Internet: the technology that has just been publicized around a decade ago is now heavily used in our daily lives. It is not just a database with WebPages full of texts; it is a platform where we Socialize, Communicate, Learn, Shop and more. Viewing only on the teen’s heavy dependence on the internet, there is no doubt that the usage/ application of it in our lives will increase tremendously within the next few years. I believe it is time that we recognize its importance and see it as a beneficial aspect to the business world.
I am a Yr.11 student from the New International School of Thailand. This is the project that I am working on to aid me towards looking for my interest in the future. My goal of this project is to fully understand the mechanics of “Internet Marketing”. I have spent roughly two months into researching upon this topic, enabling me to meet with experienced people in the field in Taiwan and Thailand.
The topic of Internet Marketing is currently very popular in the business world of Taiwan and most of the businesses are eager to apply this concept. But, some have long been using it. This is also the reason why I choose Taiwan to be my priority in looking for information to write this book. I am very fortunate to be able to meet with people from three different businesses;
1Feeling 18C (18 C )A company that started selling chocolates online that grew into one of the most famous confectionery brand in Taiwan. If you have an opportunity to visit his shop, you will be shocked by what you see. It’s located nowhere near any cities; it has an average counter like Starbucks and a few outdoor seats. The shop alone earns around 3 million TWD (around a 100 thousand USD) per month. ”People tend to stereotype about the location of doing a business, but as long as you have something special that people will have a strong desire to consume, the location comes second.” Mr. Jason Mao says- Owner of Feeling 18C. This “something special” is the linking of online and offline “Services” they provide.
1 http://www.feeling18c.com/The company has a very strong marketing team lead by Mr. Shito Lin. He frequently
organizes events online through the most
popular social
networking sites to
giveaway goodies to their customers. He points out
that this generates a better reputation amongst the web and in turn creates more sales.
A Li Lan Village ( )2The owner of the shop Mr. Taki Huang manages a food blog that provides professional reviews on restaurants. His blog
2 http://blog.yam.com/hiphopkawaii/
steadily gained followers that recognize him as a professional cook.
Everyday around 71
people (last checked on 25-Sept-2010) visit his blog to read the reviews and the recipes he
provides. As he opened his first restaurant, a large portion of his blog followers turned into his loyal customers and powerful evangelists.
“I write in my followers’ point of view, providing details that they want to know, not advertisements.” says Mr. Taki Huang. His blog has enabled him to generate a tighter relationship with his customers, loosening the shops’ commercial intention.
3I-Want Internet Company ( )I-Want is an Internet company that was founded roughly ten years ago and has been constantly providing Internet services such as Internet radio stations and
Internet marketing. The company
sees the potential of the web and
has started to provide Internet
marketing services since for 6-8
years. Today, the company provides
the best Internet Marketing services in Taiwan.
I-Want has a strong team lead by Ms. Iris Chang. The team provides its customers services such as reputation protection, word-of-mouth marketing and test marketing.
Thailand on the other hand is just starting to begin the technology fuzz. In my point of view, when something is popular in Thailand, the whole nation goes crazy to owning/ using it. For example, Blackberry has been popular for the past five months and now, you will be able to see everyone (the young, old, fashionable, unfashionable…) holding the newest model walking on the street, busy sending messages to their friends. From what I am seeing now, I believe the Apple iPad will be next (this is written on August of 2010). The point I aim to make is that Thailand has a very unique form of consumerism and some smart business marketers will be able to see this trend and use it as a marketing method. I was able to find a company that I think is very advanced in using technology as a way to market the business. It is the:
3 http://www.iwant-in.net/4Oishi Company
Oishi was originally a Japanese buffet restaurant opened in 1999 that grew into a large scale Public Limited Company. It has around 120 restaurants in Thailand and producing many sorts of
Japanese drinks and frozen food that are sold in most convenient stores. The company is quite old, but the way it operates has always been creative and new. It was the first that brought microwave food into the convenient store market and now the first to create its own online cooking games using two
popular technologies; the QR code and the Augmented Reality (AR) technology. In case you are curious about what those technologies are; QR code is a two-dimensional bar code that contains information, so when the device scans the code it will be able to obtain the information from it. AR is a technology that can obtain a computed imaginary (the QR code and more…) from a real world environment. What Oishi have done is to create a game called “Oishi Café City” (like the Restaurant City on Facebook) that is totally free on the internet but requires the QR code on the container of each drink to be scanned from a personal display camera on the computer to obtain certain gaming materials to continue the game.
4 http://www.oishigroup.com/“Oishi is a brand of Innovation” says Mr.Nuttanun Puntuwong – Online Marketing Manager of Oishi. He pointed out that the only way Oishi have succeeded in Internet Marketing was to apply the newest technology to the market.
Different businesses take different steps towards marketing their brand/ product online. As I obtain more knowledge on the topic of Internet Marketing I realize that there is no “one method fits all” but several deep analysis and detailed planning, custom made method for the business. Therefore as I write this book, I am wishing to point out ways that can guide you towards designing your own Internet Marketing plans.
Before you read on, there is one more thing that I would like to point out. This book is a combination of what I have heard/ learnt (from people, books, articles and numerous other sources) and my perspective of how businesses can be successful on the web. This is not what I have actually experienced.