MKTG 465 Test #1 Review

16. In class we reviewed the concept of a "product" and defined it as a bundle of benefits that satisfies the needs of a customer. o Define an "e-product" in your own words. o Explain how an e-product can be either "high tech" or "low tech." o Provide several examples of "e-products" to illustrate your definition and the concepts of high and low tech e-products.

- E- products are unique to the internet - High tech products are the cutting edge and is made from the newest technology. Low tech on the other hand are non technological product but may be enhanced by technology - Examples of e- products are Iphone apps, wearable technology, self driving cars, computer pen, google glass, the smart dressing room

6. A central topic of the chapter was the concept of "Big Data." o Explain in your own words the concept and ideas behind "Big Data." o Make the connection between "Big Data" and the "SDS Model" approach the authors present. How do they fit together? Draw the SDS model and explain what the initials "SDS" stand for. o In class we discussed a variety of company (or industry) examples to apply the concepts of Big Data. Identify and discuss any of those examples and describe specifically how "Big Data" might apply. Provide some details to illustrate your knowledge of the concepts behind "Big Data."

- "Big Data" is all the data collected from various technological platforms. There is an unlimited amount of this data and until recently companies have struggled to analyze it. Now with the invent of programs and analylists the utilization of this data is available to smaller companies. Looking closely at this data can allow companies to find out many things from the preferences of their target markets to how many apples they should buy this week. - "SDS" stands for sources to databases to strategies. - SDS is the process of sorting Big Data and making into marketing knowledge that firms will be able to utilize. Without SDS Big Data is basically worthless to firms. - One example that I remember was about a grocery chain called Albertson's. Albertson's had a rewards card program but eventually had to terminate it because they didn't know what to do with all of the data they were collecting. Within Albertson's "big data" was useful information they could use to better their stores and profits. If this chain had used SDS to analyze the data they could have turned it into something beneficial for themselves.

20. Leading into our discussion on Creativity, I shared with you two different analogies to encourage innovative and "out of the box" thinking in the e-marketing arena. o Explain what is meant by the concept of "elephants on a walk" in relation to e-marketing. o Describe the difference between a "red ocean" and a "blue ocean." o Describe one example of a company applying the blue ocean strategy. This can be a real example or you can make one up.

- "Elephants on a walk" refers to the trunk to tail formation that elephants walk in. The leader of the walk in reality is Google, the second elephant is bing or yahoo. The importance is for these elephants or firms to find the right time to stray from the line. Of course, taking the risk that the other elephants may not follow. - The "red ocean" is red because of the blood in the water. The blood represents the competition in that particular market. "Blue ocean" means that there isn't much competition in that marketplace. - A firm finding a market that has little competition and taking advantage of it. The senior citizen group has large buying power and is an unhacked market. It would be smart of a firm to go into that market and set up retirement homes or find out the needs of that market and then introduce them.

7. One form of research we covered in class relates to the concept of A/B testing o Describe the general approach of A/B testing. You MUST fully explain how the testing process works! o Explore the following website (http://squawalpine.com/). Provide one very specific A/B test you might want to run. Clearly indicate what is seen on the current page and the specific change you would like to test. Also explain exactly how you would measure and determine which option is better. o Explain why A/B testing works so well in the electronic environment.

- A/B testing is presenting the customer with 2 different versions of a web page, allowing them to use both, and observe which is more successful. It is ideal to do this when the page has high traffic. To do this you must first make the minor adjustments to your page, then you observe both of the landing pages. You want to pay attention to click through rates and purchase conversions. You can see the results in real time. If you are evaluating several changes you are going to run the results in multivariate testing to see if they are significant. If you would like to pinpoint any change it is best to only change one or two aspects of the web page. - Currently there is a large bulky white section that allows the customer to specify their lodging times. The button to the right of that says "book lodging". - I would like to move the section of "what type of traveler are you?" up and switch it with the lodging section. I would also like to change the title of some of the buttons like "book lodging" to something more exciting. - I would start by making my changes to the homepage. Then ideally, I would wait for a period of high traffic, then I would present both to the customers. I would then observe. Depending on the click through rates and the % of people that ended up making a purchase i could then make a confident decision on which page was more successful. - A/B testing works well in the electronic environment because it allows for real time responses. This environment also lets you imbed links into your landing pages and test multiple metrics, ultimately giving you the best data to base your decisions off of.

9. The authors of the book discuss the "Online Exchange Process" (Exhibit 7.3). o Draw the model and label with all parts. o Explain what an "individual difference" is, and how it can impact the likelihood of internet exchanges. o List two of the "resources" that consumers must provide for an exchange to occur and explain how a company can reduce the level of these resources to make an exchange seem more appealing. o There are also six common "exchange outcomes." List and briefly describe each outcome (Hint: even though the name of the outcome may seem like it clearly describes the outcome, provide a description of each outcome, highlighting what it means).

- An individual difference is the demographics, attitude toward tech, experience and skills online, goal orientation, and convenience and price orientation. Individual differences can affect exchanges based on how different people respond to different marketing. Different people with different characteristics and outcome expectations will react to marketing differently. For this reason, it is important for marketers to explore individual differences and create marketing mixes accordingly. 1. Time: Management the customers scarce time will be benefical for the customer and the company. Making your web page easy to navigate and well organized will safe the customer time and enhance their overall experience. 2. Energy/ psychic: The energy and mental toll that a customer is exposed to when a web page glitches or the credit card process is too long is responsible to 75% of abandoned carts. It would be in any company's best interest to make the check out time as speedy as possible and make sure that their web page is operating well at all times. 1. connect: building relationships through interaction on the web (emails) 2. create: Having the ability to produce and share content with peers on the web (blogs) 3. enjoy: The fun and entertainment accessible on the web (videos) 4. Learn: The information that is accessible on the web that can be utilized by customers to learn new things (youtube) 5. trade: Being able to contact people that have what you want and are willing to negotiate (craigslist) 6. Give: Using the web for the benefit of others (gofundme)

10. The authors of the book discuss the "Internet Exchange Process" (Exhibit 7.3). o Draw the model and label with all parts. o We talked about nine social/cultural trends. List and describe four of these trends. Make sure that you explain why each of these trends is important to e-marketers.

- Home and work life: The boundaries between work and home life have dissolved. More people are making purchases at the office during work hours than ever before and bringing their work home with them. It is important for marketers to keep this in mind when setting up times for sales, or advertising a laptop as just a neccessity for the office - Multitasking: People are watching tv, texting, and using their laptops all at the same time. This makes their interaction with each of these items shorter and less focused. Knowing this marketers need to make their ads pop and grab customer's attention. It is also important for companies to have a presence on multiple platforms. - Info overload: Customers are being overwhelmed with the amount of information that is available to them. Marketers need to condense the amount of text that they present to the customer and get right to the point. - Online oxygen: Customers are becoming more and more addicting to the internet and their devices. That being said, it would be smart for marketers to establish a very stable internet presence and make themselves relevant on that platform.

5. The Web 3.0 environment is something we know very little about. We discussed ideas and possibilities that we may see in the years to come. o Describe what the term "semantic web" means to you and provide an example to clearly illustrate this concept. o Describe what the term "convergence" means to you, and provide an example to clearly illustrate this concept. o What one other projection can YOU make about Web 3.0? Describe why this fits in Web 3.0 and why you think it may happen.

- I think about the semantic web in terms of an actual spider web and the more and more devices that are synced to it the larger to web becomes. In simpler terms it is essentially an extension of the internet. This web collects information and then uses it to help customers. An example would be the web booking a flight you requesting and getting you an aisle seat based on you previous flights. - Convergence is making one application out of several different digital appliances. A smart phone, being that it is a camera, clock, phone and calendar would be an example of this. - I can project that over time more and more items will be synced up to one another. For example, your Brita will be synced to your amazon account. When the Brita filter is almost out it orders you another and has it shipped to your house, all you would need to do is install it.

13. In class we discussed the two general types of search marketing. o Provide a very general description of the two types of search we talked about in class. What are they called and what are some basic characteristics of each? o Describe, line by line, the content that is presented to users on the search engine results page for both of the two general types of search. Clarify who determines the information that is shown. o For Paid Search, explain the differences (if any) between the URL shown on the SERP and the actual URL of the web site "landing page." Why do you feel it is managed this way?

- Organic: A keyword is searched, a very complicated and invisible process decides what info is relevant, the SERP is generated with the most relevant links listed in the top 5 - Paid: companies bid on keywords, when the user searches for a keyword a "sponsored link" is shown. - Organic: 5 lines 1: Title & link 2: URL & drop down menu with more info 3 & 4: text from web page with bolded terms 5: link to the product in bold google generates - Paid: 3 lines headline: 25 characters display URL: 35 characters description: 2 lines; 35 characters each user makes content, google makes requirements - The URL that shows up on the SERP page is a shortened version of the one on the landing page. - I feel that it is managed this way to make it easier and less annoying for the consumer.

14. In class we talked extensively about the organic search process. Please provide details on the following issues related specifically to the organic search process. o Explain the overall process that Google (or any other search engine) uses to provide us with relevant search results. Be sure that in your explanation you include a discussion of TIMING and when each of these steps in the process are happening. o Describe when payment is made to Google for organic search and explain how much a firm will pay. o List and describe four factors that are important to Google in determining the relevance of results and deciding the rank order of which link is placed higher on the page. Provide the factor and explain it in sufficient detail.

- Step #1: before the search, spiders or "GoogleBots" crawl all over the web pages learns content - Step #2: Before the search, the information is indexed into databases - Step #3: During the search, relevant information that had previously been collected and stored is pulled and presented - There is no payment for Google organic searches 1. connection: the connection between the search word and the words found on the web page 2. traffic: has nothing to do with the actual search but just the popularity of the page 3. bounce back: how quickly users leave the landing page once clicking on the link 4. Incoming links: great success indicator; links that direct people from one website to your, chico state directing their track athletes to the nike page

1. Understanding the basic definition of "E-Marketing" is critically important. o What does E-marketing mean to you? Provide a definition in your own words. o Provide two different (and specific!) examples to illustrate how technology can change the way we "do marketing." o Describe (or define) Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. Provide an example from each of these categories to illustrate the concept clearly.

- Taking marketing techniques and integrating them into technological platforms. Taking advantage of the advances in technology to learn more about your target market and expose them to your message through social media, internet, etc. - Use technology to gain a better definition and understanding of our target markets and overall being able to reach a wider group of people. - Web 1.0: Described as the past. Starting in 1696 APRANET started the internet for academic and military use. By 1993 the browser had become popular. In this generation organization's were beginning to put their content on webpages. An an example of this would be USENET, one of the firm platforms that hosted discussions. - Web 2.0: Described as the present. The was the generation that used the internet to connect not only with content but also with other consumers. They were able to produce and share content with one another. Social media is a great example of this, these webpages are authored by internet users and are accessible to their peers. - Web 3.0: The future. Is composed of the semantic web, an extension of the internet, collecting devices and information. Convergence, or putting multiple digital devices into one is also about of this era. An iphone is an example of this area, it is a phone, alarm clock, calendar and much more.

18. Customer service and "service support" is another important aspect of the "product" experience. o Explain how service connects with value. o Provide two examples of OUTSTANDING service examples in an electronic environment. Give details to show how or why it is outstanding service and make sure that your examples reflect the use of technology!

- The service connects to the value of a product by adding to the relationship between the company and the customers. That relationship continue after the point of sale. It goes a long way with the customers to know that there will be someone there to help them, especially with tech products. - The commercial we watched in class showed us the amazing support that Kindle Fire gives to their customers. There is an "Amy" built into every Kindle Fire that allows you to have in person assistant 24/7. LuLu's clothing also has excellent support in the form of their online chatting service. They are always online to answer any questions you have.

3. An historical perspective (even when the "history" only goes back to 1993!) is important to understand E-marketing. In class we discussed Exhibit 1.4 (page 12). o Explain what was happening from the Technology Trigger to the dot com peak. o What were the two key causes of the dot.com crash discussed in class? o Do you think there could ever be another dot.com "crash?" Explain why or why not?

- The time between the "technology trigger" and the "dot com peak" was a period of increased online consumers, boosted economy, and venture capitalists investing money in online businesses. To raise interest in these online companies they would make some of their services free to consumers, such as shipping and returns. - Two of the main causes in the "dot com" crash was the nation's recession during that period and after a holiday season that the companies couldn't keep up with customer mentality about online shopping decreased. - It is definitely possible for another "Dot com" crash to happen but the probability of it happening now is significantly less than it was. The technology advances that have occured since the last crash has made it easier for companies to predict customer behavior, this allows the companies to be proactive.

11. Clash of Clans, a free app based game, generates revenue of $1.5 million per day when real people spend real money to receive "fake" items that can only be used in the game. o Based on the "Internet Exchange Process," explain why you think people might enter into these exchanges of real money for fake items. o The consensus in class was that these Clash of Clans purchases are a ridiculous waste of "real money." Explain why it might be dangerous to dismiss these purchases as "stupid" and treat them as if they are something done by a small minority of passionate fans of the game. In your answer, explain one idea regarding how there might be value in identifying an interesting trend such as people spending money in this way.

- These people enter into these "fake" exchanges because what the receive from them in one way or another satisifies the outcome that they wanted. - It would be dangerous to dismiss these purchases because it would mean that you are giving yourself tunnel vision. It is important to keep up with trends not only in your own industry but also in other industries. Allowing yourself to understand the reasoning behind different outcomes and how they relate to individual characteristics could help you take advantage of another trend that others may think of as "stupid".

2. In class we discussed the quote "The Internet is in the process of changing the buying habits of the individual consumer." o Explain why this is important to marketers. o Provide and discuss one example to illustrate an industry where buying habits shifted. Explain (briefly) "traditional" buying habits in this context and then explain (briefly) how the buying habits have changed. o In your opinion, are these changes positive or negative? Why? o Describe a creative vision for how our buying habits may change even more in this industry you identified over the next 10-20 years.

- This concept is important for marketers to understand because their success relies largely on well the understand customer habits. They need to be able to adapt to the internet so they can better predict consumer behavior to make them proactive instead of reactive. - The printer book industry is one that has seen much change. Traditionally,the customer would have to visit a book store and check out a hard copy book. Now, with the invent of tablets, the customer is able to buy a book from home and immediately download that book on their tablet and start reading. - I believe that these changes are positive. It is important that industries utilize our growing technology and give them back to the consumer. Both the companies in the industry and the customers benefit from this. - I can forsee the buying habits shifting from tablets to some other improved reading device in the future. This device may be able to read the words aloud for you, follow your eyes and automatically turn the page and much more.

17. In class we described VALUE through an "equation." o Describe the "equation" we used to understand VALUE and clearly explain how customers would use this equation. o Consider the goggles we talked about in class. Provide an example related to the goggles from all parts of the VALUE equation from the customer perspective. o Describe the VALUE equation from the point of view of the firm considering the integration of technology in their operations. Provide examples from all parts of the company value equation for a grocery store considering the use of self-scanning lanes.

- Value= Benefits - Costs. The customer weighs both the benefits and the costs of a product and assess whether the benefits outweigh the costs of that product. - The benefits of the googles shown in class from a customer prespective would be the accessibility to your phone will skiing/ snowboarding. The costs would be how expensive the product is, that it involves new technology that may be glitchy. - The first thing a company should ask themselves when thinking about integrating technology is what is the value of that tech? Does it benefit the firm at the expense of the customers? The benefits to the firm would that it would require less personell to have self check lanes, the customers may prefer it. The costs associated with implementing this tech is that it is expensive, it can have glitches, the power neccessary to run these check outs may be more than without them.

12. In class we talked about the concept of the "Zero Moment of Truth" (ZMOT). o Describe the concept of the Zero Moment of Truth. Make sure you compare this "new" way of thinking with the "traditional" way of thinking (you MUST explain when ZMOT occurs). o Provide details of what takes place from a customer perspective within the ZMOT. Draw a picture (from the video) to help illustrate your thoughts and provide plenty of customer examples to illustrate your comments. o In class I mentioned it was important for firms to "be present" in the ZMOT. What does it mean to "be present?" Provide two specific examples to illustrate how a company selling makeup could "be present" in the ZMOT.

- ZMOT is the moment that a customer decides to make a purchase. This moment lies in between the stimuli and the moment of sale. The new way of thinking involves 4 moments. The new "first" ZMOT is now the researching phase. This new way of thinking allows to the consumer to be at the beginning of the process with all the resources they have to research products. The traditional way of thinking put the customer at the end of the process. - The customer's experience has changed with where they get their information. This information is accessible through a variety of different sources. They are now able to compare and contrast and ultimately become a smarter shopper. There is a huge preshopping aspect that now exists. - To "be present" means that a company is in front of the right person, at the right time, with the right message. A makeup company needs to be present on the web and huge exposure spot for cosmetics in online youtube tutorials. Being a relevant product in that setting would do wonder for a makeup brand. Yelp is another site that a makeup company's presence would be benefical.

15. In class we talked about the paid search process. Google's program is called Adwords and all search engines have a similar process. Please provide details on the following issues related specifically to the paid search process. o Explain the overall process leading up to information being shown on the search engine results page. What happens (and who does which part? When does each part happen?). o Describe the concept of a "Quality Score." Provide details about how it is calculated and why it is important. o Describe when payment is made to Google during the use of Google Adwords and explain how much a firm will pay. o Comment on the following statement: "Because companies provide a bid for how much they are willing to pay for a click, they can simply "buy" their way to the top of the SERP, even if their content isn't very relevant to the search."

- firms bid for keywords - then the firm picks a landing page and creates a text ad - google then compares bids and quality scores of the websites and determines the ranks - A quality score allows google to see how successful your web page is from multiple areas. They look at things such as click through rates, bounce back rates, time on page, incoming links and more. Your quality score is very important because it is a huge detrimanent of where google ranks you essentially determining how relevant you are to your target market - False. Although a higher bid may help you the bid price is not the only thing that Google takes into consideration. There are many factors that come into account when Google makes these ranking decisions.

19. In class we talked about the "Total Experience" for customers of a retail web site. Based on our class discussion, provide the following: o A definition of each experience in your words (i.e. what typically 'happens' during each experience AND what do customers desire in each experience). o Clarify specifically when each experience starts and when each experience ends. o If you are managing a web site, what are two specific things you would do within each "experience" to make your web site more appealing to consumers? (HINT: you should be providing six specific suggestions to answer this part)

-Site experience: This involves the customer's experience with the site while browsing and shopping. Images and the way that the web page is organized plays a large role in this. Starts when the person clicks on the link and start their browsing the site. - Order experience: This involves checking out. Customer's look for speed and security in this area. The more time that the customer must wait to check out, the more time they have to back out of their purchase. The process starts when the customer clicks "proceed to check out" and ends when the order is placed. - Delivery experience: This is the offline part of the process. When the order is being placed and shipped. The longer the shipping process the more attention firms need to place on this process. This process starts when the order is placed and ends when the customer is satisified with the product.

8. Virtually all firms at this point have a web site connected to their operations. It is important to use research to better understand the performance of this web site. The phrase "Web Analytics" was used to describe this area. o Describe three of the "basic measures" and explain why a firm would be interested in tracking each of these things. o Explain the concept of "real time profiling" and explain how it differs from Customer Profiling and RFM. Be sure to explain the purpose or reason a firm may want to try to use real time profiling. Also provide one example to illustrate your definition.

1. Click through rates: click through rates allows you to see how customers are navigating your web page. By observing this you can get important information about how to organize your site to the preference of your customers 2. Bounce back: This is the % of people that intially clicked on your link and then immediately went back after reaching your landing page. Based on this number, you will know whether your page has the products that people are looking for and if your landing page is relevant or not. 3. Page views: Being able to know how many people access your page will give you an accurate indication about how relevant you are to the customers in your target market and whether or not adjustments need to be made. - Real time profiling is observing the customers behaviors on a web page and customizing that web page to better their experience. - Customer profiling is more about gaining insight on your customers and using that information to segment. - It would be in a firm's best interest to utilize real time profiling because making their page easier for the customer to navigate and putting relevant products in front of them will make it more likely that they will end up making a purchase. - An example of this would be a clothing store observing a customer shopping on their website. Noticing that they have clicked on the men's tab you make all of the women's clothing disappear, as you learn more and more about what this customer is shopping for you continue to customize with only displaying relevant products and accessories. If he is looking for shirts, you display shirts and maybe some other tops such as jackets and tanks.

4. One slide from class covered the "General Industry Trends" or the E-Marketing Landscape. These are factors that help us to better understand the current situation in the marketplace (and could be considered "web 2.0" issues). o Select any FOUR of the items from this slide and define/explain what it means. o Provide a business example for each of your factors discussed above (HINT: you will need to provide four examples, one for each of the factors you select).

1. Power shift from seller to buyer: this shift took the power from the sellers and put them back into the buyer's hands. Before, buyers didn't have many options of where to buy goods and how to research them. Now with the internet and sites such as Yelp, a consumer is able to go to a car lot and know if they are getting a fair price and if they aren't they can easily look up another dealership and take their business elsewhere. Trust in other consumers is a very important aspect of this shift. 2. Improved online and offline strategy integration: Offering the customer more than one way to buy something. News companies do this with the paper, downloadable articles, apps, etc. 3. Intellectual capital rules: This trend is the that emphasizes the importance of creativity. Knowing how to integrate technology isn't enough, in order to be successful a company must use that technology in a way that saitisifies the customer. Apple is one of the most popular examples of how implementing technology correctly can get you ahead. Apple has the overall same tech as every other phone company out there, their popularity stems from the way the utilized that tech in a way that customers would respond positively to. 4. Search engines are now reputation engines: Search engines tell customers what information is the most and least relevant. If you are not in the top 5 websites that appear on an SERP you are deemed irrelevant by the customer. Zappos is a good example of this. When searching for running shoes Zappos appeared as one of the top sites on the Google SERP page. This is because this page is frequently visited, although you may not think as Zappos as a running shoe brand, they sell running shoes and is a popular website, therefore they appear among the top sites.