12. New trends Classic communication channels drop in popularity together with the development of new communication technologies; the Internet comes to the foreground. 12.1 Electronic and mobile communication It is marketing communication implemented through electronic devices, e.g. the Internet, mobile phones, local marketing (GPS, online TV, radio). The advantages include flexibility, speed and effectiveness together with other communication tools. E-mails – companies send e-mails only to the users who show interest in receiving such commercial or informational e-mails. Basic forms of this communication include: - company newsletter – information for customers about new products and services - informational bulletin – topical issues and news from the certain branch - advertising news – promotion of a product or a service Advantages: low costs, fast transmission and feedback, opportunity to contact more people, targeting, easily measurable results. E-marketers can also go online with microsites, limited areas on the Web managed and paid for by an external company. For example, an insurance company might create a microsite on a car-buying site, offering insurance advice for car buyers and at the same time offering good insurance deals. Internet companies can also develop alliances and affiliate programmes in which they work with other online companies to ‘advertise’ each other. For example, Amazon.com has more than 350,000 affiliates across the globe who post Amazon.com banners on their websites. Pay per click marketing (PPC) Search engines like Google allow businesses and individuals to buy listings in their search results. These listings appear along with the natural, non-paid search results. These ads are sold in an auction. You bid what you want to pay for a click on the ad. Bid the most and you have a chance of ranking number 1 in the sponsored results. There’s also something called quality score that can impact the ranking. If someone clicks on the PPC listing, they arrive at your website, and you are charged the amount you bid. So, if you bid $.15 per click on ‘widgets’, and that’s the highest bid, you’ll probably show up first in line. If 100 people click on your PPC listing, then the search engine or PPC service will charge you $15.00 Mobile marketing Smart phones have enabled new communication; it is no more only sending an SMS or an MMS. Mobile marketing is joined with the internet communication thanks to the mobile Internet. Websites are optimized to the smartphones and tablets. Mobile applications are „carrier“ for the advertising messages. When users click on the link in an SMS they are redirected to the mobile website where they can get detailed information about the offer or they can promptly react. Location based marketing is another form of mobile marketing – advertising SMS are send to the users on the basis of their current location, near to a shop, restaurant etc. Mobile tagging is another form that works on the basis of encrypted signs. When a user takes a photo of them, additional information, pictures, animations related to the product or brand appear. E.g. QR codes contain a link to the website, contact, an advertising picture or a text. Augmented reality (AR) is cutting-edge technology that allows for a digitally enhanced view of the real world, connecting a person with more meaningful content in everyday life. With the camera and sensors in a smartphone or tablet, AR adds layers of digital information – videos, photos, sounds – directly on top of items in the world around us. It is easy to have a great digital experience on top of interactive magazines, ads, packaging, business cards and other items. Blippar – to blipp = the action of instantaneously converting anything in the real world into an interactive wow experience 12.2 Guerilla and viral communication Guerilla communication It is a body of unconventional ways of pursuing conventional goals. It is a proven method of achieving profits with minimum money. This alternative advertising style relies heavily on unconventional marketing strategy, high energy and imagination. It is about taking the consumer by surprise, make an indelible impression and create copious amounts of social buzz. Guerrilla marketing is said to make a far more valuable impression with consumers in comparison to more traditional forms of advertising and marketing. This is due to the fact that most guerrilla marketing campaigns aim to strike the consumer at a more personal and memorable level. It is often ideal for small businesses that need to reach a large audience without breaking the bank. It also is used by big companies in grassroots campaigns to compliment on-going mass media campaigns. Viral communication in the Internet Finally, e-marketers can use viral marketing, the Internet version of word-of-mouth marketing. Viral marketing involves creating an e-mail message or other marketing event that is so infectious that customers will want to pass it on to their friends. Because customers pass the message or promotion on to others, viral marketing can be very inexpensive. And when the information comes from a friend, the recipient is much more likely to open and read it. The aim is to get the company’s customers to do your marketing for you. Forms of the viral communication passive form – the objective is to raise a positive reaction to an offer; the aim is not to influence the behaviour of the receivers. active form – the objective is to influence the consumers’ behaviour and to increase the sales or the brand awareness. In this context a term word of mouth marketing (WOM) is used. This communication form is believed to be the most trustworthy one. In the past, only a personal form was applied. However, nowadays various internet platforms such as social media, blogs, forums, chats, online customer reviews and so on are used. It may be a spontaneous communication that companies could not influence, or a controlled communication that is created by a company and it is so interesting that other people start to discuss it. Buzz marketing is similar. The objective is to generate buzz, attract the attention of the target groups. A product, a service or a brand should so interesting that people start discussions about it. 12.3 Communication through social media Social media serves not only for the communication between friends, but also between companies and customers and between companies and publics. Social media: • Publication servers • Shared media • Discussion media • Social networks • Microblogs • Stream servers • Live broadcasting • Virtual worlds, social games, video games Social media provides a unique interactive space for the marketing communication and for a detailed analysis of the sites and profiles. E.g. A company’s profile on the Facebook provides various statistics, graphs and interactive data such as number of fans, comments and messages on the wall (timeline). Facebook generates number of fans according to the gender, age, country and language and other graphs. Furthermore, the statistics can be monitored in week, day or hour intervals. YouTube – currently the biggest server for video sharing; it offers not only watching but the users can also create their own channels, they can comment and evaluate videos. Twitter is an example of a microblog. Users can share short messages (tweets) that are displayed on their own profile page. Other possibilities include: sharing photos, videos, web links (shortened URL). Geosocial Networking is a type of social networking in which geographic services and capabilities such as geocoding and geotagging are used to enable additional social dynamics. User-submitted location data or geolocation techniques can allow social networks to connect and coordinate users with local people or events that match their interests. Geolocation on web-based social network services can be IP-based or use hotspot trilateration. For mobile social networks, texted location information or mobile phone tracking can enable location- based services to enrich social networking. .