Will P&G take over the Indian Razor Market?

Gillette has been leading the world’s razor and blades sales and it possesses dominant market shares in the developed countries like the U.S. Then, what have brought such a great success to Gillette in those regions over the years? The answers are its “premium” quality and strong “brand value”. Its products are quite expensive, but consumers have been willing to purchase the pricy products because their value for the products exceeds the prices. For instance, its parent company, P&G, introduced the Fusion ProGlide in the U.S market in June 2010, which is its most expensive razor. A four-pack of the manual cartridges sells for $16.99, about a 15% premium to regular Fusion blades. According to the company, the Fusion ProGlide is now its best-selling razor in the market.

As the brand turns its eyes to the emerging markets like India, however, it has been facing new challenges to overcome. P&G has found out that the consumers in the emerging markets are totally different from the ones in the developed countries. Its failure to capture the differences in consumer attributes & behaviors has caused its poor performance in the emerging markets and Gillette has been behind some of its competitors and local brands.

For example, P&G has tried to penetrate the razor market in India for years. The brand, however, has been struggling with the market mainly because its products are “too” expensive for Indian consumers to afford. As a response to this, P&G introduced Gillett Vector, which has sold for a reasonable price, but there have been some complaints about Vector’s quality. Because the product is often carelessly manufactured, the cartridge for the Vector has even come under close scrutiny by consumers (http: //badgerandblade.com).

After seeing some failures, P&G is developing its Multidomestic strategy to improve its performance in the emerging markets. It is a business strategy with which companies produce differentiated products/services that could satisfy consumers in different markets who have different preferences and behaviors. For example, products as varied as detergents, shampoos, pickles, and cough syrup are sold in sachets in India. As an effort to adapt to the Indian market, P&G now uses “reverse engineering” as one of its Multidomestic strategies for its new product development. With reverse engineering, the company starts with price-setting at which consumers can afford and then adjusts the features and manufacturing processes to meet the target.

Gillette Guard, which P&G recently launched, could be considered as a product that the company developed with Multidomestic strategy. Gillette Guard is designed to be affordable for the Indian consumers and lead the brand to the top place in the market. The razor costs 15 rupees, or 34 cents, and uses blades that cost five rupees, or 11cents. Its price setting takes into account not only consumers but the booth (kiosk) owners who serve most shoppers in developing markets. The company hopes that the lower cost would stimulate more of the small store owners to stock up on the item (Ellen Byron, Gillette's Latest Innovation in Razors: the 11-Cent Blade, WSJ, Oct 1st 2010).

In addition to the price factor, P&G designed Gillette Guard to satisfy different tastes of the Indian consumers. For example, in designing the product, P&G took into account the fact that Indian men prefer a lighter weight although most men in the U.S. and Western Europe prefer a heavy razor handle. Gillette Guard also aims to attract users of double-edge razors, about 400 million men in India (Ellen Byron, Gillette's Latest Innovation in Razors: the 11-Cent Blade, WSJ, Oct 1st 2010).

Despite its different approach to the Indian consumers with Gillette Guard, there still remain a few challenges that P&G has to overcome to become the market leader. Competition against Super-Max would be one example. In fact, Super-Max is currently taking the first place in the double-edge blades market and its products cost roughly 1.5 to 2 rupees only, which is half of the cost of Gillette Guard. Whether Gillette Guard would successfully attract low-class consumers and increase its brand loyalties among them will be the ultimate turning point to the company which will determine its future market power in India.

How to start using Facebook Fan Page for small businesses

Over the past three months, I have been helping some small companies (including start-up businesses) and a non-profit organization in developing their online marketing campaigns, especially for social media marketing stuff... It was really hard at the beginning due to the lack of their online content, fan bases, resources, etc. Also, the challenging part was not using “tactics” but developing “strategy”.

It has become a common sense that it is crucial to produce valuable contents and tell your stories to online users to see successful effects from social media marketing campaigns. But how? How could I start it from “nothing”? That was my question... Also, in the real world, not every business sells “interesting” products or “fun” services…

Here are my two cents on how to start facebook fan pages for small (start-up) businesses, which I have gained from the challenging experience.

The first step of Social media marketing is building social network and connecting with people online. This is why we have seen some “Big” companies organizing and working with their “Brand Ambassadors” to build their social media network quickly and efficiently. Some companies assign some of their “followers” as their brand ambassadors who have shown “strong” loyalties to their brands throughout social media sites such as Facebook Fan Pages (e.g. Levis). The brand ambassadors have engaged in increasing brand awareness online for those companies by spreading words and promoting certain campaigns throughout social media sites.

Then, what about the start-up or small businesses? They should find their own brand ambassadors, too! From where? They are all around you! Your friends, employees (if you have), your personal connections in social media sites, etc. Your friend can be the most valuable brand ambassador who spreads your brand out there for you!!! If you have taken Marketing 101, you are familiar with the term, “Early Adopter”. We have learned that we need to focus marketing efforts on those “Early Adopters” to spread words quickly and generate WOM effects effectively at the beginning marketing stage. In the social media marketing era, those brand ambassadors are “Early Adopters” and you need them in developing successful social media marketing campaigns.

To give you an example about “Brand Ambassador”, let’s assume there is a “B” company that has 10 brand ambassadors and each of the 10 brand ambassadors have 100 “personal” connections (friends) in Facebook. When the company publishes a post on its Facebook Fan page and the brand ambassadors click the “Like” button or “share” the post, the post can have a chance to reach out to 1000 (10 X 100) people through Facebook without any cost. This is partly because of the “News Feeds”, which is one of the Facebook functions. Through the “News Feeds”, whenever one person updates his/her status (e.g. “Like”or “Share” a certain post), most of the people in the person’s Facebook connection can see the updates. This could lead the post to be exposed to the friends of the “10” ambassadors and turn them into “followers”.

Lastly, keep in mind that you need to spend most of your time and efforts in developing online content than asking your friends for some “help”. In the end, the quality and quantity of your online content will be the factors that determine the success of your online marketing campaigns. For this, I would recommend having your company’s own Youtube Channel or blog along with Facebook Fan Page for producing online contents constantly. Having blog articles or video materials in Youtube Channel will definitely help you build your contents on the Facebook Fan page as well and they will enable you to constantly provide special experience to your “followers”.

Case Analysis: How Has McDonald’s Become the Market Leader?

McDonald’s has become the biggest fast food restaurant in the world and its logo can be seen all around the world these days. Its recent report for revenues also shows the company’s huge success; the company posted revenues of $5.945 billion for the second reporting quarter of 2010, which is a 5% increase compared to $5.647 billion in the second quarter of 2009. (http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/McDonald's_(MCD))

1. McDonald’s Success during the economic slowdown
Compared to its competitors like KFC and Wendy’s, the company managed to overcome the economic crisis well and generated strong revenue, which enabled the company to add 650 more outlets by the end of 2009. The company’s success can be attributed to its strategy called “Plan to Win” with which the company focused on increasing sales at existing locations by improving the menu, refurbishing the outlets, and extending hours. Its strategy also involves monitoring pricing to make sure its menu remains affordable without hurting the company’s profit margins. For example, although the company struggled with the increasing costs, it has kept the pricing on its Dollar Menu, which brings in almost 15 percent of total sales. To maximize its profit from the Dollar Menu, the company also replaced its $1 double cheeseburger with the McDouble, which is similar but less expensive to make (Strategic Management: Text and Cases). Its success during the economic slowdown can also be attributed to the nature of its products. Since McDonald’s products are considered as “inferior goods”, they were consumed relatively more than other normal goods and contributed to keeping the company business profitable.

2. Learning from Mistakes
Before seeing great success in 2008 and 2009, McDonald’s did experience hard time, which resulted from its “mistakes” in running franchises and monitoring operations over the past decade. For example, its growing size and continuous expansions made it difficult to maintain its core competencies such as consistent, fast, friendly service. Furthermore, it stopped monitoring its franchises for cleanness, customer service, and food quality, which laid the company behind the growing competitors such as Wendy’s. Even though the company has been known as the “best” and “biggest” fast food business in the world, according to a 2002 survey by market researcher Global Growth Group, McDonald’s came in third in average service time behind Wendy’s and sandwich shop Chick-fil-A Inc.

However, the company learned lessons from its “mistakes” and seized opportunities to bring itself to the next level. Some of the efforts the company made to improve its sales again are as follows:

• Getting the basics of service and quality right, in part by reinstituting a tough “up or out” grading system that would kick out underperforming franchisees.


• Tried to draw more customers through the introduction of new products instead of expanding its outlets


• Revamped the menu with “healthier” foods and promoted them with a slogan, “I’m loving it” (Strategic Management: Text and Cases)

3. My two cents on the company's future
There still exist some threats such as the growing concerns about health problems caused by fast foods, which would hurt the company’s growth. In addition, the company has also been facing the changes in the tastes of consumers, which have been led mostly by exotic “fast” foods like sushi. The growing competitions from supermarkets and convenience stores that also offer quick meals have become great challenges to the company as well.

With the efforts that the company has made to improve its product lines and turn its bad image around, however, the company is expected to remain its market power in the industry and sustain its growth. For example, McDonald’s has been trying to include more fruits and vegetables in its popular Happy Meals. This improvement has raised the company’s operating costs because of the perishable nature of produce making it more expensive to ship and store.(Strategic Management: Text and Cases) However, this improvement in the menu will help the company change the way people think of McDonald’s and improve its brand image.

Customers purchase experience and value, not just “taste”. To sustain its “absolute” reign in the fast food industry, McDonalds should strive to be positioned as a brand that provides special experience and value to its customers, beyond just a place to eat a “Big Mac” burger.

Barnes and Noble vs. Amazon.com

Last week, I read an article that analyzes the performances of the two companies, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, in the U.S book industry. Where in the marketplace are the companies placed now?? Who has been the winner and who has been the loser? How has that happened?? I would like to write down my own analysis on the two companies based on the article and put my two cents....

1. How the birth of Amazon has changed the Book Industry?
The U.S book industry can be divided into two eras; the time before and after the online bookselling. Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com are the companies that could represent these two eras. Barnes and Noble had been a leading company in the industry, which focused on creating special experience for its consumers with its in-store services like unique décors, café, etc. They tried to create special spaces for consumers where people could find “fun” that could be gained from other substitutes such as movie theaters or shopping centers. The company also emphasized on expanding its stores, which helped their distribution systems as well as increasing their brand awareness. However, the advent of online bookselling, especially the birth of Amazon.com changed everything in the book industry. Unlike Barnes and Nobles, Amazon.com took a different approach in offering their services, distributing the products, and generating sales leads. Following are some "absolute" factors that have enabled Amazon.com to dominate Barnes & Noble and further become the best in the industry.


2. How has Amazon been able to dominate the market?
First of all, by selling books online only, Amazon.com has been able to save significant amounts of fixed costs that other competitors have struggled with. One of the great examples would be the number of employers. While Barnes and Noble has spent a big portion of their money on human resource, which is the main source of their services for the consumers, Amazon has managed to spend their money on R&D to further develop effective and efficient e-commerce systems and their solid infrastructure.
Secondly, it has taken different approaches in providing special experience to its consumers. Unlike its competitors, Amazon has distinguished itself from others by providing information about the books it sold, posted author interviews, offered free book reviews, and gave links to other sites and features. It might attract attentions from people to provide coffee and play some jazz music in a book store. However, people who are interested in purchasing books look for information that could be helpful to their buying decisions. With tons of information about thousands of books provided on the website, Amazon has been able to attract online users, increase their constant visits, and build strong fan communities online. This also gave the company another opportunity for success in their business. Due to the high volume of web traffic, the company has made profits from other businesses who wanted to place their advertisements on the Amazon’s website.

3. My Two cents…
Given the increase in online users and technological advances, it seems that there are few chances for Barnes and Noble to get market shares back from Amazon.com. Like Barnes and Noble had enjoyed offline bookselling market with their experience and business practices in the past, it seems obvious that Amazon.com will keep significant market shares in the book industry with their endless investments and experience in online bookselling. Even though Amazon’s competitors like Barnes and Noble also started online selling, it seems like they just tried to follow what Amazon is doing. In other words, while Amazon keeps evolving itself to the next levels by integrating consumer services (not just for books) with highly advanced online technologies, other competitors seem just to follow the company without specific focus (or strategy). Other technological devices like Kindle or iPad have been even a strong leverage for Amazon in attracting more online users to their services. Instead of following the Amazon’s strategies, it is recommended that Barnes & Noble should build on their current strengths, focus on producing unique products and services offline, and try to distinguish itself in the offline bookselling market.

Budweiser vs. Heineken using Youtube as a "Secret Weapon"

Youtube has been considered as a “secret weapon” in the web 2.0 & social media era. However, until I had the “special” experience with Budweiser, Youtube was just one of the media channels to me where I saw funny videos and watched some music video.

In January, I received an email announcing a casting opportunity for an online reality show (named as “Budhouse”) sponsored by Budweiser. What happened was the film company in charge of making the show was looking for candidates from the 32 countries qualified for the World Cup 2010. Because I love soccer (football) and have played soccer (not professionally) since I started walking, I became very interested in the show and ended up applying for the cast. Things went pretty well actually... After I went through some application process, I even got a free trip to Hollywood for the final interview (free flight and hotel for three days). Even though I couldn’t make it to the final cast, it was a very special experience.



Besides the special journey to the “fancy” world, I managed to find an interesting thing in utilizing “Youtube” for marketing purpose thanks to this opportunity. When I was in the application process for the show, I wondered why the company spent so much money for just one marketing event. The thing is Budweiser paid for every single cost that took for the application process and living costs for the final 32 casts to live in South Africa during the World cup 2010 (30 days). I fully understand the World Cup is one of the biggest opportunities for companies around the world for their marketing campaigns. However, given the fact that the show was aired only through its Youtube channel, I doubted if it was that much worth.



I found another interesting Youtube video made by the Budweiser’s main competitor, Heineken. Heineken made a video showing a “funny” experiment with some Italian soccer fans. Although it did not deal with the World cup, its basic concept was the same as Budhouse, Soccer Fever. The result was fascinating! The video has been viewed by more than 5 million people in two weeks and created great viral among online and offline communities.

In fact, Heineken’s “Italy Activation Milan AC Real Madrid” and Budhouse took a little different approach for promotion- Heineken showed the content to the public through both TV and Youtube while Budweiser put short commercials on TV and aired the show only through Youtube. However, both have taken advantages of Youtube in a smart and unique way for developing more effective and efficient marketing and they have seen great success.

Below are a couple of advantages that I think Youtube provides to us:

1. A Youtube video can have an online presence forever unless Youtube is shut down or the video is taken down.
2. The video could have great chances to be spread among millions of online users quickly.
3. It could bring in trimendous (positive) marketing effects with low costs.

For example, even though their “official” campaign seasons were already over – Budhouse for the World Cup 2010 and Heineken for the Champions’ League – those videos are still viewed by many people around the world who look for interesting video related to beer and soccer. Considering the amount of money that those two companies pay for a TV advertisement to keep their brand awareness and spread words, a “creative” and “funny” Youtube video can be a “golden goose” that brings in “golden eggs” with low investments.

I think the Heineken’s “Italy Activation Milan AC Real Madrid” and Budweiser’s “Budhouse” are great examples showing how we could use Youtube for self-marketing, corporate-marketing, branding, small business marketing, etc. We have seen many companies spending lots of money on putting ads on Youtube (like Google Adwords) to direct those people to their video materials. However, I believe ultimate strategies/tactics for Youtube marketing should be focused on producing funny and creative contents that provide “fun” and “special” experience to Youtube watchers rather than looking for ways to direct traffics to contents using Youtube ads or some “SEO” skills.

How has the “New Resume Format” worked so far? You know, a Crazy thought became an “IDEA”!!!

I posted the article titled “New Resume Format in the Social Media Era” a week ago here on my blog, and the reactions from online communities have been amazing!! This post has been viewed by more than 1000 people so far, and I have received about 60-70 comments from the sites that I posted it on…… And I even received contacts from some recruiters asking about my career plan…. I have had a great experience and lesson just from this one post, and I would like to thank you all who have read the post and sent me meaningful advice and cheerful messages…:)

Anyway, since some people asked me why I shared it online, I would like to write the reasons briefly...

I posted it NOT because I wanted to promote myself or tell people I am smart, but because I wanted to know how people think about this crazy thought. Actually, I made this kind of resume format 6 months ago to use for my internship application, but every time I showed it to people like professors or even my fellow students, I heard it does not look professional or companies would not like this kind of format…..So, I had to use a traditional resume format to get a summer internship because I did not want to look like a “fool”……… But, I have always looked forward to using it in exposing myself to the world…

One day, I saw Derek Sivers’ video that I also mentioned in one of my blog articles, How to start a movement_Derek Sivers, and it inspired me and changed the way I’m thinking… So, how did he change the way of my thinking then?? Using Derik’s idea, let me give one theoretical example….Let’s say, I just get bored in my office….. So, I just get out of the office and go out to a park near my company building. And suddenly I feel that I want to dance in the middle of the park for some reason….People are going to look at me dancing at the park as a crazy nut or insane person… But, let's say, one stranger walking on the street suddenly join me and dance with me together… Now, there are two nuts… People are still going to think these two nuts weird…. However, once two or more people join the dancing in the middle of the park after the second follower, this crazy happening would become a “news” or even a “public party”. With followers, a “stupid” thought or act can become a “innovative” idea… Ths is the power of marketing or even social media marketing! You know…. I believe this should be all about “Marketing”

My point is that even if you believe yourself to have a fabulous and excellent idea that no one could think of, if you don’t have a follower(s) who like or agree with your idea, it can NEVER become an "IDEA". We cannot bring a change to people’s lives and influence the public without their supports, or without any "fans" in "social media marketing" term..

This is the main reason why I posted it and asked people about their opinions. Many people have so far told me that this is a great idea and something that we should utilize along with the new marketing trends….My crazy thought became a good “idea”, and now there are more chances that it would work well…. But what if I used it without any support??... what would happen?? It would stay as just a crazy “thought” and “meaningless” post…

New Resume Format in the Social Media era??

Two months ago, I was asked from a business professional to make his profile (resume) in sort of a “online-friendly” way. He showed me a professor’s resume as an example, which had different concepts compared to other traditional resumes... It used the same basic format as a traditional resume, but the main difference was that he added hyperlinks to name of companies and schools he belongs(ed) to so that readers can actually visit their websites for more information. He also listed some of his (popular) blog articles and put hyperlinks to them, and I was able to enjoy his blog posts by just clicking the links…

He even included small logos of organizations he used to work for in his resume and linked them to their websites. I was very impressed with his creative resume format and managed to get lots of information about his careers for a very short time (by just clicking some links).

After making the professional’s resume like the professor’s, I also wanted to make my resume the way the professor used for his. I mean, I wanted to lead future readers of my resume to actually see my social media involvements, SEO knowledge, my past experience by just clicking links on my resume.

Some people say there is no need to be creative in making resume, and they instruct us to use a standard and conventional resume format (and font). I do not disagree with this, but as the marketing tactics/strategies of companies today have evolved due to the advent of social media, I think the ways of marketing ourselves to recruiters should also evolve to the next level. As we all know, most of companies these days accept resumes (job applications) online, and thanks to remarkable technologies, I heard some companies even use iPad or netbook to review applicants’ resume during their job interviews… In addition, this type of resume formats can effectively expose yourself to online users, specifically to recruiters, in search engines and social media sites…

Anyway, I created my resume in a “online-friendly” way and posted it on my blog… In about two weeks, it’s generated 130 views…I even received contacts from some companies although I didn’t apply for their job openings…kinda surprising… I am still not sure if it will be working as I expected or going to have positive effects on my future job hunting, but we will see :)


Here are my 5 tips for people who might be interested in making this type of resume;

1. First, add hyperlinks to the names of the companies (or organizations) that you have worked for so that recruiters or interviewers can get detailed information easily…

2. Second, place links to your social media accounts like Twitter, Blogger, or LinkedIn on the top of your resume to bring your resume readers to your social media networks..

3. Save your resume into a PDF form. This makes it easy for readers to go through your resume and click the links.

4. Sign up for Slideshare and upload your resume there. This way, your resume can have an official address in search engines.

5. Embed your resume link (Slideshare) in your blog and linkedin profile so your resume can reach out to your target audiences.

Wanna make the post-crisis consumers to open their wallets?

Wanna make the post-crisis consumers to open their wallets? Social media marketing could be the key...

As social media sites are frequently and repeatedly used for marketing purposes, I have seen many people complaining about “spamming” marketing campaigns generated by lots of companies online. Some even said they consider most of the messages from social media sites like Twitter as “pure” spams... I was also one of the people who thought and used the social media sites as online channels to just promote myself, increase website traffic, and online sales.

However, the following video has helped me not evolve to a spam-gernerating marketer. I was impressed when Mr. John Gerzema said in the video that the post-crisis consumers are restricting their demands, looking for value, and asking businesses to not just be about “more”, but about “better”… With this new consumer trend, I believe we should focus more on “quality” than “quantity” in producing social media contents.

Here is my two cents…social media marketing is not about marketing a product to everyone, but about connecting to online communities, telling your stories to them, and providing special experience to targeted audiences… As Mr. Gerzema says that consumers are looking for not just “a value”, but “values”, we should utilize social media sites to provide people with “values” in purchasing our products.

There are some companies that have developed unique and successful social media campaigns, which have helped them to organize huge and loyal fan communities. For example, Levi’s has managed to create fan groups per each of their products. The company has utilized a Facebook group and Youtube account to offer pictures/video showing its products and allow online users to indirectly experience those products. They have become popular online spaces now where people share their thoughts, feelings, and experience about the products.

Even though I mentioned a “big” brand as an ideal example of social media marketing, I believe both big and small brands can benefit from social media marketing. It may be easier for big brands to create virals among online communities because they already have huge fan communties that have been built through “traditional” marketing efforts. However, It is possible that one unknown small dish can have a special story and create a huge viral. I mean, one small dish that no body has ever heard of can produce a powerful story and provide the future followers with unforgettable memories… With the uses of social media sites to interact with people giving them special experience, I believe small brands can have great chances to lead loyal fans communities and make the brands stronger…

The following video is a great content talking about changes in conumser behaviors after the economic crisis 2008/2009. Check it out!!

Hello job seekers…Have you ever Googled your names?

I started blogging when I barely knew about the new marketing skills like Search Engine Optimization and social media marketing…. I even read some books describing those things, but the main reason for my “blogging” was because I just wanted to keep my own journals…..like things that have happened to me and that I want to remember….that kind of stuff…

But, one moment changed the way I think and consider the social media networking. Since it’s helped me a lot so far in differentiating myself from others, I would like to share this story with my fellow “job seekers” (I am a senior and job seeker!!)

At the beginning, I wrote some blog articles about the achievement awards that I received before. One of them was “Geico Achievement Awards 2010”. After I posted the article, I didn’t even look at it again until I saw it on the third page of Google search results. A couple of months after I posted it, one of my friends asked me about the award, and I wanted to show him the main website page for it. We found the main site, but we decided to further look for any web pages listing the recipients of 2010 (I wanted to show it to him, too…haha). So, I googled the phrase “Geico Achievement Awards” and surprisingly found my blog post on the third page of the search results. I didn’t give much thought into this at that time, but as I learned more about the social media marketing, this experience gave an important lesson to me. And…I decided to play around my blog and other social media sites to see how they work.

For example, in order to build my blog contents effectively, I searched for popular keywords that were also related to my blog posts by using some Google services like Google Adwords and Google Trends . I also utilized some SEO skills to make my blog more searchable. In addition, by using social bookmark sites such as Digg, I have managed to read other people’s thoughts and communicate with them. While making myself more searchable to online users, I was able to realize how much those skills are important in marketing and how I can utilize them to reach people out there.

I have heard from some people that some recruiters “google” the applicants’ names these days to see how much they have been involved in social media networking or what kind of social media activities they have done. Like most students, I didn’t prefer exposing my profile on the online and blocked every profile of the social media sites I had used. However, since Social media sites are considered as important marketing channels/tools in the new marketing era, I personally think that job seekers should also actively get involved in social networking and utilize the social media sites to effectively market themselves to recruiters. Like companies using the social media sites to connect to online/offline communities and tell their stories to consumers, job seekers should also put significant efforts in building their social media contents in order to tell their stories to their future bosses.

For example, let’s say, you have developed your blog contents with your strong insights and opinions. And some recruiters found your articles on the online by googling either your name or keywords that are related to your blog posts. If they are impressed by your articles or even the social media activities you have done, I think you would receive job offers more easily than spending tons of time on writing and mailing your resume/cover letters…

Social Marketing Tips from the Spaghetti Sauce Industry

I have seen many people who think Search Engine Optimization is just reorganizing and optimizing their websites with technical skills like Meta elements to increase their website ranks. In fact, there are tons of factors that can affect the search engine results pages, which sometimes make people feel complicated and frustrated...... However, Search Engine Optimization comes to me as a simple thing; SEO is all about drawing attentions from people…

In my opinion, once we provide valuable contents that make people interested, the website traffics will increase automatically. This is why I said SEO is all about drawing attentions. Companies should provide interesting information, share their ideas, and tell their stories to the current/potential customers through both online and offline contents. This way, companies can provide consumers with special experience and bring them to both company websites and offline stores.

In this line, I think social media sites are the most important and effective marketing channels/tools that we should utilize to draw attentions from people in this new marketing era. The uses of those sites can have significant effects on the website traffics and the entire company image in either positive or negative way. In addition, social media sites can be utilized not only to spread words and create WOM effects for products, but also to discover what consumers want and to organize follower communities.

The video at the bottom is one of the greatest contents that have helped me to think out of box and see how to utilize social media sites as core consumer data sources.

As you can see from the following video (Malcolm Gladwell), it took more than 20 years for Prego (one of the biggest spaghetti sauce companies) to find out that American people wanted extra-chunky spaghetti sauce deep in their hearts. Prego and Ragu (probably other spaghetti sauce companies, too) had conducted marketing research for more than 20 years to find out hidden consumer tastes, but no one ever said and the companies couldn't realize until 80’s that people actually wanted extra-chunky. Thanks to the companies' tremendous amounts of efforts throughout decades, one third of Americans now are enjoying extra-chucky spaghetti sauce.

It took long time and lots of money for those two companies to find out what people really want. I think, however, social networks provide great opportunities today for us to discover and satisfy consumers’ hidden demands in more effective and efficient ways.

Like Malcolm Gladwell says in the video, there is no good spaghetti sauce or bad spaghetti sauce, there is no perfect spaghetti sauce or imperfect spaghetti sauce, but there are only different kinds of spaghetti sauces that suit different kinds of people. There are more than 6 billion people around the world, and there are great chances that people out there would crave products that you offer. Companies should approach those potential customers and provide them with special experience by utilizing social media sites effectively.

With the uses of social media sites, I think companies should focus on connecting to online communities and social networks; should listen to what people are talking about and observe how they behave everyday; thereby find and satisfy their hidden demands.

How to start a movement_Derek Sivers

Marketing is all about how to start a movement!! As marketers, we should know how to make a product/service as a leader in the market.. Following is my favorite video of Derek Sivers talking about how to start a movement.

What is the main difference between web 2.0 and web 3.0?

Last week, I found an article describing about the Web 3.0, and it was the first time for me to hear about that term. I googled it to get more information about the Web 3.0, and I also posted the question, “What is the main difference between web 2.0 and web 3.0?” on LinkedIn. I have received valuable answers (10 answers) from some experts since I posted it, which greatly helped me understand those terms. I would like to share some of those answers with you here at my blog. (I only included here the answers that I got approvals from the authors).

Q: What is the main difference between web 2.0 and web 3.0? (what advantages can I expect from using the web 3.0 compared to the web 2.0 in terms of the online marketing?)

Answer from Greg Henle: Dale Dougherty came up with Web 2.0 as a way to describe almost any site, service, or technology that promoted sharing and collaboration. Blogs and wikis, tags and RSS feeds, etc.. Tim Berners-Lee came up with the concept called Semantic Web. Basically, the idea is turning the web into a searchable database. i.e. Web 3.0.

I would like to voice my disagreement with those saying that each version signifies just (emphasis on "just" ) marketing buzzwords. While there is no distinct "On this day, the web was upgraded to version 2.0", each "version" names a distinct shift in paradigm on how to use the web. Going in order from information distribution ( 1.0 ), to collaboration ( 2.0 ), and then to data-mining ( 3.0 ).
Besides, Tim Berners-Lee invented it so he can call it anything he damn well pleases. :-)

Answer from Vlad Shevnin: I think you can look at web 1.0, web 2.0 .... web x.0 as a way we label distinct periods or steps in the evolution of the Internet. For example one of the distinct characteristics of current period is the social aspect, users actively creating and sharing content. So I disagree with Irune. You may dislike buzzwords and marketing hype but it doesn't mean web 2.0 doesn't exist. Also to answer the question that's why you can't compare "using" web 2.0 and web 3.0 and switch between the two based on the advantages you get.

Answer from Randall Goya: it's basically an arithmetic problem... In my opinion, "Web 2.0" was born through the database-driven platforms allowing site membership, user-contributed content, and member interaction which arose in the early part of this century after the first internet bubble burst. I consider most web sites I build to be "Web 2.x" i.e. an incremental improvement of technology, interfaces, and concepts, but basically providing ways for users to communicate with the web site publishers and with each other.

I have often quipped that "Web 3.0" will likely involve a direct neural connection by the user with the internet, without any tactile appliance such as keyboard or mouse. This technology is already available from Emotiv, and the research team at Brown University has made great strides in "brain wave" controls with monkeys and paralyzed humans. I see this technology promising the kind of sea change represented by the rise of social and semantic publishing sites in "Web 2.0"

If you ask a graphic designer for a definition of "Web 2.0" s/he is likely to answer that it involves glossy graphics with vertical reflections (yeah we've seen the style - Adobe comes to mind).

Answer from Rey Gordon: I characterized web 3.0 as something that brings people together at many levels like this video from the head of Google suggests it encompasses all areas of life. This is why we call a web 3.0 application because it can simply be just a journaling tool if you wish but it can integrate all aspects of your travels including social aspects from the planning to after the trip and bring the web to real life. This is a great video that explains the differences in a very simple yet entertaining way.

One tip for you, currently I make 95% of my first search for info on Youtube, primarily because I hate to read but also because I enjoy watching and have a closer interaction with people presenting the info who are often on the videos. I suggest to you or anyone to do this. Youtube is approaching web 3.0 because it learns and it gives you great search returns after it knows who you are and how you search and the kinds of videos you like and of course it can be used across all media types as well! Now with Google TV arriving in the next few weeks, the true capabilities of Web 3.0 will be realized (at least in my mind).

How to start SEO for a website as a beginner

I am not a SEO expert, but based on what I have learned while opimizing some websites, I would like to give some tips for SEO beginners.

First of all, check if your website includes meta keywords (or phrases) and descriptions. These are important factors that affect the search engine results pages of your website and webpages. You may utilize different keywords/phrases to promote not only the main page, but also each of the web pages. Those keywords/phrases should represent or identify your website(pages) contents (e.g. keywords/phrases from news articles or research papers posted on webpages). Otherwise, unrelated keywords may dicrease the Quality score and search result rank of your website.

You can also utilize the title tags, which you can see on the window tap once you open your website, in order to make your website more searchable. You can see a complete form of a title tag when you place your mouse pointer on the tap. The title tag is one of the most important factors in SEO. For example, the Princeton Review is using “Test Prep:GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, SAT, ACT, and More” as its main page title tag, and this short phrase consists of several popular keywords of the industry.

Lastly, the more web pages you have in search engines like Google, the more frequently your web contents will show up. This means, by creating sub-pages that provide different kind of information for your target audience, you can increase the possibility that your potential customers will find your website or even one of those webpages (sub-pages). In addition, by promoting those webpages through social media sites such as Twitter or Digg, you can make those pages more searchable.

I hope my experience would help you develop effective SEO strategies for your websites.

Tips for Target Case Competition

I participanted in the Target Case Competition at University at Buffalo with the other three members in both 2009 and 2010. In 2009, my team was in the final list (five teams) and gave the presentation about our strategies for the case to seven executive members of the Target Corporation. We tried our best, but could not win the competition at that time. In 2010, we finally won the competition with solid, but straightforward marketing strategies. We also received a $3000 check as a reward.

As a winner of the Target Case Competition 2010, I would like to give some tips to furture participants, based on what I learned and experienced.

First of all, once you get the case for the competition, I recommend you to conduct some market research using the secondary data to get useful information. Market research could include competitor analysis, industry analysis, customer analysis, and etc. This will give you useful information such as how Target has performed in the market and what changes in consumer/market trends Target has faced, which will help you develop strategic plans for the case.

Second, focus on developing a plan(s) that is (are) feasible. That means, the plans you will develop must be the ones that the company would be able to apply in the near future.

Lastly, develop your presentation with professional structures and creative designs. Here, you should show your creative and professional presentation skills to impress the judges. Use simple, but impressive design for your PowerPoint slides (or whatever software you use for your presentation). My team also received a large portion of credits from our presentation.



Target Competition gave me great experience and helped me think out of box.. And it has helped me to realize what I should do to become a smart marketer who can create something from nothing.

I participated in the Target Case Competition twice so far, one in 2009, and the other in 2010. The Target Case Competition is held by the Target Corporation on an annual basis where undergraduate students compete in teams developing their strategic marketing (or management) plans for certain cases provided by the company.

- Tae Hyun Moon

Gerstein Fisher Finance Workshop

Workshop: Raising Financially Independent Kids

Wednesday, July 28, 2010
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
The Levin Institute, 116 East 55th Street New York, NY 10022

Against the backdrop of the toughest job market in recent memory, many parents are struggling to strike a balance between providing the near-term financial support their young adult children need and cultivating their longer-term financial independence.

On July 28th, from 6:00pm-8:00pm , Gerstein Fisher will host a workshop that brings parents and their children (ages 17-24) together for an evening of discussion and financial education. Parents, grandparents, educators, young adults and anyone who interacts with children will benefit from this session.



Parents will learn:

What "financial independence" means today

How to communicate to their children what it means to be financially independent and what it will take to get there

How to determine how much support they can and should provide while their children work to establish themselves financially

Young adults will learn:

How to create a systematic plan for translating their passions into a career

How to build and maintain a career/job search network

Tips for surviving financially in the real world

Details are as follows:

We welcome your questions via email prior to July 28 (email to Naysa Goldberg at ngoldberg@gersteinfisher.com ). We will make every effort to address these questions during the workshop. We also encourage you to invite any friends and/or family members and their children who may benefit from participating in this educational event.

AboutGregg S. Fisher
Gregg S. Fisher is President and Chief Investment Officer of Gerstein Fisher, an independent, full-service financial advisory firm that he founded in 1993. Mr. Fisher was a pioneer in introducing fee-based planning and asset class investing to individuals, believing that they deserved the same caliber of investment advice, products, and services historically afforded only to ultra-high net worth investors and large institutions. He is a frequent guest on CNBC and a regular contributor to Forbes. Gregg's market views have been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek and Forbes among others.

About Sharon Dougherty
Sharon Dougherty is the CEO and career expert at groovycareers.com, where she helps young people match their passions, gifts, and talents with careers they will truly enjoy. She is also the CEO of Priority Coaching where she offers coaching to executives. Her current and previous client list includes BMW, Forest Laboratories, Seamless Web, MetLife, JP Morgan Chase, SONY, Colgate-Palmolive, Estee Lauder, and many more. She has appeared on both television and radio. Sharon's work has been cited in both The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

Beginning HTML (XHTML) Tutorial

Target Case Competition 2010 Winners

School of Management Names Winners in Target Case Competition
(http://mgt.buffalo.edu/home/about/News/TargetCase2010)

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A team of three seniors and one junior in the UB School of Management will share a $3,000 prize as winners of the fourth annual On Target Undergraduate Case Competition.

Assen Petrov and Tae Hyun Moon of Buffalo, Matt Stabel of Williamsville and Ho Wing Chan of Fresh Meadows, N.Y., comprised the winning team.

The competition, sponsored by Target, is intended to help undergraduate students hone their analytical, problem-solving and teamwork skills by proposing solutions to a real-world business challenge.

Fourteen teams representing 47 students originally entered the competition. For the final round of the competition on Feb. 26, the top five teams presented their analyses and recommendations for a case involving how Target can improve its merchandise and sales in home-industry products, as that category has faced declining revenues for the last decade.

Five individuals from Target served as judges for the final presentations: Peter Firestone, district facilities manager; Randy Joseph, district team leader; Caitlin McCraken, assets protection business partner; Ben Gregory, store team leader; and Adam Fatzinger, investigations team leader.

Minneapolis-based Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) serves guests at more than 1,600 stores nationwide and at Target.com. Target is committed to providing a fun and convenient shopping experience with access to unique and highly differentiated products at affordable prices. Since 1946, the corporation has given 5 percent of its income through community grants and programs like Take Charge of Education. Today, that giving equals more than $3 million a week.

The Wall Street Journal has ranked the UB School of Management No. 9 in the nation among schools with strong regional recruiting bases. In addition, BusinessWeek has ranked the school as one of the country’s top 5 business schools for the fastest return on MBA investment, and Forbes has cited it as one of the best business schools in the U.S. for the return on investment it provides MBA graduates. For more information about the UB School of Management, visit mgt.buffalo.edu.

GEICO Achievement Award 2010 Recipient

As one of the GEICO Achievement Award 2010 recipients, I visited the Buffalo GEICO branch last Friday (May 21st 2010) and received $1000 check! It is my great pleasure to receive such an honorable award, and the award is another motivation for me to further improve myself.

For more information about the GEICO Achievement Award, please visit the website, click here.

Samsung Refrigerator Wonder Commercial

What a smart product...smart engineers... that's why said there are only two things important in every industry; Marketing and Engineering!!

Social Media Revolution

How To Profit From Investment 'Losers'

Diversification and rebalancing are keys to long-term returns.(Written by Gregg S. Fisher, CFA, CFP, is president and chief investment officer of Gerstein Fisher)

Too often investors scrutinize their portfolio statements like tense parents reading a child’s report card. They glaze over the A's and B-pluses and, with furrowed brows, hone in on that errant C.

In investing focusing too narrowly on a problem area often misses the big-picture story. It may seem counterintuitive, but investments that have underperformed their benchmarks or other holdings can actually improve the total risk/return profile over the long haul. This is not a new phenomenon, but it is one that investors routinely ignore. It’s called the diversification effect. Remember diversification?

Diversification Gets a Bad Rap
In the wake of the wild volatility in financial markets over the past few years, many investors have come to view with a jaundiced eye the notion that there is safety in spreading your bets. This reaction is understandable, even if misplaced. True, diversification within equities, as shown in Table 1 below, does not appear to have helped investors much over the past three years.....

To see the full article, visit the webpage, http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/30/portfolio-diversification-personal-finance-asset-allocation.html.

Google Adwords Strategy 1

A. Clint Company: Rumour Nightclub(http://www.rumoursnightclub.com/)

B. Website Analysis:

- the website provides general information about the company such as its location and the cover prices

- it does not sell any product or service on the website, but provides an email service, by which its customers can get updated information about upcoming events and contests

- without Google Adwords, the website can be found with keywords/phrases such as "Niagara Falls Finest Nightlife", "Rumours Nightclub", and "Clifton Hill", which are included in the header and contents of the webpages.


C. Adwords strategy for the first week campaign

- We have focused on using “Phrase match keywords” to target potential customers who are interested in club parties in Niagara Falls by typing specific search phrases. We thought this would increase possibilities to attract cosumers to the company website.

- We avoided using the keywords that have already attracted people to the website without Google Adwords campaigns. This is because we wanted to find out more of attractive, but unique and specific keywords/phrases for the company to use for the future online promotion. We also wanted to discover effective advertising strategies that will generate as many potential customers as possible.

- For Impressions/Clicks/CTR, we wanted to limit our impressions and maximize the clicks to the website by running specific keywords and thereby increasing our CTR and Quality Score. In this way, we expected to attract as many potential customers as possible who are willing to visit the actual club.

- We set up the search location range as 130 miles around the club.


D. The first week performance.

- We have created 31 impressions and 2 clicks. From statistics, we found out that most of the impressions were generated on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday between 8pm and 3am.

- The performance shows that our keywords did not work well to bring potential customers to the website. We think that this is partly because we used too specific keywords/phrases along with the search location range limit. The search keywords/phrases and location range we used have significantly lowered the number of people that would visit the website.

- To improve our campaign performance, we will create two more campaigns, Email Campaign and Cheap Cover Party. We will run the ad for the Email Campaign only through the goole email site where potential customers who use the gmail account could see our campaign with their emails that include our keywords/phrases. The keywords/phrases are more like generic words (Broad Keywords) than the ones that we used for the first week. To prevent our campaign from generating too much impression due to the use of broad keywords, we set up the time limit so that our campaign will come up only on Thursay, Friday, and Saturday. We set up 100 miles as the search range limit for this campaign.

- For the Cheap Cover Party campaign, we made our exisitng keyword/phrase lists less specific and set up the different time zones for different days. For example, we prevented the campaign from being shown on Monday, Tuesday, and Sunday while it will come up every Wednesay between 12am and 4am, 11am and 2pm, and 6pm dnd 12am.

Google Online Marketing Challenge 2010

I am currently a captain of Team University at Buffalo in the Google Online Marketing Challenge 2010. My team is competing against over 10,000 students from 500 universities around the world in the challenge. There are six members including myself in the Team University at Buffalo, and Professor Alan Dick has been helping us as an advisory professor. My team was provided $200 worth Google AdWords money so that we can utilize the money to promote a local company by running Adwords campaigns on Google. Since February 2010, my team has developed strategic marketing plans including keyword lists, by which we have promoted the company to current and future customers on the online. There is no such a financial award for the challenge, but my team members and I have put our efforts and time in it because we value experience that we will gain and honor of representing our school in the world competition.

Target Case Competition Winner

The Target marketing competition, sponsored by the Target Corporation, is intended to help undergraduate students hone their analytical, problem-solving and teamwork skills by proposing solutions to a real-world business challenge.

I have participated in the with three other members, and it was held by the Target Corporation. The case of the competition was how to improve the Target’s merchandise so that it can remain competitive in the home industry. I was in charge of developing price and product strategies for our marketing proposal.

I did research for home products of Target’s competitors and the current market trend in the home industry. With hard work of each member and creative ideas based on solid research, my team won the competition and was awarded $3000. During the competition, I managed to further improve my knowledge and marketing skills gained through my education.

You will see my strong research and analytical skills will contribute to discovering hidden value in the market and providing invaluable information to the clients. Moreover, this internship will be a great opportunity for me to gain hands-on experience and become a future asset to the company.

20 to be honored by Alumni Association

The UB Alumni Association will honor a prominent local philanthropist and an internationally recognized journalist at the annual UB Alumni Association Achievement Awards ceremony, to be held at 6:30 p.m. April 9 in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus.

Attorney Gordon R. Gross, JD ’55, will receive the Samuel P. Capen Award, the UB Alumni Association’s highest honor, and CNN host Wolf Blitzer, BA ’70, will receive a Distinguished Alumni Award. They are among the 11 individuals who will be honored, along with a UB alumni group, students and volunteers.

President John B. Simpson and UB Alumni Association President Larry Zielinski, MBA ’77, BA ’75, will present the awards. A post-award reception will feature premium food stations, an open bar and entertainment in the Center for the Arts atrium.

A member of the SUNY Board of Trustees from 2001-08, Gross’s significant gifts to UB include a $1 million donation to establish the first endowed professorship in the Institute for Jewish Thought and Heritage.

“The university is the No. 1 economic engine in Western New York. Not only is it an important employer, but it spawns new businesses and attracts people to the region,” Gross said. “I’ve seen for quite some time that the university is the future of this community, and the most important thing we can do for the growth of the community is to help grow the university. It’s just that simple.”

Blitzer will receive a Distinguished Alumni Award, given in recognition of exceptional career accomplishments, community or university service, or research and scholarly activity. The host of “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” he received a SUNY honorary doctorate in humane letters in 1999, and in 2003 he endowed the UB David Blitzer Lecture Series in Jewish Studies in honor of his late father, David, a Jewish Polish refugee.

Four students will receive the J. Scott Fleming Scholarship, the only student-to-student award at UB. They are Olivia Cox, a junior nursing major and Acker Scholar; Marc Huberfeld, a senior majoring in business administration with concentrations in MIS and operations and supply chain management; Tae Hyun Moon, a senior majoring in business administration with a concentration in marketing; and Kathryn Przybyla, a junior communication major with a minor in geography of international business and world trade.

For More information, visit http://www.buffalo.edu/ubreporter/2010_03_24/alumni_awards