Hello bloggers! Today, I would like to talk about buzz marketing.
Before I start, I will give you a bit more explanation on the subject, of course. Buzz marketing is the interaction of customers, which serves to amplify the original marketing message. The intention of buzz is to provide a vague but positive association, excitement and something fascinating about a product or service. The goal is to create positive buzz in order that people start talking about your company spontaneous. I will clarify this theory with a few examples later on.

Buzz marketing is one of the things I really like about marketing. It is a type of advertising that all the business should consider taking it in their marketing campaign. In order to use buzz marketing, there is one thing you should know and that is: BE CREATIVE.  When you are creative, it really makes people curious and when people are curious, your company gets a lot of publicity. Often without spending a lot of money.

I found a very interesting quote that is appropriate for this blog: “Buzz marketing is like succeeding in Hollywood: every actor wants to do it, only a few succeed.” If I translate this, it means: every company is trying to use buzz marketing but only a few will succeed and get positive buzz about his product or service. And that is true! It is very difficult to create the perfect buzz for your company, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. Because you have no control what the people will think about your campaign.

The examples I am going to discuss here are simple yet creative.
The first example happened months ago. They were building a new supermarket in the neighborhood. The renovations were almost finished and the store was hanging a large white sign on their building. The first week there was just a white sign but two weeks later, the first sentence appeared on the sign: “Competitors, beware…”. That was the moment when the buzz started. People were asking themselves what the other sentence could be… It was a huge success. Oh before I forget, the other sentence was: “We are now the cheapest!”

An other example is Guerilla marketing that creates a buzz for companies. You can see a couple of examples on the photos that I have posted.

Thanks for reading my blog!
NIELS

Hello everyone!

Group buying is one of the most upcoming trends in 2012-2013 or it was… According to marketers, group buying sites are losing their customers faster than the amount of time it takes them to arrange a deal.

Groupon, Shedeals, … Those are the most popular group buying sites, in my opinion. I have no doubt that they also feel this fall. People are getting more negative feelings towards group purchases. And you are wondering how this could happen? Well, I think this is mainly because people have often been tricked online. There are so many stories about paying hundreds of euros and at the end, they received nothing. Once they have been tricked, it is very difficult to win back their trust. It may also be that people, especially with the age of 40+, do not dare to take the step for online purchasing. They find it too dangerous. They are afraid that the product or service aren’t 100% safe. And if I have to be honest, I can understand them very well.

For a little while, Facebook has also participated in this business but after a few months, they run into problems. The major problem was that they had too many expectations. Facebook thought it was going to be a huge success because of the social networks: there are millions of people connected to Facebook. But I honestly think the people could not link group buying and daily deals with social networking. They just did not trust it and when that happens, there is no way to fix it.

Recently I bought some tickets for Robbie Williams for his concert in August. I am someone who is not familiar of buying stuff online and I think this is not going to change soon. I am always afraid of losing my money and I am always looking for the most reliable website to buy something. I hope I will get a positive experience with all this.

Feel free to comment and thanks for reading my blog!

Niels

Blog 6: QR Codes


Hello bloggers!

A while ago, my brother was looking for a new car. They visited many and many garages but one garage did something very unique. The owners of the garage put a QR code on the car and people could scan that code with their smartphones to get more information about the car. There was one big advantage linked to that strategy of using a QR code: when the owner was busy helping other clients, you could immediately get some information about the car instead of waiting for the owner.

And that’s why I wanted to write something about QR Coding for my blog because people are getting more and more creative with this kind of technology.

I think probably everyone knows what QR coding is nowadays but for those who don’t know what I am talking about, I will explain it. QR codes are a fast way of getting information to customers. Those QR codes are square bar codes that can be scanned with a smartphone and then you will get information on your screen of your mobile. That can be contact information, maybe some publicity or just a regular website.

As I mentioned earlier, people are getting more and more creative with QR Coding. Over the past year, businesses have slapped QR codes on their business cards, billboards, on stones in the road, … Anywhere consumers can utilize mobile devices to get product information. But there is something more interesting than standard QR Codes… Called branded dial code!

Branded dial codes are QR codes that consumers can access with a keypad and those codes are gaining in popularity very fast. More companies are using this as a way to increase their audience they want to reach. And how is that possible you think? Well, not everyone has a camera on their phone but everyone has a keypad, that’s why.

As you can see, I’ve put a couple of pictures in my blog of QR Codes on creative places. Please, feel free to comment and I will see you next time!

Niels

Hello everyone!

Today I am going to talk about Google’s newest invention and it is called Google Glass. Because I have to give a presentation on this innovative product within two weeks, it seemed nice to write a blog about it.

Most of us will probably heard about Google Glass but for those who don’t know what I am talking about, I will explain it. It is still in the testing phase so these glasses aren’t on the market yet.

Google Glass is a portable computer with a head-mounted display that is currently being developed by Google. A head-mounted display is a display screen worn on the head. It can be built in the form of glasses or in a helmet. In this case of Google, it is built in the form of glasses. Google Glass displays information such as a smartphone but hands free. An user can operate the device with his voice or a touch pad on the side of the device. With these glasses you can do everything: take pictures, record a small movie, use Google maps, Skype and lots of other stuff. You can see a picture of the glasses down below.

Currently there are no glasses added to the device but Google is considering partnering with manufacturers like Ray-Ban or Warby Parker and might also open stores where customers can try out this new invention.

I asked my friends what their thoughts were about this product and if they would buy/wear it. Most of them said it looked quite ridiculous and that they would not wear it. But if they had the opportunity, they would definitely try it out.

However, I believe this is a product for the future. Maybe within 10-15 years, everyone will walk around with the Google Glass. What do you think about this? Don’t be afraid to comment and share your thoughts with us about this product!

Oh and before I end this, I also posted a video, feel free to watch it.

Niels

Good day everyone, I am back with an update of my blog about creativity – innovation – trends. Today I am going to tell you about something “out of the box”. Literally and figuratively.  Have you guys also noticed some billboards that are rather unusual? Well, I surely do and that is the subject that I am going to talk about today; “unusual billboards”.


More and more companies are using these kind of billboards to get the attention of people and this really works. When I am driving with my car and I see this kind of billboard, it really draws my attention. I have to be careful that I don’t accidentally cause any problems on the road because I can’t stop looking at it. ;-)

When the billboards are creative and people are talking about it, you create a sort of buzz marketing for your company. The best way to create awareness is to use mouth-to-mouth advertising and by using a spectacular billboard, you will definitely have a positive mouth-to-mouth advertising. However, this is rather difficult… if your billboard isn’t that creative and people don’t like it, it will work against you. You will get negative reactions so these unusual billboards are a bit tricky to use. I have put a couple of pictures in this blog so that you can see what creative billboards are.

I am a huge fan of this kind of advertising because it is totally different than the basic advertising. Marketers won’t stop looking for new kinds of advertising and I am really excited to see what advertising will be in the next 10 or 15 years.

Well, thank you for reading my blog. Feel free to comment and let me know if you are also a fan of creative advertising!

- Niels

Hello everyone, this week I have found an interesting marketing trend. A trend that will break through in the market of marketing in 2013 or I hope it will. The new trend is called “Hyper-local commerce”.

It describes the new services and technology that make it easier for anyone who wants to invest in local businesses and buy from local merchants. Everyone who owns a smartphone (the majority has already one, except for me but that will change hopefully ;-)) and have the desire to shop local will have plenty of help the coming year. There will be online tools, innovations and comparative technology that helps anyone in any location around the world to identify local shops for products that you are looking for.

This is really something interesting because, for example, when you’re on holiday to Germany and all of a sudden you have a great desire for some Lays chips, you just use your smartphone and you know the nearest shop where they sell those chips.

There already exist a couple of applications for smartphones based on the trend “hyper-local commerce” such as GoPayment, Square, MobilePay, etc. With one of those applications, you use a small device that you can attach to your smartphone and it reads your credit card. This means that you can pay everywhere around the world with your smartphone if you want to buy something on the Internet or just want to use online banking. There is only one condition; you need a wireless connection of course.

I have found the description of this trend and the examples on the following website: http://www.slideshare.net/rohitbhargava/15-marketing-trends-in-2013-and-how-your-business-can-use-them. Definitely visit this website if you want to see more upcoming trends for 2013.

Feel free to comment and I will see you next week for another blog about Creativity – Innovation – Trends.

- Niels

Good day blog-followers, this week goes about a creative and innovative product.

A couple of days ago, I saw something extraordinary on the web. I was checking Facebook and all of a sudden, there was a picture of an umbrella on the Facebook page ‘Art&Design’ and it looked funny.

So I have a question for you guys, do you also get tired when your umbrella breaks by a violent gust of wind? I surely do! Well, apparently there exists a solution for that, the umbrella from Nubrella. I didn’t know that and I’m sure that a lot of you also didn’t know this. The umbrella looks like a helmet but bigger. It covers your entire upper body and there is one big advantage of this umbrella, you don’t have use your hands! I put a few pictures with this blog so all of you can see what the umbrella looks like.

The product comes with a lot of advantages. The first and the most important one I think, is that your umbrella can’t break anymore when there is a lot of wind. Because of the fact that you don’t have to use your hands, you can easily use your phone or ride your bike!

I went to the website of Nubrella and apparently they already sold their umbrellas in over 66 countries. I hope they soon will be available in the shops here in Belgium. If you would like more information about this product, just go to the website http://www.nubrella.com/.

- Niels

I would like to start with this sentence; a surge in 'second screen' value. What do I mean with second screen? By second screen I am referring to mobile. Nowadays the marketers can’t ignore the value of offering their brands and products on mobiles because more than 75% of the world has access to mobile devices.

It is very important that your website is mobile-friendly, that it is responsive and easy to use on mobile devices. 2013 will be all about offering value in mobile app form. What value can your brand offer a mobile device user? I introduce you to the upcoming marketing trend: Shoptimization.

So I can all hear you think, what is this new trend? Well, according to Rohit Bhargava, the founder of Influential Marketing Group, it goes mainly about having new mobile apps that let the consumers optimize the process of buying everything from fashion to medical prescriptions.

There are a couple of examples that I would like to explain. Firstly, you have several apps like slice, dashlane, etc. that allows consumers to use a single button to do everything, from combining all your online purchasing, to price checking. This makes it easier for the shoppers to buy anything and it is also a good way for the retailers to obtain new data to optimize the shopping experience.

Another example of shopping apps are CardStar, perx, Keyring, … Instead of carrying all those loyalty cards in your wallet and having an endless search for the right card in the right shop, those apps allows you to put all those loyalty cards in just one app. There also exist an app to store all the discount coupons you find in the brochures. This is very useful for people who like to use the discount coupons.

As you can see, those examples are just the basic apps, it goes way beyond this.

Well, this was my blog for this week, I hope you guys liked it!

Niels