the use of an email marketing program must make sure that their program does not violate spam laws such as the United States' Controlling the Assault of Non- Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM),[11] the European Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, or their Internet service provider's acceptable use policy. Opt-in email advertising

Opt-in email advertising, or permission marketing, is a method of advertising via email whereby the recipient of the advertisement has consented to receive it. This method is one of several developed by marketers to eliminate the disadvantages of email marketing.[12]

Opt-in email marketing may evolve into a technology that uses a handshake protocol between the sender and receiver.[12] This system is intended to eventually result in a high degree of satisfaction between consumers and marketers. If opt-in email advertising is used, the material that is emailed to consumers will be "anticipated." It is assumed that the consumer wants to receive it, which makes it unlike unsolicited advertisements sent to the consumer. Ideally, opt-in email advertisements will be more personal and relevant to the consumer than untargeted advertisements.

A common example of permission marketing is a newsletter sent to an advertising firm's customers. Such newsletters inform customers of upcoming events or promotions, or new products.[13] In this type of advertising, a company that wants to send a newsletter to their customers may ask them at the point of purchase if they would like to receive the newsletter.

With a foundation of opted-in contact information stored in their database, marketers can send out promotional materials automatically using autoresponders—known as Drip Marketing. They can also segment their promotions to specific market segments.[14] Legal requirements

Canada The "Canada Anti-Spam Law" (CASL) went into effect on July 1, 2014. CASL requires an explicit or implicit opt-in from users, and the maximum fines for noncompliance are CA$1 million for individuals and $10 million for businesses.[15]

European Union (E.U.)

In 2002 the European Union (EU) introduced the Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications. Article 13 of the Directive prohibits the use of personal email addresses for marketing purposes. The Directive establishes the opt-in regime, where unsolicited emails may be sent only with prior agreement of the recipient, this does not apply to business email addresses.

The directive has since been incorporated into the laws of member states. In the UK it is covered under the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003[16] and applies to all organizations that send out marketing by some form of electronic communication.

United States (U.S.)

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 was passed by Congress as a direct response of the growing number of complaints over spam e-mails. Congress determined that the US government was showing an increased interest in the regulation of commercial electronic mail nationally, that those who send commercial e-mails should not mislead recipients over the source or content of them, and that all recipients of such emails have a right to decline them.The act authorizes a US $16,000 penalty per violation for spamming each individual recipient.[17] However, it does not ban spam emailing outright, but imposes laws on using deceptive marketing methods through headings which are "materially false or misleading". In addition there are conditions which email marketers must meet in terms of their format, their content and labeling. As a result, many commercial email marketers within the United States utilize a service or special software to ensure compliance with the Act. A variety of older systems exist that do not ensure compliance with the Act. To comply with the Act's regulation of commercial email, services also typically require users to authenticate their return address and include a valid physical address, provide a one-click unsubscribe feature, and prohibit importing lists of purchased addresses that may not have given valid permission.

In addition to satisfying legal requirements, email service providers (ESPs) began to help customers establish and manage their own email marketing campaigns. The service providers supply email templates and general best practices, as well as methods for handling subscriptions and cancellations automatically. Some ESPs will provide insight/assistance with deliverability issues for major email providers. They also provide statistics pertaining to the number of messages received and opened, and whether the recipients clicked on any links within the messages.

The CAN-SPAM Act was updated with some new regulations including a no fee provision for opting out, further definition of "sender", post office or private mail boxes count as a "valid physical postal address" and definition of "person". These new provisions went into effect on July 7, 2008.[18] See also

 CAUCE – Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email  Customer engagement  Suppression list References

1. "10 Email Best Practices". Madison Logic. Madison Logic. April 2014. Retrieved 21 June 2014. 2. "PUBLIC LAW 108–187—DEC. 16, 2003 117 STAT. 2699". U.S Government GPO. 3. McDonald, Loren (April 23, 2009) Transactional Emails: Make Your First Impression Count. mediapost.com 4. "New Survey Data: Email's ROI Makes Tactic Key for Marketers in 2009 ", MarketingSherpa, January 21, 2009 5. Pew Internet & American Life Project, "Tracking surveys", March 2000 – March 2009 6. How Scheduling Affects Rates. Mailermailer.com (July 2012). Retrieved on 2013-07-28. 7. BtoB Magazine, "Early Email Blasts Results in Higher Click & Open Rates", September 2011 8. UK e-mail marketing predicted to rise 15%. MediaWeek.co.uk (13 October 2009) 9. Why Email Marketing is King. Harvard Business Review (21 August 2012) 10. Bannan, Karen J. (July 31, 2008) "5 ways to increase deliverability", BtoB Magazine 11. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 online at ftc.gov or PDF Version 12. Fairhead, N. (2003) ―All hail the brave new world of permission marketing via email‖ (Media 16, August 2003) 13. Dilworth, Dianna. (2007) Ruth's Chris Steak House sends sizzling e-mails for special occasions, DMNews retrieved on February 19, 2008 14. O'Brian J. & Montazemia, A. (2004) Management Information Systems (Canada: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.) 15. "Canada's law on spam". Government of Canada. Retrieved 19 July 2014.. 16. The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. Opsi.gov.uk. Retrieved on 2013-07-28. 17. "CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business". BCP Business Center. Retrieved September 2009. 18. "FTC Approves New Rule Provision Under The CAN-SPAM Act". Ftc.gov. 24 June 2011. Retrieved 2.Referral marketing 3. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 4. Not to be confused with multi-level marketing, which is also sometimes called referral marketing 5. Referral marketing is a method of promoting products or services to new customers through referrals, usually word of mouth. Such referrals often happen spontaneously but businesses can influence this through appropriate strategies. 6. Overview This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and

removed. (March 2014)

7. Referral marketing is a process to increase word of mouth marketing by encouraging customers and contacts to talk as much as possible about a brand or product. 8. Online referral marketing, using digital marketing as a platform, is the internet based approach to traditional referral marketing. By tracking customer behavior online through the use of web browser cookies and similar technology, online referral marketing can potentially provide a higher degree of accountability than offline models. 9. Offline referral marketers sometimes use trackable business cards. Trackable business cards typically contain QR codes linking them to online content for sale while providing a way to track that sale back to the person whose card was scanned. 10. Benefits of referral programs 11. A study conducted by the Goethe University Frankfurt and the University of Pennsylvania, on referral programs and customer value which followed the customer referral program of a German bank that paid customers 25 euro for bringing in a new customer, was released in July 2010. [1] According to Professor Van den Bulte, this is the first ever study published on the financial evaluation of customer referral programs.[2] The study found that referred customers were both more profitable and loyal than normal customers. Referred customers had a higher contribution margin, a higher retention rate and were more valuable in both the short and long run. 12. On whether customer referral programs are worth the cost, the study says that it records "a positive value differential, both in the short term and long term, between customers acquired through a referral program and other customers. Importantly, this value differential is larger than the referral fee. Hence, referral programs can indeed pay off."[3] Content marketing

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Part of a series on

Internet marketing

 Search engine optimization  Social media marketing  Email marketing  Referral marketing  Content marketing  Native advertising

Search engine marketing  Pay per click  Cost per impression  Search analytics  Web analytics

Display advertising  Contextual advertising  Behavioral targeting

Affiliate marketing  Cost per action  Revenue sharing

Mobile advertising

 v  t  e

Content marketing is any marketing that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire and retain customers. This information can be presented in a variety of formats, including news, video, white papers, e-books, infographics, case studies, how-to guides, question and answer articles, photos, etc.[1][2][3]

History

10g Backin package (1902)

Advertising has long used content to disseminate information about a brand, and build a brand's reputation. In 1891, August Oetker sold small packages of his Backin baking powder to households with recipes printed on the back. In 1911 he started publishing his very successful cookbook. It went through major updates over past 100 years and is one of the most successful cookbooks, globally reaching 19 million printed copies. All recipes originated from the test kitchen of the Oetker company, and the book was carefully written as a textbook to teach cooking from scratch. Oetker was very aware of the need for good marketing, practical communication and use of his doctor title to lend authority to his marketing.

In 1895, John Deere launched the magazine The Furrow, providing information to farmers on how to become more profitable. The magazine, considered the first custom publication, is still in circulation, reaching 1.5 million readers in 40 countries in 12 different languages.[4]

Michelin developed the Michelin Guide in 1900, offering drivers information on auto maintenance, accommodations, and other travel tips. 35,000 copies were distributed for free in this first edition.[5]

Jell-O salesmen went door-to-door, distributing their cookbook for free in 1904. Touting the dessert as a versatile food, the company saw its sales rise to over $1 million by 1906.[6]

The phrase "content marketing" was used as early as 1996,[7] when John F. Oppedahl led a roundtable for journalists at the American Society for Newspaper Editors. In 1998, Jerrell Jimerson held the title of "director of online and content marketing" at Netscape.[8] In 1999, author Jeff Cannon wrote,―In content marketing, content is created to provide consumers with the information they seek.‖[9]

Recently, content marketing has become more prominent, especially where digital and online marketing is concerned. Seth Godin, American author and Marketeer stated in 2008 that 'content marketing was the only marketing left.'[10]

By 2014, Forbes Magazine's website had written about the 7 most popular ways companies use content marketing.[11] In it, the columnist points out that by 2013, use of content marketing had jumped across corporations from 60% a year or so before, to 93%[12] as part of their overall marketing strategy. Despite the fact that 70% of organizations are creating more content, only 21% of marketers think they are successful at tracking ROI.[13]

Earned media

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Earned media (or free media) refers to publicity gained through promotional efforts other than advertising, as opposed to paid media, which refers to publicity gained through advertising.[1] Contents

 1 Background  2 Impact of Earned Media  3 References  4 External links Background

There are many types of media available to online marketers and fit into the broad categories: owned, paid, and earned media. Owned media is defined as communication channels that are within one's control, such as websites, blogs, or email; while paid media refers mostly to traditional advertising. Earned media, on the other hand, is generated when content receives recognition and a following outside of traditional paid advertising, through communication channels such as social media and word of mouth.[2]

Earned media often refers specifically to publicity gained through editorial influence, whereas social media refers to publicity gained through grassroots action, particularly on the Internet. The media may include any mass media outlets, such as newspaper, television, radio, and the Internet, and may include a variety of formats, such as news articles or shows, letters to the editor, editorials, and polls on television and the Internet. Critically, earned media cannot be bought or owned, it can only be gained organically, hence the term 'earned'. Impact of Earned Media

A Nielsen study in 2013 found that earned media (also described in the report as word-of-mouth) is the most trusted source of information in all countries it surveyed worldwide. It also found that earned media is the channel most likely to stimulate the consumer to action. Other authorities make the distinction between online and offline earned media / word-of-mouth, and have shown that offline word-of-mouth has been found to be more effective than online word-of-mouth. Many consider earned media to be the most cost effective method of marketing. As a result, many companies are investing in earned media. The increased use of earned media is converging traditional owned and paid methods of marketing.[3]

Examples of paid, owned and earned media[4] Type Definition Offline Examples Online Examples  Display/banner advertising  Traditional advertising  Search advertising (e.g. Media activity related (e.g., television, radio, Google AdWords) to a company or brand print, outdoor)  Social network Paid that is generated by  Sponsorships advertising (e.g. Facebook the company or its  Direct Mail ads) agents  Electronic direct mail (e.g., email advertising)

 Company/brand website  Retail in-store visual Media activity related  Company/brand blog merchandising or to a company or brand  Company-owned displays that is generated by pages/accounts in online Owned  Brochures the company or its social networks (e.g.,  Company press agents in channels it Twitter account, Facebook releases controls brand page)

 Traditional publicity  Traditional publicity mentions in digital media mentions in outlets (e.g., professional professional media blogs) outlets Media activity related  Online WOM referrals  Ratings and reviews in to a company or brand (e.g., invitations to join a TMOs (e.g., movie that is not directly website) reviews) generated by the  Post in online  Consumer-to- Earned company or its agents communities or social consumer WOM but rather by other networks (e.g., status conversations about entities such as updates, tweets) products, including customers or  Online ratings and advice and referrals journalists reviews (e.g., Yelp.com  Consumers showing or for restaurants, demonstrating Amazon.com for products to each other products)

The increasing use of earned media has provided marketers with new ways in which to interact and engage their customers. These innovative approaches are replacing traditional marketing methods such as email and banner ads, and provide innovative methods to find, optimize, and measure return on earned media investments.[5]

Custom media (or, customer media) is a marketing term referring broadly to the development, production and delivery of media (print, digital, audio, video, events) designed to strengthen the relationship between the sponsor of the medium and the medium's audience. It is also called branded media, customer media, member media, content marketing, and custom publishing in the US; contract publishing and customer publishing in the UK. In-flight magazines, sponsored by airlines, were one of the first custom media and remain typical of the genre. While other channels have had significant success, the customer magazine is the most successful example of the genre.[1]

Typically, custom media is sponsored by a single marketer (a company, brand, association or institution) and is designed to reach a tightly focused audience of customers, members, alumni or other constituency. Custom media can be produced "in-house" by such organizations. Over the past two decades, a growing number of specialized publishing and media firms have emerged, called "custom media" or "custom publishing" companies in the US, and "customer publishers'" or '"publishing agencies" in the UK. Like advertising and other marketing services firms, the companies or divisions of traditional media companies, provide professional marketing and communications services to clients for a fee. Such out-sourced services can be limited to design and editorial responsibilities or include the complete production and distribution process. In addition, many of the companies sell advertising space within custom publications to third parties; this subsizes the cost of publication; creates a more authentic editorial environment; and allows third parties to purchase and publicizes an association with the media's sponsor, while reaching that sponsor's customers (e.g. food suppliers may purchase advertising space within a supermarket's custom media).[citation needed]

Custom media aims to build a relationship of trust and loyalty with the sponsor's customers, so they regard the sponsor as the vendor of choice when they make purchases. This is accomplished by providing information and, often, advice, that meets the needs and suits the preferences of the sponsor's target market. It serves the interests of the audience, rather than overtly plugging products and services the way ads do.[citation needed]

Brand language is the body of words, phrases, and terms that an organization uses to describe its purpose or in reference to its products. Brand language is used in marketing to help consumers connect specific words or ideas to specific companies or products.[1] When developing a brand language word choice and tone are the two fundamental components. Word choice is the vocabulary that is used in the marketing or advertising, while tone refers to the attitude of the advertisement. Tone is not limited to language, it can also be incorporated through visual elements as well as delivery.[2]

Brand language is a part of verbal brand identity, includes naming of both corporation and the products they sell as well as taglines, voice, and tone.[3] Another benefit of developing a brand language is the ability for a corporation or product to be recognizable across international borders, while other advertising codes can be misinterpreted, words can be translated to ensure brand unity.[4] Contents

 1 Primary goal  2 Examples  3 Delivery channels  4 Areas and authorities that offer brand language o 4.1 Brand agencies o 4.2 Specialist brand language consultancies o 4.3 Digital and social media companies o 4.4 Brand writers o 4.5 Copywriters  5 Political uses  6 See also  7 Notes  8 References Primary goal

As a part of the advertising world brand language's primary function is to identify a company or product and also differentiate that company/product from competitors. The language is used to get the attention of the consumer and then to relay information about what is being advertised. It is also used to ensure that when people communicate about the product there are fewer misunderstandings and more clarity about purpose and the role that this commodity wants to play in the lives of the consumer.[5]

The brand language can also be associated with competing for investors, recruiting talent, or acquiring business partners[citation needed].

Brand language is also often used internally within a company. For motivational and leadership situations, branding language helps to promote the brand values and is treated as a commodity alongside the actual products and/or company.[5] Examples

When positive words become strongly associated with particular brands, these words can become assets—to the point that competing brands may find the words difficult to use. For example, in his book Brand Sense (Kogan Page, 2005) Martin Lindstrom quotes extensive word association research carried out by Millward Brown demonstrating the strong link between the words ―magic‖ and ―kingdom‖ and Disney. Disney appears to have made a successful investment in ―owning‖ these words. Lindstrom‘s studies found that Disney has the highest number of words that are associated with one specific brand (among brands that were surveyed). Along with ―magic‖ and ―kingdom‖ Disney has been shown to have branded the words: ―dreams,‖ ―creativity,‖ ―fantasy,‖ ―smiles‖ and ―generation‖. The study that he conducted asked people to associate those words with a brand and over 80% of people asked said that they thought of Disney. Part of the reason that Disney has been so successful is that they are able to seamlessly integrate traditional and new media markets in a way that allows them to reach large audiences with a stable continuous message.[1]

Other campaigns that have powerful brand language recognition are Kellogg‘s and Gillette. Part of the idea with branded language is to go beyond just a slogan and to imbue ordinary words with the idea or essence of a particular brand. With Kellogg‘s the word that is associated with them is ―crunch‖. With Gillette the word that consumers see as synonymous with the brand is ―masculine.‖ In this case the word masculine also conjures socially constructed ideologies, which helps the brand become a more stable construction in the mind of consumers.[1]

The disadvantage of very strong brand language associations is that they may prove a hindrance if a brand wishes to position itself differently[citation needed]. Delivery channels

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged

and removed. (December 2012)

In Brand Sense, Lindstrom says brand language starts from the bottom up and ―not suddenly placed on top like a piece of decorative icing‖. So, as well as being competitive, brand language should be delivered as consistently as possible through all formal delivery channels.

With the expansion of social media, there is a new market for advertising and the use of branding language. Social media allows for companies to move beyond the more traditional forms of advertising and into a new arena. However, it is important that the language of the advertising remain consistent throughout a campaign no matter what the platform.[6] Different social media sites offer various audiences and come with particular and differing platforms. Using the right language and jargon is important so that companies seem engaged and are able to spread their message to multiple audiences.[7]

Brand recognition can inspire an influx of followers or friends, but if the social media content is seen as lacking then it can cause audiences to negatively perceive a company.[8] When employing social media resources it is crucial that a company begin to view their ―brand as a personality‖.[6] It is important for companies to know why they are using these social media sites – it might be education, a playful persona, or a desire to attract more people to an online store. Clarity of focus will allow companies to build their sites around this one particular point, which helps consumers recognize the brand and follow it. Knowing the purpose of the social media site also allows for the company to tailor the site to the specific needs of the commodity. Here tone becomes important as it allows for audiences to better understand how to engage with the site and through that, the company or product.[7]

One of the facets that is unique to new media, and specifically social media, is the dialogue that is expected to take place between a company and the consumers. Unlike traditional marketing formats, which send information one way, social media enables immediate and direct feedback from a myriad of users. Many companies find that it challenging to ―move from faceless corporation to friend‖.[8] Because of this some choose not to engage in social media or only do so marginally. Companies must be able to assess the brand attributes and translate that into a personality so that online users feel that they can form a relationship with these companies and products.[8]

Brand language is delivered externally through formal marketing communications, such as advertising and public relations. It is present wherever written and spoken language is used to communicate a proposition. This includes recruitment, corporate communications, investor relations, sales presentations, conference speaking, retail staff and whenever an individual answers the telephone on behalf of the brand[citation needed].

Internally, brand language is delivered primarily[citation needed] through internal presentations, staff conferences and through intranet sites[citation needed].

Because brand language is so widespread[citation needed], it has many internal and external contributors[citation needed]. This diversity of sources and contributors makes it very difficult to control[citation needed]. Visual identity is produced from a central source, usually[citation needed] a design agency. It is usually[citation needed] delivered with a set of design guidelines produced to ensure the consistent delivery of design. Variations from these guidelines can be identified relatively easily by the brand‘s managers[citation needed]. This is much more difficult with language[citation needed]. Areas and authorities that offer brand language

Brand agencies

Brand design agencies have diversified beyond their roots in brand logo and packaging design into corporate identity and brand language.[citation needed] They are global businesses with the scope to ensure that brand naming and brand language works in different languages.[citation needed]

Specialist brand language consultancies

Since the early 2000s, a few specialist brand language consultancies (also known as tone of voice consultancies) have emerged, with the ability to roll out brand tone of voice.

Digital and social media companies

Brands are tracking social media in order to understand how people are talking about them.[citation needed] The corollary is that they contribute to how brands are talking about themselves.

Brand writers

This new emphasis on brand language has led to the emergence of a new breed of writers - these are a hybrid of brand consultant and word expert, with a good dose of consumer psychology and change management know-how in the mix. This new breed are brand writers - the kind of people who can take corporate and brand strategy and create a style of communication that supports and accelerates those business goals.

Copywriters

There are large numbers of freelance copywriters that have repositioned themselves as brand language experts.[citation needed] Political uses

Brand language is a strategy that has been used to further political agendas and campaigns. In his book Language and Politics, Noam Chomsky makes the argument that language is used to shape the way in which political events and people are seen and remembered. He views this is practice as mostly negative and believes that politicians reword events to cover failed actions.[9]

More recently campaigns have made concerted efforts to brand certain language in an effort to have constituents link phrases and ideas with a particular candidate or political party. There are two ways of exploring brand language as it relates to politics. One way is to research the key positive and negative traits voters look for on candidates and then ask which of these seems linked to one candidate or the other. This examines the way in which political strategists position their candidates and how much of the message is getting across and which audiences are most responsive to them.[10] Another way of examining brand language in politics is to look at the actual words that the candidates say in order to determine their branding of language.[11] Brooklyn Art Project compiled a list of the most commonly used words during the 2008 presidential campaign and made a visual representation of them to showcase how each candidate branded certain words Inbound marketing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For a related term coined by Seth Godin, see Permission marketing. For the product management sense of Inbound Marketing, see Product management.

Inbound marketing is promoting a company through blogs, podcasts, video, eBooks, enewsletters, whitepapers, SEO, social media marketing, and other forms of content marketing which serve to attract customers.[1][2][3] In contrast, buying attention,[1] cold-calling, direct paper mail, radio, TV advertisements,[2] sales flyers, spam, telemarketing[3] and traditional advertising[4] are considered "outbound marketing". Inbound marketing refers to marketing activities that bring visitors in, rather than marketers having to go out to get prospects' attention. Inbound marketing earns the attention of customers,[1] makes the company easy to be found,[2] and draws customers to the website[4] by producing interesting content.[3] Inbound marketing methodologies are used to reach potential customers at various levels of brand awareness. These tactics require a commitment in order to steer marketing efforts into increased opportunities, as it provides the prospect to both learn about potential customers and have potential customers learn about the business.[5] David Meerman Scott recommends that marketers "earn their way in" (via publishing helpful information on a blog etc.) in contrast to outbound marketing, where they "buy, beg, or bug their way in" (via paid advertisements, issuing press releases, or paying commissioned sales people, respectively).[6] The term is synonymous with the concept of permission marketing, which is the title of a book by Seth Godin.[3] The inbound marketing term was coined by HubSpot‘s Brian Halligan,[2][3][7] in 2005.[8][9] According to HubSpot, inbound marketing is especially effective for small businesses[10][11] that deal with high dollar values, long research cycles and knowledge- based products. In these areas prospects are more likely to get informed and hire someone who demonstrates expertise.[11] Permission marketing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Permission marketing is a relatively new term, which was coined and developed by the entrepreneur, Seth Godin.[1] Traditional methods of marketing often revolves around the idea of attracting the customer‘s attention away from whatever they are doing – whether it is a television advert that cuts into a TV show, or an internet pop-up that interferes with a website. According to Seth Godin, such traditional methods of advertising (often referred to as ―Interruption marketing‖), has become less effective in the modern world, where information is overloaded.[2] Therefore, Godin has developed the idea of permission marketing. Permission marketing is the opposite of interruption marketing; instead of interrupting the customer with unrequested information, permission marketing aims to sell goods and services only when the prospect gives consent in advance to receive the marketing information.[3]

Opt-in email is a prime example of Permission marketing, where Internet users sign-up (in other words give permission) to receive information about a certain product or a service.[4] Supporters of Permission marketing claims it to be effective, as the potential client would be more interested in an information that was requested in advance. Furthermore, it is also more cost-efficient in comparison to the traditional methods, as businesses will only need to target consumers who have expressed an interest in their product.[5] Contents

 1 Permission marketing vs. Interruption marketing  2 The 5 Levels of Permission Marketing  3 Examples of Permission marketing o 3.1 Huffington Post o 3.2 YouTube  4 History  5 Benefits and Limitations of Permission Marketing o 5.1 Benefits o 5.2 Limitations  6 References Permission marketing vs. Interruption marketing

Interruption marketing is essentially a competition to win people‘s attention. Thirty years ago, when the internet was not as common, it was relatively easier to win people‘s attention. However, in today‘s world of mass-marketing, people are consistently overloaded with adverts that compete for their limited time and attention span. The average consumer is said to come into contact with 1 million advertisements per year – which is nearly 3000 per day. When there is an overflow of interruptions, people‘s inevitable response would be to disregard them, tune out, and refuse to respond. Such traditional methods of marketing has thus become more difficult and costly – increasing the number of exposures will be required to attain the same outcome.[6]

Permission Marketing in contrast, offers an opportunity for the consumers to agree to be marketed to. By only targeting such volunteers, Permission Marketing assures that the consumers pay more attention to the marketing message. Permission Marketing thus encourages consumers to engage in a long-standing, cooperative marketing campaign.[7] The 5 Levels of Permission Marketing

From the lowest to the highest effectiveness, there are 5 levels of permission in Permission Marketing.

1. Situational Permission: The prospect permits the business to come into contact by providing their personal information. 2. Brand Trust: The prospect permits the business to continue supplying their needs. 3. Personal Relationship: The prospect‘s permission is granted because of a personal relationship that he/she has with someone in the provider organization. 4. Points Permission: At this stage, the customer has agreed to receive goods or services and has allowed the business to collect their personal data. This is usually because they are provided with incentives, such as exchangeable points or an opportunity to earn a prize. 5. Intravenous Permission: The supplier has now taken over the supply function for a specific good or a service; the customer is completely dependent on the business.

At each successive level of the permission framework, the business achieves a higher efficiency state, with a decrease in the marketing cost. Thus, businesses usually aim to achieve the ―intravenous permission‖ level. However, the 5 levels of permission should not be considered as a necessary sequential process, as more than one level could apply simultaneously depending on the nature of the business.[8] Examples of Permission marketing

After Permission Marketing was first introduced in 1999, as of today, it has inspired a large number of firms and companies to establish permission-based marketing agencies, campaigns, and platforms. It has also largely contributed to the development and the expansion of the social media, which heavily utilizes the methods of permission marketing; ―friending‖, ―liking‖, and ―following‖, all closely associates to the idea of Permission Marketing. Facebook is a prime example – whether it is to post, to share, or to amplify, the marketer would have to send a friend request (or a permission) to the potential prospects.[9] Other notable examples of permission marketing are listed below:

Huffington Post

Huffington Post is an American online news aggregator and blog which offers original content including the areas of politics, business, entertainment, environment, technology, etc. The Huffington Post has a clear permission marketing-based approach; the readers will be required to register on the site using their social media (such as Facebook, Twitter, etc). The registration implies that readers have given the permission for Huffington Post to send them with marketing information, such as their newsletters.[10]

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website which enables its users to upload, view, and share videos. Many firms utilizes YouTube as part of their social-media marketing strategy to promote their products and services. Firms specifically make use of the ―subscribing‖ feature to establish a permission-based relationship with their customers. Subscription would imply that viewers have given permission for the business to market them with updated information, campaign, etc.[11] History

Permission marketing was first publicized in Seth Godin‘s book, ―Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers‖, published on May 6, 1999. Seth Godin is the founder of the Yoyodyne Entertainment, and his experience as an entrepreneur was what cemented his idea of Permission Marketing. He witnessed that successful campaigns were the ones that first sought for customer‘s consent. From such observation, Godin believed that marketing strategies should be based on the following elements – ―anticipated, personal, and relevant‖. The three elements were then put together to define Permission marketing.[12]

 Anticipated: people will anticipate the service/product information from the company.  Personal: the marketing information explicitly relates to the customer.  Relevant: the marketing information is something that the consumer is interested in. Benefits and Limitations of Permission Marketing

Benefits

 Cost Efficient: Permission Marketing employs low cost online tools – social media, search engine optimization, e-mails, etc. Furthermore, by only marketing to consumers who has expressed an interest, businesses can lower their marketing costs.

 High Conversion Rate: As the targeting audience are those who has expressed an interest to the product, it is easier to convert the leads into sales.  Personalization: Permission marketing allows businesses to run personalized campaigns; it allows them to target specific audiences according to their age, gender, geographical location, etc.

 Establish Long-Term Relationships with the Customer: Through the usage of social media and e-mails, businesses can interact and build long-term relationships with the customers.

 Maintains Marketing Reputation: Unlike Interruption marketing where consumers are bombarded with marketing messages, Permission marketing only sends information to those who are anticipating the information. Therefore, prospects who receive the information do not feel discomfort.[13]

Limitations

 Though supporters of Permission marketing claims it to be effective over Interruption Marketing, there is a paradox; Permission marketing is inevitably initiated with Interruption Marketing. To develop a permission-based relationship with a prospect, the very first step is always in the form of traditional marketing, where the marketer has to win the prospects attention.[14] Native advertising

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Native advertising is a form of online advertising that matches the form and function of the platform on which it appears. The word "native" refers to the content's coherence with other media on the platform. Contents

 1 Forms  2 Platforms  3 See also  4 References  5 External links Forms

One form of native advertising, publisher-produced brand content, is similar in concept to a traditional advertorial, which is a paid placement attempting to look like an article. [1]

Formats for native advertising include promoted videos, images, articles, commentary, music and other media. Examples of the technique include Search advertising (ads appearing alongside search results are native to the search experience) and Twitter with promoted Tweets, trends and people. Other examples include Facebook's promoted stories or Tumblr's promoted posts. Content marketing is another form of native advertising, placing sponsor-funded content alongside editorial content [2] or showing "other content you might be interested in" which is sponsored by a marketer alongside editorial recommendations.[3]In addition, it is important to note that the earliest form of native advertising was Hallmark, with its Hall of Fame series which began airing in 1951 (and still airs today). According to Grensing- Pophal, ―The award-winning series is arguably one of the earliest examples of ―native‖ advertising—advertising that is secondary to the message being delivered, but impactful through its association with valued content‖ [4] Moreover, Amazon and many other companies advertise their content to users based on their previous search histories, but the difference between native advertising and other types of marketing techniques is that such ads can be promoted through Facebook, Twitter and other social media.[5] It is ―about how brands now work with online publications to reach people‖ Some problems that arise with this tool is that consumers view these advertisements as ―annoying‖ instead of useful because according to Quigley, reason why native advertising carries a negative perception may be from the days of the in-your-face advertorial [however,] if the content is useful and presents something your audience didn‘t know before, they‘re likely to trust it and refer back.‖ [6] Platforms

The types of platforms and websites that participate in native advertising can be split into two categories, "open" and "closed" platforms:[7][8][9] Mobile platforms such as Hubbl have also been developed.[10][11]

 Closed platforms are brands creating profiles and/or content within a platform, then promoting that content within the confines of that same closed platform. Examples include Promoted Tweets on Twitter, Sponsored Stories on Facebook, City, Vivas and TrueView Video Ads on YouTube. Large publishers, such as Washington Post, have recently started introducing their own native advertising formats.[12]  Open platforms are defined by promoting the same piece of branded content across multiple platforms within native ad formats. Unlike closed platforms, the branded content asset lives outside the platform.  Hybrid platforms allow publishers to install a private marketplace, while having the option to allow advertisers from other platforms to bid on the same inventory either through direct sales or programmatically through Real-Time Bidding (RTB). See also

 Contextual advertising  Content marketing References 1. "This Infographic Explains What Native Advertising Is". mashable.com. December 13, 2012. 2. "Why Content Marketing Should Be Going Native". 3. Hallett, Tony. "What is native advertising anyway?". http://www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 1 November 2014. 4. GRENSING-POPHAL, Lin (2014). "Consumers Coming to Accept Native Advertising Done Right". Econtent 6: 8. 5. Hallett, Tony. "What is native advertising anyway?". http://www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 1 November 2014. 6. GRENSING-POPHAL, Lin (2014). "Consumers Coming to Accept Native Advertising Done Right". Econtent 6: 8. 7. "Native Advertising: A Powerful Performance Driver". Retrieved November 23, 2014. 8. "What is native advertising?". March 6, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2014. 9. Mark Chu Cheong (September 7, 2014). "Native Ads Part Deux: The Growth of Open Native Advertising". Retrieved November 23, 2014. 10. Barry Levine (October 16, 2013). "Ad Network Airpush Buys Hubbl, Promises 1st Native Ad Platform". Retrieved November 23, 2014. 11. "Startup of the Week – Hubbl". October 18, 2012. Retrieved November 23, 2014. 12. Bercovici, Jeff. "The Washington Post Dives Into Native Advertising". Forbes. Retrieved 3 April 2014.

External links

 Khan, Fahad, ―Toward (Re) Defining Native Advertising‖, Huffington Post, 3 September 2013.  Joel, Mitch (13 February 2013). "We Need a Better Definition of "Native Advertising"". Harvard Business Review Blog.  Salmon, Felix, "The disruptive potential of native advertising", Reuters blogpost, 9 April 2013.  Rice, Andrew, Does BuzzFeed know the secret?, New York Magazine, 7 April 2013.  Gensing- Pophal, Lin, [1] Pay per click

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Part of a series on

Internet marketing  Search engine optimization  Social media marketing  Email marketing  Referral marketing  Content marketing  Native advertising

Search engine marketing  Pay per click  Cost per impression  Search analytics  Web analytics

Display advertising  Contextual advertising  Behavioral targeting

Affiliate marketing  Cost per action  Revenue sharing

Mobile advertising

 v  t  e

Pay per click (PPC), also called cost per click, is an internet advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, in which advertisers pay the publisher (typically a website owner) when the ad is clicked. It is defined simply as ―the amount spent to get an advertisement clicked.‖[1]

With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. Content sites commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system. PPC "display" advertisements, also known as "banner" ads, are shown on web sites or search engine results with related content that have agreed to show ads.

In contrast to the generalized portal, which seeks to drive a high volume of traffic to one site, PPC implements the so-called affiliate model, which provides purchase opportunities wherever people may be surfing. It does this by offering financial incentives (in the form of a percentage of revenue) to affiliated partner sites. The affiliates provide purchase-point click-through to the merchant. It is a pay-for-performance model: If an affiliate does not generate sales, it represents no cost to the merchant. Variations include banner exchange, pay-per-click, and revenue sharing programs.

Websites that utilize PPC ads will display an advertisement when a keyword query matches an advertiser's keyword list, or when a content site displays relevant content. Such advertisements are called sponsored links or sponsored ads, and appear adjacent to, above, or beneath organic results on search engine results pages, or anywhere a web developer chooses on a content site.[2]

The PPC advertising model is open to abuse through click fraud, although Google and others have implemented automated systems[3] to guard against abusive clicks by competitors or corrupt web developers.[4] Contents

 1 Purpose  2 Construction o 2.1 Flat-rate PPC o 2.2 Bid-based PPC  3 History  4 Legal  5 See also  6 References  7 External links Purpose

Pay-per-click, along with cost per impression and cost per order, are used to assess the cost effectiveness and profitability of internet marketing. Pay-per-click has an advantage over cost per impression in that it tells us something about how effective the advertising was. Clicks are a way to measure attention and interest. If the main purpose of an ad is to generate a click, then pay-per-click is the preferred metric. Once a certain number of web impressions are achieved, the quality and placement of the advertisement will affect click through rates and the resulting pay-per-click.[1] Construction

Pay-per-click is calculated by dividing the advertising cost by the number of clicks generated by an advertisement. The basic formula is:

Pay-per-click ($) = Advertising cost ($) ÷ Ads clicked (#)[1] There are two primary models for determining pay-per-click: flat-rate and bid-based. In both cases, the advertiser must consider the potential value of a click from a given source. This value is based on the type of individual the advertiser is expecting to receive as a visitor to his or her website, and what the advertiser can gain from that visit, usually revenue, both in the short term as well as in the long term. As with other forms of advertising targeting is key, and factors that often play into PPC campaigns include the target's interest (often defined by a search term they have entered into a search engine, or the content of a page that they are browsing), intent (e.g., to purchase or not), location (for geo targeting), and the day and time that they are browsing.

Flat-rate PPC

In the flat-rate model, the advertiser and publisher agree upon a fixed amount that will be paid for each click. In many cases the publisher has a rate card that lists the pay-per-click (PPC) within different areas of their website or network. These various amounts are often related to the content on pages, with content that generally attracts more valuable visitors having a higher PPC than content that attracts less valuable visitors. However, in many cases advertisers can negotiate lower rates, especially when committing to a long-term or high-value contract.

The flat-rate model is particularly common to comparison shopping engines, which typically publish rate cards.[5] However, these rates are sometimes minimal, and advertisers can pay more for greater visibility. These sites are usually neatly compartmentalized into product or service categories, allowing a high degree of targeting by advertisers. In many cases, the entire core content of these sites is paid ads.

Bid-based PPC

The advertiser signs a contract that allows them to compete against other advertisers in a private auction hosted by a publisher or, more commonly, an advertising network. Each advertiser informs the host of the maximum amount that he or she is willing to pay for a given ad spot (often based on a keyword), usually using online tools to do so. The auction plays out in an automated fashion every time a visitor triggers the ad spot.

When the ad spot is part of a search engine results page (SERP), the automated auction takes place whenever a search for the keyword that is being bid upon occurs. All bids for the keyword that target the searcher's geo-location, the day and time of the search, etc. are then compared and the winner determined. In situations where there are multiple ad spots, a common occurrence on SERPs, there can be multiple winners whose positions on the page are influenced by the amount each has bid. The ad with the highest bid generally shows up first, though additional factors such as ad quality and relevance can sometimes come into play (see Quality Score).The predominant three match types for both Google and Bing are broad, exact and phrase. Google also offers the broad modifier match type.[6]

In addition to ad spots on SERPs, the major advertising networks allow for contextual ads to be placed on the properties of 3rd-parties with whom they have partnered. These publishers sign up to host ads on behalf of the network. In return, they receive a portion of the ad revenue that the network generates, which can be anywhere from 50% to over 80% of the gross revenue paid by advertisers. These properties are often referred to as a content network and the ads on them as contextual ads because the ad spots are associated with keywords based on the context of the page on which they are found. In general, ads on content networks have a much lower click- through rate (CTR) and conversion rate (CR) than ads found on SERPs and consequently are less highly valued. Content network properties can include websites, newsletters, and e-mails.[7]

Advertisers pay for each click they receive, with the actual amount paid based on the amount bid. It is common practice amongst auction hosts to charge a winning bidder just slightly more (e.g. one penny) than the next highest bidder or the actual amount bid, whichever is lower.[8] This avoids situations where bidders are constantly adjusting their bids by very small amounts to see if they can still win the auction while paying just a little bit less per click.

To maximize success and achieve scale, automated bid management systems can be deployed. These systems can be used directly by the advertiser, though they are more commonly used by advertising agencies that offer PPC bid management as a service. These tools generally allow for bid management at scale, with thousands or even millions of PPC bids controlled by a highly automated system. The system generally sets each bid based on the goal that has been set for it, such as maximize profit, maximize traffic at breakeven, and so forth. The system is usually tied into the advertiser's website and fed the results of each click, which then allows it to set bids. The effectiveness of these systems is directly related to the quality and quantity of the performance data that they have to work with — low-traffic ads can lead to a scarcity of data problem that renders many bid management tools useless at worst, or inefficient at best. History

In 1996, the first known and documented version of a PPC was included in a web directory called Planet Oasis. This was a desktop application featuring links to informational and commercial web sites, and it was developed by Ark Interface II, a division of Packard Bell NEC Computers. The initial reactions from commercial companies to Ark Interface II's "pay-per-visit" model were skeptical, however.[9] By the end of 1997, over 400 major brands were paying between $.005 to $.25 per click plus a placement fee.[citation needed]

In February 1998 Jeffrey Brewer of Goto.com, a 25-employee startup company (later Overture, now part of Yahoo!), presented a pay per click search engine proof-of-concept to the TED conference in California.[10] This presentation and the events that followed created the PPC advertising system. Credit for the concept of the PPC model is generally given to Idealab and Goto.com founder Bill Gross.

Google started search engine advertising in December 1999. It was not until October 2000 that the AdWords system was introduced, allowing advertisers to create text ads for placement on the Google search engine. However, PPC was only introduced in 2002; until then, advertisements were charged at cost-per-thousand impressions or Cost per mille (CPM). Overture has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Google, saying the rival search service overstepped its bounds with its ad-placement tools.[11] Although GoTo.com started PPC in 1998, Yahoo! did not start syndicating GoTo.com (later Overture) advertisers until November 2001.[12] Prior to this, Yahoo's primary source of SERPS advertising included contextual IAB advertising units (mainly 468x60 display ads). When the syndication contract with Yahoo! was up for renewal in July 2003, Yahoo! announced intent to acquire Overture for $1.63 billion.[13] Today, companies such as adMarketplace, ValueClick and adknowledge offer PPC services, as an alternative to AdWords and AdCenter.

Among PPC providers, Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter had been the three largest network operators, all three operating under a bid-based model.[2] In 2010, Yahoo and Microsoft launched their combined effort against Google and Microsoft's Bing began to be the search engine that Yahoo used to provide its search results.[14] Since they joined forces, their PPC platform was renamed AdCenter. Their combined network of third party sites that allow AdCenter ads to populate banner and text ads on their site is called BingAds.[15] Legal

In 2012 Google was ruled to have engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in possibly the first legal case of its kind. The Commission ruled unanimously that Google was responsible for the content of its sponsored AdWords ads that had shown links to a car sales website CarSales. The Ads had been shown by Google in response to a search for Honda Australia. The ACCC said the ads were deceptive, as they suggested CarSales was connected to the Honda company. The ruling was later overturned when Google appealed to the Australian High Court. Google was found not liable for the misleading advertisements run through AdWords despite the fact that the ads were served up by Google and created using the company‘s tools.[16] See also

 Cost per impression  Cost per order  Clickthrough rate References

1. Farris, Paul W.; Neil T. Bendle; Phillip E. Pfeifer; David J. Reibstein (2010). Marketing Metrics: The Definitive Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN 0-13-705829-2. The Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB) endorses the definitions, purposes, and constructs of classes of measures that appear in Marketing Metrics as part of its ongoing Common Language in Marketing Project. 2. "Customers Now", David Szetela, 2009. 3. Shuman Ghosemajumder (March 18, 2008). "Using data to help prevent fraud". Google Blog. Retrieved May 18, 2010. 4. How Google prevents invalid activity Google AdSense Help Center, Accessed November 17, 2014 5. Card Shopping.com Merchant Enrollment Shopping.com, Accessed June 12, 2007 6. "Keyword Matching Options Article: Keyword Matching Options Bing Ads". Google Support. Retrieved 26 January 2013. 7. Yahoo! Search Marketing (May 18, 2010). "Sponsored Search". Website Traffic Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture). Retrieved May 18, 2010. 8. The cost of AdWords Google AdWords Help, Accessed May 18, 2012 9. and documented Planet Oasis gives web sites promotion clout, Advertising Age July 8, 1996, retrieved December 5, 2012 10. Overture and Google: Internet Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising Auctions, London Business School, Accessed June 12, 2007 11. Stefanie Olsen and Gwendolyn Mariano (April 5, 2002). "Overture sues Google over search patent". CNET. Retrieved Jan 28, 2011. 12. Yahoo! Inc. (2002). "Yahoo! and Overture Extend Pay-for-Performance Search Agreement". Yahoo! Press Release. Retrieved May 18, 2010. 13. Stefanie Olsen (July 14, 2003). "Yahoo to buy Overture for $1.63 billion". CNET. Retrieved May 18, 2010. 14. Singel, Ryan (18 February 2010). "Yahoo and Microsoft Join Search Forces". Retrieved 26 September 2012. 15. "Link to Webpronews.com Article: Yahoo And Microsoft Introduce The Yahoo Bing Network, adCenter Becomes Bing Ads". WebProNews. Retrieved 26 September 2012. 16. "Link to citywebguide.com.au Article: Google Wins Legal Battle at ACCC". TheCityWebGuide. Retrieved 17 June 2013. Cost per impression

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

{{Internet

Cost per impression, often abbreviated CPI, is a term used in online advertising and marketing related to web traffic.[1] It refers to the cost of internet marketing or email advertising campaigns where advertisers pay each time an ad is displayed. Specifically, it is the cost or expense incurred for marketing potential customers who view the advertisement(s).[2] Contents

 1 Purpose o 1.1 Impression versus Pageview  2 Construction  3 See also  4 References  5 Further reading  6 External links Purpose

Cost per impression, along with cost per click and cost per order, is used to assess the cost effectiveness and profitability of online advertising.[2] CPI is the closest online advertising strategy to those offered in other media such as television or print, which sell advertising based on estimated viewership or readership. CPI provides a comparable measure to contrast internet advertising with other media.

Impression versus Pageview

An impression is the display of an ad to a user while viewing a web page. A single web page may contain multiple ads. In such cases, a single pageview would result in one impression for each ad displayed. In order to count the impressions served as accurately as possible and prevent fraud, an ad server may exclude certain non-qualifying activities such as page-refreshes or other user actions from counting as impressions. When advertising rates are described as CPM or CPI, this is the amount paid for every thousand qualifying impressions served at cost. Construction

Cost per impression is derived from advertising cost and the number of impressions.

Cost per impression ($) = Advertising cost ($) ÷ Number of Impressions (#)

Cost per impression is often expressed as Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM) to make the numbers easier to manage.[2] See also

 Cost per click (CPC)/Pay per click (PPC)  Cost per order  Cost per mille (CPM)  Effective cost per mille (eCPM)  Cost per action (CPA)  Effective cost per action (eCPA)  Click-through rate (CTR)  Internet marketing  Compensation methods  Performance-based advertising  Conversion rate (CVR) References

1. What Is CPM-Based Web Advertising? 2. Farris, Paul W.; Neil T. Bendle; Phillip E. Pfeifer; David J. Reibstein (2010). Marketing Metrics: The Definitive Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN 0-13-705829-2. The Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB) endorses the definitions, purposes, and constructs of classes of measures that appear in Marketing Metrics as part of its ongoing Common Language in Marketing Project. Further reading

 Chaffey, Dave; et al. (2006). Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice (3rd ed.). Harlow, England: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-273-69405-7. External links

 MASB Official Website

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and

removed. (November 2009)

Search analytics is the analysis and aggregation of search engine statistics for use in search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO). In other words, search analytics helps website owners understand and improve their performance on search engines. Search analytics includes search volume trends and analysis, reverse searching (entering websites to see their keywords), keyword monitoring, search result and advertisement history, advertisement spending statistics, website comparisons, affiliate marketing statistics, multivariate ad testing, et al. Contents

 1 Services  2 Data collection  3 Accuracy  4 Market conditions  5 See also  6 References Services

Sea Dat Rev rch Keyw Res Websit Affi Multiv Data Data Sear Adverti Ad Servic e Cost erse Vol ord ult e liate ariate Colle Verifi ch sement Spen e Sta /mo Sea . Monit His Compa Stat Testin ction cation Vol. History ding rted rch His oring tory risons s g tory Own Not Google 200 Top Rela $0 s applic Yes No No No No Yes No No

Trends 4 10 tive Data able Google 200 Own Not Rela Insight 8- $0 s applic No Yes No No No No Yes No No tive s 8-5 Data able 200 Compe 8- $50 ISP No Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes No No te.com 7- 0 4[1] 200 4- Adgoor Scrap 10- $90 No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No oo ing 14[2 ] 200 Cache 5- Scrap d

SpyFu $60 Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 5- ing SERP 5[3] s 201 Positio 2- $19 API Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No nly 1- 10[4 Sea Dat Rev rch Keyw Res Websit Affi Multiv Data Data Sear Adverti Ad Servic e Cost erse Vol ord ult e liate ariate Colle Verifi ch sement Spen e Sta /mo Sea . Monit His Compa Stat Testin ction cation Vol. History ding rted rch His oring tory risons s g tory ]

Last updated: 2014-10-16 Data collection

Search analytics data can be collected in several ways. Search engines provide access to their own data with services such as Google Trends and Google Insights. Third party services must collect their data from ISP's, phoning home software, or from scraping search engines. Getting traffic statistics from ISP's and phone homes provides for broader reporting of web traffic in addition to search analytics. Services that perform keyword monitoring only scrape a limited set of search results depending on their clients' needs. Services providing reverse search however, must scrape a large set of keywords from the search engines, usually in the millions, to find the keywords that everyone is using.

Since search results, especially advertisements, differ depending on where you are searching from, data collection methods have to account for geographic location. Keyword monitors do this more easily since they typically know what location their client is targeting. However, to get an exhaustive reverse search, several locations need to be scraped for the same keyword. Accuracy

Search analytics accuracy depends on service being used, data collection method, and data freshness. Google releases its own data, but only in an aggregated way and often without assigning absolute values such as number of visitors to its graphs.[5] ISP logs and phone home methods are accurate for the population they sample, so sample size and demographics must be adequate to accurately represent the larger population. Scraping results can be highly accurate, especially when looking at the non-paid, organic search results. Paid results, from Google Adwords for example, are often different for the same search depending on the time, geographic location, and history of searches from a particular computer. This means that scraping advertisers can be hit or miss. Market conditions

Taking a look at Google Insights to gauge the popularity of these services shows that compared to searches for the term Adwords (Google's popular search ad system), use of search analytics services is still very low, around 1-25% as of Oct. 2009.[6] This could point to a large opportunity for the users and makers of search analytics given that services have existed since 2004 with several new services being started since. See also

 Search engine optimization  Keyword research  Search engine marketing  Google Adwords  Internet marketing References

1. "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. Retrieved 2012-07-09. 2. "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. 2007-07-28. Retrieved 2012-07- 09. 3. "GoogSpy really serious competitor research". AssociatePrograms.com. Retrieved 2012- 12-30. 4. "Positionly Raises $300,000 For Search Engine Ranking From Point Nine, Others". techcrunch.com/. Retrieved 2012-05-16. 5. "About Google Trends – Google Trends". Google.com. Retrieved 2012-07-09. 6. "Google Trends". Google.com. Retrieved 2012-12-30. Web analytics

removed. (October 2008)

Part of a series on

Internet marketing

 Search engine optimization  Social media marketing  Email marketing  Referral marketing  Content marketing  Native advertising

Search engine marketing  Pay per click  Cost per impression  Search analytics  Web analytics

Display advertising  Contextual advertising  Behavioral targeting

Affiliate marketing  Cost per action  Revenue sharing

Mobile advertising

 v  t  e

Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of web data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage.

Web analytics is not just a tool for measuring web traffic but can be used as a tool for business and market research, and to assess and improve the effectiveness of a website. Web analytics applications can also help companies measure the results of traditional print or broadcast advertising campaigns. It helps one to estimate how traffic to a website changes after the launch of a new advertising campaign. Web analytics provides information about the number of visitors to a website and the number of page views. It helps gauge traffic and popularity trends which is useful for market research.

There are two categories of web analytics; off-site and on-site web analytics.

Off-site web analytics refers to web measurement and analysis regardless of whether you own or maintain a website. It includes the measurement of a website's potential audience (opportunity), share of voice (visibility), and buzz (comments) that is happening on the Internet as a whole.

On-site web analytics measure a visitor's behavior once on your website. This includes its drivers and conversions; for example, the degree to which different landing pages are associated with online purchases. On-site web analytics measures the performance of your website in a commercial context. This data is typically compared against key performance indicators for performance, and used to improve a website or marketing campaign's audience response. Google Analytics is the most widely used on-site web analytics service; although new tools are emerging that provide additional layers of information, including heat maps and session replay.

Historically, web analytics has referred to on-site visitor measurement. However in recent years this has blurred, mainly because vendors are producing tools that span both categories. Contents

 1 On-site web analytics technologies o 1.1 Web server logfile analysis o 1.2 Page tagging o 1.3 Logfile analysis vs page tagging . 1.3.1 Advantages of logfile analysis . 1.3.2 Advantages of page tagging . 1.3.3 Economic factors o 1.4 Hybrid methods o 1.5 Geolocation of visitors o 1.6 Click analytics o 1.7 Customer lifecycle analytics o 1.8 Other methods  2 On-site web analytics - definitions  3 Off-site web analytics  4 Common sources of confusion in web analytics o 4.1 The hotel problem o 4.2 New visitors + Repeat visitors unequal to total visitors  5 Web analytics methods o 5.1 Problems with cookies  6 Secure analytics (metering) methods  7 See also  8 References  9 Bibliography  10 External links On-site web analytics technologies

Many different vendors provide on-site web analytics software and services. There are two main technical ways of collecting the data. The first and older method, server log file analysis, reads the logfiles in which the web server records file requests by browsers. The second method, page tagging, uses JavaScript embedded in the site page code to make image requests to a third-party analytics-dedicated server, whenever a page is rendered by a web browser or, if desired, when a mouse click occurs. Both collect data that can be processed to produce web traffic reports. In addition, other data sources may be added to augment the website behavior data described above. For example: e-mail open and click-through rates, direct mail campaign data, sales and lead history, or other data types as needed.

Web server logfile analysis

Web servers record some of their transactions in a logfile. It was soon realized that these logfiles could be read by a program to provide data on the popularity of the website. Thus arose web log analysis software.

In the early 1990s, website statistics consisted primarily of counting the number of client requests (or hits) made to the web server. This was a reasonable method initially, since each website often consisted of a single HTML file. However, with the introduction of images in HTML, and websites that spanned multiple HTML files, this count became less useful. The first true commercial Log Analyzer was released by IPRO in 1994.[1]

Two units of measure were introduced in the mid-1990s to gauge more accurately the amount of human activity on web servers. These were page views and visits (or sessions). A page view was defined as a request made to the web server for a page, as opposed to a graphic, while a visit was defined as a sequence of requests from a uniquely identified client that expired after a certain amount of inactivity, usually 30 minutes. The page views and visits are still commonly displayed metrics, but are now considered[by whom?] rather rudimentary.

The emergence of search engine spiders and robots in the late 1990s, along with web proxies and dynamically assigned IP addresses for large companies and ISPs, made it more difficult to identify unique human visitors to a website. Log analyzers responded by tracking visits by cookies, and by ignoring requests from known spiders.[citation needed]

The extensive use of web caches also presented a problem for logfile analysis. If a person revisits a page, the second request will often be retrieved from the browser's cache, and so no request will be received by the web server. This means that the person's path through the site is lost. Caching can be defeated by configuring the web server, but this can result in degraded performance for the visitor and bigger load on the servers.[citation needed]

Page tagging

Concerns about the accuracy of logfile analysis in the presence of caching, and the desire to be able to perform web analytics as an outsourced service, led to the second data collection method, page tagging or 'Web bugs'.

In the mid-1990s, Web counters were commonly seen — these were images included in a web page that showed the number of times the image had been requested, which was an estimate of the number of visits to that page. In the late 1990s this concept evolved to include a small invisible image instead of a visible one, and, by using JavaScript, to pass along with the image request certain information about the page and the visitor. This information can then be processed remotely by a web analytics company, and extensive statistics generated. The web analytics service also manages the process of assigning a cookie to the user, which can uniquely identify them during their visit and in subsequent visits. Cookie acceptance rates vary significantly between websites and may affect the quality of data collected and reported.

Collecting website data using a third-party data collection server (or even an in-house data collection server) requires an additional DNS look-up by the user's computer to determine the IP address of the collection server. On occasion, delays in completing a successful or failed DNS look-ups may result in data not being collected.

With the increasing popularity of Ajax-based solutions, an alternative to the use of an invisible image is to implement a call back to the server from the rendered page. In this case, when the page is rendered on the web browser, a piece of Ajax code would call back to the server and pass information about the client that can then be aggregated by a web analytics company. This is in some ways flawed by browser restrictions on the servers which can be contacted with XmlHttpRequest objects. Also, this method can lead to slightly lower reported traffic levels, since the visitor may stop the page from loading in mid-response before the Ajax call is made.

Logfile analysis vs page tagging

Both logfile analysis programs and page tagging solutions are readily available to companies that wish to perform web analytics. In some cases, the same web analytics company will offer both approaches. The question then arises of which method a company should choose. There are advantages and disadvantages to each approach.[2]

Advantages of logfile analysis

The main advantages of logfile analysis over page tagging are as follows:

 The web server normally already produces logfiles, so the raw data is already available. No changes to the website are required.  The data is on the company's own servers, and is in a standard, rather than a proprietary, format. This makes it easy for a company to switch programs later, use several different programs, and analyze historical data with a new program.  Logfiles contain information on visits from search engine spiders, which generally do not execute JavaScript on a page and are therefore not recorded by page tagging. Although these should not be reported as part of the human activity, it is useful information for search engine optimization.  Logfiles require no additional DNS lookups or TCP slow starts. Thus there are no external server calls which can slow page load speeds, or result in uncounted page views.  The web server reliably records every transaction it makes, e.g. serving PDF documents and content generated by scripts, and does not rely on the visitors' browsers cooperating.

Advantages of page tagging

The main advantages of page tagging over logfile analysis are as follows:  Counting is activated by opening the page (given that the web client runs the tag scripts), not requesting it from the server. If a page is cached, it will not be counted by the server. Cached pages can account for up to one-third of all pageviews. Not counting cached pages seriously skews many site metrics. It is for this reason server-based log analysis is not considered suitable for analysis of human activity on websites.  Data is gathered via a component ("tag") in the page, usually written in JavaScript, though Java can be used, and increasingly Flash is used. Ajax can also be used in conjunction with a server-side scripting language (such as PHP) to manipulate and (usually) store it in a database, basically enabling complete control over how the data is represented.[dubious – discuss]  The script may have access to additional information on the web client or on the user, not sent in the query, such as visitors' screen sizes and the price of the goods they purchased.  Page tagging can report on events which do not involve a request to the web server, such as interactions within Flash movies, partial form completion, mouse events such as onClick, onMouseOver, onFocus, onBlur etc.  The page tagging service manages the process of assigning cookies to visitors; with logfile analysis, the server has to be configured to do this.  Page tagging is available to companies who do not have access to their own web servers.  Lately page tagging has become a standard in web analytics.[3]

Economic factors

Logfile analysis is almost always performed in-house. Page tagging can be performed in-house, but it is more often provided as a third-party service. The economic difference between these two models can also be a consideration for a company deciding which to purchase.

 Logfile analysis typically involves a one-off software purchase; however, some vendors are introducing maximum annual page views with additional costs to process additional information. In addition to commercial offerings, several open-source logfile analysis tools are available free of charge.  For Logfile analysis you have to store and archive your own data, which often grows very large quickly. Although the cost of hardware to do this is minimal, the overhead for an IT department can be considerable.  For Logfile analysis you need to maintain the software, including updates and security patches.  Complex page tagging vendors charge a monthly fee based on volume i.e. number of pageviews per month collected.

Which solution is cheaper to implement depends on the amount of technical expertise within the company, the vendor chosen, the amount of activity seen on the websites, the depth and type of information sought, and the number of distinct websites needing statistics.

Regardless of the vendor solution or data collection method employed, the cost of web visitor analysis and interpretation should also be included. That is, the cost of turning raw data into actionable information. This can be from the use of third party consultants, the hiring of an experienced web analyst, or the training of a suitable in-house person. A cost-benefit analysis can then be performed. For example, what revenue increase or cost savings can be gained by analysing the web visitor data?

Hybrid methods

Some companies produce solutions that collect data through both logfiles and page tagging and can analyze both kinds. By using a hybrid method, they aim to produce more accurate statistics than either method on its own. An early hybrid solution was produced in 1998 by Rufus Evison.[citation needed]

Geolocation of visitors

With IP geolocation, it is possible to track visitors location. Using IP geolocation database or API, visitors can be geolocated to city, region or country level.[4]

IP Intelligence, or Internet Protocol (IP) Intelligence, is a technology that maps the Internet and catalogues IP addresses by parameters such as geographic location (country, region, state, city and postcode), connection type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), proxy information, and more. The first generation of IP Intelligence was referred to as geotargeting or geolocation technology. This information is used by businesses for online audience segmentation in applications such online advertising, behavioral targeting, content localization (or website localization), digital rights management, personalization, online fraud detection, localized search, enhanced analytics, global traffic management, and content distribution.

Click analytics

Clickpath Analysis with referring pages on the left and arrows and rectangles differing in thickness and expanse to symbolize movement quantity.

Click analytics is a special type of web analytics that gives special attention to clicks.

Commonly, click analytics focuses on on-site analytics. An editor of a website uses click analytics to determine the performance of his or her particular site, with regards to where the users of the site are clicking. Also, click analytics may happen real-time or "unreal"-time, depending on the type of information sought. Typically, front-page editors on high-traffic news media sites will want to monitor their pages in real-time, to optimize the content. Editors, designers or other types of stakeholders may analyze clicks on a wider time frame to aid them assess performance of writers, design elements or advertisements etc.

Data about clicks may be gathered in at least two ways. Ideally, a click is "logged" when it occurs, and this method requires some functionality that picks up relevant information when the event occurs. Alternatively, one may institute the assumption that a page view is a result of a click, and therefore log a simulated click that led to that page view.

Customer lifecycle analytics

Customer lifecycle analytics is a visitor-centric approach to measuring that falls under the umbrella of lifecycle marketing.[citation needed] Page views, clicks and other events (such as API calls, access to third-party services, etc.) are all tied to an individual visitor instead of being stored as separate data points. Customer lifecycle analytics attempts to connect all the data points into a marketing funnel that can offer insights into visitor behavior and website optimization.[citation needed]

Other methods

Other methods of data collection are sometimes used. Packet sniffing collects data by sniffing the network traffic passing between the web server and the outside world. Packet sniffing involves no changes to the web pages or web servers. Integrating web analytics into the web server software itself is also possible.[5] Both these methods claim to provide better real-time data than other methods. On-site web analytics - definitions

This section requires expansion. (September 2011)

There are no globally agreed definitions within web analytics as the industry bodies have been trying to agree on definitions that are useful and definitive for some time. The main bodies who have had input in this area have been JICWEBS (The Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards in the UK and Ireland), ABCe (Audit Bureau of Circulations electronic, UK and Europe), The DAA (Digital Analytics Association), formally known as the WAA (Web Analytics Association, US) and to a lesser extent the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau). However, many terms are used in consistent ways from one major analytics tool to another, so the following list, based on those conventions, can be a useful starting point. Both the WAA and the ABCe provide more definitive lists for those who are declaring their statistics as using the metrics defined by either.

 Hit - A request for a file from the web server. Available only in log analysis. The number of hits received by a website is frequently cited to assert its popularity, but this number is extremely misleading and dramatically overestimates popularity. A single web-page typically consists of multiple (often dozens) of discrete files, each of which is counted as a hit as the page is downloaded, so the number of hits is really an arbitrary number more reflective of the complexity of individual pages on the website than the website's actual popularity. The total number of visits or page views provides a more realistic and accurate assessment of popularity.  Page view - A request for a file, or sometimes an event such as a mouse click, that is defined as a page in the setup of the web analytics tool. An occurrence of the script being run in page tagging. In log analysis, a single page view may generate multiple hits as all the resources required to view the page (images, .js and .css files) are also requested from the web server.  Event - A discrete action or class of actions that occurs on a website. A page view is a type of event. Events also encapsulate clicks, form submissions, keypress events, and other client-side user actions.  Visit / Session - A visit or session is defined as a series of page requests or, in the case of tags, image requests from the same uniquely identified client. A visit is considered ended when no requests have been recorded in some number of elapsed minutes. A 30 minute limit ("time out") is used by many analytics tools but can, in some tools, be changed to another number of minutes. Analytics data collectors and analysis tools have no reliable way of knowing if a visitor has looked at other sites between page views; a visit is considered one visit as long as the events (page views, clicks, whatever is being recorded) are 30 minutes or less closer together. Note that a visit can consist of one page view, or thousands.  First Visit / First Session - (also called 'Absolute Unique Visitor' in some tools) A visit from a uniquely identified client that has theoretically not made any previous visits. Since the only way of knowing whether the uniquely identified client has been to the site before is the presence of a persistent cookie that had been received on a previous visit, the First Visit label is not reliable if the site's cookies have been deleted since their previous visit.  Visitor / Unique Visitor / Unique User - The uniquely identified client that is generating page views or hits within a defined time period (e.g. day, week or month). A uniquely identified client is usually a combination of a machine (one's desktop computer at work for example) and a browser (Firefox on that machine). The identification is usually via a persistent cookie that has been placed on the computer by the site page code. An older method, used in log file analysis, is the unique combination of the computer's IP address and the User Agent (browser) information provided to the web server by the browser. It is important to understand that the "Visitor" is not the same as the human being sitting at the computer at the time of the visit, since an individual human can use different computers or, on the same computer, can use different browsers, and will be seen as a different visitor in each circumstance. Increasingly, but still somewhat rarely, visitors are uniquely identified by Flash LSO's (Local Shared Object), which are less susceptible to privacy enforcement.  Repeat Visitor - A visitor that has made at least one previous visit. The period between the last and current visit is called visitor recency and is measured in days.  Return Visitor - A Unique visitor with activity consisting of a visit to a site during a reporting period and where the Unique visitor visited the site prior to the reporting period. The individual is counted only once during the reporting period.  New Visitor - A visitor that has not made any previous visits. This definition creates a certain amount of confusion (see common confusions below), and is sometimes substituted with analysis of first visits.  Impression - The most common definition of "Impression" is an instance of an advertisement appearing on a viewed page. Note that an advertisement can be displayed on a viewed page below the area actually displayed on the screen, so most measures of impressions do not necessarily mean an advertisement has been viewable.  Single Page Visit / Singleton - A visit in which only a single page is viewed (a 'bounce').  Bounce Rate - The percentage of visits that are single page visits.  Exit Rate / % Exit - A statistic applied to an individual page, not a web site. The percentage of visits seeing a page where that page is the final page viewed in the visit.  Page Time Viewed / Page Visibility Time / Page View Duration - The time a single page (or a blog, Ad Banner...) is on the screen, measured as the calculated difference between the time of the request for that page and the time of the next recorded request. If there is no next recorded request, then the viewing time of that instance of that page is not included in reports.  Session Duration / Visit Duration - Average amount of time that visitors spend on the site each time they visit. This metric can be complicated by the fact that analytics programs can not measure the length of the final page view.[6]  Average Page View Duration - Average amount of time that visitors spend on an average page of the site.  Active Time / Engagement Time - Average amount of time that visitors spend actually interacting with content on a web page, based on mouse moves, clicks, hovers and scrolls. Unlike Session Duration and Page View Duration / Time on Page, this metric can accurately measure the length of engagement in the final page view, but it is not available in many analytics tools or data collection methods.  Average Page Depth / Page Views per Average Session - Page Depth is the approximate "size" of an average visit, calculated by dividing total number of page views by total number of visits.  Frequency / Session per Unique - Frequency measures how often visitors come to a website in a given time period. It is calculated by dividing the total number of sessions (or visits) by the total number of unique visitors during a specified time period, such as a month or year. Sometimes it is used interchangeable with the term "loyalty."  Click path - the chronological sequence of page views within a visit or session.  Click - "refers to a single instance of a user following a hyperlink from one page in a site to another".[7]  Site Overlay is a report technique in which statistics (clicks) or hot spots are superimposed, by physical location, on a visual snapshot of the web page. Off-site web analytics

This section requires expansion. (September 2014)

Off-site web analytics is based on open data analysis, social media exploration, share of voice on web properties. It is usually used to understand how to market your site by identifying the keywords tagged to your site, either from social media or from other websites. By using HTTP Referer, webpage owners will be able to trace which are the referrer sites that helps bring in traffic to their own site. Common sources of confusion in web analytics

The hotel problem

The hotel problem is generally the first problem encountered by a user of web analytics. The problem is that the unique visitors for each day in a month do not add up to the same total as the unique visitors for that month. This appears to an inexperienced user to be a problem in whatever analytics software they are using. In fact it is a simple property of the metric definitions.

The way to picture the situation is by imagining a hotel. The hotel has two rooms (Room A and Room B).

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Total

Room A John John Mark 2 Unique Users Room B Mark Jane Jane 2 Unique Users Total 2 2 2 ?

As the table shows, the hotel has two unique users each day over three days. The sum of the totals with respect to the days is therefore six.

During the period each room has had two unique users. The sum of the totals with respect to the rooms is therefore four.

Actually only three visitors have been in the hotel over this period. The problem is that a person who stays in a room for two nights will get counted twice if you count them once on each day, but is only counted once if you are looking at the total for the period. Any software for web analytics will sum these correctly for the chosen time period, thus leading to the problem when a user tries to compare the totals.

New visitors + Repeat visitors unequal to total visitors

Another common misconception in web analytics is that the sum of the new visitors and the repeat visitors ought to be the total number of visitors. Again this becomes clear if the visitors are viewed as individuals on a small scale, but still causes a large number of complaints that analytics software cannot be working because of a failure to understand the metrics.

Here the culprit is the metric of a new visitor. There is really no such thing as a new visitor when you are considering a website from an ongoing perspective. If a visitor makes their first visit on a given day and then returns to the website on the same day they are both a new visitor and a repeat visitor for that day. So if we look at them as an individual which are they? The answer has to be both, so the definition of the metric is at fault. Web analytics methods

Problems with cookies

Historically, vendors of page-tagging analytics solutions have used third-party cookies sent from the vendor's domain instead of the domain of the website being browsed. Third-party cookies can handle visitors who cross multiple unrelated domains within the company's site, since the cookie is always handled by the vendor's servers.

However, third-party cookies in principle allow tracking an individual user across the sites of different companies, allowing the analytics vendor to collate the user's activity on sites where he provided personal information with his activity on other sites where he thought he was anonymous. Although web analytics companies deny doing this, other companies such as companies supplying banner ads have done so. Privacy concerns about cookies have therefore led a noticeable minority of users to block or delete third-party cookies. In 2005, some reports showed that about 28% of Internet users blocked third-party cookies and 22% deleted them at least once a month.[8] Most vendors of page tagging solutions have now moved to provide at least the option of using first-party cookies (cookies assigned from the client subdomain).

Another problem is cookie deletion. When web analytics depend on cookies to identify unique visitors, the statistics are dependent on a persistent cookie to hold a unique visitor ID. When users delete cookies, they usually delete both first- and third-party cookies. If this is done between interactions with the site, the user will appear as a first-time visitor at their next interaction point. Without a persistent and unique visitor id, conversions, click-stream analysis, and other metrics dependent on the activities of a unique visitor over time, cannot be accurate.

Cookies are used because IP addresses are not always unique to users and may be shared by large groups or proxies. In some cases, the IP address is combined with the user agent in order to more accurately identify a visitor if cookies are not available. However, this only partially solves the problem because often users behind a proxy server have the same user agent. Other methods of uniquely identifying a user are technically challenging and would limit the trackable audience or would be considered suspicious. Cookies are the selected option[who?] because they reach the lowest common denominator without using technologies regarded as spyware.[9] Secure analytics (metering) methods

It may be good to be aware that the third-party information gathering is subject to any network limitations and security applied. Countries, Service Providers and Private Networks can prevent site visit data to go to third parties. All the methods described above (and some other methods not mentioned here, like sampling) have the central problem of being vulnerable to manipulation (both inflation and deflation). This means these methods are imprecise and insecure (in any reasonable model of security). This issue has been addressed in a number of papers [10] [11] [12] ,[13] but to-date the solutions suggested in these papers remain theoretic, possibly due to lack of interest from the engineering community, or because of financial gain the current situation provides to the owners of big websites. For more details, consult the aforementioned papers. See also

 Clickstream  Hit (Internet)  HTTP cookie  Internet traffic  IP Address  Internet Protocol  Eurocrypt  Geolocation  Geolocation software  Geotargeting  List of web analytics software  Mobile Web Analytics  Online video analytics  Page view  Post-click marketing  Unique user  Web bug  Website correlation  Website localization  Web log analysis software  Web traffic  Web traffic generation model References

1. Web Traffic Data Sources and Vendor Comparison by Brian Clifton and Omega Digital Media Ltd 2. Increasing Accuracy for Online Business Growth - a web analytics accuracy whitepaper 3. "Revisiting log file analysis versus page tagging": McGill University Web Analytics blog article (CMIS 530) Archived July 6, 2011 at the Wayback Machine 4. IPInfoDB (2009-07-10). "IP geolocation database". IPInfoDB. Retrieved 2009-07-19. 5. Web analytics integrated into web software itself 6. ClickTale Blog » Blog Archive » What Google Analytics Can't Tell You, Part 1 7. Clicks - Analytics Help 8. McGann, Rob. "Study: Consumers Delete Cookies at Surprising Rate". Retrieved 3 April 2014. 9. "Home News Access the Guide Tools Education Shopping Internet Cookies- Spyware or Neutral Technology?". CNET. February 2, 2005. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help) 10. Naor, M.; Pinkas, B. (1998). "Secure and efficient metering". Advances in Cryptology — EUROCRYPT'98. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 1403. p. 576. doi:10.1007/BFb0054155. ISBN 3-540-64518-7. edit 11. Naor, M.; Pinkas, B. (1998). "Secure accounting and auditing on the Web". Computer Networks and ISDN Systems 30: 541. doi:10.1016/S0169-7552(98)00116-0. edit 12. Franklin, M. K.; Malkhi, D. (1997). "Auditable metering with lightweight security". Financial Cryptography. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 1318. p. 151. doi:10.1007/3-540-63594-7_75. ISBN 978-3-540-63594-9. edit 13. Johnson, R.; Staddon, J. (2007). "Deflation-secure web metering". International Journal of Information and Computer Security 1: 39. doi:10.1504/IJICS.2007.012244. edit Bibliography

 Clifton, Brian (2010) Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics, 2nd edition, Sybex (Paperback.)  Kaushik, Avinash (2009) Web Analytics 2.0 - The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity. Sybex, Wiley.  Mortensen, Dennis R. (2009) Yahoo! Web Analytics. Sybex.  Farris, P., Bendle, N.T., Pfeifer, P.E. Reibstein, D.J. (2009) Key Marketing Metrics The 50+ Metrics Every Manager needs to know, Prentice Hall, London.  Plaza, B (2009) Monitoring web traffic source effectiveness with Google Analytics: An experiment with time series. Aslib Proceedings, 61(5): 474–482.  Arikan, Akin (2008) Multichannel Marketing. Metrics and Methods for On and Offline Success. Sybex.  Tullis, Tom & Albert, Bill (2008) Measuring the User Experience. Collecting, Analyzing and Presenting Usability Metrics. Morgan Kaufmann, Elsevier, Burlington MA.  Kaushik, Avinash (2007) Web Analytics: An Hour a Day, Sybex, Wiley.  Bradley N (2007) Marketing Research. Tools and Techniques. Oxford University Press, Oxford.  Burby, Jason and Atchison, Shane (2007) Actionable Web Analytics: Using Data to Make Smart Business Decisions.  Davis, J. (2006) ‗Marketing Metrics: How to create Accountable Marketing plans that really work‘ John Wiley & Sons (Asia).  Peterson Eric T (2005) Web Site Measurement Hacks. O'Reilly ebook.  Peterson Eric T (2004) Web Analytics Demystified: A Marketer‘s Guide to Understanding How Your Web Site Affects Your Business. Celilo Group Media  Lenskold, J. (2003) ‗Marketing ROI: how to plan, Measure and Optimise strategies for Profit‘ London: McGraw Hill Contemporary  Sterne, J. (2002) Web metrics, Proven Methods for Measuring Web Site Success, London: John Wiley & Sons.  Srinivasan, J .(2001) E commerce Metrics, Models and Examples, London: Prentice Hall. External links Contextual advertising

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Part of a series on

Internet marketing

 Search engine optimization  Social media marketing  Email marketing  Referral marketing  Content marketing  Native advertising

Search engine marketing  Pay per click  Cost per impression  Search analytics  Web analytics

Display advertising  Contextual advertising  Behavioral targeting

Affiliate marketing  Cost per action  Revenue sharing

Mobile advertising

 v  t  e

Contextual advertising is a form of targeted advertising for advertisements appearing on websites or other media, such as content displayed in mobile browsers. The advertisements themselves are selected and served by automated systems based on the identity of the user and the content displayed. Contents  1 How contextual advertising works  2 Service providers  3 Impact  4 Agency roles  5 See also  6 Notes  7 Further references How contextual advertising works

A contextual advertising system scans the text of a website for keywords and returns advertisements to the webpage based on those keywords. [1] The advertisements may be displayed on the webpage or as pop-up ads. For example, if the user is viewing a website pertaining to sports and that website uses contextual advertising, the user may see advertisements for sports-related companies, such as memorabilia dealers or ticket sellers. Contextual advertising is also used by search engines to display advertisements on their search results pages based on the keywords in the user's query.

Contextual advertising is a form of targeted advertising in which the content of an ad is in direct correlation to the content of the web page the user is viewing. For example, if you are visiting a website concerning travelling in Europe and see that an ad pops up offering a special price on a flight to Italy, that‘s contextual advertising. Contextual advertising is also called ―In-Text‖ advertising or ―In-Context‖ technology.

Apart from that when a visitor doesn't click on the ad in a go through time (a minimum time a user must click on the ad) the ad is automatically changed to next relevant ad showing the option below of going back to the previous ad. Service providers

Google AdSense was the first major contextual advertising network.[citation needed] It works by providing webmasters with JavaScript code that, when inserted into webpages, displays relevant advertisements from the Google inventory of advertisers. The relevance is calculated by a separate Google bot, Mediabot, that indexes the content of a webpage. Recent technology/service providers have emerged with more sophisticated systems that use language-independent proximity pattern matching algorithm to increase matching accuracy.[2]

Since the advent of AdSense, Yahoo! Bing Network Contextual Ads, Microsoft adCenter, Advertising.com, ads.hsoub.com Sponsored Listings (formerly Quigo) and others have been gearing up to make similar offerings. Impact

Contextual advertising has made a major impact on earnings of many websites. Because the advertisements are more targeted, they are more likely to be clicked, thus generating revenue for the owner of the website (and the server of the advertisement). A large part of Google's earnings is from its share of the contextual advertisements served on the millions of webpages running the AdSense program.

Contextual advertising has attracted some controversy through the use of techniques such as third-party hyperlinking, where a third-party installs software onto a user's computer that interacts with the web browser.[3] Keywords on a webpage are displayed as hyperlinks that lead to advertisers. Agency roles

There are several advertising agencies that help brands understand how contextual advertising options affect their advertising plans. There are three main components to online advertising:[3]

1. creation — what the advertisement looks like 2. media planning — where the advertisements are to be run 3. media buying — how the advertisements are paid for

Contextual advertising replaces the media planning component. Instead of humans choosing placement options, that function is replaced with computers facilitating the placement across thousands of websites. See also

 Browser security  Advertising network  Editorial-related advertising  In-text advertising  In-image advertising  Semantic targeting  Native advertising Notes

1. "Contextual Marketing Definition". PC Magazine. Retrieved 2008-07-21. 2. "Proximic Signs Deals With Yahoo and eBay To Turn Product Listings Into Contextual Ads; Taking on AdSense". Retrieved 2008-01-15. 3. "Customers Now", David Szetela, 2009[not specific enough to verify] Further references

 Ferguson, Renee Boucher. "A Battle Is Brewing Over Online Behavioral Advertising". www.eweek.com. Retrieved 2008-10-20.  Ostrow, Adam. "When Contextual Advertising Goes Horribly Wrong - Mashable". mashable.com. Retrieved 2008-10-20.  "FTC Staff Proposes Online Behavioral Advertising Privacy Principles". www.ftc.gov. Retrieved 2008-10-20.  Kenny, D. and Marshall, J. (November–December 2000). "Contextual Marketing: The Real Business of the Internet". Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 2008-07-22.

Categories:

 Contextual advertising  Internet advertising methods  Internet marketing  Internet marketing terminology  Advertising by type Behavioral targeting

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Behavioral targeting comprises a range of technologies and techniques used by online website publishers and advertisers aimed at increasing the effectiveness of advertising using user web- browsing behavior information. In particular, "behavioral targeting uses information collected from an individual‘s web-browsing behavior (e.g., the pages that they have visited or the searches they have conducted) to select advertisements to display".[1]

When a consumer visits a web site, the pages they visit, the amount of time they view each page, the links they click on, the searches they make and the things that they interact with, allow sites to collect that data, and other factors, create a 'profile' that links to that visitor's web browser. As a result, site publishers can use this data to create defined audience segments based upon visitors that have similar profiles. When visitors return to a specific site or a network of sites using the same web browser, those profiles can be used to allow advertisers to position their online ads in front of those visitors who exhibit a greater level of interest and intent for the products and services being offered. On the theory that properly targeted ads will fetch more consumer interest, the publisher (or seller) can charge a premium for these ads over random advertising or ads based on the context of a site.

Behavioral marketing can be used on its own or in conjunction with other forms of targeting based on factors like geography, demographics or contextual web page content. It's worth noting that many practitioners also refer to this process as "Audience Targeting". Contents

 1 Onsite behavioral targeting  2 Network behavioral targeting  3 Theoretical research on behavioral targeting  4 Privacy and security concerns  5 Case law  6 See also  7 Notes and references Onsite behavioral targeting

See also: FTC regulation of behavioral advertising

Behavioral targeting techniques may also be applied to any online property on the premise that it either improves the visitor experience or it benefits the online property, typically through increased conversion rates or increased spending levels. The early adopters of this technology/philosophy were editorial sites such as HotWired,[2][3] online advertising[4] with leading online ad servers,[5] retail or other e-commerce website as a technique for increasing the relevance of product offers and promotions on a visitor by visitor basis. More recently, companies outside this traditional e-commerce marketplace have started to experiment with these emerging technologies.

The typical approach to this starts by using web analytics to break-down the range of all visitors into a number of discrete channels. Each channel is then analyzed and a virtual profile is created to deal with each channel. These profiles can be based around Personas that gives the website operators a starting point in terms of deciding what content, navigation and layout to show to each of the different personas. When it comes to the practical problem of successfully delivering the profiles correctly this is usually achieved by either using a specialist content behavioral platform or by bespoke software development. Most platforms identify visitors by assigning a unique id cookie to each and every visitor to the site thereby allowing them to be tracked throughout their web journey, the platform then makes a rules-based decision about what content to serve.

Again, this behavioral data can be combined with known demographic data and a visitor's past purchase history in order to produce a greater degree of data points that can be used for targeting.

Self-learning onsite behavioral targeting systems will monitor visitor response to site content and learn what is most likely to generate a desired conversion event. Some good content for each behavioral trait or pattern is often established using numerous simultaneous multivariate tests. Onsite behavioral targeting requires relatively high level of traffic before statistical confidence levels can be reached regarding the probability of a particular offer generating a conversion from a user with a set behavioral profile. Some providers have been able to do so by leveraging its large user base, such as Yahoo!. Some providers use a rules based approach, allowing administrators to set the content and offers shown to those with particular traits. Network behavioral targeting

Advertising networks use behavioral targeting in a different way than individual sites. Since they serve many advertisements across many different sites, they are able to build up a picture of the likely demographic makeup of internet users.[6] Data from a visit to one website can be sent to many different companies, including Microsoft and Google subsidiaries, Facebook, Yahoo, many traffic-logging sites, and smaller ad firms.[7] This data can sometimes be sent to more than 100 websites. The data is collected by using cookies, web beacons and similar technologies, and/or a third-party ad serving software, to automatically collect information about site users and site activity.[8] This data is collected without attaching the people‘s names, address, email address or telephone number, but it may include device identifying information such as the IP address, MAC address, cookie or other device-specific unique alphanumerical ID of your compute, but some stores may create guest IDs to go along with the data. This data is used by companies to infer people‘s age, gender, and possible purchase interests so that they could make customized ads that you would be more likely to click on.[9] An example would be a user seen on football sites, business sites and male fashion sites. A reasonable guess would be to assume the user is male. Demographic analyses of individual sites provided either internally (user surveys) or externally (Comscore \ netratings) allow the networks to sell audiences rather than sites.[10] Although advertising networks used to sell this product, this was based on picking the sites where the audiences were. Behavioral targeting allows them to be slightly more specific about this. Theoretical research on behavioral targeting

In 2006, BlueLithium (now Yahoo! Advertising) in a large online study, examined the effects of behavior targeted advertisements based on contextual content. The study used 400 million "impressions," or advertisements conveyed across behavioral and contextual borders. Specifically, nine behavioral categories (such as "shoppers" or "travelers" [11])with over 10 million "impressions" were observed for patterns across the content.[12] All measures for the study were taken in terms of click-through rates (CTR) and "action-through rates," (ATR) or conversions. So, for every impression that someone gets, the number of times they "click- through" to it will contribute to CTR data, and every time they go through with or convert on the advertisement the user adds "action-through" data. Results from the study show that advertisers looking for traffic on their advertisements should focus on behavioral targeting in context. Likewise, if they are looking for conversions on the advertisements, behavioral targeting out of context is the most effective process.[11] The data was helpful in determining an "across-the- board rule of thumb,[11]" however results fluctuated widely by content categories. Overall results from the researchers indicate that the effectiveness of behavioral targeting is dependent on the goals of the advertiser and the primary target market the advertiser is trying to reach.

In the work titled An Economic Analysis of Online Advertising Using Behavioral Targeting,[1] Chen and Stallaert (2014) study the economic implications when an online publisher engages in behavioral targeting. They consider that the publisher auctions off an advertising slot and is paid on a cost-per-click basis. Chen and Stallaert (2014) identify the factors that affect the publisher‘s revenue, the advertisers‘ payoffs, and social welfare. They show that revenue for the online publisher in some circumstances can double when behavioral targeting is used. However, increased revenue for the publisher is not guaranteed: in some cases, the prices of advertising and hence the publisher‘s revenue can be lower, depending on the degree of competition and the advertisers‘ valuations. They identify two effects associated with behavioral targeting: a competitive effect and a propensity effect. The relative strength of the two effects determines whether the publisher‘s revenue is positively or negatively affected. Chen and Stallaert (2014) also demonstrate that, although social welfare is increased and small advertisers are better off under behavioral targeting, the dominant advertiser might be worse off and reluctant to switch from traditional advertising. Privacy and security concerns

Main article: Browser security

Many online users and advocacy groups are concerned about privacy issues around doing this type of targeting. This is a controversy that the behavioral targeting industry is trying to contain through education, advocacy and product constraints to keep all information non-personally identifiable or to obtain permission from end-users.[13] AOL created animated cartoons in 2008 to explain to its users that their past actions may determine the content of ads they see in the future.[14] Canadian academics at the University of Ottawa Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic have recently demanded the federal privacy commissioner to investigate online profiling of Internet users for targeted advertising.[15]

The European Commission (via commissioner Meglena Kuneva) has also raised a number of concerns related to online data collection (of personal data), profiling and behavioral targeting, and is looking for "enforcing existing regulation".[16]

In October 2009 it was reported that a recent survey carried out by University of Pennsylvania and the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology found that a large majority of US internet users rejected the use of behavioral advertising.[17] Several research efforts by academicians and others have demonstrated that data that supposedly anonymized can be used to identify real individuals.

In March 2011, it was reported that the online ad industry would begin working with the Council of Better Business Bureaus to start policing itself as part of its program to monitor and regulate how marketers track consumers online, also known as behavioral advertising.[18] Case law

 In re DoubleClick  FTC regulation of behavioral advertising See also

 Personalization  Profiling  Digital traces  Reality mining Notes and references 1. Chen, Jianqing; Jan Stallaert (2014). "An Economic Analysis of Online Advertising Using Behavioral Targeting". MIS Quarterly 38 (2): 429–449. 2. Ad Age, Affinicast unveils personalization tool, Dec 4, 1996 3. Chip Bayers, Cover Story: The Promise of One to One (A Love Story), Wired, May 1998 4. Carol Emert, Web Advertisers Get New Tool SF Chronicle, Oct 19, 1998 5. Beth Cox, AdKnowledge Offers Millward Brown Interactive's Voyager Profile ClickZ, June 8, 1999 6. Wall Street Journal, ―On the Web's Cutting Edge, Anonymity in Name Only‖, August 4, 2010 7. The Atlantic, "I'm Being Followed: How Google—and 104 Other Companies—Are Tracking Me on the Web", February 29, 2012 8. KiiTV South Texas, "Data Collected in Connection with Ad Serving and Targeting" 9. TrustE, "What is Behavioral Advertising" 10. iMedia Connection article on Behavioral Targeting for Networks in the USA [1] 11. Newcomb, K. (2006, October 16). Study: Behavioral ads convert better out of context. Retrieved from http://www.clickz.com/ 12. Habeshian, V. (2006, October 17). Study: Out-of-context behavioral ads convert better. Marketingprofs. Retrieved from http://www.marketingprofs.com/ 13. "ISP Behavioral Targeting versus You". 2008-09-26. 14. Story, Louise (March 10, 2008). "AOL Brings Out the Penguins to Explain Ad Targeting". The New York Times. in Story, Louise (March 10, 2008). "To Aim Ads, Web Is Keeping Closer Eye on You". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). Retrieved 2008-03-09. 15. "Academics want watchdog to probe online profiling". 2008-07-28. 16. Behavioural targeting at the European Consumer Summit, 8 April 2009, 17. "US web users reject behavioural advertising, study finds". OUT-LAW News. 2009-09- 30. 18. adage.com

Categories:

 Internet advertising  Internet marketing terminology Cost per action

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [hide]This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. (August

2011) This article possibly contains original research. (August 2011)

Part of a series on

Internet marketing

 Search engine optimization  Social media marketing  Email marketing  Referral marketing  Content marketing  Native advertising

Search engine marketing  Pay per click  Cost per impression  Search analytics  Web analytics

Display advertising  Contextual advertising  Behavioral targeting

Affiliate marketing  Cost per action  Revenue sharing

Mobile advertising

 v  t  e

Cost Per Action or CPA (sometimes known as Pay Per Action or PPA; also Cost Per Conversion) is an online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for each specified action - for example, an impression, click, form submit (e.g., contact request, newsletter sign up, registration etc.), double opt-in or sale. Direct response advertisers consider CPA the optimal way to buy online advertising, as an advertiser only pays for the ad when the desired action has occurred. The desired action to be performed is determined by the advertiser. Radio and TV stations also sometimes offer unsold inventory on a cost per action basis, but this form of advertising is most often referred to as "per inquiry". Although less common, print media will also sometimes be sold on a CPA basis. Contents

 1 CPA as "Cost Per Acquisition" o 1.1 Formula to calculate Cost Per Acquisition  2 PPL as "Pay Per Lead"  3 Differences between CPA and CPL advertising  4 PPC or CPC campaigns  5 Tracking CPA campaigns  6 Effective cost per action  7 References CPA as "Cost Per Acquisition"

CPA is sometimes referred to as "Cost Per Acquisition", which has to do with the fact that many CPA offers by advertisers are about acquiring something (typically new customers by making sales).

Formula to calculate Cost Per Acquisition

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) is calculated as: cost divided by the number of acquisitions. So for example, if you spend £100 on a campaign and get 10 ―acquisitions‖ this would give a cost per acquisition of £10. PPL as "Pay Per Lead"

PPL is a form of CPA (Cost Per Action), with the ―action‖ in this case being the delivery of a lead. Online and Offline advertising payment model in which fees are charged based solely on the delivery of leads.

In a pay per lead agreement, the advertiser only pays for leads delivered under the terms of the agreement. No payment is made for leads that don't meet the agreed upon criteria.

Leads may be delivered by phone under the pay per call model. Conversely, leads may be delivered electronically, such as by email, SMS or a ping/post of the data directly to a database. The information delivered may consist of as little as an email address, or it may involve a detailed profile including multiple contact points and the answers to qualification questions. There are numerous risks associated with any Pay Per Lead campaign, including the potential for fraudulent activity by incentivized marketing partners. Some fraudulent leads are easy to spot. Nonetheless, it is advisable to make a regular audit of the results. Differences between CPA and CPL advertising

In CPL campaigns, advertisers pay for an interested lead (hence, Cost Per Lead) — i.e. the contact information of a person interested in the advertiser's product or service. CPL campaigns are suitable for brand marketers and direct response marketers looking to engage consumers at multiple touch points — by building a newsletter list, community site, reward program or member acquisition program.

In CPA campaigns, the advertiser typically pays for a completed sale involving a credit card transaction.

There are other important differentiators:

1. CPA and affiliate marketing campaigns are publisher-centric. Advertisers cede control over where their brand will appear, as publishers browse offers and pick which to run on their websites. Advertisers generally do not know where their offer is running. 2. CPL campaigns are usually high volume and light-weight. In CPL campaigns, consumers submit only basic contact information. The transaction can be as simple as an email address. On the other hand, CPA campaigns are usually low volume and complex. Typically, a consumer has to submit a credit card and other detailed information. PPC or CPC campaigns

Pay Per Click (PPC) and Cost per Click (CPC) are both forms of CPA (Cost per Action) with the action being a click. PPC is generally used to refer to paid search marketing such as AdSense from Google.

Cost per click on the other hand is generally used for everything else including, email marketing, display, contextual and more.

Also, Pay Per Download (PPD) is another form of CPA, where the user completes an action to download a specified file. Tracking CPA campaigns

With payment of CPA campaigns being on an ―action‖ being delivered, accurate tracking is of prime importance to media owners.

This is a complex subject in itself, however if usually performed in three main ways: 1) Cookie tracking – when a media owner drives a click a cookie is dropped on the prospects computer which is linked back to the media owner when the ―action‖ is performed. 2) Telephone tracking – unique telephone numbers are used per instance of a campaign. So media owner XYZ would have their own unique phone number for an offer and when this number is called any resulting ―actions‖ are allocated to media owner XYZ. Often payouts are based on a length of call (commonly 90 seconds) – if a call goes over 90 seconds it is viewed that there is a genuine interest and a ―lead‖ is paid for. 3) Promotional codes – promotional or voucher codes are commonly used for tracking retail campaigns. The prospect is asked to use a code at the checkout to qualify for an offer. The code can then be matched back to the media owner who drove the sale. Effective cost per action

A related term, eCPA or Effective Cost Per Action, is used to measure the effectiveness of advertising inventory purchased (by the advertiser) via a CPC, CPI, or CPM basis.

In other words, the eCPA tells the advertiser what they would have paid if they had purchased the advertising inventory on a Cost Per Action basis (instead of a Cost Per Click, Cost Per Impression, or Cost Per Mille/Thousand basis). References Revenue sharing

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Revenue sharing has multiple, related meanings depending on context: In business, revenue sharing refers to the distribution of profits and losses between stakeholders, who could be general partners (and limited partners in a limited partnership), a company's employees, or between companies in a business alliance. In business

Revenue sharing in Internet marketing is also known as cost per sale, in which the cost of advertising is determined by the revenue generated as a result of the advertisement itself. This scheme accounts for about 80% of affiliate marketing programs.[1]

Web-based companies including HubPages, Squidoo, Helium and Infobarrel also practice a form of revenue sharing, in which a company invites writers to create content for a website in exchange for a share of its advertising revenue – giving the authors the possibility of ongoing income from a single piece of work, and guaranteeing to the commissioning company that it will never pay more for content than it generates in advertising revenue. Pay rates vary dramatically from site to site, depending on the success of the site and the popularity of individual articles.

In professional sports league, "revenue sharing" commonly refers to the distribution of proceeds generated by ticket sales to a given event: The amount of money distributed to a visiting team can significant impact a team's total revenue, which in turn affects the team's ability to attract (and pay for) talent and resources. In 1981, for example, the Scottish Premier League changed its policy from splitting a match's receipts evenly between its two competing football teams over to a system in which the hosting team could keep all of the proceeds from matches hosted at its facilities. The move is generally believed to have negatively affected the league's parity and enhanced the dominance of Celtic F.C. and Rangers F.C.[2] In taxation

The United States government implemented revenue sharing between 1972 and 1986, in the form of congressional appropriation of federal tax revenue to states, cities, counties and townships. Revenue sharing was extremely popular with state officials, but lost federal support during the Reagan administration. In 1987, it was replaced with block grants in smaller amounts to reduce federal revenues given to states.[citation needed]

In Canada, "revenue sharing" refers to the practice in which one level of government shares its revenues with a sub-jurisdictional government. For example, the canadian federal government has an agreement to share gasoline tax revenue with its provinces.

E-procurement (electronic procurement, sometimes also known as supplier exchange) is the business-to-business or business-to-consumer or business-to-government purchase and sale of supplies, work, and services through the Internet as well as other information and networking systems, such as electronic data interchange and enterprise resource planning..[1]

The e-procurement value chain consists of indent management, e-Tendering, e-Auctioning, vendor management, catalogue management, Purchase Order Integration, Order Status, Ship Notice, e-Invoicing, e-Payment, and contract management.[citation needed] Indent management is the workflow involved in the preparation of tenders. This part of the value chain is optional, with individual procuring departments defining their indenting process. In works procurement, administrative approval and technical sanction are obtained in electronic format. In goods procurement, indent generation activity is done online. The end result of the stage is taken as inputs for issuing the NIT.[citation needed]

Elements of e-procurement include request for information, request for proposal, request for quotation, RFx (the previous three together), and eRFx (software for managing RFx projects). Contents

 1 In the public sector  2 Vendors  3 E-procurement systems  4 See also  5 References In the public sector

Main article: Public eProcurement

Public sector organizations use e-procurement for contracts to achieve benefits such as increased efficiency and cost savings (faster and cheaper) in government procurement[2] and improved transparency (to reduce corruption) in procurement services.[3] E-procurement in the public sector has seen rapid growth in recent years. Act 590 of Louisiana's 2008 Regular Legislative Session requires political subdivisions to make provisions for the receipt of electronic bids.

E-procurement in the public sector is emerging internationally. Hence, initiatives have been implemented in Singapore, UK, USA, Malaysia, Australia, European Union [4] and Kazakhstan [5]

E-procurement projects are often part of the country‘s larger e-Government efforts to better serve its citizens and businesses in the digital economy. For example, Singapore‘s GeBIZ was implemented as one of the programmes under its e-Government masterplan.[6] The Procurement G6 leads the use of e-procurement instruments in Public procurement. Vendors

This field is populated by two types of vendors: big enterprise resource planning (ERP) providers which offer e-procurement as one of their services, and the more affordable services focused specifically of e-procurement. E-procurement systems

An e-procurement system manages tenders through a web site. This can be accessed anywhere globally and has greatly improved the accessibility of tenders.[citation needed] An example is the System for Acquisition Management (SAM), which on July 30, 2013 combined information from the former Central Contractor Registration and Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA),[7] in the United States.[8] See also

 Complex sales  Construction bidding  Contract A  Proposal  Reverse auction  Tender notification  Tendering  Strategic sourcing  Outsourcing  Public eProcurement  Purchase-to-pay Purchase-to-pay

removed. (June 2009)

Purchase-to-pay, often abbreviated to P2P and also called req to cheque, refers to the business processes that cover activities of requesting (requisitioning), purchasing, receiving, paying for and accounting for goods and services. Also commonly referred to as procure-to-pay. Contents

 1 Automation  2 History  3 A discipline in its own right  4 References Automation

Purchase-to-pay systems automate the full purchase-to-payment process, connecting procurement and invoicing operations through an intertwined business flow that automates the process from identification of a need, planning and budgeting, through to procurement and payment.

Purchase-to-pay systems are designed to provide organizations with control and visibility over the entire lifecycle of a transaction – from the way an item is ordered to the way that the final invoice is processed – providing full insight into cashflow and financial commitments and is now deemed an important tool for proper implementation of Resource Accounting and Budgeting, not least by UK Government Departments such as HM Treasury. Financial commitments are understood at the point they are committed to rather than when invoiced.

Organizations automate invoice processing and purchasing policies and procedures to bring financial rigor and process efficiency to the business of buying.

Both purchase order (PO) and non-PO spending, capital, credit card and reimbursable spending can be captured and controlled through automated P2P systems. Finance departments can also enforce internal spending controls and have instant access to data that tells them who is spending, what they are buying and paying for, and with which vendors.

As a result, efficiency and cost saving benefits can be substantial. History The term emerged in the 1990s and is one of a number of buzz phrases (like B2B, B2C, G2C etc.) that emerged as Internet applications became used more widely in business. Although it does not necessarily refer directly to the application of technology to the purchasing process, it is most often used in relation to applications like e-procurement and ERP purchasing and payment modules. A discipline in its own right

Following the maturation of Internet-supported supply chain processes, the case emerged for identifying opportunities to further streamline business processes across the whole of the procure-to-pay value chain. This was driven primarily by the supply chain software vendors and consultants as well as by governments who had recognised and enthusiastically embraced concepts like e-procurement. The publication of the Gershon Review in the UK in 2004 for example, gave the British public sector the mandate to direct significant resource and effort toward creating efficiency and in particular in all aspects purchasing.

As a consequence, once disparate business functions, such as accounts payable and purchasing, have in some organisations been brought together, and the concept of purchase-to-pay has evolved from a buzz phrase to a recognised discipline.[citation needed] (Some organisations have changed the reporting line of the payables function from finance to purchasing.)

A 2009 Basware research report ‗The Cost of Control: The Real Price of Cost Cutting‘[1] identified this growing trend of increased levels of finance and procurement collaboration to overcome finance and purchasing challenges – and highlighted that there is a clear emerging trend toward using technology as a way of overcoming operational challenges and harmonising ‗buyers‘ and ‗payers‘ within the business. Mark Frohlich, associate professor of operations management at the Kelley School of Business commented at the time on the findings:

"A resounding majority of those interviewed have woken up to the negative realities of supply chain risk and the crucial positive role supply chains will have in transforming their businesses for years to come. Clearly such changes to the business landscape will require a coordinated and collaborative response between functional departments, in particular finance and procurement, as well as the intelligent implementation of appropriate integrative knowledge sharing tools and systems. This is something we must all prepare for."

Procure-to-pay is the start of the procurement process from the point where the purchasing department starts working until the moment the invoices are paid. References

1. Cost of Control research

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For the contact centres in family law, see children's centre.

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A 1970 police call centre in Brierley Hill, England

A call centre or call center is a centralised office used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. An inbound call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. Outbound call centers are operated for telemarketing, solicitation of charitable or political donations, debt collection and market research. A contact centre is a location for centralised handling of individual communications, including letters, faxes, live support software, social media, instant message, and e-mail.[1]

A call centre has an open workspace for call centre agents, with work stations that include a computer for each agent, a telephone set/headset connected to a telecom switch, and one or more supervisor stations. It can be independently operated or networked with additional centres, often linked to a corporate computer network, including mainframes, microcomputers and LANs. Increasingly, the voice and data pathways into the centre are linked through a set of new technologies called computer telephony integration.

The contact centre is a central point from which all customer contacts are managed. Through contact centres, valuable information about company are routed to appropriate people, contacts to be tracked and data to be gathered. It is generally a part of company‘s customer relationship management.

A contact centre can be defined as a coordinated system of people, processes, technologies and strategies that provides access to information, resources, and expertise, through appropriate channels of communication, enabling interactions that create value for the customer and organization.[2] Contact centres, along with call centres and communication centres all fall under a larger umbrella labelled as the contact centre management industry. This is becoming a rapidly growing recruitment sector in itself, as the capabilities of contact centres expand and thus require ever more complex systems and highly skilled operational and management staff.[3]

The majority of large companies use contact centres as a means of managing their customer interaction. These centres can be operated by either an in house department responsible or outsourcing customer interaction to a third party agency (known as Outsourcing Call Centres). Contents

 1 History  2 Technology o 2.1 Premise-based technology o 2.2 Virtual call centre o 2.3 Cloud computing  3 Description o 3.1 Services o 3.2 Dynamics o 3.3 Outsourcing  4 Evaluation o 4.1 Mathematical theory o 4.2 Metrics  5 Criticism and performance  6 Unionization  7 Media portrayals  8 See also  9 References  10 Further reading  11 External links History This section requires expansion. (November 2014)

The earliest call centers were created during the 1960s, and were known as "Private Automated Business Exchanges" (PABX). The coining of the term "call center" is more recent, with the first published use of the term in 1983.[4] Technology

Call centre desk environment in Lakeland, Florida, United States

Call centre technologies include speech recognition software to allow computers to handle first level of customer support, text mining and natural language processing to allow better customer handling, agent training by automatic mining of best practices from past interactions, support automation and many other technologies to improve agent productivity and customer satisfaction.[5] Automatic lead selection or lead steering is also intended to improve efficiencies,[6] both for inbound and outbound campaigns. This allows inbound calls to be directly routed to the appropriate agent for the task, whilst minimizing wait times and long lists of irrelevant options for people calling in. For outbound calls, lead selection allows management to designate what type of leads go to which agent based on factors including skill, socioeconomic factors and past performance and percentage likelihood of closing a sale per lead.

The universal queue standardizes the processing of communications across multiple technologies such as fax, phone, and email. The virtual queue provides callers with an alternative to waiting on hold when no agents are available to handle inbound call demand.

A typical call centre telephone. Note: no handset, phone is for headset use only.

Premise-based technology Historically, call centres have been built on Private branch exchange (PBX) equipment that is owned, hosted, and maintained by the call centre operator themselves. The PBX can provide functions such as automatic call distribution, interactive voice response, and skills-based routing.

Virtual call centre

See also: Software as a service and Telecommuting

In virtual call centre model, the call centre's operator pays a monthly or annual fee to a vendor that hosts the call centre telephony equipment in their own data centre. In this model, the operator does not own, operate or host the equipment that the call centre runs on. Agents connect to the vendor's equipment through traditional PSTN telephone lines, or over voice over IP. Calls to and from prospects or contacts originate from or terminate at the vendor's data centre, rather than at the call centre operator's premise. The vendor's telephony equipment then connects the calls to the call centre operator's agents.[7]

Virtual call centre technology allows people to work from home, instead of in a traditional, centralised, call centre location, which increasingly allows people with physical or other disabilities that prevent them from leaving the house, to work. The only thing that is mandatory is to have an Internet access and a workstation.[8]

A predictive dialing system running out of phone numbers.

Cloud computing

Main article: Cloud computing This section may be too technical for most readers to understand. Please help improve this section to make it understandable to non-experts, without removing the technical

details. The talk page may contain suggestions. (November 2014)

Cloud computing for call centres extends cloud computing to software as a service, or hosted, on-demand call centres by providing application programming interfaces (APIs) on the call centre cloud computing platform that allow call centre functionality to be integrated with cloud- based customer relationship management, leads management, and other applications. Computer telephony integration APIs provide developers with access to basic telephony controls and sophisticated call handling on the call centre platform from a separate application. Configuration APIs provide programmatic control of administrative functions of the call centre platform which are typically accessed by a human administrator through a graphical user interface. Description Services

A very large call centre in Lakeland, Florida

Contact centers run support or help desks, which regularly answers technical questions from customers and assists them using their equipment or software. Support desks are used by companies in the computing, telecommunications and consumer electronics industries.

Customer service contact centres answer specific queries relating to customer issues, in the banking and utility sectors these are frequently used to answer customer questions relating to their account or payments, this type of service may even be used to respond to customer complaints and undertake retention strategies for dissatisfied customers.

Contact centres also carry out sales and marketing activities; these can be performed through cold calling strategies and increasingly through live chat applications on company websites.

Dynamics

Call centre worker confined to a small workstation/booth, using CallWeb Internet-based survey software

A contact centre supports interaction with customers over a variety of media, including telephony, e-mail, and internet chat. A telephone answering service is a more personalised version of the call centre, where agents get to know more about their customers and their callers; and therefore look after calls just as if based in their customers' office.[9]

Calls may be inbound or outbound. Inbound calls are made by consumers, for example to obtain information, report a malfunction, or ask for help. In contrast, outbound calls are made by agents to consumers, usually for sales purposes (telemarketing). A "blended" center combines both inbound and outbound campaigns where each type of agent (inbound or outbound) can handle the overflow of the other.[10]

Call centre staff are often organised into a multi-tier support system for more efficient handling of calls. The first tier consists of operators, who initially answer calls and provide general information. If a caller requires more assistance, the call is forwarded to the second tier (in the appropriate department depending on the nature of the call). In some cases, there are three or more tiers of support staff. Typically the third tier of support is formed of product engineers/developers or highly skilled technical support staff for the product.

Outsourcing

See also: Point of sale display

Properties

Window displays

See also: Display window and Window dresser

Window displays can communicate style, content, and price.

Display windows may also be used to advertise seasonal sales or inform passers-by of other current promotions.

WindowsWear is a website that chronographs window displays from major cities around the world.

Food merchandising

Restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, etc. use visual merchandising as a tool to differentiate themselves in a saturated market. References

1. "Visual Merchandiser". The Job Guide. Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. Retrieved 5 October 2011. 2. "How Much is that Dali in the Window", On This Day in Fashion, Kristine Lloyd, On This Day in Fashion, 16 March 2011, http://onthisdayinfashion.com/?p=12135 3. "Andy Warhol, 'Window Display for the Bonwit Teller Department Store', New York, 1960 " Photograph by Mike Kelley, http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kelley-andy- warhol-window-display-for-the-bonwit-teller-deprtment-store-new-york-1960-l02640 4. "Andy Warhol" Gagosian Gallery, retrieved 5 December 2013, http://www.gagosian.com/artists/andy-warhol/ 5. Dmitry Galun. "Visual Merchandising. Psychological Aspects of the Technical Science". 6. Dmitry Galun. "The value of the color spot in the clothes visual presentation". 7. Galun Dmitry. "Methods of the Clothes Visual Presentation". 8. Dmitry Galun. "Color Combinations in the Clothes Visual Merchandising". 9. Dmitry Galun. "The entrance areas in the clothes visual merchandising". 10. Dmitry Galun. "Shelves in the clothes visual mercandising". Drip marketing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marketing

Key concepts

 Product marketing  Pricing  Distribution  Service  Retail  Brand management  Brand licensing  Account-based marketing  Ethics  Effectiveness  Research  Segmentation  Strategy  Activation  Management  Dominance  Marketing operations  Social marketing  Identity  Digital marketing

 v  t  e

Drip marketing is a communication strategy that sends, or "drips," a pre-written set of messages to customers or prospects over time. These messages often take the form of email marketing, although other media can also be used. Drip marketing is distinct from other database marketing in two ways: (1) the timing of the messages follow a pre-determined course; (2) the messages are dripped in a series applicable to a specific behavior or status of the recipient. It is also typically automated.[1] Contents

 1 Media  2 Lead generation  3 Sales process  4 Etymology  5 References Media

Email. The most commonly used form of drip marketing is email marketing, due to the low cost associated with sending multiple messages over time. Email drip marketing is often used in conjunction with a Form (web) in a method called an autoresponder.

Direct mail. Although more costly, direct mail software has been developed that enables drip marketing techniques using standard postal mail. This technology relies on digital printing, where low-volume print runs are cost justifiable, and the variable data can be merged to personalize each drip message.

Social media. The principles of drip marketing have been applied in many social media marketing tools to schedule a series of updates. Lead generation

Drip marketing can be used as a function of the lead generation and qualification process. Specifically, drip marketing constitutes an automated follow-up method that can augment or replace personal lead follow-up.[citation needed] Often called Autoresponders, new leads are automatically enrolled into a drip marketing campaign with messaging relevant to the call-to- action from which the lead came. This is also known as lead nurturing.

Advantages include the automation and efficiency, as well as the continued ability for direct response. Intelligent e-commerce sites, such as Dell,[2] have integrated this form of drip campaign with un-purchased shopping carts. The continued messaging is relevant to the contents that the shopper stopped short of purchasing, and continue to include direct response actions (i.e. buy now).

Disadvantages include the impersonal manner of follow-up. If not augmented with a traditional and personal follow-up method, this automated follow-up has a lower response rate than does personal sales. The lowered response rate is often justified by the volume and efficiency with which leads can be generated and converted. Sales process

Drip marketing is popularly applied as a sales tool, particularly in long sales-cycles (large ticket items or enterprise-level sales).[citation needed] Whereas persistent follow-up can become a deterrent to closing the sale, Drip Marketing methods offer the ability to remain top-of-mind, and even prompt action, without jeopardizing the relationship. Etymology

The phrase "drip marketing" is said to be derived from "drip irrigation", an agriculture/gardening technique in which small amounts of water are fed to plants over long periods of time.[3] References

1. Drip Marketing: Slow and Steady Wins the Customer 2. Dell Privacy Policy 3. McFedries, Paul (2004). Word spy: the word lover's guide to modern culture. Broadway Books. p. 90. ISBN 0-7679-1466-X.

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Brand ambassador (celebrity spokesman) is a marketing term for a person employed by an organization or company to promote its products or services within the activity known as branding. The brand ambassador is meant to embody the corporate identity in appearance, demeanor, values and ethics.[1] The key element of brand ambassadors lies in their ability to use promotional strategies that will strengthen the customer-product/service relationship and influence a large audience to buy and consume more. Predominantly, a brand ambassador is known as a positive spokesperson appointed as an internal or external agent to boost product/service sales and create brand awareness. Today, brand ambassador as a term has expanded beyond celebrity branding to self branding or personal brand management. Professional figures such as good-will and non-profit ambassadors, promotional models, testimonials and brand advocates have formed as an extension of the same concept, taking into account the requirements of every company. Contents

 1 History o 1.1 Rise of brand managers o 1.2 Era of change o 1.3 Evolution of brand managers to brand ambassadors  2 Contemporary terms o 2.1 Celebrity branding o 2.2 Self-branding  3 Professional figures o 3.1 Goodwill ambassador o 3.2 Promotional model o 3.3 Testimonial o 3.4 Brand advocate  4 See also  5 References History

Rise of brand managers

The concept of brands and brand marketing have evolved over decades. Traditionally, consumers were familiar with only a few products that were available in the market. Beginning from the 1870s a number of companies began pushing 'branded products,' which familiarized consumers with more brands. From 1915 through the 1920s, manufacturer brands were established and developed further, which increased companies' reliance on brand advertising and marketing. However, the Great Depression led to a severe drawback in brand progress, as companies were left with few ways to increase revenue and get their business back on track. For the sake of their brand and survival in a hopeless market, companies such as Procter and Gamble, General Foods and Unilever developed the discipline of brand management.[2] The "brand manager system" refers to the type of organizational structure in which brands or products are assigned to managers who are responsible for their performance.[3] They not only aim towards creating brand awareness within the consumer market but also coordinating corporate resources.

Era of change

From the early- to mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, more firms moved toward adopting brand managers. The sudden boom in the economy, followed by a growing middle class population and birth rate, increased the demand for products within the market. This led to a steady competition among a number of manufacturers who found it hard to get their products noticed amidst the pre- existing brands. By the year 1967, 84% of large consumer packaged goods manufacturers had brand managers.[3] Brand managers were also being referred to as "product managers" whose sole priority shifted from simply brand building to boosting up the company's sales and profit margin. "The product manager is man of the hour in marketing organizations.... Modern marketing needs the product manager," raved one 1960's article.[4] Because so many marketing gurus recommended this strategy, it spread among a large number of corporations, eventually becoming an overused managerial fad. For several years to follow, many companies recklessly hired brand/product managers using the traditional P&G exemplar. Even though employing a brand manager played an essential role in an effective marketing strategy, it was often mandated in haste with unrealistic expectations of prompt results.

Over the course of several years, brand managers continued to exist as a medium that would help boost company revenue. In the 1990s, Marketing UK highlighted that brand managers are a part of an "outdated organizational system" while "the brand manager system has encouraged brand proliferation, which in tum has led to debilitating cannibalization and resource constraints."[5] As a result, this system ran its course and was termed as ill-suited for the current environment.

Evolution of brand managers to brand ambassadors

From the 1990s to early 2000s, brand management itself evolved as brand asset management. Davis defined Brand Asset Management Strategy as ―a balanced investment approach for building the meaning of the brand, communicating it internally and externally, and leveraging it to increase brand profitability, brand asset value, and brand returns over time.‖[6] Traditional marketing strategies that included brand management focused on brand managers as the primary spokespersons for the brand. However, Davis maintains that this model never died down.

In fact, from during the 1990s, this model changed to incorporate brand champions and ambassadors in place of brand managers. Thus, brand asset management included a reformed version of brand managers known as brand ambassadors. A brand ambassador was mainly employed by an organization to document its products and services in a positive light. Apart from being an important aspect of marketing and branding strategies, a brand ambassador has the ability to serve versatile functions as per the need of the company. Often, they form the face of the company, business or organization they work for and are looked upon as a reliable source of information regarding the product. Much like its predecessor, brand ambassadors need to be carefully selected in order to serve optimum function for the brand. Since their inception, brand ambassadors have acted more as "endorsers" or "brand champions" which is still a relative and evolving term. They serve multiple functions to a brand and have integrated into various forms that companies can use and customize according to their needs.

Along with profitability, brand ambassadors focus on establishing credibility of a product or service amongst the target audience. This concept is also known as customer engagement; by keeping the customers satisfied with their product or service experience, a brand ambassador ensures that these customers will be loyal to the brand. As a number of marketing strategies have moved into the digital sphere, so have brand ambassadors. Contemporary terms

Celebrity branding

Using celebrities as brand ambassadors is hardly a new concept. Creswell highlights that, "film stars in the 1940s posed for cigarette companies, and Bob Hope pitched American Express in the late 1950s. Joe Namath slipped into Hanes pantyhose in the 1970s, and Bill Cosby jiggled for Jell-O for three decades. Sports icons like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods elevated the practice, often scoring more in endorsement and licensing dollars than from their actual sports earnings."[7]

Large corporations realized that the overall image of a brand ambassador within society is an integral element to attract consumer attention. As a result, there was a substantial increase in celebrities as brand ambassadors, it was assumed that integrating a celebrity to a brand would increase chances of it being sold, which made companies value the business ideal of a 'brand ambassador.' The case study of the famous watch brand Omega, illustrates that the brand faced a severe crash in sales in the 1970s due to the Japanese Quartz phenomenon. Michault believes that, "by the time Omega had seen the error of its ways, the damage to its reputation was done. From the 1970s to the end of the 1990s, it was no longer seen as a luxury watch company."[8] It was then for the first time in 1995, that Ms. Cindy Crawford became the new face of Omega, introducing the age of the celebrity brand ambassador. The man behind this marketing ploy was believed to be Jean-Claude Biver, whose strategy changed the entire landscape for branding in the future. During this time, many companies expanded their annual budgets to meet the financial liabilities that came with celebrity endorsing.

Celebrities are popular and followed by many people so it makes sense that marketers benefit from using them in order to get their message across. A celebrity can capture consumers' attention link the brand with their own personal image and associate their positive attributes with those of the product concerned. However, in some cases celebrity branding could go terribly off the script and affect product revenue.For example, recent doping charges on Lance Armstrong cost him $30 million in endorsements. Celebrity, world-famous athlete, he stepped down as the chairman of Livestrong. On the other hand, Nike sponsor to the athlete and U.S cycling team stated in a press release,"due to the seemingly insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade, it is with great sadness that we have terminated our contract with him."[9]

Self-branding

According to Giriharidas,"the personal-branding field or self-brand traces its origins to the 1997 essay ―The Brand Called You,‖ by the management expert Tom Peters."[10] Contemporary theories of branding suggest that brand ambassadors do not need to have a formal relationship with a company in order to promote its products/services. In particular the Web 2.0 allows all individuals to choose a brand and come up with their own strategies to represent it. Biro believes that "everyone owns their own personal brand. Companies and leadership must see the value of this concept for a successful social workplace recipe. If a brand ambassador chooses to represent the company and/or its brands, the individual should do so in a transparent way." [11] Self- branding is an effective way to help new businesses save the hassle of hiring brand ambassadors, training them and then realizing they are not good enough for the company. In addition, it is an effective tool in order to target a niche audience and allows one to take sole control of their own brand representation. On the other hand, branding one's own product/service creates an instant connection with the audience and helps the brand stand out in comparison to other known brands that use popular celebrities or hire brand ambassadors. Reis propagates her branding mantra, "think about other people. Think about the impressions you are making on friends, neighbors, business associates. Think about your brand."[12] Creating a personal branding strategy is an effective way to attract audience attention. She gives the example of Marissa Mayer, CEO Yahoo. According to Laura Ries, Marissa is successful because she has what most people don‘t – "she has a brand." Professional figures

Goodwill ambassador

A Goodwill ambassador is an honorary title and often linked with non-profit related causes. Their primary function is to help non-profit organizations spread their message across. Predominantly, goodwill ambassadors are celebrity advocates or known personalities, who use their fame and talent to get funding, donations, encourage volunteers to participate and raise awareness towards the organization's cause. In the past many organizations such as UNESCO have endorsed their cause through UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. These celebrities or known personalities are picked according to the organizations' intended audience and if fully invested in the cause they are promoting they can greatly influence the process of persuading others. Goodwill ambassadors make widely publicized visits to the world's most troubled regions, and make appeals on behalf of their people and the organization. For example, the United Nations Goodwill Ambassadors include famous celebrities like Angelina Jolie for UNHCR, David Beckham, Shakira for UNICEF, Christina Aguilera for WFP and Nicole Kidman for UN Women.

Promotional model

A promotional model exists in the form of a spokesmodel, trade show model and convention model. Each of these models carry out functions beyond representation of the company in a positive light. The main difference between a brand ambassador and a promotional model is in the way they represent the product/service. In many cases, unlike brand ambassadors, a promotional model may give the audience a live experience that reflects the product or service being branded. They may be required to promote the brand at simply one to many occasions while a brand ambassador is often tied down to one particular brand through the means of a contract over a period of time.Promotional models are required to be physically present at the venue as per the requirements of the marketing campaign, however brand ambassadors are most often referred to as the face of the brand. Promotional models are most often found in trade shows exhibits (in some cases referred to as "booth babes"), conventions and in print, digital or selected advertisements for the brand from time to time. The employment of so-called "booth babe" models at trade show exhibits and conventions has been criticised by some.[13]

Testimonial

Testimonial is simply a way of conveying assurance, in this case assurance is provided by the testimonial of the company or product/service in question in a written or spoken manner. A testimonial does not advertise the product freely unlike the role of the brand ambassador. A brand ambassador performs the function of a testimonial but a testimonial is not a brand ambassador. By simply providing a testimonial for a product/service, one need not be an ambassador for the same. For example, a customer can be a testimonial, since a testimony could be formal or informal "word of mouth" advocating the positive facets of the product. On the other hand, a consumer could not always be brand ambassador, since the latter is more commercial and is often considered as a position bound by monetary and professional liabilities. To a certain degree, celebrity endorsements provide testimonials for the product/service they are marketing. However, with the advent of the digital age testimonials have reached an all time high. A large number of websites feature a "go to" tab where one can put down reviews or testimonials for the product/service. This has led to an increase in fake reviews, where companies have chosen to pay people to get their positive feedback. According to a study conducted by the research firm Gartner, "one in seven reviews/testimonials posted online by the end of next year is likely to be false. Other estimates put the number as high as one in three."[14]

Brand advocate

Fuggetta highlights that a brand advocate is a marketing term for "highly satisfied customers and others who go out of their way to actively promote the products they love and care about, they are a different breed altogether.[15] " Further, he states that they are 50% more influential than an average customer. Often a positive experience with a brand, successful customer-service relationship motivates a brand advocate to express their positive feelings towards a brand. Traditionally, a brand advocate would sing praises of a brand and this would circulate through 'word of mouth' or other similar channels. However, in the digital age social media tools have allowed brand advocates to express themselves on forums such as Twitter, Facebook by 'tweeting' about a brand experience or 'liking' the brand itself. Rubin believes, "when customers seek you out via social, they‘re looking for an opportunity to build an emotional connection. So give it to them."[16] This will help enhance customer engagement and increase brand awareness among the customers. A brand advocate performs functions higher than that of a testimonial and much lower than that of a promotional model or brand ambassador, since brand advocacy implies active participation with the brand involved. Advocates if formally hired by a company must be placed in a higher position and looked upon as co-leads; using their insight, thoughtful marketing approaches, will ensure that a brand gains recognition in the market. Word-of-mouth marketing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Not to be confused with Referral marketing.

Marketing

Key concepts

Promotional contents  Advertising  Branding  Underwriting spot  Direct marketing  Personal sales  Product placement  Propaganda  Publicity  Sales promotion  Sex in advertising  Loyalty marketing  Mobile marketing  Premiums  Prizes  Corporate anniversary  On-hold messaging Promotional media  Printing  Publication  Broadcasting  Out-of-home advertising  Internet  Point of sale  Merchandise  In-game advertising  Product demonstration  Word-of-mouth  Brand ambassador  Drip marketing  Visual merchandising

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Word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM, WOM marketing), also called word of mouth advertising, differs from naturally occurring WOM, in that it is actively influenced or encouraged by organisations (e.g. 'seeding' a message in a network, rewarding regular consumers to enage in WOM, employing WOM 'agents'). While it is difficult to truly control WOM, research [1] has shown that there are three generic avenues to 'manage' WOM for the purpose of WOMM: 1) Build a strong WOM foundation (e.g. sufficient levels of satisfaction, trust and commitment), 2) Indirect WOMM management which implies that managers only have a moderate amount of control (e.g. controverisal advertising, teaser campaigns, customer membership clubs), 3) Direct WOMM management, which has higher levels of control (e.g. paid WOM 'agents', "friend get friend" schemes). Proconsumer WOM has been suggested as a counterweight to commercially motivated word of mouth. [2] Contents

 1 History  2 Concepts o 2.1 Buzz o 2.2 Viral effects o 2.3 Analyzing WOM  3 See also  4 References History

George Silverman, a psychologist, pioneered word-of-mouth marketing when he created what he called "teleconferenced peer influence groups" in order to engage physicians in dialogue about new pharmaceutical products. Silverman noticed an interesting phenomenon while conducting focus groups with physicians in the early 1970s. "One or two physicians who were having good experiences with a drug would sway an entire group of skeptics. They would even sway a dissatisfied group of ex-prescribers who had had negative experiences!"[3]

With the emergence of Web 2.0, many web start-ups like Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, and Digg have used buzz marketing by merging it with the social networks that they have developed.[citation needed][clarification needed] With the increasing use of the Internet as a research and communications platform, word of mouth has become an even more powerful and useful resource for consumers and marketers.[further explanation needed]

In October 2005, the advertising watchdog group Commercial Alert petitioned the United States FTC to issue guidelines requiring paid word-of-mouth marketers[contradiction] to disclose their relationship and related compensation with the company whose product they are marketing. The United States FTC stated that it would investigate situations in which the relationship between the word-of-mouth marketer of a product and the seller is not revealed and could influence the endorsement. The FTC stated that it would pursue violators on a case-by-case basis. Consequences for violators may include cease-and-desist orders, fines or civil penalties.[4]

Research firm PQ Media estimated that in 2008, companies spent $1.54 billion on word-of- mouth marketing. While spending on traditional advertising channels was slowing, spending on word-of-mouth marketing grew 14.2 percent in 2008, 30 percent of that for food and drink brands.[5]

Despite the belief that most word of mouth is now online (or on mobile) the truth is the very opposite. The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science has shown that to achieve growth, brands must create word of mouth beyond core fan groups - meaning marketers should not focus solely on communities such as Facebook.[citation needed] According to Deloite further research has shown that 'most advocacy takes place offline' - instead it happens in person. According to the Journal of Advertising Research, 75% of all consumer conversations about brands happen face- to-face, 15% happen over the phone and just 10% online. Concepts

Buzz

Marketing buzz or simply "buzz" is a term used in word-of-mouth marketing—the interaction of consumers and users of a product or service serve to amplify the original marketing message.[6] Some describe buzz as a form of hype among consumers,[7] a vague but positive association, excitement, or anticipation about a product or service. Positive "buzz" is often a goal of viral marketing, public relations, and of advertising on Web 2.0 media. The term refers both to the execution of the marketing technique, and the resulting goodwill that is created. Examples of products with strong marketing buzz upon introduction were Harry Potter, the Volkswagen New Beetle, Pokémon, Beanie Babies, and the Blair Witch Project.[7]

Viral effects

Viral marketing and viral advertising are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of virus or computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.[8] Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages. The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) — and have a high probability of being taken by another competitor — and create viral messages that appeal to this segment of the population. The term "viral marketing" has also been used pejoratively to refer to stealth marketing campaigns—the unscrupulous use of astroturfing on-line combined with undermarket advertising in shopping centers to create the impression of spontaneous word-of-mouth enthusiasm.[9]

Analyzing WOM

Consumers may promote brands by word-of-mouth due to social, functional, and emotional factors.[10] Research has identified thirteen brand characteristics that stimulate WOM, namely: [11]

1. age of the brand in the marketplace 2. type of good 3. complexity 4. knowledge about a brand 5. differentiation 6. relevance of a brand to a broad audience 7. quality - esteem given to a brand 8. premium 9. visibility 10. excitement 11. satisfaction 12. perceived risk 13. involvement

This research also found that while social and functional drivers are the most important for promotion via WOM online, the emotional driver predominates offline. See also

 Word of Mouth  Proconsumer WOM  Two-step flow of communication  Electronic word-of-mouth  Visual marketing References

1. Lang, Bodo; Hyde, Ken (2013). [Available through ProQuest database. ProQuest document ID: 1478021321 "Word of mouth: what we know and what we have yet to learn"]. Journal of consumer satisfaction, dissatisfaction and complaining behavior 26: 1–18. Retrieved January 2014. 2. Lang, Bodo; Lawson, Rob (2013). "Dissecting Word-of-Mouth's Effectiveness and How to Use It as a Proconsumer Tool". Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing 25 (4): 374–399. doi:10.1080/10495142.2013.845419. Retrieved 22 January 2014. 3. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+history+of+word+of+mouth+marketing.- a0134908667 4. Shin, Annys (December 12, 2006). "FTC Moves to Unmask Word-of-Mouth Marketing". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 5. http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and- features/direct/e3ida92fc8ee6e8266300bfc3a21f882935 6. Thomas Jr, Greg (2006-07-11). "Building the buzz in the hive mind". Journal of Consumer Behaviour 4 (1): 64–72. doi:10.1002/cb.158. Retrieved 2009-06-08. 7. Renée Dye (2001-01-29). "the Buzz on Buzz". Harvard Business Review. 8. Howard, Theresa (2005-06-23). "USAToday: Viral advertising spreads through marketing plans". USA Today. Retrieved 2010-05-27. June 23, 2005, 2005 9. "Wired: Commentary: Sock Puppets Keep It Shill on YouTube". 2007-05-08. May 8, 2007 10. Lovett, Mitchell; Peres, Renana; Shachar, Ron. "On brands and word-of-mouth". Journal of Marketing Research 50 (4): 427-444. doi:10.1509/jmr.11.0458. [...] this empirical analysis [...] argues that consumers spread the word on brands as a result of three drivers: social, emotional, and functional. 11. Lovett, Mitchell; Peres, Renana; Shachar, Ron. "On brands and word-of-mouth". Journal of Marketing Research.

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Marketing

Key concepts

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Promotional merchandise, promotional items, promotional products, promotional gifts, or advertising gifts, sometimes nicknamed swag or schwag, are articles of merchandise (often branded with a logo) used in marketing and communication programs. They are given away to promote a company, corporate image, brand, or event. These items are usually imprinted with a company's name, logo or slogan, and given away at trade shows, conferences, and as part of guerrilla marketing campaigns. Contents

 1 History  2 Sourcing  3 Products and uses  4 Trade associations  5 Top promotional products companies in the United States in 2013  6 UK market statistics  7 Australian and New Zealand market statistics  8 See also  9 References History

The first known promotional products in the United States are commemorative buttons dating back to the election of George Washington in 1789. During the early 19th century, there were some advertising calendars, rulers, and wooden specialties, but there wasn‘t an organized industry for the creation and distribution of promotional items until later in the 19th century.

Jasper Meeks, a printer in Coshocton, Ohio, is considered by many to be the originator of the industry when he convinced a local shoe store to supply book bags imprinted with the store name to local schools. Henry Beach, another Coshocton printer and a competitor of Meeks, picked up on the idea, and soon the two men were selling and printing bags for marbles, buggy whips, card cases, fans, calendars, cloth caps, aprons, and even hats for horses.[1]

In 1904, 12 manufacturers of promotional items got together to found the first trade association for the industry. That organization is now known as the Promotional Products Association International or PPAI, which currently has more than 10,000 global members.[2] PPAI represents the promotional products industry of more than 22,000 distributors and approximately 4,800 manufacturers.

The UK & Ireland promotional merchandise industry formally emerged as corporate marketing became more sophisticated during the late 1950s. Before this companies may have provided occasional gifts, but there was no recognised promotional merchandise industry. The real explosion in the growth of the promotional merchandise industry took place in the 1970s. At this time an ever increasing number of corporate companies recognised the benefits gained from promoting their corporate identity, brand or product, with the use of gifts featuring their own logo. In the early years the range of products available were limited; however, in the early 1980s demand grew from distributors for a generic promotional product catalogue they could brand as their own and then leave with their corporate customers.

In later years these catalogues could be over-branded to reflect a distributor‘s corporate image and distributors could then give them to their end user customers as their own. In the early years promotional merchandise catalogues were very much sales tools and customers would buy the products offered on the pages.

In the 1990s new catalogue services emerged for distributors from various sources. In the nineties there was also the creation of ‗Catalogue Groups‘ who offered a unique catalogue to a limited geographical group of promotional merchandise distributor companies. Membership of a Catalogue Group could also offer improved buying terms, a network of fellow distributor companies, & provide other support services. A current example of a Catalogue Group is the Envoy Group, offering discounted products to a select group of distributors who have all been in the industry for over three years. Members of the Envoy Group have regional exclusivity as one of their perks.

Up until the 1990s the industry had a peak season in which the majority of promotional products were sold. The season featured around Christmas & the giving of gifts. This changed significantly in the early 1990s as Christmas gifts became less appropriate in a multicultural Britain. Corporate companies were also becoming more inventive in their marketing and were now using promotional merchandise throughout the year to support the promotion of brands, products & events. In the early 21st century the role of a promotional merchandise catalogue started to change, as it could no longer fully represent the vast range of products in the market place. By 2007 catalogues were being mailed to targeted customer lists, rather than the blanket postal mailings that had taken place before. The catalogue had now become seen more as a ‗business card‘ demonstrating the concept of what a company did, rather than a critical sales tool. In 2009 published results from research involving a representative group of distributor companies, which indicated the usage of hard copy catalogues was expected to fall up to 25% in 2010.

Distributor companies are experts in sourcing creative promotional products.[3] Traditionally, to ensure that they had an effective manufacturer network, they kept themselves aware of the trade product ranges available by attending exhibitions across the world (namely the Trade Only National Show in the UK, PSI in Europe and the PPAI Show in Las Vegas, NV) & from mailings received from manufacturers themselves. In 2004 the way the trade sourced promotional products began to change with the launch an online trade sourcing service which united distributors with manufacturers worldwide. This service is purely for vetted trade promotional merchandise distributor companies & is not available to corporate end user companies.

By 2008 almost every distributor had a website demonstrating a range of available promotional products. Very few offer the ability to order products online mainly due to the complexities surrounding the processes to brand the promotional products required. Sourcing

Promotional merchandise is mainly purchased by corporate companies in USA, Canada, the UK & Ireland through promotional merchandise distributor companies. In the United States and Canada, these distributors are called "Promotional Consultants" or "promotional product distributors".

Distributors have the ability to source & supply tens of thousands of products from across the globe. Even with the advent and growth of the Internet this supply chain has not changed, for a few reasons:

Promotional products by definition are custom printed with a logo, company name or message usually in specific PMS colors. Distributors help end-users gather artwork in the correct format and in some cases, distributors might create artwork for end-users. Distributors then interface with manufacturers, printers or suppliers, forwarding artwork in the correct format and correct size for the job. Since good distributors are well aware of several manufacturers' capabilities, they can save an end-user time and money searching for a printer or manufacturer who can produce and ship the end-user's products on time, on specification and in the required quantities.

Many distributors operate on the internet and/or in person. Many suppliers wish not to invest in the staffing to service end-users' needs, which is the purpose of merchandise distributor companies. Products and uses

Swiss parking disk (early 1970s). Selected arrival time shows at the left window, departure at the right. Other side of disk is used for afternoon parking. Disk was a sales promotion for UBS bank.

Promotional merchandise is used globally to promote brands, products, and corporate identity. They are also used as giveaways at events, such as exhibitions and product launches. Promotional products can be used for non-profit organizations to promote their cause, as well as promote certain events that they hold, such as walks or any other event that raises money for a cause.

Almost anything can be branded with a company‘s name or logo and used for promotion. Common items include t-shirts, caps, keychains, posters, bumper stickers, pens, mugs, or mouse pads. The largest product category for promotional products is wearable items, which make up more than 30% of the total. Eco-friendly promotional products such as those created from recycled materials and bamboo, a renewable resource, are also experiencing a significant surge in popularity.

Most promotional items are relatively small and inexpensive, but can range to higher-end items; for example celebrities at film festivals and award shows are often given expensive promotional items such as expensive perfumes, leather goods, and electronics items. Companies that provide expensive gifts for celebrity attendees often ask that the celebrities allow a photo to be taken of them with the gift item, which can be used by the company for promotional purposes. Other companies provide luxury gifts such as handbags or scarves to celebrity attendees in the hopes that the celebrities will wear these items in public, thus garnering publicity for the company's brand name and product.

Brand awareness is the most common use for promotional items. Other objectives that marketers use promotional items to facilitate include employee relations and events, tradeshow traffic- building, public relations, new customer generation, dealer and distributor programs, new product introductions, employee service awards, not-for-profit programs, internal incentive programs, safety education, customer referrals, and marketing research.[4]

Promotional items are also used in politics to promote candidates and causes. Promotional items as a tool for non-commercial organizations, such as schools and charities are often used as a part of fund raising and awareness-raising campaigns. A prominent example was the livestrong wristband, used to promote cancer awareness and raise funds to support cancer survivorship programs and research.

Using Promotional Merchandise in Guerrilla Marketing is a recent and popular phenomenon. Items are branded in such a way as to create a unique visual effect, attracting more attention and displaying a strong marketing message. Promotional products become particularly useful in this type of marketing, due to the wide range of products that can be tailored to specific campaigns and the various ways in which they may be printed.[5]

The giving of corporate gifts vary across international borders and cultures, with the type of product given often varying from country to country. Promotional merchandise is rarely bought directly by corporate companies from the actual manufacturers of the promotional products. A manufacturer's expertise lies in the physical production of the products, but getting a product in front of potential customers is a completely different skill set and a complex process. Within the UK & Ireland promotional merchandise industry a comprehensive network of promotional merchandise distributor companies exist. A promotional merchandise distributor is defined as a company who "has a dedicated focus to the sale of promotional merchandise to end users". (An 'end user' is a corporate company or organisation that purchases promotional merchandise for their own use.) These distributor companies have the expertise to not only take the product to market, but are also to provide the expert support required. The unique aspect of promotional merchandise is that on most occasions the product is printed with the logo, or brand, of a corporate organisation. The actual manufacturers rarely have the set up to actually print the item. Promotional merchandise distributor companies are expert in artwork and printing processes. In addition to this the promotional merchandise distributors also provide full support in processing orders, artwork, proofing, progress chasing & delivery of promotional products from multiple manufacturing sources. Trade associations

In the UK, the industry has two main trade bodies, Promota (Promotional Merchandise Trade Association) founded in 1958, and the BPMA (British Promotional Merchandise Association) established in 1965. These trade associations represent the industry and provide services to both manufacturers & distributors of promotional merchandise.

In the United States, PPAI (the Promotional Products Association International) is the not for profit association, offering the industry's largest tradeshow (The PPAI Expo), as well as training, online member resources, and legal advocacy. Another organization, the Advertising Specialty Institute, promotes itself as the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry.[6] Top promotional products companies in the United States in 2013

According to the Advertising Specialty Institute's Counselor Magazine Awards, 2013's top 40 promotional product distributors are as follows:[7]

2013 Rank Distributors 2013 North American Sales 1 Staples Promo Products $409.4 million

2 Proforma (Business) $322.6 million 3 BDA $286.4 million 4 Group II Communications/IMS $257 million 5 4imprint $256.5 million 6 Halo Branded Solutions $186.2 million 7 Geiger $184.8 million 8 National Pen Corp. $153 million

9 Cintas $145 million 10 AIA Corporation $136 million 11 Branders.com $131.1 million 12 Inner Workings $114.1 million 13 WorkFlowOne $100.6 million 14 American Solutions for Business $99.5 million 15 Kaeser & Blair $89.9 million 16 Tic Toc $89.6 million 17 Banyan Incentives $89.5 million 18 iPROMOTEu $88.8 million 19 Summit Group $88 million

20 EmbroidMe $84.9 million 21 Jack Nadel International $72.8 million 22 Myron $71.3 million 23 Accolade Reaction Promotion Group $70.7 million 24 MTM Recognition/Mid West Trophy $69.1 million 25 G & G Outfitters $66 million 26 The Vernon Company $62.7 million 27 Brown & Bigelow $60.8 million 28 Newton Manufacturing $53.0 million 29 Boundless Network $53 million 30 Artcraft Promotional Concepts $52.8 million 31 Brand Allliance $49.7 million 32 GMPC LLC $44.2 million 33 Axis Promotions $38.7 million 34 Safeguard Business Systems $38.4 million 35 Touchstone $35.8 million 36 Robertson Marketing Group $34.2 million 37 Promo Shop $34.1 million 38 CSE $33.9 million 39 Positive Promotions $33.7 million 40 Genumark Promotional Merchandise $33.6 million

UK market statistics According to research completed and published in 2008 the UK and Ireland promotional merchandise industry had an overall value of £850m. By mid 2009 the market had decreased to £712m as the UK‘s worst ever recession took grip. In July 2009 published research demonstrated that the top 10 promotional merchandise products were promotional pens, bags, clothing, plastic items, USB memory sticks, mugs, leather items, polyurethane conference folders, and umbrellas. The July research from a representation industry focus group also found that the current fastest growing product was hand sanitiser, which at the time coincided with the outbreak & growth of swine flu in the UK. Australian and New Zealand market statistics

The Australasian Promotional Products Association (APPA) has conducted research to show the value of the Promotional Merchandise Industry in Australia and New Zealand. According to APPA the Industry has a turnover of AUD$1340m in Australia and NZ$144m in New Zealand [8] The effectiveness of promotional merchandise is also demonstrated by APPA, research specifically shows that: 52% of recipients of promotional merchandise say their impression of a company is more positive after receiving a promotional product. 76% recall the name advertised on the product. 55% keep the item for more than one year. Nearly 50% of recipients use them daily. 52% of people do business with a company after receiving a promotional product. Further research has listed other considerations and benefits of this marketing medium: Product Definition, Residual Value Marketing, Accountability, The Power of Purpose, Product Types, Printing and Artwork [9] See also Point of sale

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about checkout technology. For managed care, see point of service plan.

Points of sale at a Target store

Marketing

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Point of sale (also called POS or checkout, during computerization later becoming electronic point of sale or EPOS) is the place where a retail transaction is completed. It is the point at which a customer makes a payment to the merchant in exchange for goods or services. At the point of sale the retailer would calculate the amount owed by the customer and provide options for the customer to make payment. The merchant will also normally issue a receipt for the transaction.

The POS in various retail industries uses customized hardware and software as per their requirements. Retailers may utilize weighing scales, scanners, electronic and manual cash registers, EFTPOS terminals, touch screens and any other wide variety of hardware and software available for use with POS. For example, a grocery or candy store uses a scale at the point of sale, while bars and restaurants use software to customize the item or service sold when a customer has a special meal or drink request.

The modern point of sale is often referred to as the point of service because it is not just a point of sale but also a point of return or customer order. Additionally it includes advanced features to cater to different functionality, such as inventory management, CRM, financials, warehousing, etc., all built into the POS software. Prior to the modern POS, all of these functions were done independently and required the manual re-keying of information, which can lead to entry errors. Contents

 1 Terminology  2 History o 2.1 Software prior to the 1990s o 2.2 Modern software (post 1990s) o 2.3 Hardware interface standardization (post 1980s) o 2.4 Cloud-based POS (post 2000s)  3 Retail industry  4 Hospitality industry  5 Accounting forensics  6 See also  7 References  8 External links Terminology

The most common term used is the Point of Sale, particularly when talking about this area from the customer's perspective. However retailers and marketers will often refer to the area around the checkout instead as the Point of Purchase (POP) when they are discussing it from the retailer's perspective. This is particularly the case when discussing planning and design of the area as well as marketing strategy and offers, such as chocolate displays at point of purchase.[citation needed] History

Software prior to the 1990s

McDonald's POS device by Brobeck

Early electronic cash registers (ECR) were controlled with proprietary software and were limited in function and communications capability. In August 1973 IBM released the IBM 3650 and 3660 store systems that were, in essence, a mainframe computer used as a store controller that could control up to 128 IBM 3653/3663 point of sale registers. This system was the first commercial use of client-server technology, peer-to-peer communications, local area network (LAN) simultaneous backup, and remote initialization. By mid-1974, it was installed in Pathmark stores in New Jersey and Dillard's department stores.

One of the first microprocessor-controlled cash register systems was built by William Brobeck and Associates in 1974, for McDonald's Restaurants.[1] It used the Intel 8008, a very early microprocessor. Each station in the restaurant had its own device which displayed the entire order for a customer—for example: [2] Vanilla Shake, [1] Large Fries, [3] BigMac—using numeric keys and a button for every menu item. By pressing the [Grill] button, a second or third order could be worked on while the first transaction was in progress. When the customer was ready to pay, the [Total] button would calculate the bill, including sales tax for almost any jurisdiction in the United States. This made it accurate for McDonald's and very convenient for the servers and provided the restaurant owner with a check on the amount that should be in the cash drawers. Up to eight devices were connected to one of two interconnected computers so that printed reports, prices, and taxes could be handled from any desired device by putting it into Manager Mode. In addition to the error-correcting memory, accuracy was enhanced by having three copies of all important data with many numbers stored only as multiples of 3. Should one computer fail, the other could handle the entire store.

ViewTouch POS widget-driven touch screen GUI

In 1986, Gene Mosher[2] introduced the first graphical point of sale software under the ViewTouch[3] trademark on the 16-bit Atari 520ST color computer.[4] It featured a color touchscreen widget-driven interface that allowed configuration of widgets representing menu items without low level programming.[5] The ViewTouch point of sale software was first demonstrated in public at Fall Comdex, 1986,[6] in Las Vegas Nevada to large crowds visiting the Atari Computer booth. This was the first commercially available POS system with a widget- driven color graphic touch screen interface and was installed in several restaurants in the USA and Canada.

Modern software (post 1990s)

In 1992 Martin Goodwin and Bob Henry created the first point of sale software that could run on the Microsoft Windows platform named IT Retail.[7] Since then a wide range of POS applications have been developed on platforms such as Windows and Unix. The availability of local processing power, local data storage, networking, and graphical user interface made it possible to develop flexible and highly functional POS systems. Cost of such systems has also declined, as all the components can now be purchased off-the-shelf.

The key requirements that must be met by modern POS systems include: high and consistent operating speed, reliability, ease of use, remote supportability, low cost, and rich functionality. Retailers can reasonably expect to acquire such systems (including hardware) for about $4000 US (as of 2009) per checkout lane.

Hardware interface standardization (post 1980s)

Vendors and retailers are working to standardize development of computerized POS systems and simplify interconnecting POS devices. Two such initiatives are OPOS and JavaPOS, both of which conform to the UnifiedPOS standard led by The National Retail Foundation.

OPOS (OLE for POS) was the first commonly adopted standard and was created by Microsoft, NCR Corporation, Epson and Fujitsu-ICL. OPOS is a COM-based interface compatible with all COM-enabled programming languages for Microsoft Windows. OPOS was first released in 1996. JavaPOS was developed by Sun Microsystems, IBM, and NCR Corporation in 1997 and first released in 1999. JavaPOS is for Java what OPOS is for Windows, and thus largely platform independent.

There are several communication ways POS systems use to control peripherals such as:

 Logic Controls  Epson Esc/POS  UTC Standard  UTC Enhanced  AEDEX  ICD 2002  Ultimate  CD 5220  DSP-800  ADM 787/788  HP

There are also nearly as many proprietary protocols as there are companies making POS peripherals. Most POS peripherals, such as displays and printers, support several of these command protocols in order to work with many different brands of POS terminals and computers.

Cloud-based POS (post 2000s)

The advent of cloud computing gave birth to the possibility of POS systems to be deployed as Software as a service, which can be accessed directly from the Internet, using any internet browser. Using the previous advances in the communication protocols for POS's control of hardware, cloud-based POS systems are independent from platform and operating system limitations. Cloud-based POS systems are also created to be compatible with a wide range of POS hardware and sometimes tablets such as Apple's IPad. Thus cloud-based POS also helped expand POS systems to mobile devices.

Cloud-based POS systems are different from traditional POS largely because user data, including sales and inventory, are not stored locally, but in a remote server. The POS system is also not run locally, so there is no installation required.[8]

The advantages of a cloud-based POS are instant centralization of data (important especially to chain stores), ability to access data from anywhere there is internet connection, and lower startup costs.[8][9]

Although start-up cost is definitely attractive to end-users, it is still not clear given the subscription fee involved whether a cloud-based POS is more cost-effective in the mid and long term compared to on-premise type of POS System. Any cost-benefit analysis would have to take into account the advantage of continual update of software versions by the provider and the cost- saving in on-premise IT management.

Perhaps one critical concern to address is the disruptive effects of incidental loss Internet connection. For this reason it is imperative that a cloud-based POS system should be bundled with a local implementation of the software such that business processes - sales in particular - can continue with little disruption when there is dropped connection. Furthermore upon restoration of Internet connection it is also important that the local sale records can be subsequently and easily uploaded to the cloud database without messing up previous and subsequent sale records. Some cloud-based point of sale systems have an offline processing mode to handle these situations, such as 1stPayPOS or Revel Systems' "Always On" mode. Vivonet was the original provider of cloud based POS solutions for restaurants. Vivonet's cloud based POS products prioritize insights through data and reporting and came to the market as Halo POS in early 2005. Retail industry

Main article: Retail

The retailing industry is one of the predominant users of POS terminals.

A retail point of sale system typically includes a cash register (which in recent times comprises a computer, monitor, cash drawer, receipt printer, customer display and a barcode scanner) and the majority of retail POS systems also include a debit/credit card reader. It can also include a conveyor belt, weight scale, integrated credit card processing system, a signature capture device and a customer pin pad device. More and more POS monitors use touch-screen technology for ease of use and a computer is built into the monitor chassis for what is referred to as an all-in-one unit. All-in-one POS units liberate counter space for the retailer. The POS system software can typically handle myriad customer based functions such as sales, returns, exchanges, layaways, gift cards, gift registries, customer loyalty programs, promotions, discounts and much more. POS software can also allow for functions such as pre-planned promotional sales, manufacturer coupon validation, foreign currency handling and multiple payment types.

The POS unit handles the sales to the consumer but it is only one part of the entire POS system used in a retail business. "Back-office" computers typically handle other functions of the POS system such as inventory control, purchasing, receiving and transferring of products to and from other locations. Other typical functions of a POS system are to store sales information for enabling customer returns, reporting purposes, sales trends and cost/price/profit analysis. Customer information may be stored for receivables management, marketing purposes and specific buying analysis. Many retail POS systems include an accounting interface that "feeds" sales and cost of goods information to independent accounting applications.

Retail operations such as Hardware stores (Lumber Yards), Electronic stores and so called multifaceted super-stores need specialized additional features compared to other stores. POS software in these cases handle special orders, purchase orders, repair orders, service and rental programs as well as typical point of sale functions. Rugged hardware is required for point-of-sale systems used in outdoor environments. Wireless devices, battery powered devices, all-in-one units, and Internet-ready machines are typical in this industry.

Recently new applications have been introduced, enabling POS transactions to be conducted using mobile phones and tablets. According to a recent study, Mobile POS (mPOS) terminals are expected to replace the contemporary payment techniques because of various features including mobility, upfront low cost investment and better user experience. Convenience of conducting remote financial transactions is expected to augment the demand from small and medium businesses for mPOS.[12]

The blind community in the United States engaged in Structured Negotiations in the mid-2000s to ensure that retail point of sale devices had tactile keypads. Without keys that can be felt, a blind person cannot independently enter her or his PIN. In the mid-2000s retailers began using 'flat screen' or 'signature capture' devices that eliminated tactile keypads. Blind people were forced to share their confidential PIN with store clerks in order to use their debit and other PIN- based cards. The blind community reached agreement with Walmart, Target, CVS and eight other retailers that required real keys so blind people could use the devices. Hospitality industry

Main article: Hospitality industry

Reception desk POS

Restaurant POS

Tablet-based POS

Hospitality point-of-sales systems are computerized systems incorporating registers, computers and peripheral equipment, usually on a computer network to be used in restaurants, hair salons or hotels. Like other point-of-sale systems, these systems keep track of sales, labor and payroll, and can generate records used in accounting and book keeping. They may be accessed remotely by restaurant corporate offices, troubleshooters and other authorized parties.

Point-of-sales systems have revolutionized the restaurant industry, particularly in the fast food sector. In the most recent technologies, registers are computers, sometimes with touch screens. The registers connect to a server, often referred to as a "store controller" or a "central control unit". Printers and monitors are also found on the network. Additionally, remote servers can connect to store networks and monitor sales and other store data.

Typical restaurant POS software is able to create and print guest checks, print orders to kitchens and bars for preparation, process credit cards and other payment cards, and run reports. In addition, some systems implement wireless pagers and electronic signature-capture devices.

In the fast food industry, displays may be at the front counter, or configured for drive-through or walk-through cashiering and order taking. Front counter registers take and serve orders at the same terminal, while drive-through registers allow orders to be taken at one or more drive- through windows, to be cashiered and served at another. In addition to registers, drive-through and kitchen displays are used to view orders. Once orders appear they may be deleted or recalled by the touch interface or by bump bars. Drive-through systems are often enhanced by the use of drive-through wireless (or headset) intercoms. The efficiency of such systems has decreased service times and increased efficiency of orders.

Another innovation in technology for the restaurant industry is Wireless POS. Many restaurants with high volume use wireless handheld POS to collect orders which are sent to a server. The server sends required information to the kitchen in real time. Wireless systems consist of drive- through microphones and speakers (often one speaker will serve both purposes), which are wired to a "base station" or "center module." This will, in turn broadcast to headsets. Headsets may be an all-in-one headset or one connected to a belt pack.

In hotels POS software allows for transfer of meal charges from dining room to guest room with a button or two. It may also need to be integrated with property management software.

Newer, more sophisticated, systems are getting away from the central database "file server" type system and going to what is called a "cluster database". This eliminates any crashing or system downtime that can be associated with the back office file server. This technology allows 100% of the information to not only be stored, but also pulled from the local terminal, thus eliminating the need to rely on a separate server for the system to operate.

Tablet POS systems popular for retail solutions are now available for the restaurant industry. Initially these systems were not sophisticated and many of the early systems did not support a remote printer in the kitchen. Tablet systems today are being used in all types of restaurants including table service operations. Most tablet systems upload all information to the Internet so managers and owners can view reports from anywhere with a password and Internet connection. Smartphone Internet access has made alerts and reports from the POS very accessible. Tablets have helped create the Mobile POS system and Mobile POS applications also include payments, loyalty, online ordering, table side ordering by staff and table top ordering by customers. Mobile POS, AKA mPOS is growing quickly with new developers entering the market almost on a daily basis. An updated list of developers is maintained and available for downloading at no charge.[10]

POS systems are often designed for a variety of clients, and can be programmed by the end users to suit their needs. Some large clients write their own specifications for vendors to implement. In some cases, POS systems are sold and supported by third-party distributors, while in other cases they are sold and supported directly by the vendor.

The selection of a restaurant POS system is critical to the restaurant's daily operation and is a major investment that the restaurant's management and staff must live with for many years. The restaurant POS system interfaces with all phases of the restaurant operation and with everyone that is involved with the restaurant including guests, suppliers, employees, managers and owners. The selection of a restaurant POS system is a complex process that should be undertaken by the restaurant owner and not delegated to an employee. The purchase process can be summarized into three steps: Design, Compare and Negotiate. The Design step requires research to determine which restaurant POS features are needed for the restaurant operation. With this information the restaurant owner or manager can Compare various restaurant POS solutions to determine which POS systems meet their requirements. The final step is to Negotiate the price, payment terms, included training, initial warranty and ongoing support costs.[11] Broadcasting

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Broadcasting antenna in Stuttgart

Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and/or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model.[1] The term "broadcasting," derived from the method of sowing seeds in a field by casting them broadly about, was originated in the early days of radio to distinguish radio broadcasting from methods using wired transmission (as in telegraph and telephone) or that were intended as person-to-person communication.[2] Broadcasting is usually associated with radio and television, though in practice radio and television transmissions take place using both wires and radio waves. The receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively small subset; the point is that anyone with the appropriate receiving technology can receive the signal. The field of broadcasting includes a wide range of practices, from relatively private exchanges such as amateur (ham) radio and amateur television (ATV) and closed-circuit TV, to more general uses such as public radio, community radio and commercial radio, public television, and commercial television.

Transmission of radio and television programs from a radio or television station to home receivers over the spectrum is referred to as OTA (over the air) or terrestrial broadcasting and in most countries requires a broadcasting license. Transmissions using a combination of satellite and wired transmission, like cable television (which also retransmits OTA stations with their consent), are also considered broadcasts, and do not require a license. Transmissions of television and radio via streaming digital technology have increasingly been referred to as broadcasting as well, though strictly speaking this is incorrect. Contents

 1 History  2 Methods of broadcasting  3 Economic models  4 Recorded broadcasts and live broadcasts  5 Social impact  6 See also  7 Notes and references  8 Bibliography  9 Further reading  10 External links History

Main article: History of broadcasting

The earliest broadcasting consisted of sending telegraph signals over the airwaves, using Morse code. This was particularly important for ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communication, but it became increasingly important for business and general news reporting, and as an arena for personal communication by radio amateurs (Douglas, op. cit.). Audio broadcasting began experimentally in the first decade of the 20th century. By the early 1920s radio broadcasting became a household medium, at first on the AM band and later on FM. Television broadcasting started experimentally in the 1920s and became widespread after World War II, using VHF and UHF spectrum. Satellite broadcasting was initiated in the 1960s and moved into general industry usage in the 1970s, with DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellites) emerging in the 1980s.

Originally all broadcasting was composed of analog signals using analog transmission techniques but more recently broadcasters have switched to digital signals using digital transmission. In general usage, broadcasting most frequently refers to the transmission of information and entertainment programming from various sources to the general public.

 Analog audio vs. HD Radio  Analog television vs. Digital television  Wireless

The world's technological capacity to receive information through one-way broadcast networks more than quadrupled during the two decades from 1986 to 2007, from 432 exabytes of (optimally compressed) information, to 1.9 zettabytes.[3] This is the information equivalent of 55 newspapers per person per day in 1986, and 175 newspapers per person per day by 2007.[4] Methods of broadcasting

Historically, there have been several methods used for broadcasting electronic media audio and/or video to the general public:

 Telephone broadcasting (1881–1932): the earliest form of electronic broadcasting (not counting data services offered by stock telegraph companies from 1867, if ticker-tapes are excluded from the definition). Telephone broadcasting began with the advent of Théâtrophone ("Theatre Phone") systems, which were telephone-based distribution systems allowing subscribers to listen to live opera and theatre performances over telephone lines, created by French inventor Clément Ader in 1881. Telephone broadcasting also grew to include telephone newspaper services for news and entertainment programming which were introduced in the 1890s, primarily located in large European cities. These telephone-based subscription services were the first examples of electrical/electronic broadcasting and offered a wide variety of programming.[citation needed]  Radio broadcasting (experimentally from 1906, commercially from 1920); audio signals sent through the air as radio waves from a transmitter, picked up by an antenna and sent to a receiver. Radio stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast common radio programs, either in broadcast syndication, simulcast or subchannels.  Television broadcasting (telecast), experimentally from 1925, commercially from the 1930s: an extension of radio to include video signals.  Cable radio (also called "cable FM", from 1928) and cable television (from 1932): both via coaxial cable, originally serving principally as transmission media for programming produced at either radio or television stations, but later expanding into a broad universe of cable-originated channels.  Direct-broadcast satellite (DBS) (from circa 1974) and satellite radio (from circa 1990): meant for direct-to-home broadcast programming (as opposed to studio network uplinks and downlinks), provides a mix of traditional radio or television broadcast programming, or both, with dedicated satellite radio programming. (See also: Satellite television)  Webcasting of video/television (from circa 1993) and audio/radio (from circa 1994) streams: offers a mix of traditional radio and television station broadcast programming with dedicated internet radio– Economic models

There are several means of providing financial support for continuous broadcasting:  Commercial broadcasting: for-profit, usually privately owned stations, channels, networks, or services providing programming to the public, supported by the sale of time to advertisers for radio or television advertisements during or in breaks between programs, often in combination with cable or pay cable subscription fees.  Public broadcasting: usually non-profit, publicly owned stations or networks supported by license fees, government funds, grants from foundations, corporate underwriting, and audience memberships and/or contributions, or a combination of these.  Community broadcasting

Broadcasters may rely on a combination of these business models. For example, in the United States, National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS, television) supplement public membership subscriptions and grants with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which is allocated bi-annually by Congress.

US public broadcasting corporate and charitable grants are generally given in consideration of underwriting spots which differ from commercial advertisements in that they are governed by specific FCC restrictions, which prohibit the advocacy of a product or a "call to action". Recorded broadcasts and live broadcasts

A television studio production control room in Olympia, Washington, August 2008.

The first regular television broadcasts started in 1937. Broadcasts can be classified as "recorded" or "live". The former allows correcting errors, and removing superfluous or undesired material, rearranging it, applying slow-motion and repetitions, and other techniques to enhance the program. However, some live events like sports television can include some of the aspects including slow-motion clips of important goals/hits, etc., in between the live television telecast.

American radio-network broadcasters habitually forbade prerecorded broadcasts in the 1930s and 1940s requiring radio programs played for the Eastern and Central time zones to be repeated three hours later for the Pacific time zone (See: Effects of time on North American broadcasting). This restriction was dropped for special occasions, as in the case of the German dirigible airship Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst, New Jersey, in 1937. During World War II, prerecorded broadcasts from war correspondents were allowed on U.S. radio. In addition, American radio programs were recorded for playback by Armed Forces Radio radio stations around the world. A disadvantage of recording first is that the public may know the outcome of an event from another source, which may be a "spoiler". In addition, prerecording prevents live radio announcers from deviating from an officially approved script, as occurred with propaganda broadcasts from Germany in the 1940s and with Radio Moscow in the 1980s.

Many events are advertised as being live, although they are often "recorded live" (sometimes called "live-to-tape"). This is particularly true of performances of musical artists on radio when they visit for an in-studio concert performance. Similar situations have occurred in television production ("The Cosby Show is recorded in front of a live television studio audience") and news broadcasting.

A broadcast may be distributed through several physical means. If coming directly from the radio studio at a single station or television station, it is simply sent through the studio/transmitter link to the transmitter and hence from the television antenna located on the radio masts and towers out to the world. Programming may also come through a communications satellite, played either live or recorded for later transmission. Networks of stations may simulcast the same programming at the same time, originally via microwave link, now usually by satellite.

Distribution to stations or networks may also be through physical media, such as magnetic tape, compact disc (CD), DVD, and sometimes other formats. Usually these are included in another broadcast, such as when electronic news gathering (ENG) returns a story to the station for inclusion on a news programme.

The final leg of broadcast distribution is how the signal gets to the listener or viewer. It may come over the air as with a radio station or television station to an antenna and radio receiver, or may come through cable television[5] or cable radio (or "wireless cable") via the station or directly from a network. The Internet may also bring either internet radio or streaming media television to the recipient, especially with multicasting allowing the signal and bandwidth to be shared.

The term "broadcast network" is often used to distinguish networks that broadcast an over-the-air television signals that can be received using a tuner (television) inside a television set with a television antenna from so-called networks that are broadcast only via cable television (cablecast) or satellite television that uses a dish antenna. The term "broadcast television" can refer to the television programs of such networks. Social impact

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Radio station WTUL studio, Tulane University, New Orleans

The sequencing of content in a broadcast is called a schedule. As with all technological endeavors, a number of technical terms and slang have developed. A list of these terms can be found at List of broadcasting terms. Television and radio programs are distributed through radio broadcasting or cable, often both simultaneously. By coding signals and having a cable converter box with decoding equipment in homes, the latter also enables subscription-based channels, pay- tv and pay-per-view services.

In his essay, John Durham Peters wrote that communication is a tool used for dissemination. Durham stated, "Dissemination is a lens—sometimes a usefully distorting one—that helps us tackle basic issues such as interaction, presence, and space and time...on the agenda of any future communication theory in general" (Durham, 211). Dissemination focuses on the message being relayed from one main source to one large audience without the exchange of dialogue in between. There's chance for the message to be tweaked or corrupted once the main source releases it. There is really no way to predetermine how the larger population or audience will absorb the message. They can choose to listen, analyze, or simply ignore it. Dissemination in communication is widely used in the world of broadcasting.

Broadcasting focuses on getting one message out and it is up to the general public to do what they wish with it. Durham also states that broadcasting is used to address an open ended destination (Durham, 212). There are many forms of broadcast, but they all aim to distribute a signal that will reach the target audience. Broadcasting can arrange audiences into entire assemblies (Durham, 213).

In terms of media broadcasting, a radio show can gather a large number of followers who tune in every day to specifically listen to that specific disc jockey. The disc jockey follows the script for his or her radio show and just talks into the microphone.[6] He or she does not expect immediate feedback from any listeners. The message is broadcast across airwaves throughout the community, but there the listeners cannot always respond immediately, especially since many radio shows are recorded prior to the actual air time. Out-of-home advertising

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Marketing

Key concepts

 v  t  e

Out of home advertising (or OOH advertising) is advertising that reaches the consumer while they are outside the home.

Out of home advertising is focused on marketing to consumers when they are "on the go" in public places, in transit, waiting (such as in a medical office), and/or in specific commercial locations (such as in a retail venue). OOH advertising formats fall into four main categories: billboards, street furniture, transit, and alternative.[1] The OOH advertising industry in the USA includes more than 2,100 operators in 50 states representing the major out of home format categories. These OOH media companies range from public, multinational media corporations to small, independent, family-owned businesses. Contents

 1 Overview  2 Digital out of home  3 Non-digital out of home  4 Regulations on out of home advertising  5 Emerging technologies  6 See also  7 References  8 External links Overview

Billboard advertising is a traditional OOH advertising format, but there has been significant growth in digital OOH (digital billboards and place-based networks) in recent years; for example, about 4,900 digital billboard displays have been installed in the United States.[2]

Traditional roadside billboards remain the predominant form of OOH advertising in the US with 66 percent of total annual revenue. Today, billboard revenue is 73 percent local ads, 18 percent national ads, and 9 percent public service ads.[3]

Street furniture is made up of formats such as bus shelters, newsracks, mall kiosks, and telephone booth advertising. This form of OOH advertising is mainly seen in urban centers. Additionally, this form of advertising provides benefits to communities, as building and maintaining the shelters people use while waiting for the bus.

Transit advertising is typically advertising placed on anything which moves, such as buses, subway advertising, truckside, food trucks,and taxis, but also includes fixed static and electronic advertising at train and bus stations and platforms. Airport advertising, which helps businesses address an audience while traveling, is also included in this category. Municipalities often accept this form of advertising, as it provides revenue to city and port authorities.

Street furniture, transit, and alternative media formats comprise 34 percent of total outdoor revenue in the US. Some of these formats have a higher percentage of national ads than traditional billboards.[4] Digital out of home

Digital out of home (DOOH) refers to dynamic media distributed across placed-based networks in venues including, but not limited to: cafes, bars, restaurants, health clubs, colleges, arenas, gas stations, convenience stores, barber shops, and public spaces. DOOH networks typically feature independently addressable screens, kiosks, jukeboxes and/or jumbotrons. DOOH media benefits location owners and advertisers alike in being able to engage customers and/or audiences and extend the reach and effectiveness of marketing messages. It is also referred to as Digital Signage.

The overall industry grew more than 15 percent last year(2010) to $2.1 billion, according to Patrick Quinn, CEO and founder of PQ Media, a Connecticut-based research and consulting firm. Quinn said gas station television is one of the largest and fastest growing segments of that category, based in part on its verifiable audience. With digital TVs in gas stations, nearly 52 million customers are getting snippets of weather, sports highlights, celebrity gossip and commercials with their gas each month, according to Nielsen. The weekly reach is actually larger than most of the prime-time TV shows. The largest company in the space is Gas Station TV with 27.5 million monthly viewers at more than 1,100 stations across the U.S., according to Nielsen.[5] In addition to the large number of viewers, the audience profile of TVs at gas stations is unique. 100 percent are drivers. 76 percent are adults from age 18-49 with a median age of 40 and Median HHI $70k+.[6] According to the Nielsen Intercept Studies, 89 percent of the consumers are engaged and watching TV at the gas station and 88 percent love watching every time they fuel because they have nothing else to do.

The reason that this category is growing so rapidly is because busy people are typically busy at home and with the introduction and acceptance of digital video recorders, it has diluted the frequency with which traditional television commercials are viewed. Every day more TV viewers are skipping past commercials with their DVRs which in turn has made out-of-home advertising all the more appealing.[7] A Nielsen media research study in 2009 showed that 91 percent of DVR owners skipped commercials. As a result, traditional TV advertisers are hungry for an effective substitute, and digital out-of-home ads appear to be one of the solutions.

DOOH also includes stand-alone screens, kiosks, and interactive media found in public places. The availability of inexpensive LCD screens with built-in media players has opened the door for companies to add interactive video messages in Point of Purchase (POP) Displays. The displays allow consumers to get additional information at the moment of decision on a product or service. Growth in the DOOH industry has been increasing in 2009, with more POP manufacturers, advertisers, and content developers moving to digital.[8] Non-digital out of home

Vinyl decals allowing use of windows, on a side and rear advertisement for alcohol on a Berlin bus

Non-digital out-of-home refers to other types of media distributed across physical spaces.[9] These are:[citation needed]

Aerial Advertising - Towing banners overhead of beaches, events and gridlock traffic via a fixed wing aircraft [10]

Airship Advertising - An airship can provide one of the physically largest out-of-home advertising platforms.

Billboard bicycle - Billboard bicycle is a new type of mobile advertising in which a bike tows a billboard with an advertising message. This method is a cost efficient, targeted, and environmentally friendly form of advertising.

Billboard Bicycle in East Coast Park, Singapore

Bulletin - Bulletin billboards are usually located in highly visible, heavy traffic areas such as expressways, primary arteries, and major intersections. With extended periods of high visibility, billboard advertisements provide advertisers with significant impact on commuters. This is the largest standard out of home advertising format, usually measuring at 11x48 in overall size.[11]

Bus advertising - Firmly establish brand awareness and generate quick recall with high profile exposure near point of purchase locations.

Commuter rail display - Reaches a captive audience of upscale suburban commuters. Additionally, reaches lunch-time patrons, shoppers and business professionals.

ComPark advertising - ComPark is a device used for car park advertising; which is placed onto the parallel lines of a bay and is able to gain instant exposure from motorists that have just parked their vehicle. The ComPark also serves as a guide to assist motorist in adhering to the parking bay size.

Lamppost banner advertising - Lamp columns are sited everywhere, allowing advertisers and events to use banners to target precise geographical locations and create massive promotional awareness.

Mobile billboard - Mobile billboards offer a great degree of flexibility to advertisers. These advertisements can target specific routes, venue or events, or can be used to achieve market saturation. A special version is the inflatable billboard which can stand free nearly everywhere. This product can also be used for outdoor movie nights.

Mobile inflatable billboard

Postcards - Free advertising postcards available in venues such as cafes & bars, arts & cultural institutions, universities and high schools. Postcards are taken from a specially designed display unit with signage indicating the postcards are free for the general public to take.

Poster - Target local audiences with these billboards, which are highly visible to vehicular traffic and are ideal for the introduction of new products/services. Marketers use posters to achieve advertising objectives and increase brand awareness by placing multiple units in strategic locations while lowering the cost per thousand impressions. This is a standardized poster format, typically measuring 12'3" x 24'6"; formally known as a 30-Sheet Poster.[12]

Premier panel - Premiere panels combine the frequency and reach of a poster campaign with the creative impact of a bulletin.

Premier square - Bright top and bottom illumination on a premiere panel provide extra impact after dark.

Street advertising - The use of pavements and street furniture to create media space for brands to get their message onto the street in a cost-effective approach.

Taxi advertising - Taxi advertising allows advertisers to highlight their products, whether brand awareness, or a targeted message, directly to areas where people work, shop, and play.

Wallscape - Wallscapes are attached to buildings and are able to accommodate a wide variety of unusual shapes and sizes. These billboard advertisements are visible from a distance and provide tremendous impact in major metro areas.[13]

Other types of non-digital OOH advertising include airport displays; transit and bus-shelter displays; headrest displays; double-sided panels; junior posters; and mall displays. Regulations on out of home advertising

Different jurisdictions regulate outdoor advertising to different degrees.  In the US, the states of Vermont, Hawaii, Maine, and Alaska prohibit all billboards.

 The other 46 US states permit multiple forms of OOH advertising.

 Billboards are regulated by all levels of government. The regulatory framework, created by the federal Highway Beautification Act (HBA), calls for billboards to be located in commercial and industrial areas. Billboard permits are issued by state and local authorities. Under the Highway Beautification Act, states have strong regulatory powers including the authority to ban billboards.

 Most states have taken steps to regulate digital (electronic) billboards, which feature static images that change (typically) every six or eight seconds. In 2007, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued Guidance to the states regarding regulation of digital billboards. Scenic America challenged the federal Guidance in federal court on procedural grounds. On June 20, 2014, US District Court Judge James E. Boasberg dismissed this case, with prejudice.

 Regulations governing digital billboards prohibit animation and scrolling. Digital billboards are equipped with light sensors to adjust billboard lighting to surrounding light conditions to avoid glare, per the industry code. Emerging technologies

Media fragmentation, competition from online media, as well as the need for greater efficiencies in media buying prompted companies to offer billboard inventory aggregation services[14] Interactive services are becoming increasingly more common with the move to digital outdoor advertising, such as allowing the public to connect, share and interact through their mobile devices in particular through WiFi connections.[15] Corporate anniversary

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marketing

Key concepts

 v  t  e

In marketing, a corporate anniversary is a celebration of a firm's continued existence after a particular number of years. The celebration is a media event which can help a firm achieve diverse marketing goals, such as promoting its corporate identity, boosting employee morale, building greater investor confidence, and encouraging sales. As a public relations opportunity,[1] it is a way for a firm to tout past accomplishments[2] while strengthening relationships with employees and customers and investors. The duration of the celebration itself can vary considerably, from an hour or day[3] to activities happening throughout the year.[4] Many businesses use an anniversary to express gratitude for past success.[5] Generally, larger corporations have the means to stage more elaborate celebrations. Contents

 1 Characteristics  2 Planning  3 Difficulty in measuring success  4 See also  5 References Characteristics

An anniversary can advertise a firm's staying power and longevity. A report in the New York Times explained the marketing logic:

Anniversary campaigns are part of a trend inspired by the economy that could be called comfort marketing, as advertisers invoke misty, water-colored memories of the past to woo consumers into buying products in the present. A major aspect of comfort marketing is what brand managers call authenticity: reminding shoppers who seek value in the provenance of merchandise to suggest a product is worth buying because its quality has been tested for decades.

—Stuart Elliott, 2012[6]

Guinness brewery marked its 250th anniversary in 2009 with its first global advertising campaign.

Mattel sponsored fashion events to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their Barbie fashion doll. Shown: American fashion model Sessilee Lopez.

Marketers choose variables relating to anniversaries[7] to meet specific promotional objectives. While the length of time celebrated by an anniversary is often divisible by five, such as the 10th, 15th, 25th,[8] 50th, or 80th anniversary,[9] there are no hard and fast rules. For example, Google celebrated its 13th anniversary with a special "doodle" for its main search page which showed a colorful image of "cake, presents and balloons."[3] Generally, anniversaries are chosen to coincide with marketing initiatives, such that "any coming of age will do," according to one view.[10] An anniversary can commemorate not only a firm's founding year but the introduction of a successful company brand,[10] a merger,[11] a patent,[12] or some other milestone. There are a wide variety of marketing gimmicks and appeals which can accompany an anniversary celebration: sweepstakes,[13] contests,[12] thank you letters,[4][5] special product editions,[12] parties,[13] guest speakers, birthday displays on websites,[10] giveaways,[6] new product introductions,[8] publicity stunts, sponsorships, fireworks, live musical performances,[13] commemorative packaging,[6] anniversary rings,[14] promotions,[6] signs in retail stores,[6] donations,[15] scholarships,[15] temporary price reductions or discounts,[10] reflections on past accomplishments,[1][16] special ad campaigns,[17] new logos,[17] and so on. Planning

Planning an anniversary can take years. In some cases, special marketing consultants and event planners have been hired to coordinate the effort. Large corporations typically work closely with their corporate advertising agency as well as their marketing and sales departments to plan sometimes elaborate campaigns, often with a special theme to mark the occasion. For example, Starbucks marked their 40th anniversary with a redesigned logo and media campaign.[17] Guinness Brewery celebrated its 250th anniversary with a global advertising effort.[13] In 1972, Time magazine celebrated its 50th anniversary with events throughout the year:

So we are 50 years old, and we intend to celebrate. We are planning a series of events for the months ahead—some small and rather personal and sentimental—others on a bigger scale. In all, we hope to reach a lot of people to whom we owe thanks: not only our working colleagues within the company but also the legions of readers and believers who through the years have helped us grow.

—Hedley Donovan, Andrew Heiskell for Time magazine, 1972[4]

Goya Foods, on its 75th anniversary, donated a million pounds of food to help fight hunger and announced scholarship programs as well as held parties in different locations.[15]

There is flexibility in terms of choosing which dates to use when determining an anniversary. The start date is often the month or year when a firm was founded, but this can vary considerably, and exceptions are the rule; for example, Lego toys celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2008 –– exactly 50 years after the time when the founder's son, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, filed a patent for the iconic plastic bricks in 1958.[12] Difficulty in measuring success

Measuring the success of any advertising effort, including an anniversary celebration, can be difficult. Sometimes an anniversary generates negative publicity, such as the tenth anniversary of the merger between AOL and Time Warner, which was largely seen as a colossal business blunder.[11] A report in The Guardian suggested that corporate anniversaries do not always lead to "happy returns": Sometimes, when a brand pins all its advertising and marketing on an anniversary, it can give the impression that it doesn't have anything robust to say about its business; that the only way it is different from its competitors is that it has been going longer. ... The problem is, apart from the odd column inch in the press giving the company free PR, it is not immediately obvious what is gained through anniversary celebrations. Telling your customers you are of a certain age creates nostalgia and makes people think about your brand; on the other hand they would probably prefer you to spend money giving them a discount. Prize (marketing)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For other uses, see Prize (disambiguation).

Marketing

Key concepts

 v  t  e

Collecting Collectable • Antique • Antiquities Terms Ephemera • Premium Prize • Souvenir Special edition Topics List of collectables List of hobbies This box:

 view  talk  edit

Prizes are promotional items—small toys, games, trading cards, collectables, and other small items of nominal value—found in packages of brand-name retail products (or available from the retailer at the time of purchase) that are included in the price of the product (at no extra cost) with the intent to boost sales. Collectable prizes produced (and sometimes numbered) in series are used extensively—as a loyalty marketing program—in food, drink, and other retail products to increase sales through repeat purchases from collectors. Prizes have been distributed through bread, candy, cereal, chips, crackers, laundry detergent, margarine,[1] popcorn, and soft drinks. The types of prizes have included comics, fortunes, jokes, key rings, magic tricks, models (made of paper or plastic), pin-back buttons, plastic mini-spoons, puzzles, riddles, stickers, temporary tattoos, tazos, trade cards, trading cards, and small toys (made from injection molded plastic, paper, cardboard, tin litho, ceramics, or pot metal).[2] Prizes are sometimes referred to as "in- pack" premiums,[3] although historically the word "premium" has been used to denote (as opposed to a prize) an item that is not packaged with the product and requires a proof of purchase and/or a small additional payment to cover shipping and/or handling charges.[2] Contents

 1 History o 1.1 Smokers become collectors o 1.2 The home run of prizes o 1.3 Topps in cards o 1.4 Prize or premium coupon; or both? o 1.5 "A Prize in Every Box" o 1.6 Cereal prizes o 1.7 Margarine spreads prizes in Europe o 1.8 Modern prize giant o 1.9 Usefulness and collectability  2 Technical advances o 2.1 Sticky business o 2.2 Plastic injection molding o 2.3 Lenticular technology o 2.4 Photographic lenticular printing  3 Prize manufacturers o 3.1 Cloudcrest o 3.2 Nosco Plastics o 3.3 R&L plastics  4 See also  5 References  6 External links History

Smokers become collectors

Some of the earliest prizes were cigarette cards — trade cards advertising the product (not to be confused with trading cards) that were inserted into paper packs of cigarettes as stiffeners to protect the contents. Allen and Ginter in the U.S. in 1886, and British company W.D. & H.O. Wills in 1888, were the first tobacco companies to print advertisements and, a couple of years later, lithograph pictures on the cards with an encyclopedic variety of topics from nature to war to sports — subjects that appealed to men who smoked.[4] By 1900, there were thousands of tobacco card sets manufactured by 300 different companies. Children would stand outside of stores to ask customers who bought cigarettes if they could have their card.[5] Following the success of cigarette cards, trade cards were produced by manufacturers of other products and included in the product or handed to the customer by the store clerk at the time of purchase.[4] Other inserts in tobacco included tin litho prizes, called tobacco tags (in plug tobacco), and tobacco silks (popular from 1910 to 1916) that could be collected to put in quilts were inserted in or attached to tobacco tins and sometimes catalogued as cigarette cards.[6] World War II put an end to cigarette card production due to limited paper resources, and after the war cigarette cards never really made a comeback. After that collectors of prizes from retail products took to collecting tea cards in the UK and bubble gum cards in the US.[7]

The home run of prizes

The first baseball cards were trade cards featuring the Brooklyn Atlantics produced in 1868 by Peck and Snyder, a sporting goods company that manufactured baseball equipment. In 1869, Peck and Snyder trade cards featured the first professional team, the Red Stockings.[8] Most of the baseball cards around the beginning of the 20th century came in candy and tobacco products produced by such companies as Breisch-Williams confectionary company of Oxford, Pennsylvania,[9] American Caramel Company, the Imperial Tobacco Company of Canada,[10] and Cabañas, a Cuban cigar manufacturer.[11] In fact it is a baseball set, known as the T206 tobacco card set, issued from 1909 to 1911 in cigarette and loose tobacco packs through 16 different brands[12] owned by the American Tobacco Company that is considered by collectors to be the most popular set of cigarette cards.[13] A T206 Honus Wagner card sold on April 6, 2013 for $2.1 million in an online auction, the highest price paid for a card in a public sale.[14] In 1933, Goudey Gum Company of Boston issued baseball cards with players biographies on the backs and was the first to put baseball cards in bubble gum.[15] Bowman Gum of Philadelphia issued its first baseball cards in 1948 and became the biggest issuer of baseball cards from 1948 to 1952.

Topps in cards

Topps Chewing Gum, Inc., now known as The Topps Company, Inc., started inserting trading cards into bubble gum packs in 1950 — with such topics as TV and film cowboy Hopalong Cassidy; "Bring 'em Back Alive" cards featuring Frank Buck on big game hunts in Africa; and All-American football cards. Topps introduced the topic of baseball in trading cards in 1951, and Sy Berger created the first modern baseball card, complete with playing record and statistics, produced by Topps in 1952.[16] The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card is one of the most desirable baseball cards for collectors.[17] Topps purchased the Bowman Gum company in 1956. Topps was the leader in the trading card industry from 1956 to 1980, not only in sports cards. Many of the top selling non-sports cards were produced by Topps, including Wacky Packages (1967, 1973–1977), Star Wars (beginning in 1977)[18] and Garbage Pail Kids (beginning in 1985).[19] Topps inserted baseball cards as prizes into packs of gum through 1981, when the gum became a thing of the past and the cards were sold without the gum.[20]

Prize or premium coupon; or both?

Bazooka Joe appeared on comics in Topps' Bazooka Bubble Gum beginning in 1953. There have been numerous kids (and adults) who have collected the Bazooka comics as prizes for over 50 years. Bazooka started issuing premium catalogs in 1956, and the comics prizes doubled as coupons that, when collected in certain quantities, could be exchanged for premiums, such as bikes, microphones, or plastic rings. Bazooka Bubble Gum has a successful loyalty marketing program, through the prizes (comics) and the premiums (mail-order merchandise). Over the years, Bazooka Bubble Gum has been shipped to over 100 different countries and it has been translated into over 50 different languages. Topps sells a half a billion pieces of Bazooka Bubble Gum a year.[21]

"A Prize in Every Box"

The most famous use of prizes in the United States (and the word "prize" in this context) is Cracker Jack brand popcorn confection. Prizes have been inserted into every package of Cracker Jack continuously since 1912.[22] A familiar jingle to people who watched television in the United States in the 1960s and '70s goes "Candy-coated popcorn, peanuts and a prize. That's what you get with Cracker Jack!" Cracker Jack sales are not what they used to be,[23] with much more competition in the snack industry and less creative prizes. The most valuable prizes found in Cracker Jack are the baseball cards distributed in 1914 and 1915.[24][25] Although most of the prizes recently are just printed paper,[26] in 2004, a complete set of 1914 Cracker Jack baseball cards — including the highly sought after "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and Ty Cobb cards — was sold for a record $800,000.[27]

Cereal prizes W.K. Kellogg was the first to introduce prizes in boxes of cereal beginning in 1906.[27] The marketing strategy that he established has produced thousands of different cereal box prizes that have been distributed by the tens of billions.[27] The first breakfast cereal prize was The Funny Jungleland Moving Pictures Book given to customers in the stores by merchants at the time of purchase of two packages of Kellogg's Corn Flakes.[27] In 1909, Kellogg's changed the book give-away to a premium mail-in offer for the cost of a dime.[27] By 1912, Kellogg's had distributed 2.5 million Jungleland books. The book underwent various edition changes and was last offered to consumers in 1937.[27] In 1945, Kellogg inserted a prize in the form of pin-back buttons into each box of Pep cereal. Pep pins have included U.S. Army squadrons as well as characters from newspaper comics. There were 5 series of comic characters and 18 different buttons in each set, with a total of 90 in the collection.[27] Kellogg‘s 3D Baseball and Football Cards produced by Optigraphics were a big hit from 1970 to 1983 in packages of Kellogg's cereals, initially Corn Flakes and later other brands.[28] Other manufacturers of major brands of cereal (including General Mills, Malt-O-Meal, Nabisco, Nestlé, Post Foods, and Quaker Oats) followed suit and inserted prizes into boxes of cereal to promote sales and brand loyalty.

Margarine spreads prizes in Europe

Oleomargarine was big business in Germany with hundreds of brands. Since 1920 margarine brands have put prizes in margarine, produced cards similar to tobacco cards of the time, and promoted albums for consumers to place their collections. Prizes made from metal and paper were also used from time to time. The Great Depression of 1929 slowed the previously unbridled development of prizes used in margarine. But after World War II, margarine prizes flourished with many series of printed cards and albums.[29]

With the advent of injection molding came the plastic prizes. Cracker Jack had introduced plastic flats in its popcorn confection in the United States in 1948, and beginning in 1950, Fri-Homa, one of the leading German manufacturers of margarine owned by Fritz Homann, inserted prizes into its retail packages to promote brand loyalty.[29][30] The first plastic margarine prizes were made by SIKU toy company owned by Homann's friend Richard Sieper.[31] Many margarine brands followed suite. Most of the plastic prizes from German margarine were molded in a light cream color designed to make them look like tiny carved ivory figures — though made of polystyrene. These prizes are generically called "margarinefiguren" (EN: margarine figures), because they originated in oleomargarine products, but they were also found in tobacco and other retail food products.[29][1]

The era of margarine prizes ended in 1954 due to an agreement between German margarine producers to stop using in-pack prizes to promote their products. In the short period between 1950 and 1954, over 258 series (thousands of individual shapes) of plastic prizes were produced.[1] The retail companies that used margarine figures as in-pack prizes included Ei-Fein Margarine, Fri-Homa Margarine,[29] Voss Margarine, Wagner Margarine, Kothe Tobacco, and Mampe Liquor,[32] as well as coffee, tea, oatmeal, and shoe cream. Other businesses and attractions that distributed these prizes with purchase were Markt-Apotheke Pharmacies, Siebenhaar and Braunschweig shoe stores, and Berlin and Magdeburg Zoos.[29] For many post- war German children, margarine prizes were the only toys they possessed for years. More than casual collectibles among nostalgic adults today, these tiny plastic loyalty marketing tools are a noteworthy element in the cultural history of German-speaking countries.[33]

Modern prize giant

Frito-Lay is a world icon in the field of in-package prizes. Besides being the current owner of Cracker Jack, the U.S. popcorn confection brand known for the "Prize Inside",[34] Frito-Lay also regularly includes tazos and tattoos in packages of Lay's chips worldwide. In parts of Latin America, Frito-Lay has even introduced a brand called Cheetos Sorpresa (English: Surprise), which includes a licensed prize (from movies, television, and video games) in every 29–gram bag. Cheetos Sorpresa Era de Hielo (available in Mexico) included plastic ice molds with characters from the film Ice Age 3 in 45–gram bags.[35] Game and television series Bakugan Battle Brawlers were featured on tazos in packages of Cheetos and Cheetos Surpresa from India to Peru in 2009 and 2010. [36]

Usefulness and collectability

Winter's, a Peruvian brand of chocolates owned by Compañía Nacional de Chocolates de Perú S.A.,[37] has a confectionary product called Chocopunch that is a cream chocolate in small individual packages. A key promotional aspect of Chocopunch since 1997[37] has been, packaged with the product, colorful injection molded plastic cucharitas (mini spoons) — in the shapes of different characters from movies, television, and video games — that are collected as prizes. Chocopunch El Chavo came with two flavors (chocolate and vanilla) combined in one 17 gram container. Packaged with Chocopunch El Chavo were mini spoons in the shape of characters from the syndicated cartoon television series El Chavo del Ocho. The injection molded plastic mini spoons came in 12 different shapes and five different colors, with a total of 60 different items in the collection. Technical advances

Sticky business

An important development in prizes is credited to American inventor R. Stanton (Stan) Avery. In 1935, Avery invented a machine to create self-adhesive labels. He started a company called Kum Klean Products to produce them. Self-adhesive labels with pre-printed designs on the front became commonly known as stickers. Today this company is known as the Avery Dennison Corporation and is a major supplier of self-adhesive stamps to the U.S. Postal Service.[38] Stickers had their fads beginning in the late 1950s with bumper stickers through the 1960s and children's sticker trading albums of the 1980s. Prizes used in retail products, including breakfast cereal, bubble gum, and Cracker Jack, reflected these trends, and many thousands of examples of colorfully printed self-adhesive works of art have found their way as prizes into packages of retail food and household products.

Plastic injection molding The invention of a screw injection molding machine by American inventor James Watson Hendry in 1946 changed the world of prizes forever. Thermoplastics could be used to produce toys and other plastic objects much more rapidly, and much more cheaply, because recycled plastic could be remolded using this process. In addition, injection molding for plastics required much less cool-down time for the toys, because the plastic is not completely melted before being injected into the molds. By 1948 the process was widely available, and injection-molded plastic prizes began to appear by the millions in boxes of Cracker Jack, breakfast cereal, and German margarine (1950-1954).[39] Hendry also developed the first gas-assisted injection molding process in the 1970s, which permitted the production of complex, hollow prizes that cooled quickly. This greatly improved design flexibility as well as the strength and finish of manufactured parts while reducing production time, cost, weight and waste.[40]

Lenticular technology

Lenticular lens technology, a major development in printing with significant applications in consumer marketing, brought numerous prizes — sometimes called tilt cards, flickers, or wiggle pictures — including images illustrated to morph from one view to another, show motion, or show depth (3D). Victor Anderson, a leader in the commercial success of lenticular printing, co- founded the Vari-Vue company in New York, which by the 1950s had produced millions of lenticular products, and lenticulars had become a pop culture craze.[41] Anderson created the first animated advertising button with the "I LIKE IKE" slogan for Eisenhower's campaign in 1951.[42] In the 1950s, Vari-Vue produced lenticular prizes under the "Magic-Motion" brand that were inserted into packages of numerous consumer products, including Cracker Jack popcorn confection in the US, and Locatelli‘s popular Formaggino Mio cheese in Italy.[43] Anderson related in a 1996 interview that he had made animated prizes for Cheerios, about 40 million of them, that were stuck to the side of the box, but so many of the prizes were being stolen before they even hit the shelves that Cheerios had to start inserting the prizes inside the boxes.[42] Two Japan companies provided prizes around the world in the 1960s and 70s, Toppan, with their "Top Stereo" brand, and Dai-Nippon.[43]

Photographic lenticular printing

Lenticulars from the 1940s and 50s had been developed from drawings or cartoon images. In the 1960s, Eastman Kodak Company in Tennessee developed "Xograph" technology for photographing and printing 3D lenticular images. The first mass-produced ink-printed "parallax panoramagram" (a black and white 3D photograph of a bust of Thomas Edison) was published in Look Magazine on February 25, 1964 and sold 8 million copies. Look Magazine followed up with the first color 3D lenticular photograph on April 7, 1964.[43] Optigraphics Corporation of Grand Prairie, Texas[44] was formed in 1970 and—under the guidance of Victor Anderson, the inventor of the modern lenticular production process who worked well into his 80's[45]— produced Kellogg‘s 3D Baseball Cards from 1970 to 1983.[28] Optigraphics produced the lenticular prizes for Cracker Jack in the 1980s, 7-Eleven Slurpee lenticular sports coins from 1983 to 1987,[46] and in 1986 it produced the first set of 3D traditional baseball cards marketed as Sportflics, which ultimately led to the creation of Pinnacle Brands.[47] In 1999 Performance Companies bought Optigraphics after Pinnacle Trading Card Company went bankrupt in 1998.[44] Prize manufacturers

Cloudcrest

C. Carey Cloud, sometimes called "year-round Santa Claus", was best known as a designer and producer of hundreds of different prizes for Cracker Jack from the 1930's through the 1960's through his company Cloudcrest. It is estimated that he created, produced, and delivered to the Cracker Jack Company 700 million toys.[48] At the same time he designed hundreds of premiums for companies such as Brach's Confections, Breck Candy Company, Bunny Bread, Carnival Candies, CoCo Wheats, Johnston Candies and Chocolates, New Orleans Confections Inc, Ovaltine, Pillsbury flour, Post Bran Flakes, Shotwell of Chicago, Thinshell Candies, and more.[49]

Nosco Plastics

Nosco Plastics, Inc. (commonly called "NOSCO", the mark used on its molded products) was the plastics molding division of National Organ Supply Company created in 1934 to make plastic parts for electric organs[50] and was located at 1701 Gaskell Avenue, Erie, Pennsylvania, 16503.[51] Beginning in 1948 with the implementation of the newly developed screw injection molding process, NOSCO quickly became a major early producer of tiny plastic toys called "slum" (very cheap prizes that are bought in bulk, sometimes for as little as $1 a gross or less)[52] sold to wholesalers as carnival merchandise, used by the millions as prizes in packages of Cracker Jack popcorn confection, and mail-order flats that were heavily advertised in American comic books as "100 Toy Soldiers for $1" by E. Joseph Cossman & Company.[50] NOSCO also held a number of patents on plastic molded products including mechanical toys, storage containers, pallets, and medical syringes.[53] From 1948 through 1960, The Cracker Jack Company at 4800 West 66th Street, Chicago, Illinois,[54] the largest toy buyer in the world at the time, used many millions of NOSCO toys as prizes in their caramel coated popcorn confection. These include the "Animal Stand-ups" (CJ Archive #Z-1111) that were marketed by the Levin Brothers — as well as the "100 Cowboys and Indians" set of 12 different figures (CJ Archive #Z-1137) and "3 Ring Circus" set of 12 different figures (CJ Archive #Z-1154) marketed as mail order items by Cossman & Levine. Other sets made by NOSCO for Cracker Jack include Alphabet Animals set of 26 (Z-1179), People (Occupations) Stand-ups (Z-1124), Spacemen Stand-ups set of 10 (Z-1227), a set of 16 double-sided Stand-ups (Z-1144), and Zodiac Coins set of 12 disks (Z-1182).[55]

R&L plastics

Rosenhain and Lipmann (commonly known as "R&L") was a plastics company in Melbourne Australia between 1959 and 1977. R&L designed and manufactured unique and innovative toys that became hugely popular both in Australia and in the United States.[56] R&L started out making snap-together items that worked like tiny plastic model kits that didn't need any glue and were issued in a clear glassine bag, inside Kellogg's cereal boxes. Space Nits were found in retail packages of both Kellogg's cereals and Cracker Jack popcorn confection. During the company's 18 year run, over 70 different sets were released and it is estimated that about one billion R&L toys were delivered around the world.[57] Becoming unprofitable, R&L factory equipment and contents was sold off to a company in Mexico in 1977.[57] This machinery was used to re-issue several series under the name "Tinykins". Although structurally the same, many colors varied and were brighter than the originals. The plastic and texture was also of a lesser quality.[57] Tinykins flooded the market and are often mistaken for, or sold as, R&L originals.[58] Loyalty marketing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marketing

Key concepts

Promotional contents

 Advertising  Branding  Underwriting spot  Direct marketing  Personal sales  Product placement  Propaganda  Publicity  Sales promotion  Sex in advertising  Loyalty marketing  Mobile marketing  Premiums  Prizes  Corporate anniversary  On-hold messaging

Promotional media

 Printing  Publication  Broadcasting  Out-of-home advertising  Internet  Point of sale  Merchandise  In-game advertising  Product demonstration  Word-of-mouth  Brand ambassador  Drip marketing  Visual merchandising

 v  t  e Loyalty marketing is an approach to marketing, based on strategic management, in which a company focuses on growing and retaining existing customers through incentives. Branding, product marketing and loyalty marketing all form part of the customer proposition – the subjective assessment by the customer of whether to purchase a brand or not based on the integrated combination of the value they receive from each of these marketing disciplines.[1]

The discipline of customer loyalty marketing has been around for many years, but expansions from it merely being a model for conducting business to becoming a vehicle for marketing and advertising have made it omnipresent in consumer marketing organizations since the mid- to late-1990s. Some of the newer loyalty marketing industry insiders, such as Fred Reichheld, have claimed a strong link between customer loyalty marketing and customer referral. In recent years, a new marketing discipline called "customer advocacy marketing" has been combined with or replaced "customer loyalty marketing." To the general public, many airline miles programs, hotel frequent guest programs and credit card incentive programs are the most visible customer loyalty marketing programs.[2] Contents

 1 History o 1.1 Retail merchandising . 1.1.1 Premiums . 1.1.1.1 Early premium programs . 1.1.1.2 Trading stamps . 1.1.1.3 Marketing through children . 1.1.1.4 Boxtops . 1.1.2 Prizes . 1.1.2.1 Tobacco inserts . 1.1.2.2 Trade cards to trading cards . 1.1.2.3 Modern packaged foods o 1.2 Direct marketing pioneers . 1.2.1 Ward: the father of mail order . 1.2.2 Wunderman: direct marketing genius o 1.3 Modern consumer rewards programs . 1.3.1 Frequent flyers . 1.3.2 Card linked offers  2 Loyalty marketing impact  3 Loyalty marketing and the loyalty business model  4 See also  5 References History

Retail merchandising

Premiums Premiums are items that a retail customer can receive by redeeming proofs of purchase from a specific product or store. This was one of the first loyalty marketing programs.

Early premium programs

Beginning in 1793, a U.S. merchant started giving out copper tokens which could be collected by the consumer and exchanged for items in the store. This practice caught on and was used by many merchants throughout the 19th century. Sweet Home laundry soap, a product of the B. A. Babbit Company, came with certificates that could be collected and redeemed for color lithographs. Beginning in 1872, the Grand Union Tea Company gave tickets to customers that could be exchanged for merchandise in the company catalog of Grand Union stores.

Trading stamps

The first trading stamps were introduced in 1891, the Blue Stamp Trading System, where stamps affixed to booklets could be redeemed for store products.[3] The Sperry and Hutchinson Company, started in 1896 in Jackson, Michigan, was the first third-party provider of trading stamps for various companies, including dry goods dealers, gas stations and later supermarkets. S&H Green Stamps, as the company was commonly called, opened its first redemption center in 1897. Customers could take their filled booklets of "green stamps" and redeem them for household products, kitchen items, and personal items. When the G.I.s returned from World War II the trading stamps business took off when numerous third-party companies created their own trading stamp programs to offer to supermarkets and other retailers.[4]

Marketing through children

Marketers of retail products used programs targeted at children to sell to their parents through the use of premiums. Kellogg's Corn Flakes had the first cereal premium with The Funny Jungleland Moving Pictures Book. The book was originally available as a prize that was given to the customer in the store with the purchase of two packages of the cereal.[5] But in 1909, Kelloggs changed the book give-away to a premium mail-in offer for the cost of a dime. Over 2.5 million copies of the book were distributed in different editions over a period of 23 years.[6]

At the beginning of the Second World War, radio was a big player in the promotion and distribution of premiums, usually toys that were closely related to the radio program. There were many radio shows that offered premiums to their listeners, but Captain Midnight was one of the best known. The early sponsor of Captain Midnight was Skelly Oil, and parents could get forms to mail-in for radio premiums at the gas stations. Later, Ovaltine became the sponsor of Captain Midnight, and it continued the premiums through advertising on the labels and foil tops of Ovaltine that could be collected to exchange for Captain Midnight premiums and offering membership to the "Secret Squadron".[7]

Boxtops

In 1929, Betty Crocker issued coupons that could be used to redeem for premiums like free flatware. In 1937 the coupons were printed on the outside of packages, and later the Betty Crocker points program produced a popular reward catalog from which customers could pick rewards using their points. In 2006, it was announced that the Betty Crocker Catalog was going out of business and that all points needed to be redeemed by December 15, 2006. With it, one of the earliest loyalty programs ended a 77 year tradition.[8]

Prizes

Tobacco inserts

Some of the earliest prizes were cigarette cards — trade cards advertising the product (not to be confused with trading cards) that were inserted into paper packs of cigarettes as stiffeners to protect the contents. Allan and Ginter in the U.S. in 1886, and British company W.D. & H.O. Wills in 1888, were the first tobacco companies to print advertisements and, a couple years later, lithograph pictures on the cards with an encyclopedic variety of topics from nature to war to sports — subjects that appealed to men who smoked.[9] By 1900, there were thousands of tobacco card sets manufactured by 300 different companies.[10] Following the success of cigarette cards, trade cards were produced by manufacturers of other products and included in the product or handed to the customer by the store clerk at the time of purchase.[9] World War II put an end to cigarette card production due to limited paper resources, and after the war cigarette cards never really made a comeback. After that collectors of prizes from retail products took to collecting tea cards in the UK and bubble gum cards in the US.[11]

Trade cards to trading cards

The first baseball cards were trade cards featuring the Brooklyn Atlantics produced in 1868 by Peck and Snyder, a sporting goods company that manufactured baseball equipment. In 1869, Peck and Snyder trade cards featured the first professional team, the Red Stockings.[12] Most of the baseball cards around the beginning of the 20th century came in candy and tobacco products produced by such companies as Breisch-Williams confectionery company of Oxford, Pennsylvania,[13] American Caramel Company, the Imperial Tobacco Company of Canada,[14] and Cabañas, a Cuban cigar manufacturer.[15] In fact it is a baseball set, known as the T-106 tobacco card set, distributed by the American Tobacco Company in 1909 that is considered by collectors to be the most popular set of cigarette cards.[16] In 1933, Goudey Gum Company of Boston issued baseball cards with players biographies on the backs and was the first to put baseball cards in bubble gum.[17] Bowman Gum of Philadelphia issued its first baseball cards in 1948 and became the biggest issuer of baseball cards from 1948 to 1952.

Modern packaged foods

The most famous use of prizes in the United States (and the word "prize" in this context) is Cracker Jack brand popcorn confection. Prizes have been inserted into every package of Cracker Jack continuously since 1912.[18] W.K. Kellogg was the first to introduce prizes in boxes of cereal. The marketing strategy that he established has produced thousands of different cereal box prizes that have been distributed by the tens of billions.[19] Frito-Lay is a world icon in the field of in-package prizes. Besides being the current owner of Cracker Jack, the U.S. popcorn confection brand known for the "Prize Inside",[20] Frito-Lay also regularly includes tazos and tattoos in packages of Lay's chips worldwide. In parts of Latin America, Frito-Lay has even introduced a brand called Cheetos Sorpresa (English: Surprise), which includes a licensed prize (from movies, television, and video games) in every 29–gram bag.[21]

Direct marketing pioneers

Ward: the father of mail order

By creating a direct marketing industry through his mail order catalogue, Aaron Montgomery Ward would unknowingly enable the creation of a powerful global network that would include everything from mailing, to mail order, to telemarketing and lastly to social medias.[22] Together Ward and his [long time] competitor Sears changed the direction of the American marketplace by introducing the concept of individuality with the term consumption, allowing therefore the generations of today to take full control of their consumption behaviours and all of this in complete privacy.[23] Today, the mail order catalogue industry Montgomery funded is worth approximately 100 billions of dollars,[23] and generates over 2 trillion only in [incremental] sales and supports till this day an estimated 10.9 million jobs either directly related to marketing industry or dependent upon it.[22]

Wunderman: direct marketing genius

Mail order pioneer Aaron Montgomery Ward knew that by using the technique of selling product directly to the consumer at appealing prices could, if executed effectively and efficiently, revolutionize the market industry and therefore be used as an innovative model for marketing products and creating customer loyalty.[22] The term "direct marketing" was coined long after Montgomery Ward's time. In 1967 Lester Wunderman identified, named, and defined "direct marketing". Wunderman — considered to be the father of contemporary direct marketing — is behind the creation of the toll-free 1-800 number[22] and numerous mail order based loyalty marketing programs including the Columbia Record Club, the magazine subscription card, and the American Express Customer Rewards program.[24]

Modern consumer rewards programs

Frequent flyers

On May 1, 1981 American Airlines launched the first full-scale loyalty marketing program of the modern era with the AAdvantage frequent flyer program.[25] This revolutionary program was the first to reward "frequent fliers" with reward miles that could be accumulated and later redeemed for free travel. Many airlines and travel providers saw the incredible value in providing customers with an incentive to use a company exclusively and be rewarded for their loyalty. Within a few years, dozens of travel industry companies launched similar programs. The AAdvantage program now boasts over 50 million active members.[26]

Card linked offers

The early part of 2010 saw the rise of Card Linked Offers (CLOs) as a new loyalty marketing technique for brands, retailers and financial institutions, stemming from a rise in popularity of both mobile payment and coupons. CLOs connect offers or discounts directly to a consumer‘s credit card or debit card, which can then be redeemed at the point of sale. CLOs have been implemented by American Express[27] and Groupon[28] and CLO technology has been developed by companies such as Cartera Commerce,[29] Womply,[30] Cardlytics, Linkable Networks , Birdback, Clovr Media,[31] and Offermatic.[32] In order to receive and use CLOs, consumers must willingly opt into a CLO program and provide their credit/debit card information.[33] When consumers see relevant CLO-enabled advertisements and product offers while browsing online, using a mobile device, watching TV, reading a newspaper or magazine or listening to the radio they can click, text or scan a QR code to link the CLO-enabled ad directly to their credit/debit card. After consumers make a purchase at the designated retail location, the savings appeared are credited directly to their bank, credit card or PayPal account. As such, CLOs eliminate point-of- sale integration, mail-in rebates and paper coupons. Offers are typically based upon consumer preferences and previous purchase history.[31] Prior to 2010, static CLOs existed for many years in the form of bank issued loyalty offers, such as points or savings on travel purchases. Loyalty marketing impact

Many loyalty programs have changed the way consumers interact with the companies from which they purchase products or services from and how much consumers spend. Many consumers in the US and Europe have become quite accustomed to the rewards and incentives they receive by being a "card carrying" member of an airline, hotel or car rental program. In addition, research from Chris X. Moloney shows that nearly half of all credit card users in the US utilize a points-based rewards program.[34]

In recent years, the competition for high income customers has led many of these loyalty marketing program providers to provide significant perks that deliver value well beyond reward points or miles. Both American's AAdvantage program and Starwood Hotels' Preferred Guest program have received industry awards, called "Freddie Awards" by Inside Flyer Magazine and its publisher Randy Petersen for providing perks that customers value highly. These perks have become as important to many travelers as their reward miles according to research.

In his book, Loyalty Rules!, Fred Reichheld details the value to customer referral on the growth and financial performance of dozens of leading US firms. Reichheld purports that the measurement of company advocates, or promoters, is the strongest single measurable correlation between customers and corporate performance. Similarly, Chris X. Moloney has presented new findings (Loyalty World London 2006) that showed a magnetic value to a company to promote and measure customer referrals and advocacy via research and marketing. Loyalty marketing and the loyalty business model

Main article: Loyalty business model

The loyalty business model relies on training of employees to achieve a specific paradigm: quality of product or service leads to customer satisfaction, which leads to customer loyalty, which leads to profitability. Loyalty marketing is an extension of that effort, relying upon word- of-mouth and advertising to draw upon the positive experiences of those exposed to loyalty business model inspired ventures to attract new customers. Fred Reichheld makes the point in his books that one can leverage the "power of extension" to draw new customers.[35]

The rapid expansion of frequent-flyer programs is due to the fact that loyalty marketing relies on the earned loyalty of current customers to attract new loyalty from future customers. Incentive programs that are exclusive must strike a balance between increasing benefits for new customers over any existing loyalty plan they are currently in and keeping existing customers from moving to new plans. Hallmark did this through devising a program that directly rewarded customers not only for buying merchandise and utilizing Hallmark.com, but gaining additional benefits through referring their friends.[36]

The most recent loyalty marketing programs rely on viral marketing techniques to spread word of incentive and inducement programs through word of mouth. Sex in advertising

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [hide]This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2013)

This article possibly contains original research. (April 2014)

Images of pretty women often appear in ads even without connection to the product being sold. This provocatively clad woman lends "sex appeal" to a 1921 ad for tire valve caps.

Marketing

Key concepts

Sex in advertising or sex sells is the use of sex appeal in advertising to help sell a particular product or service. Sexually appealing imagery may or may not pertain to the product or service in question. Examples of sexually appealing imagery include nudity, pin-up girls, and muscular men.

The use of sex in advertising can be highly overt or extremely subtle. It ranges from relatively explicit displays of sexual acts, to the use of basic cosmetics to enhance attractive features. Contents

 1 History  2 Consumer culture  3 Consumer identity  4 The concept  5 Effectiveness  6 Prevalence  7 Criticism  8 See also  9 References  10 External links History

Sex has been utilized in advertising since its beginning. The earliest forms are wood carvings and illustrations of attractive women (often unclothed from the waist up) adorned posters, signs, and ads for saloons, tonics, and tobacco. In several notable cases, sex in advertising has been claimed as the reason for increased consumer interest and sales. The earliest known use of sex in advertising is by the Pearl Tobacco brand in 1871, which featured a naked maiden on the package cover. In 1885, W. Duke & Sons inserted trading cards into cigarette packs that featured sexually provocative starlets. Duke grew to become the leading cigarette brand by 1890 (Porter, 1971).

Woodbury's Facial Soap, a woman's beauty bar, was almost discontinued in 1910. The soap's sales decline was reversed, however, with ads containing images of romantic couples and promises of love and intimacy for those using the brand (Account Histories, 1926). Jovan Musk Oil, introduced in 1971, was promoted with sexual entendre and descriptions of the fragrance's sexual attraction properties. As a result, Jovane, Inc.'s revenue grew from $1.5 million in 1971 to $77 million by 1978 (Sloan & Millman, 1979). The advertisements for Clairol hair dye during the 1970s, which asked the double entendre question, "Does she... or doesn't she? Only her hairdresser knows for sure", were another famous use of sex to sell products.[1]

Calvin Klein has been at the forefront of this movement, having said, "Jeans are about sex. The abundance of bare flesh is the last gasp of advertisers trying to give redundant products a new identity." Calvin Klein's first controversial jeans advertisement showed a 15-year-old Brooke Shields, in Calvin Klein jeans, saying, "Want to know what gets between me and my Calvins? Nothing."[2] Consumer culture

Near the beginning of the twentieth century, first-world society outside of career exercise became deeply involved in the consumption of goods as opposed to production, meaning that people began to pursue material goods with the goal of fulfilling a general desire to own the item rather than for later use. The sum of this ideal in the population comprise the majority of so- called consumers.[3]

Consumer culture actually impresses on the individual an egotistic drive to consume as a facet of cultural acceptance and self-actualization, which means people are constantly pursuing several types of gratification through the acquisition of potentially desirable items rather than more conventional means. In this way, the consumerism can manifest in individual in such ways as: impulsive financial expenditure, association of material possessions with social fitness, and habitual. At the root of this phenomenon, and the advent of habitual consumption in modernistic society.

Taylorism, which introduced analytical study and controlled adjustment of workflow with the purpose of fostering economic growth, coupled with the institution of scientific management in the industrial workforce, engendered a large increase in productivity during the mid-to-late twentieth century, bringing substantially more goods to market than ever before. Further, as technology improved, the ease with which a product could be advertised drastically increased, encouraging businesses to invest in the efficacy of advertisements as a whole. As a result of this investment, consumers were gradually enticed to lend their eyes and ears to advertisers not merely in the appropriate time and place, but at all hours of the day, in previously unprecedented locations.

To compound this increased exposure to advertisement in daily life, advancements in other fields of technology stood to increase the sum-total leisure time afforded most consumers per week, shortening the length of commutes and reducing the difficulty and time required to complete various types of work. This decrease in the time it takes the average worker to complete the same tasks would often leave workers idle during timeframes previously occupied by work or rest, inciting a willingness to invest time and money in order to prevent stagnation. The popularization of increasingly trivial products and activities during this downtime catalyzed the explosion of consumer culture in modern times. Giddens 1991.[4] Gradually, the public consensus on the nature of shopping slowly shifted as people no longer considered shopping a conscious, needs-driven activity, but rather an intrinsic feature of standard urban living; shopping became a societal ritual available to complete 24 hours per day, the time between sessions mitigated solely by the fluctuation of an individual's income. To reinforce this constant and inexorable reality of consumption, the average consumer is in near constant contact with engaging and provocative advertising through all forms of media that make use of a wide range of other motivational tools, most of which combine product placement with an appeal to other facets of human culture that may have little to do with the product at all.

Excluding more complex manipulation of the market through lengthy and subversive processes like operant conditioning, some of the most popular and/or efficient forms of advertising include appeals made to morality, contextual humor, and sexual drive, also known as libido. Consumer identity

Cultural capital the term used by Pierre Bourdieu, indicates the association of non-financial assets (e.g., material goods) with the power to build and differentiate one's social identity as relative to others of one's class. Often the type and amount of cultural capital possessed by an individual is an indication of self-identification as well as social position. When the positivity of an individual's self-perception is compromised, the consumption of specific goods can serve to mitigate detrimental effects and help to stabilize identity.[3]

In Aaron T. Beck‘s theory, the significance of social identity or work status are relevant to the processes of modernization, which is a traditional factor in identity. Perception of others is defined in relation to oneself, and the modernity of an individual in relation to society as a whole is a deciding factor in said individual's social identity.

As industry and career placement opportunities shift in time, many people are subjected to revisions in the standard, losing jobs for which they may have been well-qualified. Such stimuli can foster doubt and uncertainty in an individual and lower their overall self-esteem. This disruptive sense of uncertainty gives rise to a need to exert control over one's life, often in the form of consumption, in order to re-affirm the individuality and identity of the self.

The appearance of consumer-oriented goods more prominently throughout the economy can also be seen as an embodiment of the change in buyer-preference that has accompanied modernity. However, this change in consumption is also driven by the increased frequency of self- comparison and self-evaluation in individuals of recent decades. Lasch[who?] believes that modern society is too concerned with self-image, both physical and social, arguing that consumer culture also embodies a specific form of cultural narcissism. A prevailing facet of modern life is the need to fully and in most cases, and in some cases, instantly impress the nature of one's physical identity upon one's peers; thus, in modern societies, the expression of self-identity is already inextricably tied with physical expression.

In the face of such significant value being associated with physical imagery, the importance of maintaining one's physical appearance in such societies becomes universally recognizable. Furthermore, the promotion of such ideal images relates to the formation of cosmetic ideology, modifying societal beauty standards to corroborate popular imagery. The idealization of the body has altered what people value and with which pursuits the population can identify, glorifying the utilization of physically (sexually) appealing imagery as effective propaganda in the field of public marketing.[3] The concept

A model promotes Jägermeister, 2006

Sex in advertising builds on the premise that people are curious about sexuality and that experience in marketing has been that sexuality sells products. From a marketing point of view, sexuality can have biological, emotional/physical or spiritual aspects. The biological aspect of sexuality refers to the reproductive mechanism as well as the basic biological drive that exists in all species, which is hormonally controlled. The emotional or physical aspect of sexuality refers to the bond that exists between individuals, and is expressed through profound feelings or physical manifestations of emotions of love, trust, and caring. There is also a spiritual aspect of sexuality of an individual or as a connection with others. Advertisers may and do use the various aspects of sexuality in advertisements.

When sexuality is used in advertising, certain values and attitudes towards sex are necessarily 'sold' along with a product. In advertising terms, this is called "the concept". The message may be that "innocence is sexy" (as used by Calvin Klein when it uses young people in provocative poses), or that link pain and violence with sexiness and glamour (as used by Versace), or that women enjoy being dominated, or that women come with a product (e.g. in the advertisement for Budweiser Beer), or that the use of a certain product is naughty but legal, or that use of a certain product will make the user more attractive to the opposite sex, and many other messages.

When couples are used in an advertisement, the sex-roles played by each also sends out messages. The interaction of the couple may send out a message of relative dominance and power, and may stereotype the roles of one or both partners. Usually the message is very subtle, and sometimes advertisements attract interest by changing stereotypical roles. Effectiveness

Gallup & Robinson, an advertising and marketing research firm, has reported that in more than 50 years of testing advertising effectiveness, it has found the use of the erotic to be a significantly above-average technique in communicating with the marketplace, "...although one of the more dangerous for the advertiser. Weighted down with taboos and volatile attitudes, sex is a Code Red advertising technique ... handle with care ... seller beware; all of which makes it even more intriguing." This research has led to the popular idea that "sex sells".[citation needed]

In contemporary mainstream consumer advertising (e.g., magazines, network and cable television), sex is present in promotional messages for a wide range of branded goods. Ads feature provocative images of well-defined women (and men) in revealing outfits and postures selling clothing, alcohol, beauty products, and fragrances. Advertisers such as Calvin Klein, Victoria's Secret, and Pepsi use these images to cultivate a ubiquitous sex-tinged media presence. Also, sexual information is used to promote mainstream products not traditionally associated with sex. For example, the Dallas Opera recent reversal of declining ticket sales has been attributed to the marketing of the more lascivious parts of its performances (Chism, 1999).[5]

As many consumers and professionals think, sex is used to grab a viewer's attention but this is a short-term success. Whether using sex in advertising is effective depends on the product.[6] About three-quarters of advertisements using sex to sell the product are communicating a product-related benefit, such as the product making its users more sexually attractive.

Nonetheless, there are some studies that contradict the theory that sex is an effective tool for improving finances and gathering attention. A study from 2009 found that there was no correlation between nudity and sexuality in movies, and box office performance and critical acclaim.[7] A 2005 research by MediaAnalyzer has found that less than 10% of men recalled the brand of sexual ads, compared to more than 19% of non sexual ads; a similar result was found on women (10.8% vs. 22.3%). It is hypothesized by that survey, that this is a result of a general numbing caused by sexual stimuli.[8]

In another experimental study conducted on 324 undergraduate college students, Bushman examined brand recall for neutral, sexual or violent commercials embedded in neutral, sexual or violent TV programs. He found that found brand recall was higher for participants who saw neutral TV programs and neutral commercials versus those who saw sexual or violent commercials embedded in sexual or violent TV programs.[9]

Some sexually oriented advertisements provoke a backlash against the product. In 1995, Calvin Klein's advertising campaign showed teenage models in provocative poses wearing Calvin Klein underwear and jeans. The ads were withdrawn when parents and child welfare groups threatened to protest and Hudson stores did not want their stores associated with the ads. It was reported that the Justice Department was investigating the ad campaign for possible violations of federal child pornography and exploitation laws. The Justice Department subsequently decided not to prosecute Calvin Klein for these proposed violations. [10] Using sex may attract one market demographic while repelling another. The overt use of sexuality to promote breast cancer awareness, through fundraising campaigns like "I Love Boobies" and "Save the Ta-tas", is effective at reaching young women,[citation needed] who are at low risk of developing breast cancer, but angers and offends some breast cancer survivors and older women, who are at higher risk of developing breast cancer.[11]

Recent research indicates that the use of sexual images of women in ads negatively affects women's interest.[12] A study from University of Minnesota in 2013 of how printed ads with sexual content affects women clearly showed that women are not attracted except in the case of products being luxurious and expensive.[13] Besides alienating women there is a serious risk that the audience in general will reduce support to organisations that uses the sexual images of women without a legitimate reason.[14] Other studies have found that sex in television is extremely overrated and does not sell products in ads. Unless sex is related to the product (such as beauty, health or hygiene products) there is not clear effect.[15][16]

Sexuality in advertising is extremely effective at attracting the consumer‘s attention and once it has their attention, to remember the message. This solves the greatest problem in advertising of getting the advertisement to be remembered. However the introduction of attraction and especially sexuality into an ad often distracts from the original message and can cause an adverse effect of the consumer wanting to take action.[17] Prevalence

Over the past two decades, the use of increasingly explicit sexual imagery in consumer-oriented print advertising has become almost commonplace.

In recent years ads for jeans, perfumes and many other products have featured provocative images that were designed to elicit sexual responses from as large a cross section of the population as possible, to shock by their ambivalence, or to appeal to repressed sexual desires, which are thought to carry a stronger emotional load. Increased tolerance, more tempered censorship, emancipatory developments and increasing buying power of previously neglected appreciative target groups in rich markets (mainly in the West) have led to a marked increase in the share of attractive flesh 'on display'.

Ad Age published a list of Top 100 most effective advertising of the century, out of the 100, only 8 involved use of sex.[1]

Unruly Media's viral video tracker lists the Top-20 most viewed car commercial viral videos. Only 1 uses sex, while the No.1 spot was held by VW's "The Force" ad.[18] The overall top-spot (across all product segments), was held by VW's "Fun Theory" campaign, the most viewed viral video as of October 2011. Criticism Use of sexual imagery in advertising has been criticized on various grounds. Religious Conservatives often consider it obscene or immodest. Some feminists and masculists claim it reinforces sexism by objectifying the individual. Increasingly, this argument has been complicated by growing use of androgynous and homoerotic themes in marketing.[19]

Advertisers trying to reach low-income and less educated men frequently use hypermasculine stereotypes, such as depicting men as only being capable of a limited range of behaviors, such as being physically violent or sexually aggressive.[20]

Since the late 1970s, many researchers have determined that advertisements depict women as having less social power than men, but the ways in which females are displayed as less powerful than men have evolved over time. In modern times, advertisements have displayed women‘s expanding roles in the professional realm and importance in business backgrounds. However, as this change occurred there has been a substantial increase in the number of images that showcase women as less sexually powerful than men and as objects of men‘s desire.[21] Sales promotion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marketing

Key concepts

Half Off Discount

Sales promotion is one of the five aspects of the promotional mix. (The other 4 parts of the promotional mix are advertising, personal selling, direct marketing and publicity/public relations.) Media and non-media marketing communication are employed for a pre-determined, limited time to increase consumer demand, stimulate market demand or improve product availability. Examples include contests, coupons, freebies, loss leaders, point of purchase displays, premiums, prizes, product samples, and rebates

Sales promotions can be directed at either the customer, sales staff, or distribution channel members (such as retailers). Sales promotions targeted at the consumer are called consumer sales promotions. Sales promotions targeted at retailers and wholesale are called trade sales promotions. Some sale promotions, particularly ones with unusual methods, are considered gimmicks by many.

Sales promotion includes several communications activities that attempt to provide added value or incentives to consumers, wholesalers, retailers, or other organizational customers to stimulate immediate sales. These efforts can attempt to stimulate product interest, trial, or purchase. Examples of devices used in sales promotion include coupons, samples, premiums, point-of- purchase (POP) displays, contests, rebates, and sweepstakes.

Sales promotion is needed to attract new customers, to hold present customers, to counteract competition, and to take advantage of opportunities that are revealed by market research. It is made up of activities, both outside and inside activities, to enhance company sales. Outside sales promotion activities include advertising, publicity, public relations activities, and special sales events. Inside sales promotion activities includes window displays, product and promotional material display and promotional programs such as premium awards and contests.[1]

Sale promotions often come in the form of discounts. Discounts impact the way consumers think and behave when shopping. The type of savings and its location can affect the way consumers view a product and affect their purchase decision.[2] The two most common discounts are price discounts (―on sale items‖) and bonus packs (―bulk items‖).[2] Price discounts are the reduction of an original sale by a certain percentage while bonus packs are deals in which the consumer receives more for the original price.[2] Many companies present different forms of discounts in advertisements, hoping to convince consumers to buy their products. Contents

 1 Consumer sales promotion types o 1.1 Online deals vs. In-store deals  2 Trade sales promotion techniques  3 Retail Mechanics  4 Consumer Thought Process o 4.1 Meaningful Savings: Gain or Loss o 4.2 Impulse Buying o 4.3 Comparing Prices o 4.4 Right Digit Effect o 4.5 Framing Effect o 4.6 Outside Forces  5 Political issues  6 See also  7 References  8 External links Consumer sales promotion types

 Price deal: A temporary reduction in the price, such as 50% off.  Loyal Reward Program: Consumers collect points, miles, or credits for purchases and redeem them for rewards.  Cents-off deal: Offers a brand at a lower price. Price reduction may be a percentage marked on the package.  Price-pack/Bonus packs deal: The packaging offers a consumer a certain percentage more of the product for the same price (for example, 25 percent extra). This is another type of deal ―in which customers are offered more of the product for the same price‖.[2] For example, a sales company may offer their consumers a bonus pack in which they can receive two products for the price of one. In these scenarios, this bonus pack is framed as a gain because buyers believe that they are obtaining a free product.[2] The purchase of a bonus pack, however, is not always beneficial for the consumer. Sometimes consumers will end up spending money on an item they would not normally buy had it not been in a bonus pack. As a result, items bought in a bonus pack are often wasted and is viewed as a ―loss‖ for the consumer.  Coupons: coupons have become a standard mechanism for sales promotions.  Loss leader: the price of a popular product is temporarily reduced below cost in order to stimulate other profitable sales  Free-standing insert (FSI): A coupon booklet is inserted into the local newspaper for delivery.  Checkout dispensers: On checkout the customer is given a coupon based on products purchased.  Mobile couponing: Coupons are available on a mobile phone. Consumers show the offer on a mobile phone to a salesperson for redemption.  Online interactive promotion game: Consumers play an interactive game associated with the promoted product.  Rebates: Consumers are offered money back if the receipt and barcode are mailed to the producer.  Contests/sweepstakes/games: The consumer is automatically entered into the event by purchasing the product.  Point-of-sale displays:- o Aisle interrupter: A sign that juts into the aisle from the shelf. o Dangler: A sign that sways when a consumer walks by it. o Dump bin: A bin full of products dumped inside. o Bidding portals: Getting prospects o Glorifier: A small stage that elevates a product above other products. o Wobbler: A sign that jiggles. o Lipstick Board: A board on which messages are written in crayon. o Necker: A coupon placed on the 'neck' of a bottle. o YES unit: "your extra salesperson" is a pull-out fact sheet. o Electroluminescent: Solar-powered, animated light in motion.[3]  Kids eat free specials: Offers a discount on the total dining bill by offering 1 free kids meal with each regular meal purchased.  Sampling: Consumers get one sample for free, after their trial and then could decide whether to buy or not.

Online deals vs. In-store deals

There are different types of discounts available online versus in the stores. On-shelf couponing: Coupons are present at the shelf where the product is available. * On-line couponing: Coupons are available online. Consumers print them out and take them to the store.Although discounts can be found online and in stores, there is a different thought process when shopping in each location. For example, ―online shoppers are more price-sensitive because of the readily available low search cost and direct price comparisons‖.[2] Consumers can easily go to other websites and find better deals as opposed to physically going to various stores.[2] In addition, buyers tend to refrain from purchasing bonus packs online because of the skepticism (of fraud and scams) that may come with the deal.[2] Since ―…bonus packs are more difficult than price discounts to process online, they are more difficult and effortful for the consumer to understand‖.[2] For example, a buy-one-get-one-free deal on a website requires more work than the same bonus pack offered in a store. Online, consumers have to deal with payment processing, shipping and handling fees, and days waiting for the products‘ arrival, while in a store, the products are available without those additional steps and delays. Trade sales promotion techniques

 Trade allowances: short term incentive offered to induce a retailer to stock up on a product.  Dealer loader: An incentive given to induce a retailer to purchase and display a product.  Trade contest: A contest to reward retailers that sell the most product.  Point-of-purchase displays: Used to create the urge of "impulse" buying and selling your product on the spot.  Training programs: dealer employees are trained in selling the product.  Push money: also known as "spiffs". An extra commission paid to retail employees to push products.

Trade discounts (also called functional discounts): These are payments to distribution channel members for performing some function . Retail Mechanics

Retailers have a stock number of retail 'mechanics' that they regularly roll out or rotate for new marketing initiatives.

 Buy x get y free a.k.a. BOGOF for Buy One Get One Free  Three for two  Buy a quantity for a lower price  Get x% of discount on weekdays.  Free gift with purchase Consumer Thought Process

Meaningful Savings: Gain or Loss

Many discounts are designed to give consumers the perception of saving money when buying products, but not all discounted prices are viewed as favorable to buyers. Therefore, before making a purchase, consumers may weigh their options as either a gain or a loss to avoid the risk of losing money on a purchase.[4] A ―gain‖ view on a purchase results in chance taking.[4] For example, if there is a buy-one-get-one-half-off discount that seems profitable, a shopper will buy the product. On the other hand, a ―loss‖ viewpoint results in consumer aversion to taking any chances.[4] For instance, consumers will pass on a buy-three-get-one-half-off discount if they believe they are not benefitting from the deal. Specifically, consumers will consider their options because ―…the sensation of loss is 2.5 times greater than the sensation of gain for the same value‖.[4]

Impulse Buying

Impulse buying results from consumers‘ failure to weigh their options before buying a product. Impulse buying is ―any purchase that a shopper makes that has not been planned… [and is] sudden and immediate‖.[2] For example, if a consumer has no intention of buying a product before entering a store, but purchases an item without any forethought, that is impulse buying. Product manufactures want to promote and encourage this instant purchase impulse in consumers. Buyers can be very quick to make purchases without thinking about the consequences when a product is perceived to be a good deal.[2] Therefore, sales companies ―increasingly implement promotional campaigns that will be effective in triggering consumer impulse buying behavior‖ to increase sales and profit.[2]

Comparing Prices

Many consumers read left-to-right, and therefore, compare prices in the same manner.[5] For example, if the price of a product is $93 and the sales price is $79, people will initially compare the left digits first (9 and 7) and notice the two digit difference.[5] However, because of this habitual behavior, ―consumers may perceive the ($14) difference between $93 and $79 as greater than the ($14) difference between $89 and $75‖.[5] As a result, many times consumers mistakenly believe they are receiving a better deal with the first set of prices based on the left digit solely.[5] And because of that common misconception, companies will use that method more often than not to make a profit.

Right Digit Effect

The right digit effect focuses on the right digits of prices when the left digits are the same.[5] In other words, prices like $45 and $42 force consumers to pay more attention to the right digits (the 2 and 5) to determine the discount received. This effect also ―implies that consumers will perceive larger discounts for prices with small right digit endings, than for large right digit endings.[5] For example, in a $32-to-$31 price reduction, consumers will believe to have received a greater deal than a $39-to-$38 price reduction. As a result, companies may use discounts with smaller right digits to mislead consumers into thinking they are receiving a better deal and increasing profit. However, consumers also are deceived by the infamous 9-ending prices.[5] ―The right digit effect [also] relates to consumers‘ tendency to identify 9-ending prices as sale (rather than regular) prices or to associate them with a discount.[5] For example, a regular price of $199 is mistakenly viewed as a sale or discount by consumers. Sales companies most commonly use this approach because the misinterpretation of consumers usually results in an increase of sales and profit.

Framing Effect

The Framing Effect is ―the phenomenon that occurs when there is a change in an individual‘s preference between two or more alternatives caused by the way the problem is presented‖.[4] In other words, the format in which something is presented will affect a person‘s viewpoint. This theory consists of three subcategories: risky choice framing, attribute framing and goal framing.[6] Risky choice framing references back to the gain-or-loss thought processes of consumers.[4][6] Consumers will take chances if the circumstance is profitable for them and avoid chance-taking if it is not. Attribute framing deals with one key phrase or feature of a price discount that is emphasized to inspire consumer shopping.[6] For example, the terms ―free‖ and ―better‖ are used commonly to lure in shoppers to buy a product. Goal framing places pressure on buyers to act hastily or face the consequences of missing out on a definite price reduction.[6] A ―limited time only‖ deal, for example, attempts to motivate buyers to make a purchase quickly, or buy on impulse, before the time runs out.[6]

Outside Forces Although there are aspects that can determine a consumer‘s shopping behavior, there are many outside factors that can influence the shoppers‘ decision in making a purchase. For example, even though a product‘s price is discounted, the quality of that product may dissuade the consumer from buying the item.[4] If the product has poor customer reviews or has a short ―life span,‖ shoppers will view that purchase as a loss and avoid taking a chance on it. A product can also be viewed negatively because of consumers‘ past experiences and expectations.[4] For example, if the size of a product is misleading, buyers will not want to buy it. An item advertised as ―huge,‖ but is only one inch tall, will ward off consumers. Also, ―the effects of personal characteristics, such as consumers‘ gender, subjective norms, and impulsivity‖ can also affect a consumer‘s purchase intentions.[2] For example, a female will, generally, purchase a cosmetic product more often than a male. In addition, ―some…shoppers may be unable to buy [a product]…because of financial constraints‖.[2] Neither a discounted price nor a bonus pack has the ability to entice consumers if they cannot afford the product. Political issues

Sales promotions have traditionally been heavily regulated in many advanced industrial nations, with the notable exception of the United States. For example, the United Kingdom formerly operated under a resale price maintenance regime in which manufacturers could legally dictate the minimum resale price for virtually all goods; this practice was abolished in 1964.[7]

Most European countries also have controls on the scheduling and permissible types of sales promotions, as they are regarded in those countries as bordering upon unfair business practices. Germany is notorious for having the most strict regulations. Famous examples include the car wash that was barred from giving free car washes to regular customers and a baker who could not give a free cloth bag to customers who bought more than 10 rolls.[8] Comparison shopping website

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A comparison shopping website, sometimes called a price comparison website, comparison shopping agent, shopbot or comparison shopping engine, is a vertical search engine that shoppers use to filter and compare products based on price, features, and other criteria. Most comparison shopping sites aggregate product listings from many different retailers but do not directly sell products themselves. In the United Kingdom, these services made between £780m and £950m in revenue in 2005[1][dated info]. Contents

 1 History  2 Comparison shopping agent o 2.1 Shopping o 2.2 Services  3 Technology o 3.1 Functionality and performance  4 Price data collection o 4.1 Mobile  5 Pricing History  6 Business models  7 Google Panda and price comparison  8 Niche players  9 See also  10 References History

The first widely recognized comparison-shopping agent was BargainFinder developed by then Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and its SmartStore center in 1995 for an experiment. The first commercial shopping agent, called Jango, was produced by Netbot, a Seattle startup company founded by University of Washington professors Oren Etzioni and Daniel S. Weld; Netbot was acquired by the Excite portal in late 1997. Junglee, a Bay-area startup, also pioneered comparison shopping technology and was soon acquired by Amazon.com. Other early comparison shopping agents included pricewatch.com and killerapp.com. Most of them were price comparison for computer related products and hence did not attract much public attention.

The dot-com bubble of the late 1990s made price comparison profitable. Price comparison services were initially implemented as client-side add-ins to the Netscape and Internet explorer browsers, and required that users download and install additional software. After these initial efforts, comparison shopping migrated to the server, making the service accessible to anyone with a browser. Such services are now offered by websites dedicated to price comparison, and by major portals. Since shopping on e-commerce sites is still new in many countries, there aren't many global sites in this category.

Around 2010, the price comparison websites found their way to emerging markets. Especially South-East Asia has been a place for many new comparison websites. It started in 2010 with CompareXpress in Singapore, and in the following years companies like Baoxian (China) and AskHanuman (Thailand) followed.[2] The market is expected to grow a lot in the upcoming years as ecommerce is becoming more familiar in this region.

As of 2013, the market for more data-driven price comparison sites was growing, as several venture capital firms made large investments in price comparison sites with big-data oriented platforms, including FindTheBest, Askhanuman and the Singaporean price comparison startup Save 22.[3][4][5] Comparison shopping agent

In the early development stage from 1995 to 2000, comparison shopping agents included not only price comparison but also rating and review services for online vendors and products. For example, services like Bizrate.com provided ratings for online vendors. Today, websites like Epinion.com provide review and rating services for products. Altogether, there were three broad categories of comparison shopping services.[6]

Later, through mergers and acquisitions, many services were consolidated. As a result, shopping.com, PriceGrabber and shopzilla have become the top three comparison shopping agents since 2000.

Comparison shopping agents may be considered early examples of the Semantic Web, but early systems used wrappers to extract structured information about products from Web pages. Wrapper construction requires extensive programming and results in a fragile system, since they must be reprogrammed when an online store changes its layout. Modern comparison shopping systems get most of their data from relational data feeds generated by retailers. While this typically yields more robust results, it requires retailer cooperation and may produce less comprehensive listings.

Shopping

In the late 1990s, as more people gained access to the internet, a range of shopping portals were built that listed retailers for specific product genres. Retailers listed paid the website a fixed fee for appearing. These were little more than an online version of the Yellow Pages. As technology has improved, a newer "breed" of shopping Web portals is being created that are changing both the business model and the features and functionality offered. These sites do not "aggregate" data-feeds provided from the retailers, they search and retrieve the data directly from each retailer site. That allows for a much more comprehensive list of retailers and the ability to update the data in real time.

Generic portals and search engines launched similar services and companies that stood to benefit from increased internet shopping (especially credit card and delivery firms) launched similar sites.

Services

Through 1998 and 1999, various firms developed technology that searched retailers websites for prices and stored them in a central database. Users could then search for a product, and see a list of retailers and prices for that product. Advertisers did not pay to be listed, but paid for every click on a price. Streetprices, founded in 1997, has been a very early company in this space; it invented price graphs and email alerts in 1998.[7] These useful services let users see the high and low price of any product graphed over time, and request email alerts when a product's price drops to the price the user wants. O Cbuystore.com its largest online shopping compare website. cbuystore are available in eight countries to help finding and compare prices of any product that you want to purchase or buy. Technology Price comparison sites can collect data directly from merchants. Retailers who want to list their products on the website then supply their own lists of products and prices, and these are matched against the original database. This is done by a mixture of information extraction, fuzzy logic and human labour.

Comparison sites can also collect data through a data feed file. Merchants provide information electronically in a set format. This data is then imported by the comparison website. Some third party businesses are providing consolidation of data feeds so that comparison sites do not have to import from many different merchants. Affiliate networks such as LinkShare, Commission Junction or TradeDoubler aggregate data feeds from many merchants and provide them to the price comparison sites. This enables price comparison sites to monetize the products contained in the feeds by earning commissions on click through traffic. Other price comparison sites like PriceGrabber have deals with merchants and aggregate feeds using their own technology.

In recent years, many off the shelf software solutions[8] have been developed that allow website owners to take price comparison websites' inventory data to place retailer prices (context adverts) on their blog or content only website. In return the content website owners receive a small share of the revenue earned by the price comparison website. This is often referred to as the revenue share[9] business model.

Another approach is to crawl the web for prices. This means the comparison service scans retail web pages to retrieve the prices, instead of relying on the retailers to supply them. This method is also sometimes called 'scraping' information. Some, mostly smaller, independent sites solely use this method, to get prices directly from the websites that it is using for the comparison.

Yet another approach is to collect data is through crowdsourcing. This lets the price comparison engine collect data from almost any source without the complexities of building a crawler or the logistics of setting up data feeds at the expense of lower coverage comprehensiveness. Sites that use this method rely on visitors contributing pricing data. Unlike discussion forums, which also collect visitor input, price comparison sites that use this method combine data with related inputs and add it to the main database though collaborative filtering, artificial intelligence, or human labor. Data contributors may be rewarded for the effort through prizes, cash, or other social incentives. Wishabi, a Canadian based price comparison site, is one example that employs this technique in addition to the others mentioned.

However, some combination of these two approaches is most frequently used. Some search engines are starting to blend information from standard feeds with information from sites where product stock-keeping units (SKUs) are unavailable.

Similar to search engine technology, price comparison sites are now spawning "comparison site optimisation" specialists, who attempt to increase prominence on the comparison sites by optimising titles, prices and content.[citation needed] However, this does not always have the same effect, due to the differing business models in price comparison.[citation needed]

Functionality and performance Comparison shopping websites implement algorithms for shopping search comparison. Shopping search comparison (SSC) is composed of two different technologies: page-wise search and site- wise search.

In page-wise search a phrase, such as a product name, is searched over an index of pages. When the phrase is found, the URLs of the pages in which the phrase was found are returned to the user in the user‘s browser along with pictures of the products found.

In site-wise search, several product names are searched not over an index of pages, but over an index of sites. To perform a site-wise search the SSC engine must search all pages in every site in its index and return the sites that have pages where one of the several product names occur. Site-wise search is more computer-intensive because multiple products are searched over multiple pages on multiple sites. The result, although costly in terms of computing power, is that a list of products may be searched and found at a single website – for example at an online merchant.

Empirical projects that assessed the functionality and performance of page-wise SSC engines (AKA bots) exist. These studies demonstrate that no best or parsimonious shopping bot exists with respect to price advantage.[10][11] Price data collection

Some price comparisons sites use web scraping technology or robots to extract price from the online stores to display in price comparison table, while others use an affiliation API call to display price comparison of products.[citation needed]

Common comparison features Browse Comparis Specificat Offli Mobi Multi WebSi r on Watchl Foru Blo ion AP ne Site le ple te Extensi Between ist ms g Comparis I Store App Stores on Stores on s PriceGrabb Ye Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No No No er s Shopping.c Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No No No No om

Mobile

Mobile comparison shopping is a growing subset of comparison sites/applications. Due to the nuances of mobile application development, different product strategies have been pursued. SMS-based products allow users to find product prices using SMS-based interaction (example: TextBuyIt by Amazon), mobile web applications let users browse mobile optimized websites (Example: Google Product Search Mobile). At the heavier end, native client applications installed on the device offer features such as bar code scanning (Example: Barnes & Noble iPhone app).[12] Pricing History

In addition to comparison between stores, some sites also provide price history information. This information can be used to determine, e.g., that certain products go on sale regularly, or that certain stores never discount specific product categories. Seeing this information across multiple stores can facilitate price matching or price protection.[citation needed] Business models

Price comparison sites typically do not charge users anything to use the site. Instead, they are monetized through payments from retailers who are listed on the site. Depending on the particular business model of the comparison shopping site, retailers either pay a flat fee to be included on the site, pay a fee each time a user clicks through to the retailer web site, or pay every time a user completes a specified action—for example, when they buy something or register with their e-mail address. Comparison shopping sites obtain large product data feeds covering many different retailers from affiliate networks such as LinkShare and Commission Junction. There are also companies that specialize in data feed consolidation for the purpose of price comparison and that charge users for accessing this data. When products from these feeds are displayed on their sites they earn money each time a visitor clicks through to the merchant's site and buys something. Search results may be sorted by the amount of payment received from the merchants listed on the website.[13] large price comparison sites.[14] Google Panda and price comparison

Like most websites, price comparison websites partly rely on search engines for visitors. The general nature of Shopping focused price comparison websites is that, since their content is provided by retail stores, content on price comparison websites is unlikely to be absolutely unique. The table style layout of a comparison website could be considered by Google as "Autogenerated Content and Roundup/Comparison Type of Pages".[15] As of the Google Panda, Google seems to have started considering these Roundup/Comparison type of pages low quality.[16] Niche players

Due to large affiliate network providers providing easily accessible information on large amounts of similar products from multiple vendors, in recent years small price comparison sites have been able to use technology that was previously only available to large price comparison sites.[14]

The rise in popularity of video games expanded the price comparison market beyond physical goods. Niche websites for comparing the prices of virtual goods in video games and digital downloads have emerged in recent years.[17] Social commerce From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Part of a series on

E-commerce

Online goods and services

 E-books  Software  Streaming media

Retail services  Banking  DVD-by-mail  Flower delivery  Food ordering  Pharmacy  Travel

Marketplace services  Advertising  Auctions  Comparison shopping  Social commerce  Trading communities  Wallet

Mobile commerce  Payment  Ticketing

Customer service  Call centre  Help desk  Live support software

E-procurement

Purchase-to-pay

 v  t  e

Social commerce[1] is a subset of electronic commerce that involves social media, online media that supports social interaction, and user contributions to assist online buying and selling of products and services.

More succinctly, social commerce is the use of social network(s) in the context of e-commerce transactions.

The term social commerce was introduced by Yahoo! in November 2005[2] which describes a set of online collaborative shopping tools such as shared pick lists, user ratings and other user- generated content-sharing of online product information and advice.

The concept of social commerce was developed by David Beisel to denote user-generated advertorial content on e-commerce sites,[3] and by Steve Rubel[4] to to include collaborative e- commerce tools that enable shoppers "to get advice from trusted individuals, find goods and services and then purchase them". The social networks that spread this advice have been found[5] to increase the customer's trust in one retailer over another.

Social commerce aims to assist companies in achieving the following purposes. Firstly, social commerce helps companies engage customers with their brands according to the customers‘ social behaviors. Secondly, it provides an incentive for customers to return to their website. Thirdly, it provides customers with a platform to talk about their brand on their website. Fourthly, it provides all the information customers need to research, compare, and ultimately choose you over your competitor, thus purchasing from you and not others.[6]

Today, the range of social commerce has been expanded to include social media tools and content used in the context of e-commerce, especially in the fashion industry. Examples of social commerce include customer ratings and reviews, user recommendations and referrals, social shopping tools (sharing the act of shopping online), forums and communities, social media optimization, social applications and social advertising.[7] Technologies such as Augmented Reality have also been integrated with social commerce, allowing shoppers to visualize apparel items on themselves and solicit feedback through social media tools.[8] Some academics[9] have sought to distinguish "social commerce" from "social shopping", with the former being referred to as collaborative networks of online vendors; the latter, the collaborative activity of online shoppers. Contents

 1 Timeline  2 Elements of Social Commerce  3 Features  4 Types o 4.1 Onsite Social Commerce o 4.2 Offsite Social Commerce o 4.3 Onsite vs. Offsite Social Commerce  5 Measurements  6 Business Applications  7 Business Examples o 7.1 Facebook Commerce (F-Commerce)  8 Trend: Past Improvement & Prospective View o 8.1 Social Commerce Trends in 2011 o 8.2 Social Commerce Trends in 2012 o 8.3 Social Commerce Trends in 2013 o 8.4 Social Commerce Trends in 2014 o 8.5 Social Commerce Trends in 2015  9 See also  10 References  11 External links Timeline

 2005: The term ―social commerce‖ was first introduced on Yahoo! in 2005.[10] Elements of Social Commerce

1. Reciprocity - When a company gives a person something for free, that person will feel the need to return the favor, whether by buying again or giving good recommendations for the company. 2. Community - When people find an individual or a group that shares the same values, likes, beliefs, etc., they find community. People are more committed to a community that they feel accepted within. When this commitment happens, they tend to follow the same trends as a group and when one member introduces a new idea or product, it is accepted more readily based on the previous trust that has been established.[11] It would be beneficial for companies to develop partnerships with social media sites to engage social communities with their products. 3. Social proof - To receive positive feedback, a company needs to be willing to accept social feedback and to show proof that other people are buying, and like, the same things that I like. This can be seen in a lot of online companies such as eBay and Amazon, that allow public feedback of products and when a purchase is made, they immediately generate a list showing purchases that other people have made in relation to my recent purchase. It is beneficial to encourage open recommendation and feedback.[12] This creates trust for you as a seller. 55% of buyers turn to social media when they‘re looking for information.[13] 4. Authority - Many people need proof that a product is of good quality. This proof can be based on the recommendations of others who have bought the same product. If there are many user reviews about a product, then a consumer will be more willing to trust their own decision to buy this item. 5. Liking - People trust based on the recommendations of others. If there are a lot of ―likes‖ of a particular product, then the consumer will feel more confident and justified in making this purchase. 6. Scarcity - As part of supply and demand, a greater value is assigned to products that are regarded as either being in high demand or are seen as being in a shortage. Therefore, if a person is convinced that they are purchasing something that is unique, special, or not easy to acquire, they will have more of a willingness to make a purchase. If there is trust established from the seller, they will want to buy these items immediately. This can be seen in the cases of Zara (retailer) and Apple Inc. who create demand for their products by convincing the public that there is a possibility of missing out on being able to purchase them. Features

The main features of social commerce were discussed at the 2011 BankInter Foundation for Innovation conference on Social Technologies, and were concluded as 'the 6 C's of Social Technologies'.[14] This references the original 3 C's of E-Commerce and adds 3 new C's to update for an era of Social sharing.

1. Content – The basic need to engage with customers, prospects and stakeholders through valuable published content on the web. Early examples of this were the brochure sites for organizations and this has matured into a vast and growing body of material being published in real time onto the web. Google is the organization that has been at the forefront of indexing and making findable content on the web. 2. Community – Treating the audience as a community with the objective of building sustainable relationships by providing tangible value. Early incarnations of Community were mobilized through registration and engaged via email programs, this evolved into online forums, chat-rooms and membership groups where users were able to interact with each other, an early example being Yahoo! Groups. Social Networks are the latest incarnation of community and of the many networks Facebook is the leading organization providing the platform for interpersonal interactions. 3. Commerce – Being able to fulfill customers' needs via a transactional web presence, typically online retailers, banks, insurance companies, travel sales sites provide the most useful business-to-consumer services. Business-to-business sites range from online storage and hosting to product sourcing and fulfillment services. Amazon emerged in the 90's and has gone on to dominate the B2C commerce space extending its services beyond traditional retail commerce. 4. Context – The online world is able to track real-world events and this is primarily being enabled by mobile devices. An online bill payment via Google Checkout or a checkin at a physical location via Facebook or Foursquare links a real world event to an online data entity such as a business or a place. This is a vital element to Social Commerce where the data is now available to organizations wishing to provide products and services to consumers. 5. Connection – The new online networks are defining and documenting the relationships between people – these relationships may originate in the physical world or online and may manifest in the other as a result of a connection in the first. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter are prime examples of online networks – Professional, Social and Casual. The relationships, the scope of those relationships and the interactions between individuals are a basis for the actions of Social Commerce. 6. Conversation – The Cluetrain Manifesto noted that all markets are conversations – this may now be reversed for Social Commerce to say that all conversations are markets. A conversation between two parties will likely surface a need that could be fulfilled, thus providing a potential market for supplier organizations. The challenge is for suppliers to be able to tap into those conversations and map those into the range of products and services that they supply. Simple examples of such 'conversations that indicate demand' are where people place objects of desire on their Pinterest board or a 'Like' of an item inside Facebook.

Using this structure, organizations wishing to transcend the notions of 'Social Media' (defined as the interaction pathways) and move to true 'Social Commerce' must aim to leverage 'Context, Connection and Conversation' Types

Social Commerce has become a really broad term encapsulating a lot of different technologies. It can be categorized as Offsite and Onsite social commerce.

Onsite Social Commerce

Onsite social commerce refers to retailers including social sharing and other social functionality on their website. Some notable examples include Zazzle which enables users to share their purchases, Macy's which allows users to create a poll to find the right product, and Fab.com which shows a live feed of what other shoppers are buying. Onsite user reviews are also considered a part of social commerce. This approach has been successful in improving customer engagement, conversion and word-of-mouth branding according to several industry sources.[15]

Offsite Social Commerce

Offsite social commerce includes activities that happen outside of the retailers' website. These may include Facebook storefronts, posting products on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social networks, advertisement etc. However, many large brands seem to be abandoning that approach.[16] A recent study by W3B suggests that just two percent of Facebook‘s 1.5 billion users have ever made a purchase through the social network.[17] The poor performance has been attributed to the lack of purchase intent when users are engaged on social media sites.

Onsite vs. Offsite Social Commerce

Social Commerce is still a newer concept that most retailers may not have employed. In creating a social commerce strategy, there is an important distinction that should be made between Onsite social and Offsite Social. Offsite social is made up of social media brand pages or plug ins that live on social platforms and not on your actual website. Onsite social consists of adding a social layer to your actual website. The main benefit of Onsite social is that you are keeping the user on your site where they can actually convert and you can improve your site experience through this social layer. Although social commerce will continue to grow and evolve, it is clear that that onsite social commerce is extremely valuable for both retailers and consumers alike.[18] Measurements

Social commerce can be measured by any of the principle ways to measure social media.[19]

1. Return on Investment: measures the effect or action of social media on sales. 2. Reputation: indices measure the influence of social media investment in terms of changes to online reputation - made up of the volume and valence of social media mentions. 3. Reach: metrics use traditional media advertising metrics to measure the exposure rates and levels of an audience with social media. Business Applications

This category is based on individuals' shopping, selling, recommending behaviors.[20]

1. Social network-driven sales(Soldsie) - Facebook commerce and Twitter commerce belong to this part. Sales take place on established social network sites. 2. Peer-to-peer sales platforms(EBay, Etsy, Amazon) - In these websites, users can directly communicate and sell products to other users. 3. Group buying(Groupon, LivingSocial) - Users can buy products or services at a lower price when enough users agree to make this purchase. 4. Peer recommendations(Amazon, Yelp) - Users can see recommendations from other users. 5. User-curated shopping(The Fancy, Lyst) - Users create and share lists of products and services for others to shop from. 6. Participatory commerce(Threadless, Kickstarter) - Users can get involved in the production process. 7. Social shopping(Fashism) - Sites provide chat sessions for users so they can communicate with their friends or other users for some advice. Business Examples

Here are some notable business examples of Social Commerce:

 Cafepress: an online retailer of stock and user-customized on demand products.  Etsy: an e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items and supplies, as well as unique factory-manufactured items under Etsy's new guidelines.  Eventbrite: an online ticketing service that allows event organizers to plan, set up ticket sales and promote events (event management) and publish them across Facebook, Twitter and other social-networking tools directly from the site's interface.  Groupon: a deal-of-the-day website that features discounted gift certificates usable at local or national companies.  Houzz: a web site and online community about architecture, interior design and decorating, landscape design and home improvement.  LivingSocial: an online marketplace that allows clients to buy and share things to do in their city.  Lockerz: an international social commerce website based in Seattle, Washington.  OpenSky: is a registered trademark of Harris Corporation and is the trade name for a wireless communication system, invented by M/A-COM Inc., that is now a division of Harris RF Communications.  Pikaba: a US consumer-oriented social shopping community that harnesses the power of social networking to bring sellers and buyers together.  Pinterest: a web and mobile application company that offers a visual discovery, collection, sharing, and storage tool.  Polyvore: a community powered social commerce website. Members curate products into a shared product index and use them to create image collages called "Sets".  Solavei: a social commerce network offering contract-free mobile service in the United States.  Soldsie: an eCommerce startup based in San Francisco. It is able to show that Facebook commerce is a viable form of social commerce when it wasn‘t just another tab on a retailer's Facebook page for users to click onto.  ShopSocially: a social commerce platform for online retailers. It provides a suite of onsite social applications for retailers aimed at generating social interactions.  Tabjuice: a Facebook commerce application developed for small businesses.  TheFind: a discovery shopping search engine targeting lifestyle products such as apparel, accessories, home and garden, fitness, kids and family, and health and beauty.  Wanelo: a digital mall where people can discover and buy products on the internet.

Facebook Commerce (F-Commerce)

Facebook commerce, f-commerce, and f-comm refer to the buying and selling of goods or services through Facebook, either through Facebook directly or through the Facebook Open Graph.[21] Until March 2010, 1.5 million businesses had pages on Facebook[22] which were built by Facebook Markup Language (FBML). A year later, in March 2011, Facebook deprecated FBML and adopted iframes.[23] This allowed developers to gather more information about their Facebook visitors.[24] Trend: Past Improvement & Prospective View

The online population is increasing by leaps and bounds and more and more people are influenced by opinions shared on social media. Social media celebrities such as vloggers and serial product reviewers tend to have a huge impact on people‘s perception of product quality. Businesses are noting an increased level of impact that positive and negative reviews have on purchase behavior. This part will be focusing specifically on the period 2012 to 2015, within which social media is experiencing massive surge in public influence during this period.

Social Commerce Trends in 2011

The ―2011 Social Commerce Study‖ estimates that 42% of online consumers have ―followed‖ a retailer proactively through Facebook, Twitter or the retailer‘s blog, and that a full one-third of shoppers say they would be likely to make a purchase directly from Facebook (35%) or Twitter (32%).[25]

Social Commerce Trends in 2012

These following four trends represent the trend in 2012.

Social is a paradigm shift.

The focus has been moved from channeled experiences and brand-controlled messages to empowered consumers in a channel-agnostic marketplace. Companies should identify and admit the enormity of this change.

Social data reveals the why behind the buy.

Customer conversations bring great opportunities for businesses. The awesome power of conversation will be felt in the insights gained and the actions inspired.

Becoming customer-centric demands organizational transformation.

Capturing the full value of social data takes place across the entire organization, often requiring cultural changes. Social data can drive change beyond marketing, impacting sales, customer service, and product development.

Context is king in social data.

Both internal and external social efforts should be designed and evaluated in relation to the larger context of business goals and historical shifts. In this way, success can be made.[26]

Social Commerce Trends in 2013 A new focus on social media marketing may come to fruition in 2013. With Americans using sites like Facebook and Twitter more often than ever before, businesses should find new methods to make those social users online shoppers. While social media grew significantly in 2012, it‘s still a bit unclear as to how professionals can use these networks to drive revenue streams and show noticeable ROI. Of course, brands have different experiences with social media, and what works for one company may not be as successful for another. Therefore, it may be more accurate to say that 2012 will become the year of social media maturation – it‘s time to figure out how to use the channel to increase sales.

StrongMail reported that financial investments in social media marketing will increase next year. However, eMarketer recently published its ―US Digital Media Usage: A Snapshot of 2013‖ report, which points out some potential areas where growth could occur online.

The eMarketer study also noted that online shoppers in 2012 increased by 2.9 percent to total 189.6 million consumers. More online buyers, people who actually converted, also increased, but by 4.2 percent, reaching 156.1 million. Americans feel more confident in online shopping, and with Facebook becoming an increasingly trusted resource for news, entertainment and product discovery, Facebook commerce may be the big trend in 2013. [27]

Social Commerce Trends in 2014

Social media continue to integrate with and augment people‘s daily lives. As these platforms have matured over the past decade, it only follows that their impact on e-commerce has correspondingly grown, given how much Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest influence how we interact, discover, and consume content. Here are four trends brands should watch and prepare for in the 2014.

Rise of Mobile

In December, New York City announced plans to cover 95 blocks of Harlem with free municipal Wi-Fi , slated to be the nation‘s largest network yet. This is in keeping with dozens of other cities that have made connectivity a public service—a testament to how widespread smartphone and tablet use have become.

Data from Morgan Stanley predicts that 2014 is the year that the number of mobile users will finally surpass that of desktop users worldwide. It is proved that mobile app use grew 115% last year according to Flurry Analytics, and market research firm Gartner reported that ―global PC shipments suffered the worst decline in PC Market history‖ in 2013.

With more consumers connecting to the web on mobile devices, brands have increased opportunity to market to users who are on-the-go. This doesn‘t just foretell a spike in mobile ads. A form of brand journalism, mobile storytelling involves ―the ability to chronicle our lives and use our location to help unearth a story.‖ Geolocation allows brands to deliver content that‘s relevant to the physical world of the user, and to strengthen products based on user-generated content. In-stream Purchases

One of the major challenges of social commerce has been linking social media marketing to actual sales. There are some extremely encouraging statistics about brand engagement and in- store purchases, but marketers seeking to shorten the sales cycle have preferred customers click on a product link.

In 2014, however, in-stream purchases will make social ROI even more immediate. Companies like Starbucks have enabled users to buy items without ever leaving the platform—in this case, customers can ―tweet-a-coffee‖ with a tweet that sends a friend a $5 Starbucks gift card. Recently, Twitter and Stripe have finalized a deal that would allow widespread purchases made directly on the social network.

Facebook, however, is still the heavyweight of social commerce. The variety of posts allowed— text status, photo, video, offer, event—allows big brands and small businesses alike to connect meaningfully with their fans. In fact, an emergent trend finds ―mompreneurs‖ running million- dollar businesses out of their homes by selling on Facebook. These Facebook auctions ask customers to comment on photos to buy; apps like Soldsie simplify the process of selling on Facebook by automating invoices and tracking inventory.

Storytelling and Native Advertising

With companies growing into their roster of social media accounts, the flood of branded content has intensified the contest for viewership at the same time that attention spans have diminished. The challenge for brands in 2014 is to relate authentically to consumers, which means a heavier reliance on eye-catching visuals, content that informs and entertains the viewer, and behind-the- scenes accounts that humanize the brand.

Thankfully, most social media platforms already lend themselves to storytelling. Some brilliant brands apply Vine to post how-to videos, announce new products, or make a video punchline that it‘s possible to be a ―friend‖ first, and brand second.

Creating engaging and shareable content is just an extension of native advertising, which is rapidly becoming the least intrusive, most effective way to market to consumers. A study from Sharethrough and IPG Media Lab reveals that users look at native ads 53% more frequently than display ads, and are 18% more likely to purchase in comparison. From promoted posts on Tumblr to exploding coupons on Snapchat, brands are finding innovative ways to wed their messages with the consumer‘s natural experience online.

Big Data

The texture of each social media network morphs along with its demographics. Facebook skews young but is quickly accruing older users ages 45 to 54; over 90% of Instagram users are under 35; and Tumblr is a hotbed for teenagers, 61% of whom are online for several hours a week. Brands should manage content and advertising across channels to address the users unique to each one, taking into account factors like age and gender, online behavior, and lifestyle preferences.[28]

Social Commerce Trends in 2015

5 general trends should be paid attention to in 2015.

The world will be a Mobile-First World

In the big smartphone times, more and more people are put more time on mobile. In the U.S., carriers' shelf-space for devices with 4.7-inch or larger screen displays increased from 4 percent to about a third in 2014 alone, matching a sales growth - larger-screen phones now account for more than one-quarter of all sales, according to NPD Group. Facebook's recent earnings report showed that while overall daily active users grew 8 percent in 2014, mobile daily active users grew 15 percent and mobile-only daily active users grew 34 percent.

A Pay-to-Play Social World is coming

Forrester recently reported that brand interaction on organic Facebook posts is now squeezed to 0.073 percent. Social advertising spend continues to rise, though as a whole it still doesn't match time spent overall on social. Only on Facebook has spending outstripped time spent - 6 percent of U.S. adults' digital media time is spent on Facebook, but 10 percent of U.S. digital ad spending is now assigned to Facebook. But that's because for most brands, Facebook means social. And Facebook's ad products continue to improve in sophistication. As other platforms get their ad products launched, spending there will increase, too. Again, where Facebook leads, others will follow.

Social Content Continues is still rapidly developing

It's not like using content to market came out of nowhere. It's always been there. But the topic of content marketing seemed to attract an inordinate amount of attention in 2014, not only with regard to efficacy, but also about how hard it is to produce quality content in quantity. Marketers have been challenged to produce content for more channels, and have been challenged to make that content meaningful and informative. Content will continue to be a central directive for brand marketers on social.

The Development Multi Video Platform Interacting is boosted

Posting advertisements on YouTube is not sufficient to make a success now. There is increasing interaction with video in places outside YouTube, particularly with short form video on Twitter's Vine channel, as well as even shorter form GIFs on Tumblr. Surprisingly, Facebook announced that they had more video views than YouTube of this year, with many people scoffing that it was because of auto-play, not because of a video watching revolution.

The Social Diversity Will Continue Facebook is still the biggest, most dominant social network and the "lowest common denominator" of social marketing. However, social audiences will continue splintering. This social diversity represents a serious challenge for brand marketers - particularly for brands seeking the youth market - who are looking to find the right voice for their audiences in the right location. In 2015 the social imperative will remain to hit the right voice on the right social platform, which may not be Facebook at all.[29] See also

 Electronic commerce  Social shopping  Referral marketing  Social networks  Web 2.0  The Cluetrain Manifesto References

1. Social Commerce Defined. Socialcommercetoday.com. Retrieved on 2013-01-10. 2. Social Commerce via the Shoposphere & Pick Lists. Ysearchblog.com (2005-11-14). Retrieved on 2013-01-10. 3. (The Beginnings of) Social Commerce. ). Retrieved on 2013-01-10. 4. 2006 Trends to Watch Part II: Social Commerce. Micro Persuasion (2012-08-30). Retrieved on 2013-01-10. 5. The Role of Social Networks in Online Shopping. arxiv.org. Retrieved on 2013-01-10. 6. Social commerce. www-01.ibm.com. Retrieved on 2014-11-30. 7. The 6 Dimensions of Social Commerce: Rated and Reviewed. Socialcommercetoday.com (2012-09-24). Retrieved on 2013-01-10. 8. FMM. Fashionablymarketing.me. Retrieved on 2013-01-10. 9. Andrew T. Stephen & Olivier Toubia, Columbia University (2010). "Deriving Value from Social Commerce Networks". Journal of Marketing Research. XLVII: 215–228. doi:10.1509/jmkr.47.2.215. 10. Social Commerce via the Shoposphere & Pick Lists. Ysearchblog.com (2005-11-14). Retrieved on 2013-01-10. 11. Anderson; Matt; Sims, Joe; Price, Jerell; Brusa, Jennifer (2011). "Turning "Like" to "Buy" social media emerges as a commerce channel.". Booz & Company Inc. Retrieved 2014-12-04. 12. Amblee; Naveen; Bui, Tung (2011). "Harnessing the influence of social proof in online shopping: The effect of electronic word of mouth on sales of digital microproducts.". International Journal of Electronic Commerce 16 (2): 91–114. Retrieved 2014-12-04. 13. Giamanco; Barbara; Gregoire, Kent (2012). "Tweet me, friend me, make me buy.". Harvard Business Review 90 (7): 89–93. Retrieved 2014-12-04. 14. Social Technologies | Fundación Bankinter Innovación. Fundacionbankinter.org (2012- 11-13). Retrieved on 2013-01-10. 15. Want to make your e-commerce site more social? Here's one way. ZDNet.com (2013-07- 31). Retrieved on 2013-07-31. 16. Gamestop to J.C. Penney Shut Facebook Stores; Feb 22 2012. Bloomberg.com (2012-02- 22). Retrieved on 2013-04-08. 17. Why is Facebook‘s e-commerce offering so disappointing? .Philip Rooke(2013-02-17) 18. Offsite vs Onsite Social Campaign. business2community.com (2012-11-27). Retrieved on 2014-12-03. 19. Marsden, Paul. "Social commerce: monetizing social media". Retrieved 18 July 2013. 20. 7 Species of Social Commerce.Mashable.com (2013-05-10). Retrieved on 2013-12-01. 21. F-commerce FAQ. Socialcommercetoday.com. Retrieved on 2013-01-10. 22. Facebook Facts and Figures History Statistics. Website-monitoring.com (2010-03-17). Retrieved on 2013-01-10. 23. Facebook Deprecates FBML ''Wall Street Journal – All Things D'' March 9 2011. Allthingsd.com (2011-03-09). Retrieved on 2013-01-10. 24. Facebook's switch to frames. Mashable.com (2011-02-24). Retrieved on 2013-01-10. 25. Social Commerce to be a $30 Billion Business by 2015. claritics.com . Retrieved on 2014-12-03. 26. Bazaar Voice. "Social commerce trends report 2012". Retrieved 2014-12-04. 27. 2013: The year of social media marketing. brafton.com (December 17, 2012). Retrieved on 2014-12-04. 28. 4 Core Social Commerce Trends In 2014. socialmediatoday.com (2014-04-27). Retrieved on 2014-12-04.

Top 5 Social Marketing Trends for Brands to Watch in 2015. clickz.com (2014-10-31). Retrieved on 2014-1Online trading community

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and

removed. (December 2006)

Part of a series on

E-commerce

Online goods and services

 E-books  Software  Streaming media

Retail services  Banking  DVD-by-mail  Flower delivery  Food ordering  Pharmacy  Travel

Marketplace services  Advertising  Auctions  Comparison shopping  Social commerce  Trading communities  Wallet

Mobile commerce  Payment  Ticketing

Customer service  Call centre  Help desk  Live support software

E-procurement

Purchase-to-pay

 v  t  e

An online trading community provides participants with a structured method for trading, bartering, or selling goods and services. These communities often have forums and chatrooms designed to facilitate communication between the members. An online trading community can be likened electronic equivalent of a bazaar, flea market, or garage sale. Contents

 1 History  2 Formal trading communities  3 Trading communities o 3.1 General rules of conduct  4 Trading circle  5 Trading Portal  6 References  7 Examples  8 External links History

One of the earliest trading sites on the internet (with exception to eBay which accepts cash transactions for all goods) was Game Trading Zone. The domain name ugtz.com was implemented in an independent database in the spring 1999. This was a departure from simply listing items on a forum or text document. The database helped traders by showing them a list of potential trading matches, and showed historical transactions as well. Formal trading communities

A formal trading community consists of a website or network of websites that facilitate and track trade transactions. Some websites, such as the video game trading site Goozex, charge transactional fees per trade, while other similar sites such as GameTZ do not.

Key elements of formal trading communities

 Transactional tracking  Ratings and feedback system  Content listing, referencing, and matching Trading communities

There are several community based websites that have a broader scope and lend themselves to a trading environment.

 1UP is a website dedicated to the publishing of news, videos, and other related media dealing with video games. There is a growing section of the site though dedicated the trading of games and DVDs on their message boards.  Craigslist is a site for posting personal advertisements but many users have found this a less than conventional means of trading goods online with local residents.  Mydvdtrader.com is regarded as being the oldest remaining website dedicated to buying, selling and trading of selected media  IGN is another website dedicated to videogame news and media that also has message boards dedicated to online trading. The distinguishing factors being that IGN has a much larger integrated database of games and DVDs in existence that users can add to their collection lists for trade purposes as well as mark the ones they are playing to lock from trade.

General rules of conduct

Some online trading communities have specific rules adopted by the users of that community, and though they can differ most have settled upon a few standard practices:

 The less experienced trader (usually indicated by their feedback or trade history) sends their half first.  It is generally frowned upon by most communities to "thread crap" (A term referring to a user not involved in the pending trade undercutting a trade in progress with either a better deal or reasons for the trade not to take place).  While trading any used items online, be sure to include the condition and quality of the product so as the receiver can determine its overall value. Trading circle

A trading circle is a form of online trading designed to facilitate viewing of television series and episodic media. Physical media such as videocassettes, DVDs and CDs are exchanged via mail. Each member agrees to pass an episode on to the next member in a timely fashion, thereby allowing all members of the group to view the series. This communal trading method is also used by special interest clubs. Some of these groups (among many) include anime clubs. Trading Portal

Within global financial markets, an online trading portal[1] is a portal that aggregates a significant number of online trading platforms to give investors, who are part the online trading community, a greater choice of trading platforms and thereby a greater choice of stock exchanges throughout the world, in keeping with their specific trading skills. Mobile payment

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Part of a series on

E-commerce

Online goods and services

 E-books  Software  Streaming media

Retail services  Banking  DVD-by-mail  Flower delivery  Food ordering  Pharmacy  Travel

Marketplace services  Advertising  Auctions  Comparison shopping  Social commerce  Trading communities  Wallet

Mobile commerce  Payment  Ticketing

Customer service  Call centre  Help desk  Live support software

E-procurement Purchase-to-pay

 v  t  e

Mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer, and mobile wallet generally refer to payment services operated under financial regulation and performed from or via a mobile device. Instead of paying with cash, cheque, or credit cards, a consumer can use a mobile phone to pay for a wide range of services and digital or hard goods. Although the concept of using non-coin-based currency systems has a long history,[1] it is only recently that the technology to support such systems has become widely available.

Mobile payment is being adopted all over the world in different ways.[2][3] In 2008, the combined market for all types of mobile payments was projected to reach more than $600B globally by 2013,[4] which would be double the figure as of February, 2011.[5] The mobile payment market for goods and services, excluding contactless Near Field Communication or NFC transactions and money transfers, is expected to exceed $300B globally by 2013.[6]

In developing countries mobile payment solutions have been deployed as a means of extending financial services to the community known as the "unbanked" or "underbanked," which is estimated to be as much as 50% of the world's adult population, according to Financial Access' 2009 Report "Half the World is Unbanked".[7] These payment networks are often used for micropayments.[8] The use of mobile payments in developing countries has attracted public and private funding by organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID and MercyCorps. Contents

 1 Models  2 SMS/USSD-based transactional payments  3 Direct mobile billing  4 Mobile web payments (WAP) o 4.1 Direct operator billing o 4.2 Credit card o 4.3 Online wallets  5 QR Code Payments  6 Contactless Near Field Communication  7 Cloud-based mobile payments  8 Audio signal-based payments  9 Direct carrier/bank co-operation  10 Mobile payment service provider model  11 See also  12 Notes Models

There are four primary models for mobile payments:[citation needed]

 Premium SMS based transactional payments  Direct Mobile Billing  Mobile web payments (WAP)  Contactless NFC (Near Field Communication)

Additionally there is a new emerging model from Haiti: direct carrier/bank co-operation.[citation needed]

Financial institutions and credit card companies[9] as well as Internet companies such as Google[10] and a number of mobile communication companies, such as mobile network operators and major telecommunications infrastructure such as w-HA from Orange and handset multinationals such as Ericsson[11][12] and BlackBerry have implemented mobile payment solutions. SMS/USSD-based transactional payments

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removed. (December 2012)

Premium SMS / Premium MMS

In the predominant model for SMS payments, the consumer sends a payment request via an SMS text message or an USSD to a short code and a premium charge is applied to their phone bill or their online wallet. The merchant involved is informed of the payment success and can then release the paid for goods.

Since a trusted physical delivery address has typically not been given, these goods are most frequently digital with the merchant replying using a Multimedia Messaging Service to deliver the purchased music, ringtones, wallpapers etc.

A Multimedia Messaging Service can also deliver barcodes which can then be scanned for confirmation of payment by a merchant. This is used as an electronic ticket for access to cinemas and events or to collect hard goods.

Transactional payments by SMS have been popular in Asia and Europe and are now accompanied by other mobile payment methods,[citation needed] such as mobile web payments (WAP), mobile payment client (Java ME, Android...) and Direct Mobile Billing.

Inhibiting factors of Premium SMS include:[citation needed] 1. Poor reliability - transactional premium SMS payments can easily fail as messages get lost. 2. Slow speed - sending messages can be slow and it can take hours for a merchant to get receipt of payment. Consumers do not want to be kept waiting more than a few seconds. 3. Security - The SMS/USSD encryption ends in the radio interface, then the message is a plaintext. 4. High cost - There are many high costs associated with this method of payment. The cost of setting up short codes and paying for the delivery of media via a Multimedia Messaging Service and the resulting customer support costs to account for the number of messages that get lost or are delayed. 5. Low payout rates - operators also see high costs in running and supporting transactional payments which results in payout rates to the merchant being as low as 30%. Usually around 50% 6. Low follow-on sales - once the payment message has been sent and the goods received there is little else the consumer can do. It is difficult for them to remember where something was purchased or how to buy it again. This also makes it difficult to tell a friend.

Some mobile payment services accept "premium SMS payments." Here is the typical end user payment process:[citation needed]

1. User sends SMS with keyword and unique number to a premium short code. 2. User receives a PIN (User billed via the short code on receipt of the PIN) 3. User uses PIN to access content or services.

Remote Payment by SMS and Credit Card Tokenization

Even as the volume of Premium SMS transactions have flattened, many cloud-based payment systems continue to use SMS for presentment, authorization, and authentication,[13] while the payment itself is processed through existing payment networks such as credit and debit card networks. These solutions combine the ubiquity of the SMS channel,[14] with the security and reliability of existing payment infrastructure. Since SMS lacks end-to-end encryption, such solutions employ a higher-level security strategies known as 'tokenization' and 'target removal' [15] whereby payment occurs without transmitting any sensitive account details, username, password, or PIN.

To date, point-of-sales mobile payment solutions have not relied on SMS-based authentication as a payment mechanism, but remote payments such as bill payments,[16] seat upgrades on flights,[17] and membership or subscription renewals are commonplace.

In comparison to premium short code programs which often exist in isolation, relationship marketing and payment systems are often integrated with CRM, ERP, marketing-automation platforms, and reservation systems. Many of the problems inherent with premium SMS have been addressed by solution providers. Remembering keywords is not required since sessions are initiated by the enterprise to establish a transaction specific context. Reply messages are linked to the proper session and authenticated either synchronously through a very short expiry period (every reply is assumed to be to the last message sent) or by tracking session according to varying reply addresses and/or reply options (Dynamic Dialogue Matrix). Direct mobile billing

The consumer uses the mobile billing option during checkout at an e-commerce site—such as an online gaming site—to make a payment. After two-factor authentication involving a PIN and One-Time-Password (often abbreviated as OTP), the consumer's mobile account is charged for the purchase. It is a true alternative payment method that does not require the use of credit/debit cards or pre-registration at an online payment solution such as PayPal, thus bypassing banks and credit card companies altogether. This type of mobile payment method, which is extremely prevalent and popular in Asia, provides the following benefits:

1. Security - Two-factor authentication and a risk management engine prevents fraud. 2. Convenience - No pre-registration and no new mobile software is required. 3. Easy - It's just another option during the checkout process. 4. Fast - Most transactions are completed in less than 10 seconds. 5. Proven - 70% of all digital content purchased online in some parts of Asia uses the Direct Mobile Billing method[18] Mobile web payments (WAP)

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removed. (December 2012)

Mobile payment system in Norway.

The consumer uses web pages displayed or additional applications downloaded and installed on the mobile phone to make a payment. It uses WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) as underlying technology and thus inherits all the advantages and disadvantages of WAP. Benefits include:[citation needed]

1. Follow-on sales where the mobile web payment can lead back to a store or to other goods the consumer may like. These pages have a URL and can be bookmarked making it easy to re-visit or share. 2. High customer satisfaction from quick and predictable payments 3. Ease of use from a familiar set of online payment pages However, unless the mobile account is directly charged through a mobile network operator, the use of a credit/debit card or pre-registration at online payment solution such as PayPal is still required just as in a desktop environment.

Mobile web payment methods are now being mandated by a number of mobile network operators.

Direct operator billing

Direct operator billing, also known as mobile content billing, WAP billing, and carrier billing, requires integration with the operator. It provides certain benefits:

1. the operators already have a billing relationship with the consumers, the payment will be added to their bill. 2. Provides instantaneous payment 3. Protect payment details and consumer identity 4. Better conversion rates 5. Reduced customer support costs for merchants

One drawback: the payout rate will be much lower than with other payment providers. Examples from a popular provider:

 92% with Paypal  85 to 86% with Credit Card  45 to 91.7% with operator billing in the US, UK and some smaller European countries, but usually around 60%[19]

More recently, Direct operator billing is being deployed in an in-app environment, where mobile application developers are taking advantage of the one-click payment option that Direct operator billing provides for monetising mobile applications. This is a logical alternative to credit card and Premium SMS billing.

In 2012, Ericsson and Western Union partnered to expand the direct operator billing market, making it possible for mobile operators to include Western Union Mobile Money Transfers as part of their mobile financial service offerings.[20] Given the international reach of both companies, the partnership is meant to accelerate the interconnection between the m-commerce market and the existing financial world.[21]

Credit card

A simple mobile web payment system can also include a credit card payment flow allowing a consumer to enter their card details to make purchases. This process is familiar but any entry of details on a mobile phone is known to reduce the success rate (conversion) of payments. In addition, if the payment vendor can automatically and securely identify customers then card details can be recalled for future purchases turning credit card payments into simple single click- to-buy giving higher conversion rates for additional purchases.

Online wallets

Main article: Online wallet

Online companies like PayPal, Amazon Payments, and Google Wallet also have mobile options.[22]

Generally, this is the process:[citation needed]

First payment:

 User registers, inputs their phone number, and the provider sends them an SMS with a PIN  User enters the received PIN, authenticating the number  User inputs their credit card info or another payment method if necessary (not necessary if the account has already been added) and validates payment

Subsequent payments:

 The user re enters their PIN to authenticate and validates payment

Requesting a PIN is known to lower the success rate (conversion) for payments. These systems can be integrated with directly or can be combined with operator and credit card payments through a unified mobile web payment platform. QR Code Payments

QR Codes 2D barcode are square bar codes. QR codes are an easy way to inject info into a mobile phone. This makes it easy to create communication such as visit a website or copy useful text. QR codes have been around since they were invented in 1994. Originally used to track products in warehouses, QR codes were designed to replace traditional (1D bar codes). Traditional bar codes just represent numbers, which can be looked up in a database and translated into something meaningful. QR, or ―Quick Response‖ bar codes were designed to contain the meaningful info right in the bar code. They‘ve been a successful marketing tool in Asia and Europe. In Germany a startup called GO4Q introduced mobile shopping / window shopping based on QR codes in October 2012. The system evolved and mobile payment was added by december 2012. GO4Q is using standard card payment procedures and thus not regionally limited. It requires a single registration. On business and consumer side, usage is possible with any smart device (IOS / Android). Mastercard, in 2012, also rolled another mobile payment app, QkR, which is being deployed in Australia and for a test run at Yankee Stadium. Users can scan a QR code through the app and buy food or other items through the app and have it delivered to them. Since November 2012, QR code payments were deployed on a larger scale in the Czech Republic as an open format for a payment information exchange - a Short Payment Descriptor - was introduced and blessed by the Czech Banking Association as the official local solution for the QR payments.[23] Due to technical limitations, the format is applicable only within the European Union. Contactless Near Field Communication

Near Field Communication (NFC) is used mostly in paying for purchases made in physical stores or transportation services. A consumer using a special mobile phone equipped with a smartcard waves his/her phone near a reader module. Most transactions do not require authentication, but some require authentication using PIN, before transaction is completed. The payment could be deducted from a pre-paid account or charged to a mobile or bank account directly.

Mobile payment method via NFC faces significant challenges for wide and fast adoption, due to lack of supporting infrastructure, complex ecosystem of stakeholders, and standards.[24] Some phone manufacturers and banks, however, are enthusiastic. Ericsson and Aconite are examples of businesses that make it possible for banks to create consumer mobile payment applications that take advantage of NFC technology.[25]

NFC vendors in Japan are closely related to mass-transit networks, like the Mobile Suica used on the JR East rail network. Osaifu-Keitai system, used for Mobile Suica and many others including Edy and nanaco, has become the de facto standard method for mobile payments in Japan. Its core technology, Mobile FeliCa IC, is partially owned by Sony, NTT DoCoMo and JR East. Mobile FeliCa utilize Sony's FeliCa technology, which itself is the de facto standard for contactless smart cards in the country.

Other NFC vendors mostly in Europe use contactless payment over mobile phones to pay for on- and off-street parking in specially demarcated areas. Parking wardens may enforce the parkings by license plate, transponder tags or barcode stickers. First conceptualized in the 1990s,[citation needed] the technology has seen commercial use in this century in both Scandinavia and Estonia. End users benefit from the convenience of being able to pay for parking from the comfort of their car with their mobile phone, and parking operators are not obliged to invest in either existing or new street-based parking infrastructures. Parking wardens maintain order in these systems by license plate, transponder tags or barcode stickers or they read a digital display in the same way as they read a pay and display receipt.

Other vendors use a combination of both NFC and a barcode on the mobile device for mobile payment, for example, Cimbal or DigiMo,[26] making this technique attractive at the point of sale because many mobile devices in the market do not yet support NFC. Cloud-based mobile payments

Google, PayPal, GlobalPay and GoPago use a cloud-based approach to in-store mobile payment. The cloud based approach places the mobile payment provider in the middle of the transaction, which involves two separate steps. First, a cloud-linked payment method is selected and payment is authorized via NFC or an alternative method. During this step, the payment provider automatically covers the cost of the purchase with issuer linked funds. Second, in a separate transaction, the payment provider charges the purchaser's selected, cloud-linked account in a card-not-present environment to recoup its losses on the first transaction.[27][28][29] Audio signal-based payments

The audio channel of the mobile phone is another wireless interface that is used to make payments. Several companies have created technology to use the acoustic features of cell phones to support mobile payments and other applications that are not chip-based. The technologies Near sound data transfer (NSDT), Data Over Voice and NFC 2.0 produce audio signatures that the microphone of the cell phone can pick up to enable electronic transactions.[30] Direct carrier/bank co-operation

In the T-Cash[31] model, the mobile phone and the phone carrier is the front-end interface to the consumers. The consumer can purchase goods, transfer money to a peer, cash out, and cash in.[32] A 'mini wallet' account can be opened as simply as entering *700# on the mobile phone,[33] presumably by depositing money at a participating local merchant and the mobile phone number. Presumably, other transactions are similarly accomplished by entering special codes and the phone number of the other party on the consumer's mobile phone. Mobile payment service provider model

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removed. (December 2012)

There are four potential mobile payment models: [34]

1. Operator-Centric Model: The mobile operator acts independently to deploy mobile payment service. The operator could provide an independent mobile wallet from the user mobile account(airtime). A large deployment of the Operator-Centric Model is severely challenged by the lack of connection to existing payment networks. Mobile network operator should handle the interfacing with the banking network to provide advanced mobile payment service in banked and under banked environment. Pilots using this model have been launched in emerging countries but they did not cover most of the mobile payment service use cases. Payments were limited to remittance and airtime top up. 2. Bank-Centric Model: A bank deploys mobile payment applications or devices to customers and ensures merchants have the required point-of-sale (POS) acceptance capability. Mobile network operator are used as a simple carrier, they bring their experience to provide Quality of service (QOS) assurance. 3. Collaboration Model: This model involves collaboration among banks, mobile operators and a trusted third party. 4. Peer-to-Peer Model: The mobile payment service provider acts independently from financial institutions and mobile network operators to provide mobile payment. For example the MHITS SMS payment service uses a peer-to-peer model. See also

 Electronic money  Financial cryptography  Mobile Payment Using USSD  Mobile ticketing  SEMOPS  SMS banking  PayMate Wallet

Universal card Purchase-to-pay

removed. (June 2009)

 1 Automation  2 History  3 A discipline in its own right  4 References Automation

Key benefits are increased financial and procurement visibility, efficiency, cost savings and control. Automation allows for reduced processing times and straight-through processing where the incoming invoices are handled without any manual intervention. Purchase-to-pay systems are designed to provide organizations with control and visibility over the entire lifecycle of a transaction – from the way an item is ordered to the way that the final invoice is processed – providing full insight into cashflow and financial commitments and is now deemed an important tool for proper implementation of Resource Accounting and Budgeting, not least by UK Government Departments such as HM Treasury. Financial commitments are understood at the point they are committed to rather than when invoiced.

Organizations automate invoice processing and purchasing policies and procedures to bring financial rigor and process efficiency to the business of buying.

As a result, efficiency and cost saving benefits can be substantial. History

The term emerged in the 1990s and is one of a number of buzz phrases (like B2B, B2C, G2C etc.) that emerged as Internet applications became used more widely in business. Although it does not necessarily refer directly to the application of technology to the purchasing process, it is most often used in relation to applications like e-procurement and ERP purchasing and payment modules. A discipline in its own right

Procure-to-pay is the start of the procurement process from the point where the purchasing department starts working until the moment the invoices are paid.

Product marketing deals with the "7 P's" of marketing, which are product, pricing, place, promotion, physical environment, process and people.

Product marketing, as opposed to product management, deals with more outbound marketing or customer-facing tasks (in the older sense of the phrase). For example, product management deals with the basics of product development within a firm, whereas product marketing deals with marketing the product to prospects, customers, and others. Product marketing, as a job function within a firm, also differs from other marketing jobs such as marketing communications ("marcom"), online marketing, advertising, marketing strategy, and public relations, although product marketers may use channels such as online for outbound marketing for their product.

A product market is something that is referred to when pitching a new product to the general public. Product market definition focuses on a narrow statement: the product type, customer needs (functional needs), customer type, and geographic area. Contents

 1 Role  2 Comparison with product management  3 Qualifications  4 Types  5 References Role

Product marketing in a business addresses four important strategic questions:[1]

 What products will be offered (i.e., the breadth and depth of the product line)?  Who will be the target customers (i.e., the boundaries of the market segments to be served)?  How will the products reach those (i.e., the distribution channel and are there viable possibilities that create a solid business model)?  At what price should the products be offered?

To inform these decisions, Product Marketing Managers (PMMs) act as the Voice of the Customer to the rest of the product team and company. This includes gaining a deep understanding of—and driving—customer engagement with the product, throughout their lifecycle (pre-adoption, post adoption/purchase, and after churning). PMMs collect this customer information through customer surveys and interviews, and when available, product usage data. This frequently informs the future product roadmap, as well as driving customer product education to ensure improved engagement.

PMMs answer these questions and execute on the strategy using the following tools and methods:

 Customer insights: interviews, surveys, focus groups, customer observation  Data analysis: product marketing managers are highly quantitative, particularly in internet companies where results of marketing attribution to revenue is easily measured  Product validation: particularly for internet companies, teams often use marketing as a channel to test and validate product ideas (the minimum viable product or rapid prototyping), before engineering resources are committed to develop the product  Testing: optimal prices and marketing touch points are developed through exhaustive A/B testing of language (copy), prices, product line-ups, visuals, and more Comparison with product management

Product marketing frequently differs from product management in high-tech companies. Whereas the product manager is required to take a product's requirements from the sales and marketing personnel and create a product requirements document (PRD),[2] which will be used by the engineering team to build the product, the product marketing manager can be engaged in the task of creating a market requirements document (MRD), which is used as source for the product management to develop the PRD.

In other companies the product manager creates both the MRDs and the PRDs, while the product marketing manager does outbound tasks like giving product demonstrations in trade shows, creating marketing collateral like hot-sheets, beat-sheets, cheat sheets, data sheets, and white papers. This requires the product marketing manager to be skilled not only in competitor analysis, market research, and technical writing, but also in more business oriented activities like conducting ROI and NPV analyses on technology investments, strategizing how the decision criteria of the prospects or customers can be changed so that they buy the company's product vis- a-vis the competitor's product, etc.

One issue that faces Product Marketers is that they are chartered with developing much of the content for the various constituents (sales, marcom, customers, blogs, etc.). Creating content tends to be given more value than the actual research and thinking that is behind all the content.

In smaller high-tech firms or start-ups, product marketing and product management functions can be blurred, and both tasks may be borne by one individual. However, as the company grows someone needs to focus on creating good requirements documents for the engineering team, whereas someone else needs to focus on how to analyze the market, influence the "analysts", and understand longer term market direction. When such clear demarcation becomes visible, the former falls under the domain of product management, and the latter, under product marketing. In Silicon Valley, in particular, product marketing professionals have considerable domain experience in a particular market or technology or both. Some Silicon Valley firms have titles such as Product Marketing Engineer, who tend to be promoted to managers in due course.

The trend that is emerging in Silicon Valley is for companies to hire a team of a product marketing manager with a technical marketing manager. The Technical marketing role is becoming more valuable as companies become more competitive and seek to reduce costs and time to market. Another trend is to have one Product Marketing Manager per group of Product Managers. This is the model that leads to the issue of PMMs being pressured to write content instead of connecting with the market.

In health care marketing products are rarely purchased by the end user and are often purchased or paid for by government, intermediaries, payors, healthcare professionals and healthcare organizations, as a result in the Biotech/Pharmaceutical and Medical Device markets there are "6" P's; the core 4: Price, Product, Promotion and Positioning as well as: Politics and Perception. Qualifications

The typical education qualification for this area of business is a high level Marketing or Business related degree, e.g. an BBA, MBA, M.A./M.S. in Marketing, M.A./M.S. in I/O Psychology, not forgetting sufficient work experience in related areas. As a key skill is to be able to interact with technical staff, a background in engineering or computing is also an asset, given the highly quantitative component of the role. Types

 Value (marketing)  shopper marketing Distribution (business)

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Marketing

 v  t  e

Product distribution (or place) is one of the four elements of the marketing mix. Distribution is the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by a consumer or business user, using direct means, or using indirect means with intermediaries.

The other three parts of the marketing mix are product, pricing, and promotion. Contents

 1 Channels and intermediaries  2 Channel design  3 Channel mix  4 Managing channels o 4.1 Channel motivation o 4.2 Channel conflict  5 See also  6 References  7 External links Channels and intermediaries

Distribution of products takes place by means of channels. Channels are sets of interdependent organizations (called intermediaries) involved in making the product available for consumption to end-user.[1] Merchants are intermediaries that buy and resell products. Agents and brokers are intermediaries that act on behalf of the producer but do not take title to the products. Channel design

A firm can design any number of channels they require . Channels are classified by the number of intermediaries between producer and consumer.[1] A level zero channel has no intermediaries. This is typical of direct marketing. A level one channel has a single intermediary. This flow is typically from manufacturer to retailer to consumer.

Types Category Definition Intensive The producer's products are stocked in the majority of outlets.[1] This strategy is distribution common for basic supplies, snack foods, magazines and soft drink beverages. Means that the producer relies on a few intermediaries to carry their product.[1] Selective This strategy is commonly observed for more specialised goods that are carried distribution through specialist dealers, for example, brands of craft tools, or large appliances. Means that the producer selects only very few intermediaries.[1] Exclusive Exclusive distribution is often characterised by exclusive dealing where the reseller carries distribution only that producer's products to the exclusion of all others. This strategy is typical of luxury goods retailers such as Gucci.

Channel mix

In practice, many organizations use a mix of different channels; in particular, they may complement a direct sales-force who typically call on larger customers with agents who cover the smaller customers and prospects. In addition, online retailing or e-commerce is leading to disintermediation. Retailing via smartphone or m-commerce is also a growing area. Managing channels

The firm's marketing department needs to design the most suitable channels for the firm's products, then select appropriate channel members or intermediaries. The firm needs to train staff of intermediaries and motivate the intermediary to sell the firm's products. The firm should monitor the channel's performance over time and modify the channel to enhance performance.

Channel motivation To motivate intermediaries the firm can use positive actions, such as offering higher margins to the intermediary, special deals, premiums and allowances for advertising or display.[1] On the other hand, negative actions may be necessary, such as threatening to cut back on margin, or hold back delivery of product.

Channel conflict

Channel conflict can arise when one intermediary's actions prevent another intermediary from achieving their objectives.[1] Vertical channel conflict occurs between the levels within a channel and horizontal channel conflict occurs between intermediaries at the same level within a channel. See also

 Lists of distribution companies  Agricultural marketing  All commodity volume  Cargo  Channel Value Proposition  Document automation in supply chain management and logistics  Extended Enterprise  Good distribution practice (GDP)  Liquid logistics  Logistics  Marketing