I find it amazing at how broadly used Facebook has become. It started as just this social networking site that you could only join if you were in college with an official college email address, and I only originally got one because everyone else had one. Now it is this global network that virtually everyone seems to be a part of. Companies are taking advantage of this opportunity to market themselves through this virtual world.
First, let’s look at how these companies are utilizing Facebook to gain insights about the consumer market. Companies make pages and Facebook users then become fans of the page. I’m not positive, but I’m pretty sure that if you are a fan of a page then that company can then see your profile (which is usually restricted to only your friends or networks). Therefore, any given company can see the profiles of the people who are interested in their company. These people are a good representation of the people shopping at their stores or somehow spending money with this company.
This information can be very valuable to a company if they use it right. They have a lot of information about their consumer market – their likes, dislikes, favorite TV shows, favorite music, interests, basic background information, and more. They can compile all this and find trends and what is common among everyone who has become a fan of the page. They can then use this information to market consumers.
For example, let’s pretend Blockbuster has a fan page. Maybe they look through the profiles of all of their fans and discover that a large number of people have listed Couples Retreat (or another movie in theater that has yet to come out on DVD) as one of their favorite movies. Blockbuster can use this information by advertising Couples Retreat before it comes out on DVD, telling people to come rent it on the day it comes out. They can use posters and other advertising campaigns within the store to draw people in. Once they are inside, there’s a good chance they will rent more than one movie, leading to higher profits for Blockbuster.
Now let’s take a look at how companies are utilizing Facebook to create customer experiences. As mentioned in class, many companies simply copy and paste their website onto a fan page. This is kind of boring and pointless. If I wanted to see what a product was about, I’d go to their website, not search for their Facebook site. When companies do this I never become a fan of their page unless I like their product so much that I do it anyway. Other than that, I like to look at more interactive pages. I like when companies will have updates on their pages, and fans will comment on new uses for the product or something similar.
If a company can be successful at this, they can draw in a lot of potential customers. I’m pretty sure fan pages can have games on their pages, so maybe if one person really likes a product and becomes a fan, and then thinks what’s on the fan page is really cool, they’ll tell their friends. Because word of mouth is a very useful tool, these people will trust their friend’s advice and take a look at the page. Hopefully they will find it really cool and fun too. Even if they didn’t have an interest in the product before, they may now consider buying it.
Facebook really is a useful site for companies. To be honest, I mostly just use it for the pictures – I love to take pictures so I can share all those by tagging my friends and see others’ pictures of me when they tag me. I never search for companies to become a fan. So, if a company is successful in finding me and gauging enough interest that I become a fan, I would definitely consider that a job well done.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Monopoly is More Than Just A Game
Wal-Mart is quite an incredible company. The fact that they have grown into such a giant monopoly obviously must have taken an extremely smart (or lucky) mastermind. Now that they have such large control over the economy, the vast amount of information they have is almost overwhelming.
With all the information this company has been able to gather, I think they have done a great job of turning this into a competitive advantage. Like with the knowledge that the sale of pop-tarts and beer shoots up during a natural disaster, they can use this information to predict what the consumers want, possibly even before they know themselves. This data greatly helps with what the article calls a “retailer’s twin nightmares: too much inventory or not enough.” This also helps to position themselves above other retailers like grocery stores. If they know a hurricane is on its way, they can heavily advertise pop-tarts and beer.
Although this information provides a great benefit for the company, I think Wal-Mart is using it quite selfishly. In the natural disaster example, they are using this information to make sure they have enough inventory to meet the demand. This helps them out, but it doesn’t really provide the consumer with any benefits; they would have bought these products anyway. Sure, lower prices, but Wal-Mart is supposed to provide that anyway. They are not providing any additionally benefit to their customers; just reaping in the benefits of this data themselves. Additionally, they are hording all this knowledge to themselves. They stopped selling this valuable, profitable information to other retailers to ensure that they are top of the game. Although this is beneficial for Wal-Mart’s profit, they are increasing their monopolization and decreasing any chance any potential competitor may have to succeed.
Wal-Mart does have a great amount of information about their shoppers but I have never really been concerned with that. Maybe it’s just because I generally pay with cash. I do use my debit card on occasion, but I’ve never really seen that as a threat. The fact that Wal-Mart can get my information from my bank is a little disturbing, but I highly doubt they’d go through that much trouble when I only use my debit card there maybe twice a year. If anything they’d go for the heavier shoppers. It is still unsettling that Wal-Mart has that much influence over a bank. Anyway, even if they did go to the trouble of getting every single shopper’s credit history and mortgage rate, what are they going to do with it? That’s not very helpful. They’re more concerned with trends, like what items tend to be sold together in a cart (which they can track with my cash purchases too) and what items are sold seasonally. They don’t have much use for my background check.
On the topic of Wal-Mart’s suppliers, I think they are driving them way too hard. Wal-Mart has the information to better these suppliers by making them send products at a very close to accurate rate to which they are being sold in store which is better in the long run, but the suppliers have no say whatsoever in all this. Additionally, the article stated that there is a good chance that in the future the suppliers will own the products on the shelf until they are sold. This benefits Wal-Mart greatly, but now the suppliers must bear the cost of those unsold items. And it’s not like the suppliers can say no – Wal-Mart is so big and a large (or entire) portion of their business. What Wal-Mart wants, Wal-Mart gets. End of story.
With all the information this company has been able to gather, I think they have done a great job of turning this into a competitive advantage. Like with the knowledge that the sale of pop-tarts and beer shoots up during a natural disaster, they can use this information to predict what the consumers want, possibly even before they know themselves. This data greatly helps with what the article calls a “retailer’s twin nightmares: too much inventory or not enough.” This also helps to position themselves above other retailers like grocery stores. If they know a hurricane is on its way, they can heavily advertise pop-tarts and beer.
Although this information provides a great benefit for the company, I think Wal-Mart is using it quite selfishly. In the natural disaster example, they are using this information to make sure they have enough inventory to meet the demand. This helps them out, but it doesn’t really provide the consumer with any benefits; they would have bought these products anyway. Sure, lower prices, but Wal-Mart is supposed to provide that anyway. They are not providing any additionally benefit to their customers; just reaping in the benefits of this data themselves. Additionally, they are hording all this knowledge to themselves. They stopped selling this valuable, profitable information to other retailers to ensure that they are top of the game. Although this is beneficial for Wal-Mart’s profit, they are increasing their monopolization and decreasing any chance any potential competitor may have to succeed.
Wal-Mart does have a great amount of information about their shoppers but I have never really been concerned with that. Maybe it’s just because I generally pay with cash. I do use my debit card on occasion, but I’ve never really seen that as a threat. The fact that Wal-Mart can get my information from my bank is a little disturbing, but I highly doubt they’d go through that much trouble when I only use my debit card there maybe twice a year. If anything they’d go for the heavier shoppers. It is still unsettling that Wal-Mart has that much influence over a bank. Anyway, even if they did go to the trouble of getting every single shopper’s credit history and mortgage rate, what are they going to do with it? That’s not very helpful. They’re more concerned with trends, like what items tend to be sold together in a cart (which they can track with my cash purchases too) and what items are sold seasonally. They don’t have much use for my background check.
On the topic of Wal-Mart’s suppliers, I think they are driving them way too hard. Wal-Mart has the information to better these suppliers by making them send products at a very close to accurate rate to which they are being sold in store which is better in the long run, but the suppliers have no say whatsoever in all this. Additionally, the article stated that there is a good chance that in the future the suppliers will own the products on the shelf until they are sold. This benefits Wal-Mart greatly, but now the suppliers must bear the cost of those unsold items. And it’s not like the suppliers can say no – Wal-Mart is so big and a large (or entire) portion of their business. What Wal-Mart wants, Wal-Mart gets. End of story.
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