The role of internet communication in the costumers’ buying process

Communicating and getting your product to be known by people is one of the more difficult processes in the internationalization of a business operation and, with the new approach of different ways of interaction, there have been a boom in new ways of doing so. Nothing had been the same since internet became a key part of our lives.

In the past, one would normally try to endorse mass media communication strategy to get the idea of your product or service to a new market and this would normally be costly and sometimes not efficient considering the lack of market information a new company would have when entering a new territory. It is known that going towards TV or radio promotion would have a major cost and therefore is reserve to wealthy companies; but, how to actually get your operations started in a different market if you lack those big resources?

Selected Theory

“Market communication strategies change dramatically in the online world. On the internet, it is easier than ever to actually communicate a message to a large number of people. However, in many cases. It is much harder for your message to be heard above the noise by your target audience. Various strategies for conducting online marketing have been developed in the past several years – from the most common (websites linking) to the most expensive (banner advertising) to the most offensive (e-mail spamming), and everything in between. It is almost certain that a continual stream of new market communications strategies will emerge as the internet medium evolves.” It is said that the main difference between doing market communication before and after the internet can be compare to two games: bowling and Pinball. In bowling, the ball (being use in this example as the message), has to be emit by the origin of the information and has to gone through a proper channel and then will reach the targeted audience (in the case, the pins), one sender towards multiple recipients. With all the new approaches being developed by the internet and social media (new channels of communication) it is said that we can compare it to pinball. The ball still being one (message) but the course is not unidirectional. It would normally go in different ways, speeds and its intensity would change as it reaches different points (audiences).

Translating this to people, we can say that if we want our ball (message) to reach to different audiences we have to change the strategy and the use of social media marketing can come in handy in doing so.

Social media: A group of internet based applications that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content. The most popular in information exchange is Facebook and Twitter, in video is YouTube, in image is Instagram etc.

We can talk about two stages of Social Media Marketing. Viral Marketing which represents version 1.0 of social media Marketing where the company chooses a non-traditional medium, such as YouTube videos for example to attract attention and build brand awareness. Here we can see that the interaction between consumers can be high and the growth of the message could be what the company expects but there is not interaction among each other. The company would not get feedback of the consumer’s opinion so we can expect a lack of information coming back to the company and therefor will have to get that information in a different source. Social Media Marketing represents the 2.0 version of social media marketing where the interaction between the company and the consumers is high and there is a big level of communication among them.

Reflection

When talking about Latin American Culture we have to consider it mostly Spanish speaking countries in the western hemisphere. Given all the similarities and the amount of people there is, it is normal that marketers would address them in similar ways. The new tools that internet and social media provides also help to bring them all together and that we can study them as part of one big cohesive group therefor we should consider it a big international market for this case.

The growth of companies engaging in social media marketing and influencers marketing has been increasing rapidly in the last 10 years and it can be said that the company that has no online presence is not actual nor relevant in this time.

Influencers are persons with high presence in social media, on either of the examples of platforms, that attract a big amount of followers and that are being seen by large audiences. Normally they are passionate by some trend or way of living and therefore have develop a message that is well accepted by their community in particular. There are many examples and the scope of them goes throughout many aspects. From home living and decoration passing through sports and wellness to fashion, stile and technology.

This trend does not seem to slow down at the moment and big companies have put aside their usual ways of reaching audiences and have turn to this new idea. Therefore advertising in social networks is no longer the complement of adds on traditional media, but it is turning to be the principal way of connection among people and product.

Now a day, it is not unusual for companies to endorse and engage in influencers marketing. It is not new that a company and an influencer would do a “collaboration” and develop a campaign for a new product or service. What would normally happen is that the company would hire a person and would try to make this person brings as many followers as they can to this new idea. They can also try to do a campaign trying just to get this influencer to use and share the experience of the what the company offers.

Alan Por el Mundo (Alan Around the World) Video Blogger. Alan Estrada is a 37-year-old Mexican influencer that 7 years ago started traveling around the globe and making videos of his experiences in every destination. With more than a one and a half million followers he is one the principal targets for the truism industry of all sizes. From big hotel chains or airlines to small local business, when it comes to travel I think his information can be used as a guide to get around places. Endorsement of him using several services or products is highly perused by companies and it does not come as a surplice that now he has the option to bring up or tear down a bran. There are many cases in which he has endrose products, for instance, the Priority Pass card that would allow you access into VIPs lounges in airports worldwide just gave him a full one-year service for free and I am sure that they got many more costumers out of him giving a positive feedback of its services.

In one of his videos, he also talks about having a bed time with a low cost airline due to luggage weight allowance and he says “I hate you xxx air” and for a new user of the Asian airlines would mean that I would not trust this services also.

In my opinion and as I said before, he has become one of the best guides when traveling to a new country. Actually, one of his videos of Singapore where of much help when knowing what can I expect when coming to this new place for me. I can remember that he suggests ways of getting around in the city and different activities of what to do and they have become mostly my list to do also.

Another example that I follow normally is Jose Zuniga’s Teaching Men’s Fashion. He is a Florida’s YouTuber from Latin background and his channel would mainly give tips and ways of enhancing man’s stile and fashion sense. It started on 2012 and with almost 3 million followers today it has become one of the largest community in this topic on YouTube. Normally videos will last up to 10 minutes where he will give tips and suggestions of how to improve your way of doing things and feel better about yourself. After gaining a significant amount of followers he went out to companies that he considers would fit his usual content and start making money out of a normal video blog. Now all his videos will normally give you tips and touch topics that would interest to this community but also would suggest names and brands of products, he will give discounts on them and at the end will help to bring normally unknown or small brands with difficulties of reaching large audiences to consumers can use their products.

It is not a myth that word of mouth marketing is a success, this is a different way of doing the same. It is a way is putting the word of one person that you normally trust and relay on to the ears of millions of persons. In my opinion, there is almost not a single unusual purchase that I don’t do after seeking information online and of sources such as this. And going further, let’s imagine it’s not me looking for information but there is a suggestion of a person that has gain my trust given that I see him or her almost every day and that I can interact with this person. It could be easily the case of me changing a brand that I am normally loyal to and they would have loose a customer for good.

Taking these two examples we can see the impact of influencers marketing in different markets. We can say that it started only mainly as electronic communication platforms with people that felt strong about a topic and had some followers being connected with small brands that would not have the money to invest in a mass media traditional campaign but in this time we can see that one of this videos would reach much more audience that a commercial on TV and it will be significantly better directed to the audience you want to reach. If you add online services, nice interaction with the potential consumers and well logistics for your product or service to reach the final consumer would be a smart choice to do. Now we can see big companies specially in the technological market sending worth millions of dollars in products “for free” to this influencers hoping they will get time on one of their videos so people will know more about a new product. Now they charge you for being in one of your events and giving you a “mention” on social media. Having them just talking about you would probably make the difference between you and your competitors so definitely this is new way of doing marketing that will not stop anytime soon.