5 Must-Knows for Developing Digital Strategies

Alexa, What Do You Know About Internet of Things?

It's not magic. It is real. 

Devices work as you tell them to do.
You don't need to know any complex spell such as "Wingardium Leviosa" from Harry Potter. 

Internet of Things allows us to control all electronic devices connected to one network with your voice. The IoT refers to the connection of devices (other than typical fare such as computers and smartphones) to the Internet. Cars, kitchen appliances, and even heart monitors can all be connected through the IoT. And as the Internet of Things grows in the next few years, more devices will join that list. The representative application of IoT are Smart Home, Wearables, Smart Cities, and Connected Car. 

Make My Wish, Alexa - Amazon Echo

Sounds like IoT is only for tech-savviers? Let me introduce Amazon Echo which will be your best friend, teacher, and counselor. Amazon Echo works through its voice assistant, Alexa, which users can talk to in order to perform a variety of functions. Users can tell Alexa to play music, provide a weather report, get sports scores, order an Uber, and more. So, this is for anyone like us. 

Watch this video to get what you can do with Echo.

Echo has a far-field voice recognition, hearing you voice from any direction while playing music. Since it works based on a cloud system, it is always being updated automatically. Also, the more you use Echo, the more it knows about you - your voice pattern, vocabulary, and preferences. New skills are being added as more and more apps are getting available in the Alexa App, for example, you can request a ride from Uber and order a pizza from Domino's. Lastly, Echo makes your home smart allowing you to control all connected devices without lifting a finger. You can set the thermostat while washing dishes!

Two Sides of A Coin 

Pros and cons of Amazon Echo are very familiar with those of Big Data that I discussed in my recent post. Echo significantly improves your life quality. It answers all of your questions, controls connected devices by your voice order, plays your favorite music, and do much more things through your apps like your smartphone. Echo knows about you more and better than anyone else. It is always there for you to help you.

Behind the convenience, there are always security and privacy concerns - how much private data does Echo have? who's gonna get the data? what if it's hacked? Echo not only knows your preferences but also recognizes your voice and vocabulary. It is also connected to many other devices you have, of course, including your smartphone! You will get more customized and personalized ads through all over your devices, which means you get completely naked in front of advertisers. No wonder security is the biggest obstacle to IoT application, according to the research of eMarketer. 

Heena's Review

Amazon Echo was introduced to the mass, for the first time, through Super Bowl commercial this February, which means Amazon started to promote Echo more aggressively. Taking advantage of Cyber Monday, Amazon has pushed Echo and sibling products, Amazon Tap and Echo Dot. If I were to be asked, I would highly recommend Amazon Echo as a holiday gift. I think Echo will follow the trace of smartphones. Even though we didn't 'need' smartphones, marketing made us to 'want' them. Since we're already addicted to the sweetness of convenience, it's not hard to imagine to have one more family member, Alexa, in all of your homes.

Are You Losing Control of Big Data?

What pops into your head when you think of Big Data?
Does it really matter to you?
How and why?

Recently we hear of Big Data so often that we're getting sick of it. When this term just appeared, it sounded like a rising star which people were going crazing for. After the presidential election was over, suddenly it became an out-of-controlled troublemaker. So confusing, huh? Let' do not be misled by angry voices. Calm down. Take one step back. And think it through. We are rational marketers.

Big Data, Is It Really Good?

Yes, it makes your life much more convenient. As a consumer/user, you will get useful information, also called ads, about a right product/service at right time in a right place. You don't need to repeat saying your name (or ID) and your phone number (or Password). The store even remembers what you were interested in, and what you put in or take out of your cart. As an advertiser/seller, you know who your customers/users are in various perspectives, such as demographic, geographic, behavioral and attitudinal. Every click is tracked and recorded, so data knows about you more and better than anyone else.

But no, it's creepy that someone is watching you all the time. You've lived in Panopticon without even noticing that you're there. Sometimes it bugs me in inappropriate ways. For example, I researched hair re-growth products for my final project last semester. Since then, all kinds of hair re-growth products and services started to tail me (Thanks, Mr. remarketing!) for a while. Hey, Big Data, I thought it's a piece of cake for you to figure out my age. Even if I really buy one for someone else, it's annoying and embarrassing that my web page would be plastered with something irrelevant.

Big Data Is Not A God

Big Data is just a huge amount of data. Data itself is not a solution to a problem. Before you get excited about the advanced technology of collecting all data, think about why and how it will benefit you. Having a thousand books does not guarantee a student doing great at school. Too much data would rather cause indigestion, confusion, or mislead you. According to research, 1 in 3 biz leaders doesn't trust the information they use to make decisions. 27% of respondents in on survey were unsure of how much of their data was inaccurate. Poor data quality costs the US economy around $3.1 trillion a year.

The scariest thing is the inaccuracy of data as we learned from this election and Facebook's fake news. It's not only scary but also dangerous. What if those fake news really had a huge impact on the presidential election, so the result could've been the opposite? What if people think and behave differently based on false data and the difference change others' lives? In the worst case, war could break out. Hacking is an online version of war, I think.

Circle Up, Marketers!

There you go, marketers. It's time to get involved deeply in Big Data world. Since data itself does not replace decision making, we need to know how to play with it. From approaching the data to making a decision, professionals from various fields should be engaged in the process to analyze the data with insights.

Before jumping into analyzing any data, consider questions as below.

How was the data/number calculated?
What is it implying and inferring?
Any errors or exceptions?
Other things to be considered?
How would the data impact in short-term and long-term?

For marketers, Big Data is a great source for making a better world by making better decisions. To get the most out of it, we need to be ahead of the data and take control of it. When we take hands off the steering key, no one knows where and how this ship will end up.

6 Things to Know About Social Media

How many social media accounts do you have?
How many of them do you use daily?

Seriously, I can't live without social media, even though I'm not an influencer who has millions of followers. I love to read news, watch videos, check out cool events, and see what my 'friends' do daily. Sharing inspiring contents is also one of my favorites. Of course, I spend a lot of time in social media.

However, I don't feel guilty at all. I don't think it's a time-wasting habit. It is a universal phenomenon and our life style is changing. The below facts about social media will help you understand how 'normal' we are.

How A Cosmetics Startup Beat Big Brands With Digital Ads

How many makeup brands can you name right now?

How many makeup products do you (for guys - female around you) have? 

As we can tell from countless brands and products, people LOVE makeup. The U.S. beauty industry is a $56.63 billion market and the revenue of the U.S. cosmetic industry is estimated to amount to about $62.46 billion in 2016. On top of that, digital has played a significant role in boosting up the industry by catching consumers attention in various ways.

Pixability’s new study analyzes the YouTube practices of 215 beauty brands and 182,621 independent YouTube beauty creators. 51% of them focused on makeup. In 2015, more than 45.3 billion viewers watched YouTube videos and over 169 million Facebook posts were shared. Once you consume cosmetics-related contents, Mr. remarketing/retargeting start to tail you showing ads here and there when you surf the Internet. 

Birchbox - A box of Cosmetics, Not Chocolates

Thanks to great strategies on digital contents and ads, some smaller brands are killing it. Birchbox is a New York City-based online monthly subscription service that sends its subscribers a box of four to five selected samples of makeup, or other beauty related products. Full-sized products are offered on its e-commerce site. It was born in 2010, and rapidly expanded; now having more than 1 million customers. Here are what Birchbox is doing and how it is doing with digital ads.

1. Influencers

The genius of WOM(Word-Of-Mouth)! Research shows that viewers trust creators more than they trust brands. Therefore, influencer marketing is a cost-efficient way to promote consumer products since it is a combination of online and offline marketing. Please remember marketing is human to human!

Birchbox recently launched its in-house makeup line, LOC (Love of Color), and use beauty vloggers and bloggers to curate new products on a seasonal basis. They started with Tati Westbrook (GlamLife Guru), who has more than a million YouTube subscribers. Tati’s large fan base and universal appeal were a perfect choice for the launch of LOC.

The results were immediate: Love of Color launched on Oct. 16, 2015, and by Oct. 21, 2015, it was 258% ahead of its sales plan for that year. Brittany Tomkiewicz, Senior Manager of Acquisition Marketing at Birchbox, said the brand itself jumped up to one of Birchbox’s top 15 makeup brands of 2015, even with only two and a half months left in the calendar year.

Birchbox teamed up with Emily Schuman, a beauty and lifestyle blogger that runs Cupcakes and Cashmere, who has more than 260,000 Instagram followers. The partnership involved five Instagram photos promoting the products inside one of Birchbox’s monthly kits. The simple partnership resulted in 18,000 likes and reached more than 550,000 consumers.

Influencers can be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars just to take some photos. And those payments have continued to rise each year as brands recognize the effectiveness of influencer marketing. According to SocialPR Chat, marketers that implemented influencer marketing campaigns earned an average of $6.85 in media value for every $1 they spent on paid media. And 81 percent of marketers say influencer marketing is effective.

2. Facebook & Instagram Campaign

May 2016, Birchbox released a six-week campaign with two videos on Facebook and Instagram to increase brand awareness and reach to a new potential consumer demographic, 'multitasking women with only a casual interest in beauty products'. Each video features a representative woman of new target-demographic; “Modern Day Ninja” Lauren, a police officer juggling her career with three kids, and “Modern Day Virtuoso” Christine, a lawyer.

The two videos are shown to non-followers on Facebook and Instagram, and then those prospect consumers find the second series of additional ads educating them on the subscription box retailer. All ads will drive users directly to the Birchbox subscribe page. Unfortunately, it was very hard to find the videos. Below is the capture of the campaign.

Heena's Review

Smart strategies! This small cosmetics brand has been a smart kid in this bloody competitive market. For cosmetics, great reviews are almost a must-have feature of the product. Birchbox optimized influencer marketing on its strongest social media channels and made the most powerful word-of-mouth system. With a well-designed marketing plan, Birchbox successfully pushed a campaign using Facebook and Instagram ads. Needless to say, their banner displays on Facebook and Instagram and search ads are doing great!

The digital ads mentioned above are given to all. However, not everyone takes advantage of them. You need to know yourself first. Know your brand image and unique features, and then analyze your customers. This smart kid, Birchbox, knows well about its target audience and comes up with digital ads that can maximize the ROI.

A Makeup Teacher on My Phone

What apps do you have on the first page of your home screen?
Do you re-locate them regularly or fix the locations almost forever?
How often do you browse and download new apps?
How many of them and how long do you keep them on your phone?

As mobile becomes the most time used digital media, hundreds of apps come to live every day. As of June 2016, there are 2 million apps available in the app store, and over 60 thousand apps are added per month - and this rate itself is growing. On the other hand, mobile apps could be easily deleted if they don't have critical value to take up space on your phone. You can go to Google, Youtube or web browser to get whatever you want. Why would you struggle to download and signup, and get worried about your phone's storage?

I swear - I'm the person who manages home screen the most conservatively by regularly picking up useless apps and deleting them. I rarely browse on App Store to find any random fun thing. I'd rather use search if I need something specific. The apps on the first page of my home screen and on the Dock (The bottom bar on an iPhone where you can place your favorite apps for easy access anytime) almost never been changed. There are two pages on my home screen and both are half-full of apps because I don't like to see my beautiful home screen packed with app icons. Now do you see how much I care the neat and clean visual on my device? Of course, it also applies to my laptop. I just checked - I have nine icons on my desktop background.

Do you want your apps to survive on my phone? This is why mobile apps must have great contents, excellent UX design and be fun to play with! Even big companies are struggling with their apps and losing credit for poor quality. They have to think out of the box of pushing and selling, and start a new adventure of engagement. Make Up For Ever, a French cosmetics brand owned by LVMH, has an interesting app that doesn't include e-commerce function, which could've been a great source of revenue. What made Make Up For Ever become so brave? What's their purpose of this app?


TEACH ME MAKEUP
The Makeup App That Links Products & How-to's With One Scan

1. Design & Esthetics

It's classic - black & white, simple and neat. No redundancy. The overall design has strong consistency with Make Up For Ever's brand image, logos, representative colors, and its store interior.

The icon itself is pretty straightforward with the name of Teach Me Makeup. When I first saw the icon, I was not sure if it is Make Up For Ever's or not. I think the company wants to focus on the features and benefits of its app rather than its brand name.

The homepage is fascinating! This is what I like the most of the app. Very simple and straightforward, bold texts and the cool background picture of a half-highlighted women's face with strong red lips. No too much colors neither images. Luxurious and gorgeous... I still think it's gorgeous after seeing this homepage many times.

2. Menu & UX

Intuitive and user-friendly. The hamburger menu icon on the upper right corner takes you to the whole list of menu. No confusion, no forever scrolling. As I said above, this app is not for e-commerce, so menus closely related to the main purpose of the app such as Scan, All Videos, My Favorite Videos are located on the top. Makes sense!

As an effort to drive conversions, there is a Store Locator menu that takes you out of the app and onto Make Up For Ever's web browser. Since its website is mobile friendly and easy to shop products, I think it's a smart idea to direct users to its home ground.








Let's take a look at Newsletter Sign Up. Hmm..nothing wrong with this, but I'm a little wondering why there is a newsletter signup instead of a user registration. The signup process is the simplest one asking my name and email address. That's it! I appreciate their kind explanation about what I could get from the signup even though I'm well aware of that their purpose is to collect my information. However, they missed the introduction of Pro Newsletter having the checkbox unchecked by default. What is the Pro newsletter? How is it different from the regular newsletter? Why is it unchecked? Does it mean that you don't encourage me to sign up?

What is Demo at the bottom the menu list? I had no idea from what it says. After one touch, I found that it was a well-made video guide about this application! This one-minute video that includes what this app provides is a great tool for the first users. It should be on the first page, fixed menu bar, or on the top of the menu list! How come it is hidden further down the menu list with a not-clickable-at-all name?

Here is the video guide of Teach Me Makeup

3. Scan & Watch

Let's get to the point! This app is all about makeup tutorial! You will see the big bold Scan and Watch section as soon as you open the app. I fell in love with this simple but strong design and message!

Once you touch Scan, you are able to scan a product using your phone camera as you scan QR code. Tap the red sexy lips on the bottom and the app can recognize what product you have. Then you can learn how to apply the product by watching the suggested video tutorial. What a cool combination of innovative idea, technology, and fun engagement! Unfortunately, I don't have any Make Up For Ever's product for now so I couldn't see how it works. Funny thing is that this app anyway lists all videos whatever product (even nothing) it scans. Better than 'sorry!' page with empty contents!

The other part of the main page, Watch, allows you to browse total 54 videos of makeup tutorial by category; face (19 videos), eyes (24), lips (3), looks(8), all videos and my favorite videos. Inside Looks, there are various looks of makeup such as holiday, summer, party, Halloween (check this out if you are planning to have fun this Halloween), and so on.

Videos are literally about teaching how to makeup using a featured Make Up For Ever's product. Some videos have a makeup artist giving us detail instructions while he/she is demonstrating, other some have only text directions on the video, and a few of them have only visual demonstrations without any further details.

Each video tutorial, 30 seconds to a-few-minutes long, is an embedded YouTube video that is able to be saved on My Favorite Videos and also sharable via message, email, notes, and all other social media / email / messenger apps you have on your phone.

Here it is! Finally found a shopping section under the makeup video. There are three to four related products used/featured in the video. When you click the product, again you will be taken out of the app and onto Make Up For Ever's home ground, website. As I said, the website is mobile-friendly and easy to navigate, so I like this app itself works as a trigger for conversions instead of a pushy e-commerce. One little thing I like is that it's easy to go back to the app. Just click Done button on the upper left corner!

           



4. Heena's Review

Make Up For Ever tried to get out of the box of e-commerce app by providing differentiated value to its app users. It was innovative, entertaining, and fun to play with. Interacting with this app using the product recognition technology is a definite pleasure to engage! There was no pushing message. A slight intent to take me to its website is appropriate and acceptable. Overall design well matches the brand image.

So, am I gonna keep this app on the 'conservative' real estate of my phone? Nope. First of all, I don't have any Make Up For Ever's product. I can't even have fun with scanning. Secondly, if I want to learn about makeup, I'd rather go to YouTube to get a tutorial of amazing quality. Some videos of this app don't even have detail instructions. Hey, this app is all about teaching makeup. How come you have poor quality on your main value? Lastly, I'm not enough patient to wait for more than five seconds to play the video or jump to the next page. Please, speed up guys!