What can WPI Venture Forum do to improve it’s online marketing?

To improve WPI Venture Forum’s online marketing, we want to first know what the Forum’s target market is. The three sets of WPI Venture Forum customers are entrepreneurs, investors and sponsors. Besides these three sets of customers, there are other groups of people are also attached to the event, who are volunteers, WPI students, alumni’s and faculties.

All these customers and related groups form a cycle. With entrepreneurs coming to the event and presenting their ideas, investors come to look for opportunities. The interactions between entrepreneurs and investors provide sponsors platform to provide their services. High quality ideas will keep attracting investors to come to the event. More sponsors will show up to the event and offer help. As the event getting bigger, more volunteers, WPI students and faculties will be involved. Better resources will come to WPI Venture Forum where people will get better returns. So how to attract more and higher quality entrepreneurs becomes very important in enlarging the forum’s influences.

To improve its online marketing, the first thing I want to suggest is to re-design the website of the forum. The WPI Venture Forum home page is only plain text page with no pictures and only three colors, black, red and white. The home page looks unattractive but only informative. Also, in the first page, people can’t see the topic of any events. I will suggest the website not only list a link to the upcoming event data, but the topics and key note presenters. Also, some pictures and animations will also raise people’s interests.

Another way to improve its online marketing is to improve using social networks. As I said in the last paragraph, the home page needs to be redesigned. I want to suggest adding social network links to the home page, such as “Like us on Facebook” or tweets from Twitter. WPI Venture Forum does have a Facebook page. But only 74 Likes! I even have more likes on my page. To attract more Likes from people, especially from our target customer, entrepreneurs, I suggest WPI post high quality blogs or tweets about opportunities and tips for people, and of cause, news for WPI Venture Forum.

Another important strategy to adopt is to increase clicks to the website. “Key Word” is important. If I search “entrepreneur”, I will get MIT Enterprise Forum at five or six spot, but no WPI. If I search “entrepreneur central Massachusetts”, I still can’t find WPI Venture Forum in the first page, but Boston College and MIT get the first and second spot. If I search “entrepreneur opportunity”, I can’t get WPI. To be found by people, WPI needs to improve its fundability. I will suggest WPI not only improve its Venture Forum page, but also starts a whole series Entrepreneur pages that provide not only the forum information, but also quality news and opportunities and knowledge. With all these key words, WPI Entrepreneur pages will be easier to find and traffic to the Forum page will also increase.

My WPI Venture Forum Experience on 10/09

It has been one of the best events that I have attended for a long time. I missed the social networking time since I was at David Norton ’62 Receives Innovator of the Year Award event. By the way, it’s very innovative to hear David’s speech about Balance Scorecard. Unexpected thing happened. The fire alarm went off right in the middle of the speech. Everyone had to get out of the room and came back. Fortunately, the rest of the event went very well.

Anyways,

The topic of this Venture Forum is “I have an idea. What next?” I immediately got interested in the topic since I am doing two business plans for this semester. One of the two is going to be a real business in a near future.  I can’t stop relating what I heard from the speech to the business plan I am doing. I thought about my teams, our goals and our action plans. When I heard Reed talked about Business Model Canvas, Professor and I shared a smile to each other. I felt that the things I am doing got recognized by professionals and I am on the right track. Of cause, it is not the only thing I took away from the speech.

The best thing I like about Reed’s speech is the idea of extracting assumptions from the idea, turning them into hypotheses, and testing them. Usually when we have an idea that we think is brilliant and can make a lot of money, it’s hard for us to calm down and take a step back to consider the possibilities and the whole picture. If we can allow the thought that our idea is not that perfect and need improvement, we then have the space to pivot. I remember panelist Jim Warner said that he started eight or night business before and nearly none of them stayed the same with the original idea when it finally went off. The key point here is to have “concrete” assumptions to test. For our Diet Meal Everyday business plan, a concrete assumption may be that a female who want to keep fit would like to try out a meal plan for at least two weeks.

I really like what I took away from this forum. I also learned that how to do research as a student. As Professor Shari said in class, maybe in her ETR500 class, talking to potential customers is very important. As a student, we have the advantage of being trusted. A begin sentence like “Hi. I’m a student from WPI and I am doing a research about…” Both of my business plan teams are on the “idea stage”. If we really want to push the idea to the market, there are a lot more to think about.

Comments on “Economic Value of the Advertising-Supported Internet Ecosystem”

This is a very comprehensive report analyzing advertising-supported Internet ecosystem. The author detailedly goes through the frame of Internet ecosystem, each layer that composes the system and the influence and affects.

I learned a lot from reading this whole report. First of all, the CREC model which was created way back in 1998 portrayed a complete frame of Internet ecosystem. The CREC model states four layers of the ecosystem, which are the Internet Infrastructure Layer, the Internet Application Layer, the Internet Intermediate Layer, and the Internet Commerce Layer. As a business student, my understanding of this ecosystem can be interpreted in an easier understandable way. Based on the construction of the infrastructure layer and application layer which provided hardware and software that make Internet available to use, business in the fourth layer will be able to realize commerce by using Internet. The third layer in the middle provides a platform for middlemen business, offering services between business and customers.

I, as a marketing student, place myself in the third layer, helping business deliver marketing services and gathering feedback from customers. This e-marketing industry is different from the traditional marketing industry. Based on the specialties of the Internet ecosystem, majorly based on the specialty that internet greatly shorten the distance between business and customers, middlemen, such as marketing services, have been neglected by both sides. There are hot discussions out there now talking about whether marketing is dead because of the advent of Internet and e-commerce. As I talked before in my past blogs, the marketing channels have been added. In my opinion, it’s good news. Marketing people now have more methods to get to their target customers. However, it’s still difficult. With all these traffics coming to your website, it’s hard for marketing people to correctly target the customers who are really in the end of the buying circle. E-marketing is still in the infant age. There is still a long way to go.

While reading the report, I find myself very interested in chapters talking about Entrepreneurships, maybe because I am also taking an entrepreneurship class right now. The CREC model clearly states different layers in the system and implies opportunities for innovation in each layer. I have many computer engineer friends and they love to talk about their ideas and analysis of the Internet market. The advent of Internet gives small business opportunities and makes starting a new business much easier. The idea is the key. Once you have an idea that is realistic, you don’t even have to know how to do a business. There are companies existing aiming to help entrepreneurs like these to create their own businesses.  

Reference

John Deighton, Harold M. Brierley “Economic Value of the Advertising-Supported Internet Ecosystem”

Are QR codes working?

I am glad to find out that a lot fewer females are using QR codes than males according to the blog, no wonder I seldom noticed QR codes around me. As a result, I immediately found myself lack of position on judging this tool. I talked to my male engineer friends and tried to get more information. They told me that QR codes are very popular right now and they are everywhere. However, since I never recognize myself as a technology lagger and I seldom use this tool, I believe that the QR codes still have long way to go.

I found one thing that is very weird. Most of the QR codes scans happened at home. For my information, one of an outstanding QR codes’ advantage is that it contains more information and more channels than bar code. Once you scan a QR code, the tool will guide you to a webpage. Imagine you are at home sitting in the sofa while surfing on your iPad, will you still reach out your smartphone, scan a QR codes and go to a webpage on your phone? It’s not reasonable for people to scan some codes while they can reach out much easier tools to get the information. However, the realty is there. People are doing this. It turns out that they find the codes majorly from newspapers and print magazines. Now let’s talk about future. If the QR codes tie itself to print media which is dying, it won’t have a promising future.

Are QR codes working?

Sure. There are many people in the world using these codes. But from my point of views, the QR codes should figure out something better as a carrier.  Obviously, print media is not good choice. The nature of QR codes being bundled with smartphone decides that QR codes should work closely with the functions of smartphone. I agree with Dave that most of the usage of QR should be outside. I read another blog Danyl Bosomworth wrote about QR codes. He talked about several QR’s promising applications which I agree a lot. One of them is “Map and Signage”. QR codes can help people find locations and directions. My suggestion is that the codes can be combined with GPS and map on the smartphone. With an easy scan of a QR code, people can get all the information of where they are and the related information such as restaurants and shops, maybe even news happened in the near area.  

In my opinion, the reason that QR codes are not that popular yet is it doesn’t meet people’s needs, at least not my needs. I don’t find any QR codes that are attracted to me to scan. Maybe for some events and coupons, I can use the tool to check the exclusive information. But if we want to push QR codes to larger audiences, we want to stimulate the interests and needs of people to use and only use QR codes.

Reference

Dave Chaffey, “QR Code Statistics” http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/qr-code-marketing/qr-codes-location-demographic-statistics/

Danyl Bosomworth “Marketing with QR codes” http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/proximity-marketing/marketing-qr-codes/

Comments on “Marketing is dead”

It is quite inconsistent that the author said “marketing is dead” while using traditional marketing methods to attract readers by using a blog name like this.

I agree that with the advent of Internet and social media, buyers’ behaviors are inevitably changed. Traditional marketing strategies are playing a less and less important role in influencing customers while discussions about e-marketing become hot issues.

E-marketing can be buying commercial spots on Google or other search engines, can be posting funny videos on YouTube and also can be sending promotion emails to customers. The formats are quite new and different from traditional marketing methods such as TV commercials and public relations. The new marketing methods are created based on the natures of Internet media platform. The essence of marketing has not been changed. No matter whether traditional marketing or e-marketing, it is and will be always about communicating with and passing information to customers. Companies still need to build marketing strategy to introduce their products or services, promote them and build brand images. The concept of marketing can’t be ignored anytime. Especially, since everything is on Internet right now, customers can be reached in many ways. Competitions have never been such fierce. Businesses need to pay more attention to come up with different and effective marketing strategies. What’s different right now is the ways to pass the information have been changed. Now advertising, public relations and brandings have to find new ways to reach their customers.

The hottest issue in e-marketing B2C is social media marketing. How to use social media effectively to marketing is always a question mark for me. Right now companies open their home pages on Facebook and accounts on Twitter or put commercials on these social media. From my point of view, companies’ home pages on Facebook are no more than profiles. Companies upload their products information and promotions on the page. But are these all about social media? As the author talked in the article, “word of mouth” is the key point. Market professionals need to work out how to put the “word” into people’s mouth. In other saying, we need to focus on creating connections and perceptions unnoticeably in customers and raise their interests in a passive way which means let customers believe that they love the products forwardly but not pushed by others, maybe by friends but not by marketing people.

What I want to say is that marketing is becoming invisible online. Since people tend to trust what their peers said much more than what advertisements said, marketing people should take steps back behind scenes. We should manage influence invisibly. We need to create an environment to let people believe they make their decisions on their own.  However, what customers don’t know is marketing people are actually behind all of these. We can create buzz on Internet; we can create public relation events by offering peers influences. There is huge space out there for marketing people to innovate and to become the “unseen” hands.

Reference

Bill Lee, "Marketing is dead" http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/marketing_is_dead.html

 

What's happening to customer behavior? Comments on "Attack of the Customers: The Pampers Dry Max Crisis."

I personally find this article very interesting. What I take away from this article are basically two thoughts. Firstly, how customer behaviors changed with the advent and development of Internet and SNS. Secondly, how P&G dealt with this PR crisis that hadn’t happened before anywhere.

Personally I have never called a complaint number because it always related to an impression of long waiting time and annoying lines transferring. I like to write down my using experience and advice on a comment note or book. Unlike me, there are a lot people out there enjoying their efforts to the products they use. They called the 800 numbers and wrote mails to companies to report their using experiences. However, with the Internet becoming the most important communication tool, customers’ behaviors have been changed gradually. People started to interact with the companies by emails and companies’ website. It’s becoming easier for customers to get connections with companies and gain information more directly and accurately. Then there is social network website that customers can organize their own thoughts and share with friends. “The word of mouth” can be like a coin with two sides. On one hand, companies can use positive customers’ reviews as a marketing tool to promote their products. People tend to believe more on what their peers and friends told them than what company said. On the other hand, just like the problem that P&G met, customers’ reviews which were posted on Facebook had been used as a sword that threaded the reputation and sales of the product and the company. The Pamper Dry Max was the first time that customers’ review made to the broad publicity by social networks. It rapidly got attentions and gathered customers’ who had the same concerns.

This “customers’ review” behavior is the new behavior pattern that customer adopted with the advent of Internet and social network. Before making purchase decisions, customers will search online to see reviews that customers wrote after their using experiences. Facing this new customers’ behavior, companies started to adopt their strategy to it. Just like what P&G have learned from the crisis. It’s always too late to get in touch with the angry people. Companies should get to their customers before they get back to you. Internet is the right tool to use to achieve this goal. It shortens the distance between companies and customers. Companies open forums for customers to share their thoughts, open Facebook and Twitter for customers to follow and update customers’ reviews as feedbacks to observe market.

When it comes to how P&G dealt with this crisis, I will say that P&G did a pretty good job. The nature of its strategy on launching a new product would cause some problems, such as misunderstanding on its strategy and its value. What I think that P&G did the best was that it didn’t go after those inflammatory stories, but focused on child safety and well-being problems. It’s a very smart move. On one hand, P&G built its brand reputation by showing its social responsibility. On the other hand, P&G tutored customers on how to solve the problems, which really meet customers’ needs at that time. There is one thing that played a very important role in dealing this crisis. Besides the criticism, customers still have faith in the brand. With this winning card in hand and some really smart moves, P&G also adapted to the new customer behaviors, which led to a very good result.

 

Reference

Paul Gillin, Attack of the Customers: The Pampers Dry Max Crisis

http://gillin.com/blog/2012/08/attack-of-the-customers-the-pampers-dry-max-crisis/

Comment on "Is Google Making Us Stupid"

When I was typing email on my iPad at the airport waiting for the flight to Houston, I never thought about what life would be like 10 or 20 years ago. While I was reading the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” I can’t stop imagining the time when people used horses and carriages as transportation tools and the time when people had to wait for several months to get a mail from a far-away family member, and the time when people were helpless when they found their hand-written library directories were ruined by fire or rain.

I am always fascinated by emerging technologies and how these technologies can change people’s lives. Inventions such as steam engine brought the society a new civilization. Technologies such as Internet set the society a whole new standard of everything. When people were thinking what’s next, Apple created a new market for music and entertainment. Technology companies such as Google, Apple and Amazon.com give people’s life new definition. The most obvious example will be Google search engine. Just like the stream engine, Google brought huge benefit to the society. Tons of time has been saved to design more world-changing ideas by just typing some words and clicking some links. The best information and the most needed information are provided in less than one second. People can quickly scan the results and pick out what they want and then take their time to explore the details. If we view the situation from the e-commerce aspect, Google provide companies a platform to reach out their customers effectively and efficiently. This is obviously a win-win-win situation. Customers, Google and businesses all find their ways to achieve what they want. The rule is defined by Google; people take advantage of the rule and gain benefit.

Go back to the article where the author talked about how Google changed the way people read and write and think, I have to admit that I agree with some of the points. Firstly, I like how the author can jump out from the time he was in and the place he was at and consider the changes of himself. Sometime nowadays I feel hard to concentrate on what I am doing and easily be distracted by real-time update emails or links along side the web page that Google thinks that I may be interested in.  I like how the author described people nowadays as “fickleness”. It makes me think about the situation of myself. I am more and more used to the high speed of everything and find myself losing patience in thinking deeper of a question because it is just easier to find the answers online by a click.

Am I the only one that adopted this new habit? Are there other people in the society who are also addicted to Google and Amazon? As a marketing person, instead of thinking whether Google makes us stupid, I would like to think more about how to market a product by using this change and how to meet customers’ new needs generated by all these emerging technologies.