Apple Keywords

Apple is a majorly well known company whose website domain, Apple.com, is ranked 47 globally, according to Alexa.com. Nineteen percent of the visits to this site are generated through search traffic, and the top words that are searched in order to end up on the site are “itunes,” “apple,” “apple watch,” “apple store,” and “iphone 6.”

When I looked at the page source in the html of their website, I found that many of these words were mentioned multiple times. The beginning of the html has the phrase “Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, iOS, OS X, watchOS and more” which encompasses almost all the keywords, and then later on in the html each of those items is listed independently along with iTunes and iPhone 6 also. So any apple device or product pretty much is listed in the html somewhere, which is what all the keywords people search to end up on their website are.

References:

“Alexa.” Alexa the Web Information Company. Amazon, 2015. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.

Apple. (2015). Retrieved September 22, 2015, from http://www.apple.com

Australian Television

The Voice AU (Channel 9)

Domain: The online marketing activities of The Voice are done through their primary domain http://www.9jumpin.com.au/show/thevoice/, and their linked Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube pages, which are @TheVoiceAU, The Voice Australia, and TheVoiceAustralia, respectively.

Content: Visitors can download songs performed by the artists, watch performance clips, watch full episodes, and even learn more about each artist. The site is also very interactive in providing fun polls for users to participate in, Facebook and Twitter feeds so users can join the conversation, and even a link where users can go to audition for the show. While the show is airing, viewers can come vote for their favorite contestants and enter different contests.

Connections, Community and Communication: The Voice connects with its fans mostly through its Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages. Their Facebook is widely used to post episode recaps and community polls, and to promote the shows artists. Their Twitter is used in the same way, minus the polling, and their YouTube channel is used solely for contestant performance and episode recaps. All their platforms invite viewers to add to the discussion whether with tweet replies or comments on their posts. The hashtags the show employs throughout episodes allows Facebook and Twitter users to start a dialogue and chime in with other people’s posts. Voting for the show is also available via some of these platforms and the channels mobile app, further increasing viewer engagement.

Cross Promotion: The Voice participates in some cross promotion through their artists and sponsors. They cross promote current contestants and old contestants’  music on their website by posting articles and download links for them. When you click onto an article about an artists’ new release, it then gives other suggested articles about other artists from the show. This is mutually beneficial in that it draws more interest in The Voice and the artists that come off of it causing people to tune in more, and drawing more sales for the artists.

Other cross promotions which some may consider to be more sponsorship depending on how you look at it is The Voice and Cadbury or Ford. Cadbury sponsors the show and uses product placement with the contestants and judges along with ad spots which focus on “sharing joyful moments” (Ricki, 2015). They also employ a contest throughout the show encouraging viewers to snap a selfie of them with Cadburys and the prize is tickets to the shows finale.

Ford puts show related advertisements throughout as well, and the show has also made the grand prize to include winning a brand new Ford car (Josie, 2013).

Both of these companies’ campaigns and use of the show benefit them through engagement and brand awareness, all while drawing more interest for the show as well.

The Bachelor AU (Channel 10)

Domain: The Bachelor does their online marketing through http://tenplay.com.au/channel-ten/the-bachelor and their linked Twitter and Facebook pages, @TheBachelorAU and The Bachelor Australia.

Content: On the Bachelor’s domain, viewers can learn more about the bachelor himself and each of the contestants, and view entire episodes and bonus clips. You can also see a portion of the shows Twitter feed, a link to a bachelor blog, an application for the show, and links to different contests they’re holding.

Connections, Community and Communication: The Bachelor connects with fans well through its Facebook and Twitter, along with the hashtags its puts out throughout the show. With over 30,000 Twitter follower and 180,000 Facebook likes, these hashtags are sure to get a conversation going. The show encourages user to user and site to user communication on Facebook by posting statuses and pictures regarding the contents of the episodes and polls about viewers’ opinions.

 

They do similar posts on Twitter, hoping to strike up responses from viewers. They also tweet along with the show. That way viewers can feel like they’re watching along with someone, and share in conversation about the show in real time.

Because of the reality nature of the show, their social media focuses on viewer engagement and being relatable, similar to how The Voice sets up their social media.

Cross Promotion: The Bachelor doesn’t participate much in the purest form of cross promotion, however they partner with a lot of companies to do co-marketing and product placement. One of their partnerships is with Nissan. The show puts bonus clips of the contestants driving in a Nissan and talking about a topic on their website throughout the season. They also drive Nissan’s a in their dates, and there is a link to a contest to win a Nissan on the site as well.

They also have a similar partnership with Zamel’s jewelry. The premise of the show is for the bachelor to find love, and at the end if he does, he’ll propose. And he’ll do so with a complimentary Zamel’s ring that we see him pick out place on his new fiancé’s finger.  Zamel’s also implemented a competition one year where a viewer could win one of their rings similar to Nissan.

Both companies mutually benefit in these co-marketing partnerships through the engagement and brand exposure they bring, so some may define them as cross promotion, however since there is no initial product or service being purchased, and the products are not related, many would argue this is solely product placement.

Neighbours (Channel 10)

Domain: Neighbours participates in online marketing through http://tenplay.com.au/channel-eleven/neighbours and through their Facebook and Twitter handles which are Neghbours and @Neighbours.

Content: The content on the Neighbours domain is similar to The Bachelor’s because they are run by the same network. There are tabs where you can learn about the show and its characters, view photos and a show blog, and of course watch episodes and bonus clips. There is also a “Chat” tab and an FAQ where viewers can go to learn more as well.

Connections, Community and Communication: Neighbours reaches out to the community through its Facebook and Twitter, whose feeds are linked onto their primary domain. They post teasers on their Facebook to get viewers excited and spark conversation. They also do things like “Facebook takeovers” where one cast member will take over the Facebook and do a Q&A session with viewers.

Their twitter is used similarly to The Bachelor’s in that they live tweet and comment on some of the shows so it is as if the viewers are watching it with them.

The other way they encourage communication is through the chat forum on their site. Viewers can post text, media, polls, or articles they write relating to the show, and others can engage with them. This creates a sense of community among show watchers and causes them to feel more included in the whole show.

Cross Promotion: Because of its soap opera nature, neighbors doesn’t really participate in cross promotion. Unlike The Voice, where another company’s product could be featured as a prize, the only thing that can be put into a soap opera is really product placement of items. One thing they try and do however is cross promote some of the music or clothes used in the show. They’ll occasionally do spotlights on their Pinterest page showing clothes featured in the show, and in their FAQ it says they try to respond to everyone who enquires about fashion shown. They do the same with music. It is sort of a you liked this in the show, you will probably like this as well kind of thing, therefore cross promoting the show and fashion or music brands, which is mutually beneficial to both.

Analysis

All these shows generally employ the same techniques, with minor differences on post creativity. They all use a domain linked through the television channel, and they all have at least a Facebook and Twitter page used for engagement. The Voice has a widely used YouTube channel which makes them stand out in that media, but Neighbours was unique in creating their own social chat site within their domain itself. They all use similar tactics in putting their episodes and bonus clips on their site, but the competitive nature of The Voice and The Bachelor allows them to create more engaging posts like polls and contests whereas Neighbors is limited more to Q&A type activities. They all have caught on to the popularity of hashtags however and employ those wherever possible. All could be more creative in cross promotion however, and this could not only help them but other companies also. Though all shows are popular, I am most impressed with Neighbours’ continued viewership and engagement despite it being on the air for so long. It shows they’re excelling in their social media and site. All sites were easy to navigate and unique yet similar to one another in content, which made viewing and searching through them all the more enjoyable.

References:

Josie. (2013, June 17). Harrison Craig: Winner of ‘The Voice’ Australia. Retrieved September 22, 2015.

Neighbours. (2015). Retrieved September 22, 2015, from http://tenplay.com.au/channel-eleven/neighbours

Ricki. (2015, July 1). Cadbury to celebrate new partnership with The Voice with mega campaign via Saatchis Sydney. Retrieved September 22, 2015.

The Bachelor. (2015). Retrieved September 22, 2015, from http://tenplay.com.au/channel-ten/the-bachelor

The Voice. (2015). Retrieved September 22, 2015, from http://www.9jumpin.com.au/show/thevoice/

Social Media Comparison

Facebook

About: Headquartered in California and employing over 10,000 people, Facebook is a platform designed to give users the ability to be open and connected with people all over the world, and to share words, pictures, videos, and links with them all within seconds. Mark Zuckerburg, founder, states the mission of the company is for people to use Facebook to connect with friends and family, to discover what is going on all over the world, and a place to share and express the things that matter most to them (Newsroom, 2015).

Key Features:

• Large emphasis on visuals, every profile is devoted to and works well with visual content, from the cover photo to profile picture to visuals on a person’s timeline
• Posts from one users page can be liked, shared, and commented on by countless others which then increases reach of the original post to the other person’s entire network of friends as well
• Users can subscribe to people, personalities, etc. to follow them without actually becoming their friend
• Hashtags can be added to posts to allow better conversation and organization
• Donate buttons can now be added to non-profit company pages and posts
• Timeline system rewards quality content with high engagement

(Meyer Foundation, 2015)

Demographics:

• 53% of users are female, 46% are male
• Highest usage is with ages 45-54
• 65% of users are over the age of 35
• As years go by, age of users is increasing, contrary to many other networks

(Meyer Foundation, 2015)

Statistics:

• 5 billion monthly active users, 1.31 billion of which are active monthly mobile users as well
• Around 83% of daily users are outside of the United States and Canada
• Mobile ad revenue makes up for 76% of all revenue
• Users share over 1 million links every 20 minutes

(Leverage, 2014)

Instagram

About: Instagram is a social network dedicating to social sharing ranging from pictures to 15 second or less videos. It was founded in 2010 by Kevin Systrom, and has since become a community of over 300 million. His vision for Instagram was to inspire creativity and create a place where anyone from celebrities, to brands, to teens, to newsrooms can participate in visual storytelling an express their creative passion (Instagram, 2015).

Key Features:

• Visual storytelling through pictures and short videos which can be shared to a network of followers
• There is no limit on photo uploads at all
• Instagram is fully integrated with Facebook, Twitter, and other major platforms
• Users can engage through both likes, comments, and now shares to other users
• Hashtags on posts to make things searchable within the entire community
• Filters for photos which can make average images much more compelling

Demographics:

• More popular among women than men
• 53% of users are between the ages of 18-29, and 25% between 30-49
• Most popular among urban users, accounting for 28%

Statistics:

• 300 Million active users
• Most followed brand is Nike with over 22.3 million followers
• The global community share more than 60 million photos every day

(Meyer Foundation, 2015)

Tumblr

About: Founded in February of 2007 and headquartered in  New York City, Tumblr is a microblogging site in which users can effortlessly share and post anything from text, to photos, to links, music, and videos from their browser, phone or email. Users create their own blogging site through the platform which is fully customizable from the URL to the color scheme to the HTML (Tumblr, 2015).

Key Features:

• Allows various types of content – photos, videos, text, audio, and more
• Hashtags on posts make them easily searchable throughout community
• Blogs can be created for a variety of purposes whether that be to get information to the public or to simply showcase creativity
• Mobile app friendly for easy uploading and viewing on the go
• Built in engagement through nature of blogs
• Majority of content (around 50%) is photos

(Meyer Foundation, 2015)

Demographics:

• 67% of users are under age 35
• 54% of users are female and 46% are male
• Nearly 50% of users are college educated

(Meyer Foundation, 2015)

Statistics:

• Tumblr users have created over 254.3 million blogs with over 120 billion collective posts
• 77% of internet users read blogs
• 8 million pieces of content are blogged each day on the site in over 16 different languages

(Tumblr, 2015)

All of these social networks, though they have slightly different uses and purposes, can be very successfully used in an integrated marketing communication strategy. Marketing on social media can allow businesses to be able to communicate and tap into a large community that they may not be able to reach with just their tradition TV or radio advertising (Maqsood, 2011). Not only does social media allow real time content sharing, but each network also allows for higher ad engagement than a traditional channel does because users are already interacting and engaging in their friends posts and spending more time on each social media channel than they would on a traditional ad channel.

Facebook allows companies to advertise via promoted posts and direct ads. Ads can include, text, images, videos, and links, and companies can choose users that they would like to target, and then the ads can be placed either in a users’ news feed or on the right side of their feed. For companies with Facebook pages, they can use Facebook’s boost post feature which allows them to pay to boost their post to a certain audience for their budget. Instagram has just recently incorporated advertising by allowing businesses to target users, and then share a photo or video plus caption to these users and it appears right on their feed but with the word sponsored in the top right corner. Without the sponsored tag these posts would look completely organic, and would just be another high quality photo or video on a users feed. Tumblr gives a bit more variety of options when it comes to advertising. Companies can buy web and mobile posts and target an audience for these posts to appear as sponsored in their news feeds, or they can pay to promote their blog in the side of a users screen next to their “dashboard” of controls. In addition, companies can choose to pay for their blog to be in a “sponsored spotlight” directory which is promoted to the Tumblr community, or if they want to take advantage of the mobile users, they can pay to give their company blog prime position among popular topics and blogs on the explore tab of the app. Despite all of these options, companies must still work to make their posts entertaining, influential, and eye-catching, or else all of these creative new media buys will not be near as engaging or successful for a brand as they have the ability to be.

References:

Company Info | Facebook Newsroom. (2015). Retrieved September 12, 2015.

Instagram. (2015). Retrieved September 12, 2015.

Maqsood, F. (2011, September 14). Incorporating Social Media into Integrated Marketing Communications of an organizationIncorporating Social Media into Integrated Marketing Communications of an organization. Retrieved September 12, 2015.

Marrouat, C. (2015, February 13). Social Media Advertising: 9 Platforms You Need to Know. Retrieved September 12, 2015.

Social Media Comparison Infographic. (2014, September 1). Retrieved September 12, 2015, from https://leveragenewagemedia.com/blog/social-media-infographic/

Social Media Platform Comparison. (n.d.). Retrieved September 12, 2015, from http://meyerfoundation.org/sites/default/files/files/SWT-Platform-Comparison-090414.pdf

Tumblr. (2015). Retrieved September 12, 2015.

A Day in Canberra

A day well spent around Canberra, Australia which included a walk along a lake, stopping for cupcakes, and of course a visit to the Telstra Tower.

The Many Online Travel Sites

The four travel sites I have selected for comparison are TripAdvisor.com, Expedia.com, Hotwire.com, and Trivago.com.

When it comes to site traffic for each of my selected sites, there are some similarities and also some differences. When it comes to their overall global rank, TripAdvisor and Expedia come in at the top, ranking 168 and 395, respectively. Then Hotwire and Trivago are a bit farther down, ranking 2,013 and 3,089, respectively (Alexa 2015). All sites are similar in that the majority of their traffic comes from the United States. After the U.S., however, all the sites have varied countries with top visitors. One thing I found interestingly different among these four sites is how many of the visitors get to the web page by means of a search engine. TripAdvisor receives 28 percent of their visitors from a search engine and Trivago receives 22 percent, however Expedia only receives 15 percent of their visitors from a search engine, and Hotwire only 9 percent (Alexa 2015). Another place where I found differences was when it came to measurements of engagement among visitors. For example, TripAdvisor had a bounce rate of 40 percent, similar to Trivago which had a bounce rate of 37 percent. However, Expedia has a bounce rate of only 22 percent which is closer to Hotwire’s bounce rate of only 27 percent. All sites are very similar daily page views per visitor and daily time on site, averaging around 5 page views and 4 minutes on site. Also all sites are similar in that site traffic increased tremendously going into June and July and decreases during December and January (Alexa 2015).

The product offerings of all of these different sites are similar, however some offer more than others. All sites offer up travel offerings and deals with reviews on everything. Trivago is a more basic site, as it only offers deals and reviews on hotel bookings.

TripAdvisor is one of the more in depth sites on the other hand as it offers hotel, flight, and vacation package bookings, along with restaurant and activity suggestions and reviews for whatever destination you are looking into.

Expedia also offers a lot more as it allows the customer to not only look at hotels, flights and vacation packages but also cruises, car hire, activities, and even travel insurance.

Hotwire on the other hand is a bit more on the basic side, offering only hotels, cars and flights, and vacation packages.

While the target markets for each site include people with similar characteristics, a more specific target market can be defined based on the offerings of each site. According to an article on Experian, Australian households can be classified into 49 groups, including 13 overarching groups. Four of these group however are the main consumers of travel websites. Experian classifies both TripAdvisor and Trivago under the “destinations and accommodation” sector of travel websites, which is most frequented by the consumer segment they call “knowledgeable successes” (Chagas 2014). People in this group are characterized as having settled families with children who still reside at home, being well-educated, having a comfortable financial state which allows one parent to spend more time at home, and being a diverse mix of cultural origins. People in this category typically reside in outer suburbs of major metropolitan cities in homes that are either fully owned or have a mortgage, and have stable incomes and high-value assets. They are big on family time and regularly take outings to the cinema, sporting events, and take many family vacations, and are 1.2 times more likely to take holidays on a resort or island or to go skiing (Knowledgeable Success, Experian). Knowing this, these two companies can then target more specifically to these groups who they know will make purchases. An example of how this can be done is by Tripadvisor and Trivago promoting resorts and island hotels or hotels in popular skiing destination on their home pages, or Tripadvisor could offer a deal on a flight and hotel vacation package to a snowy destination during the winter. TripAdvisor seems to already be doing this by having their website background a Bora Bora picture and review, and promoting articles on their home page such as “10 best islands.”

Both Expedia and Hotwire can be placed under the “agency” category of sites which are frequented most by a consumer segment they call “Independence and Careers” (Chagas 2014). Consumers in this group are a mix of independent youth and mature, established individuals between 25 and 39 years old. The majority of them are single and live either alone or with friends in an inner city apartment. They are university educated and are more likely to have a postgraduate degree, leading to many of them being employed in white collar professions. They either earn decent incomes or are on their way to be doing so, but they live comfortably with their means. They live very active and healthy lifestyles and are constantly enjoying events in the city ranging from cinemas to nightclubs and everything in between. They also rely heavily on the internet and prefer technology, social sites, and magazines over television and direct mail (Independence and Careers, Experian). This is the group that both of these sites should spend the most time targeting, and they can do so through campaigns this group would be most receptive to, which would be social media, magazine ad, and other internet marketing campaigns on different websites. Also, Expedia and Hotwire can take advantage of this knowledge by promoting things such as vacation packages aimed at younger people, active activities in destinations, and single person deals on their home page. Hotwire is already doing well at this by promoting cheap and last minute deals ideal which would be ideal for singles, and by promoting their new apps that allow bookings to become even easier.

From Mint Global I have learned that Expedia is actually a shareholder in both Trivago and Hotwire, so these sites having slightly different target markets will benefit them greatly, as it gives them more access to all different kinds of consumers. Despite all of these sites’ decent popularity in the travel industry, they all have varying operating revenues and company sizes, but at the end of the day are successfully running and attracting their respective consumers (Bureau van Dijk, Mint Global).

“Alexa.” Alexa the Web Information Company. Amazon, 2015. Web. 5 Sept. 2015.

Bureau van Dijk. (2015). TripAdvisor LLC company report: Financials- global standard format. Retrieved from https://mintglobal.bvdep.com

Bureau van Dijk. (2015). Expedia Inc company report: Financials- global standard format. Retrieved from https://mintglobal.bvdep.com

Bureau van Dijk. (2015). Trivago GmbH company report: Financials- global standard format. Retrieved from https://mintglobal.bvdep.com

Bureau van Dijk. (2015). Hotwire: Financials- global standard format. Retrieved from https://mintglobal.bvdep.com

Chagas, Wladimir. “State of the Australian Online Travel Industry.” (n.d.): n. pag. Experian. Experian Marketing Services, Oct. 2014. Web. 5 Sept. 2015.

“Independence and Careers.” (n.d.): n. pag. Experian. Experian Marketing Services. Web. 5 Sept. 2015.

“Knowledgeable Success.” (n.d.): n. pag. Experian. Experian Marketing Services. Web. 5 Sept. 2015.

The 5 I’s of Marketing

Many believe that the 5 I’s described by Peppers and Rogers are essential when it comes to online and interactive marketing. The 5 I’s are a remix of the 7 P’s, but do not completely replace them because the 5 I’s define more of the process needed whereas the 7 P’s are all the variables that the marketer controls (Chaffey & Smith 53). Many websites do a great job at using and showcasing the 5 I’s but two that I found did it particularly well were Ticketmaster.com and Apple.com

The first of the 5 I’s is Identification. Identification refers to knowing who your customers are, and in as much detail as you possibly can. To know each customer individually and to be able to tell what they like and dislike and what exactly they’re looking for throughout your entire relationship with them, rather than just individual targeting (Peppers & Rogers). Both Ticketmaster and Apple do this by allowing you to set up an account with them, and once you have done this by welcoming you with your name, your geographical region, and then an interface that goes along with that. Anyone who has an Apple device automatically has an account, so once they sign in it is very easy for Apple to pull details from all of their devices. They can then target certain products towards you, and tell you of things relevant to your region. Ticketmaster uses the geographical region you provide when making an account to notify you of events in your area right after you log in. They also do things like log your credit card information to make new purchases a breeze once you sign in. All of these things show that the business knows you, your habits, and want to give you the best experience possibly based off of this information.

The second of the 5 I’s is Individualization. Individualization refers to a company realizing that all customers are different and have different needs and wants, and giving them all benefits accordingly. Therefore, adding long term value to that customer’s relationship with the firm (Peppers & Rogers). Ticketmaster does this in a few different ways. First, they allow a customer to tag certain artists or events as their favorites. Then, Ticketmaster can notify them right away when that artist or event is coming near them. They also allow you to manage any current tickets you have, and to resell tickets you have bought through them if you desire to. Apple uses individualization by allowing customers to tag products as their favorites, or creating shopping carts with products they want to buy or are thinking about buying, so they will not have to sift through all of the products again when they log back on. They also show related products based on ones you have selected to benefit the consumer, and will show your past orders if you wish to see what you have selected in the past.

The third of the 5 I’s is Interaction. Interaction refers to a company allowing necessary dialogue from customers in order to learn about their needs, build relationships, and have a better idea of what they need to improve on (Peppers & Rogers). Ticketmaster facilitates interaction by allowing customers to rate and review events for other customers through email after they have attended. They also have a Help page which has an FAQ along with popular help topics, and a contact email, phone number, and address for those who have other questions. Similarly, Apple has a support page which gives you popular support topics and question by device, and if your question is not answered, you can then schedule a call, call yourself now, or start an online chat session.

The fourth of the 5 I’s is Integration. Integration refers to a firm’s behavior toward a customer across all functions, divisions, and geographies. Companies must coordinate their activities to work together and in unison for each customer to provide them a great experience and add value to the company (Peppers & Rogers). Ticketmaster does this by linking their mobile apps, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Google+ page, and also having an international site and information so that customers can view all facets of the organization. Apple is similar in that they also provide international sites users can view everywhere, and gives links to authorized retailers and Apple apps that provides customers with tons of access.

The final of the 5 I’s is Integrity. This refers to a company having to secure the trust of its customers. If a customer cannot trust you, they will not want to give out their information or build a relationship with you, so it is a must (Peppers & Rogers). Ticketmaster builds trust by having a page dedicated to their privacy policy which outlines exactly how they will use any information collected by you, and your privacy rights when it comes to their site. They also will email you if there are any changes to this statement, and there is a contact number for anybody with questions pertaining to it. Apple has a privacy page as well in the form of a personal message from the CEO explaining all of their policies and uses. They also provide account holders with yearly updates about their privacy policy, and how you can manage your privacy within devices that you purchase from them.

Peppers, Don, and Martha Rogers. “The Five “I”s of One-to-One-Marketing.” Marketing-Trends (2006): 121-32. Crmodessey.com. Web.

Smith, P. R., and Dave Chaffey. Emarketing Excellence: Planning and Optimizing Your Digital Marketing. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2013. Print.

Business Models

A business model is something that pretty much all successful businesses have. A typical model describes the “process by which business is conducted between an organization, its customers, suppliers, distributors and other stakeholders” (Chaffey & Smith 104). A facet of every model however is the e-model. This basically refers to the digital aspects added to a new or old model that can take your companies’ marketing to the next level over competitors.

There are many different types of E-models, but one in particular is called an intermediary model. Intermediaries are companies or sites that bring together buyers and sellers and facilitate the transactions between them (Engelfriet). The way intermediaries stay alive as companies is that they usually make a fee for every transaction facilitated, such as a percentage of the sale (Engelfriet). Many companies are okay with this since the intermediaries are still bringing them a lot more business. One very well-known intermediary that I personally use a lot is Expedia.com. Expedia is a website that facilitates travel related purchases of flights, hotels, cruises, activities, cars, you name it. One of its biggest draws is airline purchases. It allows customers to easily see and compare multiple airline times and prices, and to purchase through them. Many might think why would such a business take off? Why wouldn’t customers just go to the airline website and pay through them after comparing prices? And the biggest answer is for convenience. Not only does Expedia compare the airlines for you, but it also allows you to purchase not only your flight, but a package with hotel, car and even certain activities all in one (Jones). Businesses realized that consumers where liking this, so they then started to factor intermediaries into their business models. Since Expedia for instance doesn’t tell you the individual package components prices, many hotels will put a discounted rate on this website unbeknownst to the consumer, so consumers will be more likely to bundle their packages since they will realize it will cost more to buy everything separate. These bundles tend to coincide with lower cancellation rates, therefore this tactic benefits both the intermediary and the businesses involved (Jones). I personally have found intermediaries especially useful recently. Since I am an international student only in Australia for the next four months, I am trying to go on as many domestic trips as possible over the weekends. My friends and I have been using Expedia nonstop because it makes it so simple to book the cheapest flights together and add in hotels right then and there. Because of the convenience that aggregators allow, I feel as though the number of them will continue to increase and they will just become more and more popular in the future.

Another type of E-model is the online revenue model. There are many different online revenue models, but they are all centered around how to generate revenue in the online world. One specific type of model within the umbrella of online revenue models is the freemium models. These are models that provide free feature-limited access to content until a user subscribes to the full version (Chaffey & Smith 106). One example of a company that uses such a model is the popular Pandora music service. Pandora offers a free ad-supported radio service to all users, and a premium plan without ads for anyone who wants to purchase it. They are able to do so and still make a profit upwards $80.8 million a year because of two things. One, the subscription revenue from customers who try the product and want an even better version and two, the advertising revenue being made from the free service. Since Pandora has so many users (over 51 million), they have no trouble at all selling advertising spots and profiting off of them (Froberg). I think that freemium models are an amazing idea especially in this day and age. Consumers want great services and they want them now and they don’t want to spend a ton on entertainment. Allowing them to use great services for free saves them a ton of money. Then, the niche market who all of the extra features appeals to, can also be satisfied by the premium pay service, which then brings the company even more profit. Personally the free service by Pandora is good enough for me, but I have definitely thought of upgrading occasionally just for the convenience of not having to listen to ads!

Engelfriet, Arnoud. “E-commerce Business Models.” Iusmentis.com. N.p., 2005. Web. 25 Aug. 2015.

Froberg, Peter. “Pandora.” Freemium.org. N.p., 2015. Web. 25 Aug. 2015.

Jones, Cameron. “What Are the Advantages of Merchant vs. Agency Models in Travel Distribution?Frequently Asked in.” Booking.com. N.p., 14 June 2012. Web. 25 Aug. 2015.

Smith, P. R., and Dave Chaffey. Emarketing Excellence: Planning and Optimizing Your Digital Marketing. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2013. Print.

Hello world!

My name is Alyson Loutzenhiser. I am currently a fourth year international student on exchange at the University of Canberra. I am working towards a degree in marketing, and this blog will be focusing on one particular segment of marketing that I am interested in, and that is internet marketing.