Happy Holidays!

Dear readers,

Christmas has always been my favorite celebration of every year (even better than my birthday)! I am finally home with my sweet friends and family and I would like to wish all of you a magical Christmas with your families! I hope you enjoyed reading my blog! I wish you many pleasant online and offline experiences in the new year and hopefully Santa brings you amazing gifts (only if you behaved well during the year)!  :D

Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year Everybody!

Yours,
Laura

CRM and Social Media

After having established a brand strategy and competitive positioning of a product or service and having defined the sales process it is very important to find a system that could help the company to manage its customer relationships and all the useful information (see figure below). This system should allow the company’s representatives track the steps each account goes through.

While using CRM “an enterprise might build a database about its customers that described relationships in sufficient detail so that management, salespeople, people providing service, and perhaps the customer directly could access information, match customer needs with product plans and offerings, remind customers of service requirements and know what other products a customer had purchased.” Williams, 2006

In your everyday life, while using the internet, you provide valuable information for different companies through the sites you access. After studying the CRM topic more thoroughly, I could see how often the information that we provide is used without us actually realizing it. For example I am a usual user of the IMDB.com website, when I search for movies to watch. Through their platform, IMDB gathers the information about all the movies I searched, the genres of films I prefer, the languages I understand (through the movies I watch) etc. This information gave IMDB the possibility to offer me suggestions about movies that could attract me. In this way IMDB creates a personal approach to each of their customers, building a strong and efficient CRM.

At the same time, using social media has already become a strong trend nowadays. It is a very powerful tool in the life of any company and when handled properly, it can bring huge benefits to the business. Companies benefit from this tool by being able to connect with the consumers, receive their feedback, separate them into groups according to their needs and approach them in a more suitable personal way.

All these advantages create high value for the businesses but also for the customers who have the freedom of sharing reviews, have access to more information about certain brands, companies, and can influence in a way the activity of the company.

“While still associated with teens and twenty-somethings, social networking is quickly catching on with older generations. Many experts are now saying that in order for businesses to stay competitive, they must start using social networking tools to stay in the game.” AllThingsCRM

Therefore it easily perceived that social media could be a very useful tool for companies, being able to link to the CRM of the company. The important question here is how can social media be integrated within CRM?

While the social media tools are countless, this project will address the most popular ones like: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. “These sites can not only provide another way to connect with an audience, but also help provide deep insight into their lives, likes and dislikes wants and needs, and also help to connect with potential customers.”  CRMSocialMedia

Therefore companies create free accounts on Twitter and Facebook where they get involved in two-ways communication with their customers. 


Finally it is clear that a strong CRM is also a strong competitive advantage if used effectively. Social media is a very helpful tool when building the CRM. 

Now that I found out more about the topic of CRM, I believe it is an extremely interesting and also important topic, which must not be neglected by any company. An advice for you: take care about what information you provide without realizing it!

Online Staging

Hey guys, I’m back again. Last time we talked mainly about the offline staging and now it’s time for another exciting subject: Online Staging. As explained before the purpose of the staging is to send a certain message in the best way possible. Nowadays, when internet became a consistent part of our lives, companies realized the increasing importance of the Online Staging. These days many customers prefer to buy online and save time, or find the information about events and products through the Internet. Therefore in order to have an attractive online tool, which would emphasize the certain characteristics of the company, each detail of the design and functionality of the website needs to be thought through.

Surveys have showed that when looking at a website the customer attention is distributed unequally. Thus the important question is: How and where do we position information on a website, blog, etc., in the most effective way? In order to answer this question, surveys have been done, and their results were presented in my last New Marketing class. One of the interesting findings was that 56% of people who are using the online searching tools actually focus their attention to the upper right corner of the page, while 44% to the upper left part. Similar results were showed when people are shopping online, 58% focus on the upper right side, and 42% on the upper left.

When researching this subject I have found a brilliant article about the web design and positioning of web elements on a website, which is a topic very strong related to the Online Staging. Enjoy some fragments of useful information:  

” Creating good web site navigation is the most important task a web designer has to accomplish in the web design process. Web site navigation is the pathway people take to navigate through sites. It must be well constructed, easy to use and intuitive. Poor navigation does not help users and often, your site can prove to be less accessible than others.

Think and act like the average user does. Then design.

The most frequent issue in web design is that designers do not act and do not try to experience web sites from the user perspective. They are often misled to think that their web site's navigation is the best when in fact it might not be. They might only have that impression for the simple fact that they're familiar with it.

It would be useful to open up a few sites and take a look at the web site navigation, how it's positioned, how easy it is to go through etc. Consider how many pages you can access from any page. Can you go to related pages? Are there hints to help users navigate? Is there a site map with all the pages in the website? Can you figure out where you are at any time?

Design good primary web site navigation

Although primary navigation is very important users should not be forced to rely heavily on primary navigation but rather be able to use smaller "doorways" to jump to related pages.

Left navigation. Left web site navigation is the most common type of navigation. However, the designer must make sure that at 800x600 resolutions or higher the most important navigation links are visible in full at first page load and that they do not fold below the screen. The navigation links width should be narrower than 300px in order to leave enough space for body text. Left navigation has become very popular because it is responds to user behaviour: start reading from the left - read navigation links - click on the desired link - keep reading fresh content to the left.

Top navigation. Top navigation is the second most common navigation. The advantage of a top navigation bar is that it leaves more room below for content and other relevant information. However, you must make sure that the navigation stands out. People tend to ignore everything that looks remotely like adds. If you intend to put graphics in the header of the page make sure the navigation bar is situated below the graphics and not above it. People might ignore the graphics and the navigation bar along with it. They might end up thinking that there's nothing more to that website. This is a classic example of the importance of secondary navigation.

Right navigation. For English language based web sites people read from left to right. Thus, a menu situated on the right hand side would be difficult to use. People tend to read the navigation first and then the body text.

Design good secondary navigation

Links which do not belong in the primary navigation are used to make up the secondary navigation. Such links are the usual Contact Us, About Us, Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, Site Map, Links and so on.

Position of the secondary navigation does not have a general rule

Secondary navigation can be placed just below primary navigation while making sure it does not stand out as much as the primary navigation does. Web designers can either make the link text smaller, use a separator or leave a reasonable amount of space for the eye to be able to make distinction between the two. When using top navigation secondary navigation can be placed on the left hand side of the page.”

You can find the full article here.  I hope you liked this topic! Have an amazing day!

Staging- “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players” W. Shakespeare

Hey, dear readers! I’m back again to tell you more about what I have learned lately. Today I’ll be talking about quite an exciting and interesting subject called Staging. To my understanding it is a matter of how you present your idea, the way you play a certain role in order to present a message indirectly and reflect its main points.

“You know all too well that the products you see in advertisements and brochures – from food and shoes to houses and database applications – don’t look much like they do in actual life. Teams of specialists spent long hours, and maybe even days, to make those products look absolutely perfect.

It’s called staging, and done professionally, it’s very effective. It sells homes, magazines, chandeliers, bedding, software, home stereos, specialty olive oil, and – well, you get the idea.” (Think ZigZag)

Staging is often used by attaching emotion to messages, advertising and spaces. In this way the message is emphasized and “acted” so that it touches the customer’s emotions. Once this is achieved it is easier for the customer to relate to the certain message, and he is more likely to remember and spread the ideas received. Also he is more likely to buy the product, because of the impact the advertisement for example had over his feelings.

Staging can be achieved through activating all the six senses of customers. “Sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing are the five most well know senses, but we also have a kinesthetic sense, which is also what some people mistake as a spiritual sense, because it is being aware of your surroundings. For example, if someone walks into a room without making a sound behind you, and you know that they are there, it’s because you sensed them unconsciously” (Answers).

Staging however doesn’t happen only in advertising. It also helps the companies internally. For example the way that the CEO stages his meetings, gives his employees certain impressions of how they are treated and what is required of them. For instance, if the CEO of the company wants the employees to feel valued, he would stand in the middle of the people during meetings, expressing in this way that he is one of them, and that they are all equal, because they work for the same goal. While if the CEO wants to implement a stricter and authoritarian style of management, he needs to stand on a stage above everyone, in order to send a clearer message saying “I’m the boss”. Therefore according to the message you want to send, you always need to think about how you can make it clear without saying it directly, how you can stage it properly.

Now if you think more thoroughly about staging, you will realize it happens to you every day. The way you talk and react to the people around you, the big posts you see on the streets or in the daily newspaper, the short spots you see on the TV, the music you hear when entering a store, the smell you feel in Abercrombie and Fitch, all this is staging my friends. And remember “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players” W. Shakespeare. Play your role accordingly. 

Web 2.0

Here we go, I am back again. As I have promised you before, today I will talk about the topic of Web 2.0, which I am pretty sure you have heard of before. Why? Because everybody talks about it nowadays, it got into the list of social trends easily because Web 2.0 is so attractive and also efficient. Now, let’s try together to learn more about this topic.

“Web 2.0 is term that was introduced in 2004 and refers to the second generation of the World Wide Web. The term "2.0" comes from the software industry, where new versions of software programs are labeled with an incremental version number. Like software, the new generation of the Web includes new features and functionality that was not available in the past. However, Web 2.0 does not refer to a specific version of the Web, but rather a series of technological improvements.

Some examples of features considered to be part of Web 2.0 are listed below:

•     Blogs - also known as Web logs, these allow users to post thoughts and updates about their life on the Web
•     Wikis - sites like Wikipedia and others enable users from around the world to add and update online content.
•     Social networking - sites like Facebook and MySpace allow users to build and customize their own profile sand communicate with friends.
•     Web applications - a broad range of new applications make it possible for users to run programs directly in a Web browser.

Web 2.0 technologies provide a level user interaction that was not available before.“(Techterms) 

Let’s just take a look at Facebook and its great success achieved in relatively short time. People of different ages, ethnicities, religions use the website to interact between each other. They post pictures, statuses, videos etc. Don’t you have Facebook? I bet you do! The same with Wikipedia for example, people use it to provide information and also to receive information. It is amazing how easy the information flow is happening nowadays!

“Like many important concepts, Web 2.0 doesn't have a hard boundary, but rather, a gravitational core. You can visualize Web 2.0 as a set of principles and practices that tie together a veritable solar system of sites that demonstrate some or all of those principles, at a varying distance from that core.

Figure 1 shows a "meme map" of Web 2.0 that was developed at a brainstorming session during FOO Camp, a conference at O'Reilly Media. It's very much a work in progress, but shows the many ideas that radiate out from the Web 2.0 core.” (Oreilly)

This is it for today, dear readers! I don’t want to overload your brain with a lot of information for one time! But come back soon! I am always happy to use a Web 2.0 tool: my blog to reach to you and hopefully to be helpful in explaining the main concepts of New Marketing! :D

Introduction to Storytelling 2

As I have promised in my last post, I am back now with some more input on the subject of Storytelling. 
From the first day I arrived to Switzerland I went around Bern visiting the tourist places and I was lucky enough to find the Kornhaus Library. I went in and I have spent hours just deciding what book I should borrow. There were thousands and thousands of books and I asked myself how can I chose the best one for me? I started reading the back notes, the references,  maybe summaries. Some books just attracted me with the cover images, others had famous authors, and also some had a catchy summary. I gathered a pile of books and I could see the awkward sight of the librarian. 


Finally I had decided on the book, got home, had some dinner and started reading. "The Gift" by Cecilia Ahern kept me out of the real world for hours, it was dark already, my roommate sleeping. The moment I got started with the book, I couldn't stop. The pages kept moving, one after another, I was hypnotized. 


Enough about me! Let's talk about you!


"How many times have you been fascinated by a good story?Think about this for a minute, because it may be more often than you think. How many times have you stayed up late reading a novel that you "couldn't" put down, or watching a movie that you couldn't turn off? How many times have you pushed yourself harder after hearing the story of someone else's success, or changed your opinion after reading a convincing article in a magazine or newspaper?


There's no doubt that stories can change the way we think, act, and feel. Leaders, especially, can use the power of a good story to influence and motivate their teams to new heights. Stories can inspire everything from understanding to action. They can create legends that an entire workplace culture can build upon, and they have the power to break down barriers and turn a bad situation into a good one. Stories can capture our imaginations and make things real in a way that cold, hard facts can't.


Make no mistake – stories can be very, very powerful leadership tools. Great leaders know this, and many top CEOs today use stories to illustrate points and sell their ideas." (MIndtools)


Now you understand how important the storytelling is! Stories can change lives! Your story needs to be the best so that you achieve your target, you are the chosen book from the library! You have a loyal reader whom you truly fascinate! Come back here soon and I'll introduce you to the topic of Web 2.0. But in the meanwhile enjoy your morning newspaper, your magazine, your talk with your mates and all the other stories that travel around you. 

Introduction to new marketing: storytelling

Storytelling… this is a concept that I haven’t been familiar with until my New Marketing class last week. I mean I have definitely experienced it before but maybe haven’t realized the importance it actually has. Especially in marketing, where one of your main goals is to sell your product, you need to be a great storyteller in order to attract the customer. As I have heard in one of Philip Kotler’s interviews today, “nowadays you need to try to get not only to the consumer’s heart and brain, but also to his spirit”. How can you do this? How can you be convincing enough to impress the consumer’s brain, heart and spirit? And the answer is: with a proper and exciting story! 


Through the storytelling each company actually expresses its brand identity, its values and principals. It creates a certain perception in the customer’s mind about the company’s spirit. In the best case, from the story presented, the costumer finds matching values or attitudes that he shares with the certain brand and he will be more likely to become a loyal consumer of its products. 


Therefore the storytelling can actually be seen as the hook waiting for the fish. Or if that seems for you a bit too cruel see it as the cherry from the top of the cake that makes you forget about your diet and calories and lose yourself in the pleasure of the moment. This is my impression from the first glance I took at this concept. It could seem too simplistic but hey...It’s not a good sign to start a blog on a too serious note so I’m not going anywhere, keep reading this blog and I promise you will also get some classical definitions about the concept of storytelling.