ARE DRONES THE FUTURE OF AN EFFECIENT DELIVERY SYSTEM OF E-COMMERCE?

The simple thought of using drones 20years ago to deliver packages would have been an insane idea. Today the speed at which technology is evolving in our world is making imaginations and thoughts a reality. More companies are inculcating cutting edge technologies in e-commerce in order to ensure maximum customer satisfaction as they deliver products just in time.

Australia's largest and fastest growing educational platform Zookal provides cheap textbooks to university students including textbook rental, used books and new textbooks for sale. In addition The company moving ahead of Amazon will soon start using drones to deliver text books in Australia. Zookal in partnership with Flirty intends to send parcels for free and claims deliveries can be made in as little as two or three minutes, compared to two or three days for traditional shipping methods. The use unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) commonly known as drone will cut Zookal’s costs from $8.60 Australian dollars to 80 cents per delivery. Real-time GPS tracking of each drone’s location will be available through the Flirty app for smartphones. 

  

Amazon is testing drones to deliver goods. Being the world’s largest e-commerce company, it is working tirelessly to improve efficiency and speed in getting products to consumers. In the next 5 years same day delivery will see a drastic reduction in wait time, it is called Amazon prime air. The e-commerce company intends to use a gadget called Octocopters which serve as delivery vehicles with the ability to carry as much as 5 pounds within a 10-mile radius of an Amazon fulfillment center.  Amazon estimates that the Octocopters will be able to make a delivery within 30 minutes to their prime customers.

What are your thoughts  on this new soon coming package delivery system? What do you think are the advantage and disadvantages.

       

CELEBRITY BRAND ENDORSEMENTS: IS IT REAL VALUE FOR MONEY?

     

A marketer’s brand is its most valuable asset. In order to gain a market share, marketers try to use celebrities or famous people in the enhancement of a particular brand.Celebrity endorsement has been established as one of the most popular tools of advertising in recent time. It has become a trend and perceived as a winning formula for product marketing and brand building. It is a tactic by which a celebrity acts as the brand’s spokesperson and certifies the brand’s claim and position by extending their personality, popularity, stature in the society. In simple terms it is a concept by which marketers pay famous people to a huge sums of money just to use their product conspicuously, with the anticipation that the celebrity’s fans will see it, want it and buy it. Marketers who would rather spend thousands and millions of dollars just to reach out to their audience could be wasting money. 

The evolution of technology has made it extremely possible to be proactive and creative in establishing a genuine connection with a target even more cost effectively. I see celebrity endorsements as a waste of money. The richest.com show cases some of the biggest celebrity endorsement deals. Actor Brad Pitt earned $6.7 million for one ad for Chanel No. 5. Soccer player David Beckham has a lifetime deal with sporting brand Adidas worth over $150 million. In fact, Beckham earns approximately $55,000 per day for his endorsements with companies that include, but aren’t limited to: H&M; Diet Coke, Armani and Samsung. It’s hard to understand why 

marketers spend millions on a method that is neither a source of credible information nor a financially efficient tactic. Recent findings on the effectiveness of celebrity brand endorsements by Ace Metrix indicates that the presence of celebrities in an advertisement in itself does nothing to improve the creative effectiveness of the advertisement. Simply put with or without the celebrities, a good, creative advertisement is has equally or more potential to very effective in promoting a brand. Choosing a celebrity is quite easy but most marketers fail to establish a strong association between the product and the endorser and the impact of celebrity endorsement on consumer's buying behavior as well as how consumer makes brand preferences. In a case where a celebrity endorser sometimes misbehaves, the endorser’s poor behavior can damage the brand’s reputation. This can be very detrimental with all the money invested. Celebrities are often associated with both positive and negative meanings. For example, American consumers typically like Jessica Simpson and consider her sexy, but also ditsy. Similarly, many see Lady Gaga as creative, but also weird.  Are celebrity endorsements giving marketers the real value for their money? 

Under Promise and Overdeliver: Are marketers going the extra mile?

The idea of under promising and over delivering certainly gives a good feeling, regardless of which position you find yourself, either a as customer or a service provider. Can you imagine the delight of a customer when they’re expecting one outcome, but get something pleasant entirely outside of their expectations. Most often, marketers who make ambitious claims and promises, end not living up to them, and customers then become very unsatisfied and irritated.  Failing live up to expectations can make a marketer look very bad, in cases when those expectations are set by the marketer. This makes customers disconnect or detach. In my own experience 2 weeks ago, I ordered a laptop at a particular website and was promised 3 to 7 business days  of  free delivery. It still hasn't been deliver yet. I have promised my self that never again will I buy from them regardless of how good the deal is. I am now a dissatisfied customer.

Under promising and over delivering is marketing technique which can help build loyalty and customer confidence. When a customer makes a purchase it’s always nice to provide a deadline but with a little padding. It is very important to give realistic time frames or deadlines. For instance if you know a delivery will take one week to complete, as much you want to be as accurate as possible, it’s always wise to give a little room for uncertainties. I feel when you under promise and over deliver as a marketer it adds value to your service, because it gives your customers a delightful experience and a pleasant surprise they’re certainly not expecting.

In the quest to under promise and over deliver marketers must keep in mind to never to deliver late or deliver short, strive to deliver when you said you would or earlier if you can, without any exception.  I believe it’s always better to negotiate a longer delivery time in the first place than to have to let a customer down.

My question then is do you know any company that under promises and over deliver? Have experience a pleasant surprise lately? Did it change your perception about the company?

Adopting real-time marketing to stay relevant today

Real-time marketing is “on-the-fly” participation by brands in the events, topics, and ideas trending at that very moment among target audiences online. Marketing campaigns have been planned well in advance over the years, but the time consuming processes slows their activities. However, to stay relevant in the market place it is imperative to engage in real time marketing in today’s world, where speed and agility are dominant factors in the success of a business

Today information gathering isn’t just faster, it is also far more collaborative than ever before as the internet has fundamentally changed the pace of business, compressing time and rewarding speed. What happens around the world is now shared in seconds as more people are now engaged with all the different sources information such as social media, mobile, online video, TV radio, etc. Marketers need to respond to new developments in real time.

                                                                                                   

Today’s consumer is skilled at finding information across a whole host of sources, and for marketers to break through, they must be prepared to engage their targets more nimbly, sharing relevant content around the clock in earned, owned, shared and paid media channels simultaneously.

Americans spend one out of every four minutes online in social networks where news and opinions are delivered by trusted brands and contacts. Time spent with “traditional” media has become a team sport too, with more than half of adults surfing the Internet and 40 percent visiting a social network while watching TV. The question is, which companies have succeeded in the engagement of real time marketing. What were the strategies adopted?