Ethics

Personalised advertising online can be an excellent tool for advertisers; a. to reach their target audience directly b. not to waste money advertising to the wrong consumers and c. to measure the effectiveness of the adverts by monitoring clicks.

However, adding to my previous blog post on the use of cookies, there are much stronger ethical concerns which I have noticed recently (mainly from Yahoo and Facebook).

So when I was booking flights to Malaga recently, I was clearly searching for a good deal and using Google searches to do so. I clicked on to various 'money saving' comparison sites. Then once I had booked the flights, for the next 2 weeks I was bombarded with adverts such as "hotels in Malaga" "car rental in the Costa del Sol" etc.
Clearly this is effective advertising and the companies behind the adverts are reaching their target audience (i.e. me).

On the other hand, I was also searching to buy a juice diet book and some raspberry ketones (big slimming movement before Costa del Sol....) and was again using google, amazon etc to search for these and checking out celebrity body results from using the diet regimes.
Now everytime I click on to my facebook timeline or on the side of a website I see photos of skinny celebrities, flat stomached women and 'quick-fix' diet plans.
This is driving me mad as it's making my self-image = 0 and my motivation to get thin = 100. I am quite a receptive person but also have a level of self-control HOWEVER surely someone suffering from an eating disorder making the same kind of searches as me, or more specific weight loss searches would also be bombarded with the same types of advertising (considering their cookies settings were similar etc.) but imagine the effect this would have on them!?

Showing skinny celebrities is one ethical consideration however displaying them to an unconfident, potentially vulnerable target audience is an entirely different ethical consideration!
I think companies should consider the effect it has on their stakeholders- particularly the vunerable ones.

The media can't be blamed for everything.

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