The Prosumer

Marshall McLuhan had suggested in his writings that that with electric technology, the consumer would become a producer (McLuhan 4). Upon further reading on this subject, I found out that a word ‘prosumer’ was coined in 1980 by the futurist Alvin Toffler in his book The Third Wave — as a mix of producer and consumer.  

In today world, with Web 2.0, the role of a producer and consumer has gradually begun to blend and merge. We vaguely call this notion mass customization, in which everybody is in effect a member of a niche market, something Internet e-commerce is encouraging through cutting out the middleman between maker and buyer. We are soon becoming heavily involved in the design and manufacture of products, so they could be made to individual specification. We will soon no longer be a passive market upon which industry dumped consumer goods but a part of the creative process. We will create the demand and then ask for the supply. A simple example is Amazon.com and E-Bay. They have emerged as ecommerce leaders mainly due to its ability to construct customer relations as conversations rather than simple, one-time sales. They support exchange of information among customers; providing customers to add almost any and everything to the site for sale. 

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Marketing

The medium of language, from what is once was is longer the same. It has numerous variations in itself that each of them can be categorized. Radio, television, books and music are all based out of language. Another important adaptation of language is word-of-mouth marketing. The uniqueness of word-of-mouth marketing is that it does not always need an external push. 

              From someone saying, “Trim food is actually good today” to the other saying “Media Studies is a fun class,” word-of mouth marketing is in our lives every day. We encounter numerous advertisements from various sources and get influenced in different ways. According to Nielsen BuzzMetrics, word-of-mouth marketing is the most preferred source of information for consumers in today’s society. As mention in my previous blog, consumers like Web 2.0 as they can easily connect with similar minded customer and learn from their comments. Because of the personal nature of the communications between individuals, it is believed that product information communicated in this way has an added layer of credibility. The recommendations are generally perceived as incentive-free, unlike the obvious motivation of advertisers, who may over-promise in a bid to increase sales.

            This relatively new practice of word-of-mouth marketing attempts to inject positive "buzz" into conversations directly. To promote and manage word-of-mouth communications, marketers use publicity techniques as well as viral marketing methods to achieve desired behavioral response. To further promote their brand, some marketers pay people to go talk about their product to increase awareness in the market.  Although, marketers have always hoped to achieve positive word-of-mouth, there have been many ethical issues that have been raised.

Social Media and Business

            Since 2000, social media on the Internet has exploded. Frequently used by individuals to share information and make personal connections, social media is also used by marketing seeking alternative ways to reach their priority audiences. Companies are finding that social marketing can deliver powerful benefits. Before it just a way for marketers to sell their products, to teens and savvy adults, however now social media for B2B companies is also gaining foothold. 

            This can be explained because; the dynamics of the social media have greatly changed from the past. Users over 35 are the fastest growing demographic group on Facebook. As of January 2009, over 50% of Facebook users and 44% of MySpace users were over 35; the majority of users on micro-blog site Twitter are also above 35. This paradigm shift can also be explained by the movement from strictly personal use to a mixture of personal and professional use. Approximately 65% of all business professions use social networking, out of which 47% use it “to connect with potential clients and market their skills” and 55% “to share best practices with colleagues.” Clearly social media has not only become more main stream in the largest population, but has also become a medium that serves the business community. 

            Many buyers perceive social media as a less-biased, more objective source of information. Potential buys tend to place greater confidence in social media because it links people with similar predispositions and beliefs. Sites like Facebook with multiple uses have consumed today world. Personally I have found good advertisement on Facebook  whether sending emails, chat, upload ing picture and any where else i go. Being a marketing student, Facebook for me is one of the most interesting type of promotion. As seen below Facebook has 13 points of Marketing. Social media  today seems more indented to educate and inform rather than influencing one’s decision-making process.

"Using Social Media in the B2B Context - Harvard Business Review." Harvard Business Review             Case Studies, Articles, Books. University of Virginia. Web. 5 Nov. 2010.        

             <http://hbr.org/product/using-social-media-in-the-b2b-context/an/UV2973-PDF-ENG>.

Greetings as a Media Artifact

           The mother tongue at Babson is English. I communicate with almost all my friends from wherever they are from in English. I have grown up speaking English and consider myself bi-lingual in English and Hindi. I know that the language is an important form of media that transmit information from one to another. The English language at Babson is form of hot media as students do not need to exert much effort in filling in the details of the speaker. Yet I overlooked a pivotal part of language – greetings.

            Daily, I come across various greetings ranging from WhatsUp! to Heyy to head nod acknowledgements; but never realized their important or relevance. I now realize that whilst many cultures share the basic emotions and language, greetings make a large difference in different cultures of the world. When being greeted by someone in a different way, the greeting becomes a cool media for me as I have to put a lot of effort understand what way to respond. Having lived around the world and interacted with different people, I have received numerous greeting and would like to present them here in this blog.

USA: Direct eye contact, firm hand shakes. Women may briefly hug other women, and men may quickly kiss the cheek of a woman.

India: Before meeting anyone, one must say Namaste and press palms together with fingers pointing upward. Usually remove shoes before entering house

Indonesia/Malaysia: Before greeting one always address the other person with a suffix out of respect. 

France: Light and quick handshake; women offer hand first

South Africa: Always ask how the other person is before introducing yourself.

News - a tainted mirror ?

          

  Everyday we are bombarded with advertisements and media messages that force us to become consumers and adopt consumerism. We blame marketing for making us what we are today and marketing rebut saying that its society who is at fault. The debate between who is at fault has been an old one. It has prolonged for a long time and can be seen as the debate between the chicken and the egg. But, has anyone thought about the role news media plays in shaping society?

        

    

 News and newsworthiness is now a social construction. The traditional view “where news is a mirror – a simple reflection of events – no longer works” (Croteau & Hoynes). In fact news media leaves out a large number of incidents and events based on their own interpretation of importance. The message is intertwined with questions of power and ideology. Only what they believe is important to them, is what is portrayed to us on the news. They don’t reflect the world, instead they actively select, present, structure and shape and engage in the practice to define reality. They give meaning to events and impose an ideology on the readers. Just like marketers, they advertise certain stories and show we should be. Yet blindly, every day I read the online news paper knowing that only a part of this is objective reality.

Google Maps - Mapping my life ?

            The introduction of Google has greatly advanced my life and surely many others. So much so that ‘google it’ has become a common phrase and has officially entered the dictionary as a verb. Google offers many services and has changed the world as we know it. However, for me the most fascinating aspect of Google is their goal to map the entire world.  Among the popular mapping services offered by Google are Street View, which allows web users to "drive" along virtual landscapes with ground-level views, and Google Earth, which offers detailed satellite and 3D images of locations around the world. With Google Maps, I know exactly where I’m going and approximately how long it will take me. Now, with Street View I can also see what the place looks like. What is even better is that I have downloaded this app on my Smartphone and have full mobility and access to anywhere and everywhere. But, this is just the bright side of things, Street View has arisen numerous privacy concerns too.

          

Google Maps Street View Camera

         In the most recent article (referenced below), Google broke the privacy laws in Canada. Google captured a large amount of personal information that included some highly sensitive information such as complete e-mails, e-mail addresses, usernames and password. This isn't exactly a new issue. Google faces the same kind of complaint in other countries including Spain and South Korea. These are only simple examples; Google has gotten into a lot of trouble regarding military bases and restricted areas. What is worse is that, they have published pictures of common people without their consent on street view. Websites like http://mashable.com and www.gstreetsightings.com/ have sprung up and taken advantage of street view by making fun of the how people look and what they do. There are picture ranging from people violating the law to people selling drugs on the street to nudity. As you can see below, there is a picture man entering an adult book store and of girls sunbathing (taken from the websites). Such pictures serious violate one’s privacy and don’t even serve Google’s aim.

Man entering adult store

Women sunbathing

      

       I have always had nightmare of a futuristic world where we will be watched over and every action will be monitored or regulated. Something like the game Half-Life 2.. Or Ive  just played that game too much . My point is, Google maps and satellite imagining in only the beginning to the invasion of our privacy.

Even sports games ?

            I have been watching teasers for Fifa 11 on YouTube for over a month; every night dreaming about scoring the first goal and writing about it in this blog. However, I have been delayed way too long to write it. Not because I was too lazy, but actually because it was sold out wherever I went to get it. But finally…I got it!

Fifa 11: A player entering the stadium

Movie : A gladiator entering the Colosseum

 After the class discussion on Chapter 8, I felt that I could look at this game through a different perspective. Was the message that the makers of the game wanted to communicate to its audience really communicated, or was the audience interpreting their own meaning of the messages? When I first saw the trailer ( as seen above), the first thing that came to my mind was Russel Crowe walking into the Colosseum from the movie Gladiator. Then I saw the other trailer (as seen below), where players were fighting with each other to get the ball. I could not understand if the makers wanted to portray this violent message or was it just my thinking that this game was violent. Even many of the Nike Soccer ads (below) have a similar portrayal. They too depict the game to be aggressive and fierce. Having seen the World Cup live, I don’t remember any match that was this violent. I remember some intense tackles and conflicts, but never such continuous violence.

            Earlier this semester, we had discussed that a lot is tolerated in sports, however according to me violence in such sports game might be too much. When I actually played the game, the violence was nothing close to the amount they showed in the trailers. Inf act, this game is very docile and supports fair play and penalizes players who foul too much. I just  feel that the makers showing violence was only a marketing gimmick used to increase sales and create demand.