Online Social Media: The Free Method to Market Your Product

                                                          
             The concept of marketing to your customers and making your products more attractive to them has long been important to business overall, especially marketing. While business strategies have changed greatly over the last several years (mostly due to the expansion of technological advances), marketing is just as important today as it has ever been. With that said, finding ways to form a connection between your product and potential customers may be even cheaper today than in the past. The emergence of online social media and its expansion have shown that many small businesses can grow exceptionally because of this popularity. To name a few, current online media methods such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn play a huge role in connecting people all over the world and can be argued that small businesses should get involved in these markets to grab a larger piece of the market share pie.

             Dell released an article on the issue of crowdsourcing and its connection with the importance of online social media. Crowdsourcing is the concept of allowing your customers (or potential customers) to play an active role in creating a new product or service. In an age and country where customer service dominates strategies of firms everywhere, this idea of crowdsourcing gets right to the heart of customer satisfaction. Dell managed to use an online social media implementation of their own, Ideastorm, in order to target their customer's needs. Ideastorm was a place where customers could go online to view potential  product modifications or new product development and vote. What would they vote on? Customers would be able to directly give input on which products under consideration they liked, didn't like, and were able to see the impact it had on which products Dell put out on the market. Dell also did not limit its online social media to just its customers. In order to create employee satisfaction, they created Employeestorm for employee feedback on specific issues, strategies, and overall business functionality.

            As a previous manager in the restaurant industry, I was able to witness a small business gain popularity and increased customer satisfaction through the implementation of an online social media site such as Facebook.  The owners, along with management, wanted a cheap alternative to marketing to be able to grasp an increase in its customer base. What cheaper way than to create a Facebook account for free that could reach millions of people at a single given moment? By telling customers to “add them” on Facebook, the restaurant was able to spread its name and increase brand loyalty with previous customers through the offering of coupons, specials, etc. For other small businesses, HR departments can incorporate the use of LinkedIn to check on the value offered by employees and use this information to check further on the potential candidate. Also, companies today will check on the lifestyle of potential candidates by “facebooking them” on the online social media website. According to a business statistics website, the Smith School of Business at Maryland University found that the adoption of these specific online social medias have doubled from 12% to 24% in the past year with relativity to small businesses. The study also noted the specific features that these small companies were performing when they used these specific media sites. 

          While it can be seen the amount of time put in to media outlets such as Facebook and LinkedIn, it should be noted that not much emphasis is put on Twitter. So how much does each specific format work? How do you get customers to visit your advertisements on Facebook for example? Should you advertise for your Facebook advertisements? I would argue that for an industry such as that of the restaurant and others that are similar, marketing your Facebook account is essential to customer growth. Give your customers that eat in your restaurant a link on their receipt where they can add you on Facebook and receive special offers. A further step would be to add features where people can fill out reviews of a previous experience at your restaurant to receive the discount/coupon. This would allow for growth in customer service and an increase in business by customer returns.

          By sending out messages to your "friends" online and posting specials on your homepage, it can allow small businesses to get their name out there and be visible to people who may not just see them driving by or in a particular article. The boom of the internet has put emphasis on reaching your customers via these particular social media outlets. As seen with Dell, companies do not need to use such a large online media as Facebook, but focus on their own medias that contribute to employee as well as customer satisfaction (e.g. Employeestorm, Ideastorm respectively). Small businesses, as well as large businesses, should change with the times and implement a strategy that focuses on this issue in order to set themselves apart from competitors who may not be using any online social media. Acting in a timely manner and managing online media efficiently may separate the acquisitions of new customers between a business and its competition greatly.

-Cfree

Future Implications of Neuromarketing

When evaluating the new mixture between neuroscience and marketing that is known as neuromarketing, one has to consider several implications this mixing may have on the consumer and the backlash that may arise. The more tests that are established in order to discover consumer moods, preferences, and tendencies, the more companies are able to get inside of the minds of the consumer and manipulate their purchasing preferences.  If a particular consumer feels as though they are being manipulated by a company, even one that had greatly appealed to them for many years, it may lead to rebellious acts that may significantly impact an organization.

A few techniques that have been implemented over the last several years are found in the Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), Steady State Topography (SST), Electroencephalography (EEG), Eye Tracking, and Galvanic Skin Response.  By looking at the fMRI alone, one can see the impact it has on studying a consumer's stimulation to specific criteria.  With an fMRI, scientists are able to take specific pictures of the brain and discover any metabolic changes that may occur.  This may allow them to have subjects from different demographics preview marketing ads and see if there is stimulation in the brain, which allows for stimulation analysis.  Organizations that sell the services of neuromarketing claim that the newfound technology has the ability to measure a consumer's emotional state that focus on guilt, anger, happiness, and love to name a few. This "power", if you will, can have a heavy impact on the purchasing decisions of customers all over the world within many demographic subgroups.

By looking at several companies using this neuromarketing technology, one can see how this theme is spreading like a wild-fire over such diverse industries.  The following companies described were referenced from the previous link by Mr. Kevin Randall:

Microsoft: By using EEG data, Microsoft can assess feelings of "surprise, satisfaction, and frustration" in consumers in order to better understand computer interaction.

Frito-Lay: By targeting a more "healthy" approach, Frito-Lay has learned that this will lead to a rise in sales from women who will lose that feeling of guilt and/or shame. This could prove beneficial for the company in families where these very same women do the grocery shopping for the entire family.

Daimler: A commercial that is promoting sleek headlights on a particular vehicle was told to use human faces of satisfaction in the campaign in order to stimulate the "reward" feeling inside the brains of customers viewing the ad.

These three examples show the organizations that customer stimulation can greatly increase their profits by the particular ad they implement.  However, a potential backlash would be if the consumer actually knew that this information was being exploited by the studies (e.g. Frito-Lay and the focus group of women that it targets).  While companies, such as Frito-Lay, may attempt to revoke the feeling of guilt in their product to increase sales, these very same women may be health-conscious to begin with.  If these women go to the grocery store, having being driven by the ad from Frito-Lay, they may discover the claimed "healthy" benefits from the commercials were more fraudulent than they anticipated.  As an example, if the commercial depicted slim women snacking on Fritos after a work out (i.e. using neuromarketing studies to instill feelings of "healthiness" in the minds of women), it would contradict the nutritional facts that in only a one-ounce serving size of regular Fritos exists 160 calories and 10 grams of fat.  This may lead women to now exhibit a feeling of anger.  They may choose to go against the ad and ignore future advertising strategies from Frito-Lay, thus giving more business to a more healthy competitor, such as SunChips.  This example shows how a company should not abuse its power of neuromarketing studies by attempting to exploit its clientele.

With all of this said, the growing study of the human mind and the emotional feelings attached to marketing in general should lead companies to consider how they go about implementing their marketing strategies.  Although neuromarketing can have exceptional results if implemented in the correct manner, each company needs to take caution as to not mislead their customers.  As seen in the example with Frito-Lay, the same could be said with McDonald's salads and the "healthy" approach they take towards their product.  However, if the healthiness does not live up to impression that was instilled in their minds from the advertising, these consumers may decide to "rebel" against McDonalds and/or associate the company with feelings of mistrust and dishonesty.  An organization wouldn't want to lose customers because of misleading perceptions.  While a company may be able to convince a customer to purchase their product the first time, it may be more difficult to have the customer return if the feeling depicted in the commercial is not received as well.

Chris Freeman