Steve Jobs Logo turns into viral Marketing? No?

I believe every one by now should have seen this symbolic logo:

This is not a logo designed by Apple.  It was designed by the a undergraduate student of the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong.  This logo was designed a few months ago, when Steve Jobs announced his resignation of his CEO position from Apple.  Yet, it was not widely spread at that period.

This logo was widely spread around the internet, and social networking site right after Steve Jobs passed away recent.  Perhaps you are one of the people who used this logo as well!

Can this recent online action / behaviour be considered as viral marketing? What do you think?  A viral marketing campaign is usually generated by the company itself.  However, in the case, from the design to the publicity, Apple has not involved in any steps of the "campaign".

I would say that this is a combination of User Generated Content (UGC) and viral marketing.  I would then consider it as User-Generated viral marketing.  The spreading of this logo is similar to a virus, but is constructive to the company, Apple.

Although you may not agree that this is a marketing campaign, it generated the marketing effect for Apple.  This does not only greatly increases the brand awareness of the company, but also increased the stock price of Apple significantly.

So, what do you think about this "Logo" issue?  Should marketers consider it as a marketing activity and try to develop marketing strategies like this new one?

Importance of choosing the RIGHT e-marketing channels - DigitalRev TV

We all know, there are numerous electronic marketing channels exist in the market now.  For example, this marketing blog is an example of electronic marketing of the blogger, myself ; website banner is another example of electronic marketing.  Another good example can be found is the internet social media like facebook.  They can target their customers precisely. 

Yet, which electronic marketing channel is the best for a company?  Social networking? website advertisement? or youtube videos?  It is believed that each channel has their features, pros and cons.  Different organization may find each channel suit them differently.  Today, we will discuss how an organization chose their e-marketing channel correctly and brought a great success to the firm.

DigitalRev, a company selling D-SLR cameras and lens.  They established their company with together with their Youtube channels.  They chose to make use of their Youtube channels to generate genuine review on their products.  They does not only talk about their products, but also test them in field and in consumer's perspective.  This is also called User-generated-content.  Slowly, they have established their own customer based due to their Youtube channel.  Most of their customers are a referral from the channel.  Till now, DigitalRev has a customer base of 122,004.  

There are numerous camera retailers in the market nowadays. By the how many can be as successful as DigitalRev, as a global retailer?  One of the purposes of buying Cameras are to upload and share your photos and video with the rest of the world.  That is what DigitalRev has been doing.  They does not only upload photos and videos, but make use of the product they are promoting to demonstrate how good (or bad) the product is. 

Looking at this example, we can observe the importance of choosing a CORRECT e-marketing channel.  It is believed that if DigitalRev has started off their brand based on social networking site, they will have a totally different perception in consumers’ eyes, which may not be as successful as it is now. 

How can a company create the best User Generated Content (UGC)?

Last friday, the camera manufacturer, Olympus and Jetblue carried out a special marketing project.  This project is namely PEN ready Project.  The project has GIFTED 1000 newly released camera, E-PM1 to 1000 passengers of Jetblue.  The 1000 passengers are then asked to take photos during their journey to different countries.  Next, each of the "photographer" has to choose 20 best photos from their photo gallery.  These photos will then be uploaded to Olympus.  

Many of the uploaded photos are in high quality and very impressive.  In the eyes of marketers, this is actually a very successful marketing project that can improve the brand image as well as brand awareness  in consumers' perception.  

User Generated Content (UGC) in the internet have limited quantity for consumers to review.  However, with this project, what Olympus trying to do is to 1. Increase the number of UGC for their new product.   2. Create UGC in a short period of time.  3. Create genuine feedback and opinion for the product.  Consumers can then review these UGC.  Is this project efficient by gifting 1000 cameras?  This project can be part of their promotion.  Instead of investing the budget to TV and other media advertisement, Olympus spent their capital in gifting cameras.  This new method of promotion and market communication is believed to be more wide-spread and effective.

Do you still do your grocery in person? Online? Or.....?

E-marketing has always been a challenge to the food retailer industry.  Traditional and conservative stereotypes hinder the development of electronic shopping in the industry.  This also reflects in our Australia food retailing industry such as Coles.  

Despite Coles has introduced online shopping over a decade ago, the majority of the public, 87%, has never bought grocery online (Community and Sustainability report, 2010).   Technology has been evolving greatly in the past few years.  Social network system are occupying great amount of users’ time.  While Coles are focusing on their weekly e-newsletter, media in the Internet has been changing to a different dimension.  

In fact, how can the food retailer like Coles make use of electronic marketing and media to boost their profitability?  

Tesco, in South Korea started a new campaign.  This campaign evolves the ways people shop.  Tesco makes use of the electronic media in the public transportation not only as a marketing communication tool, but ALSO, a virtual store.  This virtual store provides a new electronic shopping experience to their customers, by combining electronic marketing tools and a brand new supply chain.  

What we can be sure is that, this marketing strategy is a new interaction between the marketers and the consumers.  Is this the future of our society?  Is this new interaction the Web 3.0 that we are heading to ?  What do you think?

What role does Auspost play in e-marketing?

People has been saying physical postage service is outdated.  Others say, in the 21st century, no one would send letters to their friends and relatives anymore.  In the digital world nowadays, we are enjoying the convenience brought by emails, instant messengers, SMS, facebook, twitter, etc, etc...   These technology are replacing the old fashion way of messaging by sending letters.  However, post office are still surviving and are not expected to be gone in any short future.  

Then, with the emergence of new technologies, what have the market done to keep postal service alive as it has always been?  The answer is : E-MARKETING itself.

CLICK HERE to have a look at the new relationship between eBay and Auspost.

CLICK HERE and HERE to purchase and use their new products and services. 

With the advanced technology and high-speed internet, online transactions have been increasingly increasing in the past decades.  In order to catch up the migration occurring in the market, Auspost has newly developed a partnership with eBay Australia.  The new partnership brings together with new products and services to the electronic markets.  As e-marketing is growing rapidly, demand for parcel services increase accordingly.  With this Partnership, Auspost is trying to reposition themselves in the market, by increasing their exposure in the online market, such as eBay.  
What do you think about the new strategy of Auspost with eBay?  What role does Auspost play in the world of e-marketing nowadays?

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Posts focus on current issues around electronic marketing in our world.