Marketing: 02/01/2005

The New York Times

Campaign examples: "viral marketing gains adherents"

Economist.com | Face value
"Does Robert Scoble, a celebrity blogger on Microsoft's payroll, herald the death of traditional public relations?"

NB New marketing blog url

Marketing: Email and General Updates

Net Stocks: EBay exec calls paid-search pricing a 'bubble'

Extremely interesting article on online marketing "EBay views paid search as a 'bubble' By Bambi Francisco, MarketWatch
Interview with Ebay Exec Cobb addresses rising ads, seller challenges

" EBay is of the opinion that paid-search advertising prices are being driven by marketers' experimentation and that 'bubble' pricing will only help its own marketplace as smaller merchants will be pushed to the eBay platform."

Page 2 has link to audio interview with SG Cowen analyst on eBay and Google.

E-Commerce News: Viewpoint : Is Your Logo That Important?

"Your logo is not that important these days, as most customers have no motivation to remember the subtle intricacies or bizarre approaches to logos that are intended to stimulate demand. They are already flooded with colorful graphic look-alikes and continuously regenerated blasts from every corner.

Today's customers are in need of a simple name to follow and remember until the next time a need arises.Names have replaced logos and have dramatically changed the rules of corporate and product branding....

Get a professional evaluation carried out strictly under the laws of corporate naming, and nothing less. Forget about how and where you got the name or how much you have spent. Simply concentrate on the facts. How diluted is it? How confusing is it? How many ways can it be spelled, and what is its long-term future?"

ProfNet - a service of PR Newswire: "ProfNet, the leading experts network, connects you with journalists looking for commentary on topics your experts can address. You'll find out what stories are being developed by which reporters, putting you in the loop at just the right time. "

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis: "A new BURST! Media online survey finds that women convert from researching a specific online travel product to making an online travel purchase at a higher rate than men...

Chuck Moran, BURST! Media's Market Research Manager. "But, when it comes to Travel, women's behavior is different than their retail behavior."

According to comScore Networks, online travel spending generated $7.8 billion in November and December 2004 and for the year totaled $50.9 billion. Those numbers include airline tickets, car rentals, cruises, and hotel bookings and are a 26 percent increase from 2003.

Other key findings of the BURST study:

1) Income Impacts Use of Web for Travel Information
2) Women are Heavier Internet Travel Researchers and Buyers
3) Researchers Only Seek Pricing Informationand fares, 39.8% for hotel accommodations and prices, and 11.0% for car rental rates and availability.
4) Travel Research and Conversion to Purchase/Action: Three-out-of five (62.0%) respondents who researched airline flights and fares on the 5) Internet also say they purchased an airline ticket online. Similarly, 61.3% of respondents who researched auto rentals online also made a rental car reservation online. Among respondents who researched hotel accommodations and rates online, 56.0% made a hotel reservation online."

MarketingSherpa.com : Practical News & Case Studies on Internet Advertising, Marketing & PR: "samples of a press release that an eretailer used to get high rankings and plenty of clickthroughs from Yahoo and Google News under the keyterm 'online shopping' in Dec 2004:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/shopping/ad.html
MarketingSherpa Case Study: How Southwest Airlines Sold $1.5 Million in Tickets by Posting Four Press Releases Online
http://library.marketingsherpa.com/barrier.cfm?ContentID=2845
How-to Kit: Tweaking Your Site's Copy to Get More Search Engine Traffic (Note: This is a report for sale in MarketingSherpa's store)
http://sherpastore.com/store/page.cfm/2113 "