Zip3

The New Blog

2007-11-07T03:32:00.000+02:00

This blog has moved at: http://braincharger.net/blog. Finally, I am happy to announce my new blog's address after some days of existence and trial. This blog will still remain online -as a monument ;) - but I will not write new posts here. Click on the next image to visit my brand new blog:

moving....

2007-10-17T11:29:00.000+03:00

This blog is in the process of moving to its own domain. This is a move that I was planning long time ago although commitments delayed the project a lot. It's a great step for me that also has a cost (such as a good number of visits that come from organic searches of marketing and CSR related topics). I hope the new blog will gain better results over time. Stay tuned to find out more.

Environmentally speaking…

2007-10-15T13:15:00.000+03:00

This is a special post because it responds to the request of BlogActionDay for a blog post in every blog around the world that will cite an environmental issue (of the bloggers’ choice) for today: Monday 15 of October of 2007.

Because of the fact that my blog is related with business issues, I will discuss about CSR initiatives. Corporate Social Responsibility can take many and various forms; one very important aspect of CSR can relate to corporate environmental “sensitivity”. Many corporations globally choose to focus their corporate social initiatives and programs in the protection and sustainability of the environment. Some very common environmental initiatives may be the following:

Recycling various materials (print paper, glass, plastic)
Reduction of Energy consumption (power saving policies, use of technological innovations)
Reforestation (of burned forests)
Cleaning of the sea and the coastline
Fighting global warming (reduction of CO2 emissions, etc.)

Environmental initiatives are most likely to be undertaken by large corporations with industrial activities. This is because such corporations usually pollute or deteriorate the environment and they now realize the outcome of their actions and the future impact they will have on the lives of all living beings. Large industrial corporations take on these initiatives to improve their brand name by “compensating society for their deeds”. These corporations start to use air filters that decrease air pollution and toxic gas emissions, they implement power saving tactics such as low energy consumption devices, they use recycled raw materials e.g. recycled paper, glass, etc. Moreover they infuse that environmental friendly philosophy in their employees to act respectively both in their workplace and in their private lives.

On the other hand there is a great number of heavy industrial units that do not compromise with laws and environmental policies. They often evade law procedures and engage into lobbying tactics to avoid acts against them. Sometimes the only powerful weapon against those kind of corporations is branding. People are getting more concerned about environmental issues in recent times and they start to demand firms not to pollute and act in accordance with nature. The consumer has great power and should start boycotting the former type of corporations. Only then top management in these unethical corporations will realize the deterioration in their brand name and may start implementing environmental friendly policies.

What a leader is…

2007-09-17T13:39:00.000+03:00

A leader is someone completely different from a manager. Manager is the person who uses technical and scientific knowledge to govern and rule an organization or handle a situation / project. Leader is actually the most inspiring and influencing person of a company. Leaders are people that motivate others to work better and improve in all aspects of their lives. Leaders can effectively unite different kinds of: people, working habits, trends and goals.

Leader is the supervising – managerial person that when he/she leaves his/her working floor, the employees there, keep working!

When corporations deny free advertising…

2007-09-09T21:31:00.001+03:00

I wonder why sometimes –well, actually many times, corporations deny free advertising. This happens all the time when a university or post-graduate student chooses a corporation as a case study for a subject. They deny to give information about the company and its activities. I certainly understand that some information is confidential and classified and they cannot reveal it but there are many things that they can pass to a student or a group which chooses that corporation as their assignment.

This is the way I think, correct me if I am wrong:

When a student or a group approach me I would at least be kind enough to listen to them. When they say that they chose me as their assignment that would be a great occasion for my company because they know my company and they respect it. They chose ME! They prefer to study me because either I have conquered their hearts or at least I have an impact (even a negative one) on them. That is publicity; and it’s free. By all means I don’t want to waste it! I will release the information that is not confidential and with great pleasure, as a matter of fact. That information will not go to the competition; that would be presented in a class full of potential customers. Many students will hear about me, they will get aware of me, they will learn about my tactics, they will remember me when they purchase relevant products and ideally they will switch brands. Actually the student or the group of students, with this assignment may switch brand because they will inevitably get highly involved. Even if they are already buying my products now, at least I have that information available and I have built some relations.

In most cases corporate managers deny that information either out of luck of time -customer acquisition and public relations seems to them like a waste of time!!!- Or they just don’t care! They usually don’t even deny that information kindly; they just ignore you like they want to irritate you as much as possible. Well Done! You turn your prospective customers into enemies which will never buy again from you and furthermore they will spread negative publicity about you!

Bits of Knowledge Post Series (less than 100 words)

2007-08-18T21:41:00.000+03:00

Post 1: Blog Monetization
There are three main ways to monetize on your blog. Firstly, you can put advertising from a major advertising network (such as Google Adsense, Adbrite, BlogAds, etc.) and earn by clicks or impressions. Secondly, you can sell affiliate products, that is other people products and services and earn a commission. Thirdly you can sell your own products and services.

Bits of Knowledge Post Series (less than 100 words)

2007-08-18T21:38:00.000+03:00

“Bits of knowledge” are a new type of blog posts that I will initiate. They are small posts with less than 100 words and they have an educational purpose. There is a lot of knowledge out there but one can easily get confused with all that education super-supply; “bits of knowledge” cut that clutter with condensed valuable information. I find that this new concept of mine is very useful, because one can learn something new or revise something already known, very easy, fast and mostly effortless. I hope you will find them useful too!

Networking

2007-08-18T21:37:00.000+03:00

This is a call for comments post!!!

I have found many networking sites and webservices and I guess that they all have great features and services. Some of most distinguished are: LinkedIn, Facebook, Ryze, ZeroDegrees, Tagged, Orkut, Ziki, etc. I realize that it is almost impossible to register and be active to all of those. You may have to register to 2-3 but you cannot cope with more. Moreover I guess it’s extremely time consuming and requires a lot of effort to try all of these and find the best so I would like some feedback out of your experiences about the above and other networking webservices. Which do you prefer and why? Are there any special features in one of them that the rest are lacking? I am looking forward to building my profile into a professional way and I would like to know your educated views and opinions. Please leave your comments (which of the above do you personally use and why).

BusinessBalls

2007-08-18T21:34:00.000+03:00

I have discovered a great site that I wanted to share with you. It’s called Business Balls (visit it at: businessballs.com). You will find there a great collection of articles about sales, marketing, management, HR and other business topics. Moreover there are lots of downloadable business tools and resources like PDF documents and MS office documents like word, excel and powerpoint. That collection is really huge and great. You can find a lot of templates, matrices and other cool stuff for business organization, better planning, reporting and feedback. Do pay a visit there and you will be really amazed like I was!

Why Second Life is a great marketing tool?

2007-08-15T21:13:00.000+03:00

Note: This is not a thorough list but some quick thoughts that just occurred to me.

Because it is very unlikely that someone will randomly visit an unknown site (that is yours) to him/her. In second life someone may wander around and come across your virtual office or home.

Because it can be suited both for high and low involvement products and services: It can generate sales of products and services that are usually bought on an impulse (commodities, low involvement, etc). On the other hand it can create increased brand loyalty and preference (even brand awareness) for high involvement products (When someone visits one major brand’s store, a real shopping experience may be simulated).

Because everyone could freely network, join groups, make connections with others. In real world and even in other forms of online communication, sometimes things are more (not difficult but) complicated.

Some thoughts about salesmen

2007-08-15T21:07:00.000+03:00

Salesmen should be ethical and moral; they should conduct business with integrity. They need to be communicative, to be good listeners, that is to be truly listening to the customer’s needs and to try to fulfill them; they need to be proactive and real costumer’s advisors. I can go on and keep typing salesmen must have traits and characteristics for ever… However the point that I want to make here is the following: Most of these things, the things that a salesmen must have and that without these one is almost bound to fail are not taught or learned in universities and business schools. These are not knowledge and education but personality characteristics and qualities that one should have or at least try to cultivate. I really don’t know in which degree sales can be taught and universities can train successful salespeople. I think that not everyone can become a salesman since not all people have the necessary personality traits and characteristics that are critical for such a job. One may learn all the sales techniques (from the basic to the most advanced) and still fail, while another one may not even attend a seminar about sales and be a brilliant salesman.

Networking & PR Planning

2007-08-07T20:05:00.000+03:00

Public Relations are very important no matter one’s profession. Especially in sales, PR is really crucial. The most successful sale process involves making one stranger as an acquaintance, then transforming him/her into a friend and then into a customer. Sales from people that you have not transformed into friends are not repeated. You need to be remarkably good and in order to achieve that you need a loyal clientele. Another thing you need to bare in mind is the fact that you may not be a salesman but you always sell. If you are a doctor you sell health services, if you are a lawyer you sell legal services if you are a writer you sell books and thoughts, etc. Every job involves selling so every professional needs a customer base. Such a base can be build through networking and a good PR plan. So organize yourself and start: building connections, strengthening your weak relations (people you haven’t spoken for months), reinforcing your current affairs and acquainting new ones.

I have recently come to realize that a good pr planning actually requires having a specific list of contacts that you need to communicate each day. So, I sorted each of my contacts into groups based on a scale of significance and then I set a communication frequency for each group according to that scale. From that point it’s easy to organize whom you are going to call or email or meet each day of the week.

Back Again

2007-08-07T20:01:00.000+03:00

Finally I am finished with the army. My military obligations are now almost fulfilled. There are a few days left and some typical paperwork and I am done. Freedom again! I hope I will start blogging dynamically again. I have some things to do and some goals that I want to pursuit as regards blogging. First I want to increase my readership: more readers, more loyalty. I want to blog more and be more frequent and consistent in my posts. I will also consider migrating into my own hosting “room”, changing blog title, template & design and making big changes in general. To be honest I have a good idea about that (it includes title, the design and the whole blog), but I will have to re-evaluate the necessity because that will involve a lot of work, effort and costs.

Being free again is great but I think that I have already too many irons into fire. So many things were postponed because of the army and catching up with everything and making amends for the lost time (1 whole year of my life) is really very difficult. So, actually, my claims to be free are only theoretically correct as I am already pursuing too many things and having too many commitments.

Blogger Member for 2 Years!

2007-06-18T00:50:00.000+03:00

Wow!!! I just realized that this June I celebrate being a member of Blogger community for 2 years (since June of 2005)! At the same time, since that was my first blog, that means that I am doing this hobby for that long.

I hope I will continue with more frequency, better posts and more readers!

Understanding and Perceiving life

2007-06-18T00:41:00.002+03:00

You understand and perceive life through your goals. The goals you set and try to implement. Without these goals life goes by before your eyes and you don’t even realize it. Time goes by and you stay still. I came to realize this the last period in which I am not doing something useful and I don’t contribute to the accomplishment of any goal of mine. Time during that period goes by very quickly and days seem to be almost the same. I do the almost the same things, I relax and rest. Even when I am working without doing something useful, times goes by very quickly too. Only through goals and the progress of them I can conceive time, combine the facts of my life with the respective days and understand advancement and life in general.

How to use traffic exchange to earn money on the internet

2007-05-06T19:29:00.000+03:00

Traffic is the most precious thing on the internet. Traffic can generate impressions, sales, can promote ideas, thoughts, can connect people, teams, etc. Traffic exchange is the mutual surfing of other people webpages. Someone sees the content of other people and in exchange other people see what he/she display on his/her website. One can utilize the traffic generated by traffic exchange and earn money through the internet. In this post I will show you some ways to do that.

Sales through traffic
Provided that you surf a lot you get lots of credits to use. Once a credit is used one people visits your website. More traffic leads to more visits. More visits can potentially lead to more sales. If you have a website where you sell products and services you need traffic in order to build sales. If more people visit your online mall, it is more likely that you find people interested in what you sell. So more traffic means more potential customers.

Impressions through traffic
You can use traffic exchange to share ideas, thoughts, to exhibit your talents and your services. If you are an expert in something, you may utilize increased traffic to “sell” yourself. By doing so you may reap potential future benefits. Suppose for example you are a consultant in a specific business area. You can advertise yourself through the net and gain more visibility and recognition. Visibility and recognition will eventually lead to more demand of your services and whatever you have to offer – give – say – etc.

Earning though advertising
On fine and very popular way to monetize on a website is by selling advertising space. There are many web services providing every website owner the opportunity to host ads of their clients. Traffic Exchange may boost the traffic of such a site. If the visits to a website that hosts ads will increase so will the advertising earnings. One can either earn through the visits of other traffic exchange users or through any clicks to the ads (that are more likely to be clicked when the traffic is increased).

CSR and True Devotion…

2007-05-06T19:27:00.000+03:00

Here is a tough question: Is it really possible for a firm to show real devotion to a cause or social initiative? I mean real and authentic interest. Do you believe that this can be the case? Most of the companies that have implemented a CSR program claim that they are truly interested in solving or contributing to a social problem. They do not cite as their main reason for a CSR campaign the branding and marketing benefits that by all means seek. I personally believe that almost all the companies that are involved in a corporate social responsibility initiative and cause have as their prime goal branding and marketing benefits. However, in this pursuit for differentiation and advantage they can make a truly great impact in the society. I also hold the opinion that there might be a very small percentage of corporations that are devoted to a cause because of the cause itself and not for all the potential (marketing and branding) benefits that they may reap.

Blogging for Corporate Social Responsibility

2007-05-06T19:24:00.000+03:00

Corporate Blogs can disclose information about the firm’s social responsibility campaigns and initiatives. Such actions deliver very effective messages to a greatly wide range of stakeholders. Social Responsibility Initiatives and Programs add a really great value in a brand name. The whole process may be done with a formal or an informal way of blogging and the disclosure of information may be delivered with the same style.

Some examples

Regular posting on everyday initiatives’ progress

Posting about some major and minor events

Posting about new initiatives undertaken

Posting about weekly – monthly aims / goals and their results

Posting thoughts and ideas for new initiatives or improving old campaigns

Posting meetings’ outcomes

Posting self-assessment on how one is contributing on a CSR initiative

Posting about how a team devoted to a social cause works together

Posting about tough problems and challenges that appear and need solutions

Interactivity

A blog about corporate social responsibility enable great interactivity and feedback from every potential stakeholder group and that can become a strategic competitive advantage that will take a corporation a step ahead of even the most innovative and creative (in terms of CSR and marketing) competitors.

Input

2007-04-23T20:29:00.000+03:00

There is a great increase in the recent number of posts on my blog. I realize that this is the outcome of a lot of input in the last few weeks. I also realize that this input comes from the fact that the camp that I am transferred now is near a city while my previous camp was on a very small village. While I am out of the camp and wandering around the city I see a lot of things and these things may trigger my thoughts. Even the most trivial thing or fact can lead to a chain of thoughts and ideas which may gradually evolve to something bigger. On the other hand, living in a small village can greatly restrain your thought, outcome and your potentials; unfortunately that’s a very dangerous situation for one’s personal development.

Professional blogging

2007-04-23T20:28:00.000+03:00

Blogging for money or fame? There are two types of professional bloggers: Those who blog for money and those who blog to brand their businesses or themselves.

The former earn money mainly from advertising and sales. They advertise through an advertising network such as google Adsense, BlogAds, etc, or they manually arrange advertising deals.
The later blog about products, services and information that they sell through their blog or another linked site. The sales model may be consisted of their own made products or affiliate products.

Welcome to the free world

2007-04-23T20:26:00.000+03:00

Welcome to the new world of free products, services and information. This is the concept that governs the web 2.0 and the new media. It has started being implemented in the offline world too. This is the outcome of too much production and offer and a modern sales technique. Actually all those free stuff eventually lead to the generation of more sales. This may sound somehow contradictory but as soon as the reasoning is explained it is obvious. Free stuff works as a lure. All that wealth of information can help a potential customer to decide if a product or service is suitable for him/her. Moreover it can be a dynamic presentation on the salesman toolbox.

Examples
Let’s give two examples to make the above statement more clear and comprehensible; one concerning an online business and one concerning the regular offline business. The online example: suppose you want to market / sell a new piece of software, you can write an ebook or a series of posts, videos, podcasts, etc. about the procedure or the function that the software you sell does. Then you can connect the written procedure or function with your software (via link or reference) and have an effective sales and marketing tool. The offline example (just to show that this technique is exactly as efficient as in the online world) might be the following: you have a marketing firm specialized in public relations, you can provide a sort of free services as a starting series of PR campaigns and in order to start a potential client base and to create a relationship with them.

Future Predictions
The trend of “everything is free” will continue to grow rapidly in terms of customer consumption and marketing technique. Each of those products, services and pieces of information will have a referring part that is the underlying hidden marketing / sales message.

Social Causes

2007-04-18T17:46:00.000+03:00

One great use of social media and user generated content of any form (text, audio and especially video) is to support a cause and a social initiative. Corporations in particular can utilize that form of communication to publicize and enhance awareness of the cause and their contributions as well. Corporate social initiatives and corporate social responsibility are current trends that have great impact in brand reputation and equity. I believe that businesses will realize the potential benefits that social media could add to their CSR campaigns and start utilizing these as strategic tools.

An example of my previous statement can clarify what I mean. Suppose you are a business that starts a new social initiative, for example a race against deforestation. You can host videos and other forms of content (such as photos, text comments, etc.) of local people and your employees planting trees. On each event you plan and host you can add valuable content of that kind to inspire more people to join your efforts, to show that while doing these activities you can have fun and to show that you support and embrace your community and its members. These videos or media of any kind you choose to implement can also have a great educational value.

Business Strategy Evolution

2007-04-18T17:41:00.000+03:00

Last year I had written a series of posts about the possible evolution of business strategy. A great blogger I know, Dmitry Linkov, was writing his post-graduate assignment on this topic and these were some of my thoughts about the subject (you can find my thoughts here, here and here). Anyway, thinking of my ideas about business strategy evolution it seems that I have not included what these days seems so obvious: social media. Social media are and will definitely be included in the short and medium-term focus of business strategy and innovational – creative thinking. In fact, I foresee social media as key elements that corporations and organizations will implement as core competencies and they will take advantage of their users’ generated content as business strengths.

Great Brands…

2007-04-13T12:46:00.000+03:00

Great brands not only sell like crazy; they also provide a unique consumer experience. They tell a story. A great brand name is Warcraft. It started as a game and it has evolved into a whole philosophy. Warcraft originally was a strategy pc-game. There are 3 series of warcraft: warcraft 1 (Orcs and Humans), warcraft 2 (Tides of Darkness and the expansion: Beyond the Dark portal), warcraft 3 (The Rhein of Chaos and the expansion: The frozen throne). Later came the ultimate MMRPG World of Warcraft and its latest expansion The Burning Crusade. But Blizzard (the computer game manufacturer company) does not sell only software but also books, comics and other merchandise. Blizzard has created a successful brand build upon a wonderful story. It’s that story that sells like crazy. There are many other similar titles both for the strategy and the MMRPG game that simply cannot compete warcraft because of the strong community it has build over the years and is based on an evolving and absolutely consistent story. Figures appeared in previous versions of the game appear again in the multiplayer game giving the players a strong feeling of consistency and a flashback. When one remembers one in-game character from its childhood switching to another massive multiplayer role playing game is getting almost impossible. There is strong emotional connection with the game. That is the ultimate branding technique. Connect the brand with the users in such a strong emotional relationship that can never be replaced.

Thoughts on blogging

2007-04-13T12:38:00.000+03:00

Blogging should be free of writing rules. Free as thinking is. By applying rules to the writing style of a post is like setting barriers and limitations to thought. It's the mental picture that matters, the idea or the point one is trying to make, not the syntax or grammar. Of course these matter too but they are less important. Suppose you want to express an idea, let's use the depiction of a house as an example, you can take a photo of the house or you can draw it with many different ways but at the end it will be a house. So when you want to express an idea or a view try focusing on the transmission of the idea to the audience rather than get lost in words and expressions.

Satisfaction from work

2007-04-01T17:41:00.000+03:00

Doing a job that you like is very critical for your well-being and mental health on the long term. These thoughts came up as a result of all my previous experiences and the trigger was my military service in which I have to do a lot of unpleasant tasks each and every day. Each moment of the day I realize that I definitely cannot live the rest of my life doing a job that I don't like or even worst I hate.

An additional point I want to make is that I can only think of three possibilities concerning job satisfaction: you can have a pleasant job which you enjoy, an unpleasant job which you don't like but you have to do for living and a job which some people may consider pleasant but doesn't suit you (for example a job that you were forced to practise due to some reasons). While I am thinking all these I am once more feeling extreme happiness for studying business administration and choosing to become a marketer.

Latest news...

2007-04-01T17:38:00.000+03:00

I am planning to make some major changes in my blog when I am dismissed from the army and released from any obligations. Right now all I am trying is to keep up to date with some of the blogs that I am a reader. For that purpose I use a little complex system since I have no computer or Internet access: I download the feeds from these blogs with a feed aggregator, convert them to html pages and then transfer them into my mobile. Coming Back to my goal for blog renewal, I have many fresh ideas that I hope to implement. Although I have not set specific goals as concerns the renewal, I have a general overall picture of how I wanted to be and what new features and metrics it should obtain. Changes will refer to blog's design. By design though I don't mean blog's appearance and interface exclusively but organisation, new features and functionality as well. Of course the name of the blog and it's URL will change too to reflect something more relevant to marketing and to be eye-catching. Finding a great title is a really tough challenge but I am working on it and I hope that I 'll come up with something good. More details about my ideas and the whole concept will be released in the future. All I want right now is to retain the current enthusiasm and excitement I have and I am sure I will bridge the gap of my absence. Sure I need a lot of feedback and input on this project so everyone is warmly invited to comment, suggest, disagree and join my effort in any way.

Customer complaints

2007-03-19T14:00:00.000+02:00

How do you handle customer complaints? Do you take them into account?

Having a box and a pack with complaint forms in the corner of your store doesn't sound like a proactive way of managing customer complaints and measuring satisfaction! Do you offer a form with every product or service you deliver? What about customers who are in their own place? Do they have access to these forms? Do you personally ask each and every customer about the level of service and satisfaction they perceive when they consume your products and services? These are proactive ways of handling customer complaints. You need to show real and authentic interest to your customers. You should encourage them to air their grievances. Bear in mind that your goal is not just a one time purchase but repeated sales. How are you going to achieve that if you have dissatisfied customers?

I know many people (I also am one of those!) that when they get dissatisfied with a service or product they will never buy from that company ever again. You certainly don’t want this happen. Furthermore, these customers do not complain or argue with you. They just leave quietly. You need to feel when a customer is dissatisfied or even not pleased with your level of service and try to change his/her attitude before he/she switches brand and left you wandering what went wrong. Complaint management is not as obvious as it sounds mainly because you don’t always get those disappointment messages. So next time you interact with a customer try to be a little more thorough, ask questions, view from the customer’s angle and be proactive.

Paid to Read Industry

2007-03-19T13:48:00.000+02:00

In this post I express some thoughts about the industry of “paid to read” stuff.

The “Paid to Read” phenomenon has been taking place for a while on the internet. Paid to read is meant to refer to an advertisement or a message carrying an advertisement (on it) in which someone is being paid just for reading. That kind of “business” can take several forms; most of them are emails, on-site ads and links. There is always an intermediate part between the advertiser and the ad viewer. That part publishes the advertiser ads and offer one portion of the advertising revenue to the viewers. In that way, the service provider motivates people to read ads. Both parts; the intermediary and the client benefit; it’s a win-win situation. Some questions, arise though; for example what about the benefits of the advertiser? Does he/she win? Are one’s ads effective? Below, I try to offer some perspectives…

One can state that as long as people read the ads just for the money incentive there is no real attention to the advertising message but only passive clicking actions. On the other hand, advertisements not including any incentive have the same appealing: no one seems to really enjoy seeing ads. You may be amused with some ads but I bet you are not looking forward to turn your TV on or browse a magazine just to see ads. Ads are always distracting. They try to distract you from whatever you were doing to pay attention to them. In most occasions that is the case. It’s Seth Godin’s distraction marketing theory. Consequently, whether there is, or there is not an incentive (of any kind), people in most cases do not authentically look forward to read ads.

Thus coming to the very first question about the effectiveness of a “Paid to Read” advertising message, if an ad is being placed just to inform consumers about the existence of a product or service, I hold the opinion that both ways of advertising (paid and non paid ads) are almost the same (as concerns effectiveness).

As concerns brand preference and reminding ads my views are: Usual advertising costs a lot more expensive in traditional media that Paid to Read ads. That may lead to the association of a brand being advertised through traditional ways with high value and successful product / service. On the contrary, cheap advertising of paid to read messages might cast a lightly negative impact to the viewers. The previous statements concern ads that are trying to remind the product / service to the user (or call to act) and to improve conceived brand value. Contrary, when there is too much clutter on reminding advertising it may affect viewers of traditional media channels negatively while this is not the case for viewers that get paid to see them. In other words, “Paid to Read” ad networks can effectively bear a lot of ad clutter while other common networks cannot.

…some more views:

Most common and simple forms of “Paid to Read” services refer to emails containing a direct link or/and an embodied advertising.

I personally use some Paid to Read networks, I have been paid a few dollars. Of course in this industry no one should expect to get rich.

Almost all of the “Paid to Read” networks offer user referral systems.

There is also the “Paid to Click” alternative industry. This is very similar to the “Paid to Read” stuff. I will not analyze it (at least in this post).

Traditional products’ marketing & a practical advice on how to become more effective in your business (whatever field you are in).

2007-02-14T12:22:00.000+02:00

In the weekend I and my girlfriend were on vacation on a small town (very popular as a tourist attraction). One day in a traditional tavern they gave as after lunch a shot of a traditional drink. It was a sweet liqueur which helps one to digest food. Later on that day as we wandered through the main road of the town which is full of little shops that sell traditional products and souvenirs, we found that drink (which is called Tentoura) and we both instantly bought one bottle for our relatives. It was a very impulsive purchase. The same kind of purchases has occurred to us many times in the past and surely has happened to most of the people. The point here is that one “clever” shop owner of traditional products may exploit those impulsive purchases. He/she may make a deal with tavern owners to supply them for free with Tentoura on the condition that they give each client a shot of that drink after lunch or dinner. It’s a win-win situation; both the tavern owner and the shop owner earns from that kind of strategic alliance. I firmly believe that the shop owner will boost up his/her sales. Thing here is that (I believe) it’s hard to imagine such a marketing technique if you weren’t told about (at least it didn’t occur to me).

I mention the above story because it led me to the following (and now very obvious to me) conclusions:
We often say that one should think from the customer’s perspective and get on his/her shoes to figure out more ways to service one and market to him/her. Personally I totally agree with the above statement; however how was it likely to me to think of the above (marketing) technique? I mean, ok, I am going to think from the customer’s point of view…hm …em …let’s put some ads in the town’s stations and populated places…hm… let’s post an article on traditional products in the local newspaper/magazine or website…etc. To think out of the box – off the beaten track is easy to say but sometimes hard to actually do. Just thinking from the customer’s perspective many times is not enough; one should simulate customer’s experiences: he must go on vacation (although he is in his origin), he must live and act as a customer and try the same experiences and actions. Thinking is not enough; one may need to acquire some input (feelings, thoughts, senses, impressions, etc.). How can one implement the above conclusion? Try to find out a solution/opportunity/challenge not only with thorough thoughts but by interacting with people, places, objects; get a lot of input from anything you get in contact with.

Advertising – Human Ads

2007-02-12T14:23:00.000+02:00

Human Ads:
- Word of mouth
- Celebrity marketing
- Body advertisements (e.g. Tattoos of brands)
- Surname ads = name of brands (to change one’s surname to a brand’s name)

The first three are obvious and well-discussed. As concerns the forth, I have never seen that kind of advertising anywhere or heared of something similar. One day I thought that someone could just change his/her surname into a brand’s name for advertising purposes.

Offers for body advertisements can one find very often on Ebay.

Post’s deletion

2007-02-12T14:22:00.001+02:00

Should one delete old posts of his/hers blog? What if one has changed writing style or topics in one’s blog? What if one has improved his/her style dramatically? Blogging of course will improve one’s writing skills as time goes by, should that guy erase the old “unacceptable” and bad posts of his? Or is he/she obliged to keep them since he/she used to think like that and these old posts are truths of one’s world? What if I changed my mind on something I believed or wrote on a previous post? Shall I hide my previous way of thinking? Shall I delete that post?

A Branding Dilemma

2007-02-12T14:19:00.000+02:00

Suppose you have created your own super widget and you want it to spread it and to be branded and put on thousands of other blogs, websites, etc. Widget is consisted of one squared area with the widget’s main function in the center of that square. You then add a link (usually) on the bottom of this square which refers to your website (the widget’s webpage) and to the sign-up / register / download – get yours page. Now a real marketing dilemma is raised: Suppose your widget is called PerWid (i.e. Perfect Widget ;-)). Do you put PerWid’s logo and name on that bottom link or you just add a plain link that writes “get yours instantly”? There are 2 approaches in that problem: The branding approach which enforces us to use logo and widget’s name as much as possible for several advantages (brand awareness, brand recognition, brand repetition & recall) and the simplicity approach, the approach corporations like google use. The later approach is based on the fact that if one sees the widget and likes it, he/she will click the link to get one for himself/herself too. You don’t need to confuse him/her with logos, brands and marketing tricks. I like it, I download it, I use it! (I cite that this is the google’s approach because google use to have a very simple and plain interface; no extra graphics, impressive effects, sounds, colors, etc. It only has the name of the search engine and the search bar; real simple and real clever! Sometimes success comes out of unexpected, of surprisingly different and controversial. We used to think that if we add more buttons and more graphics and more stuff we give customers more options and more features and thus more satisfaction but is this so? Don’t we just confuse visitors?

Does simplicity approach has any meaning in this particular example (the widget application)? Or the “normal” marketing – branding approach is better? I really don’t have any answer to that question. Should one use the common approach or try to differentiate? Of course both approaches are right but one might be better. Which one do you think?

Hibernation

2007-02-08T16:20:00.000+02:00

Days in Army: 183
Days left: 183
[Finally this blog woke up from deep hibernation for just a few moments. In a week I’ll be back in the camp again (away from the comfort ness of my home, lacking civilization and my normal life).]

To write and publish anything non fictional you need to read. In fact you need to read a lot. This blog is referred to the internet and marketing and in order to contribute my thoughts I definitely need to have a lot of input. The past 6 months that I’ve been in the army I’ve pushed myself to start posting again (in a process of firstly writing down on a notepad and then typing and posting on an internet café on the first available opportunity) but I found that I’ve lost contact with blogging and since I wasn’t informed and updated with current trends and the blogosphere in general I couldn’t be productive. During the past 6 months the last 3 ones I had computer access but no Internet connection (and no spare time at all!). These days, fortunately I am home relaxing and getting used to civilized life again. Life in army really sucks and I don’t want to remind myself that I have another full 6 months left.

While trying to fill my flash disk with RSS feeds so that I can read while in camp I found out many great marketing blogs which I will now start to read (whenever this is possible!). Now I am constantly trying to read all these feeds and compensate for all that lost time. Maybe at the end of these free days I write another post too…

Till next time I’ll get online take care and… keep blogging ;) !

Call of Duty

2006-08-08T11:15:00.000+03:00

Like I said in the previous post I will be offline till July-August of 2007 due to military obligations (unfortunatelly military service is obligatory in Greece).

My absence

2006-06-19T13:33:00.000+03:00

It has been very looooong time for me to post! This is due to my addiction with World of Warcraft: These days I‘ve been playing for hours. That happened because I had set a goal to reach level 60 (the maximum level) before I join the army. I almost reached my goal so now I can continue my normal activities like blogging, reading, living lol. I also reached another goal of mine to make 500 $ from the internet within 2 months. Notice that I said something about army above. This August I will be called to join the army for my military obligation (yeah there are still countries in which you are obliged to join the army for a period :((( ). So I will be gone for about 12 months or maybe even more! More later...

Blogs and reality TV

2006-05-22T17:54:00.000+03:00

At the beginning there were journals. There were online dairies in which some people used to express their thoughts and facts from their everyday life. That was the beginning of blogging. Later, too many started blogging so that online journals are a very common phenomenon. The surveillance of one’s life was supposed to be somehow exciting; now it is quite boring at least for those that do not mention something special and memorable. There is a strong resemblance with reality TV. These blogs are similar with big brother reality shows. There was not a specific theme, an important or extraordinary cause of existence. When people had enough of big brothers (or online journals) something else had to come for people not feeling bored. Blogs, just like reality TV, evolved to have a particular and theme specific topic. Nowadays there are corporate, meme games blogs, political and cultural ones, audioblogs, photoblogs and many many other theme related blogs. In recent reality TV shows there are specific goals to be fulfilled, there are specific environments and stories that set the scenarios for each one (like talent shows, survivor games, etc.). Undoubtedly the resemblance is strong and the evolution is common for that wealth of user-created content. Lastly blogs are now starting being exploited for commercial use; through advertisements and product sales blogging is even more close to reality tv.

Personal touch and human presence for online success...

2006-05-17T17:52:00.000+03:00

I read an article about how can the human presence build online sales and increase conversion. You can find the article here: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/9597.asp (in imedia connection; brought by The Marketing Experiments Journal). The article cites that just a few changes in our webpages (so that they bear a more personal touch and have a human presence) can have a major impact in sales. The experiment carried out, showed that the same page had a 40.7 percent increase in sales by just converting the text to first person, adding a photo of the writer and his/her signature. Well, next time you write something, you‘d better keep it personal and be direct...

Further reading about direct and indirect ad copy at a previous post: http://zip3.blogspot.com/2006/04/ad-copy.html

Interview with Eileen Trainor

2006-05-15T11:02:00.000+03:00

Eileen Trainor (CyberCelt) has two blogs about advertising (CoolAdzine & Advertising for Success) a website about advertising (CoolAdz.com) and a travel blog (Texas RV Travel Blog). In this post I am taking an interview from Eileen about her blogs, the internet and her experience in the advertising industry. Enjoy...

Q: Two of your blogs are about advertising. Why is that? What are the
differences between the two blogs?

CoolAdzine for Marketers is syndicated and bring visitors to the blog
and to the associated website, CoolAdz.com, which is resource site for
advertising, promotion and design.

Advertising for Success blog began as an experiment in search engine
marketing and page rank, during the launch of an online advertising
company. With this experience, I learned the power of the blog and the
incredible potential of feed marketing.

I guess you could say CoolAdzine is more old-school marketing and that
Advertising for Success is the future.

Q: Do you believe that advertising in blogs can effectively deliver any
additional income for bloggers? What about advertisers? Do they really
enjoy any benefits?

Blogs that are updated frequently and contain professional, topical
content suitable for publication in special interest areas (such as
travel, women's issues, technology, politics and local metro information) are
ripe for making money.

Advertisers are lining up to advertise on specialty feeds, podcasts,
blog networks and gaming sites. Their target market is the 18-34
year-old adults that do not watch traditional TV, listen to AM radio or read a
newspaper offline.

Q: Some predictions about the future of online advertising / marketing and
its techniques (email, rss, blogs, podcasting, etc.)

Feed advertising, non-existent until mid-2005, generated spending of
$650,000 in 2005 and will be the fastest growing segment over the next
five years. Blog advertising accounted for $16.6 million, of total
spending on blog, podcast and feed advertising in 2005. Podcast advertising
is projected to grow larger than blog advertising by 2010.

Q: Finally, anything else you want to mention?

Blogging and feed marketing are just the frontier of a brave new web of
advertising and marketing. User-generated content is fresh and
pertinent to the times in which we live. Accent your efforts at blogging and
syndication by tagging with Technorati, del.icio.us or your own tags,
writing and submitting useful articles, joining online communities like
Gather.com, and applying for publisher status on Blogburst.com.

Eileen Trainor is a writer, webmaster and marketer with over 20 years of experience. Visit CoolAdz.com, visit her blogs on Blogger, or subscribe to her feedburner feeds: CoolAdzine and AdvertisingForSuccess

2 uses for blogs

2006-05-08T17:33:00.000+03:00

Blogs are useful to a lot of people. I blog and I bet you blog too. Whether you have a business blog, a little mall (exploiting SEO friendly and rich content blog) or a personal diary one thing is for sure: your blog is useful. The fact is that blogs can be used literally for every use. There is no limit other than one’s imagination.

In this post I will cite the two professions that are most benefited from blogging. These are journalists and writers. Journalism through blogging is a very effective mean for establishing one’s reputation, fame, for doing one’s passion and also a must for beginners. Writers can also be great benefited: they can post small samples of their work. This is similar to offline merchandising: just think it like a bakery that uses scents to lure passersby to shop. Moreover, writers can also start their career from blogging as this can facilitate the process of being noticed and stand out from the crowd.

Because of journalists’ and writers’ products being intangible word arrays, blogging is the perfect carrier.

Tenant

2006-05-07T02:06:00.000+03:00

Visit my new tenant (http://www.tworedpaperclips.com/). I was going to write a review about my new tenant but I won’t. I will not do it because this blog is very different and peculiar. It is about a project and it has a diary form. By reviewing it, I may spoil the concept so just pay a visit and you will understand what this is about. Oh… read the posts, they are interesting. The whole project although not innovative is really authentic so take some time.

Business Strategy Evolution: Part C

2006-05-05T00:32:00.000+03:00

This is the third part of some thoughts about how business strategy will evolve in the future. Have a look below to see the previous part too. These were my thoughts at this time. Should I have more thoughts about this topic at a later time, I will post it.

Information Overflow

Businesses were always striving for more information to enable them decision-making and more accurate predictions. That led to advanced information systems, technological advancements, IT departments stuffed by experts, ERP, CRM and other software to handle all that information. That information race however led to information overflow. Moreover web 2.0 made information available to all consumers and facilitated its exchange and sharing thus resulting in companies having to manage that overflow both internally and externally. Nowadays companies will have to adopt sophisticated systems to easily and effectively manage information flow into the corporation, out of the corporation and furthermore track and take (some) control of the relevant information that exists out there. Imagine a dissatisfied blogger posting his/her grievances on his/her blog and even worse commenting on thousands of other about your bad customer service or product. How a company can track that information and find ways to answer back or apologize for a bad incidence?

Further Segmentation of Markets

Another characteristic of modern markets is its variety and diversity of products. A single need can now be satisfied with hundreds if not thousands of similar products. Companies have developed targeting and niche markets in order to succeed and survive in the long-term. However competition is now starting to even strike niche markets and highly targeted consumers have plenty of alternatives options. In the not to far future, businesses of all sizes will have to segment the market they deliver to, even more. They will have to develop more niches, target at even tighter groups and aim at keeping their clients loyal and satisfied. It will not be easy anymore to substitute a dissatisfied customer with a new one, so customer service and loyalty programs are number one success factors. Thus for business to find their niches, they will have to strive more: it will be difficult to track them, advertise at them and convert them to customers and later on to advocates (very loyal customers, free and quality advertisers). Businesses will have to offer a lot more to get far less that they used to. Common advertising will be highly ineffective of course.

Business Strategy Evolution: Part B

2006-04-27T23:48:00.000+03:00

Ok, this is the second part of the evolution of business strategy. I have some thoughts but unfortunately very few spare time to write them down and post them here... This is the second part which is very short but I am already working on the third (and maybe last) part.

The Beta Products

Harsh competition forced many companies to speed the process of product development and resulted in a model where customers are also testers of the early stages of products. Beta versions are very popular and common on the internet. Furthermore beta versions apply more to services and tangible products rather than regular products (I can’t imagine Beta toothpaste!). Two are the key points when discussing the beta products: Firstly, betas mean less testing for the company thus lower investments. Lower investments lead to lower risks associated with product failure. So, we come to the second point: The collaborative model where business and customer cooperate for the interest of both (company for increased profits, customer for better experience). In that model, customers constantly give valued feedback to the company and in a way they actively participate in the product development.
So in brief, Beta products help companies be ahead of competition and lower the risk of product failure, which in normal occasions is very high (the majority of products fail either in development or at their launch).

The Experience Approach

Businesses are trying a different approach in delivering products; a holistic approach. From the core product, we have advanced to an escorting set of services as a point of differentiation. From now on, companies are starting to transform products’ & services’ consuming to “Experiences”. That is a new emerging approach that is unexploited yet. Experience means more integration of services, more customer satisfaction and a strong focus on loyalty and value for customer.

The Evolution of Business Strategy: Part A

2006-04-24T12:08:00.000+03:00

I saw a post in one of the blogs I read (The Messaging Times) about the evolution of Strategic Management and Business Strategy. See the post here: http://www.messagingtimes.com/blog/?p=218. Dmitry Linkov (http://www.dmitrylinkov.com/) is writing his Master Diploma work and he can use some help and thoughts about the evolution of business strategy and management.

Below I post some of my thoughts about the subject… this is the first part:

SME Shelter

The internet is the last frontier for small and medium sized businesses in order to compete with the contemporary giants. I foresee two possible scenarios:

Web 2.0 and modern internet trends will shelter small and medium sized businesses and will become the strategic center where these businesses will answer back and proactively claim customers’ attention and preference. That will happen through management of change, customer careful listening / trend watching and finally through advanced specialization, know-how, intensive and innovative ways to compete.

Big corporations and multinationals will fast and easily respond to the latest trends such as blogging, internet affiliating and referring, infolust, etc. They will carefully adapt those latest developments and moreover they would be available to evolve those concepts to even more innovative projects and wealth channels for them.

It is highly likely that those two scenarios will both occur having several markets which are vastly segmented and others highly concentrated.

The Referring Economy

Another trend that will gain much popularity and importance is the “Referring Economy”. Referring Economy is the system in which each individual will have great referring power and he/she will be in position to make really great impact in economy and markets. This goes further than the average affiliate selling program; each of us will have a great amount of information and choices thus enabling us to refer others to use the services and consume the products either we know and trust or we have a vested interest at them. Viral marketing and word-of-mouth will be the case in the first occasion and affiliating / referring the later.

Ad Copy

2006-04-20T16:33:00.000+03:00

Copy is the message that an ad is trying to communicate. Sometimes it is a written message in a newspaper or a website and sometimes a short video in tv or an audio file on a radio broadcast, etc. Whether written, read or transmitted in any way, copy is what the advertiser wants us to listen and pay attention to.

All advertisements tell a story; sometimes a story is more appealing or less appealing than others. So, in order to have an eye-catching, effective ad you need an attractive story but also the right copy. Think of that: The same story seems to appeal differently from storyteller to storyteller. Exactly the same applies to different copies for the same story.

Every ad message is based in either logical reasons or sentimental reasons. Sometimes it refers to both ways. There is no perfect solution; according to the product or service and the ad audience it may be preferable to enlist logical reasons (e.g. for a business software or an ERP) or sentimental reasons (e.g. for a luxurious and status car).

As regards the ad copy there are two options as well. You can either be direct to your audience or indirect. Direct copy means that it is written like you refer to the each of the audience personally while indirect is more of a general call for action. Direct copies are very common in internet ads and in infomercials. Indirect ads are more common in other media like regular tv ads and newspapers. There is also no better solution between those two. Sometimes it is more preferable to be direct and other to be indirect. An example of preferable direct copies may refer to products that sales are based in impulse purchases while in products where much consideration is needed before an action is taken, indirect messages may be better. Generally in low involvement products or services, direct ads are better. On the contrary, in high involvement products indirect messages may be better. Of course this is not a rule and doesn’t apply in all occasions.

It is also very common for ads based in sentimental reasons to use copies that respond directly to the audience, while those that cite logical reasons to have a more indirect approach.

Fine Resources on the net about how to write effective ad copies:

http://www.businessknowhow.com/marketing/betteradcopy.htm

http://www.marcusletter.com/writead.htm

New Tenant!

2006-04-19T07:09:00.000+03:00

I am very happy to announce that I have a new tenant (this is actually the first time I use the renting feature in my blog)! It is a very good blog about advertising on the internet, online promotion and the use of technology and new developments (such as blogging) for marketing and success. The blog's name is CoolAdzine for Marketers and the blogger is CyberCelt.

I am particularly happy not only because of the relevant content but also for the quality of the posts and the freshness (at least one post every 2 days). So pay a visit, you will like it!

The url is: http://cooladzine.blogspot.com/

Most recent posts so that you have a sample:

Sites about Small Business Resources

2006-04-17T20:33:00.000+03:00

All Business is a very good website with resources about small business, business advice, answers from experts, business plans and many business administration and management topics (including sales, marketing, finance, accounting, etc.). The url for this site is: http://www.allbusiness.com/.

Other good sites about Business and particularly small ones are:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/ - Business and Small business resources
http://www.startupjournal.com/ - Start up Journal (Wall street journal, center for entrepreuneurs).

- Do you know of other good sites about business resources, marketing, management? Post a comment please...!

Internet marketing e-books

2006-04-01T19:21:00.000+03:00

Lately, I‘ve been reading a lot about internet marketing and strategies to success, about web 2.0, even affiliate programs and business opportunities!

After a lot of research I have found some good e-books or better e-guides about online marketing and the use of web 2.0 to spread your message. Many of these books are written by the online marketing guru Seth Godin. Visit his blog and download his ebooks at: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/. You will find among others: Who’s there, which is about blogging (for business and not for business), flipping the funnel which is about viral internet marketing (in three editions: company, politics, non-profit). Demo e-books are also included such as Permission Marketing etc. Note that these books are very short and easy to read.

Notification on my websites

2006-03-23T09:12:00.000+02:00

This is a notification that my sites showed in the last but one post were all deleted (Global Solutions, ERP, etc.).

There were too many sites and I couldn't manage them all. So instead of being incomplete I have chosen to delete them.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

2006-03-10T22:11:00.000+02:00

Search Engine Optimization is an advanced internet marketing technique in which a website is being optimized for better ranking in search engines. Provided the fact that millions of users visit search engines such as Google and Yahoo! everyday searching for specific products or sites, a high ranking can offer a great advantage to its owner.

Search Engine Optimization is done using submissions of the sites to the engines and with keyword that attract customers (such as "free", "download", etc.) and may be searched by them. Normally those services are available by specialized companies who are responsible for tasks like these. However many companies overcharge for services like that. Although SEO is very useful it is not the perfect marketing tool and it must be combined with other marketing techniques (both internet marketing tools and traditional ones) thus internet businesses should keep the spending on SEO techniques at low levels. A balance between SEO and other marketing means should be kept because high rankings in search engines do not guarantee neither sales nor high visibility of the respective site.

Internet marketers are divided on those who are in great favor of SEO and those who believe it is not a very good investment. The best way to find out for one's individual need is to measure ROI (that is Return On Investment). A site owner can initiate a SEO and measure the outcome (cost - benefit analysis) and find out if it is a good investment (with high return that is sales) or a bad one (with low visibility and/or sales). A useful tip at this first step is to keep initial costs at low level so as to find if that technique is favorable or not.

Business Management & Marketing Website

2006-02-28T00:34:00.000+02:00

I am in the process of making a new fantastic website / portal about marketing and business management. My site's url is: http://business-experts.atspace.com

Currently there are not enough contents but I am going to add soon. If anyone wants to contribute to this site please send me email. I will be more than glad to co-operate with a specialized marketer or business manager.

Visit Business Experts at: http://business-experts.atspace.com

Please fell free to comment on my new site and to suggest new topics or propose improvements in articles or site structure. Your help is much appreciated!

The steps of sale

2005-12-21T23:28:00.000+02:00

Others refer to it as the marketing or sales cycle and others as the steps of sales. No matter how it is called or how many steps of sales exist, one thing is sure. In order to obtain a new client or customer there is a certain procedure. The client should pass through some phases. Those phases are in general: Cognition of existence, Product Knowledge and Readiness for sale. In the first stage the customer gets aware of your product or service and of your existence. In the second step he becomes familiar with the product either he/she learns a lot of things or he/she knows of the basic features of the product. In the last stage the customer is ready for action that is to buy the product. It is not as much important to name correctly the steps or to break those down to even more stages, as the comprehension of that exact process. There are four types of customers: those who know nothing, those who know little or many, and those who are ready. It is of great importance for a successful sale for the customer to go through all stages step by step. The immediate transference from stage 1 to stage 3 is exertion of great press. The customer should successively transfer from stage to stage and this may require more time (e.g. more visits) and effort but in exchange it will build a strong relation between you and your customers, repeated sales, word – of – mouth and many other advantages.

What’s new in this blog?

2005-08-24T15:53:00.000+03:00

Major Changes were done and are going to be done very soon. This blog has changed character. It is now becoming Scientific and Technical only. Particularly Marketing and subcategories of Marketing, Internet and other related issues should be discussed exclusively! Since I now have my MSN Space, I would post other topics there.

Moreover the sidebar was changed:
Links to other Marketing Blog were added as well as other Marketing Sites. Furthermore these links should be updated and many more should be added soon. Do you have any links to suggest? Go on, add a comment / post of the relevant URL or send me email!!!

My first podcast!!

2005-08-22T15:06:00.000+03:00

My first podcast through Nostos Radio is available at the URL: http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php?collectionid=Nostos_Podcasting2&collection=opensource_audio

It has technical contents about podcasting and is in Greek Lanquage. More podcasts may be available in the next days!

Kinds of Corporate Social Initiatives and major problems-challenges when designing a Corporate Social Responsibility Program

2005-08-20T14:13:00.000+03:00

Those involved with the development of corporate social responsibility initiatives always face the problem of which kind of corporate programs about social responsibility to adopt. This is indeed a great challenge for a marketer and may lead to an unprecedented success or a complete disaster! Hence there is great need for a careful plan to be designed and be successfully integrated. Although there are several categories that social initiatives fall in, it is preferable for a company to choose one or more categories rather to implement many different programs which will likely cause little cooperation and may confuse the customers. A full descriptive study about different types of CSR initiatives is included in Kotler’s and Lee’s book: Corporate Social Responsibility. The writers group the most common CSR programs (those which fall into the corporate social responsibility concept umbrella) in 6 categories: cause promotion, cause related marketing, corporate social marketing, corporate philanthropy, social responsibility practices and employee volunteering. Also note that this categorization is not the only one. For example many companies choose to categorize programs in group of similar activities such as environmental activities etc. Or other companies implement social responsibility programs categorized according to the respective stakeholder. For each CSR category there are specific steps in creating the plan of action. Many of these steps are similar for different categories or even exactly the same.

The second more important decision, beyond what social issue should one get tied with, is if one should include partners (both for-profit or not-for-profit) and if so, what partners and what kind of partnership to tie? Partnerships can play a very important role in a CSR’s program success. Strong Partners can wield great influence upon pressure groups and consumers and thus they can reinforce the company’s brand name and add value for the firm. Moreover partners can link the company with several stakeholders, they can add validity and reliability to a CSR initiative and provide with the necessary know-how.

My first uplifting trance track Now ONLINE!!!

2005-08-18T02:22:00.000+03:00

I 've recently uploaded one of my trance tracks at www.archive.com (using Creative Commons License) made with Fruty Loops. Feel free to download it, listen it, copy it, distribute and remix it, there are no copyrights!!! It's name is "Uplifting Friday" and the URL is:

"http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php?collection=opensource_audio&collectionid=Zip3UpliftingFriday"

I am going to make more of my tracks available for downloading soon... So stay tuned for more urls and tracks...

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

2005-08-08T18:57:00.000+03:00

The last days while surfing the internet, I have come across many sites and blogs about customer relationship management. I have taken aback by the amazing wealth of resources and programs these sites include and the lot of fuss among internet users about this topic!

Customer Relationship Management has come to satisfy the need of marketers for better repurchase rates (repeated sales) of current customers. They have found that total quality management, after and during the sale services and all other value-adding processes are not enough to achieve customer retention (due to the rough competition and the increasing customer demands); they also need to build strong relations with their customers and to find ways to manage that relationship efficiently! Customer Relationship Management systems provide the frame and the tools for the necessary and appropriate activities. Through the data-mining of customers they can response to his / her needs better (e.g. by customizing the product to suit one’s needs).

The concept behind CRM is Relationship Marketing (treat each of your customers specially) and Database Marketing (which enables data-mining practices for the relationship management). Actually the hard core of CRM software includes a huge database where all customers’ data are entered, processed and kept in order to provide fast and accurate information about the customer in the first demand. Information about the customer can bring great success to the company in many ways as described below.

Advantages of CRM systems:

• They can provide marketers with vital and of great importance information about the products they sell, the market’s needs, they can also help with the positioning of the product (in consumers’ minds) and with segmentation.

• They can facilitate processes of the sales force. For example some regularities such as fixed sales every month for a customer.

• CRM systems may provide the necessary information about the product customization for a specific client

• They can add great value to the brand name, the company and its products by offering value to its customers. For example a company can offer a gift at a customers’ birthday or a check for products on its stores. These practices can lead to increased customers’ satisfaction and enhanced brand loyalty (something which typically will evoke high repurchase rates!)

CRM systems are continuously being adopted by an increased number of enterprises which are now starting to evaluate the great value and importance these systems provide. Also note that a CRM system should provide adequate information without being too much information saturated because that will became a great hindrance for marketers to make the right decisions and will cause much inefficiency.

Corporate Social Responsibility # 2: Business Ethics

2005-08-03T23:14:00.000+03:00

Continuing the article about CSR (corporate social responsibility), I would like to discuss about the ethical part of businesses and the part ethics play both in the performance of a company and in the planning of a CSR program.

Ethical questions arise very often in the business world not only in strategic level but also in everyday decisions about normal and usual activities of the company. Managers should follow the guidelines and the main principals of the company in order to resolve ethical problems and answer to difficult questions. Under the context of CSR and Business Ethics a manager should always seek to find the moral answer to his questions and decide to act good to the environment and the society in general. Reasons to support the context of CSR have been discussed in an older post below. Consequently, managers when deciding which option to choose, the first which cause harm or the second which has a positive impact on society, should choose the latter.

Real problems arise when both choices are ethically right and good!!! On occasions like this –which are not very rare – managers face great dilemmas as to which option to choose and which good practice should sacrifice in order to provide greater welfare to individuals and society. A good idea then is to consult the main principles of the company or organization in which he/she works and find which option is evaluated as more important and higher in the main objectives list. One can ask guidance from his/her supervisors, from code of ethics of one’s company or relevant manuals, etc. However there are some dilemmas which are not being addressed by the code of ethics of the company (or organization) or are ambiguous. In those occasions things are even harder for managers to decide. The real interest and an integrated education and deployment of ethics in the organization in which ethical questions have not been addressed can provide the ground for the solution of the problem/challenge, while the final answer would be made by the manager. An example of such a good against good decision is given –among others – in the book “Business Ethics” by Chris Moon, Clive Bonny et al., (Profile Books Ltd.): A company has very strict rules against bribery but when it comes about human lives which can be saved (for example a pharmaceutical company during a war), decisions are very tough to be made and may be against shareholders opinions, law and reputation. Thus when one have to choose between conceding bribery for many lives to be saved or against bribery (in favor of company integrity, legitimacy and good reputation) and loss of lives, could be in deep water. Many examples could be cited (one is referred to the above book), but the questions are not being addressed.

On conclusion, as above, moral integrity and ethical education can provide the frame for answering difficult moral questions but cannot provide solutions to real dilemmas, who have to been addressed effectively by individual managers.

Another good reference is: Kotler Philip, Lee Nancy, Corporate Social Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2005

New to blog?

2005-08-03T00:03:00.000+03:00

Are you newbie to blogging? You must know that new innovative technologies like blogs can offer you a great mean to get and stay in touch with your friends all over the world or even obtain new with common interests like you!

Especially for those who don’t know html scripting and want an easy and prompt way to post messages and publish ideas, images and get feedback! The friendly interface however can limit the user’s choices concerning the appearance and the personal style of the blog. Although there are some themes/templates ready to use (which in fact are very nice and practical) those are few and cannot represent the personal style of the owner. However, the user can alter and modify those templates in fit his/hers personal taste and personality by editing the html script.

Html scripting is in fact very simple and easy if taught or studied but an inexperienced user cannot dissemble the code very easily at once. One has to learn the basics to comprehend the way html script works. As regards the blogs, most blogger templates consist of 3-4 units. The main page – index which provides the main routines and the header, the place where posts are published, the sidebar which includes other parts of the blog like user’s profile, post indexes, etc. and may have a footer. So, when one would like to add a site meter should use the sidebar for better viewing and effictiveness of the blog. He or she should find the part of the code which contain the script for the sidebar and add the meter (for example he/she could paste the html code) wherever decides to be viewed. That is how the personal modification of the blog works. One can decide for example to change the fonts, colors or to add several web components on his/her blog and improve its appearance and functionality.

Corporate Social Resposibility

2005-08-01T20:00:00.000+03:00

I 've been inactive for a while, sorry about that!

I would like to discuss a few things about corporate social responsibility, a fast growing concept which is not as considered such a new idea!

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility is about activities undertaken by corporations and organisations as regards environmental and social issues. It is about environmental protection measures such as reforestation or activities against sea contamination; sociatal issues such as unemployment programs, human rights support, local communities support etc.

Social Responsibility while it seems to be against shareholders' interests and share value can have a positive impact to the price of a share. Several researches from many countries have shown that although there are some others with ambiguous results.

Corporate Social Responsibility:

Can boost a corporation's reputation (by increased publicity, strong Brand name building, word-of-mouth, etc.)
Can save millions from prosecutions, negative publicity, riots, provoked by dissatisfied customers, pressure groups, local communities and the sevaral stakeholders (there are many examples of corporations which have been damaged in millions dollars and reputation)

There are several programs that corporations undertake, some of them may be:

Support for literacy
Support for Humal Rights and Labour Relations
Fight against environmental pollution (air pollution, sea contamination)
Fight against hunger, diseases (such HIV), race and other discriminations
Support for child's rights and against children's employment
Local community support (local umemployment, sustainable development and resources of local communities)
Support for culture, science, sports etc.

There is not any standard program to undertake or any best policy to adopt. The best way to involve into corporate social responsibility practises is to find the needs of your corporation, the obtainability of your objectives and the impact your business has to the sociaty and the environment. Then you can choose the best program to fit your business goals and objectives and create your plan of action. It is also crucial to enable channels for interaction and communication with your stakeholders (shareholders, state, employees, suppliers and customers, pressure groups etc.) and support feedback from those groups. Thus you can be enable to predict the impact of your actions, mentain a good and honest communication and relation with your stakeholders something which will give you their help and support.

That's for now! Stay tuned-in for more articles and resources about Business and Marketing practices...

Social Publishing

2005-07-26T15:07:00.000+03:00

In recent times we have witnessed a new way of "Journalism". This is often called Social Publishing and is the ability of practically anyone to publish his/her opinion widely through the Internet using channels such as the Blogs, Websites, Forums, Groups etc.

The Internet provides great potentials toward that movement such as:

Big audiences
Little or no costs for publishing
International coverage

Moreover the continually interest of people for social, political and moral issues, creates the ground (the will) for that kind of reporting. It is a common place for several citizens who have a common stake or share similar views as regards a specific issue to form Non Government Parties for controlling and judging Government and Businesses activities.

That modern trend covers from News (all over the world) coverage and reporting to criticizing and judging several policies and practices which are implemented by organizations, governments and businesses.

That new kind of Journalism may provoke dangers from propaganda to wrong informing. Furthermore criticism and reporting about several issues (such as the economy) provoked by not-experts is at least wrong information. Those who are non-experts about a specific issue should abstain from judging it.

However, Social Publishing is welcome because we can use it as a new mean of expression and exertion of political power and pressure. In the long term we will count on this form of expression to establish a global mass democracy where all can actively participate.

Last News

2005-07-26T02:13:00.000+03:00

My last News...!

Due to business and academic commitments I am not able to prepare and publish this month's Journal in my Group...

Right now I am studying for a University Task about Corporate Social Responsibility and Societal Marketing and at the same time I am doing my summer practice in the accounting office in a greek subsidiary of a huge multinational company.

First Journal released

2005-06-17T15:04:00.000+03:00

I am very happy to announce that my first Journal in the Marketing Community Yahoo! Group was released today! Due to the fact that the number of members is too small, the Journal was taken upon me and because of my mid-term I included only one article and a brief paper in the Journal. However more topics will be included in later issues. The article is about Marketing Plan (structure + basics) and the Brief Paper (which's main target is to remind marketers with some key elements of the marketing) is about the Marketing Mix.

If you want to visit my group click here

You are free to comment my work (as a matter of fact I strongly support feedback). Please free and do not hesitate to contact with me for commends, recommendations and anything else.

About my nick...

2005-06-14T12:06:00.000+03:00

As regards my nick you should know that I use this nick since 2000. The use of my nick is not concerning only activities over the internet but all everyday activities in which I want to remain anonymous.
Thus, use of this nick is forbitten by other users in every occasion and at least without my explicit consent!!!

Invitation to my Yahoo! Group

2005-06-14T12:01:00.000+03:00

visit the below link:
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Marketing_Community/

(For all interested in Marketing Science, it really is worth your valuable time!!! You will not regret it!)

This Blog's Creation

2005-06-10T19:46:00.000+03:00

Today 10/06/05 I created my Blog! My nick is Zip3 and I am Greek. No more personal details are available ( I want to maintain my anonymity)