They're watching you

As a final blog I would like to make a conclusion about what I learned of targeting advertising. First of all some advantages. Nobody likes to much ads , so if companies can define ads who are interesting for us we can get out of a world where we get spammed with commercials. A second reason why I think that targeting advertising can be a good thing is that sometimes it can be fun to get to know new things that you otherwise wouldn't have known. But the obvious reason why people dislike the idea of this new concept is our privacy. As an example if you are looking at some you tube videos you regularly get ads which they think are something you would like.. this because they remembered what videos you looked at before.. the idea that people know what you are looking at is a perverse concept. Personally I would like a way in between. Making sure my privacy is safe but also get ads that are interesting for myself. 

Wout steenacker

The effects of advertisement on children

Companies are competing every day against other companies to sell their products on the market with the highest profit. They need to maintain their advertisement and use different strategies to attract customers. A well-known strategy is advertising on children. Firms use all kind of stuff like colours, animals and toys to attract children for their commercial or advertisement. I don’t want to talk about specific companies; I just want to point out the effects of advertisement on children. As we all know, there are positive and negative effects. Advertisement can increase children’s knowledge and can help children in a good way. When firms promote vegetables in a good and attractive way, children would eat them more. Children can be very convincing and that’s rather negative. Companies can take advantage of their convincing character. Also junk foods are heavily promoted during children’s TV viewing time.

In my point of view, companies will never stop making advertisement, especially on children. It’s the task of the parents to undertake action and to convince their children what’s good and what’s bad.  

http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/effects-of-advertising-on-children-4751.html

Gilles Stevens

Does targeting push the limits of privacy?

Big social networks, like facebook or even google, make a lot of money by allowing advertisements on their site. Almost all of these ads are targeted. But how far can these ads push the limits of privacy?

Facebook is probably the most known and the most popular social network that you’ll find on the internet today. However, you gotta look out about what you put on facebook about yourself, because facebook uses every piece of information to target their users. Although facebook will never share personal information with advertisers, you might give away personal information, without you realising, by clicking on the advertisements. Say for example that a gay person has put on his profile that he is gay. He will then get different kinds of ads displayed on his screen than a straight guy. By clicking on these advertisement he might reveal his sexuality by default.

I can’t agree with this form of advertising. I really do think it pushes the limits of privacy. Especially when individuals have no idea they are giving away personal information.

Maxime Ossieur

http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-targeted-ads-privacy-2010-10

Marketing strategies

In my first and second blog I talked about iAd and The American Girl. These are examples of niche or concentration marketing. They were both invented for one particular, well-defined group of costumers, called a niche. IAd for Apple users and The American Girl for children, particularly girls.

Undifferentiated or mass marketing is a second targeting strategy.  Coca-Colas original marketing strategy was based on this form. They used to sell one product to the entire market in the hope that a sufficient amount of buyers would be attracted.

The third and last targeting strategy I’d like to talk about is differentiated or selective marketing. Companies try to invent products that match the needs of customers. An advantage is the increase of customer satisfaction and a disadvantage is that people will get confused more easily.

My opinion is that concentration marketing is one of the best marketing strategies you will find. Each firm can choose the size of their target group, the prices of their products and still they can provide customer satisfaction. 

http://tutor2u.net/business/marketing/segmentation-targeting-strategies.html

Gilles Stevens

The importance of branding

In addition to my previous blog about neuromarketing, I would like to write something about branding, which is in my opinion a subject that’s very interesting and can be linked up with targeting advertising.

The aim of neuromarketing is to create and investigate products, services but also advertisements that stimulate the brain (reactions) of a potential buyer. As a result that the target consumer would prefer to buy your product instead of the similar product of your competitor. It has been proved that these kind of stimulations can be provoked by branding for example by using a strong brand name (e.g. Coca Cola versus Pepsi) or a logo or slogan that everybody recognizes and people always associate it with a particular brand.

It seems to me that a brand is more than just a name of a company/product, people link it up with quality and the good experiences they had with this product/service so they love to buy/use it again. But I’m also convinced that branding can deceive people. A standard consumer is persuaded by the brand name only, therefore they forget that the product isn’t that good but just want to buy it because it’s recognizable and well know in society.

Andy Warhol criticized this phenomenon in his pop art:

Jolien Tortelboom

http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/topics/branding

Neuromarketing

As already mentioned, it is necessary that companies invest in research into the interest of their target consumer.  These researches can go very far in using modern technologies e.g. neuromarketing.

 Neuromarketing is a new objective technology used to penetrate the brain or subconsciousness of a human consumer, so they can explore in what way a potential buyer is reacting to a new product or advertising commercial. Believers of the neuromarketing are convinced that people make decisions in split seconds in the emotional part of their brain without knowing.  By investigating in how they can stimulate and maybe change these reactions, they are able to develop products or ads that better meet with market and consumer needs.

This new science maybe seem very interesting and effective but also has his bad aspects. From my point of view these kind of researches has reached their limits in a way that they can sell every reasonable consumer endless products (‘crap’) without we even need them. I’m also convinced that the costs of these researches overlaps the final benefits they can get from this strategy.

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kevin-randall/integrated-branding/neuromarketing-hope-and-hype-5-brands-conducting-brain-resear

Jolien Tortelboom

Advertising agencies

It shouldn’t strike you, as a reader, that a lot of the advertising isn’t done by the company itself . Many companies will just hire the service of an advertising agency or ad agency.

Ad agencies work completely independent from their clients. They are specialized in creating all sorts of advertisements for  the demanding companies. Besides from the obvious tasks like creating advertisements, ad agencies also handle overall marketing, branding strategies and sales promotions for their clients. There are a lot of different types of ad agencies. Ranging from one or two-person shops, usually freelancers, to enormous multi-agency conglomerates such as WPP Group and Publicis.

I think that in order to have a successful advertising campaign, it is a necessity for all companies to hire the service of an ad agency. Companies should focus on their bigger issues. Ad agencies are specialized in creating ads so they will most likely do a better job.

Maxime Ossieur

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising_agencies