Dell PCs Sold in China!

Dell Inc. will be selling desktop computers and laptops in Beijing, China. Computers will be sold in 50 stores operated by Gome Electrical Appliances Holding in major Chinese cities and will expand later in the month. Gome's stores hope to help Dell increase in sales in China, which is the world's second largest PC market, where it trails the Lenovo Group, Hewlett-Packard and the Founder Technology Group.

China's growing demand for electronic products is blossoming due to the income of urban Chinese jumping to 18 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. “Over the next two years, the growth of the desktop market in China will make it a larger market than the U.S.,” said Michael Tatelman, vice president for marketing and sales for Dell global consumer business.

I think this is a good approach for Dell. After doing a marketing project on Dell versus Macs, I learned that Dell's distribution strategy is direct from manufacturer to consumer. Although this may have been an advantage since it did not include retailers and other middle man, it is smart for Dell to reach out more. It recently started selling computers in Wal-mart Stores. Dell also plans to open its first retail store in Russia.

Article could be found in "Dell Agrees to Sell PCs at Retailer in China" in the New York Times.

Advertising in the Air?

Gazing out the window on an airplane has been one of the last ways to enjoy a marketing-free moment. Well that is all about to change. The "first global aerial advertising network" has been created in London. Giant, billboard like ads will be visible from the air as planes approach runways.

It does appear to be a good idea in my opinion. I know that when I am on a plane, I am always looking out the window and daydreaming. As Paul Jenkins, the managing director of Ad-Air says, "what an incredible marketing opportunity- all these passengers with nothing else to do, staring down at the ground below."

A few areas where Ad-Air plans to set up is near more than a dozen airports, including Heathrow, Charles de Gaulle near Paris, Suvarnabhumi in Bangkok, Haneda in Tokyo and Dubai International.

The introduction of Ad-Air comes amid strong growth in what the marketing industry calls outdoor advertising, which includes ads on everything from billboards to bicycles. Marketers see such ads as one way to reach busy consumers who pay less attention to television commercials than they used to.

Ad-Air, which is privately held, said it had invested $ 5 million, or about 10 million euros, buying or leasing land under flight paths, aiming to create an advertising network of 30 airports worldwide. The ads, printed on a plastic mesh, will sit on metal frames about 12 to 18 inches off the ground, he said. Some of the sites are as big as 215,000 square feet, giving agencies plenty of space for their creative work.

I think that advertising in the air could work. As consumers we are constantly bombarded with ads, ads, and more ads which could get tedious. But I know that when I am traveling and flying on a plane, I am bored. Trying to read ads in the sky could become some sort of game?! Don't you think?

This article could be found in the New York Times, titled "The View From Your Airplane Window Was Brought To You By" , written by Eric Pfanner

Yahoo Is Reaching Out

Is Yahoo dying out? Since Google, Inc. and Microsoft Corp. has risen, Yahoo's revenues has decreased. But don't get worried yet, Yahoo has planned to sell the majority of Bebo's Inc. display ad for the UK and Ireland. As stated in an article, Yahoo to sell ads for social network Bebo, this will hopefully reach around 11.6 million users per month because around 75 percent of the UK's Internet users visit Bebo, particularly 13-24 year olds.

They also plan on developing a toolbar that will enable Bebo users to monitor activity on the site even when they are not actively viewing it. Managing director of Yahoo Europe says, "Yahoo will bring Bebo advanced ad targeting capabilities, which will allow ads to be served based on what other Web sites a person has been viewing."

Yahoo is trying to invest in numerous companies in order to make its comeback. Last week, Yahoo announced it would pay US $300 million for BlueLithium Inc., a company that sells banner advertising to around 1,000 Web sites. Yahoo said in April it would buy the rest of Right Media Inc. for $680 million, which runs a marketplace for advertising to purchase space on Web sites. Bebo's direct sales advertising team, whose duties will be turned over to Yahoo, will now develop integrated marketing plans with brands and partners. The deal could be a needed boost for Yahoo.

Freedman International Saves the Day

No need to fret, international marketing has become that much easier through the help of Freedman International. Freedman's range of services and solutions are designed to make your international marketing communication easier, more consistent and responsive. For example lets take a moment and look at a big international brand, like Kodak. Kodak constantly has a stream of new products with in 35 countries, 22 different languages, and dozens of local marketing agencies. Communication chaos was taking its toll and there were missed deadlines, inconsistant launch materials, and duplicated costs and efforts. Luckily Freedman came to the rescue. You might ask how? Well Freedman used workflow technology and its own international marketing experience to mastermind a new, best-practice way of producing localised collateral for Kodek. This includes a "roadmap" of all forthcoming marketing communication projects. With a detailed creative brief and budget from the client's marketing team, Freedman ensures projects will be started on time. They chase every stage of the project and necessary approvals, check network, negotiate with suppliers, and etc.

Consistency for a brand is a must! When the pressure is on, it is vital that no detail in the international direct marketing printing process is overlooked, and that the right people check every dot and comma on every mailer; brochure and covering letter, and in every language. The Freedman international managing director, Kevin Freedman, says there are three basic choices. When marketing internationally, "you can centralise the whole operation, let each country do its own thing, or use an international network."

Why are you just sitting there? If you are having problems with marketing your brand internationally get in touch with Freedman. They are located in London but can be reached at freedmaninternational.com

What's going on in the UK?

Who wouldn't want to own the car that James Bond drives in his movie, "Casino Royale?" I know I would. The new Aston Martin DBS is the biggest phenomena in London right now. Say goodbye to Apple's Ipod music player and video Website YouTube for being on the top 500 coolest brands in Britain. Something about "Casino Royale" and this car has created extreme excitement.

"Our exciting, design- led program of new models and unparalleled attention to detail has made a major impact in the world of international culture" said by Aston Martin. It appears that international consumers are very big into detail and coolness of products. No where in this WasingtonPost article, which is called "Bond car beats Ipod and YouTube as coolest in the UK," does it mention how much this car will be, how many will be produced, and what the drawbacks are. The only thing consumers are thinking is this is the same car James Bond drove in "Casino Royale" and I want it. No matter in the U.S. or in Britain, associating a new product with something "cool" will always cause excitement.

International Advertising: Understanding Cultural Differences

In order to start off my blog about international advertising, I feel it is important to discuss the importance of cultural differences within advertising. In an article entitled, International Advertising: Understanding Cultural Differences, written by Neil Payne, he talks about how crucial it is to understand cultural differences before launching any international advertising campaign. The main focus for cross cultural communication is to help minimize the negative impact of cultural differences through building common frameworks for people of different cultures to interact within. In order to have effective international advertising, it is critical to look at cross cultural communication solutions. Services and products are usually designed and marketed at a domestic audience. When a product is marketed at an international audience, the same domestic advertising may not be as effective. What sometimes tends to happen is that when an advertising campaign goes abroad, different perceptions and values are seen and this may lead to an unsuccessful campaign.

The article further goes into techniques and important characteristics of what makes a successful international campaign. I feel that this can help anyone who is trying to make their campaign global. The first one is to make sure there is no cross cultural language mistakes. An example in the article that I found to be extremely careless but funny was when Ford introduced their new car called "Pinto" in Brazil. Mistakingly I guess, they did not research what "Pinto" means which translates as tiny male genitals. You do not want to see this type of mistake happen when advertising globally.

The second one was too understand the way in which other cultures communicate. For example in the USA, communicators often assume that listeners are unaware of background information or related issues to the topic so they provide the information themselves. However, in Japan, communicators assume that listeners are well informed on the topic so they provide no information.

Lastly, it is important to anaylze different cultural values. Is the society collectivist or individualist? Is it family oriented? Is there a dominant political or economic idealogy? All of these things are important to anaylze before advertising abroad.

Analyze the different elements of a culture, the advertisment and learn the best ways to speak to all your target audiences and you will already be a successful international advertiser. I know that after reading this, it takes careful examination of the different cultures you are trying to reach but the more research you do, the more successful it will be.

If interested in more information, please visit the website: http://www.sideroad.com/Cross_Cultural_Communication/international-advertising.html

Portrait of the New Media Consumer

The intense rise of technology is taking its toll on people. By focusing on the new ways people obtain their information today, such as through satellite radio, PDAs and MP3 players is making the people in our society more efficient. No longer do you see people subscribing to newspapers because you can get full access of the paper online. By looking at the sophistication and the ways we use media is helping industries learn how to target this new type of audience. For example, since mulitasking has become quite popular and being able to search what you are looking for quickly, is forcing companies to think differently and for marketers to change their idea of how to get their brands out there. As stated in the article, "it's probably more effective for brands to help them get where they want to go, rather than try to sell them something when they get there". As technology continues to blossom, a constant change in consumers will be seen and marketers need to keep up with this.

Marketing to Single Women

After reading an article about single women, it appears that marketers have a tough time catorgorizing single women. Marketing executives sterotype single women as less educated, more adventursome and richer than married women. I find it funny that marketers are so off on how to target single women. This article made you see that they have no idea about this specific audience.
The author who wrote this article, Adreienne W Fawcett compares information from a draft FCB survey of 500 advertising and marketing professionals in the US to recent statistics. For example, marketers felt that 48% of single women have attended college while in reality after doing research it is 53%. Marketers were off on so many of the percentages. They really need to learn more about this audience by doing more surveys and etc. Marketers need to take more time in learning about single women instead of just comparing them to married women. A quote i really enjoyed from the article was, "Sterotyping single women as lonely spinsters is like comparing the internet to a card-catolog from the library".

What it comes down too is, where do these marketers get their statistics and is it all wrong?

Marketing Edge

With the popularity of the Internet blooming, podcasting will quickly become one of the top ways for audience's to learn about different industries in various fields. Audio advertising will hopfeully continue to blossom in the 21st century.

Welcome to Jaclyn's Blog for Communication. A domain where you will find various aspects and input on international advertising.