Blu Ray and HD DVD

The debate continues.... Blu Ray or HD-DVD?

Frank H has suggested that we take a look at this article that states that the "The underlying encryption on both the Blu-ray and HD DVD high-def disc formats has been cracked".

Encryption Cracked

What will this do, if anything to the adoption rate of the technologies? Will it accelerate the penetration of the new formats? Will it hurt or help the consumer?

GAW

Analog TV Coming to an End

As we continue to discuss multiple media and mediums for advertising and marketing communication, Frank H from our class has suggested this article:

March 1: The End of Analog TV

2009, by the way. The last date that manufacturers can ship analog tuner only TVs in the USA.

What effect do you think this will have on the market? For TVs? For Advertising? For communication? Good or Bad?

GAW

More Super Bowl Ads Stuff

Check out this Blog Post....

Gene A. Wright

You can register and comment there, or comment here.

Gene A. Wright

Can "Marketing" make a Commodity Sexy?

One of the most challenging things we have to do in marketing is to sell products that are often viewed as uninteresting. To get people to consider buying a product we need to get their attention. Well, some products, especially B2B products and some consumer products do not seem very attention-worthy. So, marketers ofen need to "make them sexy".

An article is Business Week discusses Seagate making disk drives sexy. They think they have hired the person to do it. The article "Can Seagate Make Disk Drives Sexy?" The product line is called FreeAgent "data movers".

From the article, and your understanding of the products, do they have a chance? How should they do it?

Gene A. Wright

Super Bowl Ads -- Marketing's "Big Game"

An article in Business Week entitled " TV's Last Man Standing" discusses Super Bowl ads which cost $2.5 Million in 2006, according to the article. Plus the cost to produce the ad averages $400,000.

We have discussed the integrated marketing tactics of Go Daddy in class a bit. They have announced that they will be have ads during the Super Bowl, in fact, on their website, you can see a feature they have called "The Road to the Big Game".

We will, I am quite sure be discussing the Super Bowl Ads in our class snipettes section. Who, will not be discussing them on Monday after, and perhaps even for the rest of the week.

So, the question is this is it worth it? Why or why not?

Gene A. Wright

GOOGLE Still Leads in Search Engine Wars

A new report has been issued that discusses the respective shares of the "search" market.

The report, by Com Score, puts GOOGLE well in the lead, with Microsoft and ASK dropping off a bit.

One of the key elements of an integrated marketing program is consideration for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on websites as well as in all "electronic media and mediums"such as online PR (Public Relations) and email marketing.

What do you think about the importance of SEO in the integrated marketing mix? How important is it? Should a marketer ignore MSN and ASK as well as other lesser search engines?

Gene A. Wright

Mader's German Restaurant Launches Beer Stein Site

The world famous Mader's German restaurant has launched another e-commerce website to sell German Beer Steins that have been previously available in their restaurant.

The site www.madersbeersteins.com shares a common brand with their other website for selling Authentic German Hummels. The other site uses its "Brand Name" Mader's in the URL as well.

The site is German Beer Steins linked here.

What do you think of this brand extension?

What do you think should be included in their database?

Gene A. Wright

John Deere Logo Change

In class we discussed why a company might change their logo.

One student offered up a discussion of its company logo, John Deere.

The Deere website offers a History of the John Deere Logo.


Do you think Logo Changes are a good thing? Why or Why not?

Gene A. Wright

Customer Loyalty and Retention

One of the best known, current authors on the subject of Customer Loyalty and Customer Retention is Frederick Reichheld. He has written a number of articles and a few (very good) books on the subject.

A "page" from his book "Loyalty Rules" that looks at the value of customer loyalty tells us that a "A 5% increase in customer retention yields a 75% increase in customer net present value". He also discusses his six principles of loyalty.

Take a look at some of the publications (GOOGLE them) and let us know which one you like the best.

I like his book "The Ultimate Question".

Gene A. Wright

Communicating with B2B Customers via a Website

Business to Business Marketing has published a list of what it thinks are the best B2B websites. The sites it profiles are:
Accenture
Bank of America
Boston Scientific
CA.com
DHL.com
Gates.com
Grainger.com
Steelcase.com
Sun.com
USG.com
The article entitled "10 Great Web Sites
BtoB’s annual look at some of the best Web sites out there" By
Karen J. Bannan

In the author's opinion, these sites do a good job of communicating with customers and are very useable.

Review the author's comments and check out a website of your choice. What do you think? Why?

Gene A. Wright