For marketers, this means that the major part of the role shifts from publishing and dissemination to operations. In customer service, there are many opportunities for interaction with customers about the brand. Customer service is a great communication tool and savvy marketers are looking for ways to get the most out of it. The new focus of marketing campaigns has shifted to understanding and managing social interactions between customers and businesses and turning customers into a medium for brand communication.
In the current era of social interactions, social media has provided consumers a way to express their personal opinions for free. Enterprises should reasonably organize so that consumers could share opinions that help the brands.
• Around 90% of consumers recommend a brand after social interactions with others.
• Around 83% of consumers say that user comments often or sometimes influence their purchasing decisions.
• Around 80% of consumers change their purchase intention after having read negative reviews online.
The special feature of social media is that it is the result of the spontaneous and endogenous behavior of the user and is not the result of external imposition. Brands can adapt to this truly customer-centered approach. Product extremes, customer service, user-generated content (UGC), customer loyalty management and corporate fan management have changed the traditional approach to brand marketing. Social media gives consumers the ability to influence the branding preferences of those around them, which would not have been possible with traditional marketing practices.
1.1.2.2 Crowdsourcing/Crowdfunding
Crowdsourcing is similar in principle to cloud computing technology, but it focuses on gathering many people to address challenges more effectively or complex problems via the Internet rather than servers. Whether to produce a new solution by brainstorming or to raise funds (also known as crowdfunding) for a specific project, crowdsourcing has already become a non-negligible social phenomenon and a business tool. Crowdsourcing in nature has pushed new business models to grow, by which individuals or organizations create new ideas and produce more competitive products and services in a more effective and low-cost way.
Crowdsourcing has even left an impact on the publishing industry. The industry used to be a typical vertical production system, from writing to ISBN, from publishing to marketing. But now these vertical systems can operate in a “flat” way, which means that marketing for the 4Ps (products, price, placement, promotion) can be done in the meantime. Now many chapters of a book can be made available on the Internet for reading, commenting and criticizing. During this process, fans can be attracted and works can be improved. By digital means, crowdsourcing is a tool with infinite potential since the focus of the public can be detected and efficient solutions can be provided at low costs.
Massive online open courses (MOOCs) are changing the business model of higher education by crowdsourcing education. The traditional model of higher education is highly crammed and students need to pay increasingly higher cost to learn rigid lessons. The new way of online learning encourages free interactions and an open exchange of information. It is students who have the freedom to choose courses rather than schools. MOOCs provides better education that is more efficient, more cooperative and cheaper. Besides its influence on education, MOOCs also influence businesses. For example, organizations can obtain a wide range of high-quality online training courses by remote access, offering constant training for their employees at a more reasonable cost. Using MOOCs, with only a computer, an employee can access the courses and services of a renowned university professor. Enterprises and staff should co-draft the most efficient curricular plans to realize both personal and organizational goals. Many leading MOOC platforms encourage students to socialize and have a deeper understanding by digital cultures. In the foreseeable future, online education platforms can help colleges and universities to focus on their educational areas of expertise in clear and concise ways.
1.1.2.3 VR/AR
Nowadays, marketing people have started to examine ways to improve the digital experience. Augmented reality (AR) can empower marketing people with digital capabilities to improve the user experience and apply digital marketing in a real sense. Statistics in research companies show that over 60 million users in 2014 used AR apps in their smartphones, tablet computers or smart glasses. It is estimated that this figure will exceed 200 million in 2018 and such statistics indicate that AR technology will influence predominant business environments beyond doubt.
Based on virtual reality (VR for short), AR is an emerging technology. Objects that reside in the real world are augmented by computer-generated perceptual information by sensors, display equipment and digital pictures, voices and data. AR is an interactive experience that connects the virtual world on screen with the real world, which blurs the boundary between the real and virtual world and augments user experience in the real world. Therefore, AR can be seen as an external digital interface of the real world. By contrast, VR technologies, by which multiple senses including visual, auditory, haptic and even the olfactory sense can be emulated in the virtual world, enabling users to immerse themselves in the digital environment and find themselves in another space. In this regard, VR can be seen as an internal interface of the virtual world.
Nearly all AR tools are realized by apps on smart devices, including smartphones, tablet computers and wearable devices. AR has provided an augmented digital experience for our life and daily contacts. To realize such effects, a sensor or a camera is needed to capture the view or information in the real world. Currently, many AR startups are developing apps for Google Glass for the reason that Google Glass has the sensors and cameras that are necessary for augmented reality. In China, architectural designs are drawn, apartments are viewed or trainings are provided for aviation staff using VR and AR to upgrade and KMG has also introduced top sci-tech partners from Irvine, the US, for many Chinese enterprises.
1.1.3 Digitalized data storage
1.1.3.1 Big data
The term “big data” refers to a set of data sets that are too large to be collected, analyzed, graphed and analyzed using traditional software. Moreover, these data are usually unstructured. For businesses and marketers, the biggest challenge for big data is how to get accurate, relevant and executable insights into vast amounts of information.
In August 2010, Google’s Eric Schmidt provided the following insights, which perfectly summed up the challenges of data and its exponential growth: “Since the birth of the world to the year of 2003, humans created five-exabyte of information. But now, we can create five exabytes every two days. So, you can understand how painful the information market is.” Data scientist Jack Yamuka said that “Data science is not just about digital computing, but about humans. Data comes from human behavior. Big data scientists have the ability to understand people. The most ideal result is that big data can help people.” In the age of data, the biggest challenge for companies and marketing CMOs is not the data itself, but how to make meaningful data interpretations.
Advances in technology and data handsets enable marketers to track, review and improve all aspects of digital activities. The ability to quickly compare campaigns with real-world results can help companies continue to refine their brand information and marketing campaigns and better connect with existing customers and prospective customers through marketing content. If we consider big data as mine and oil, then big data marketing is one of the commercial applications of mines and oil. Digital marketing is “(content platform + digital platform) × big data operation × upgraded marketing strategy thinking”. Customers, data and technology need to be integrated and there is a chapter devoted to this issue later on in this book.
1.1.3.2 Cloud computing