The Risks with Customer Data Collection

When checking out at a store, you usually give some sort of personal information about yourself. Whether it’s your phone number, email address, credit card number, or even your buying habits there is personal data being collected. There is the potential for this information being hacked and stolen, which calls into question the ethics and consequences if this were to happen.

I think that customer data is a good way to understand customer needs and something businesses should use. With the data collected, business are able to better cater to their customer’s needs. The detailed customer data can provide insight in what a customer buying. For example, if a woman was buying baby stuff from Target the data could be used in prompting the store to send her coupons for baby stuff. This gives her an incentive to keep coming back for her baby purchases. The danger with collecting and analysis of customer data can also lead to pushing customers away. Thinking a customer is more loyal than they are, and bombarding them with emails or calls can lead to a customer discontinuing their business with that company. If using customer data, it must be monitored to be beneficial for the company and in return the customer.

Although I believe that customer data is good for businesses and should be allowed, collecting that data also means the responsibility of protecting it. Consumer privacy must be a top priority of companies. There are laws and regulations protecting consumer’s privacy, but there have been instances where this isn’t enough to protect consumer’s personal information. Consumer’s privacy is a big topic in the news with the recent breach with Target’s databases, in which 70 million Target customers personal information was stolen. This major breach calls into question loyalty programs and data collection of businesses and whether that data is going to be protected. Target’s REDcard, the loyalty program card, has taken a big blow for many customers have become weary that their information would be safe. With this breach, customers are calling into question other businesses and loyalty programs whether there’s potential that these could also be hacked.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101334854

http://www.forbes.com/sites/adrianswinscoe/2013/12/30/a-short-cautionary-tale-about-the-misuse-of-customer-data/

Ambush Marketing in Olympics

Ambush marketing is strategic way advertisers associate their brand with a certain event without paying a sponsorship fee. The Olympics provide a perfect platform for ambush marketing. I think ambush marketing should be monitored, but not completely eliminated. Each sponsor is approved for the Olympics, and made sure that the brand image correlates with the Olympics. When it comes to ambush marketing, if a brand that associates itself with the Olympics receives negative publicity, it can reflect badly on the Olympics. This is a reason for an event to spend time monitoring ambush marketing campaigns for infringement violations.

         Despite these aspects, I think ambush marketing can provide an opportunity for companies to be creative. As long as no infringement laws have been violated, I think its ok for a company to participate in ambush marketing if the campaign is clever enough and done well. Nike’s “Find Your Greatness” campaign that aired during 2012 London Summer Olympics is a perfect example of great execution of ambush marketing. The ad showed other towns around the world also named London and portrayed the message that any athlete could be great. Nike wasn’t an official sponsor of the Olympics, but their ads were effectively associated with the event and what the event stands for. Nike has been effectively using ambush marketing for its advantage. Its been so successful that in the 1984 summer Olympics the amount of Nike ads shown made consumers think Nike was an official sponsor rather than the real sponsor Converse. If done well and clever enough, ambush marketing can be successful and could potentially work better than an actual sponsorship. Despite some negative connotations, I think there should be exceptions for ambush marketing as long as the company is cleaver and creative enough to achieve it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hEzW1WRFTg

http://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2012/08/07/ambush-marketing-an-olympic-competition-and-nike-goes-for-gold/

Super Bowl Advertising

The Super Bowl is a huge television event, which brings in millions of viewers. This presents the opportunity to share ads on a big platform. Many people are as excited for the ads as they are for the game. When considering the high costs of advertising, a company must determine if it is worth it. Since it’s a game you can’t usually can’t fast forward during ads if you want to watch the game in real time. It offers an opportunity to use traditional television ads that have been slowly becoming less effective with current streaming and fast forward TV features. With so many viewers, the goal of advertising during the Super Bowl is to be the ad that people remember and talk about.

         Budweiser’s commercial was considered one of the most successful ads aired. The “Puppy Love” ad had an emotional appeal by showing the friendship between a cute puppy and a Budweiser’s iconic Clydesdale horse. This ad has been very popular with viewers with well over 45 million views on YouTube. It was successful at being the ad that people remembered and talked about well after the game was over.

Esurance bought the ad space for the ad right after the game. The concept being they saved $1.5 million dollars by doing so, so they were going to take that money and give it away to someone who tweeted #EsuranceSave30. I thought this was a great strategy to reach more viewers. They successfully combined a traditional TV ad and social media with a call to action. This had a great response with 2.39 million people entering the contest by the following day. Nancy Abraham, Esurance VP of advertising, expressed that by saving 30% or $1.5 million dollars on advertising that this showed that this a company for people “…who want to do business with a company that is fast [and] efficient.” Esurance made advertising during the Super Bowl worthwhile despite the cost.

http://business.time.com/2014/02/03/budweiser-puppy-love-super-bowl-commercial/

http://adage.com/article/special-report-super-bowl/esurance-s-1-5-million-twitter-giveaway/291472/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ6brprBSGk