APIs and Your Privacy

Application programming interfaces, or APIs, have been the topic of much recent discussion. Newsworthy events, including those involving Facebook’s API and Cambridge Analytica obtaining information about millions of Facebook users, have highlighted the technical capabilities of APIs for prominent websites and mobile applications. At the same time, media coverage of ways that APIs have been misused has sparked concern for potential privacy invasions and other issues of public policy. This paper seeks to educate consumers on how APIs work and how they are used within popular websites and mobile apps to gather, share, and utilize data. APIs are used in mobile games, search engines, social media platforms, news and shopping websites, video and music streaming services, dating apps, and mobile payment systems. If a third-party company, like an app developer or advertiser, would like to gain access to your information through a website you visit or a mobile app or online service you use, what data might they obtain about you through APIs and how? This report analyzes 11 prominent online services to observe general trends and provide you an overview of the role APIs play in collecting and distributing information about consumers. For example, how might your data be gathered and shared when using your Facebook account login to sign up for Venmo or to access the Tinder dating app? How might advertisers use Pandora’s API when you are streaming music? After explaining what APIs are and how they work, this report categorizes and characterizes different kinds of APIs that companies offer to web and app developers. Services may offer content-focused APIs, feature APIs, unofficial APIs, and analytics APIs that developers of other apps and websites may access and use in different ways. Likewise, advertisers can use APIs to target a desired subset of a service’s users and possibly extract user data. This report explains how websites and apps can create user profiles based on your online behavior and generate revenue from advertiser-access to their APIs. The report concludes with observations on how various companies and platforms connecting through APIs may be able to learn information about you and aggregate it with your personal data from other sources when you are browsing the internet or using different apps on your smartphone or tablet. While the paper does not make policy recommendations, it demonstrates the importance of approaching consumer privacy from a broad perspective that includes first parties and third parties, and that considers the integral role of APIs in today’s online ecosystem

Multichannel integration evidence from the States and a review of the field

Members of the Henley Centre for Customer Management requested a report on the status of multichannel marketing. The focus of the research examines best practice examples from the United States and a detailed review of the field. The research was conducted over the summer of 2012 and identified over 240 quality articles for inclusion in the review. Using systematic review methodology a number of key themes and respective indicators emerged from the field. Results of the study identified common multichannel platforms, tools that assist management in determining high-quality multichannel decisions, features of consumer behaviour, successful investment decision-making processes, channel optimisation and a review of consumer expectations of a multichannel marketing world

Reactions of Generation Y to Luxury Hotel Twitter Promotions

Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks (Merriam-Webster, 2013). Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites (Evans, 2008). In today’s society, social media refers mainly to websites including (but not limited to) Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. The most popular and fastest growing of these social media venues is Twitter. Twitter was founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone. Since 2006, almost 200 million users across the globe have joined the site; over 140 million tweets are “tweeted” daily (Picard, 2011). Twitter took advantage of a niche in the market, allowing 140 characters to express an idea or emotion. Twitter has changed the media world as a news source, tweeting real-time information from stories that arise (Picard, 2011). In the lodging industry, methods of social media to promote hotels are becoming more popular. Twitter, in particular, has emerged as a “moment of truth” for a hotel, demonstrating how instantly and tactfully hotels react to the thoughts and opinions of former, current, and potential guests. Studies have also suggested that “online social life mirrors offline relationships in many ways” (Moore, p. 440). Therefore, Twitter accounts should be viewed as an extension of the hospitality business, in particular lodging, echoing the relationship a customer would feel upon arrival to the hotel. Hotel marketing teams have reached “great success by driving demand to hotels through increased online advertising and web optimization” (Chipkin, 2013). This has increased overall customer views of the hotel without affecting the rate strategy of the property or brand. Twitter presence could, potentially, help a patron decide between two hotels, “If a promotion, experience or package is unique, it definitely works to generate bookings and helps put you first in a consumer’s mind when they are choosing between two or three hotels,” says Rachel Harrison of Hyatt Andaz (Chipkin, 2013). Hotel companies worldwide are investing in their social media networks. Certain hotels (i.e. W Barcelona) are even hiring social media and marketing managers whose responsibilities include instant Twitter feedback (Appendix 1). The purpose behind this investment is to maximize these social media accounts, creating feedback from all potential guests, allowing them to react to both positive and negative word of mouth. Social media managers have recently encountered an opportunity; Generation Y is becoming a target demographic. As Generation Y enters the workforce and begins a career, the exposure to hotel brands and types will increase. Luxury hotel stays are becoming more financially reachable to these Generation Y guests because of their career advancements (Fields, 2013). This study will serve to evaluate the added benefits from the adoption of social media channels, particularly Twitter

Mobile phones purchases and consumer decision making process: the role of Facebook online advertising

Facebook has been one of the popular social network sites (SNS) in recent years. With an increasing number of consumer groups using SNS, an understanding of how it is perceived by consumers and consumer attitudes and behaviours towards its advertising becomes useful for businesses, in particular for those mobile phone companies that encounter consumer tastes in favouring technologically innovative products. Furthermore, greater attention needs to be paid to the function of online advertising in terms of influencing the purchasing process. The study in this chapter contributes to our understanding of consumer behaviours towards SNS advertising, by revealing that consumers response variously to Facebook advertising in the mobile phone purchase decision making process. The differing behavioural segments identified, show that Facebook advertising impacts on the pre-purchase stages of the consumer decision making process in mobile phone purchasing, a process analysed in this paper. In addition, Facebook advertising has the potential to influence other stages in the buying decision making process. Furthermore, our findings show that whilst social networking amongst peers is recognized as a key determinant of online engagement, formal networking enabled by technical mechanisms on Facebook can also be a key reason for using the site

Food and Beverage Marketing to Children and Adolescents: An Environment at Odds With Good Health

Synthesizes research about the effectiveness of industry self-regulatory marketing practices promoting "better-for-you" foods and beverages to children and adolescents. Examines types of media used for unhealthy food marketing and race/ethnicity targeted

The Use of Twitter by Luxury and Midscale Hotels

Twitter has demanded a presence in company brands since its start up in 2008, including the hotel industry. As an up and coming marketing tool, the social media website is still new to both hotels and their guests. Observing the different strategies incorporated by luxury and midscale hotels, the paper provides explanations on how these two segments differ in utilizing Twitter. Through direct interviews with US luxury and midscale hotels and analyzing individual Twitter feeds, it was found that luxury hotels and their target market are much more active on Twitter than the midscale hotel segment. Implications suggest that although there is no current expectation from midscale hotel travelers to follow a Twitter feed, the rising presence of Twitter will demand midscale hotels to actively participate on the social media site in the near future

Corporate marketing strategy using social media: a case study of the Ritz-Carlton Seoul

With the increasing trend of popularity of websites and social networking sites, it is quite evident that companies need to take cautionary measures in protecting the reputations with respect to company and brands. In this process, every company should indulge in enhancing their company and brand image through websites and social networking sites that fortify the bonding nature among them. The always-on nature of websites and social networking sites has contributed to their phenomenal marketing power and altered the balance of power between consumers and firms. Websites and social networks are used by hundreds of millions of people to communicate about a huge range of topics, including personal interests, activities, social events and even public issues. The paper explores a case study of the Ritz- Carlton hotel for their marketing strategy and organizational use of their website and social media in communicating with their customers. Even for the normal luxury traveler who would not have previously used the Internet to research a hotel or make a reservation, ritzcarlton.com is making it possible for them to do so in a sense of the luxury and typical Ritz-Carlton style. It seems to be a staple of the company for years to come

Communication plan for Samsung Galaxy A 2017 edition: how to communicate for millennials

The smartphone's market has been growing every year with increased innovations. This is a technological push driven market where products are created ahead the recognition of consumer needs. Smartphone development is based on consumers' possible future needs and so those companies with the best hunch in technologies and services of future will be the leaders in this industry. As the market has become more saturated, the consumer faces himself with a wide variety of offers, and so brands are struggling to differentiate among the others. Hereupon, the focus will be in developing an innovative Communication Plan for the new "Samsung Galaxy A 2017 edition". The main goal of this project is to increase product knowledge by creating an emotional link between the consumers and the brand and ultimately to drive sales. The literature review is based on academic articles concerning were the main subjects are: millennial generation and consumer buying behavior. It was conducted an external and internal analysis, to better understand the smartphone industry and "Samsung" brand as a company. Furthermore, the target was defined and studied to understand more deeply their connection, affinity and interaction with the smartphone brands. Finally, after defining the communications goals, a plan with specification, a budgeting and results was developed, by for each action.O mercado dos "smartphones" tem aumentado todos os anos com crescentes inovações. Este mercado é impulsionado por tecnologia, em que os produtos são criados antes que os consumidores os considerem uma necessidade. O desenvolvimento de smartphones baseia-se nas possíveis futuras necessidades dos consumidores e, portanto, as empresas que melhor projectam estas necessidades nas tecnologias e nos serviços do futuro serão os líderes da indústria. À medida que o mercado fica cada vez mais saturado, o consumidor depara-se com uma grande variedade de oferta e as marcas lutam para se diferenciar entre elas. Posto isto, o foco será o desenvolvimento de um Plano de Comunicação inovador para a nova edição de 2017 do "Samsung Galaxy A". O objetivo principal deste projeto é aumentar o conhecimento do produto criando um vínculo emocional entre os consumidores e a marca e, por fim, impulsionar as vendas. A revisão de literatura baseia-se em artigos académicos onde os temas principais são: geração "Millennials" e comportamento de compra do consumidor. Foi realizada uma análise externa e interna, para compreender melhor a indústria de "smartphones" e a "Samsung" como empresa. Além disso, foi definido e estudado o target de forma a compreender mais aprofundadamente a sua relação e interação com as marcas de "smartphones". Finalmente, depois de definir os objetivos de comunicação, foi desenvolvido um plano específico, orçamento e resultados para cada ação

Utilizing integrated marketing communications to advance purchase intention of customers by improving digital marketing content and channels

Modern customers and their widespread use of digital media offer new opportunities for companies to gather revenues. Companies have therefore started to invest increasingly in digital growth and visibility (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). Trainor (2012) stated that customers are no longer satisfied with only being passive targets of marketing actions, but want instead to serve as co-creators of value, engage with the company and connect with other customers having valuable insights (Trainor, 2012; Garretson, 2008). To succeed in customer empowered world companies need a holistic and customer-centric communication strategy such as integrated marketing communications (IMC) to attract potential customers with a relevant and consistent message across channels. According to Wymbs (2011), digital marketing is actually the most effective when integrated with traditional channels such as face-to-face, the phone or direct mail. The theoretical model in this thesis is based on a combination of the four pillars of integrated marketing communications by Kliathcko (2008) and the AIDAS-model, which can be used in planning customer-centric advertising activities as it refers to a generalized customer purchasing journey, including following stages: awareness, interest, desire, action and satisfaction (Rawal, 2013). The objective of this thesis is to provide understanding of how companies can trigger purchase intention of customers with integrated digital marketing by understanding the values and channel and content preferences of customers. The main focus is on channel and content pillars of IMC. According to the literature review, previous IMC and value research are mainly focused on retail or product context. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to bring insight into the service context. This research is provided for the needs of Fortum HorsePower and collecting the data was implemented by interviewing existing customers of Fortum HorsePower-service, which is the main limitation in this study. As the IMC aims at providing customer-centric communications, it was a rational choice to collect data by interviewing customers. Altogether, ten in-depth interviews were carried out to obtain understanding of the research phenomena. The findings suggested that channel choices and content may affect the purchase intention of customers. It seems that the information needs and preferred channels may vary depending on the stage of purchasing journey. The interviewees named content topics they find interesting and also values that guide their decision-making, and these topics and values should be utilized in content creation and customer value proposition to provide attractive and relevant advertising. Several interviewees stated that they look for user reviews on digital channels or call their acquaintances as pre-purchase investigation and actually more than half of the interviewees could make the purchase based on reviews. Websites, email and Facebook were the most preferred digital channels among the interviewees, but despite the digital context of the research, traditional phone calls and face-to-face meetings with sales representatives are wished for. The theoretical contribution of this research provides understanding of channel choices and content topics that may advance purchase intention towards action. Future research could deepen the understanding of IMC at different stages of the customer journey, which would help to customize advertising and to use attribution modeling to understand the effectiveness of different customer touch points

Understanding the Influence of Utilitarian and Hedonic Factors on Buying Behaviour of Gen Y while Purchasing Smartphones

The paper focuses on the influence of utilitarian and hedonic factors on the buying behaviour of the Gen Y consumers while purchasing smartphones. The researcher has followed a mixed method approach for the research with a descriptive research design. Primary data was collected through a survey that was conducted with 450 participants which consisted of teenagers and adults aged between 16-30 years. This collected data was then quantified using mathematical tools to come to a conclusion. Secondary data was collected from online published research articles and convenience. The influence of both these factors have a different sense of impact on every individual in the buying process, but post analysis, utilitarian factors gained primacy over hedonic factors