WEEK 2 LECTURE

Characteristics for social media/Web 2.0

• User-generated content (UGC)
• Networked users and communities
• Participatory, peer-to-peer collaboration
• Sharing of content (conversations)
• Cheap/free tools and platforms
• Ease of use, ubiquitous
• Open, dynamic and emergent
• Mobile
Diff btw Web 1.0 & Web 2.0
Web 1.0 Web 2.0
Home pages & websites Social media
Companies publish, users consumer Users co-create w companies & with each other
Passive, read only Active, read and write
Static information Interactive content
Used as an destination for consumption Used as a platform/tool for prosumption
Information/company-centric User/consumer-centric
Content, Community, Commerce Content, community, commerce, context,
connections, conversations

Diff btw traditional media & digital media:

i. Interactivity
digital media enables active, highly engaging communications
Traditional communications (old media, eg. TV) Digital communications (new media, eg. Web)
Passive consumers Active consumers
Customers lean back Customers lean forward
Company PUSHES message Customers PULL content
ii. Intelligence
Old Media: difficult to gain immediate reaction to messages
Digital Media: each instance of communication allows and opportunity to collect data
• E-mails
• Tracking website visits (transaction log files), clickstreams, etc.
• Facebook ‘likes’, photos, forum postings, reviews, etc.
• Analysis software tools like Google Analytics, etc.
iii. Individualization
Old media: Standardized communications.
Digital media: Marketing communications can be easily tailored to the individual.
 Personalization and mass customization
iv. Integration of media and channels
 Communications integration- cross media
Digital media allows strategic integration of offline and online marketing channels.
 Channel integration- Mixed-Mode Buying
Online and offline channels allow consumers to adopt a mixed-mode buying approach.
v. Industry restructuring
In the new economy, industry processes and relationships have restructured:
 disintermediation of traditional channel members, and emergence of new types of intermediaries
(e.g. Paypal).
 disruption of entire industries due to convergence of markets and products.
vi. Independence of location
The Internet allows companies to transcend physical borders and to reach global markets:
 Increased exposure and easier entry into global markets
 Leveling the playing field- increasing opportunities for smaller and medium-sized companies, i.e.
global marketing is no longer limited to big multinationals
 These increase global competition
WEEK 4 LECTURE

Companies can apply marketing approaches that focus on:

Globalizing- standardized marketing to meet homogeneous needs.

Localizing- adapting to unique needs in specific locales or markets.

Glocalizing- a clear global strategic direction + flexibility to adapt to local opportunities and requirements.

Ethnocentricism An emotional attitude that one’s own race, nation or culture is superior to all other. A belief
in the superiority of one's own ethnic group.

Xenocentricism preference for the products, styles, or ideas of someone else's culture rather than of one's
own.

Consumer culture & consumption

• Symbolic consumption

• Experiential consumption

• Prosumption

• Convergence

• Acculturation
WEEK 6 LECTURE

Global positioning strategies

i. Global consumer culture

 positions a brand as a symbol of a particular global consumer culture.

 can be used when target customers are very similar worldwide, share common core values and
show similar buying patterns.

 relies on universal themes to attract customers regardless of their cultural background.

 involves a uniform positioning approach used worldwide by a company.

 Example: Starbucks is positioned on a global coffee culture comprising young urban professionals
that appreciate good coffee, ambience and social interactions.

ii. Foreign consumer culture positioning

 Positions a brand as possessing specific attractive attributes of a foreign culture,

 This helps to identify the brand with a favourable foreign culture e.g.

• High-fashion is always associated with France or Italy.

• Well-crafted watches and chocolates are identified with Switzerland.

• Quality electronics are associated with Japan.

iii. Local consumer culture positioning

 positions a brand as an intrinsic part of the local culture, in order to identify with the local markets, e.g.
• Honda’s Made in America campaign tried to establish perceptions of Honda as an American
brand.

A localized positioning strategy:

– accommodates local conditions

– allows different positioning of the same brand in different markets.

– a firm may adapt a global brand by adding local appeals, i.e. a ‘glocalization’ approach to positioning.

– Eg McDonald’s glocalization menu strategy offers standardized items (e.g. Big Mac) + localized items (e.g.
the Maharaja Mac in India)
WEEK 9 LECTURE

Retailing- physical & virtual strategies

The Web offers firms multi-channel capabilities for global marketing. Retailing strategy may emphasis on
physical (brick) & virtual (click) channels/storefronts

 Brick only
 Mostly brick
 Brick and click
 Mostly click
 Click only
Firms have to determine the significance of virtual channels compared to traditional physical channels &
whether virtual channels complement/replace physical channels

Pricing strategies for global markets

i. Ethnocentric pricing strategy
 Centralized decisions on pricing
 Home office sets a common price all over the world
 Eliminate grey trade but unsuitable when there is competition from local manufacturers
 Ideal for big industrial items such as aircraft
ii. Polycentric pricing

 Multi domestic approach gives wide leverage for subsidiaries on pricing resulting in different prices in
different countries
 Results in grey markets
 Prices are better able to reflect local conditions & be competitive at the local level
iii. Geocentric pricing

 Some firms recognize the need to coordinate prices from headquarters & at the same time recognize
unique local market factors in arriving at pricing decisions
 Geocentric orientation treats all foreign markets as one, global market
 It is a synthesis of ethnocentric & polycentric approaches
 Geocentric pricing approach would employ a global/regional standard pricing + local markup
WEEK 10 LECTURE
Image Restoration Theory: A Model for Responding to Public Relations Crisis
Crisis Communication Strategy:
Advanced Preparation of Crisis Contingency Plans
Analysis of the Crisis and the Accusations
Identification of the Relevant Audience(s)
Repairing a Tarnished Image
This theory offers five broad categories of image repair strategies, focussing on message options, i.e. what can the
company say when faced with a crisis?
i. Denial
 The firm simply denies that the act occurred/ shift the blame to the 'real' culprit.
ii. Evasion of Responsibility
 Provocation- the firm claims its act was merely a reasonable response to another’s offensive act.
 Defeasibility- the firm alleges a lack of information about or control over the situation.
 Accident- the firm claims the offensive action occurred by accident.
 Good intentions- the firm suggests that the offensive behavior was performed with good intentions.
iii. Reduce Offensiveness
 Bolstering- strengthen positive feelings toward the firm to offset negative feelings. Remind the
audience of previous good acts or good reputation.
 Minimization: try to convince the audience that the act is less serious than it appears.
 Differentiation: distinguish the act from other similar but more offensive acts.
 Transcendence: place the act in a broader, more favorable context.
 Attacking accuser: attack the accusers, question their credibility.
 Compensation: offer to redress the victims of the action.
iv. Corrective Action
 Promise to correct the problem and restore the state of affairs existing before the offensive action.
 Promise to prevent the recurrence of the offensive act.
v. Mortification
 Confess, admit responsibility, apologize and beg forgiveness.