United Breaks Guitars Breaks United

In a world where consumers have the opportunity to use social media as an emotional outlet to express and share experiences and feelings, companies must maintain awareness and respond quickly, especially to comments of disgruntled customers. As the United case notes, people who have negative customer experiences are more likely to tell almost five times as many people then if they have a positive experience.

The use of social media by a dissatisfied customer, as depicted in the United case, has the ability to reach and influence millions of consumers. Platforms such as YouTube and Twitter have some of the largest social networks, a main attraction to advertisers, and thus, anything displayed affects a brand’s image. Therefore, it is in a company’s best interest to properly train employees, specifically customer service representatives, to quickly and respectfully address and rectify a disgruntled customer. This may be implemented in many ways, such as, offering free or discounted merchandise. Additionally, the company may wish to respond to all consumers through a media outlet, email, or its own webpage, addressing the situation and apologizing for what had occurred. United made the mistake of taking a long time to mend Dave Carroll’s loss, losing credibility and further angering consumers.

Companies, like United, should value the responses of customers on social media outlets, as it is not only a promotional tool, but also a way to increase the effectiveness of their product or service offering. Companies should have not one, but many individuals in charge of actively reviewing all consumer communications amongst all media outlets. Furthermore, customers should be addressed on the chosen media outlet to show readers that the company is being proactive in its efforts to resolve the situation. Companies will rapidly go out of business if consumers are largely unhappy. Therefore, firms must remember to appease customers, regaining and reaffirming their trust and loyalty, especially amidst an online platform where billions of eyes are watching.

Hope for Hulu

Online streaming has supplied consumers with a unique option to instantly watch selected shows for free with limited interruption. At a time when viewers expect immediate supply of information, this development is necessary for the television industry. Comcast and Time Warner’s “TV Everywhere” initiative is ultimately a genius idea to promote the success of cable providers to obtain market share in the premium content online business.                                

Although this idea may be successful, due to the control the television industry has over consumers, it is likely that viewers will continue to use sites such as YouTube and Hulu. These sites offer two distinct advantages compared to cable providers: no charge and short advertising spaces. If Hulu changed its revenue model to subscription based or pay-per-view, its consumer base would diminish drastically. This negatively impacts the website as its success relies on cross- sided network effects to influence its three main groups of customers, content owners, users, and advertisers (its major source of income).

A potential option for Hulu is to implement a freemium model. Since the company has already generated a large viewer base, the company could offer versions to consumers, for example, options of decreased advertising, enhanced picture quality, or increased offerings of content. This allows the company to capitalize on tailoring to the needs of its consumer groups at a low cost. Additionally, it further supports the company’s advertising strategy to not only complement television, but also to create a more targeted, interactive and effective advertising experience.

The future of the television industry resides in the option to instantly download and watch a program. Whatever the revenue structure may be, consumers are relying on Iphones, Ipads, and computers for quick and quality information. Thus, it is imperative that companies such as Time Warner and Hulu fully research and implement technological savvy downloading techniques to remain competitive in the television industry. 

Focus at Google

It is obvious that Google has overall been an extremely successful competitor in each of its developed services, offered largely through the Internet. The company acts as an “infomediary,” mainly supplying large amounts of information to a mass consumer base, consisting of a multi-sided platform of consumers and merchants. Its main mission and respective strength or value is the ability “to make all the world’s information accessible and useful.” Therefore, it is recommended that Google focus its efforts on developing superior search solutions and monetizing them through targeted advertising.

Google already has the necessary tools to develop superior search tools. The company is known for its innovative engineers, who continually enhance algorithms, creating accomplished services such as Personalized Search, Search History as well as local and vertical search. Furthermore, the company heavily invested in its ability to produce lightening-fast returns on search queries. Additionally, Google refused to compromise the integrity of its search results, helping to build its invaluable loyal consumer base, as its success relies on a network of people and companies.

Advertisers were initially drawn to Google because its network offered more search traffic and allowed lower minimum CPC bids, yielding high switching costs. The company also acquired DoubleClick to increase effectiveness in placing display advertisements. Although this was true, estimates of click fraud varied widely and advertisers began to question both charges and ad placements. Therefore, it is vital that Google effectively advertise in a trustworthy manner, ensuring that both consumers and merchants feel secure. The company could develop a tracking system to show merchants the vitality of Google advertising based on a weighted cost-per-click ratio. Additionally, the company should continue pursuing efforts to target local advertisers, showcasing their ads to specific consumers in a particular region and increasing brand awareness and user acquisition. Most importantly, Google should charge merchants based on a versioning model, tailoring to each unique customer need. This will allow Google to produce customer- specific information, locking-in merchants.

Furthermore, the outlined suggestions will provide Google with the most promising opportunities over the next 5-10 years. Due to the growth and development of the World Wide Web, search has broadened to include print, video, mobile and potentially much more in the near future. Google could implement targeted advertising techniques on YouTube to grow its consumer and merchant base, since it has access to billions of consumers. Thus, there are numerous possibilities to utilize these avenues to develop and supply a more diverse and effective search tool, allowing Google to increase its user base to monetize through target advertising and ultimately continue to dominate the Internet world.

Success at Triangulate

As a start-up business, Triangulate offers two distinct services; its B2C business Facebook application, Wings and its B2B business, providing algorithmic engines to competitors, such as, eHarmony. Triangulate’s competitive advantage is its ability to collect data based on browser plug-ins and APIs for Facebook, Twitter, and Netflix, creating an engine that analyzes this data and generates inferences about users, which creates the capability to suggest high quality compatible pairings based on an algorithm using historical data for successful couples. So, why should the company give competitors its secret formula? In order to ensure success based on prior resource investment and outlined abilities, Triangulate should focus efforts on its B2C business, the Wings application for online dating and specifically, its user base and revenue model.

The company’s main problem in becoming successful with its Facebook application is the ability to acquire a critical user base that remains active and invested in the application in order to offer high quality matches. In addition to advertising on Facebook, the company should invest in paid search marketing. 60% of users are acquired through advertising, thus it is imperative that Triangulate determine the interests of its consumer base and advertise accordingly. Furthermore, the company should focus efforts on state-level targeting, since its user base was largely focused in California. This could be implemented by advertising on sites such as, LivingSocial or Ruelala. The service being offered has a network effect. The more people that use Triangulate’s online dating service, the greater the value to both potential and current consumers.

To ensure customers remain with Triangulate and to devise a successful revenue model, the company could offer distinct pay-as-you-go payment plans with built in loyalty programs. For example, the more users a customer brings to join the site or the more time spent on the site, the more messages they can send free to prospective dates, etc. Triangulate should implement a “freemium model” to attract a large user base and then charge prices to profitable consumers. Additionally, the company could create a loyalty program in which, if a consumer’s profile is “attractively” filled out and heavy uses the site, free social gatherings may be offered, by location, as an incentive. This would allow loyal customers to meet fellow consumers, engaging in a free opportunity to potentially meet someone of interest. Triangulate could also offer loyal customers a discounted date based on interest, partnering with LivingSocial or Groupon.

To additionally generate revenue, Triangulate could offer its accumulated consumer information to companies that would be able to utilize the data to market towards a selected target market. If Triangulate builds a large user base, then it will have invaluable data of thousands of consumers, increasing the value of the firm. The company could create revenue by supplying the information to interested outside parties, creating an additional profitable customer segment for the firm.