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.

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.