The Rise of Online Coupons

It won't be long before your parents and grandparents replace their weekly circulars and scissors with a computer screen and a printer. This weeks article discusses the rising popularity of online coupons with companies and of course the end-user. Currently, online coupons via websites and emails only account for around 15% of all coupons. However, studies conducted by analytic solutions firm Prospectiv show that over 60% of people actually prefer to receive their coupons via the internet, as seen on the chart to the right. I think it makes sense, I mean it is more convenient, and you can choose which coupons you want instead of getting tons of them in the mail that you'll never use (like my coupon for $1 off nail polish remover from Eckerds). With that said, expect your Sunday paper to become thinner and thinner due to companies opting to make their coupons available online instead of spending the extra money to print the coupons and mail them to consumers.

With more and more older consumers frequenting the internet more often, it really is a smart move for grocers such as Super Fresh and Pathmark to make their coupons available off their website. Currently, Pathmark makes their circulars available online for the consumer to view, but do not have coupons readily available for visitors to print out and use at the store. Of course, all companies who normally mail out circulars weekly should take advantage of this promotional trend on the internet. Off hand, I know companies like Staples and Best Buy would totally benefit from this considering two of their main target markets are businesses and tech-savvy individuals who prefer to buy things online. Companies will save thousands on printing and mailing costs by making these items available online. However, there are several other issues to keep in mind of course. First off, it's easier said than done to get people to start going online for their coupons when some fine individuals like my grandma have been clipping coupons for fifty years. So how do you get these people online to get their coupons? Second, companies have to implement a system that prevents people from printing out thousands of the same coupon (shouldn't be too hard though). What else? What do you guys think? As always, feel free to post. It might be awhile before my next one...

-Nick

Digital Wood...Coming Soon...

...well not in that sense. The Home Depot announced today that is acquiring Home Decorators Collection, which is a large online and catalog retailer of furniture, rugs, and lighting. This addition will continue to fuel the rapid growth of Home Depot's online sales, which have doubled since last year after making more of their products available off their website. What's more is that The Home Depot also plans on adding streaming video commercials to their website from vendors who are willing to fork over the advertising big bucks. This is simply one step closer to Home Depot achieving their goal of $1 billion in online sales by 2010.

With Home Depot having diversified their product lines significantly in the past decade or so (they no longer just sell wood and wood accessories), they can now offer most of their products online to consumers who simply don't want to spend their Saturday afternoons at their local Home Depot shopping for a new lamp or bench for their garden. With more and more people turning to the internet to do most of their shopping so they can actually do things THEY ENJOY on the weekends, Home Depot is simply taking advantage and giving customers what they most desperately seek: convenience. Since the home decor industry generates roughly $18 billion in the US annually and 20% annual growth expected, I believe Home Depot is doing the right thing strategically...something that will keep them far ahead of direct competitor Lowe's and other competitor's such as Wal-Mart and Target. I personally think with the addition of Home Decorators that it is only a matter of time before Home Depot branches off their very own version of Pottery Barn or Pier 1 Imports. For now though, their promotional strategy via the internet is one of strategic brilliance. What do you guys think? Be sure to post!

-Nick

Disney Gets Goofy with Internet Marketing

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-04-10-free-disney_x.htm

In an effort to complete head-on with TiVo and the DVR revolution sweeping over modern society today, Disney announced on Monday that starting May, 1 TV junkies around the globe can log onto ABC.com to watch some of their favorite shows right on their computer. While only four shows will be available next month, including popular favorites Desperate Housewives, Lost, Alias, and Commander in Chief, more are likely to follow pending TV viewers become a fan of their computer chair instead of the sofa. Users watching the shows on ABC's website will be able to rewind and fast-forward through the episodes as well as pause them, however they will have to sit through a few minutes of commercials as a small price to pay for this free service. Disney is treating this new opportunity as a test run to see if people will actually use this free service, whether it be to watch an episode you might have missed last week, or just to watch it again because it was that damn good.

My hats are off to Disney and ABC in this brilliant marketing effort, as they are the first television network to offer this type of technology for free to the masses. With more and more people accessing the internet at a high-speed/broadband connection, the possibility exists for this to happen. Most importantly however is that Disney has taken massive action to battle back against TiVo, which allows users to record episodes of their favorite shows and watch them whenever they want, as well as fast-forward through commercials. By offering these highly popular primetime shows for free on abc.com, viewers can treat it like their very own TiVo on their computer. People are also spending increasing amounts of time in front of their computer screen and less in front of the TV, so it is likely that people will adapt relatively quickly to this new technology. If it catches on, expect all the major networks to begin offering something like this to their viewers...ahh the times they are a changin'.

So will it work? Personally, if I was a huge fan of Desperate Housewives (which I clearly am...) and I missed last week's episode, I would absolutely log onto ABC's website to watch it. Like I said before, it's just like having a TiVo on your computer. Unfortunately, viewers will be forced to watch the paid advertisements that appear occasionally during the episode (no more frequent than if you were to watch the show on TV), which is something TiVo certainly does not force you to do and clears way for a whole different topic for me to discuss. Again, great job Disney for marketing ABC better than any other major network out there. Take that, UPN.

It's About Time I Wrote About Blogs

As I enter my third month of dynamic, stellar blogging, I think it's about time I talked about blogs, how far they have come in the past year (34 million users up from 9 million last year) , and their future. With that said, this week's article talks about a new service called BlogBurst, created by a tech start-up company known as Pluck Corp. BlogBurst is very similar to Bloglines in that they both follow the typical syndication model, collecting blogs and RSS feeds from various locations. However, unlike Bloglines which can be customizable by the user, BlogBurst is to be used primarily by traditional media outlets, namely newspapers. What it does is collect daily blog postings from 700 different bloggers and then makes them available to these traditional publications. The point of is really is for newspapers to become more technologically involved in what they do. After all, with more and more people getting their up-to-the-minute news off the internet instead of a newspaper which is only distributed once, maybe twice a day, newspapers like The Washington Post need to find a new way to promote to their readers.

So...this is interesting. Basically what's happening here it seems is that well-reputable newspapers are becoming less concerned about what their professionally trained staff writers have to say, and more interested in what some wino from Nebraska has to say about his new microwave. Given, blogging has indeed become a worldwide phenomenon and more and more people are writing and reading what others have to say on their blogs. On the other hand, do these newspapers really need to include these "grade-making" blogs on their website? Don't they already pay people to cover the news? Personally, I don't think people need to go to the New York Times website to find a blog about Peter Jackson's sweaty undershirt collection. But maybe I'm wrong. I mean, they're just trying to be cool and give the people what they're interested in...right? What do you guys think? As always, post away until next week.

-Nick

Advertisements in Your Pocket

Welcome back loyal blog readers. Hope you all had an exciting spring break filled with plenty of debauchery and one of your friends getting arrested or exploited by a foreign government. But now that we're back, the blogging must continue! This weeks article, courtesy of the fine people at BusinessWeek.com, discusses the major surge in the number of companies advertising on cell phones, as well as the great success being found by tech companies like Enpocket who are cashing in on this latest advertising craze.

Enpocket, a mobile marketing company whose data- mining software allows advertisers to more accurately target cell phone users (Khariff), is being used by several companies such as Jeep and DaimlerChrysler to target their product to the millions of consumers out there on their cell phone everyday (it is worth noting that American's ages 18-24 spend roughly 22 hours a month on their cell phones). Other companies that have added "mobile marketing" to their marketing plans include Google, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, and several network and cable stations such as Fox and The Discovery Channel. This companies continue to pay more and more each year as well. Because cell phones today are capable of doing so many things, the number of ways a company can exploit this convenient communication tool to market their product or service is enormous. For example, Fox has used text messaging to help promote American Idol by allowing viewers to text in their vote for their favorite contestant. Meanwhile, Jeep and Coca-Cola have simply purchased ad space on MobiTV, a company who provides video clips to cellular services like Sprint and Cingular. For every hour of video watched by a cell phone user, approximately 3 minutes of commercials are shown promoting Jeep and Coke, among others. All said and done, the amount of money spent on mobile marketing by American-based companies is predicted to reach to over $600 million by 2009, up from $100 million in 2005.

However, with the cost of cell phone advertising rising and the blatant disinterest of cell phones users, one can only wonder if this form of advertising will actually survive. In addition, only new cell phones have the technology needed to view video feeds, which constitutes for a fair amount of ad spending in this sector. What do you guys think? Yay or nay (yay means yes) on this? Would ads popping up on your cell phone bother you, pending it didn't interrupt phone calls or text messaging? Until next time, I look forward to reading your comments.

-Nick

The MySpace for Car Lovers and Buyers

Well folks, it looks as if the fine people at Edmunds have done it again. The highly popular car website, which provides visitors with all the information they can stand on virtually every car available in the US market is preparing to take their marketing efforts to the next level, as discussed in this weeks article. As many of you know, social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, in addition to the rise of blogs, have taken the internet by storm and are used by everyone you know and adore (except grandma). My post this week is basically a spin-off of last weeks in that more and more companies are taking advantage of the social networking website craze. Edmunds.com has recently launced a social networking website called CarSpace, which they decree will be a place"for auto enthusiasts and car shoppers" (Rodgers, http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3587956).

So now, a few big things are happening: car lovers have a place where they can meet with others to discuss their infatuation with the 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500, neo-environmentalists can talk about how their super cool Prius is saving the environment (get a job hippie), and guys that live at home with mom can upload pictures of their Toyota Camry all tricked out with the 18 inch dubs and neon lights (get a job...loser). More importantly however, is that consumers in the market for a new or used car can now chat with those who have purchased or had significant experience with the car they are interested in. The possibilities are endless really. This is huge for Edmunds.com because not only are they pioneers in using social networking websites to further market themselves, but the additional ad revenue they will receive by launching CarSpace (still in beta testing) will definitely do wonders for Edmunds' income statement.

Prediction: Social networking websites will begin to pop-up to serve smaller homogeneous groups rather than the massive markets which MySpace caters to. Makes sense right? First Edmunds starts a site for car enthusiasts, then Betty Crocker starts one for food lovers and recipe seekers, and then the Yankees start one to join New York Yankee fans everywhere to share their common interest in the team, sell tickets, etc. Do you guys forsee this happening in the future? Will all companies eventually start their own social networking sites for their target market(s)? Let's hear it.

-Nick

Internet Advertising Will Be Even BIGGER

This weeks article has just about everything to do with the future of advertising as we know it. According to "The Changing Face of Advertising in the Digital Age", the money spent on internet advertising by US companies will double by the year 2010...providing for roughly 10% of all US ad dollars. To be honest, after reading this article, I was a bit surprised; I thought it would be even more than that. For the amount of time that we spend on the internet these days, I feel like 10% is nothing. It is estimated that the average American with internet access from home spends around three hours a day on the internet. You would think that since most Americans are now spending more time in front of their computers than in front of the TV that companies would want to spend even more on internet ads, which are also significantly cheaper than the exhorbitant amount most networks charge for a thirty second commercial spot. The more time people spend online, the less time they devote attention to traditional media outlets such as TV, the radio, and newspaper. Also keep in mind that people have podcasts now so they dont have to turn on the radio as much, and many people are opting to either get their news for free off such sites as CNN or simply subscribe to their regular newspaper online and just read it there. While many larger companies such as Anheuser-Busch and Verizon have already started to pour more money into internet advertising than ever before, one must wonder if it is still even enough. My personal stance is this: less money on TV and radio (after all, who really gives a poop about radio advertising anyway?), and more on the internet. But then again, one must also ask if internet advertising is nearly as effective as advertising in traditional media. Sure more people are online than ever before and spending a lot of time there, but are they paying attention to the ads they see?

Until next week people, enjoy the NCAA Tournament - Final Four picks are UConn, Duke, Pitt, and Ohio State. Post comments!

-Nick