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ial Media Marketing is a powerful tool, but also is hard to control. This article features a couple recent cases in which social marketing has failed or gone wrong.



The Wal-Mart case



In August 2007, Wal-Mart started its own Facebook profile, aimed on students. The goal was to stimulate the consumer behavior of students on their student rooms. After a few weeks the original goal of the ‘Wal-Mart Roommate Style Match’ was far forgotten.

Visitors of Wal-Mart’s room decoration page can leave comments; a function intended to receive praise on the decoration tool, or a few suggestions for improvement at worst. Wal-Mart did probably not expect to have their complete Facebook Wall filled with criticism on its low wages, aversion to trade unions and unhealthy competition practices.

Marketers should keep this in mind when offering customers the option to make their opinions public. You could have many satisfied customers, but when you expect a small group of ‘brand terrorists’ to vent their frustrations for the whole world to see, you might want to think twice about opening a brand page on a social network site.

One of the visitors said Wal-Mart’s biggest mistake was putting a ‘Wall’ on their profile.



Wal-Mart – The second attempt



Packed with the experience of their last campaign a new attempt on social marketing was made. Wal-Mart announced the launch of a Social Marketing Campaign by allowing users to review content on their site.

A Social network site was launched for kids on the wal-mart website named ‘The Hub’. What happened was, parents had to be informed of every new registration which isn’t very ‘cool’ for the kids, although it’s great for parents. All content got screened by third a third party, while social networks are joined to express yourself in the way you want to. Next to that there were no options to PM or mail each other. Communication possibilities are a basic requirement for a social network site.

The marketers should’ve realized that just one stage of child-protection is the best they can do to keep kids safe while building a popular social network. People need to be given control and have the ability to allow two-way conversations to flow without you being the only one talking.





The Molson photo contest

In November 2007, Molson pulled the plug on its Facebook photo contest. Molson’s online marketing campaign, in which students were encouraged to post pictures of themselves partying on campus, was “misinterpreted” as promoting irresponsible drinking.

“We need to be communicating with our consumers because that’s where our consumers are communicating among themselves. We need to make sure we’re in that relevant channel”, the company said.

Marketers have to be more subtle than Molson in trying to capture users’ attention. The risk always remains that the marketer can lose control of its brand. Molson is wading into uncharted territory and stepped over the line of acceptability with its Facebook campaign.



The 2008 Ford Focus, unfocussed?



In October 2007, online ads were seen about a man who roars, moves and behaves like a lion. ‘Fake’ news articles were found as well; “The Lion-Man Escapes From High-Security University Research Centre”.

The relation between the ‘The Lion-Man’ and the Ford Focus stayed undiscovered by the big public. The viral failed because it was too hard to figure out what it was about. It also seems to have no purpose – there’s no payoff. There are no clear call-to-action events, no ‘go out and buy this’, nothing.

A lot of wasted money that ended up in an ad that looks more like a practical joke, rather than a viral campaign. Ford’s attempt on putting up a Facebook page featuring the “Lion-Man of Tanzania” ended up having 0 subscribers.



Titleist’s fictional golfer



Titleist is a major golfing product manufacturer that created a website for a fictional golfer and promoted it offline using formats like television advertising during major golf tournaments.

Offline marketing for an online campaign can sometimes work but it’s so much easier and cheaper to get things promoted online. Although the site really isn’t that bad, there’s no call-to-action for people to share the content or any incentives for them to upload music and videos which the site hopes they will do. People seem to forget all too easily that good content just won’t go viral – great content can and sometimes will. The videos on the site are good but aren’t great.

Titleist’s marketers should have looked at ways to promote their product online via social networks where they could have gotten their video more attention and website traffic. Don’t spend big dollars on TV advertising if you don’t have a website to back it up.

 



sources:



http://lab.77agency.com/social-marketing/social-marketing-gone-wrong-the-wal-mart-case-250/



http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071125.wmolsonn1125/BNStory/Technology/home



http://namw.wordpress.com/2007/10/15/viral-marketing-gone-wrong/



http://www.viperchill.com/blog/2-social-media-marketing-failures/





 



By: LifeCapture Interactive

About the Author:

Kansieo.com

“You eat elephants one spoonful at a time.”

- Bryce’s Law

In a nutshell, the concept of “stepwise refinement” is to take an object and move it from a general perspective to a precise level of detail. Architects have used such an approach for years, as have engineers building products. But to do so, they realized they cannot simply go from the general to the specific in one felled swoop, but instead, in increments (steps). The number of steps needed to decompose an object into sufficient detail is ultimately based on the inherent nature of the object. To illustrate, for architects designing a building, the typical steps include:

 



Develop artist rendering (to consider viability).

Design foundation and superstructure.

Design Floor plans.

Design electrical and plumbing diagrams.



In other words, before the first shovel of dirt is dug on the project, the architect knows precisely what the building will look like and how it will work. All of the guess work has been eliminated.

Engineers building products such as automobiles follow similar yet different steps:

 



Develop artist rendering (to consider viability).

Design major assemblies (e.g., chassis, body)

Design subassemblies (e.g., engine, transmission, electrical, etc.)

Design operations (e.g., the various components of the engine).



Like the architects, the engineers know precisely how the automobile will look, the parts needed to produce it, and the sequencing of assembly. All of the guess work has been eliminated.

“Stepwise refinement” ultimately represents a “divide and conquer” approach to design. In other words, break a complex object into smaller, more manageable pieces that can be reviewed and inspected before moving to the next level of detail.

There are those in the I.T. field that feel such an approach is impractical to implement, and instead of engineering your way to success, you should take an initial stab at developing a program, then continue to modify it until you have developed something to pacify the user’s needs. This of course is a hacker’s approach to development and may be fine for developing an innocuous little program but definitely not suitable for developing anything of substance.

Can the concept of “stepwise refinement” be applied to a single program? Absolutely. As a matter of fact, it lies at the core of the structured programming movement of the 1970’s-80’s. But can it be applied on a grander scale, such as an enterprise-wide Information System. Again, the answer is Yes. In fact, it is the logical way of attacking such a major endeavor.

Before we can tackle an information system, it would make sense that we first understood the inherent properties or structure of the object of our attention. It has always been our contention that an Information System is a product that can be engineered and manufactured like any other product. To this end, we see an Information System as a four level hierarchical structure consisting of the following components:

LEVEL 1 – SYSTEM – representing the overall product to be built.

LEVEL 2 – SUB-SYSTEMS – representing the business processes associated with the system (one or more).

LEVEL 3 – PROCEDURES – representing the work flow of each sub-system. There are essential two types of procedures; Administrative – representing procedures executed by humans; and Computer.

LEVEL 4 – PROGRAMS – representing the programs needed to execute each computer procedure.

As an aside, there is also a Level 4 for Administrative Procedures (to write the instructions/steps pertaining to the procedure), but for the purposes of this paper, let’s put this aside for the moment.

Under “stepwise refinement” the levels are decomposed top-down during the design process, and implemented bottom-up; a common engineering/manufacturing technique.

To implement this approach, a “blueprinting” technique is used which is actually not too dissimilar with that used by architects and engineers in other fields. Here, the blueprints are used to express the succeeding levels in the system hierarchy. To illustrate, consider the following diagram, where the work from the preceding phase feeds the next level in the system hierarchy:



What this means is that all of the guess work has been eliminated. So much so, that the creation of executable programs should be a relatively simple task. Again, the specifications for the programs were developed naturally in smaller and more manageable increments, not all in once.

CONCLUSION

The concept of “stepwise refinement” is not exactly new and has been used successfully in the engineering/manufacturing of products for many years as a means to manage complexity. It has only been in the last thirty years that people have been trying to implement the technique in the development of systems and software.

In the absence of “stepwise refinement” on a complex system, the “brute force” approach is typically used, whereby superficial work is done in the earlier phases and substantially more time is spent in programming second-guessing what is to be developed. This is one reason why companies today rarely tackle major systems development assignments, and are content with attacking it in piecemeal.

But if you can assimilate a system as a product, and believe it can be engineered and manufactured like any other product, than “stepwise refinement” is a pragmatic solution you can definitely use.

If you would like to discuss this with me in more depth, please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail.

 



By: Tim Bryce

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Second mortgages are taken if you have any home improvement plans or debts to pay off or simply put when you need extra finances. It is an additional loan taken against the same property. Such loans are considered riskier and hence lenders charge higher rate of interests on a second mortgage.

You may mistake second mortgage and refinance to be the same thing, but the truth is, they are different. A refinance means that you are renegotiating the terms of the first loan while a second mortgage means you are borrowing more money against the equity of your property.

How must you use a second mortgage?

Second mortgage is useful at times when you need a lot of extra cash. Home equity can earn you big loan amounts and hence most borrowers borrow on the equity of their home. You may need second mortgage for:

Avoiding Private Mortgage Insurance/PMI Creating a credit on the home equity line Making home improvements Purchase of more homes Debt consolidation programs

Are there any disadvantages of second mortgage?

The disadvantages of second mortgage are listed below:

A second mortgage can be dangerous for your home if you can’t pay it back. They have a higher rate of interest compared to a first mortgage. You may have to pay huge second mortgage fees.

What are the types of second mortgage to choose from?

You can choose from the 2 types of second mortgages:

1. Home equity line of credit – This works in a similar format to a credit card where you (homeowner) will be given a line of credit based on the equity of your home. You will have to pay interests on the amount borrowed. This interest rate depends on the market index rates making it more unstable than home equity loan.

2. Home Equity Loan – It is a set loan amount that is fixed for a said term and has a set rate.

Second mortgages can be found almost everywhere. Lenders are willing to offer such loans as they can charge high rate of interests. You may seek second mortgage from a lender you are already working with. There may be some rate cuts and may also be able to save some money on fees.



By: Samantha Taylor

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Market research is an essential part of any business that wants to offer products or services that are focussed and well targeted. Business decisions that are based on good intelligence and good market research can minimise risk and pay dividends and by making market research part and parcel of the business process and conducting market research throughout the lifecycle of a product or service market research will bring the following benefits:-

Market research will help you better communicate – Your current customers experiences are a valuable information source, not only will they allow you to gauge how well you currently meet their expectations they can also tell you where you are getting things right and more importantly where you are getting things wrong.

By asking the customer you not only show them that you care but you also take the guess work out of customer services.

Market research helps you identify opportunities – If you are planning to operate a new service and want to know the preconceived attitudes people have then market research can help, not only in evaluating the potential for a new idea, but also by identify the areas where a marketing message needs to honed.

Market research will minimise risk – Market research can help shape a new product or service, identifying what is needed and ensure that the development of a product is highly focused towards demand.

Market research creates benchmarks and helps you measure your progress – Unless you measure you may not be able to gauge how well your business is performing. Early research may highlight glaring holes in your service or short falls in your product, regular market research will show if improvements are being made and, if positive, will help motivate a team.

By: Martin Day

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Caffeinated Content

The majority of people who commit insurance fraud don’t think they’re hurting anybody directly. In fact, they think they’re hurting major corporations who have enough money that they don’t care anyway. This is not the case. In the United States, insurance scams cost an estimated $875 per person annually. It adds up to approx. $80 billion per year, and with the rapid growth of technology, it’s getting harder and harder to catch.

There are different types of insurance fraud.

One of the leading forms of insurance fraud is in our health care system. Health care fraud results in over $30 billion per year in the United States. There are two kinds of health insurance fraud: member fraud and provider fraud. An example of member fraud is when you deceive your insurance company by purposely not declaring something, where an example of provider fraud is if you were to bill for a service that was never rendered.

One fast-gorwing form of insurance fraud is automobile insurance fraud. Staged rear-end car accidents are a common form of this type of fraud. This is when a scam driver will stop suddenly in front of a car deliberately so they other car rear-ends them. Another popular scam is when there’s already an accident, you add damage purposely in the hopes to collect more money. Often times, this works, which is why it’s important to take photographs of the damage.

Another form of insurance fraud is when the beneficiary tries to collect the benefits while the insured is still alive. This is called life insurance fraud. The best thing you can do in this scenario is to know your insurance broker. When you go in to pay your premium on the insurance, don’t pay in cash. make sure you understand your policy, and if you don’t, bring it to someone who does.

And last but not least, I want to talk about fire insurance fraud. This form of fraud is very common because it’s hard to prove. If you lose your house to a fire, who’s stopping you from declaring stuff you didn’t have in the first place? There is no real way to prevent this kind of fraud. This will haunt you in your taxes and that’s about it. The best thing you can do is report it if you hear of anyone making false claims.

As I mentioned previously, the best thing you can do if you’re a victim of fraud or if you hear of any sort of fraud taking place, is to report it. You can report fraud to the National Fraud Information Center at 1-800-876-7060. I hope this article has opened everyone’s eyes a little bit to how this serious crime is affecting each and every one of us.

By: Louis Zhang

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