The American Girl

New York, the city that never sleeps. In every street and on each corner you’ll find people trying to sell something. I have chosen one store in particularly, named ‘The American Girl’. We all know that children, girls especially, are found of dolls. When you enter the store you will see dolls in every colour and measurement. You can buy your doll clothes like bedtime wear, costumes, sportswear, swimwear, shoes and socks, but also furniture and accessories. You can even choose your dolls haircut and you can eat with your doll on the top floor. The most important dolls in the store are the historical characters. Their clothing and accessories teach children about the history of America.

I have been to this store and I can tell you that this is one of the best advertising stunts I’ve ever seen. Children are very convincing towards parents and ‘The American Girl’ takes advantage of it. Besides the amount of advertising it is good that children also learn about the history of America.

http://store.americangirl.com/agshop/static/home.jsp

Gilles Stevens

Upper Class advertising

In my opinion it would be interesting to take a look at another example of targeting advertising.

We all know them : they are rich , fancy and will buy only the most exclusive and expansive things. The upper class! They are one of the most easy preys for big advertising wolfs. Because they have a lot of tools to promote the luxury lifestyle.

First of all upper class magazines which is their most genius weapon. Combining expansive, exclusive products in a book which only the upper class are able to afford. But this is not their only weapon , because when these people are looking to buy a Bentley they immediately get information about  Breitling’s and so one... .These are only some of the numerous examples of companies with exclusive products who advertise at places where only their consumers , the elite , will come. The high class is one of the audiences at wich targeting advertising is used the most. Giving us a schoolbook example of targeting advertising

Wout Steenacker

Contextual targeting

Just like behavioral targeting, contextual targeting is a form of targeting advertising. Unlike behavioral targeting, which displays info based on the behavior of an individual, contextual targeting displays content that is related to the content of the website the individual is currently browsing.

When browsing, a contextual targeting system scan will scan the text of the website and look for keywords. Based on those keywords ads will be displayed on the website as a pop-up or as a banner. This technique has made an enormous impact on the earnings of many websites, because the advertisements are much more targeted and thus have a much higher chance to be clicked.

My opinion hasn’t change all that much since my last blog. I understand the need of the companies to try and reach their customers, but I would rather not be bothered with that kind of advertising.


Maxime Ossieur

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

Behavioral targeting

As mentioned in one of our previous blogs, behavioral targeting is one of the two principal forms of targeting advertising. Basicly, behavioral targeting is the gathering of all kinds of information on the consumer’s web-browsing behavior. This technique should help firms increase the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns.

With the collected data, site owners can adjust the content of the ‘ads’ and thus display ads whose content is more relevant to the interest of the individual viewing the webpage. In other words: The right ad for the right person on the right time. A laborer that barely makes it through the month has no use for an advertisement of a luxury car in the middle of the financial crisis. 

I for one am not a big fan of this massive flood of advertising on the internet. I don’t enjoy the commercial banners nor the pop-ups. It’s just really annoying when you’re browsing and you’re constantly distracted because a useless pop-up just went fullscreen on your desktop.


Maxime Ossieur

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

iAd

We’ve seen the definition and the basics of targeting strategy. It’s time for an example. Apple is widely used by millions of people. The apple audience has invented billions of applications, so it can be interesting to advertise while people use these applications. This type of advertisment has earned the name iAd. Advertisement is one of the most important parts in a firm. They are constantly busy with innovation and figuring out ways to present their product to the world. IPhone and iPod touch users are one click away from business advertisement. Firms pay Apple to introduce their product in an application. The target group will variate from young people to important business men. This is a new and brilliant way to make advertisement. You just have to tap on the ad that will appear in the application. The application will pause. Another tap brings you back to the app. Ads in apps always take your attention away. This is the main goal of advertisement.  

http://advertising.apple.com/


Gilles Stevens

Basics of targeting advertising

In order to understand the concept of targeting advertising we first have to take a look at the basic tools for this marketing concept. Purchase history , demographics , and observed behavior. These are some of the most frequently used datatools in marketing. As told in my first blog good information is crucial. Companies use this information in these 3 categories in order to be able to target their audience.

First of all demographics , these are statistics about the human population and give information about age , sex , income , employment status , … . These data are a solid base of information to define a target market.

Secondly the purchase history of costumers. What can be more helpful when you want to know what people will buy than the knowledge of what they already have bought? As a third source of information processing there is what is called observed behavior. What people do is often different of what they say they will do or have done. This is the greatest problem with surveys , so instead of asking people what they will do their actions are observed. The combination of these 3 is a powerful targeting tool.

Wout steenacker

Data generation

Target advertising is only possible when companies have sufficient and correct information about customers. Thanks to the numerous new technologies and social networks,  firms now have huge databanks with statistics about consumers and their preferences. Famous social networks as facebook and twitter collect data about their profiles and sell these. This huge business of data farming also uses surveys to collect information. First of all this gives them the possibility to ‘target’ their target group. And secondly it gives the possibility to eliminate wasted advertising. If they know their target audience they also know who isn’t interested in their products or services so advertising for these people is useless.  Which leads to higher profits!  What remains are some important questions : where does this data war leads to? How far are firms willing to go for perfect data ?  And not to be forgotten where do we have a say in this? What about our privacy?

Wout steenacker