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Digital Circles

by Rika Nathania

Few weeks ago, I created a VIDEO about Cassey Ho, which is popularly known as Blogilates from her Youtube video. If you like to do fitness and usually watch Youtube, you should've heard about her. She's one of an inspiration to many people, because of her bubbly personality and her motivation to appreciate body image. Mostly it's woman that watch her Youtube channel.

It's not easy to reach the achievement she received now and you can view her video that tells about her journey HERE. 



Today, she is considered as successful social media marketer. Further, she has appeared as an example of a successful social-media fitness entrepreneur in book Social media marketing all in one for dummies.

In marketing perspective, she creates value to her followers/viewers though her Social Media. All of her post, whether image or video are always informative and attractive.
Further, she always updated her Youtube weekly, and other social media (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook) few times in a week.
Check out the video I create to hear the explanations on how Cassey delivers value. I must say that she's an awesome person!
(see my video HERE)



As a summary from the video I made, Cassey delivers value using:
1.Youtube
Through her videos she's giving awareness on healthy body image, informative, and entertaining.
2. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
She gives regular informative updates and engage with fans.
3. Website (blog)
Her blog features a good navigation ( so people can see easily on the content they want to search) and keeps consumer up to date by joining her mailing list.

If you want to know more about Cassey and her fitness videos, you can check her CHANNEL.




Have you ever heard or maybe watch Blogilates channel? What do you think about her? Share your opinion on the comment below :)
Few days ago I asked few friends of mine to describe a social media which describe a word that I mentioned. Here's few things that I mentioned:
Video? youtube
Pictures? Instagram
Music? Spotify

Who doesn't know Spotify? This app is very popular recently, especially for teens.
Basically, Spotify is a commercial music streaming, podcast and video service from record labels and media companies. Spotify is almost the same with iTunes, but the users don't need to download the songs before hearing the music.Music can be browsed by artist, genre, playlist, or record label. Paid premium subscribers allow users to download music for offline listening and remove advertisement.


Spotify was launched in 2008, with 40 million active users and 10 million premium subscriber on 2014. Over 20,000 songs added per day and the playlist are more than 1.5 billion.
Their revenue mostly come from Spotify's premium subscription which cost $9.99/month.
The features of this app is on demand library that allow users to create playlist and follow other music lovers. Spotify Radio is also available to access various staions modelled after artists and music genres. What's better is they offer free version of streaming service, so all people can access their app.


spotifygrowth2


The growth increase significantly over the years. A reason for this is because of its impact on music playlist and trends from friend or influential people. The impact can be fully analysed when breaking down specific metrics of each features in Spotify. By doing this we can see the impact of each element. The explanation on growth analysis can be better explained from this POST


Few lessons we can learned from Spotify strategies are:
1. Network Effects
 Spotify is linked with social media Twitter and Facebook, so users can publicly share what they listen to all friends and followers in their social channels. It is good for brand building and music discovery. Even though network effects difficult to create, but they successfully build a strong switching costs and network effects on their early move in U.S.
2. Pricing Strategies
Spotify also use this strategy by giving discount to $4.99 for university students. They create this promotions because youth segment is a segment that likes to try new things, have good word of mouth and network effects. Further, the discount is considered huge, so teens would be attracted in trying the app.



As a consumer myself, even though I use their free service, I could feel the service their offer is really good. Not only for customer, but Spotify also guarantee revenue for music publishers and providers through their streaming advertising. However, their music library is still limited since some artists refuse to publish their songs on Spotify. Further, few consumers might leave Spotify because of its limits on accessing free music.
Even though the company still face many competitors and challenges, but they have a good achievement until now. Their ability as a media to connect music between music creators and consumer create a good rating for Spotify. Further, a news announced that Starbucks will collaborate with Spotify. Therefore the baristas become DJ and consumers able to hear new and refreshing music.




References:
When news or talks starts to circulate on discussing about particular brand or products, more and more people will join the discussion, which leads to a noise. Most of the time, this noise will bring positive impact for the company.

However, if the discussion is actually just a rumour, then what will happened?
This is what happened to Yves Saint Laurent (YSL), which there was rumour that the female lead actress (Jun Ji-hyun, in the drama: Cheon Song Yi) from drama "My Love from the Star" wear YSL lipstick on the show.


For people who like to watch Asian drama or movies, they would absolutely know about this drama. The series was a hit in all Asian countries, such as Korea, China, Indonesia, etc, which was airing from 18 December 2013 to 27 February 2014.

Since it was very popular, people started discussing on what the actress wore on the drama. One of the hottest topic is about the lipstick that Cheon Song Yi use. Once the news broke that the color was Rouge Pur Couture in No. 52 Rosy Coral, Korean fans rushed to buy the product. By late January, the color completely sold out in Seoul. Further, the demand spread overseas, catching media's attention worldwide. From ordinary people to fashion editors, they were scouring stores to find the color. There was also a report, that people are selling this shade on ebay for $100 (while the original price was $35). Finally, a public relations from YSL confirmed that the color had sold out because of "Man from the Stars".

ysl-rouge-pur-couture-52-rosy-coral

Not only YSL affected because of the drama, Korean clothing company ShesMiss sold out of all 2,500 coats within days of the drama airing, prompting the brand to offer Jun Ji Hyun a two-year exclusive contract. From the example, you might see on how huge the impact when a top celebrities wearing a product.

Since the news goes viral, finally Korea Herald reported that the actress never wore the lipstick on the show. According to an industry source, "The color of her lips cannot be produced by a single product. The makeup artist mixed a number of different products, and YSL was not one of them."
Further, one of the official sponsors Amore pacific (a giant Korean cosmetic company), considered to take legal actions against YSL.

jihyun
Source

YSL definitely get a huge impact on its sales because of the drama. Further, the news from blogs and noise from its fan can be said as free marketing. Even though YSL has never stated that their lipstick is not the one that Cheon Song Yi use, but all stores marketed the lipstick to the consumer. In other words, they didn't lie, but they use it for their benefit. As an impact, this issue made Amore pacific considered to take legal actions.

Finally, from a company's perpective, the news can be considered as a good marketing, but the response might differ from every perspective. In other words, brand/firm might give a different response to it and a good way to solve it (before it become an issue) should be considered carefully.

What do you think of the news? What will you do if you are in YSL's position? Please share your opinion below :)
A healthy lifestyle are getting popular in every country. Fitbit is also a company that focus on building products dedicated to health and fitness. The idea was born in 2007 by Fitbit's founders, sensors and wireless technology could be used to create a fitness wearable products.

Even though this product is brilliant, but their attempt failed because there is no brand equity and very small noise. However, after getting additional funding in 2009, they start to recovered and finally distributed their products to various distributors. At that point, it was the right product at the right time and right place. Therefore, since then Fitbit growing its popularity in the market.


Fitbit doesn't create ads or huge campaign, but finally they launched a global campaign on 2014. The campaign airing in cinemas (US, Europe, and Asia). It was done in order to create more awareness of the product, and they would still hold their position as a tracker leading firm. Some of their competitors are Nike fitness tracker and Apple Watch. All of these product were used to track activities and sleep patterns. Today, Fitbit owns 61 % of the market.

As for the product, what makes it good and unique is because various choice of colors and trackers. There are 10 color choices for the bracelet. Further, 6 trackers choices are available to meet people needs and preferences.





Fitbit focused on few elements that would deliver the most value. Some of their strategies are:
1. Unique
They differentiated themselves from other products offered in the market. Their main point of difference was focusing on the software not the hardware.

2. Endorsement and Referral
The firm were utilizing the power of influential people on social media. They were giving endorsement to these influential people. Most of the popular fitness guru I knew (such as Cassey Ho), mentioned about Fitbit or were wearing this device. Further, Fitbit appreciated the word of mouth marketing, one of the most influential strategy which describe about a product and how it changed their daily habits in a positive way.

3. Community
Fitbit offering community forum, which as a Fitbit user, one can compare to anthers in his/her network.  Fitbit are linked with Facebook, so they can invite friends by using this social media platform. Therefore, people will be motivated to exercise when having peer support. Additionally, they can encouraged their friends to buy the product.


For casual exerciser (including me), Fitbit really do a good job in leading to a healthy lifestyle. However, Fitbit continuously growing its facilities and content. They recently have a partnership with strava, an app which focuses on intensive workout periods, which are suitable for athletes and professional.


Even I also bought the product about 2 months ago, believe it or not, this tracker helps me to be more active by walking more or doing some exercise.

Have you ever heard or own Fitbit? Share your experience or opinions on the comment below :)



Reference:
Hello guys,
as I have mentioned from previous POST (about how marketers could use instagram to promote their business), here's few utilisation of marketing using instagram apps..

 During my holiday few weeks ago, I went to Jakarta (Indonesia) and I visited Pantai Indah Kapuk with some friends.

 Just to give few insights, instagram is really popular in Indonesia (more popular compared to Melbourne). Most teenager would have this app on their social media platform. Further, even kids or adults are using this app.
You could find people selling various items using instagram, from fashion, beauty, even foods!
What's more? There are some people who were really popular just because of instagram. These people usually has many followers (over 10,000 or maybe 100,000) and they usually get paid to promote & post pictures about particular brand.
Therefore, instagram is generally used by marketers to promote their brand, since the chances to get potential customer is really high (compared to other social media in Indonesia).
First stop was Xcape Indonesia.
This place offer few choices of games with 5D escape game rooms.
Choices of the games are Chamber of Secrets, Resident Evil, Catch me if you can, Whisper of the dead, and Vampire Diary.





Among all the choices, we chose Resident Evil (average difficulty and contains little physical activities).



and finally this white board caught my attention. It says that we could get 10% discount off if we follow their account and post a picture of Xcape cafe Indonesia.
Majority of the group members should post the picture in order to get this discount.


The game was really fun!
Basically we need to find hints to open locks, solve problems, and finally escape from the room.
However, too bad we failed the mission within the given time (60 minutes).
Next time, I will definitely back to play this game and win the mission!
Next, we went to an ice cream cafe (still near the Xcape cafe).
This cafe are selling ice cream inspired from korean ice cream. The owner is also korean and it was really popular especially among the teenagers. 

After tasting it, even though I'm not a really big fan of ice cream. I must says that it's really yummy! It's not too sweet, not too creamy. Everything is just perfect!


and again, as what I also found from Xcape Cafe, there was also a promotion related to instagram.
As for this one, it was not a discount, but a chance to get free ice cream.


In conclusion, I notice that every company has their own method to promote their brand. However, most of them utilized the advantage of promoting via instagram.
Especially with wooyoo, even though the taste are good, but social media hugely affected their brand. Reviews from bloggers, words from mouth to mouth, and also wooyoo instagram account have contributed to its popularity. Even though wooyoo doesn't have much social media, such as Facebook or twitter, but even with only instagram, their cafe is always crowded all the time.






We can see many people around us have instagram. From children to adult, they will have or know this social media. As people attracted to see visual (such as pictures or video), this app is getting more attention and users.

credit: justinjackson

From the statistic above, the growth of instagram users boost from 2011 to 2014. Of course, this attracts marketers to sell and market their items, since social media have a great impact on sales. As an instagram user, Jeremy take advantage from this app and finally his sales is nearly doubled from November to December 2012.
The example I provided happened on 2012, can you imagine what will happen in 2015? The result might be higher!



However, what are the elements to create a successful marketing on instagram? 
Here's the answer…

1.   Capture and post high quality photos
People will absolutely love higher quality photos. However, this doesn't mean all marketers only need to post pictures using SLR camera. Capturing good quality photos could also created by iPhone camera with some filter/editing app.

credit: eatandtreats

Additionally, a brand which use similar photography style (e.g. vintage/dreamy/Black and white) will attracts more people to follow their account. As an impact, more followers on instagram will result in higher potential customer.



2. Post pictures everyday, but not too much
To attract customer, post some photos in a day on different time and it should be done everyday. It is done to remind people with our brand, but not annoying them cause of too many pictures are posted on the same time (this might result in losing followers).





3. Use relevant and unique hashtag
Posting a relevant hashtag will increase chance for people to see and like the photo. However, sometimes the hashtag must be unique so the picture is still visible on the top of search engine.
Also, by creating a unique hashtag, people could easily search the catalogue or pictures. For example, topshop creates a hashtag #topshopjewellery, so people who want to shop jewelry could easily search the photos on instagram.



4. Promote and engage with consumer
Some example for promoting the brand are: 
- Create a giveaway event
- Endorse a celebrity to promote our brand
Both choices could significantly increase followers and engage people to interact/give comments.
On the other side, to engage with customer, you can also post people pictures when using the brand's product and it would creates trust to customers.



5. Incorporate with third party
Connect a brand with selling tools such as Inselly and Hashbag might be a good idea if a business does not have an online selling website. These application, facilitates users to search instagram listing (using hashtags) and purchase the items with paypal.

Other useful apps are Curalate and Blitzmetrics. These apps will help you check the post performance, monitor their performance compared to competitors. All the data will help you on decision making about the type of Instagram photos and content that you post.




In order to be successful in marketing business through instagram, remember to capture high quality photos, consistent on posting pictures, use relevant & unique hashtag, promote and engage with consumer, and incorporate with third party.

Have you tried those tips above or any experience on business on instagram? Share it below (on the comment section). :)