Entertainment
Essays

There's a lot more to life than sports and athletic competition in the name of glory. But when a sports-focused individual is on a roll and has either achieved fame, money, and championship level victories - or is in…

The disruptive nature of social networks and their effects on marketing are revolutionizing every aspect customer relationships, including the re-ordering of marketing sales and services strategies. In aggregate social networks are bringing an entirely new level of insight and intelligence into how permission marketing, information acquisition and e-commerce strategies can be accomplished. The highest-performing marketing and sales organizations have successfully integrated the intelligence and insight gained from social networks via analytics and customer listening systems to better tailor selling, product and services strategies (Bampo, Ewing, Mather, Stewart, Wallace, 2008). Social networks have emerged as one of the most important and powerful platforms for aligning permission marketing to customer interest, segment and needs than any other development of the last decade. The insights gained from social networks in these areas are also completely revamping e-commerce strategies with much higher levels of personalization and more adept and agile multichannel marketing and selling strategies as well. The intent of this analysis is to analyze and evaluate how social networks are completely re-ordering the nature of customer relationships. The nascent yet very rapid growth of Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM), which is the combining of social networking-based prospect and customer information with the more structured and mature traditional CRM platforms is serving as the basis for many company's strategies in permission marketing, information acquisition and e-commerce strategies (Cooke, Buckley, 2008). The mercurial nature of social networks however has made it difficult for companies to gain greater insights into their customer bases. The reliance on advanced analytics in SCRM and CRM systems has made the task of completing permission marketing achievable. Social networking has however changed the entire dynamic of relationships with prospects, customers and the general public, infusing a much greater level of transparency and authenticity into the process. Ironically the majority of marketers aren't using social networks to listen and respond to customers, creating more effective relationships in the process. Instead the majority of marketers are relying on social networks and their many channels they represent to communicate un-directionally, going so far as to spam prospects and customers alike. What's needed for marketers to drive greater value from social networks is the ability to listen, create trust and sustain strong communication with prospects, customers and stakeholders throughout their spheres of influence. Marketers from both Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) companies have the potential to completely revolutionize their marketing, selling, service and long-term profitability by concentrating on these fundamentals (Doyle, 2007). The best practices of creating a very open, transparent and responsive level of communication throughout social media channels and across social networks permeate the companies getting the best results from these strategies. Consequently, their efforts at permission marketing, customer information acquisition and broader e-commerce strategies are significantly more successful (Harris, Rae, 2009). Companies excelling in this dimension of unifying social networks, permission marketing and customer information acquisition then driving effective e-commerce strategies include Amazon.com, Dell, Southwest Airlines and others who all have integrated social networks into their broader CRM platforms and strategies. Each of these companies have entire staffs dedicated to supporting their social CRM efforts and strategies, while also integrating unique customer data, managing ongoing marketing campaigns and responding to customer service requests that are initiated over social media channels. The net effect of this approach has been to galvanize the effectiveness of these social media channels for these companies (Jones, 2002). The best practices shown by Amazon.com, Dell, Southwest Airlines and others in this area of social networking is also showing that social networks can become a main part of any global, multichannel management selling and service strategy.

The opera was Mozart's favorite mode of artistic expression and he composed twenty-two of them in varying shapes and sizes before his death in 1791 at the age of 35. The "great awakening" of Mozart's operatic…

Public Attention Drawn to Cruelty in Dog Fighting for Sport

Conspicuous consumption is a complex concept that requires a great deal of quandary. Conspicuous consumption is often thought of as unnecessary spending or the purchasing of products that are not necessities.

To compete and excel is part of human nature. In sporting activities, it has always driven young athletes to perform feats of ever-higher levels of strength, endurance, and speed. Most have achieved glory through…

Marketing and management analysis: Apple's iPhone

The field of marketing has been revolutionized by the internet and the world of online networking and commence. On the one hand these new platforms and technologies have increased the potential and effectiveness of…

The movie "Being John Malkovich" is a dark and wildly creative comedy -- and the fact that it is rated "R" is no surprise, given the raw, bizarre nature of the themes, and the sexuality not to mention tough language.

Blockbuster has succeeded by being very agile and quick to respond from a marketing and services standpoint to very significant opportunities and threats in their core markets. Having changed their value chain three times in the case study and a myriad of modifications in each cycle of business model re-engineering, Blockbuster emerges as a multi-channel based entertainment provider. The three strategic cycles of their value chain parallel the industry lifecycles of the video rental marketplace, pay-per-view premium and finally online services comparable to direct delivery programs like Hulu and distribution-centric business models like Netflix. Blockbuster's aggressive retail expansion, retrenchment, introduction of games, online services and direct competition to Netflix all show how quickly the company can re-intent itself. Yet for all of these strengths, Blockbuster is still being disrupted by entertainment, gaming and entertainment services business models instead of being the disruptor. They have yet to break out of being continually in a revision mode related to their retailing operations. Their retail-based business model is slowing dying due to the high costs of operating locations, the rise of Netflix as a viable alternative for watching videos at home, and the disintermediation from Redbox, WalMart and other mass merchandisers offering lower-priced and broader selections of videos to watch. Blockbuster still faces a very serious strategic challenge, and that is overcoming the commoditization of the industry they are in, where price and availability have become the new differentiators.