3 reasons you should read this marketing blog

One of the top marketing blogs

I recently found a really interesting blog called “Brand flakes for breakfast”, which is constantly updated by four marketing professions from a Connecticut based marketing agency, Source Marketing. AdAge’s Power 150, the ranking for media and marketing blogs, has ranked Brand flakes for breakfast as # 55 in 2013. For those who are interested in the media and marketing world, I highly recommend you subscribe and read this blog!

• It is short and sweet

There is too much new information that we have to read and absorb everyday in this fast changing marketing world. These four editors would read and select some juicy articles and summarize it for the reader. The reason why I love this blog is because all of the blog posts are short, straightforward and easy to read. It only costs me five minutes per day to catch up some great news! Also, each blog post would embed hyperlink, video, or picture, which allows the reader linking to the original article.

• It updates frequently

There is always something going on in the marketing world everyday…and so does this blog! This blog is updated in the early morning with three blog posts everyday. The topics are all brand and marketing related and the sources of the article are all from credible marketing/advertising websites such as Adweek, Digiday, and PSFK so on and so forth.

• Simple Design

Unlike many other blogs, the layout of Brand flakes for breakfast is extremely clean and simple. The colors they use are bright. It also uses breakfast table kind of theme, giving the reader a vivid feeling of the blog. They do not have pop up ads or any third part ads, which is the other reason I love this blog. You will not accidently click on any ads that will distract you from reading the article. If you love Brand flakes for breakfast as I do, you can click the huge Subscribe button on the side to receive everyday posts or click the Twitter icon to start following them or share this blog with your friend by clicking the Google+ icon.

Happy reading!

Email Marketing Analysis

What is the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do before you go to bed? For me, is to check my Email. Email has become more and more important in digital world because it is not only a way for us to communicate with people but also a way for brand to communicate with its customers. I’ve decided to analyze my own Email account and finally group them into three categories based on their message, feature and purpose. Let’s take a look of what I’ve found.

Promotional Email

Promotional email is what I received most of the time. It comes from the brand I’ve engaged with before and agreed to receive their email. I found that the layout usually is pretty simple in promotional email. It has very clear Call to action message with an eye-catching button to encourage the reader to click through it. They usually send me one email per day, sometimes two! However, I receive a pile of email everyday. Therefore, I often just scan through the title and never went back.

Confirmation Email

This type of email is expected to receive after an account has set up, an order has placed, or a transaction has completed. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve received an email from Uber local community manager greeting my first ride with a promotion code. I think it is very sweet and would love to recommend my friend about the service. Also, I enjoy receiving the order confirmation Email since it saves me some time from going back to the website and check my order. I can easily see all of the detail information about the order and manage all of them by checking my Email.

Notification Email

I receive tons of Notification Email everyday and most of them are from social meida website. It simply sends me a message when everytime someone engages me in social media world. Moreover, the message often comes with a button to direct you to the website. Well, I’ve never opened any of them and found this type of Email pretty disturbing since my smartphone has already had the notification function.

UNICEF Tap Project

I recently saw a must share campaign created by UNICEF called Tap Project. UNICEF Tap Project was created in 2007 and the goal of this project is to help the 768 million people around the world without access to clean water. This year, UNICEF encourages people to take part in the project by setting aside their smartphone. For every 10 minutes you stay away from your smartphone, UNICEF’s sponsor, Giorgio Armani will make a donation to support a day of clean water to children in need.

Lets see how it works

I think this is a brilliant campaign because people can easily take an action and show their support. From marketing perspective, this campaign also successfully helps building brand share of heart. As I mentioned in my previous post, the invention of smartphone has dramatically changed our life, but now, you can also help changing others life with your phone.

Again, do you dare to take the challenge?

 

The Hottest Location-Based Service App – Uber

It’s been a while since I first moved to New York. Although it seems like there are hundreds of thousands of taxis in the city, sometimes I feel that standing by the street to wait for the cab is pretty stressful especially during the rush hours in this unbearable freezing winter season. Recently, I’ve found a really useful mobile application that can save you some troubles—Uber.

“The Uber app connects you with a driver at the tap of a button.”—Uber. Let’s dig deeper into this “ Everyone’s private driver “and see how it works. When you login to Uber, there are four types of car services you can choose from. They are UberT, UberX, Black Car, and SUV. And yes, the price varies depends on the service you’ve chosen. In terms of pricing, UberX, Black Car and SUV are the most expensive service they provide. There will be a $7 base fee and fees build up in terms of minute and mileage. However, Uber’s rates will go up due to bad weather conditions or in rush hours.

Also, Uber makes full use of the GPS location tracker or so called Location-Based Service. This technology allows Uber to target customer geographically and providing end users with useful information by requiring knowledge about the device’s location. Therefore, Uber automatically detects your current location; shows you how many available car services around you, and how long it takes the driver to get to your current location.

Moreover, Uber provides the driver’s name, picture, car plate number, driver’s rating as well as a confirmation text message after the service is requested. The cool thing is that you can simply and accurately locate the car you requested on your phone. And yes, visually! A text message will send to you when the car is here. After the trip has completed, Uber will show you a journey summary and ask you to rate the driver. (Encouraging the driver to provide better service, great!)

As for marketing, Uber utilizes some major social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to engage with its customers. One thing I found amazing is that Uber creates different Twitter accounts for different cities, where Uber service is available. Consumers can tweet to their local community manager at local account.

After my first experience with Uber, I’ve also received an email from the local community manager greeting my first ride with a promotion code. Each friend that signs up with my promotion code will receive $20 off from their first Uber ride. Also, for each person I refer who takes a ride, Uber will add $20 to my Uber account. How can you not love Uber?!

How can I live without…you?

The invention of smartphone has dramatically changed the world. It has changed the way we think, the way we communicate, and the way we live. The Millennial generation is heavily relying on their cell phone and carrying it to everywhere. (Even to the bed and the bathroom!) This situation has gone to another level when the word “Phubbing” first appeared in 2012, describing the behavior that people constantly checking their cell phone and neglecting the people around them.

Photo by Angelica

According to Generational Insights, 40% of Millennials would feel anxious if they couldn’t constantly check their smartphones. Well, it seems to be a bad sign for the young generation but it also shows a great opportunity to many companies and brands-reaching to more audiences. As a marketing student and Millennial, I’ve decided to track my own mobile activity to see how I interact with the cell phone in my daily life.

The result was quite shocking. I spent almost 5.5 hours interacting with my cell phone everyday. How could this even possible? But then I started analyzing the result and eventually grouped those applications into five categories: Lifestyle, Discovering, Networking, Tools, and Entertainment.

Lifestyle

I’m a runner and I enjoy using Nike+ running App to keep track of my work out journey. This App not only shows how far I run but also monitors how I run. For example, it tracks the shoes I run with, the weather condition, and my mood in every single running section. Nike+ running App also has a great feature called “Challenges”, which encourages people to accomplish more goals by running more. In addition, the interface is simple and the user experience was compelling. You won’t see any advertisement or promotion in this app but the app itself has already spoken for the brand.

Discovering

As an international student who is new to the city, I realized that these discovering apps play an essential role in my daily life. I usually use Yelp to search nearby restaurants, bakeries, coffee shops or even convenient stores. Also, I would use Yelp to discover new places to hang out with friends. Yelp will list all of the results by distance with additional information such as category, reviews, address and price range. Yelp also integrated with Open-Table and GOOGLE Maps app so that you can easily make a reservation and find help with navigation the same time.

What I didn’t like about Yelp was that it started putting advertisement on the result list just recently. I didn’t found those advertisements effective nor relevant at all. For example, I searched “Coffee Reggio” when I was around NYU campus. Yelp camp up with an Ad shows “Domino’s pizza” which is totally irrelevant, not mention that the “Domino’s pizza” store was 8 miles away from NYU campus. In spite of those ineffective and irrelevant ads, I still love this App in general.

Another application I use in daily basis is EmbarkNYC, a subway schedule planning application. It shows the subway schedule, travel time of the journey, and current delays or diversions. This app is great because instead of waiting at the station, people can reschedule their plans in advance. Another great thing about EmbrakNYC is that it functions in offline mode!

Networking

Not until I had analyzed the result of my mobile activity did I realize how much I rely on those networking applications. Yes, A LOT! Actually, I don’t constantly checking my phone, but I love to use Facebook and Instagram to update my friends and family’s life. I also follow many brands and influencers on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to gain more information about everything that I’m interested in. Compare to Facebook website, its mobile site doesn’t have that much of advertisements. But still, it’s too much. I nearly found any interesting ads on the site and would ignore them most of the time.

Moreover, I’m a heavy messaging user since it is the most cost effective way to get in touch with my friends and family. The sadly truth is that people in my generation seldom see their phone as a phone anymore. We don’t talk, we text.

Entertainment

 

These applications are my sanctuary. They are comforting, motivating, and inspiring me in different ways. I usually use them when I just need some time to zone out.

Tools

 

Thanks to those apps that make my life easier. My phone is like an all-in-one device that helps me organizes everything efficiently in my daily routine.

Stephanie Camp, a social media expertise, once mentioned that “When you lose your phone, you lose your life.” This sentence accurately described how much Millennial are emotionally attached to their phones. The invention of smartphone really has a huge impact to my life, an easier life.

 

When Food Meets Art

If you haven’t checked out “The Forest Feast” by Erin Gleeson, you are missing out. This blog received the Best Food Blog finalist awards in Best Original Recipes category in 2013. It shares various amazing healthy recipe ideas from appetizers to drinks, which is inspired  by seasonal ingredients from local market.

Photos by Erin Gleeson for The Forest Feast

The Forest Feast is filled with vivid photographs that well expressed Erin’s philosophy- the essence of the food. Every photo is just like an art piece, brining food to life. Moreover, those recipes are so simple and easy to make, not to mention those tremendous photographic recipe illustrations Erin has created that helps visualizing every cooking step.

Photos by Erin Gleeson for The Forest Feast

In addition, The Forest Feast also provides useful and creative holidays inspirations. Don’t forget to click through those underline terms to find out more inspiring dishes.

Photos by Erin Gleeson for The Forest Feast

Valentine’s day is around the corner, be sure to check out her Valentine Salad. Bon Appétit!