Internet Explorer come back and my grazing addiction

Hey!
Just wanted to share this amazing advert with you!
Think I've finally learned how to embed youtube videos properly!!!

I love it! Brings back so many 90's memories and is so well put together! I've noticed how many people are using chrome or safari recently, especially noticable on my blog stats. I love the way internet explorer play on the fact they were the original browser and are targeting their initial market- us 90's kids, who grew up using internet explorer. They are using their history (however short) as marketing and I think it's very clever and reinforces the idea that internet explorer have "grown up" and aren't the same old boring, slow browser you used to use back in the day which also demonstrates that the 90's kids who have also grown up can use the rebranded, fresher browser to suit their needs now!
Such a cool video!

Ok, now I'm sure if you live in the UK you will have seen some sort of marketing for graze boxes, if not you must have been living in a hole as it is one of the most heavily advertised products at the moment! Well as I see their free/discounted box offers everywhere, I wanted to see what all the hype was about, so I decided to order one. I spend so much money on snacks in the uni shop which is ridiculously over priced (why it is placed in a university I do not know) and wanted to see if a graze box would be a healthier option and cheaper!
I found the first free box a bit scary as I was entering my card details for a free sample, something that I actually now thinks makes sense- graze ask for your credit card details in order to ensure you are a geniunely interested potential customer, or else they would have thousands of free boxes to send! Then you can rate your favourite foods based on sooo many different options.
This was quite an exciting process and I found the rating exciting as I could have a nosey at everything they have! Clearly captivating as an interaction with the customer means they can gain their attention and the rating process is quite time consuming meaning the customer has to spend extra time on the website!
Then once I had rated my products I chose my date to have the box delivered and I got an email the night before to tell me my box was on the way! My box was late because it was snowing so heavily but I emailed them and they discounted my next box immediately! Amazing customer service I was so impressed!
Then when my box arrived I took it to uni and everyone wanted to try!! Clearly a talking point and I think as the box looks different, especially when people take them to work/uni etc. their peers are going to be interested and want to try the boxes themselves.
I was very impressed and am going to be continuing my subscription!
I think the concept of "graze" is successful because;

• They deliver exceptional customer service.
• There is a high level of interaction between organisation and consumer. It's fun!
• The product is customisable and part of the experience is this element.
• They play on the desire to be healthy and a quick pick up snack.
• Everyone likes getting things through the post!
• It's a talking point and you get a token with each box where a friend can try a free box!
• Very responsible and ethical brand

Just my reccomendation anyway! think they will go far!!!
Steph

Public Relations disaster and success

So the big news this week was the Tesco story that horsemeat has been found in their burgers! I'm a vegetarian so this doesn't really affect me THANK GOD but I was really interested to see how Tesco's public relations department handled the crisis. Frankly, it's good news for sainsbury's, asda and morrisons who are now making claims such as 100% British beef and can use their farming as an advantage over the market dominator. Tesco deserves such revelation after cutting corners in order to stay on top.

I noticed how the Tesco twitter and facebook pages hadn't released a statement even 24 hours after the news had been released even though Tesco had been trending on twitter for hours. Eventually they did release a statement which I felt was to a certain degree reassuring however I feel the twitter page could have been used to better effect whilst the scandal was occurring, there was no posts even declaring that a statement was going to be released later on and I think that whilst Tesco's shoppers where questioning their loyalty to the company, Tesco could have been a reassuring force whilst monitoring their social media.

However last night Tesco posted this tweet:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>It's sleepy time so we're off to hit the hay! See you at 8am for more <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23TescoTweets">#TescoTweets</a></p>&mdash; Tesco Customer Care (@UKTesco) <a href="https://twitter.com/UKTesco/status/292043677897994240" data-datetime="2013-01-17T23:00:13+00:00">January 17, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I think the humour works well on a tweet that could have backfired and it's British "laughing at ourselves" humour and gave Tesco a moment on twitter as it has thousands of retweets, rather than entirely negative publicity.

However the daily mail doesn't seem to think so: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2264394/Horse-meat-scandal-hit-Tesco-centre-Twitter-backlash-customer-care-message-told-followers-staff-hit-hay.html#ixzz2IK0VApdY interesting article!!

So in my opinion Tesco did a half hearted job and need to improve their crisis management for the future, but hit back well.

A company that handled social media crisis management extremely well were Bodyform, this happened a while back and I was going to blog about it when I heard about it but now I think is a perfect time to;

In response to the bodyform adverts this was posted on the bodyform facebook page:

 

Richard Neillposted toBodyform

8 October 2012 via Mobile

Hi , as a man I must ask why you have lied to us for all these years . As a child I watched your advertisements with interest as to how at this wonderful time of the month that the female gets to enjoy so many things ,I felt a little jealous. I mean bike riding , rollercoasters, dancing, parachuting, why couldn't I get to enjoy this time of joy and 'blue water' and wings !! Dam my penis!! Then I... got a girlfriend, was so happy and couldn't wait for this joyous adventurous time of the month to happen .....you lied !! There was no joy , no extreme sports , no blue water spilling over wings and no rocking soundtrack oh no no no. Instead I had to fight against every male urge I had to resist screaming wooaaahhhhh bodddyyyyyyfooorrrmmm bodyformed for youuuuuuu as my lady changed from the loving , gentle, normal skin coloured lady to the little girl from the exorcist with added venom and extra 360 degree head spin. Thanks for setting me up for a fall bodyform , you crafty bugger

 

The post recieved over 100,000 likes and despite his humour and attempt at hitting back at the organisation, I believe Bodyform RINSED him with this video:
 

 <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Bpy75q2DDow" width="480"></iframe>

 

I think it's genius and works because it gets people talking, displays Bodyform as a humourous, light-hearted organisation who don't take themselves to seriously and targets the individual comment which gets consumers reading more and more into the story via their facebook- in turn looking more into Bodyform, a company which usually social media users might avoid. Overall I think the Bodyform PR department handled it perfectly and provided an example to other organisations!

 

-Steph

Ever changing

Ok, so been a massive week at uni this week. Exams, assignments and today our group product pitch presentation which we have been working on for MONTHS and I am so glad it's over. I hate group work, not going to lie I like to be in control especially when it concerns my own grades and levels of input to my work. Anyway I think our product pitch went really well and I think developing a new product and pitching it is something beneficial from uni that you normally wouldn't do through literature reviews or exams. That's why I love my course! Lot's of variety....

Sad news about HMV going into administration this week, a truely British brand. However I remember saying a long time ago how they needed to up their game and develop a new strategy in order to remain current or else they were going to fall under..... touche. They never changed in order to suit customer demand and therefore they were never going to compete. Personally, I haven't been in a HMV store in years and would have no enjoyment in doing so.

And from another organisation crushed by the rise in technology, as comes a further development in technology. This one interests me as I love social networking as much as the next person.... However, I have started to use facebook less and less recently as I feel as though a lot of it is just marketing (ironic I know) and less about the 'social' aspect. However, I am becoming addicted to twitter. I feel that although twitter does incorporate marketing and brand promotion through its trends etc, it allows people to be social through doing so. For example, every night without fail there is a TV show trending which allows people to join in on discussing the programme or not if they choose not too. I feel twitter uses this interaction in a way that facebook is unable to. Twitter is definately less in your face and 100% more tailored to individuals, not only through demographics and people you 'follow' but also increasingly using twitter means your topics of interest or talking points become tailored into products or services you may be interested in.

Anyway, back to my initial point. Facebook have now launched a search engine or a "graph search" as they are calling it; it allows you to search your 'network' for images, statuses etc. which I think may be slightly more like twitter in that you can search for things which interest you and sort of tailor your experience with the site. So for example, I was recently trying to think of places to go on holiday and was struggling finding photos of people that had been to marbella, cancun etc. however the new feature would allow me to directly search "friends who have been to marbella" which I do think is going to be interesting and am looking forward to checking the feature out! Maybe see if facebook can make a comeback! Also interested to see how my facebook friends react!

Been working on my internship loads this week too! Been contacting review sites and bloggers ahead of the launch next week! This has been the most exciting element so far I think as I love reaching out to other companies and making a pitch! Also signed my contract with IBM! I am now a demand programmes specialist!!

Steph

Camp America and Losing my virginity...

Hey and happy new year!
So summer 2012 I took part in Camp America and worked in Boston, MA for 2 months. When people ask me about the experience I'm often reluctant to talk about it or explain what really happened, this is kind of because I want to forget what happened or maybe because I'm sick of explaining it over and over again. People expect me to say I had an amazing time and how benefitial it was etc. and presume that it was. However this actually wasn't the case. I don't regret going at all but I definately wouldn't reccomend camp america to anyone else nor praise the company.
I initally decided to take part to have a great summer and had heard from so many people how many friends you make and how amazing it is to travel the states etc. However as I grew further into the scheme I realised how good it looks on your CV to have worked in a different country and the skills you gain from camp. I know can talk about all of these things in interviews and applications and for that reason I am glad I did it.
But at the time I wanted nothing more than to come home, I'm not going to go in to why but I didn't get on with one of the girls I shared with and I really missed home. However I think more than anything, Camp America as a brand aren't a company I could rely on.
Firstly, I felt they almost tricked me in to thinking it was a free experience and that I would earn enough money to travel the states after. When in truth, I paid out over £1000 in flights, admin fees, visa, insurance etc. They claim the flights are "free" but then you pay out £400 in admin fees and the flights are only £300 on the virgin atlantic website. I don't understand the dishonesty behind them saying they aren't for flights? And I feel they didn't fully explain the fees before hand as I was well into my overdraft paying for these fees, whereas if I had have known about them earlier I may have considered not taking part.
Then when you arrive at camp, all the americans are paid minimum wage for full time work which isn't a bad wage in the states. The camp were also paying this amount out for me, but I wasn't recieving it. I was actually recieving $100 a week for working full time, which works out at about 50cent an hour. Camp America took the rest of the money from me. So despite the admin fees which I had paid they also recieved over 60% of my wages. I wasn't even aware of this until I spoke to the other workers at camp. I felt so betrayed and again, why were CA being so dishonest and frankly decieptful!
When I arrived back from the states, Camp America asked me to become a brand manager and despite the fact I didn't want to represent their brand, I was interested to see some of their marketing strategies and gain some brand management experience. We were signed up to a forum and I was the representative for camp america at UWE.
However as I looked into it further, some of the tasks they asked us to compelete were so anti-competitive and unjust. They asked us to rip down competing summer camp companies posters, stand outside competitor talks and tell people about camp america and bombard students with CA's name. Now I realise why I hadn't heard of any competitors when I was applying to work at camp. I can only reccomend to people to research other summer camp companies, as Camp America charge the highest fees and the lowest salaries. I just feel that although CA were trying to make me positively represent the brand, they were giving me negative perceptions of a brand that my summer was in the hands of. The forum is just full of people slating other summer camp companies so I removed myself from the group!

Sorry about how negative that was! I just wanted everyone to know the truth about camp america! Some positivity now...
Over the christmas period I have been reading Richard Branson's book "Losing my Virginity". I don't normally read autobiographies however I think it's one of the best books I've ever read! Definately a reccomended read! I think Branson is such an inspiration and it has definately taught me some important business knowledge! I think Virgin is such an exciting brand and the risks he is prepared to take are inspiring and I'm now fascinated by Virgin! A must read if your interested in business, entrepenurism or marketing.

Finance exam next week then our big product pitch presentation next week! And can't wait to hear if the marketing societies budget request for the networking event has been approved or not! All very exciting and I am very confident that they will all go fine!
Steph